Body Painting Evolved: Emma Hack Body Art
By Mike Payne
In a world where body painting is celebrated more often with testosterone than artistic appreciation, Australian artist Emma Hack stands out. This skin illustrator, sculptor and photographer spent her early days as a hairstylist and make-up artist in Adelaide. In its infancy, Emma Hack saw her vision come to life in unlikely places, like face paintings for children or high-fashion makeup. It wasn’t until 1999 that Hack revealed her new form of art for the body, a stylized version of body painting that instantly won her a note of applause in the art world.
Emma Hack’s latest collections include a focus not just on the human body, but its environment. Since 2005, she has released a series of Wallpaper works that merge the human body with the wallpaper designs of Florence Broadhurst. Broadhurst’s lush, organic wallpapers are painted on nude models by Hack, who are then seamlessly inserted into the Broadhurst original. The result is an illusory, stunning image of nude humanity on natural, stylish patterns. While Hack’s originals may not be available in living form, her prints are an ideal background for your own modern home. [emma hack]
Gallery
Saturday, January 3, 2009 4:41AM
Simply amazing. Washing it off must suck though!
Saturday, January 3, 2009 6:10AM
There is a old movie where some guy stalks a woman buy painting himself into the environment and throwing his voice like a ventriloquist. I am surprised this hasn't shown up before.
Saturday, January 3, 2009 10:05AM
To some men, a woman's body is a definitive piece of art. But combining mainstream art with physical/natural art is a 1up.
Sunday, January 4, 2009 2:28AM
can i get some paint thinner?
Sunday, January 4, 2009 5:15AM
Fabulously creative – love it!
Monday, January 5, 2009 1:47AM
Shopped!
Monday, January 5, 2009 10:48AM
just searched for a painting on the wall. gotta be an expensive one
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 9:15AM
why has there always gotta be some fucker sayin that its shopped? it clearly isnt….
this is aimed at you wallace
Sunday, January 11, 2009 3:00AM
this is so beautiful!!!
Sunday, January 11, 2009 7:50AM
Fantastic work. An inspiration for all of us, Artists and Art Event Entertainers. On a more sober note, we need more corporate and philanthropic sponsors that will allow more artists to do what they do best, to create.
Monday, January 12, 2009 10:09AM
[...] artist Emma Hack has revolutionized the art of Body [...]
Friday, February 20, 2009 1:34AM
This is amazing…
Monday, August 17, 2009 7:39AM
I met emma at the melbourne art fair a few months ago and bought one of her photos (incidentally, they sell for a couple of thousand dollars) She is very genuine and told me that each picture takes about 12-15 hours to set up. She looks through the view finder, walks up to the model and makes a mark on her skin then goes back to the view finder and so on. Very painstaking but wonderful results…
Friday, March 19, 2010 12:57AM
this is simply amazing