Those addicted to the design culture and art books, are lucky in Madrid. The next April 27, from 20:00 and coinciding with La Noche De Los Libros, is held the official opening of Graphic Book in its new location: the number 3 of Libreros street, in the heart of Madrid.

Graphic Book is not just a new bookstore, after many years of providing quality and variety, apart from a great service through their physical and virtual store. And surprisingly enough they are the only real bookstore in Madrid specialized in books on graphic design, advertising, photography and illustration, they actually provide all the news without any discrimination, or fake smiles, right the opposite an always human and close treat, supporting both large and small publishers. This is the reason because Belio is always on their shelves and showcases.

In their new space they will also hosts exhibitions, opened with illustrations by Nacho de Diego, Javier Arcos, the study Lsdspace and the posters by Tres tipos gráficos. The opening will also include the presentation of the book D & AD 2010 (Taschen), special discounts, gifts, and concerts. Do not miss it!

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We used to think that talent in art and design focuses on the main European countries, USA and Japan. But surely the creative minds of the countries of Eastern Europe and Russia are becoming day by day rough diamonds waiting to be discovered in the coming years. Countless designers, graphic artists, illustrators, fashion designers or industrial designers who publish their work, projects or prototypes on Internet. Today we present one of them: Ivan Venkov.

Born in Slovakia, Ivan is an industrial designer and sculptor. His designs are a futuristic fantasy that blends sensual objects with visual luxury. His influences include contemporary art, architecture and science fiction in equal measure. Most of his projects are prototypes just waiting for someone to take over production, so what you see here are perfect 3D rendering. And just in their digital format are authentic exercise of beauty, art becoming ​​design.

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Long time ago, Belio:013, Dreams issue was published –I think it was in 2003–. In that Belio issue you could find an article about the interesting art of Glenn Brown. Now, eight years later, we discover the most recent paintings and sculptures in the fourth solo show of Glenn Brown at Max Hetzler Gallery in Berlin. From April the 8th to May 28th.

Glenn Brown, born 1966 in Hexham, Northumberland (UK), lives and works in London. In 2000 he was nominated for the Turner Prize. He had solo exhibitions in renowned institutions such as the Serpentine Gallery (London) in 2004, Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna) in 2008, Tate Liverpool, La Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin) in 2009 and Ludwig Museum (Budapest) in 2010. His work is represented in the collection of major museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Glenn Brown can be perceived as the ultimate Mannerist painter, perplexing the viewer with exaggerated or sometimes grotesque forms. Brown’s paintings can be described as a spectacle in which the artist creates an imaginary world and invites the viewer to join. In his paintings he appropriates, questions and plays with artistic strategies from Renaissance till the twentieth century, creating a quite unique iconography. What also makes Glenn Brown’s work so captivating, is his technical virtuosity. While he uses the traditional technique of oil on wood panel, under closer inspection his swirls of colour that appear at first glance to be impasto and expressionist. Under this flat surface of paint, multiple layers of references, created in a complex process, spread out. Through his stunning manner and his lively dialogue with art history, Glenn Brown expresses a highly personal commentary on painting.

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In many cases, at Belio we think that beauty in art is something that goes hand in hand with horror. Undoubtedly this one that we present below is one of them: Douglas Burgdorff, a video creator from Los Angeles, California.

If you thnik that the video you just saw is just bad taste, I recommend not to continue watching the rest. The visual world of Burgdorff is full of surreal scenes where you find a mixture of sex, a kind of soft-porn, with unique scenes and performances where actors, clothing or accessories add a magical touch to the final combination... Beautiful images, scores based on a very tasteful contemporary music criteria, or even ridiculous pop situations confronted with Freudian nightmare perversions. But especially the blood as a repetitive element in his stories.




If you visit his profile on Vimeo you can find a total of nineteen pieces, a mixture of short movies, music videoclips and video art. His stories are rather basic, short, there is nearly no dialogues... but instead of being a negative fact, those are the perfect background for free and wild creation, or let's say: libertine. Here are some more pieces that we've seen out. But we recommend (if you liked it) a detainee watch of the rest of his work.

Now that the sun shows up a bit, we invite you to continue with our virtual tour by some of the most interesting galleries in the Character Walk program at Pictoplasma Festival 2011. For this second part of the report we have reserved Panatom Gallery, Dudes Factory and 2 Agenten. Join us...

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This past weekend, Pictoplasma Festival 2011 was held in Berlin, a unique meeting point for all lovers of the culture around the creation of characters: graphic design, illustration, motion graphics, vinyl toys, etc. Apart of the conferences, parties and screenings, there was the Character Walk: a route established between different galleries hosting exhibitions featuring artists from this trend.

We spent the last sunny Saturday making this route of galleries in order to offer you this visual report with those proposals that caught our attention. Here you can see some of the works on display at Neurotitan Gallery, Create Berlin Showroom and Bold.

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The brilliant and always challenged filmmaker and professional provocateur, Lars Von Trier has just presented his new film: Melancholia. Another audiovisual dramatic artwork, which this time revolves around the Apocalypse and the legend of Nibiru.

Nibiru is the name of a celestial body from the Babylonian mythology. According to the myth, Nibiru is the home planet of the Anunnaki or Nephilim, an ancient alien of an advanced race. This planet orbits the Sun in an extremely elliptical way. Its orbit is 3,600 years approximately. And it will collide with Planet Earth in 2012.

Von Trier has called it “a beautiful film about the end of the world”, further ensuring that his movies will have “no more happy endings!". After the controversial Antichrist, the "enfant terrible" of the seventh art is back with another film that will surely give much to talk about its subject. It has also a great cast of actors, as usual, such as: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, John Hurt, Charlotte Rampling, Stellan Skarsgård, ... and a stunning photography. Its release is scheduled for May 26th this year.

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“Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries.”
“Los jugadores finitos juegan dentro de los límites. Los jugadores infinitos juegan con los límites.”
James P. Carse.

The labyrinth is an ancient symbol linked to many different cultures in the history of mankind. Strong theories connect its origin with the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur fighting against each other in the labyrinth. Classical Greece and the Roman Empire also used it, especially for ritualistic dances and at the entrance of their homes as a charm against evil spirits and other threats, turning the maze into something of a prison for evil. Christianity also adopted this symbol and depicted it on the floor of many churches and cathedrals, representing the long and winding way of life towards its exit: death. From XII century mazes took a more playful meaning and design. While the classical labyrinth is a circular and unidirectional way (no forks), the new concept distinguished itself through all kinds of structures and designs with lots of paths for the players to get lost. // El laberinto es un símbolo ancestral ligado a muy distintas culturas en la historia de la humanidad. Las teorías más sólidas vinculan su origen con el mito de Teseo y su lucha contra el Minotauro dentro del laberinto. La Grecia clásica y el Imperio Romano también lo usaron, especialmente para danzas rituales y a la entrada de las casas como amuleto contra los malos espíritus y demás amenazas, convirtiendo así el laberinto en una especie de prisión para el mal. El cristianismo también adoptó este icono y fue representado en el suelo de numerosas iglesias y catedrales, como representación del largo y tortuoso camino de la vida hasta llegar a la salida, la muerte. A partir del siglo XII los laberintos tomaron un carácter más lúdico, si bien el laberinto clásico es de planta circular y sentido unidireccional (sin bifurcaciones), a partir de está época predominan todo tipo de estructuras y diseños con infinidad de caminos donde perder a los jugadores.

The circle is a geometric shape that embodies perfection and thus is a symbol of wholeness, of Mother Earth and the universe. On the other hand, the triangle is a geometric shape usually associated with representations of God, the divinity and mysticism. If we consider religion as a human creation to justify our own existence, the transformation of a circle into a triangular shape represents the perversion of a "whole" through the human vision and creation: art as a personalized and twisted vision of the world. // El círculo es una forma geométrica que encarna la perfección y como tal es símbolo de globalidad, de la Madre Tierra y del Universo. Por otro lado, el triángulo es una forma geométrica generalmente vinculada con representaciones de Dios, la divinidad y la mística. Si consideramos las religiones como una creación humana para justificar nuestra propia existencia, la transformación de un círculo en una forma triangular representa la perversión de un "todo" a través de la visión y creación humana. El arte como una visión personalizada y retorcida del mundo.

If we understand life as an infinite game in which there is no winner or static rules, the only purpose of this game would be its own continuity, its mere existence. In this sense, the concept of life as a twisted maze is synonymous of the playful nature of human beings: homo ludens. In the same way, we can analyze all the different elements of our society as a game: the economy (the stock market, banking, economic crisis, tax havens, the G-20, ...), the politics (with its various political parties, the national elections, abuse of power and corruption, invasions, tyranny and war, ...), religions (with their different doctrines, rituals and conceptions of paradise) and so many more. As stated by James P. Carse in his book Finite and Infinite Games: "The joyfulness of infinite play, its laughter, lies in learning to start something we cannot finish." // Si entendemos la vida como un juego infinito en el cual no existe un ganador ni reglas estáticas, el único fin de dicho juego sería su propia continuidad, su simple existencia. En este sentido, la concepción de la vida como un retorcido laberinto es sinónimo de la naturaleza lúdica del ser humano: homo ludens. De la misma, forma podemos analizar los distintos elementos que componen nuestra sociedad como juegos: la economía (la bolsa, la banca, las crisis económicas, los paraísos fiscales, el G-20, ...), la política (con sus distintos partidos, las elecciones municipales y nacionales, los abusos de poder y la corrupción, las invasiones, tiranías y guerras, ...), las religiones (con sus distintas doctrinas, rituales y concepciones del paraíso) y así hasta un largo etcétera. Tal y como afirma James P. Carse en su libro Juegos Finitos y Juegos Infinitos: "El placer del juego infinito, reside en empezar algo que sabemos que no podemos terminar."

Dear reader / player, we want to invite you to understand Belio as a great art game, where reality is reinterpreted through creativity and imagination. From now on we want you to forget the concepts you have learned. We want you to leave your mind open for a new concept of Belio. Clear your mind of preconceived ideas of books, publications, stores, distribution, prices, commercialism, etc. From now on Belio is an infinite game, no rules, no limits. // Querido lector / jugador, queremos invitarte a entender Belio como un gran juego de arte, donde la realidad es reinterpretada con creatividad e imaginación. A partir de ahora queremos que olvides los conceptos que has aprendido. Queremos que dejes tu mente abierta para un nuevo concepto de Belio. Borra de tu mente las ideas preconcebidas de libros, publicaciones, puntos de ventas, precios, mercantilismo, etc. A partir de ahora Belio es un juego infinito, sin reglas, sin límites.

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Now count down from ten to zero, click on this LINK and send us an email telling  what do you like about Belio. In return we will reveal you step by step the pieces of this new infinite game and its rules. There will be special and limited editions, special offers, gifts and surprises in various physical and digital formats. Belio, an infinite game. // Ahora cuenta atrás de diez a cero, pincha en este LINK y envía un mail contándonos qué te gusta de Belio. Nosotros a cambio te iremos desvelando poco a poco las piezas de este nuevo juego infinito y sus reglas. Te esperan ediciones limitadas y especiales, ofertas exclusivas, regalos y sorpresas en diversos formatos físicos y digitales. Belio, un juego infinito.

Taylor Baldwin is an artist currently based in Richmond, Virginia. He works primarily through sculpture, installation, and drawing. His bizarre sculptures are composed of various pieces of junk that come together to create beautiful explorations in color, texture and material. They are instantly pleasing in an aesthetic sense, and will have you taking a second look as you absorb the exquisite detail in each piece. It seems that Taylor is unbiased when it comes to the materials he uses in each sculpture as he has incorporated everything from old rusty oil drums to computer assisted laser drawings.

The Interpreter

Baldwin was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1983, and received a BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005 and an MFA in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007. He has received fellowships at the Fine Arts Work Center and at the Bemis Center in Omaha, Nebraska. He has exhibited in groups shows such as "New Waves" at the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, as well as at the Tucson MOCA and P.P.O.W. in New York, along with others in Rhode Island, New York, California, Virginia, Istanbul or Washington D.C. His work could be seen most recently in the solo exhibition "Living Fossil" at Conner Contemporary in Washington D.C.



The artist explains, "The role I see for my objects and installations is of creating actual physical anomalies: finding the point where the physical world oscillates between raw material and known form, familiarity and disorientation.". Baldwin sculpts familiar forms, such as chainsaws or skulls, out of various matter that he finds, salvages, barters, or steals.

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Today is the opening in New York of an interesting collective show with illustrators and artists paying tribute to two great icons in the cult-film nowadays: Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers. Like all good movie lovers, it would be difficult for us to choose one or the others, and that must be the same thought that had the curator, Ken Harman (founder of Spoke Art and part of Hi-Fructose Magazine), who has compiled a unique collection of images, many of them have never been exhibited before. The show will last only a couple days, ending on April 9, but certainly worth a visit to the Bold Hype Gallery.

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We are proud and pleased to announce the resolution of the ARTAQ Awards 2011. Unlike other dishonest and unprofessional awards, Artaq organization has accomplish their mission with the greatest rigor and professionalism, to organize and award the artists with the following prizes. Belio was part of a selected jury to reward the best proposals among the very different disciplines of street art: graffiti, mural painting, installation, photography, video, etc.

Nespoon, award-winning artist.

Among the award-winning artists we are proud to say that there is a good amount of spanish artists, which is a symbol of good health of the street art within our borders. Neither the less than the two special jury awards went to Belin (ES) and Spok (ES). The other prizes went to TM-Sohei (FR), Boa Mistura (ES), Darling Jim (USA), Hart Brian (USA), Helin Yvette (USA), Jote (POL), Kaalam (FR), Kanos (FR), Macay (CHI), Nespoon (POL), Olek (USA), Pawzant (USA), Rensone (FR), Repaze (FR), Sueño Marco (PER), 3ttman (ES) and Tremblim Mathieu (FR). But there is also a long list of Mentions and Nominees, where you can find the works of artists such as Niark1, 108, Saidonkins, Rector, Btoy, DHM, Saddo, Magoz, Eduardo Bertone, etc. You can check the complete lists here.

From May 26 to 29 in Angers city, France, will be held the Artaq Festival with the exhibition of the winners. See you there!

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We don't know so much about Jakobson apart than he is living in the U.S. and has a passion for analogue photography, raw style, no croppage neither photoshop effects or similar. If we decided to publish here some of his photos from the series Los Sandgelopes II is precisely because the quality and warmth of those moments frozen in time. A beautiful photo documentation that evokes the days at the beach, the sun and endless bike rides.

The photos portray the meeting and storming of the beaches at the lowest tide of the year. One day in February 2010 in Santa Monica, California. The images you see below are captured on a nice mix of 35mm slide and print and 120 film. If you consider yourself a bicycle lover (like us), relax and enjoy the visual ride...

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Right now the Belio team is working on the layout of the content of Belio 033: Adrenaline. And meanwhile here you have a visual complement and exhibition to entertain yourself. Got a broken skateboard gathering dust? Then you can contact the reskatadores, a collective of artists and skateboarders from Barcelona called Nube who want to recover unused boards...

The idea is simple: First reshape these chipped desks, creating new silhouettes inspired on old-school skateboards. Then they pass these skates to illustrators and artists. The final pieces are part of an exhibition with affordable prices. Art-bjects that can show all its splendor in the corner of your home or under your feet on the street. Recycling at its maximum expression.

From 7 to April 17 you can visit the exhibition at Pantocrator Gallery, Barcelona. And from 22 to 30 April at its headquarters in Berlin. For the show they collaborated with 30 reskatadores: Cristian G. Castellón, Pau Bonet, Nil Bartolozzi, Maria López, Anna Rubio, Mademoiselle Chloé, Aida González Subirà, Mercedes Valgañón, Kikayis, Cristian Blanxer, Diego Muñoz, Ernest Rupérez, Guibo, Adrià De Yzaguirre, Glem, Amaia Arazola, Berto Martínez, Monsieur Álvaro Pinacho, Manifesto79, Dourone, Jalón, Crajes, Hector Olivares, ConspiracyStudio, Máximo Tuja, Ibie, Maria Diamantes, Conrad Roset and Hamo Studio.

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Joseph Paul Jernigan (January 31, 1954 – August 5, 1993) was a Texas murderer who was executed by lethal injection at 12:31 a.m. In 1981, Jernigan was sentenced to death for stabbing and shooting 75-year-old Edward Hale, who discovered him stealing a microwave oven. Jernigan spent 12 years in prison before his final plea for clemency was denied. His cadaver was sectioned and photographed for the Visible Human Project at the University of Colorado's Health Sciences Center.

The art director Croix Gagnon and the photographer Frank Schott have created the project 12:31, a serie of long exposure photographs with a great concept behind.



This animation represents the entire data set (1,871 slices) of the male cadaver from the Visible Human Project. The animation was played fullscreen on a computer, which was moved around by an assistant while being photographed in a dark environment. The resulting images are long-exposure "light paintings" of the entire cadaver. Variations in the movement of the computer during each exposure created differences in the shape of the body throughout the series.

The phantasmagoric result is incredible!

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A few days ago we paid a visit to our friends from Box 32, a Berlin gallery specialized in illustration and digital printing. There we found the great illustrations of Trinitas, a collective of artists living in the german capital city who have released their own collection of t-shirts for this spring / summer season.

The works of Trinitas can be defined in shortly as: A predominance of black and white, high contrast, and above all a commitment to minimalism aesthetic combined with a pure passion for esoteric and obscurantist iconography. Black magic dress up in stylish white. The exhibition is open until April 17.

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As Justin Windle says at his weblog Soulwire: Sometimes it’s good to break things… This creative technologist that works at Lean Mean Fighting Machine, London, has launched a very cool online tool, the AS3 BitmapData Glitch Generator.

“During a recent project I needed to find a way of simulating digital interference on an image / video stream. At first, it seemed the best approach might be to use the graphics API or Bitmap effects, but why imitate when you can have the real thing.”

It can be done by corrupting a byte in the ByteArray of a JPEG and then loading this back into a DisplayObject using Loader.loadBytes. Because of the way in which JPEGs work, the image will still display but the corrupt bytes will mangle the output to varying degrees, depending on how many bytes have been corrupted. The result is an interesting glitch pattern.

Justin thinks that the next step is to experiment with merging the bytes of multiple glitched images in order to create transition effects. He may also build an AIR app and see what the best way of outputting video might be.

We have tried the AS3 BitmapData Glitch Generator to remix a few classical artworks. Enjoy them behinf the cut!

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The visual impact of Belio 032: Neo-psychedelia is still fresh in our retinas, but one of its protagonist, the great Robert Hardgrave delight us once again with pictorial journeys to the deepest part of his psyche. As he commented us in the interview we published, he is a tireless worker dedicated with heart and soul to his art. And of course that always pays off. A whole new series of works will be presented soon in Fetherson Gallery, Seattle.

"This body of work will feature mixed media pieces and paintings loosely playing on the idea of still life. I am very excited to offer these pieces for viewing." Hardgrave said about this exhibition, which will open the next Friday 1st of April. Below is a preview with some of the works that will be displayed.

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Within a month L.E.V. 2011 Festival will take place, the full line-up of artists that will participate in the fifth edition of this Visual Electronic Laboratory is confirmed, and tickets are now on sale. So get ready!

These are the latest artists confirmed:

The dreamy melodies and metal breaks of Apparat, the emotional and melancholic IDM of Ametsub, the complex rhythmic structures of Downliners Sekt, the fusion of digital precision with the acoustics of the everyday sounds of Juanjo Palacios and the futuristic dubstep soundscapes of Ital Tek are the last incorporations to the music line-up.

The abstract and digital landscapes of the visual artist Alba G. Corral, the visual experimentation around new aesthetic expressions of the asturian Thr3hold and the critique of the consumer society from a poetic plastic aesthetic of Adrian Cuervo complete the strictly visual proposals of the festival. In addition, we could enjoy with “The Particle”, the latest work of digital artist Álex Posada. A kinetic sculpture that experiments with color, sound and movement.

The tickets and passes for the fifth edition of LEV are now on sale. They can be purchased through Ticketmaster or at any authorized sale point. You can check all the information relating to the tickets at the festival's website.

Here we compilate some videos from the artists participating at L.E.V. 2011:

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In all these years that Belio has been a catalyst for new illustrators, designers and artists, there is great amount of artists that we have seen grow and develop their work, achieving the success they deserved. Which makes us feel proud, just thinking that we have helped as support for people with a great talent. In most cases we can not guess who is going to succeed, but there is one thing you can be sure, dear reader: If you get published in Belio is because your work really deserves it. This is the story of Jimena Ramirez, which among many others has been published in several editions of Belio (028, 031, 032). And now she invites us to her first solo exhibition in Barcelona.

Chirinola opens on April 2 and runs through May 8 at the gallery Cosmo in Barcelona. Her illustrations embody a magical and melancholic world, where grown-up girls wear masks, and they are surrounded by animals that hide mysteries and dreams that they come from another era. But mostly her works leave the viewer to imagine, to guess... maybe just looking and listening carefully and they will speak to us. So, no better chance to see them than going to the opening the next week. You are invited.

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On March 11th, 2011, Japan was hit by the biggest earthquake in its history. We all have watched the disaster almost live-time, and we all have been or are affected by this tragedy of historic proportions, whose consequences are still unclear at  the moment. Although the damage has not been fully accounted yet, what we already know is that people who live there need help.

There have been numerous initiatives, born on the Internet, to help raise money by creative ways for Japan, from The 1000 Origami Cranes project, to individual initiatives from designers, illustrators and artists from all over the world.

From all these initiatives today we want to highlight the initiative by the french community of illustrators CFSL, not for a bigger involvement than other projects because all are equally valid, just for the quality of the artworks collected. Here we show only a few of them, on their website: cfsl.net/tsunami you can discover a lot more.

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