While watching a show by Survival Research Laboratories, at what point do we feel nervous? When the gigantic flame-thrower laps its angry tongue in our direction? When a tank-sized steel monster chews menacingly on a piece of scrap metal? All forms of death and destruction are accounted for by SRL, d

Cartoonish, Catastrophe, Implosive, Industrial, Kinetic art, Physical force, Playful, Robotic sculpture, Technology, Violent, Visceral

The Designers Republic creates images that make the most jaded consumer a sucker for packaging. The work is playful in every sense: bright, candy-colored compositions with anime cartoon children running rampant; it's like Hello Kitty playing laser tag. Yet these images play snidely with branding, cor

Bright, Citational, Cool, Playful, Pop, Psychedelic design, Rebel

In the mid-1980s, Wang Guangyi espoused a humanist vision of art for post-Mao China. His series of paintings entitled "Frozen North Pole" sought to evoke, in the artist's words, "a kind of beauty of sublime reason which contains constant, harmonious feelings of humanity." Abstract human figures place

Bright, Chinese grey humor, Citational, Collage, Parody, Playful, Political, Political pop, Pop

The bed is the most private of spaces. It is in bed that we have sex, procreate, dream, and rejuvenate. The space is a veritable cauldron of activities, a window into the far reaches of our personalities. However, for such an essential instrument, beds are usually pretty boring affairs geared towards

Bright, Ethereal, Functional, Pathos, Playful