“As the world becomes more digital, I find myself doing the opposite,” says Marc Alain, whose exuberant collage works appear to be Photoshopped on first impression. “I prefer to work analog,” he insists. “The hand is vital to the process, adding intuition through cutting, arranging, and gluing pieces.” Once a…

Why do we confuse dreams with reality? Mounting evidence suggests everything we experience in the “real” world is simply a whirl of information occurring in our heads — much like a dream. Diagnosed with a visual perception disorder that causes the world to appear “dreamlike and delusive,” multidisciplinary artist Madeline…

“It sounds funny, but I’m really inspired by the cartoon Transformers,” says Lamonte Goode in an interview with MakersPlace, a virtual marketplace where community members can discover, buy, and sell NFTs. “My style is heavily influenced by these machines,” the longtime dancer continues. “[It’s] the concept that everything can transform…

Is the collective unconscious real? Carl Jung’s theory of a shared history of thoughts and behaviors manifests in the form of crowdsourced data and its interpretation by artificial intelligence (AI). Working in performance and new media, San Francisco-based artist Avital Meshi strives to understand widespread cultural attitudes about race, gender…

“My aim is to change the perception of how women-led craft and Appalachian folk art is viewed,” says maker Dre McLeod. “Why can’t it serve as a valuable means of art and expression the same way painting and sculpture has for centuries? Or as when men experiment with the same…

From exquisitely staged photographs to heart-stopping digital collages, NOT REAL ART publishes an array of work from the best and brightest on the contemporary art scene. And while we’re not keen on popularity contests, we do have our personal favorites. …

“What is a woman?” Perhaps you’ve heard this question pinging around the darkest corners of the internet in recent years. Asked in bad faith by conservative commentators, the question ignores that the term “woman” has never had a single, fixed meaning, and that trans people have always existed. Asked in…

Multimedia artist Ruth Chase sees female identity in complex shades of gray — sometimes literally. Rendered in muted, ashen hues, Ruth’s work challenges black-and-white gender stereotypes with subtle shifts in color and contrast. “Grey is a dominant color used to represent neutrality,” she says. The Tennessee-based artist grew up in…

Susan Chambers strays far from the American standard of a manicured lawn and a garden carpeted with non-native plants. …