Astra Zero | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Dustin Nicholls |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Website | https://astrazero.com/ |
Astra Zero, born Dustin Nicholls, is a Canadian digital artist, illustrator, photographer, creative director, graphic designer and musician.
He began to use the name Astra Zero as a teenager in a punk band "and we all decided we wanted alter egos and for whatever reason". [1]
Nicholls grew up in Faro, Yukon. His biological father is part-First Nation, part-Scottish. He was a keen artist from a young age, painting and drawing. His grandfather, also an artist, taught him as a child. He began experimenting with digital art as a teenager, using a family scanner and printer saying, "I would collect random stuff like leaves and garbage and scan it and then layer it over old photos and then print them out and draw over them." He then moved into using Photoshop and other similar programmes. [2]
Astra Zero's greatest influence is the Canadian artist, Floria Sigismondi. Other inspirations are horror, sci-fi and fantasy films, 90s cartoons plus gay and pop culture. [3]
Collections have included Infernal, Queer Horror Icons, Night Rebels, Dirty Paper, Latex and Bones, Restless Vampire, Pop Culture and Dark Vintage.
He created historical parodies of:
His most popular parody is Temptation of Adam & Steve, a revamp of Adam and Eve (1628) by Peter Paul Rubens. [4]
Astra Zero has worked regularly with Alice Glass [5] and Alice Longyu Gao [6] as photo and video editor, [7] artist, photographer, animator, [8] visualiser and director. [9] [10]
Astra Zero created the animation for The Pretty Reckless's 2020 music video Death by Rock and Roll with art direction by Lucas David. He created the artwork and text for the cover of REZZ + Alice Glass's single Not Enough and Saint Agnes's album Bloodsuckers. His work featured on the front cover of Bear World Magazine's 10th anniversary issue in October 2023. [11]
He has published the following books:
Astra Zero has released eight singles to date: [12]
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer and songwriter whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, reptiles, baby dolls, and dueling swords, Cooper is considered by many music journalists and peers to be "The Godfather of Shock Rock". He has drawn equally from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock audiences.
In gay culture, bear is a term for men who are large, hairy, or both.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life, he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. He finished 822 known paintings, but the whereabouts of many are still unknown.
La Danse is an oil-on-canvas painting created by the French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1856. The painting is currently held in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
The Shepherdess, also known as The Little Shepherdess, is a painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau completed in 1889. The title is taken from the Southern French dialect. The painting depicts an idyllic, pastoral scene of a lone young woman in peasant attire posed for the artist, balancing a stick across her shoulders, standing barefooted in the foreground. In the background are oxen grazing in a field.
The Bohemian is a painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau completed in 1890. It depicts a barefooted young woman sitting on a concrete bench on the south bank of the Seine across from Notre Dame de Paris resting a violin in her lap. Her right arm is resting on her thigh while the palm of her left hand is pressed down on her left knee so that she does not lean on the violin. Her hands are clasped with the fingers pointing forward while her shoulders are wrapped in a shawl dyed maroon and light green, and she is wearing a gray dress that extends to her ankles. The bow of the violin has been stuck through diagonally under the fingerboard. To her right is a maple tree.
Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau was an American academic and salon painter, who was born in Exeter, New Hampshire. She was an American expatriate who died in Paris where she had lived most of her life. She studied in Paris under the figurative painter Hugues Merle (1823–1881), the well-known salon painter Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911), and finally under William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905). After Bouguereau's wife died, Gardner became his paramour and after the death of his mother, who bitterly opposed the union, she married him in 1896. She adopted his subjects, compositions, and even his smooth facture, channeling his style so successfully that some of her work might be mistaken for his. In fact, she was quoted as saying, "I know I am censured for not more boldly asserting my individuality, but I would rather be known as the best imitator of Bouguereau than be nobody!"
The Art Renewal Center (ARC) is a non-profit, educational organization, which hosts an online museum dedicated to realist art. The ARC was founded by New Jersey businessman, author, and art collector Fred Ross.
Margaret Osborn, known professionally as Alice Glass, is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She is the co-founder and former frontwoman of the electronic band Crystal Castles. In 2014, she embarked on a solo career. She released her eponymous debut EP in 2017. Her solo debut album, Prey//IV, was released in February 2022.
De Scott Evans was an American painter known for working in a number of genres. Raised in Indiana, he spent much of his career in Ohio and then moved to New York City. His posthumous reputation is largely based on a number of trompe-l'œil still lifes that have been attributed to him.
Hugues Merle (1822–1881) was a French painter who mostly depicted sentimental or moral subjects. He has often been compared to William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
The Elder Sister is an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1869 by the French academic artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. It was acquired in 1992 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as a gift. According to the museum website, the painting was the gift of an anonymous lady in memory of her father. Since then, The Elder Sister has been a part of the permanent collection of the museum and is placed in its "Arts of Europe" section. It has become one of the most notable highlights among the museum's collection of paintings.
Première rêverie, also known in English as Whisperings of Love, is a painting by nineteenth-century French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. The work was completed in 1889 and is held at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
Émile Munier was a French academic artist and student of William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
Gabrielle Cot is a portrait oil on canvas painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau from 1890. Gabrielle Cot was the daughter of the French painter Pierre Auguste Cot, the most notable pupil of Bouguereau. This painting was one of the only non-commissioned paintings he ever painted.
Dante and Virgil in Hell is an 1850 oil-on-canvas painting by the French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau. It is in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
The Virgin with Angels, also known as The Song of the Angels is an oil painting executed in 1881 by the French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Its dimensions are 213.4 × 152.4 cm. It is now in the Forest Lawn Museum in Glendale, California.
Prey//IV is the debut studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Alice Glass. It was released on 16 February 2022 by Eating Glass Records. It is her first collection of solo material since the release of her self-titled EP released five years prior. The album title and track listing were revealed on 19 November 2021. The release of the album was preceded by four singles, "Suffer and Swallow", "Baby Teeth", "Fair Game", and "Love Is Violence". To promote the album, Glass embarked on a 15-date tour of the United States, the Traumabond Tour, from the 7 September to 31 October, 2022.
Alice Longyu Gao is a Chinese singer, songwriter, DJ, and performance artist currently based in New York City and Los Angeles. Her music has been noted for its "bold hyperpop" production. Her music has been featured on BBC Radio as "Tune of The Week", and "Women of Choice" by Lady Gaga on Apple Music.
Kevin Hissink, also known as Boonn, is a Dutch songwriter and record producer, based in Los Angeles, California.