March 17th, 2012 § Comments Off § permalink
About the Artist
Jazmín Berakha lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her work encompasses a wide range of media that includes traditional crafts, as well as music and film. The artist works in needlepoint (a medium historically dominated by women, and not always by choice) as an entry to investigate modern images of modern women. Her work explores the possibilities of textiles in contemporary art. Her investigation and research into textiles, prints and patterns and fabric within fabrics, is an endless source of inspiration.
Ms. Berakha’s meditative sewing process embraces aspects of domesticity with a consciousness of place and time. Embroidery requires much concentration and patience, and in the artists words “there is no place to hurry”.
The subjects in these portraits, at times, have their faces covered, their bodies half-clothed, holding what resembles prayer beads, in a frozen moment of unexplained contemplation. Other imagery includes synchronized swimmers, a figure being held aloft by birds and various girls kneeling. All of the life in these works are either engaged by their focus or contained, held in place by the threads themselves. Through the use of this simple media, Ms. Berakha presents the complexity of life, and by extension, its beauty.
Jazmín Berakha’s Website
JazmÍn Berakha at Heskin Contemporary
March 14th, 2012 § Comments Off § permalink
Red Carpet Ego, 2012, for Le Monde
Western Civilization, our future?, 2011, for The Boston Globe
The Role of Art Critics, 2012, for La Repubblica
Unfair Justice (release of Obie Anthony), 2011, for LMU magazine
Death of PostModernism: What’s Next? 2011, for La Repubblica
The Right Place for Bad Books, 2012, for La Repubblica
Love Wins, 2012, for Le Monde
Elvis Has Left The Building, 2011, for EMI Music
The King is Dead, 2011, for Le Monde
Evil Apple Core, 2011, for EMI Music
Voices for Freedom – Animation for Amnesty International
About Emiliano Ponzi
Based in Milan, Italy, Emiliano’s lush brushstrokes create contemporary scenes with unique personalities. His painterly style pops with color and vitality and his work has appeared in magazines, advertising, publishing, children’s books, posters, newspapers, exibitions.
His clients include The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Time UK, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, Newsweek, Businessweek, The Boston Globe, Le Monde, The Atlantic Monthly, Saatchi & Saatchi New York, American Express, Penguin books, United Airlines, Sports illustrated, and in Italy, Corriere della sera, Sole 24 ore, Feltrinelli, Triennale design Museum, Mondadori, Rolling Stone magazine.
Although just 33 (b. December 30, 1978), Emiliano has won numerous awards and is recognized as a major talent in Italy’s editorial marketplace.
Every once and a while you come across an artist who makes you want to jump up and down with excitement. Someone overflowing with ideas that are smart, sophisticated and conceptually on point. An artist who’s able to convey the right amount of sensitivity and humor with the simplest stroke. Except for drinking american coffee, there is nothing this superstar can’t do.
Patty Alvarez (Newsweek)
Emiliano Ponzi’s Website
Emiliano Ponzi Interview
March 5th, 2012 § Comments Off § permalink
My Porcelain Life, 2011, oil on canvas,30 x 40 in.
Waves (Augustus), 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in.
Map Of Your Face, 2011, oil on canvas,30 x 40 in.
Run Deep, 2010, oil on canvas,16 x 20 in.
Parvenu (The Historical Rise of the Art Jock), 2011, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in.
Lake Erie (Gold), 2010, oil on canvas, 30 x 36 in.
Fur Strip, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in.
Bottom of the World, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 36 in.
Winter Wheat, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in
About the Artist
Kris Knight is a Canadian painter whose work examines performance in relation to the construction, portrayal and boundaries of sexual and asexual identities. Drawing from personal histories of rural escapism through imagination, Knight paints disenchanted characters that are lost between youth and adulthood; they hide their secrets, but desperately long to let them go. His mythical and ambiguous portraits are a synthesis of fantasy and real-world memory; they tiptoe between the dichotomies of pretty and menace, hunter and hunted, innocence and the erotic.
Kris Knight’s Website
Kris Knight at Rize Art Gallery
Kris Knight at Katharine Mulherin Gallery
February 29th, 2012 § Comments Off § permalink
Hot Hours Of The Afternoon, 2007, oil on canvas, 29 x 40 cm
Concrete Needs More Time To Harden, 2008, oilopn canvas, 110 x 160 cm
Close To Nature, 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cm
The Brick Factory, 2011, oil on canvas, 141 x 190 cm
No Parking, 2007, oil on canvas, 28 x 40 cm
Pleasant Chat, 2010, oil on canvas, 35 x45 cm
In The Shadow Of The Dam, 2008, oil on canvas, 146 x 123 cm
Three Friends, 2009, oil on canvas, 163 x 200 cm
Procession, 2011, oil on canvas, 35 x 50 cm
The Card Players, 2011, oil on canvas, 135 x 180 cm
About the Artist
Serban Savu is a figurative painter whose quiet canvases capture the daily existence of contemporary Romanians at work and leisure. He remains elusive with his interior scenes depicting people unaware of our external gaze and absorbed in their own worlds, viewed through glass. His exterior rural landscapes often portray solitary figures in the middle-distance, isolated and overwhelmed. It’s Romanian contemporary society, where the collapse of the communist utopia has paved the way for capitalism to emerge.
Savu’s paintings do not illustrate the chaos, intensity and dirtiness; his perspective is neither heroic nor critical, but rather calm and precise. It is as if he wishes to suspend the flux on the predictable and the accidental. The dominant colours, are faded grey, green and blue. Nothing spoils the stillness of the image. Savu’s oeuvre is thus a series of poignant, observational snapshots that obliquely reveal the psyche of the ‘ordinary’ Romanian as the country experiences political change and economic growth.
Serban Savu at David Nolan Gallery
Serban Savu at GaleriaPlan B
Serban Savu at Nicodim Gallery
February 24th, 2012 § Comments Off § permalink
About the Artist
Many of Ulrika’s most striking images are presented, not alone, but rather as part of a pair. She explained to us that this desire to compare and contrast her work with itself affects herself as much as it does us.
It’s amazing how two pictures next to each other, often portrait and nature, can bring out different moods from each other. I start with a portrait and then I look through my nature/location photos to see if I have something that would match with the picture. And often I find something that just makes the portrait pop beautifully—that simple picture will say something about the person on the portrait paired up with it.
(Brodie Lancaster)
Ulrika Kestere’s Website
Ulrika Kestere’s Blog
February 22nd, 2012 § Comments Off § permalink
Artist Bio
Max-o-matic = máximo tuja.
Born in 1975 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
After starting and quitting studying economics, I studied Communication. Among other stuff I read about marx&engels and their followers. While listening to The Clash and other punk bands I fell in love with the fanzine culture and became a true follower of d.i.y. Fanzine took me to design; design took me to books and magazines. Then came internet and all that stuff.
Since 2002 I live in Barcelona. I illustrate pasting images. I try to create an imaginary world from torn pieces of the real world. In 2006 I created the Latex for Fun project and edited the project´s book published by Gestalten in May 2007.
I took part in group exhibitions in Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Sevilla (Spain), Southport (U.K.), Saint Petersburg (Russia), Tokyo (Japan), Antwerp, Brussels (Belgium), New York (USA), Berlin (Germany), Mexico DF (Mexico) y Brisbane (Australia). My work was exhibited in solo shows in Barcelona, Falmouth (UK) and Lima (Peru).Worked for: Nike (AKQA Netherlands), EA (USA), SAP (Euro RSCG Germany) , Sunday Times Magazine (UK), Beams (Japan), Graniph (Japan), Gestalten (Germany), Telefonica (Spain), Pasajes Diseño (Spain), Picnic (Spain), Voices (USA), Teelocker (Hong Kong), LeCool (Spain), …
Max-o-matic’s Website
February 20th, 2012 § Comments Off § permalink
Artist Statement
The latest photo series depicts silk scarves from the 1950s through the 90s as they flutter quickly to the ground. Oddly undecided whether they are two- or three-dimensional, whether they are pictures or objects, these scarves are an identity crisis in its visible, physical form. Their styles reference the artistic movements of their times.
About the Artist
Born 1971 in Singen, Martin Klimas s been working as a freelance photographer in Düsseldorf, Germany, since graduating in Visual Communication and Photography from the Fachhochschule Düsseldorf in 1998. On addition to his art exhibitions, his ‘joy of cooking’ campaign for Braun and the BBDO campaign have won him numerous awards and widespread recognition.
Martin Klimas’s Website
Martin Klimas at Cosar HMT Gallery
Martin Klimas’s Commercial Work on Bransch
February 18th, 2012 § Comments Off § permalink
Link Magazine, #3, 2009
Link Magazine #4, 2010
Rising – o la chiusura del cerchio (Rising - or closing the circle), 2011, collage on paper
Three Rabbits, 2012
Bull, 2010
Moitié, 2011
Music Geometries, 2011
Edgar, EP cover, 2010
Ikebana #2, 2011
Cut Rabbit, 2010, wallwork for Urban research Theatre, NYC
About Martina Merlini
Martina Merlini aka P0na (b. 1986, Bologna, Italy) is an illustrator currently living and working in Milan. As a child she professed that she wanted to be a children’s book illustrator and she obtained her degree in illustration from Milan’s IED (European Design Institute). Her work ranges across magazine illustrations, posters and record cover art to installations and murals. In her recent work she uses, at times in combination, figurative organic forms and strong graphic and geometric elements in an elegant, spare and visually powerful personal style.
Some children want to be famous movie actors, others want to become orchestra conductors, writers, astronauts. I wanted to be “a children’s books illustrator”, that was always my usual answer, pronounced with a pinch of pride. But i don’t think it was that reason the one that pushed me in this direction, instead I think it was that feeling you get when you see a well developed image, so strong yet so simple and you’d love to be able to create something so real and beautiful as well. – Martina Merlini (Fashion Blah Blah)
Martina Merlini’s Flickr
Martina Merlini on Cargo
February 17th, 2012 § Comments Off § permalink
Artist Statement
The use of fingers and mouths in my work is full of intent and meaning. The fingers and the mouth are very sensual organs in the human body and are therefore very powerful as separated items from it. The “seamless” combination of these organs in plates or cups, appearing as one, creates, in my opinion, new items that “feel” their environment and respond to it.
Ronit Baranga’s Website
Interview with Ronit Baranga
February 15th, 2012 § Comments Off § permalink
lucky rainbow, 2010, acrylic and ink on paper, 8 x 8 in.
this could be the best thing that ever happend to her, 2011, acylic on paper, 16 x 20 in.
Dispersed Hope, 2011, gouache and ink on paper, 11 x 13 in.
amnesia series – then everything became yellow, 2010, acrylic and ink on paper, 10 x 8 in.
pile of hope, 2010, acrylic on paper, 9 x 9 in.
guided by rainbows, 2010, acrylic and thread on paper, 10 x 12 in.
consequences of not letting go, 2011, gouache and frisket on paper, 30 x 22 in.
always together, 2010, acrylic and ink on paper, 7 x 5 in.
amnesia seris – barking at occupied mind, 2010, mixed media on paper, 12 x 10 in.
amnesia series – two equally desirable alternatives, 2010, gouache on paper, 8 x 10 in.
Artist Statement
My works explores the idea of synthesis.
I manipulate contradicting spatial elements such as flatness and illusion to suggest a disoriented context, where the dichotomy becomes an integrated visual reality. The narrative is based on my own experiences of living in the United States for seventeen years, and concerns dilemmas of my cultural identity.
I wonder how one can truly assimilate into an environment he/she is not from. I feel mixed emotions of pessimism and optimism. I am interested in the psychological aspects of how one processes new environments and culture. In the constant adjustment, I have realized, feelings of perplexity, incongruity, and obscurity are always a part of my psyche.
Ultimately, I want to believe that different cultures can be hybridized and become a unique alternative one. In this realm, I hope to find a sense of equilibrium.
Masako Miki’s Website
Masako Miki at Swarm Gallery
