Australian artist Marcel Cousins studied printmaking in Japan where he instilled his craft with Asian influences while honing it. Cousins’ works are often described as ero-manga, an erotic take on the neo-pop, but his series of smiling-mouthed, but otherwise featureless yuppie couples is what really caught our attention. The pieces are bubble- or ink-jet and enamel on canvas, and portray various clean cut, middle class scenes of grinning coupledom.

Artist: Marcel Cousins
+ marcelcousins.com

Dutch artist Judith van den Boom takes some tongue-in-cheek liberties with the iconic wares of Royal Delft china. The base of her Disturbed Lamp is a glorious pile-up of traditional resting cows and milk maids after a collision with the present day. This is but one piece from van den Boom’s Dutch Disturbance collection which puts tourist-geared ceramics to new use. Take note: van den Boom does not merely throw together a mishmash of ceramics, she creates the pieces by hand in the factory.

Artist: Judith van den Boom
+ judithvandenboom.nl

NY-based Mariko Mori is known for her video and photo installations that transcend time and space, but Wave UFO is an installation that truly brings a new age, new wave zen to Mori’s work. Made of aluminum, magnesium, carbon fibre, technogel and fiberglass, Wave UFO appears to float milky white on the horizon, while firmly grounded at the Venice Biennale. Inside, three participants at a time are able to connect with each other, and the world at large, through the use of brainwaves, and a whole lot of high tech. Again, drawing on Buddhist principles, Oneness is another one of Mori’s works that is a reflection of one’s acceptance by and of society and the world around one. High tech zen at its sleekest.

Artist: Mariko Mori
+ deitch.com

Photographer Uta Barth focuses her camera on the idea of vision, with the ultimate goal of inducing the viewer to become aware of his or her capacity to really look at something. Often her subjects are as bland as her living room carpet or the bare walls of her home, but Barth is able to work the lighting and composition to create photos, diptychs and series that play off the ideas of reality and perception. It may start off as being technical, but it is impossible to ignore the mystery and mood created by the depth present in the work of Uta Barth.

Artist: Uta Barth
+ tanyabonakdargallery.com

Kjell Varvin is a Norwegian sculptor who combines philosophy with sculpture to challenge the viewer’s acceptance of his seemingly simple installations. Varvin’s latest series of installations takes place in a corner of his studio where they are recorded digitally before he creates new order out of the elements of composition. He sets up the pieces of steel, iron rods and bits of plywood in such a way that they are on the verge of collapse, connecting his work to a very basic human need for control. In arranging objects, we are trying to exercise control and bring order so that the eye may relax and bring the spirit along with it. Varvin’s work may look light, but those bits of plywood are heavier than you first thought.

Artist: Kjell Varvin
+ home.no.net
+ installart.blogspot.com

Tal R is an Israeli-born, Danish-based artist who has been described as a dj in the world of art. He is so well known for creating mixes of elements that even he refers to this practice as using leftovers, or in Hebrew ‘kolbojnik’, a neo-expressionist style that incorporates many simple elements from his own everyday life and history. Tal R’s paintings can be almost childlike, but his drawings have a tendency to be incredibly detailed in structure. Spiral Bar is a plain story told from the drinker’s perspective, uncomplicated in its narrative, but with dizzying effects all the same.

Artist: Tal R
+ kiasma.fi

Glen Rubsamen brings out his hyper-realism in silhouettes of trees and rocks, but works in telephone poles and lamp posts to the natural scheme of things. His paintings, at first glance, are much like underdeveloped photographic negatives set against sultry sunsets or soft dawns. But Rubsamen is equally comfortable with backdrops in acid tones of green or orange, in complete contrast to the pearly greys behind his palm trees, the difference between rose-coloured lenses and hallucinogens.

Artist: Glen Rubsamen
+ mai36.artgalleries.ch

Stanley Donwood is best known for his Radiohead artwork and covers, but his screenprints, expressive works that aren’t afraid to address good old-fashioned fears, can stand on their own as they continue to capture the zeitgeist. Happy Family shows a family heading into their bomb shelter, built with supplies suggested by the UK government. Donwood peppers his work with references to thin ice, lack of escape and other cheerless notions, like the very simple and direct Lost Child. Minotaur is a poignant symbol for our basic fear of “otherness”, a mythological creature who is depicted weeping, but unable to show or feel regret. Donwood’s website also offers a variety of atmospheric prose worth investigating.

Artist: Stanley Donwood
+ slowlydownward.com

Mumbai photographer Adil Jain captures a very modern and contemporary London with his series of London Portraits. He captures traditional symbols (the typical red phone box, the ubiquitous London cab, a bobby on horseback, half-timbered architecture complete with pug lifted from Country Life) juxtaposed with subjects representing a faster, harder pace in the old city. Our fave shot is of the kipping couple on a bench, seemingly oblivious to the graffiti of the newlyweds behind them. A picture you won’t see in any glossy bridal magazines.

Artist: Adil Jain
+ adiljain.com

Adil Jain is a Mumbai photographer who will take you round the world with his exquisite photographs of local colour and sharp insights into a variety of locales. The black and white portraits in his Maha Kumbha Mela series are stunning. The strength of the individuals is seen and captured by the photographer whose work allows the viewer to feel as though he or she is behind the camera, not intruding, but asking for, and taking, a long and honest look. Celebrating Christmas on Bondi Beach, participating in festivities connected to Ganesh, exploring the night market – with Adil Jain, you are there.

Tomorrow Adil Jain takes Art MoCo to London.

Artist: Adil Jain
+ adiljain.com

Brad Hornsby is a San Francisco Bay area designer, illustrator and artist who plays with a wide variety of styles and media. His oil pastels on paper are quite haunting, and it must be said that he has quite a way with angst-ridden subjects. His illustrations and digital work are more on the commercial side, with a cheerfully nifty use of colour. Hornsby employs a mixed use of media for his paintings which are by far the softest of his pieces of work. The many sides of Brad Hornsby offer up something for the many moods of his audience.

Artist: Brad Hornsby
+ ums99.com