Semioculus

19/02/2024

[FEATURED ARTIST INTERVIEW: Rada Niţă Josan]

It's been quite a while since the last one, but we're back with a brand new interview! We've been aching to kick the interviews back off again for a while now, but the last couple of months have been rough for a variety of reasons. However, we're working on more interviews already, so hopefully we'll get to share them later this year!

As for this one, this time around I got to talk to Romanian artist Rada Niţă Josan for a while about her work, her country's folklore, demons... and more! We hope you enjoy it!

You can find the new interview right here: https://semioculus.com/interview/rada-nita/

14/02/2024

This one's primarily for our Estonian followers!

Our editor Dylan wrote a short article about Viktoria Berezina's collage exhibition ''Ma olen looduses, loodus on minus'', which will still be up on display in Tartu's HAKI Galerii until February 23rd.

You can find the article here:

Näitus"Ma olen looduses, loodus on minus"Autor Viktoria BerezinaAvatud Tartus Haki galeriis kuni 23. veebruarini

17/01/2024

Submissions for SEMIOCULUS XIX are now open!
Deadline: 10.03.2024

No overarching theme! Any and all dark/surreal work is welcome. As usual, the only work we won't accept is AI art & fan art.

Find the full submission guidelines here: www.semioculus.com/submissionguidelines

27/12/2023

IMPRINT, an exhibition on dark-themed collages and print art, is currently being hosted at TYPA Gallery. The exhibition, which opened on November 30th and will continue until December 30th, is the initiative of Dylan Michilsen and Agve Urm, the editors of Semioculus, a zine dedicated to the “worlds of dark and surreal art”.

Andrew Mark Creighton interviewed Dylan Michilsen On Zines, Art, Semioculus, And ‘IMPRINT’ At TYPA Gallery.

Find the interview in our blog!
https://www.hortussemioticus.ut.ee/journal/new/interview-dylan-michilsen-on-zines-art-semioculus-and-imprint-at-typa-gallery/

Semioculuse esimene rahvusvaheline grupinäitus “IMPRINT” keskendub (mitte ainult paberist valmistatud!) kollaažidele ja trükikunstile. Kollaaž võib olla palju: dialoog keha ja alateadvuse vahel, loomingulise meditatsiooni vorm, mineviku ja oleviku ümertõlgendamise viis; aga eelkõige siiski miski, mida on lihtsalt lõbus teha. Ideaalse paarilisena sobitub kõrvale ka trükikunst, mille tehnikarohkus ja selle abil saavutatav loominguline vabadus ei jää sugugi kollaažile alla. Näitus on avatud 30. novembrist 30. detsembrini.

Meie blogis aga intervjueerib Andrew Mark Creighton Semioculuse liiget Dylan Michilseni.

Intervjuu on leitav siit:
https://www.hortussemioticus.ut.ee/journal/new/interview-dylan-michilsen-on-zines-art-semioculus-and-imprint-at-typa-gallery/

📸: Cover art for Semioculus xvii by Melissa Chalhoub

22/12/2023

[SEMIOCULUS XVIII]
In case you haven't had time to check out our latest issue yet, we're bringing you a small sneak preview of some of the great work awaiting you within!

Photo 1: Christian Gridelli / Diane Painson
Photo 2: Tania Gallien / Gosha Beshlyan
Photo 3: Anastasiya Krivitskaya / Giuseppe Lama

Find the digital version of the issue here: https://semioculus.com/zine/semioculus-xviii/

21/12/2023

[SEMIOCULUS XVIII]
Just before the holidays officially kick off, here's Semioculus XVIII - our final issue of 2023! That's right, we're playing Santa here.. Consider this our little bag of presents! As always, there's a bit of everything in here. A touch of the spooky, a touch of the surreal, and of course just a whole bunch of plain old good art!

We hope you'll enjoy it, and we hope to see you again soon in 2024. I can already spoil that we'll be bringing the interviews back next year, so keep an eye on our page for more of those!

[FEATURED ARTISTS]
Anastasiya Krivitskaya
Anja Brönnimann
Béatrice Douillet
Boogie Studio
Boris Markevich
Charlie P
Christian Gridelli
Claudia Lindhout
Diane Painson
Dropfeeling
Giuseppe Lama
Gosha Beshlyan
human nausea
Kenji Shige
Lestat Muñoz
Martino Montoya
Morphic Rooms
Native
Omega Kunst
Orhan Mansuroglu
Patrick Jannin
Rayastre
Shannon Twohy
Tania Gallien
Zahraa Aljoundi

The cover art for issue XVIII was created by Anis Tabaraee.

Find the digital version of the issue (along with the usual links to the artists' social media pages) here: https://semioculus.com/zine/semioculus-xviii/

02/12/2023

Not in Tartu, but still want to get at least some taste of the IMPRINT experience? You're in luck - we decided we also ought to create a special edition of the zine to commemorate our first international group show. Here's IMPRINT: THE ZINE EXPERIENCE, just to give you at least a little taste of the real deal (though we of course highly recommend you come check out the exhibition in person if you can!)

All of the artists included in this issue also currently have some of their work up on display over at Tartu's TYPA Centre. All but one or two of the pieces featured here are completely different from the ones currently being exhibited, so this issue's really meant to serve as a bonus supplement to go with everything that's up there. We hope you enjoy it, and once again, don't forget to go check out the exhibition as well! It'll be up until 30.12.

Check out the issue here:
https://semioculus.com/zine/imprint/

29/11/2023

November 30th, 2023
From 18:00 - 20:00

Join us at TYPA Gallery tomorrow for the opening of IMPRINT, our international collage & print art exhibition!

The exhibition will remain open to the public until December 30th. so if you happen to find yourself in Tartu in the upcoming month, please do come check it out!

06/11/2023

IMPRINT, our first international group exhibition, is coming to Tartu! The exhibition will be a celebration of collage & print art in its many different forms. We've got an amazing selection of artists in store for you that we can't wait to share!

More info coming soon, so keep a close eye on our page! 👁

18/09/2023

DEADLINE EXTENSION
New submission deadline: 15.11.2023, 23:59 EET

We've extended the submission deadline for Semioculus XVIII!
Are you an artist exploring the dark, the surreal, or both? In that case we're looking for you! We welcome works in just about every medium of (printable) visual art, as well as poetry and flash fiction. The only two things we do NOT accept are fan art and AI art!

This issue will have no overarching theme, so anything leaning towards the strange is more than welcome.

Interested? Check out our submission guidelines here: www.semioculus.com/submissionguidelines

15/09/2023

[OCULUSTOBER 2023]
October's almost here... You know what that means - another edition of our annual spooky art prompt challenge!

We decided to switch things up and leave the phobias for now, but we nevertheless managed to put together a pretty sweet list of spooky prompts to get your imagination going!

All you illustrators, photographers, painters, collage artists and what-have-you are very much invited to join us! Get in touch with your dark side.. even if it's only for one month. We hope to see you in a few weeks!

30/07/2023

[SEMIOCULUS XVIII SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN!]
Submission deadline: 18.09.2023

You read that right! Submissions for what will already be our 18th issue are now officially OPEN! All you dark and surreal artists out there are once again welcome to join us for what we hope will be yet another awesome collection of international art! There is once again NO OVERARCHING THEME for this issue. Everything's welcome! The only two things we do NOT accept are AI-generated art and fan art.

Find our submission guidelines here:
https://semioculus.com/submissionguidelines/

08/07/2023

[SEMIOCULUS XVII]
As always, we're bringing you a small sampling of what awaits you in our latest issue! Click each individual spread for artist credits.

Follow the link below to find the full issue, as well as links to the artists' social media pages:
https://semioculus.com/zine/semioculus-xvii/

07/07/2023

[SEMIOCULUS XVII]
Miss us yet? Don't worry, we're back once again with another brand-new scorcher of an issue to spice up your summer break!

This issue was meant to be a bit of a 'return to basics' for us, so no special prompt lists, no overarching themes, nothing like that. Instead, we're simply bringing you another wonderful sampler plate of artists exploring the dark and surreal in its many facets. A little collage here, some sculpture there, photo manipulations, paintings, drawings... Whatever your preferred medium might be, there's sure to be something for you to enjoy!

Featured artists:
Abigail Leach
allison anne
Amalia Pistilli
Anastasia Krivitskaya
Dana McCool
Damian Scaglia
Destiney Hett
Gerasimos Platanas
Henri Peterkopf
Jess Richter
Jodie Day
Kenji Shige
Lamb Cushing
Maria Elena Montecinos
Maria Evestus
Maria Fomin
Merike Tamm
Niko Vartiainen
Ruth Jaeger
Samael Leopold-Sullivan
Sarah Tolfo
Scott Cottrell
Tauno Erik
Teagan DeVoe
Thibaut Cudré-Mauroux
Zei
Z. Fondanarosa

COVER ART by Melissa Chalhoub.

Find the digital version of the issue right here: https://semioculus.com/zine/semioculus-xvii/

25/06/2023

[FEATURED ARTIST INTERVIEW: ANNE MARGRETE SJØFLOT]
Blessing your summer with some goo and guts - it's time for another interview! This month we had a talk with
Anne (https://www.instagram.com/fleshflies/) about meat, metal, the woes of social media censorship, and, of course, more.

Find the full interview here: https://semioculus.com/interview/fleshflies/

18/05/2023

[FEATURED ARTIST INTERVIEW: ELIZABETH SHUPE]
Another month means another brand new featured artist interview! This time around we interviewed Elizabeth Shupe (instagram.com/neon_victorian). Join us as we talk about death, mourning, potentially haunted houses and more!

https://semioculus.com/interview/elizabeth-shupe/

21/04/2023

[FEATURED ARTIST INTERVIEW: ORR]
It's high time for a brand new interview! Join us as we talk to orr (also known as wurmiv) about clowns, fish, decaying bodies and more!

Find the interview here: https://semioculus.com/interview/orr/

Want to discover more of orr's work? Find it here: www.instagram.com/wurmiv & www.wurmiv.com

02/04/2023

Semioculus XVII submissions are OPEN!
Submission deadline: 05.06.2023 (23:59 EET)

We are once again eagerly awaiting all of your dark and surreal art! Unlike the previous couple of issues, this edition will NOT be a themed one. Anything goes! Whether you're into photography, sculpture, illustration, collage or any other kind of (printable) visual art, it's all welcome as long as it's on the strange and spooky side of things! The only two things we definitely do not accept are fan art and AI-generated art.

Find our submission guidelines here:
https://semioculus.com/submissionguidelines/

29/03/2023

[FEATURED ARTIST INTERVIEW: JODIE DAY]
It's been a long time coming, but we're finally ready to introduce a brand new feature to our website: artist interviews! We're very excited to have the opportunity for our readers to get to know some of our regularly featured artists a little better. Look forward to more of these in the future!

Our very first interview is with our friend and fellow collage artist Jodie Day, also known as Sacred Cuts Collage. Find the interview here: https://semioculus.com/interview/jodie-day/

Intrigued by the image below & want to discover more of Jodie's fantastic collage work? Check it out here: https://www.instagram.com/sacred_cuts_collage/

24/03/2023

[SEMIOCULUS XVI]
As always, we'd like to present a small sampler of some of the awesome work included in our brand new black & white-themed issue! Click on each spread for individual artist credits.

These pages are of course but a small selection of what's waiting for you inside the new issue - there's even more wonderful art waiting to be discovered where this came from, so go check it out if you haven't yet!

Find the digital version of SEMIOCULUS XVI right here: https://semioculus.com/zine/semioculus-xvi/

22/03/2023

[SEMIOCULUS XVI]
Finally! It's high time for our first new issue of 2023.
It's another themed one - this time the theme was BLACK AND WHITE. We thought it'd be cool to do a color-coordinated issue for once, so here we are.. This one's all monochrome, all the time!

Don't worry though, there might be a lack of color in this one, but there's certainly no shortage of dark and surreal art to sink your teeth into.

[FEATURED ARTISTS]
8bitpixeldomina
blacknightwhitelight13
Eliza Kingsbury
Eve Lumai Bridges
Heidi Jones
Irene Cavalchini
Irina Tall
Jean-Francois Magre
Joseph Milne
Josh Dickens
Kate Blagodatskikh
Kenji Shige
Liber Gimbernat
MadHysteria
Marie-Claude Rivé
Merike Tamm
Michelle L Miller
Mistress Ratt
Nicolas Crombez
oh_ramarao
Orr
Paola Dcroz
Raluca Bobis
Sam Slattery
Teagan Devoe
Ursa Blue

The cover for this issue was created by Eloise Kyrell!

Follow the link below to find the digital version of the issue, as well as links to the featured artists' official websites & socials!

https://semioculus.com/zine/semioculus-xvi/

18/12/2022

[OCULUSTOBER 2022]
We've decided to close off 2022 with another Semioculus Special! Very pleased to finally bring you all another brand new Oculustober issue to commemorate this year's edition of the challenge.

This marks our second year in a row of sticking to the phobia theme. There are so many interesting phobias out there, we actually managed to end up with ANOTHER full month's worth of prompts after compiling our list for this edition. We may or may not do something with those leftovers in the future, perhaps it's time to try out something different next Oculustober.. 👁

As always with these specials, this issue is meant to serve as one last hurrah for and the artists who participated in the challenge. We ended up with a rather long list of featured artists, so there's a lot of awesome work here for you to sink your teeth into! Whether you're more into collages or drawn work, there's a little bit of both for everyone!

Thanks to everyone for sticking around and keeping up with us, we've met a lot of new talented artists this year, and we hope to see you all, both old friends and new, once again in 2023! 👻

FEATURED ARTISTS:
Aliki Finn
Charlotte Parker
Cho Hyun Kim
colortheorycollage
Dropfeeling
Eloise Kyrell
Gabriel Espinoza-Arias
Guilherme Albuquerque
Helen Nehill
Ira Carter
Irene Cavalchini
Isadora Emma Cryer
Josh Dickens
Kate Blagodatskikh
Katerinsk
Maksim Alimetov
MALO
Michelle L Miller
Ming Ling
Monique Vettraino
N3L
Nachtmahrlene
Olevus Art
Rebecca Colon
Stellan Krabbe
Ursa Blue & th3h0llowman
Xatshe
Zofie King

Find the digital version of the issue here:
https://www.semioculus.com/zine/oculustober-2022/

(We'll start looking into print copies next Jan!)

30/11/2022

👁SEMIOCULUS XVI SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN!👁
Submission deadline: 15.01.2023, 23:59 EET

Semioculus XV is officially out, which means it's high time we get things going for the next edition of our monstrously macabre zine!
We had a lot of fun with our last handful of themed issues, so we decided it was high time for us to do another one.

The theme for this upcoming issue will be: BLACK & WHITE!

That's right - we're keeping it old-school for this edition. No colors allowed, black and white only. This one's for the goths, the punks and all the cave dwellers out there.

As usual, we welcome all you explorers of the dark, surreal, psychedelic and macabre to join us and submit your work for consideration... as long as it's in black & white, of course!

Find our new and improved submission guidelines over at semioculus.com/submissionguidelines !

Submissions are to be sent in via [email protected]
Any work sent in elsewhere will not be taken into consideration!

28/11/2022

Checked out SEMIOCULUS XV yet? If not, here's a small selection of the amazing content hidden within the pages of our latest issue...

Find the digital version over at https://semioculus.com/zine/semioculus-xv/ !

We'll also start taking orders for print copies later on, stay tuned for the announcement! 👻

Pictured here:
Maksim Alimetov
Odd Fangs
Elizabeth Shupe

27/11/2022

[SEMIOCULUS XV]
I wasn't lying when I said the next issue would be ready soon.. We're following up our zine's 5th anniversary with yet ANOTHER milestone. They just keep on coming! This time around we're delighted to present SEMIOCULUS XV! You read that right, we're up to FIFTEEN issues of spooky goodness already. Here's to making it to 20!

You might've noticed that there was no open call for submissions this time around. That was done entirely by design! We decided to personally handpick a selection of some of our artist friends, long-term supporters and personal favorites from throughout the zine's history to celebrate the occasion. A sort of Semioculus supercut, if you will. Of course there are many more artists whose work we would've loved to include, but as always we're kind of bound by the fetters known as 'budget' and 'space'.

The original plan I had in mind was for us to release the issue on the 22nd, the date of our 5th anniversary, just because the double milestone felt like such a rare opportunity I just had to grab it.
As you've all seen, I unexpectedly ended up being flooded in artwork on the day of our planned double anniversary, so we decided to put the release of the issue off until a later date. Not entirely for that reason alone, though..

This isn't just the official release of a brand new issue, but also the official launch of our brand new official Semioculus website! We finally decided to put those tentacles to work and set up a spot entirely of our own. Check out our new and improved digital zine browsing experience! And that's not all, there are more brand new feature's we've implemented (and are planning to implement in the future). Add it to your bookmarks and keep an eye on the page, you never know what might pop up next..

As always, we hope you'll enjoy the issue. Check it out by following the link down below!

[FEATURED ARTISTS]
Alfredo Baon
Audrey Jeamart
Bolzak
Dylan Michilsen
Elizabeth Shupe
Fleshflies
Irene Cavalchini
Jodie Day
Josh Dickens
Kate Blagodatskikh
Maria Zimina
Maksim Alimetov
Ming Ling
Monique Vettraino
Odd Fangs
Orr
SKYZICX

The stunning cover art for this issue was created by our friend Dropfeeling!

https://semioculus.com/zine/semioculus-xv/

22/11/2022

Today's a very special day! It's your main editor's birthday, and that means Semioculus is also celebrating its own birthday. Not only that, but we've also hit another milestone - as of today, Semioculus is FIVE YEARS OLD!

I was pleasantly surprised this morning by a veritable avalanche of AMAZING artwork sent in by some of our artist friends to commemorate both my birthday and the zine's anniversary. I can honestly say it left me speechless. I could've NEVER imagined anything like this ever happening, much less with so many amazing pieces at that! You're all amazing people, thank you so, so much!

I'm genuinely incredibly happy I boldly decided to go ahead & started this project all those years ago, and I'm incredibly grateful for all the amazing artists who joined us along the way. So many different styles, so many different faces, it's been an absolute joy to behold, and it's another one of those things that makes this whole journey worthwhile. It's been rough sometimes, and I can honestly say that there have been moments where I've been dangerously close to shutting the entire project down (even this year, in fact), but it's this sense of community that once again shows me it's all worth it in the end. We've grown from a small independent zine started by a group of college friends into what I can confidently call a genuine international community of dark & surreal artists and I love to see it.

Thank you so much to everyone who's stuck around for the ride all these years, and an even bigger THANK YOU from the very depths of my being to everyone who sent me their amazing presents. There are still a few missing on this picture, but we will share those on our Instagram page as they come in.

Pictured here (from top left to bottom right):
Michelle L. Miller, Kenji Shige, Isadora Emma Cryer, Ursa Blue, Dropfeeling, Ming Ling, Wurmiv, Kate Blagodatskikh, Audrey Jeamart, Butstillwecelebrate, Fleshflies, Jodie Day, Charlotte Parker, Irene Cavalchini, Olevus Art, Synthetic.Goat, Zofie King, Au
.. Here's to five more years, maybe?

Stay tuned for more from our side, SEMIOCULUS XV is almost ready and will be coming out very, very soon..

28/08/2022

Summer thankfully appears to be on its way out.. We're gradually closing in on THAT time of the year again: the season of all things spooky, and this year's edition of our Oculustober art prompt challenge!

As it turns out, there were far too many interesting phobias for us to squeeze everything we wanted to use into last year's prompt list, so we're doing the only sensible thing.. we bring you PHOBIAS: PART II!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with our prior art challenges, a brief crash course: Oculustober is a month-long art prompt challenge taking place in October. Participating artists challenge themselves to create at least 1 original piece of artwork inspired by each of the prompts listed below, or at least for as many of the prompts as possible. To make things easier on everyone we've opted to give everyone two days per prompt this year as well.

We'll be sharing your works in our IG story posts and on our IG page. We also hope to be able to compile another special Oculustober issue of the zine after the challenge is over.

As always, we welcome artists working in pretty much every creative medium to join in on the fun - be it collage art, photography or illustration, or even poetry or music! Please note, however, that we will NOT share fan art or AI-generated art on our page/in our stories. We value original content only!

We hope to see you all in October!

03/08/2022

Impostor alert!
Found out earlier today that some scumbag decided to hijack our name/cover art/bio in an attempt to peddle their sh*tty NFT wares on exchange.art.

Please note that THIS IS NOT US! We are NOT involved with this in any shape or form. We at Semioculus do NOT (and never will) support NFTs/NFT artists in any shape or form and we try our best to avoid platforming it as much as we possibly can. It's highly likely that other content put up for sale by this user is either stolen or AI generated as well. Please help us raise awareness and spread the word.