a due Colori by Alberto Seveso

Digital illustrator and photographer Albert Seveso's world is so lush and color-saturated that each of his works of art seems to introduce the viewer to a new mode of sensory perception. This thirty-six year old artist hails from Portoscuso, Italy, but his artwork originates from a world of synesthesia.

His online portfolio, which can be found at www.burdu976.com, shows a wide range of projects, from commercial works for Olmeca Tequila Fusion, to advertisements for rounderwear. Despite the variety of commissions, his style is visceral and unique. Unlike the typical photoshop-happy illustrator, Seveso utilizes both a finely-honed eye for photographic composition and a surrealist approach to image manipulation, to create works that are simultaneously startling and deeply gratifying.

For example, his piece titled "The Man Who Would Stop Time," a photo-illustration of scientist Bill Andrews for Popular Science magazine, takes a flash photograph of Bill and turns it into a rich, layered illustration that combines pencil-and-paper illustration and oil-paint, for a look that suggests Da Vinci-meets-Dali. Seveso also creates photographic works where the manipulation and illusion is done during pre-production. Check out his series titled "a due Colori" for mind-bending sculptures of pure color--and get ready to be blown away once more when you realize that they are just photographs of ink in water.

Alice Rhee