Artist Insider
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Iyan De Jesus - The Philippines
artofiyandejesus.tumblr.com
Self-taught artist Iyan De Jesus, softens the metallic edge of steampunk with pliant alabaster skin. Each painting is a pastel-hued post-apocalyptic technofantasy suffused in color. Holding court against a background of mechanical complications are nymph-like cyborgs—more human than robot—whose dignified expressions hide stories rooted in mythology, literature, snatches of song, and fleeting moments between lucidity and sleep. To help viewers divine a work’s narrative, De Jesus camouflages elements among a multitude of gears: owls, hearts, snowflakes, gas lamps, and totem poles all serve as subtle bearers of meaning. The attention to minutiae, obsession with geometric compositions and patterns, cleanliness of lines, and smoothness of surface hark back to De Jesus’s background in architecture and computer-aided design. Unlike formally trained artists who went from canvas to screen, De Jesus started “painting” with a mouse before she shifted to brushes and glazes. The jump from digital to traditional was a rebellion against the ephemeral nature of bits and bytes, as well as a surrender to the soul’s desire to create something lasting. Each painting demands more than a cursory glance. Those who linger and look will be rewarded by the unexpected lyricism disguised by steampunk’s retro-futuristic tendencies. In between pulleys and wheels lie images that summon the sound of the sea, the slow and steady beat of the human heart. yantotzkie.deviantart.com |
Johnson Tsang - Hong Kong
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Born in Hong Kong, Johnson Tsang’s works mostly employ realist sculptural techniques accompanied by surrealist imagination. In 2002, Johnson started to represent versatile splashes with ceramics. He created the Yuanyang series, which were then collected by the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Yingge Ceramics Museum of Taiwan. During the past decade, Johnson has developed his techniques in capturing the instantaneous moment of splashes with white porcelain. In 2011 and 2012, Tsang’s works, “Bowls of Fantasy” and “Splash of Wonder”, were awarded the Special Prize of Korea Gyeonggi International Ceramix Biennale 2011 International Competition and Grand Prize of 2012 Taiwan International Ceramics Biennale respectively. Johnson is the first Chinese artist who has received both of these two prestigious international ceramics awards. Apart from ceramics, Johnson has worked on stainless steel sculptures and public art projects since 2004. He has been commissioned by a number of private companies and public bodies. In 2009, Johnson received “The Secretary for Home Affairs' Commendation” from the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for his outstanding achievements in international art events. facebook.com/johnsontsangcs/info Nikos Gyftakis - Greece
nikosgyftakis.com
I was born in Athens, Greece in 1981. I studied Painting and also Theatrical Stage and Costume Design, at the School of Fine Arts at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. My musical studies (National Conservatory,1987-2001) constituted a point of reference and inspiration for my artistic quest. Since 2005 I have been teaching Painting and Costume/Fashion Design in public and private institutions. I have also created the stage-setting and paintings for several movies and theatrical shows and at the same time I have been curating art exhibitions. In 2012, I was selected among the 30 finalists in the international competition “Surrealism Showdown”, Saatchi Gallery London. I currently study Artistic Research in Konstfack, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden, where I live and work. nikosgyftakis.com Bonnie Auten - Michigan, USA
bonnieauten.com
Bonnie's work has been included in many National and International exhibitions including every Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA) International Exhibition, 1993 through 1998. In 1993, she was winner of the Member's Award, and in 1995, she received the highest honor in the CPSA with the Outstanding Recognition of Excellence Award. The Derwent Fine Art Pencil Award for Outstanding Recognition followed in 1998. One of the first artists in the CPSA to win Signature Status for her work, and first five members to receive the coveted 5-Year Merit Award; she was awarded the Ten Year Merit in 2008. A CPSA Award of Excellence followed in 2009. A Charter Member of the CPSA, she served as President of the Michigan Chapter from 1996 through 1998. Among other awards is the Grande Award in the Akron Society of Artists Grande Exhibition in 1996. As a Crabbie Award Winner from Art Calendar, Bonnie's image, Rain, was featured on the cover of Art Calendar's Annual Directory for 1998. Rain also appeared in the December/1998 issue of American Artist's Magazine. She is one of four featured artists in Painting with Water-Soluble Colored Pencils, released in 1999 by Northlight Publishers. Her work is included in The Best of Colored Pencil I, II, III, IV, and V, Portrait Inspirations, Colored Pencil Techniques, and Discovering Drawing. Magazine articles with featured work have appeared in The Artist's Magazine, North Light Magazine, American Artist Magazine and Australian Artists Magazine. She has received Honorable mention in The Artist's Magazine Cover Contests twice, and was recognized as Finalist in 1997 and 1999. bonnieauten.com/p/about.html Donato Giancola - Brooklyn, New York
donatoart.com
From J.R.R. Tolkiens' 'The Lord of the Rings' to Botticellis' 'La Primivera', Donato Giancola balances modern concepts with realism in his paintings to bridge the worlds of contemporary and historical figurative arts. His influences encompass performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as well as pilgrimages to the greatest of museums - including the Uffizzi, Prado, Louvre and Hermitage. Donato recognizes the significant cultural role played by visual art and makes personal efforts to contribute to the expansion and appreciation of painting that extend beyond his clients and exhibits. To those ends, the artist teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and appears at various institutions, seminars, and conventions, from San Diego to Rome to Moscow, where he performs demonstrations in oil paint and lectures on his aesthetics. Born in 1967 and raised in Colchester, Vermont, USA, art was always a hobby for Donato. As a young man he would steal away into the basement of his parents' home to work on drawings, create his own art for games, and construct model minatures. Love of imaginative play dominated his childhood, both indoors and out. At the age of twenty Donato enrolled in his first formal art class, the beginning of his professional training. His skills were further polished while attending Syracuse University from 1989-1992. Immediately after graduating Summa Cum Laude with a BFA in Painting, Donato moved to New York City to immerse himself in the inspired and varied art scene. Formative years in the early nineties were spent as the studio assistant to the preeminent figure painter Vincent Desiderio, and long days of study in the museums of New York. It was then that his love and appreciation of classical figurative art took hold. He continues his training, visiting museums and gallery exhibitions regularly, learning from and sometimes copying original paintings by Rembrandt or Rubens, attending life drawing sessions and constantly challenging himself within each new project. Pilgrimages to major museums are his preferred reason to travel. Since beginning his professional career in 1993, Donato's list of clients has grown to include major book publishers and collectors in New York to concept design firms on the West Coast: notables include The United Nations, LucasFilm, National Geographic, CNN, DC Comics, Microsoft, The Village Voice, Playboy Magazine, US Postal Service, Wizards of the Coast , Scholastic, Simon&Schuster, Tor Books, Random House, Time/Warner, The Scifi Channel, Milton-Bradley, and Hasbro. Merits range from the prestigious Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators to nineteen Chesley Awards from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, three Artist Hugo Awards for outstanding professional work from the World Science Fiction Society, notable awards from the Art Renewal Center, and multiple silver and gold medals from the juried annual Spectrum: The Best of Contemporary Fantastic Art. donatoart.com/library.html Christopher Zhang - Shanghai, China
I was born in Shanghai, China and graduated from the East China Normal University with a BFA degree. I came to the United States in 1990 to further my studies. I attended a master degree program in fine art at Rhode Island College and was graduated as a MFA. I love art and have been dedicated to it since my childhood. My dream is becoming a professional artist who can bridge Western and Oriental cultures. Therefore I have been pursuing a perfect artistic combination of the ancient Chinese culture and the Western realistic painting techniques to present an exclusive visual aestheticism of Western realism and magnificence as well as Chinese naturalism and lyricism in my painting. My focus is on natural attractiveness other than dramatic expressiveness. My ballerina paintings, for instance, are mostly of those common scenes in the rehearsal room instead of focusing on the dancers on stage, in order to present natural beauty. These seemingly less dramatic yet no less important moments or objects usually give an integrated visual attractiveness that rests on natural but consistently subtle enjoyment beyond the limelight. To create such attractiveness, I emphasize a sense of comprehension instead of dramatization, for a painting very often starts with a feeling and ends up with an aesthetic expression. I think it is the sense that decides when and how the painting should be finished. The sense is subtle but is more essential than style and skill as it produces the integrity of a painting. That’s why Traditional Chinese Art Literature says that “...to paint with a sense rather than brushwork” is quite beyond the technical aspect. Generally speaking, the visual perfection results from such key factors as composition, posture, lighting, and coloring. These factors must be natural enough to make a sense rather dramatic enough to “talk philosophy.” Having studied masterpieces for many years, I finally understand that the real issue of fine arts is pursuing nature not techniques or other human conceptions since nature is the ultimate source of art. Art is created by nature and should aesthetically give even more meaning to it. Otherwise, art will be senseless and rootless, no matter how technically novel it might be based only on human civilizations. Nature is the truth of art and it is the destiny of my art. ctacademy.org/Artist%20Folders/Zhang-Christopher/Zhang-Chris.html Mary Jane Ansell - Brighton, England
Mary Jane Ansell’s portraits are strikingly beautiful and executed with complete mastery. The subjects are painted with infinitely delicacy yet seem to exude diamond-hard resolve. This is the key difference I see in female portraiture executed by contemporary women artists as opposed to male artists. Men have traditionally painted self-absorbed, dreamy women, bathing, looking over their shoulder, down at their feet or out into the sky. Often the sensuality, sex or beauty of the sitter is the main focus of the painting. Female artists, and Mary Jane is a prime example, will generally paint strong women who look right back at you from the painting. There is a real presence, almost a dialogue between the viewer and the subject. Although the sensuality and beauty of the sitter are apparent, they are not the main focus of the painting. When women paint other women, sensuality is the supporting rhythm of the piece, rather than the main melody.
Raised in an artistic family, Mary Jane knew early on that she wanted to be a painter. The Brit graduated from Brighton University in 1994 and was a finalist for the prestigious BP National Portrait Award in 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2012, an exhibit showcasing the world’s top emerging contemporary artists at the National Portrait Gallery in the United Kingdom. Mary Jane has also exhibited several times with the Royal Society of Portraits and has had recent solo and group shows in London, New York, Singapore and Los Angeles. Mary Jane uses the same models over and over and has become close to them in the many sittings. In each painting of Gorgie Hobday (Girl Ashore), Mary Jane highlights one facet of Gorgie’s character, often using props such as hats, flags or shells to highlight the story of the painting. In the triptych Above, Through and Beyond of 11-year-old Mason, Mary Jane manages to express the magical phase of female adolescence: You can see the child’s playfulness in the first, mystery in the second and a sense of wonder of what is to come in the third painting. 25amagazine.com/index.php/artform/art/item/569-the-master-british-painter-mary-jane-ansell Kenton Nelson - Los Angeles, CA
kentonnelson.com
Kenton Nelson was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. He attended Long Beach State University and Otis Parsons Art Institute, and for the last 35 years has had his art studio in Pasadena, CA. He has been on the faculty of the Otis Parsons Art Institute in Los Angeles and the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Nelson traces his interest in painting back to his great uncle, Roberto Montenegro, renowned Mexican muralist and Modernist. The style of Nelson’s paintings have their origins in American Scene painting, Regionalism, and the work of the WPA artists of the 1930′s. Nelson paints figures, landscape, and architecture bathed in light. The objective in his paintings is to idealize the ordinary with the intention of engagement, using the iconic symbols and styles of his lifetime in a theatrical style to make leading suggestions. All of Nelson’s paintings are composed with a mature draftsman’s pictorial intelligence. The compositions are ordered with the strong horizontal and vertical lines of architecture contrasting the curves of nature. Nelson paints a distinctly California regionalism of his own native culture, documenting some of the better decisions, while remaining acutely aware of the art, and its function and purpose in society. kentonnelson.com/biography Yuriy Ibragimov - New York City
The more an artist realizes the surrounding regularity, the further he or she freely notices their artistic views. With this said, I also approach with ambiguity and opposite visions by not refusing realistic structures. By showing emphasized feeling with a bit of gentleness allows me to pronounce the vivid dynamics of life with the intentions of introducing specific reality and multicolor in my work. But when glancing at some of the works, chances are some first impressions might emit a sense of disorder or chaos but when carefully examining the content one can soon realize that there is distinct existence being portrayed.
Furthermore, by using specific techniques of layering wax and encaustic oil paint, and collage allows me to bring the works visually alive when blending colors into their organic fates as intended by nature. Because I constantly use these methods of painting, I continuously reap their benefits of improving my visionary as an artist. Ultimately, my perpetual search of uniqueness fuels my artistic appetite to find an artificial connection to nature’s beauty by using old techniques to craft a variety of naturally intended abstract illusions. yuriyibragimov.com/#!information Richard MacDonald - Monterey, California - USA
richardmacdonald.com
MacDonald's work portrays "the beauty of the human body and the spirit that drives it." He works consistently with models throughout the process of creating a sculpture, often celebrated dancers, performers, and athletes. MacDonald draws and sculpts his subjects over and over, often requiring models to repeat a specific dance move or spontaneous gesture. This may include small, quick sketches in an oil-base plasticine clay that are refined and enlarged. A mold is used to create editions in bronze through the "lost wax" technique. For each of MacDonald's work he creates the final patina or surface coloration that is subsequently duplicated by the patina artists on his staff for the remainder of the edition. The final patinated bronze is affixed to a marble base, also designed and selected by the artist as part of the overall sculptural composition. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_MacDonald Ruben Belloso Adorna - Seville, Spain
Ruben Belloso Adorna, a young artist from Seville, Spain, has taken the art world by storm with his incredibly detailed portraits of real-life and fictional characters drawn exclusively in pastel on wooden canvas.
Painting hyper-realistic works of art with oil paints requires great talent and skill, but drawing them with pastel sticks and crayons seems almost impossible. It appears the word “impossible” is not in Ruben Belloso Adorna’s dictionary, as the young Spanish artist manages to create stunning photo-quality masterpieces using only pastels. Born in 1986, he studied Fine Arts at the University of Seville, and has already made a name for himself in the art world, participating in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and winning several awards. Looking at the quality of his colorful drawings, and the way he is able to bring out the emotions of his subjects, it’s easy to see why many are already calling Ruben a genius of the 21st century. odditycentral.com/art/the-photo-realistic-pastel-drawings-of-ruben-belloso-adorna.html Philippe Faraut - New York
philippefaraut.com
Philippe Faraut is a figurative artist specializing in life-size portrait sculptures and monumental stone sculptures. His media of choice are water-based clay and marble. From his extensive research of the human face he developed a technique of modeling the portrait that he shares with his sculpting students during his numerous sculpting classes and seminars taught throughout the US. As an award-winning stone sculptor specializing in representational art, Philippe feels that the renewed interest and willingness of artists to return to the study of the human form has the potential to bring back to our society an appreciation for traditional beauty. philippefaraut.com Willy Verginer - Ortisei, Italy
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Italian artist Willy Verginer creates enchanting figurative sculptures. His pieces are often sole figures, the forms of people delicately positioned. These lifelike sculptures are typically carved from solid linden wood then painted withacrylic paint. Their subtle but strange gestures coupled with unexpected objects give the sculptures a quietly surreal atmosphere. Verginer’s peculiar style of painting his work adds to each piece’s enigmatic quality. Rather than realistically paint each individual detail, Verginer applies large swaths of color to his sculptures. The pieces nearly seem to be dipped in pools of pigment. These large fields of color work in contrasting against the realism of each sculpture. hifructose.com/2013/10/03/willy-verginers-surreal-and-lifelike-sculptures |
Scott Burdick - Chicago
scottburdick.com/biography_scott_burdick.htm
Scott Burdick was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1967 where his mother and father early on encouraged his interest in Art. "I spent a lot of time in hospitals as a child and remember my mother showing me how to transform simple shapes like circles, triangles, and squares into objects like planes, helicopters, and fish. It seemed such a magical thing and made spending so much time in casts and on crutches much more bearable." In high school, Scott began taking life-drawing classes at the American Academy of Art under the legendary Bill Parks. "Though I'd always loved drawing, it was Mr. Parks who filled me with the enthusiasm and discipline necessary to improve my skills. His love of painting and creative expression infected us all." After finishing the Academy, Scott continued his study at the Palette and Chisel Art club, where he met his wife, painter Susan Lyon. "It's a wonderful thing being able to paint together all the time and grow as artists together," Scott says. His ideas for paintings come from everywhere. "What makes a subject attractive to me are the same things that attract us all. The beauty of a young girl, the character of a weathered face, the solitude of a farm at sunset, or even the story itself behind someone or something that makes it interesting." Scott believes it is the job of the artist to recognize this when it happens, analyze why, and use his technical skills to convey the feeling to someone else. He notes that some paintings are as simple as stopping at the sight of something interesting, while others may take more time to research than to actually paint. Today, Scott and Susan live in a rural area of North Carolina. Surrounded by forests and the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, their house is a perfect resting place after the many trips they take throughout the world in search of subject matter to paint. Scott's Artist Statement "I see painting as both a way of exploring the world and then as the vehicle of sharing those discoveries with others. I travel to find subjects to paint as much as paint so I can travel and expand my horizons. Through this unique language, one can say things that are impossible with words." scottburdick.com/biography_scott_burdick.htm Odani Motohiko - Japan
phantom-limb.com
Since appearing on the scene as one of a new generation of artists with sculptural roots, Odani Motohiko has continued to create works of monstrous beauty that excite painful sensations in the viewer. This year, a decade after his debut, this artist also renowned for the sheer diversity of his work, which encompasses video and photography as well as three-dimensional forms, will once again begin to channel his energies seriously into sculpture. "Looking back," Odani says, "I think that having been churning out sculpture like there was no tomorrow, I eventually found myself in a dilemma over the number of resources I actually had to draw on within myself and the direction my output was taking, and as familiarity began to breed contempt with sculpture, I backed off a little and incorporated various other media. At some level though I've always felt a need to return to sculpture, and for the past three years I've been sharpening up my act again in readiness, both technically and mentally." The new sculptures exhibited at this summer's SP2 New Born, Odani's first solo show in three years, while on the one hand resembling fossil specimens from some otherworldly creature, with their swirling spirals and soaring dragon-like designs can also be seen as an expression of the artist's powerful intent. A disquieting dynamism born out of prodigious precision. At this opening of a new chapter in his artistic development, Odani was drawn to Italian Futurist painter and sculptor Umberto Boccioni's view of sculpture. "Right now I have this strong Futurist interest in how to capture the concepts of movement and transformation, dynamism and speed in sculpture. I can really relate to Boccioni's assertion that modern sculpture was a 'dead art', and his concern with regenerating it. Although in my case we're talking about taking a fresh look at the history of sculpture in Japan. I'm not sure if calling it slow to evolve is quite the right phrase, but I do sense a lack of historical continuity and attempts at comparison. I'd like to head somewhere different to that, in the shortest possible distance." Boccioni et al.'s "Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting" stated that "The gesture which we would reproduce on canvas shall no longer be a fixed moment in universal dynamism. It shall simply be the dynamic sensation itself." But can a world changing at a speed to paralyze the senses engender such expression? The present and future Odani sees now encompass a different set of hopes and uncertainties to those of artists at the beginning of the 20th century. Will the spirals he carves rise to become the nucleus of sculptural expression, and will he strike out boldly from that nucleus? It will be worth watching to find out. Odani notes, "Some of the works I'll be presenting from here on people will find easy to relate to; others will be too understated for most tastes (laughs). But I'll make them all, because every one will be essential to the overall picture of my project. I used to find that idea of an everchanging, impalpable style appealing, but now I want to concentrate on the things I ought to be doing, the things only I can do. The result I hope will be works that like the Buddhist statues of the past will be capable of communicating with people for centuries to come." art-it.jp/e_interview05.php Rob Gonsalves - Toronto, Canada
Artist Rob Gonsalves was born in Toronto, Canada in 1959. During his childhood, he developed an interest in drawing from imagination using various media. By age twelve, his awareness of architecture grew as he learned perspective techniques and began to do his first paintings and renderings of imagined buildings. After an introduction to Artists Dali and Tanguy, Gonsalves began his first surrealist paintings. The "Magic Realism" approach of Magritte along with the precise perspective illusions of Escher came to be influences in his future work. In his post college years, Gonsalves worked full time as an architect, also painting trompe l’oeil murals and theatre sets. After an enthusiastic response in 1990 at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Gonsalves devoted himself to painting full time. Although Gonsalves’ work is often categorized as surrealistic, it differs as the images are deliberately planned and result from conscious thought. Ideas are largely generated by the external world and involve recognizable human activities, using carefully planned illusionist devices. Gonsalves injects a sense of magic into realistic scenes. As a result, the term "Magic Realism" describes his work accurately. His work is an attempt to represent human beings’ desire to believe in the impossible. Numerous individuals around the world, corporations, embassies and a United States Senator collect Gonsalves’ original work, and limited edition prints. Rob Gonsalves has exhibited at Art Expo New York and Los Angeles, as well as one-man shows at Discovery Galleries, Ltd., Hudson River Art, Kaleidoscope Gallery, Marcus Ashley Galleries and Huckleberry Fine Art. huckleberryfineart.com/Rob-Gonsalves-Biography John Register - New York
John Register was born 1939 in New York City, New York and died in 1996 in Malibu, California. Register was American realist painter. Register graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with B.A. in Literature, in 1961. He met his wife Catherine Richards in a photography class at The Pasadena Art Center where he was studying commercial art. John Register and Catherine Richards were married on February 6th, 1964. Living in New York, they had three children Peter, Kate and David by 1969, as John Register pursued a career in advertising at McCaffrey and McCall. In 1972 John Register famously stood up from a big client meeting and announced he had "a dentist appointment " never to return to advertising. It was from that moment on that he dedicated himself to painting as a full time career and passion. The family drove across the country in a 1966 Volvo with two cats and a Doberman, camping along the way. John Register photographed the cities they passed through. John Register said, "I look for offbeat beauty. I don't know what I'm looking for until I find it. There are things so ugly that I can't paint them. Sometimes I get depressed by that city, and by other cities I visit. But I like the patina of things that have been battered by life". John Register's vision of isolated streets, empty coffee shops, long shadows, old hotels, and bus stations "represent a haunting stillness tinged with regret and hope", wrote Barnaby Conrad in John Register Persistent Observer. John Register was born with a genetic kidney disease that he battled heroically until his death in 1996 at the tragically young age of 57. In many of John Register's paintings, one can feel the loneliness of man's existence; especially in the face of sickness and an imminent death. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Register
Truls Espedal - Norway
Imagination has no limits and Truls Espedal knows it. As one of the most promising painters emerging from the current Norwegian contemporary art scene he's a living proof of the creative capabilities of the human mind. His paintings are usually focused on hyper realistic details of the human body that set the tone for haunting, dream-like atmospheres. His unique sensibility seems to speak about the human condition from a very introverted and almost surreal perspective. On top of that, Espedal (who studied at UK's Kent Institute of Art and Design andhas been exhibiting his works for more than a decade) is also known for his striking covers for Norwegian metalers ENSLAVED. He's been collaborating with them non-stop for more than a decade now, gaining reputation as one of the of most unique cover designers out there. heavymetalartwork.com/truls-espedal.html
Yayoi Kusama - Japan
Yayoi Kusama (草間 彌生 or 弥生 Kusama Yayoi?, born March 22, 1929) is a Japanese artist and writer. Throughout her career she has worked in a wide variety of media, including painting, collage, sculpture, performance art and environmental installations, most of which exhibit her thematic interest in psychedelic colors, repetition and pattern. A precursor of the pop art, minimalist and feminist art movements, Kusama influenced contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Although largely forgotten after departing the New York art scene in the early 1970s, Kusama is now acknowledged as one of the most important living artists to come out of Japan, and an important voice of the avant-garde. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama
Keith Mallett - San Diego, California
keithmallett.com
Keith Mallett was born in Pennsylvania, and received his formal art training at the Art Students League, and Hunter College in New York City. He has worked as a freelance artist and for fifteen years was the in-house artist for Frontline Art Publishers. Keith’s work is currently published by Canadian Art Prints, one of the largest fine art publishers in the world. Keith was commissioned to design the official limited edition print commemorating the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s historic breakthrough into major league baseball. His art was chosen to grace the cover of Chicken Soup for The African American Soul, the first Chicken Soup collection to deal exclusively with the African American experience. Both Franklin Mint and Lenox Collections have created collectibles of Keith’s most popular works. His artwork can be found in many private and corporate collections throughout the world. A feature article on Keith appeared in U.S. Art Magazine. Décor Magazine recently covered his work in an artist’s profile. As an inherently curious artist Keith has worked in in a variety of mediums. He first learned oil painting under the tutelage of Sidney Dickenson, a student of William Merritt Chase; later he found working with acrylic paint better suited his nature. In recent years he has also worked as a ceramic artist, and printmaker. Keith enjoys creating aquatint etchings that he hand pulls on his etching press. keithmallett.com/bio Monika Grzymala - Berlin, Germany
Monika Grzymala’s work always pushes the viewer—it forces us to question how we categorize artworks, what they’re made of, and where they can be installed. Monika has worked with adhesive tape, handmade washi paper, and a diverse range of other materials to create large scale drawings-in-space— works that are grounded in the idea of drawing and the artist’s direct engagement with materials, but that expand into three dimensions, filling and shaping the viewer’s own space. moma.org/explore/inside_out/2011/02/03/last-chance-to-see-monika-grzymala-and-the-exhibition-on-line-drawing-through-the-twentieth-century
Jeff Nishinaka - Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles native Jeff Nishinaka is the world’s premier paper sculptor with a prolific career that spans 30 years. Nishinaka attended UCLA and graduated from the prestigious Art Center College of Design, where he first experimented with paper art and sculpture. Nishinaka’s commercial portfolio includes Bloomingdale’s, Galeries Lafayette, Le Bon Marché, Credit Suisse, Polo Ralph Lauren, Pfizer, Sprint, The Peninsula Hotel, Visa, Penn State University, Paramount Pictures and Coca Cola, among others. Actor Jackie Chan, who is a close friend of the artist, owns the largest collection of Nishinaka’s work. Nishinaka began working in paper quite by accident. “I have always wanted to be a painter, but while studying illustration at Art Center, I was given assignments in both a graphic design and fashion drawing class at the same time to experiment in different mediums, one of them being paper. That was my ‘Ah-ha!’ moment. I quickly developed a feel for working with paper. From then on, I began experimenting with different papers, finding ways to shape, bend, and round edges on it. I wanted to manipulate paper in the least invasive way, to keep the integrity and feel of it. Paper to me is a living, breathing thing that has a life of it's own. I just try to redirect that energy into something that feels animated and alive. facebook.com/pages/Jeff-Nishinaka-Paper-Sculpture/150006078418973?id=150006078418973&sk=info Henrique Oliveira - Paulo, Brazil
Henrique Oliveira was born in Ourinhos, Brazil in 1973 and hails from the university of São Paulo, Brazil. Oliveira uses wood collected from the streets of São Paulo where he lives, to create huge installations which he refers to as “tridimensionals”. The thin sections of wood are obtained from old fencing and boarding known as ‘tapumes”, are bent and curved into these enormous structures that seem to spill off the gallery walls. artistaday.com/?p=3726
Daniel Firman - Lyon, France
Daniel Firman (b.1966) is a French artist who has the ability to suspend movement, time and energy in his pieces. his sculptures of people, made from plaster, hover somewhere between dancing and falling.
His pieces are minimal yet powerful. he is unafraid to explore several outlets and media of contemporary art. he does photography, light sculpture, installation, performance, and many others. Daniel Firman lives and works in Lyon, France. kroutchev.blogspot.com/2014/02/daniel-firman-b1966-is-french-artist.html Anulade Creations - United Kingdom
I am a story-telling rotational artist. Each piece of my artwork is designed to be rotated in four different ways. You choose which way round you choose to hang it.
All my paintings are produced by using either, oil and acrylic on canvas, water colour and digital mediums. I also produce bespoke artwork for clients who would like me to design a painting that tells their own story in Rotation. As well as producing rotational art I am also a singer songwriter and I'm currently producing my own CD. anuladecreations.co.uk Chen Wenling - Anzi, China
Chen Wenling (b.1969 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China) from Anxi, China is recognized as one of the top ten contemporary sculptors in the international art industry today, exhibiting in a number of prestigious exhibitions such as Art Basel in Switzerland and the Shanghai Biennale.
Chen Wen Ling's sculptural works encompasses many meanings, which revolves around the manifestations of extreme humanity and immaterial images in a consumption society. Many of his works are metaphors of the messages he conveys about his view on society. Along the years, he started to shift his focus to create issues that pertain to the adult world as he plays with metaphors, symbolism and various techniques to sculpt a profound piece which is never too hard for the audience to interpret. His works are modest and earthy and there is often a clear connection between the man and nature dialogue depicted in his sculptures. -odetoart.com/?p=artist&a=60,Chen%20Wen%20Ling |