Michael Leavitt

Seattle-based artist Michael Leavitt has created this fairly brilliant series of figurines of titans of the art world, 'The Art Army Royalty'. Leavitt makes the figures from scratch, customising each one so it not only looks like the artist in question, but reflects some of their best-known work. It was only a matter of time before artists themselves became objects of art available for purchase, but you can't help liking what Leavitt has created, since these aren't grandiose bronze busts but posable polymer figures. Interesting to know what the artists themselves think of their caricatures.....

David Hockney

Lucien Freud

Takashi Murakami

Jasper Johns

Gerhard Richter

Cy Twombly

Damien Hirst

Kara Walker

James Turrell

Ellsworth Kelly

Chuck Close

Claes Oldenburg

Cindy Sherman

Jeff Koons

Frank Stella

Ed Ruscha

Barbara Kruger

Tom Sachs

Ai Wei Wei

All images © Michael Leavitt, courtesy of Jonathan LeVine Gallery

Roe Ethridge part 2

Roe Ethridge is in the enviable position right now of being feted by the art world for his increasingly conceptual photographic explorations, and shooting distinctive fashion work for some of the more prestigious periodicals. FOV first took a look at Ethridge's work in October 2009, and since then he seems to have converted more and more people to his slightly slanted vision. Its particularly interesting to see how his recent fashion work has evolved, maintaining a weirdness and tension through considered casting - the models are often beautiful but unconventional - and unexpected poses and props. Magazines like Another, Dazed & Confused and Muse are a natural home for this carefully crafted marriage of style, irony and luxury. Below are some of our favourites from recent shoots (and yes, the b&w image is supposed to be on its side).

Its not for everyone - the faux naiveté of some of his images can grate, and the New Yorker's influential photo critic Vince Aletti remains unconvinced - but in these increasingly trying times, Ethridge's uneasy but compelling images, and his almost neo-Conceptual approach, seem to be the apotheosis of cool.

All images © Roe Ethridge

Jessica Eaton

An unforeseen fascination with sizzling, bold, graphic and sometimes abstract experimentation on FOV at the moment with recent posts.

More interesting, progressive work in a similar vein from young Canadian photographer Jessica Eaton. Her work explores what photography is and can be, looking at the themes of light, time and spatial relations. Creating images of geometry and colour that play with the viewers perceptions, all Eaton's images are created in-camera. No post at all. Which is pretty impressive, especially with the photographs toward the bottom of this page - undoubted homages to Josef Albers and Victor Vasarely - a couple of which look almost entirely computer-generated. The experimental colour photographic work of James Welling seems to have spurred a generation of young photographers to experiment with what can be achieved with the medium, and Eaton is pushing things in an interesting direction, along with peers such as Caleb Charland and Niall McClelland. When she works, she has no clear defined final image in mind when she begins each series, instead setting out with an idea of what the outcome may be, but going with the flow. As she says, "each time I shoot, the results influence the next step. I often like to leave a lot of space for accidents to happen and am most satisfied with the work when it takes on a life of its own." It seems that she is only just beginning to touch on what can be achieved, and we're going to watch her evolution with interest.

Below are a selection of images, not chronological, but showing an evolution of style. And the final shot is something of a reveal, showing one of her studio set-ups.

All images © Jessica Eaton