[From the Huffington Post, where the story includes many images of the artist’s paintings (one of which is titled ‘presence’)]

[Image: ‘Devotion’  Oil on Belgian linen, 50 cm x 41 cm]

[Image: ‘Processional’  Oil on Belgian linen; from designboom]

Robin Eley’s Hyperrealist Paintings Show The Sexy Side Of Plastic (NSFW PHOTOS)

Posted: 07/15/13

Australian artist Robin Eley is a master of deception. Using oil paint, a series of tiny brushes and hours upon hours of intense concentration, he creates some of the most impressive hyperrealist works we’ve come across.

What appear to be surreal nude photographs and snapshots of bizarre aluminum sculptures are actually painstakingly crafted paintings.

Eley’s paintings obsess over the textures of materials like plastic and aluminum. Draped over nude bodies or strategically positioned in close-up portraits, his impressive creations capture every detail of his fleshy and artificial forms. He can spend anywhere between two and eight weeks on a single work, with one painting — “Veneration” — taking nearly 500 hours to complete, writes Design Boom.

So why spend so much time on images that end up appearing like simple photographs?

“By shortening our attention spans to the click of a mouse or the swipe of a finger, pictures are being reduced to a disposable folly,” Eley writes on his website. “For some the solution is to shout louder, demanding attention by raising the volume of the message. My approach is different… my paintings speak softly, the labour of my technique demanding you linger, step closer and listen.”

Scroll through the images of Eley’s “Idolatry” exhibit, recently on view at Hill Smith Gallery, and let us know your thoughts on the works in the comments. (Warning: Some images contain graphic content.)