NEXT STAR ARTIST 2008 IS HERB WILLIAMS

American artist Herb Williams, 36, from Nashville (TN.) was named Next Star Artist for the year 2008 by a jury of 15 international galleries of whom Saatchi, Galleri HK, Red Bubble and Art Culture Studio.

Williams think that artwork can be humorous and even downright fun, yet still be viable in the midst of what is considered “art” today.

Some of his influences are Jasper Johns, Magritte, Duchamp, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Robert Rauschenburg, Banksy, and Ai Weiwei, all artists whom the reader of this blog is now familiar with.

In 1996 Williams obtained a B.F.A. in Sculpture of the Birmingham Southern College (Alabama). Since then he exhibited in Florida, Tennessee, Alabama and twice in France in 2003 and 2005. His works have been bought by several private and public collections (Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Vanderbilt, Vogue).

Using cigar cutters and dog nail clippers, Williams cuts the crayons to create a mosaic-like artwork : this Obama's 3D-portrait is made of over 50,000 crayons of different colors in a very large canvass that took 4 months of hard work. His life-sized Johnny Cash sculpture used over 100,000 black crayons, and he used over a quarter million Crayolas to create a six-foot Marilyn Monroe portrait. Next September, his works will be exhibited in NYC's prestigious Rare Gallery in Chelsea. .

While the recent portrait of President-elect Obama fetches $25,000 from the Rymer Gallery, you can walk away with one of the artist's life-size high heel shoes for under $1,000.