Recommended Artist: Juan Francisco Casas

  Juan Francisco Casas draws brilliant hyper-realistic drawings, and the best part is that they're all done with just ballpoint pens. The humble ballpoint pen... Just let that sink in for a bit. I was going through his website and I was continually amazed by how much talent he had. Then I found out that the pictures he uses as references come from nights out with his friends, and I began to think.... He uses pictures that one would typically post on Myspace or Facebook, and elevates them to a status of Fine Art. He's using his talents to keep viewers engaged, but the subjects depicted sometimes make you uncomfortable. Yet, there is no rule that said art had to be of deliberately posed figures, or of flowers, or rainbows or scenery. So then, why are you uncomfortable?

  I've begun to question where the line is drawn to differentiate the erotic nude and porn. Gustav Klimt created many controversies in his time for being overtly open about the sensuality of women, so perhaps Juan Casas is the Gustav Klimt of our time... His artwork is beautiful because he has caught people in their crazier moments when they were being true to their emotions, because he does hyper-realistic works but they depict raunchy scenes, he goes against the rules that society has of how women should be depicted in Art. And I guess that's why viewers keep wanting to see more.

  Also, "Fuck Art, Love Artists" is a brilliant slogan. Maybe that's another message he's trying to send across to viewers– that Art is defined only by the viewer and that, really, anything can be Art and so the standards that society has that state that "abc is Art but xyz isn't" is nonsense and that an artist should be supported as long as what he/she creates is good, even if he/she goes against those standards.

  I deliberately chose works of his that were more... conservative (let's just put it that way...). To see all his works, visit his website via this link.