Fantastic Contraption Artist: Viktor Koen

With the evening of the Fantastic Contraption reception approaching this weekend, it’s time to introduce another participant of this wondrous exhibit.


Two pieces from the Dark Peculiar Toys series

Viktor Koen is a Greek-born artist specializing in digital illustration. He’s a professor at Parsons in New York and has his work regularly published in Time, Newsweek, Esquire, Money and Forbes among others.


Two pieces from Koen’s Damsels in Armor series

The body of Viktor’s work is huge, but my favorite of his series remains Transmigrations.

“Transmigrations, Cases of Corporate Reincarnation” is 24 portraits of high executive title holders that return to life as insects. It’s a series that combines theories and research on social insects, traditional and contemporary corporate structures, job descriptions and reincarnation scriptures (more specifically the controversial teachings of Pythagoras on transmigration of souls). They personify symbols and weapons of their trades in a number of levels, some instantly visible and other hidden, avoiding the obvious and the expected.

Beyond the Kafka aspect of this project I love the actual shapes these creatures take on in their transformed states. Imagine these human-sized insects buzzing among the rest of us, brandishing their tools and being very, very busy.

A few more human insects beyond the jump.

5 Responses to “Fantastic Contraption Artist: Viktor Koen”

  1. Skerror Says:

    I like how “Blowfly” has blood on his hands and an air cannon to shoot high-speed compressed hot air at the shareholders through his gun junk…

    http://www.viktorkoen.com/exhibitions/gazi/F_gazi.html

  2. Tequila Says:

    I’ve been pouring over the site since I saw the post…such fun stuff! Usually I’m not that into Photo Manipulation as an artform unto itself…I like it as a tool mind you. This though…I like it…a lot. They really do come off more as illustrations than just glorified exercises in technique.

    It all feels much more naturally put together and polished. The Damsels in Armor are something I’d actually like to see come to life in some way…they’d be fun to see in a video game or film…with Wagner playing in the background

  3. Sera Noise Says:

    My favorite series is Vanity Studies.
    From Transmigrations, “Mole” is certainly my favorite piece.
    There is just something about it… perhaps a sense of familiarity of our world today.
    Almost everyone walking along with antennas over our ears trying to pick good cell phone signal.

    Agh… silly me ~
    Thank you for sharing!

  4. Nadya Says:

    I think this post got obscured a bit by the shadow of our two feuding doctors, but I just want to say that I enjoyed seeing these images. I particularly love the last bugman, the one that looks like he’s holding two blackberries that are also, somehow, his antennae.

    He looks like a Very Important Man. He’s got Important Things to Do.

  5. Mer Says:

    Beautiful stuff. How was the opening, Zo?