the latest contemporary artists' catalogue - studio abba yearbook 2014
DESCRIPTION
Llife and art, most recent works and exhibitions of some of the great artists with whom Studio Abba works. These artists are introduced and presented in a magazine article style, including several images of the artist’s work.TRANSCRIPT
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StudioAbbaYearbook 2014
EditorVito Abba
Catalogue editingCarlotta Marzaioli
Text translationLara Cox www.traduzioni-firenze.com
© 2014 Studio Abbawww.studioabba.com
Reproduction and diffusion of this catalogue or any part of it by electronic storage, hard copies, or any other means, are prohibited unless a written consent is obtained from the copyright holders.
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Introduction
Mary Brilli
Agneta Gynning
Evelyne Huet
Sumio Inoue
Sinae Lee
Giovanna Lysy
Marie Miramont
Sara Palleria
Marco Aurélio Rey
Kensuke Shimizu
Tiril
Max Werner
Sharina Gumbs
Peny Manavi
Maria Giannikou
Solveig M. Skogseide
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34
36
40
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Index
Introduction
Mary Brilli
Agneta Gynning
Evelyne Huet
Sumio Inoue
Sinae Lee
Giovanna Lysy
Marie Miramont
Sara Palleria
Marco Aurélio Rey
Kensuke Shimizu
Tiril
Max Werner
Sharina Gumbs
Peny Manavi
Maria Giannikou
Solveig M. Skogseide
Index
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Having the good fortune to meet many artists who come from many different countries and from listening to many testimonies, I may say that economic crisis and all the emotions it generates, has dominated the art scene in 2013 (and will unfortunately probably continue to occupy an important space in 2014). But I must say that the artists are never lacking in energy or passion and I have seen many people roll up their sleeves and continue to work with great determination.
At Studio Abba we have done the same: we have stepped up the exhibition schedule, developed new strategies to communicate via the web and social networks and visited the world of contemporary art fairs to promote the works of the artists that we work with. 2014 will see us committed to continuing this journey that we have undertaken, starting with the WAV Party Madrid, when this edition of the Studio Abba Yearbook 2014 will be presented. After the success of the first edition of WAV Party Madrid 2012, we decided to organize an event to promote the art of a group of artists during La semana del Arte (the Madrid Art Week), coinciding with ARCO and other important fairs. In addition to public relation activities that we carry out on behalf of our artists, we organized a six-week exhibition in the “Centro Cultural La Vaguada”, in collaboration with Manoli Ruíz Berrio, member of AICA, the International Association of Art Critics and the art magazine Llei d’Art at the beginning of 2014. During this week of intense PR, Studio Abba also organises the WAV Party to which gallery owners, journalists, art critics, art professionals and people of the world of culture have all been invited.
In the Summer 2014 (13 June-20 July) the second edition of the Chianti Star Festival will take place in Tuscany. The 2014 edition will be larger than last year as we have been offered the unique opportunity to have three other incredible locations as well as the Palazzo Malaspina in San Donato in Poggio: the historical abbey at Badia a Passignano, the beautiful Fattoria Montecchio very close to San Donato and the spectacular Antinori wine cellar designed by Marco Casamonti at Bargino that will be hosting the prize-giving Ceremony. Once again we will be collaborating with OpenLab, part of the University of Florence, the Chianti Observatory and the Municipality of Tavarnelle Val di Pesa. The relationship between art and science begins with the exhibition of contemporary art, while lectures, demonstrations and concerts will enrich a calendar of collateral events. A jury made up of important figures in the scientific and artistic worlds, will award three prizes to the artists for the top artworks of the 2014 exhibition.
Studio Abba Yearbook 2014
Chianti Star Festival 2013 - Carlotta Marzaioli and Vito Abba OpenArtCode Paris 2013
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In November 2014 (25th-30th) for the seventh consecutive year, we will take the OpenArtCode group once again to exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris, in the Salon des Artistes Indépendants. Each year ART en CAPITAL that includes the Salon des Indépendants, attracts more than 30,000 visitors to the Grand Palais. Masters such as Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Camille Pissarro and the “Founding Fathers” Albert Dubois-Pillet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, in 1884 created the Société des Artistes Indépendants (Society of Independent Artists). Madame Chapelle, President of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, has said about the OAC Group: Devenu partie intégrante de la Société des Artistes Indépendants dans le cadre de ART en CAPITAL, c’est un honneur pour moi, d’accueillir les artistes talentueux du groupe OpenArtCode.
As soon as the exhibition in Paris closes we will be flying off to Miami, during the period of Art Basel Miami, where we will join together with another gallery to participate in one of the important collateral fairs. Furthermore we will also be continuing our collaborating with another Miami-based gallery that is currently showing some of Studio Abba’s artists.
I hope this second edition of our Yearbook will be of interest to you and I wish all the artists and readers a successful year.
Vito Abba
OpenArtCode Paris 2013 Miami 2013
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M a r y B r i l l i
A woman of a thousand faces: Mary Brilli
Etiam si omnes, ego non. This could be Mary Brilli’s motto, eclectic and polyhedral personality, who conveys through an efflorescence of artistic expression, a fundamentally humanist vision of the world.
Thus, Mary Brilli strives to capture a real panoptic gaze that she returns in its kaleidoscopic diversity.
In Mary Brilli, Italian by birth and French by nature, the pessimism of the intellect combines with the optimism of the will. Inhabited by an insatiable curiosity for knowledge, this unclassifiable artist has surveyed all creative paths with high expectations and a sense of challenge that are the hallmarks of her art, which ranges from painting to sculpture, design for the Maison Hermès, to poetry and journalism.
Espoir virtuel “EVOLAVIA”
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www.marybrilli.com
As rightly pointed out by writer and theatre director Jean Gilbert Adam: “ Her works - which look simple at a first glance – are actually very rich in complex components and are the accomplishment of profound inner peace and meditation. Her work is herself: with her thoughts, ideals, love and permanent dissatisfaction… Only people who know her world, work, loves and passions, can analyse her behaviour which is free, critical and nonconformist.”
Two books trace the history of Mary’s creative path: «Portrait hors cadre» and «Clin d’œil - Délire de soi (e)». In 2012 and 2013 she wrote the collections of aphorisms and poems “Hyphen from A to Z” and “Me... when I grow up” based on a dialogue of text and images that were published by «Le Scribe I’Harmattan».The multi-faceted work of this “art lover”, engaged in humanitarian causes, was welcomed, among others, by Jean d’Ormesson and Jacques Faizant. In November 2011, her talent earned her, the “Trophée de la Réussite au Féminin” presented at the Quai d’Orsay in Paris.
Organised by the Amicale Régionale of the Renault Group Ile de France at the Salle des Arts Boulogne-Billancourt exhibition location, the XXII International ARGR Exhibition paid tribute to Mary Brilli, guest of honour in the presence of His Excellency, the Ambassador of Italy Giandomenico Magliano, the Mayor of Boulogne Billancourt, Mr. Pierre-Christophe Baguet, President of IdF ARGR Mr. Frédéric Rollin, the President of the FARGR, Mr. Michel Gornet and the Chairman of the Organising Committee, Mr. Daniel Poulin.
Espoir virtuel “EVOLAVIA”
OpenArtCode Paris 2012 - Mary Brilli, Madame Chapelle President Salon des artistes indépendants, Vito Abba, the Swiss Ambassador in Paris, Mr Jean-Jacques de Dardel and Sasha
Science, d’où prévoyance
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Clin d’œil
Mary Brilli, an honorary member of the association Poesia 2-Ottobre celebrated, with the talent that we know, the XXV World Poetry Day, with a video, a “clin d’œil” full of lyricism and sensitivity. The event, which was held on 1st December 2013 at the Salle des Fêtes in the town hall of the Paris’s XIV arrondissement, enjoyed the personal support of His Excellency Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic and was under the High Patronage of the Ministry of the Francophonie and of the City of Paris.
Member of the OpenArtCode group, this eclectic artist has shown to be one of the flagship figures of the event Art-en-Capital “Salon des Artistes Indépendants” with the last edition held from 4 to 8 December 2013 at the Grand Palais.
Thus, Mary Brilli, a polyphony of expressive techniques, never ceases to amaze us and should be commended for her freedom of being, thinking and creating.
Written and translated by Giulia Bogliolo Bruna
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Agneta Gynning
How important are the viewer’s interpretation of your art and more specifically their comprehension of the content, for you?
I make my sculptures for myself. It’s my way to express my inner feelings. But it’s very interesting to listen to and get to know how my work affects others. Listening to the viewers’ interpretation of my work makes me see if I have succeeded in transmitting my idea for the sculpture. It also gives me new eyes to look at the world and possibilities to develop a deeper understanding of how others experience my art.
Power of life
Agneta Gynning is a Swedish sculptor who studied under Victor Praznik, a sculptor with roots in the former Yugoslavia. He inspired her to specialise in bronze and marble and also introduced her to working in Pietrasanta in Italy, a town of international importance and fame for sculpture, and where Agneta returns annually.
She works in bronze, marble, glass and silicone rubber and her art succeeds in fusing both classical and modern influences. It is inspired by the subconscious and is full of movement; the lines she creates are elegant, graceful and transmit a feeling of life and soul, with a free spirit that seems to inhabit the space both within and around her artworks. Rubber is the most recent material that Agneta is exploring and working with and with which she reveals an instinctive talent to uncover the emotionally evocative power of its colour and movement. Agneta is inspired by the ocean and goes for long walks along the beach to find creativity; she travels regularly and is passionate about discovering art from ancient civilizations. Furthermore, she regularly attends dance performances to find new inspiration for alternative movement in her sculptures; as the body and human interaction are fundamental aspects of her sculptures.
Agneta had her first exhibition in 1995 and her work has now been exhibited all over Scandinavia as well as in southern Europe and China. Agneta’s work has been shown at the Florence Biennale 2011, ArtExpo in New York 2012, OpenArtCode Shanghai 2012, at the Chianciano International Art Awards in Italy 2012,where she won the Leonardo Award for Sculpture, and at the Grand Palais in Paris. In 2013, she participated at the first London Biennale and won the London Art Award for Sculpture and starting in 2013 she is showing her work at Art Fusion Gallery, Miami for a year. Also in 2013 Agneta opened Studio Gynning in Malmö, Sweden that works both as a studio to create new sculptures and as a gallery. She is working towards a solo exhibition that will be held in New York in 2015. In Sweden, Agneta Gynning’s sculptures can be found in both public areas as well as in private collections.
Photos: Charlotte Strömwall 8 9
What were the inspirations and influences for your latest artwork?
A few years ago I visited a show with an artist who used silicone rubber in his paintings. I fell in love with the expression of the material and got inspired to explore how I could use this contemporary material in sculpting. After a while I got in touch with Helsingborg’s Gummi AB, and through them I learned how to work with the material. In bronze and rubber the colours are much more subtle, but now I have found a new colourful world. Using the same forms as before, I suddenly experienced a new way to express my feelings through colour.
Photos: Charlotte Strömwall 10 11
Flower LadyWe
Photos: Charlotte Strömwall10 11
Evelyne Huet
History of M Isis
How important is the viewer’s interpretation of your art and more specifically the comprehension of the content, for you?
Evelyne Huet was born in Paris where she lives and works. A mathematician by training, she also studied anthropology and her painting is strongly influenced by the cultures and arts of societies seen as primitive. After having for a long time depicted the courage that women and young girls display in the face of violent situations that many of them are confronted by around the world on traditional canvases, Evelyne Huet has recently made the transition to digital painting and to conveying other themes she is also interested in: myths, religions and the history of collective fears such as death and insanity in the West since the Middle Ages. On canvas as on digital supports, she endeavours to simplify her representations to the extreme and to paint emotions, avoiding the register of pathos and the explanatory.A member of the OpenArtCode and WorldArtVision groups of international artists, her paintings are regularly displayed in solo and group shows in France and abroad (in Italy, Spain, Israel, China, USA). She is also one of the artists of the Galerie Teodora in Paris.
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www.evelynehuet.com
The psychiatrist, his insane and psychoanalysis - The chemical straitjacket
Camp bed
Do you think that travel and getting to know different artistic styles and techniques outside of your country enriches your art? Indeed, meeting other artists? If so, how can we see this in your art?
It is of course essential, and in fact it is the wonderfully inspired and inspiring work of my friend Roy Lawaetz, a member of the OpenArtCode and WorldArtVision groups, on digital supports that made me want to try my hand at digital art and to give free reign, notably, to the expression of my passion for myths. My encounters with artists from around the world and their techniques, visions, sensitivities, and obsessions are of course and immeasurable richness in which I draw, more or less unconsciously, nutrition for my own creations.
Which were the inspirations for your latest artwork? One of my latest series of digital paintings is entitled “The Damnation of Faust” that includes two characters: Faust and Marguerite. “The Damnation of Faust” is a legend built around the Devil (Mephistopheles) and carnal and spiritual love. It’s the character of Mephistopheles (who I do not paint) who is the centrepiece of my two-part series. When Mephistopheles refuses to let Doctor Faust give up on life, Faust sells him his soul. Faust then gets carried away in the maelstrom created by the Devil because of his love for Marguerite and the temptation it causes him. But Mephistopheles intervenes in their love story before Faust can be consumed and forces him to dive down to Hell to save Marguerite. It’s the story of the temptation of the senses and the terrible punishment that I am interested in here, maybe because it is reminiscent of the story of Eve and the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.My two characters, Faust and Marguerite, seem to be transformed into salt statues after this victory by Mephistopheles who has rendered them immobile in death; literally when it comes to Faust and figuratively for Marguerite. I purposely mixed the end of this legend with the mythology of Medusa, the Gorgon, who turned anyone to stone who looked at her.
What people see when they look at my paintings is of course essential, and I want them to be as free as possible. It is therefore rare for me to give a specific answer when I am asked about the intention behind one of my paintings, not because I don’t know, but because I don’t want to confine my view in my vision or more specifically in my expression of my vision. Indeed, since my subconscious plays an important part in the creation of my paintings and, on many occasions, interpretations that I may have missed at first, resurface after some time. My creative process is rarely under my strict control. I try to let myself escape at one point or another in order to free my strokes and to become free from my rationality.
Sumio Inoue
Silenzioso n. 82
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Photo: Danish Saroee
www.sumioinoue.com
Silenzioso n. 52Silenzioso n. 83Silenzioso n. 64
Sumio Inoue was born in 1948 in Tokyo, Japan. He studied photographic techniques at Tokyo Design Academy from 1968 to 1970 and at the Japan Design Center from 1970 to 1974. He began his career working in commercial photography and in 1990 moved on to artistic photography. He lives and works in New York but still divides his time between there and Tokyo. Inoue has spent the past years carefully developing a series called Silenzioso: images printed on handmade rice paper, a process that takes several months. Church interiors, important monuments, town and cityscapes are printed with intensified focus and in infinitely monochromatic shades and shadows. To see something where nothing can be seen, uncovering and evoking unknown spaces with an antique pathos and to provoke one’s imagination, are the primary goals of Sumio’s art.
He has had successful exhibitions in Tokyo, New York, London, Paris, Deauville, Florence, Barcelona, Greece and Mexico. He is a member of the OpenArtCode group since the beginning in 2008 and also participated in WorldArtVision Cancun, Barcelona and in WAV Party Madrid 2012 and 2014. In 2007, Sumio won the first prize for Photography at the Florence Biennale and won the Prix du Jury at GemlucArt, Monaco 2009.
Silenzioso n. 85
In his artistic statement, Sumio explains his working process and the importance of shadow, “Shadows are fascinating to me. They exist where light exists. They always follow people, sometimes enormous, sometimes small, sometimes lighter or darker. Shadows are always with us, close by, touching. They grow as people grow and disappear when the person they followed passes away. From their creation to the moment of their destruction, objects also have their private shadows.I am attracted to the mysteriousness of shadow. In a way, shadows can be seen as reflections of the human consciousness; they seem to change to match our deepest feelings. A shadow has width and depth into which it draws passers-by with a gentle, cooling gesture. The immeasurable width of a shadow seeks out the incomprehensible universe; the shadow’s depth rolls out as the roaring sea of imagination. Shadows know no limit. They invite imagination to wild trips even in their most monochrome formats. Where light hits surfaces, shadows are sharp and strong but where there is a lack of light shadows lazily define their existence. When printing a photo, determining the level of darkness can be a trial.
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Silenzioso n. 25
I create heavy sheets of Japanese paper (a kind of rice paper) onto which to print my images. It has taken me over ten years to develop my skills in printing onto irregular surfaces. Weather, temperature and humidity all affect printing. For example, it is almost impossible to print during the hottest summer or the coldest winter day. I dye each heavy sheet of paper with colours from tree barks and treat it with emulsion. Emulsion is applied to some areas darker than others.Although in photography it is the norm to produce multiple prints, I only do one of each. To achieve the best result, I normally have to try five or six times. The creation of a work takes about a month. Only a few works can be made in a year. I use thick paper so that the shadows can have more depth. However, because of the thickness of the paper, the colour does not keep on the surface but keeps soaking deeper into the paper. This makes it hard to create black. In fact, it is very hard to create anything to look like I initially imagined. But that’s the way I like it - as a challenge. Often, my photos depict churches. They offer a certain silence of the universe, width and depth for the shadows to rest.I like to think of my work as creating unique paintings through photography.
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Sinae Lee
Moonlight sonata
Born in Korea, Sinae lives in Toronto, Canada where she was educated and now works as a full time artist. She uses watercolours and acrylics to paint images of inner and outer worlds as they are intertwined in our lives.
Sinae regularly exhibits in North America, Europe, and Asia and her works are part of private and corporate collections throughout the world. She is a member of OpenArtCode group and has participated in the two editions of WorldArtVision.
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www.sinaelee.com
Dreamscape
After many years in painting what’s on the outside world, I’ve come to realize I have more to paint from within. What’s within is so much like what’s on the outside, they look chaotic, yet one can find order. Finding order is the subject matter of my painting.
When I am standing in front of canvas, it literally confronts me as the chaotic world confronts me. The noise, colors, shapes and movements come across as thoughts and memories. They challenge me to find the order to recreate them into colors and shapes.
Giovanna Lysy
Radici (detail)
For Giovanna Lysy her homeland in Tuscany, in the heart of the Val d’Orcia at La Foce is of fundamental importance: where natural beauty has not been spoilt by man and time appears suspended. She chooses to use materials for her sculptures that are taken from the agricultural instruments of the past, mostly made of iron, as well as travertine from the local quarries. The contrast with today’s accelerated rhythm of life is accentuated in the verticality of her sculptures that derives mainly from the addition of glass and the varied effects of marbled paper, playing with transparency and colour. Nature is the common element that blends these assembled elements and light, essential and vital to each piece, becomes the variable element that offers a constantly changeable view point in a globalized world, the discovery of a previously invisible detail, both in the sculpture itself and in the surrounding space. Though most of her sculptures are large in size they are never intrusive, indeed they are meant to integrate with the space in which they are set like silent spectators. Giovanna has participated in various solo and collective shows throughout Italy, most recently in “The Naturalists”, curated by Peter Miller in the summer of 2013 and “Stanze MozArt” in December 2013, which was another exciting installation project curated by Bruno Corà, international art critic and Director of the contemporary art magazine MOZART.
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Energia
In his well-known essay published in Domus in March 1928, Giò Ponti advised architects and interior decorators not to underestimate the importance of light when furnishing houses. In particular he suggested using diffused lighting from different sources, to avoid the flatness and monotony of central illumination: lighting that can design and reveal a new and more modern concept of the living space, abandoning the method of a single perspective in favour of diverse and simultaneous focal points. His concept has never been bettered, and indeed has since returned many times in the history of Italian design. Indeed, Giovanna Lysy has certainly studied with interest Italian design. She is, however, not a designer. Her method is more in the artistic line, veering towards the aesthetic. Her vocation concentrates on the creation of unique sculptures, each representing an original interpretation of the play between light and matter. The care she spends on the choice of materials, experimenting and connecting, and her faith in sheer manual labour, combine together with such innocence and disillusion that a poetic field is born, in which a new and vital work comes to light, inspired by the surrounding world with its diverse and inexhaustible river of signs, continuously retrieved and interpreted according to a personal and au-tonomous creed that brings everything together.Giovanna Lysy’s personal history can help us understand the reasons that lie behind such an unusual and independent choice of expression. She was born in an exclusive and cosmopolitan cultural milieu that must be taken into consideration if we are to fully understand her artistic development and its inherent message.
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Radici
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Marie Miramont
Untitled
“Marie Miramont, is an artist who skilled in her use of black and white always searches for strokes. She is an energetic and generous artist who loves playing with the unconscious. Her painting is a modern calligraphy and it reveals many emotions. She reinterprets the tradition of writing and controls space by creating deep, vibrant and elegant strokes.”
Galerie BDMC - Paris
Marie Miramont was born in Toulouse in 1956. She began her working life as a physiotherapist but was forced to stop due to failing eyesight. As a result, she became very interested in calligraphy, she studied at the Kitty Sabatier Atelier in Toulouse and she is now an expert in black and white calligraphy. Indeed, her great ability to use tools and inks allows her to create unique and powerful contemporary works of art. Marie won the Artist of UNESCO prize in 2011 and has participated in various collective and solo exhibitions in both Italy, France and Spain. Furthermore, Marie Miramont has recently become member of the OpenArtCode group.
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www.mariemiramont.fr
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
“Marie throws ink on the canvas so that the stain plays with the unconscious and its spontaneity becomes equilibrium.”
Michel Picard
“She gives free rein to the imagination by breaking with traditional forms. The stylised lines and sober colours of the calligraphy vibrate in inspired harmony. A work of abstraction that in the strokes is brave and bold.”
Galerie Le Scribe l’Harmattan – Paris
Sara Palleria
Nebulosa
The painter Sara Palleria was born in Rome, where she lives and works. She received her degree in Education Sciences and still works in this research field in parallel to her artistic career, with particular reference to the world of colour linked to the psychology of emotions. She collaborates with various institutions in the visual arts sector and runs education courses on images and colour laboratories. She is one of the founding members of the artistic and cultural association “ARS arteromasedici”. Her large-scale oils on canvas stagger the viewer for their intrinsic beauty, use of colour and nuances of texture and energy. She loves to paint all that “the eye thinks it sees”.
In her artistic statement, Sara explains, The crossing of colour, alternating between heaven and earth, between light and dark ... the expression of colours and materials ... all that seems to be... and instead becomes something else, where colours and the earth slip away and cling to uncertain boundaries in the nature of the underlying human journey.
Over the last ten years her abstract expressionism has become more complete, the space of the canvas refers to inner journeys that the artist has taken drawing out a timeless reality that is vividly concrete. In the use of light and colour she suggests a hint of a background and foreground, yet it is undecipherable with its uncertain boundaries of nature and imagination.
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www.sarapalleria.com
SaudadesOltremare
The messages in my work are always of a spiritual and psychological nature and the attempt to convey to the viewer these same feelings cannot always be interpreted in the same way that I imprinted them on the canvas. I fully realise that every observer has psychological connotations and abilities to see and hear in a totally individual way and which would of course be different from those of the author-artist; so I don’t think it’s indispensable for those who are looking at a painting of mine to interpret it, it’s not necessary for me as each eye sees what it wants to see in this type of painting. The viewer has to enter the painting, live it and “understand” if he wants to adhere to his way of “feeling”. It’s just a question of emotions, an exchange between those who produce it and those who can enjoy it.
I think it is very important to get to know other artists, the different ways of approaching the visual arts and sharing these experiences in painting. It is a fundamental collective dimension that any artist can enter into to find a new very personal artistic path thanks to the discovery of and the direct comparison with, other ways other than their own, to create art.
“The expressionism of colours and materials, remind us that nothing is peaceful in nature and it unleashes forces with which man is to be measured. Especially in the case of this artist, who lives in constant research, in constant tension. These works by Sara Palleria, as indeed for most of contemporary art, are not a point of final destination, but rather a fundamental choice to work with more changes, ideas and projects.”
Alberto Toni
Marco Aurelio Rey
Brisa
Marco Aurélio Rey was born and lives in São Paulo, Brazil. He started painting with oils when he was a child and in the 1980's he specialised in Industrial Design and Visual Communications. At this stage of his life, he stopped painting to work full-time in the fashion world. In the 1990’s, he began to paint again using gouache on paper and his most recent series Ar livre shows the relationship between memories and emotions. This latest style reminds one clearly of Gerhard Richter's works and they are proud and elegant eulogies to nature and its intrinsic beauty. The artist has participated in various art fairs in Brazil, Belgium, Italy, France and Spain where, in 2011, after three collective exhibitions, Marco Aurélio had a solo show at the Aragon Gallery in Barcelona. In 2010 and 2011, he participated in the group show in Art en Capital at the Grand Palais in Paris and has most recently had an important solo exhibition in Brazil. In 2012, he joined the OpenArtCode group.
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www.marcorey.com.br
Espe
ranç
a
Név
oa
Liga
dos
Simples Assim IISimples Assim I
In my art I would like to make people think about good things and feel positive vibrations and emotions. You can see the good energy in my art but with daily life and routine you can lose this; it is important to memorize constructive aspects of life and optimistic feelings and this can be through my art. All artistic expressions are based on what happens in the world;
if there are problems or moments of happiness artists interpret this in their art. Now artists like to show the new age and new influences are ecology and of course the economy. In fact I am inspired by ecology and the sustainability of nature; I wish people would take care of it rather than destroy it!
Kensuke Shimizu
Are you going somewhere?
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Photo: Danish Saroee
www4.ocn.ne.jp/~kensuke/sub1.html
Kensuke Shimizu was born in 1974 in Tokyo, Japan and currently lives in Turku, Finland, having previously also lived in London and Minnesota. It is in Finland where great opportunities started opening up for him and that he has begun to exhibit more and more. In addition to being an artist, Kensuke Shimizu is a researcher in European Ethnology at the University of Turku. Kensuke Shimizu gets inspirations or ideas for his art from many different situations. Sometimes when he walks around a town, travels to new places or when he visits museums, where he tries to imagine how the paintings were made, this gives him ideas. Or it could be just from watching TV or old movies; he draws hats as he likes to recreate the atmosphere of old movies. Kensuke also often draws ballerinas and this idea first came from his experiences of seeing a beautiful photo in a ballet magazine. He is continually looking for new ideas and inspirations that can come from completely different sources. Indeed, words and humour play an important part in his creative art works, where visual art and writing intersect each other to become one. His mixed media works may include human characters sometimes ballet dancers or musicians, that appear as part of a story in a dream-like atmosphere.
One can see a clear influence of Basquiat and his use of graffiti but without the violence of the American artist’s works; indeed Kensuke’s colourful works, on the contrary, are full of humour and gentle and fun sequences with their characteristic annotations. Bicycles may be seen as a nature-friendly ecological vehicle, expressing the relationship between human beings and the natural environment and shoes and shoelaces in his art, are a recurring symbol of communication.
In addition to paintings, Kensuke Shimizu writes poems and stories, he has written three books, all of which have been published. Kensuke has participated in European exhibitions (Italy, France, Finland, Spain, Austria and so on) and also in Japan, China, Turkey and USA. He has had solo shows in Helsinki, Turku, Tallinn, Tokyo, Paris, and Rome. Kensuke is a member of the OpenArtCode group and has also participated in WorldArtVision Barcelona and in the WAV Party Madrid 2012.
Literature and movement in art. I like to bring literature (story-telling) into my art. I often insert words and phrases and also the human characters are like individuals appearing in some story for me and by my including bicycles, sport, ballerinas and my way of drawing human characters, together with these texts, the viewer gets an idea of movement. Life in foreign countries. I am Japanese, but in total so far, I have spent roughly 15 years of my life in places outside Japan including USA, UK and Finland. The beautiful natural environment in Finland and its colours have a good influence on my art.
Mademoiselle dreaming in her room
“The short stories by Jules Supervielle that depict dreamlike worlds and thoughts, in particular in the work, L’Enfant de la Haute Mer (short story taken from the collection L’Enfant de la Haute Mer) have influenced me a lot. I read the Japanese translation of this story in 1993 and it completely changed my views on fiction. After I had finished it, I wanted to make creative works, in which visual art and writing were combined, as if they were inside each other and continually intersecting each other.”
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Favorite cafe
Mademoiselle dancing at the theater Bon voyage
Dreaming meeting
Music has always played an important part in my life and on occasion people feel music in my art. I used to play the piano for about 20 years and so when I create my artworks, I sometimes feel music in them too.
It is as if I play music in my art. Another aspect that is important for me is humour and in both my paintings and drawings, by using lines, I create a joyful atmosphere, full of fun.
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Tiril
Solomon’s temple
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www.artbytiril.com
Allegiance
Flight
As the dialogue begins there is an internal digging, mining, a stirring of knowledge held deep within the psyche, concepts emerge from the subconscious.
Colours evolve and then a singular prompting will rise to the top into the consciousness. The canvas becomes receptive, fluid, light. All is one. I paint with absolute faith. The experience of each painting illuminates by finding the inherent knowledge instilled within, daring and challenging me to express with an authenticity that leaves me inside out. Vulnerable and alive. No platitudes and careful juxtapositions of strokes, but a raw, vital energy. A visceral realization of available potential.
The external experience serves as the catalyst for the internal striving to comprehend the connectedness of all on an energetic level. Is it not the quest of the human journey to balance the life of matter to the life of spirit. The ego to the true self. The experience of the painting is the microcosm of this eternal struggle. Facing the tension between illusion and truth.
Tiril Benton was born in London in 1955 and lives in Alabama in the US. She began to draw when she was very young and now works with all sizes of canvas, papers and boards using oils, acrylics, watercolours and gouache, as well as pencil, soft pastels, pen and ink.
Tiril has had solo and collective shows in the USA, France and Italy. Her works belong to private collections in numerous countries, she is member of OpenArtCode group and is currently represented by Art Fusion Galleries, Miami.
Max Werner
Max Werner was born in Ghent, Belgium and he studied at the Slade School of Art in London. He taught printmaking in the UK, has worked in the Art House Gallery in Buenos Aires, Argentina and currently resides in the USA.Often triggered by a simple observation of his immediate environment such as landscapes, Max Werner seems to love the challenge of an unusual composition, and the capturing of the diversity of light in the various places he travels to. Perhaps to get a deeper understanding of his work, it helps to know that Magritte is one of Werner’s favourite artists. Werner generally paints in his studio a few weeks after having seen his subject matter, using sketches and photos, but never relying on recorded reality. The end result is an image which evokes a mood, and which conveys what the artist felt at the time, rather than a faithful representation of the place described. This in turn invites the viewer to reflect on what it expresses.
My work has been variously described as realist, figurative, descriptive and narrative. Sometimes even as having a touch of surrealism. I don’t think it can be limited to just one of those adjectives, and yet each one of them has an element of truth in it. The fact of the matter is that I seem to use a range of different ideas, which don’t seem connected with each other at first. This sometimes creates a problem for the viewer, as often artists are categorised and presented to the public with a “label”. I am not a landscapist, a surrealist, or a realist etc… yet perhaps, I am all those things at the same time.
It is difficult to understate the popularity of Tintin, or Herge its creator, in Belgium in the 1950 and 60s. The adventures of Tintin certainly had a strong presence in my childhood world, and never really left me. The amazing thing about those stories, is that you can enjoy them first as a child and then later as an adult. But it is when I was at art school that I discovered yet another element of Herge’s talent. I had always admired his drawings of course, but I came to understand better why it was so good. The composition of each image is often a picture in itself, the use of light and dark, the “clair obscurs” often used in the night scenes. It is especially those type of images which started influencing a lot my own work. This is how I came with the idea of a series of fifteen etchings entitled “Hommage a Herge”. I selected fifteen stories, and decided to try and condensate the whole book in one image, relying a lot on my childhood memories as to how I felt about the story. Ten box sets were edited in conjunction with the Gallerie 2016 in Brussels, each etching being numbered from 1 /10,in the first set, 2/10 in the second etc… The Herge Foundation owns the first set.
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The little red man
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Looking for a trail
The connection between the images I create, is the approach to the composition, the way I treat the light, the emphasis on the unusual, the angle, the humour sometimes… Each image tells a story, and as such perhaps deserves the term descriptive or narrative. The landscapes for instance are not always an exact representation, as I might add elements to it which were seen only later on. Usually, they are painted in my studio, weeks later, after having spent a lot of time sketching it, and photographing it, often on the move (sometimes on the back of a horse as in Wyoming), so that I am totally immersed in it, and that way it is stills fresh in my memory when I actually start the painting. As in the landscapes, the other categories of images are also based on observation.
An idea starts in my head, I follow it up by going sketching in public places, like museums, libraries, cafes, etc… which in turn feed my imagination, and steers me in a direction I had not always anticipated. It is a part of the work I really enjoy, as it is a bit like going on an adventure, not knowing what’s at the end. The final result of all this, is an image which I hope conveys what I felt at the time, suggests a story, and invites the viewer to reflect, smile, and basically enjoy him or herself watching my work…
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Peny Manavi
Sharina Gumbs
Erru
ption
Conq
ueri
ng
Arr
ival
Sedu
ction
Out
of c
ontr
ol
War
rior
I
Peny Manavi was born in in Sofía, Bulgaria 1968 and now lives and works in Athens. In 1992 she completed a degree in Physics at the University of Athens and in 1994 an MSc degree in Radiation Physics at University College, London. Between 1996 and 2000 she worked as a Medical Physicist in KAT Hospital and the Onasseion Cardiosurgery Center. In 1999, Peny began to study at the Athens School of Fine Arts under Professor Y. Psychopaidis and from where she graduated with distinction in 2004. As the artist herself says, Nature for me constitutes a source of inspiration, a stimulus and an object of admiration with its diversity, its wealth and beauty, its oddities and mysteries. The dream element and the factor of imagination transform the realism of the representation process. In my artwork a balance between realism and abstraction can be found. One can recognize the motifs and themes, however, subject and space are often unified, as are light and colour, as one defines the other.
Sharina Gumbs, also known as Peepsqueek, was born in Aruba. She immigrated to the Netherlands at the age of seven and grew up in what always seemed like a foreign country to her and where she felt like a visitor. She always longed to return home. Her father had remained in Aruba with his wife and family and it would take thirteen more years before she saw him again. Growing up without a father made her into a thinker and a wonderer and she has always explored the meaning of love, family, identity and relationships. Unable to express her emotions in spoken words as a child, she found an escape in drawing and writing. Her main purpose as an artist is to see and show people as they are, from the heart but without judgement. She searches for a universal language through art, a language which is able to unite people.Sharina’s interest in the human character led to her study behavioural science and to her initial profession as a social worker. It was not until her early forties that she allowed herself to unleash the artist within and as a result, her abstract art is a very dynamic and intuitive reflection on her own being.
[email protected] 40 41
Solveig M. Skogseide
Maria GiannikouPr
esen
ces
La P
edre
ra
Wom
an p
ortr
ait
Har
dang
er
Kong
sber
g
Gon
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hing
Minor events of daily life are the source of inspiration for the Norwegian artist, Solveig M. Skogseide, to capture emotions and feelings on the canvas. Hence, human relationships are often a theme that she investigates in her work. Symbols such as the Circle of Life, the Tree of Life and the beauty of hope for the future, belonging and love, come across in her canvases. The larger concepts and events of the world also have an impact – in particular, symbols related to caring for the planet are often present. She grew up in a very creative family, where music was of great importance. The result is that she often thinks of creating a painting in the same way as composing music. The artist uses structure and several layered stencils, which she creates from her own photographs or drawings. She constantly works with harmony and contrast to find the right balance in the painting – this is the source of the sense of calm that so many viewers find in her work. Solveig exhibits her work regularly on a worldwide basis.
Born in Mytilene, Lesbos, Greece, Maria Giannikou studied painting at the Thessaloniki School of Fine Arts in Aristotle University, Thessaloniki from 1993 to 1998 in the painting studio of A. Theophylaktopoulos. In 1998 she began to study engraving at the Athens School of Fine Arts under the supervision of G. Milios. Her work is characterised as a meeting point between the abstract and figurative with a strong use of colour, which uses perspective to create depth and emotions. Between 1996 and 2014, she has participated in over thirty group exhibitions and solo shows in Greece and abroad. Among her recent exhibitions, she has also participated in Art en Capital held at the Grand Palais in Paris, France in 2013. Her artworks can be admired in both public and private collections.
CHIANTI STAR FESTIVALThe second edition of the Chianti Star Festival will take place in the historic building,
Palazzo Malaspina in San Donato in Poggio, Tuscany from 13th June to 20th July 2014.
The union of art and science, the dissemination of scientific culture and the promotion of
the Chianti area are the main aims of this event.
www.chiantistarfestival.com
II edition
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