We Love You So – Where The Wild Things Are – Spike Jonze

Is it fair to call them the prettiest drawings in the world? Michael Krueger’s images of solitary figures in mystical landscapes are like encapsulations of the human struggle. Beautiful encapsulations! Each image is a mini-philosophical tract, doling out gentle lessons about vulnerability and progress and folly. Mapped against rainbow-striped skies, the figures contain all sorts of multitudes. Make sure your hankie is nearby, and don’t be surprised if a tear squeezes out.

Krueger teaches at the University of Kansas (count his students lucky) and churns out lithographs when he’s not putting pen to paper. Refer yourself to the great Fecal Face interview, and don’t forget that hankie!

If the word “mind-bending” didn’t carry connotations of Magic Eye paintings and CGI technology and Timothy Leary, it would be the perfect descriptor of Benjamin Degen’s pieces. The Brooklyn-based artist fills his thoughtfully-drafted works on paper with nature, nudes, text, books and, why not, the Financial Times. Alternately folksy and futuristic, the works are rendered in graphite and colored pencil with shading that will give you shivers. Ready, set, explore.