Iconic faces have a way of leaving a mark on our brains, especially history’s most prolific characters: Andy Warhol, Frida Khalo, Albert Einstein and even Mickey Mouse. We’re digging the Surrealist interstellar pop art (as he calls it) by Barcelona-based painter Mario Soria - his color aesthetic, his playful take on American pop culture and his creative use of legos and other objects to add texture to the sides of his canvases.

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You may remember our post a while back about the Art Series Hotel‘s campaign called “Steal Banksy,” where guests of the Melbourne hotels were challenged to steal an OG Banksy titled “No Ball Games.” Well, the hotel brand is at it again with an outrageous new campaign which, to be honest with you, almost outshines the last one – and we’re not even sure how this is possible. For their new game, “Which Warhol,” the hotels have commissioned world famous art forger Tony Tetro (who was arrested in 1989 and did a significant amount of jail time for art forgery) to do nine replicas of an Andy Warhol piece, which will be on display in the Art Series Hotels (The Cullen, The Blackman or The Olsen) along with the original.

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L.A. based Vanessa Prager is a truly darling rising art star. Her work is sought after by some of Hollywood’s biggest celebs and collectors who pack her openings to snatch up her cinematic paintings. A self-taught ingenue, and sometimes model for her sister, photographer Alex Prager, Vanessa’s large and totally diverse body of work – including finely detailed ballpoint pen illustrations – touches on human emotions in a raw sort of way.

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There are few days of the year that you can truly put on a bikini and frolic on San Francisco beaches without having to wear a sweater, so when those days happen, people come out in hoards to bask in the sun for some vitamin D. San Francisco’s beaches – mainly Ocean Beach and Baker Beach with the Coastal Trail in between – get their fair share of sun-bathing, exercising, boozing, BBQing and babes when the heavens bless us with blue skies and warmth. The views from the beaches are picturesque on a clear day -  from the fiery red of the Golden Gate Bridge and looming cliffs to the views of Marin all the way to Stinson Beach. FYI, you may also run into a few nudists. Have a look at my beachy SF photo board, titled “Humanized Ocean.”

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Photographs of beautiful women in the nude seem to be proliferating the Internet these days… after all, who doesn’t like to see some skin? But this series by NYC-based editorial photographer Edwin Tse is so stunning, the images can be classified as nothing other than works of art. Nudity aside, Tse has captured these babes in incredibly vulnerable moments, it’s hard to take you’re eyes off of them. Take a peek into his sexy world:

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L.A.-based (but soon to be an NYC transplant) artist Buff Monster was – and still is – also a collector, and his newest trading card series “The Legend of the Pink Cherry” opens tomorrow at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, right in time for his birthday. The cards still incorporate his signature pink, manga-esque style and quirky sense of humor, just in a bit of a smaller format than his street art work. Have a look, and enjoy this exclusive interview:

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Things are certainly about get a little psychedelic with Coachella looming over us this weekend and the next, and upon discovering photographer David Copithorne, we just can’t get Pink Floyd’s music out of our heads. Copithorne’s 3D prismatic shapes over Brazilian landscapes feel reminiscent of the famous Dark Side of the Moon triangle, giving the work a cosmic twist to an otherwise still environment. So… put the needle to the record and have a look at these art pieces while you pack your bags for the desert:

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We recently had a chance to watch Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, a documentary by Brigitte Berman about Hef’s controversial life. And while it’s a testament to the selling power of sex (you do see lots of ladies), the film also reveals what most people don’t know about the famous playboy: his passionate and influential position as an activist in the 1960s.

Have you ever seen Playboy’s Penthouse (1959) or Playboy After Dark (1969)? Both served as a platform for social change, for black artists and integrated acts to perform live on TV before integrated audiences. Hef also closed Playboy clubs in the South that refused to serve African Americans. He spoke out against the Vietnam war, abortion and he forever changed the cultural perception of women with Playboy. He also made working in a robe feel commonplace. So what if he has multiple wives/girlfriends, right?

A guy can do what a guy wants to do, especially if he’s Hugh Hefner. Check out the trailer for the film below, as well as lots of vintage Playboy covers and pics of Hef as a strapping editor. We think he’s brilliant.

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In his newest pop surrealist body of work titled “When The Rain Comes,” L.A.-based painter Joe Sorren explores the story of darkness and light. His show opens tonight at La Luz de Jesus Gallery on Hollywood Blvd., and it’s a chance to mingle with the famed artist, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Time and Rolling Stone.

Sorren, who I also interviewed for Justintimberlake.com a while back, said about his new work: “Sometimes, when things are darker in life, you can find yourself in front of doors you didn’t know where there before. This is a show about walking though those doorways and the light that can be found in the sincere letting-go-ness of things.”

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There’s a clear fascination for many people about what goes on inside Japanese love hotels, and Canadian photographer Nathalie Daoust has taken a bite off the forbidden fruit with her recent Tokyo Hotel story. It’s nearly impossible for a non-Japanese person to partake in the darkly erotic pleasures of Tokyo’s red light district, but Daoust has managed to cross those boundaries to show us the love hotels’ most intimate secrets, as well as the beautiful, yet foreboding women who work by the hour.

Have a look at the series below, which she photographs with film and hand prints. The images reveal Daoust’s “passion for intimacy, [where she] has devoted all of her art to unveiling the secrets hidden beneath the apparent stability of life.”

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The Creators Project – sponsored by Vice Magazine and Intel – blew it out of the water with its free (with an RSVP, and no, not everyone got a ticket) event by the Bay at Fort Mason this past weekend. The winds whistled post three-day-rainstorm and around the parking lot, onlookers oooohed-and-awed over the light installations. The first thing you saw when you walked in was a psychedelic – you felt like you were on drugs even if you weren’t – large-scale cube installation called Origin by United Visual Artists. White light flashed around the cube to a bass-heavy composition by composer Scanner, like protons racing in your brain.

Off the Grid served up the usual lovely variety of curbside grub, and alcohol was a-flowing. But one of the coolest things about the event was the laid-back but not overly-packed spontaneous feeling of it all. And when the clouds opened up, the Bay revealed an almost spiritual sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge.  It kind of had a Burning Man vibe, on a smaller scale of course.

Festival performances included (among others) HEALTH, Squarepusher, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and a DJ set by James Murphy, Pat Mahoney and Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem. Have a look at some snapshots by photographer Sean Donovan.

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Underwater photography offers lovely surprises: unexpected variables in movement, bubbles, and dreamy sun spots on the lens, to name a few. Add a few beautiful nudes and you get this underwater rock quarry series called “Omni-Phantasmic” by North Carolina native Neil Craver. Have a look:

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Even in the face of misfortune, photographer Theron Humphrey – who lost all of his camera equipment, hard drives and computer to a car break-in while on the road for his sister project This Wild Idea – has still maintained a sense of humor with his wily coonhound Maddie. He calls it a “super serious project about dogs and physics,” and the wild American landscape offers him plenty of physics-defying (and comical) locations. Have a look at his pup, you may just fall in love:

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Every once in a while I stumble across something that pops off the screen, and today I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by (365) days of Tumblr – a Tumblr site by Canadian designer Aaron Christopher Judd. It’s a typography experiment, in which Judd has married a quote with an image, and posted on for every day of the year. The quotes are witty and sharp, and the images compelling. Enjoy our favorites!

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Here’s a radical concept! In the day of rising rents on storefronts in San Francisco, Rice Paper Scissors has streamlined the “pop-up” shop, so much so that Valerie Luu and Katie Kwan (founders) were recently featured on Anthony Bourdain’s Travel Channel show. You can snag some like-home-cooked rice porridge (among other things) at places like Mojo Bike Cafe or Blue Bottle Coffee, or take part in one of their private kitchen dinners, like the Laque Duck Parlor pictured below.

The food is so fresh, well-prepared, and utterly mouth-watering that you can’t help but go back for seconds. I had the good fortune of photographing the girls at their Laque Duck Parlour dinner and squeezed a little interview in as well! P.S. They are taking off to Vietnam for the month of February to take in the rituals and recipes of the motherland, and they plan to “pop-up” in Saigon and the Imperial City of Hue! How cool! Here is what the chefs had to say about their rising fame and their upcoming plans:

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There’s something a bit off about these paintings by artist Guim Tio – the round deadpan Basquiat-esque eyes in some of his pieces stare at you in a way that send a shiver down your spine. At least they do for me. But when you take a second pass at the Barcelona-based artist’s work, there is a quiet beauty about them that is incredibly striking. His strong color palette also lends to his unique style, which he claims to take his inspiration from fashion. PS. He also loves ice cream.

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