Ashley Hope was born in Montreal, Canada, 1976; lives and works between Brooklyn, NY and Houston, TX. Hope’s paintings are not to be taken lightly. Her specific choice of subject matter is the focus of her work. She paints (and draws) tableaus based on crime scene photographs of murdered women, exclusively. The image shown above, Downes Effect: Swallows, is one of the exception of her paintings, so if you don’t have a strong stomach, don’t visit her site.

LucyandBart is a collaboration between Lucy McRae and Bart Hess from The Netherlands described as an instinctual stalking of fashion, architecture, performance and the body. They share a fascination with genetic manipulation and beauty expression. Unconsciously their work touches upon these themes, however it is not their intention to communicate this. They work in a primitive and limitless way creating future human shapes, blindly discovering low – tech prosthetic ways for human enhancement.

More work at their blog.

Vanessa Beecroft (Genoa, Italy, 1969) is an Italian contemporary artist living in Los Angeles.
Beecroft’s work is a fusion of conceptual issues and aesthetic concerns, focusing on large-scale performance art, usually involving live female models (often nude). At her performances, video recordings and photographs are made, to be exhibited as documentation of the performances, but also as separate works of art. The work and her conceptual approach is neither performance nor documentary, but something in between, and closer to Renaissance painting.

She sets up a structure for the participants in her live events to create their own ephemeral composition. The performances are existential encounters between models and audience, their shame and their expectations. Each performance is made for a specific location and often references the political, historical, or social associations of the place where it is held. Beecroft’s work is deceptively simple in its execution, provoking questions around identity politics and voyeurism in the complex relationship between viewer, model and context.

February 5–8/18/21 2009, 8 p.m.

Bockenheimer Depot, Frankfurt am Main

Dita Von Teese keeps it classy at the Christian Dior fashion show during Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2009. The 36-year-old lingerie lover is well-known for her burlesque dance routines, and over the weekend Dita Von Teese was spotted prepping up for a racy show at Paris, France’s Crazy Horse.

“I feel that Paris is a place that still appreciates its showgirls,” she told Reuters. ” I’ve always had a real fascination with the Crazy Horse ever since I was a teenager and I found a picture of this line of nearly nude toy soldiers standing at attention (referring to the trademark parade that opens the nightly show). I wanted to do something more elaborate this time. Combine the Crazy Horse style with what I do which is classic American burlesque.”