Rodger Roundy’s densely populated paintings are chock full of older schoolgirls nodding off or sketching or involved in some group activity that hints at a dark side. And when the girls are not in sight, Roundy’s canvases are covered in papers, pages or the very words themselves. Roundy has an impressive collection of detailed work (including some sepia coloured canvases) that keeps the viewer exploring.

Artist: Rodger Roundy
+ rodgerroundy.com

Moira Millman’s website came to our attention via Netdiver’s Best of Year. Millman’s illustrations are colourful and full of whimsy, yet also very informative when used in an editorial context. Millman brings any illustration to life by creating characters and narratives that speak clearly of the context. Night Life is the perfect girls’ night out image and Light Up Your Life would be great for a furniture and lighting blog, whereas The Nature of Trees tells more of a story.

Artist: Moira Millman
+ moiramillman.co.uk

Spirit is a series of cheerleading photographs by Nora Herting in which the artist has removed the original background. Instead Herting places the activity upon the image of a flocked wallpaper background or a plain one, in order to highlight the individuality of the participants. Herting is most drawn to the girls who allow their own personalities to shine through the choreography of the routines, despite the costumes, the repetition, the make-up and the performance.

Artist: Nora Herting
+ noraherting.com

Katrin Korfmann’s light box series of video stills makes use of multiples of stills to create almost monochromatic compositions. From a distance these appear as large patterned abstracts, but as one approaches each still's role in the big picture becomes more evident. Korfmann translates the video medium into that of still photography, capturing time and movement nevertheless. Each still is essential to the whole and the public space serves as the background for each piece: the green of a playing field, the grey concrete of the city, the blue court and the yellow and black of an elevator as it opens and closes.

Artist: Katrin Korfmann
+ katrinkorfmann.com

Kiersten Essenpreis is a Brooklyn-based artist from the Midwest whose paintings and illustrations reflect a darker side of childhood, or the weird parts of dreams that linger, disconnected. The untitled piece above of twins walking down a hallway with some mysterious bundle is dark enough in itself, but when the curtains are somewhat like long brown hair, the plot thickens. This same hair is found in the untitled painting of a bathroom that looks as though it could be in the same house, and perhaps the library in Long Story Short is also nearby, where a girl reads undisturbed by the flames that threaten to consume the scene. Very haunting work where the clean lines serve to really imprint these moments on the viewer’s mind.

Artist: Kiersten Essenpreis
+ cindersgallery.com

The recent paperback edition of Jill Greenberg’s Monkey Portraits is a selection of 76 very expressive simians. Greenberg has been a celebrity photographer for many years and when she turns her lens to animals, she is just as adept at capturing their essence. The monkeys’ eyes convey so much personality that it is quite easy to see them as distant relations. In fact, this book, besides being an excellent gift, even (or especially!) for kids, is fun to bring out during family events for compare and contrast purposes.

Paperback, 128 pages. Little, Brown and Company, 2007. $12.23 at Amazon.

+ Monkey Portraits at Amazon

At Josh Spear we discovered some soft French landscapes by Fabienne Labakoff who digitally embellishes her photos with subtle painted additions. These affordable prints have an extremely soothing air about them, all herbal tea and clean and cosy linens. Design*Sponge featured the framed photos by John Murphy who hand-finishes his frames to go with his photos. Murphy does not shy away from high gloss and high colour, so be prepared for lively pieces that will not be ignored.

Nicola Villa is a Genoa-based artist whose paintings are sophisticated examples of watercolour with an urban sensibility. Especially eye-opening for viewers expecting pastel landscapes - they are in for a surprise! Villa’s work is technically nuanced, all fine lines and layers, with an air of newsprint about it. Several pieces are identified as having 125th Street as a setting, so it is interesting to see the results of an outsider’s observation of this part of New York.

Artist: Nicola Villa
+ nicolavilla.com

The quirk factor is high in Matthew Rodriguez’s mixed media works, a blend of street art and craftwork. Rodriguez uses a wide range of ingredients for his collages that are usually peopled with characters that may be hard to recognize but are at the same time endearing. Doll house bricks, feathers, bits of artificial Christmas tree, fake fur, fish tackle eyes and Styrofoam are just a few components of his work. One of our favorite pieces (not shown here, unfortunately) is the charmingly titled Gimme Yo Sweatpants, Acrylic on baking pan.

Artist: Matthew Rodriguez
+ rare-gallery.com

Denny McCoy is an artist living in the Wimberley area of Texas hill country and it is this landscape that is the inspiration for the Pleasant Wimberley series of paintings. Bands of colour, dominated by a dark coniferous green, are representative of the artist’s environment. His work allows him to attain a meditative state that helps him see into his surroundings that go from the parched during times of drought to lush when the heavy rains do come.

Artist: Denny McCoy
+ dbermangallery.com

Austrian artist Manfred Kielnhofer’s Time Guardians are mysterious sculptures that resemble cloaked and hooded figures that are silent observers of the passage of time. The sculptures have appeared in indoor and outdoor installations, looking for all the world like a very focused procession of beings deep in contemplation. The sculptures appear to be concrete, but are actually hollow folds of treated textile. Ghosts? Grim Reapers? Or maybe simple witnesses …

Artist: Manfred Kielnhofer
+ timeguards.com