Flipping through my first issue of Contemporary, which has saved me from the self-doubt and that-problem-that-liza-minelli-has caused by letting my subscription to Flash Art lapse (never again!), I stumbled upon an odd painting by Dirk Skreber.

It had the feel of a photo, with the texture of an architectural model, yet seemed to be a painting. And it was a tropical island. So I looked him up online, and have dedicated a new wiki theme to his sort of work:

christopher robbins wiki: unsettling stillness

There are works that induce unease through a stillness that is somehow not right. I can’t put my finger on it, so for now this page will serve as a collection of these instances of unsettling stillness.

Perhaps as I build this collection what is behind this unease will become apparent.

Dirk Skreber

Dirk Skreber mixes collage and painting to produce images that oscillate between photo and texture, gradient and painterliness.

Thomas Weinberger

Thomas Weinberger’s empty scenes are so crisp they seem unreal, yet document mundane in-between spaces of suburbia and industry.

Gregory Crewdson

“The images are of everyday America, but they are never quite right. In one a car sits in a driveway — but it is empty, and the doors are flung open, as if we have just missed a getaway.”