ARTCOVER ISSUE
2
2017
Best of ART Fairs Issue
Andy Warhol
Art Basel Miami
Must-See
MUSEUM Exhibitions
US 5.99
COVERING SUPERLATIVE ART NADALEENA MIRAT BRETTMANN PUBLICATION
ARTTISTIKA Museum of Contemporary Art + Photography
ARTTISTIKA.com
Current Exhibition Dale Threlkeld
ARTCOVER Issue 2, 2017
Publisher & Editor
Nadaleena Mirat Brettmann Art Director
Ron Lucarelli Editor at Large
Bryan S. Smith Senior Editor
Arlene Kuljis Advertising artcovermagazine@mail.com
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Titled: Joyful Chaos Mixed Media on Canvas Dimensions: 84 x 84 inches Artist: Will Day
49 Geary Street, Suite 200 San Francisco, CA 94108 415.986.4799 info@mgart.com
EDITOR’S NOTE
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magine being surrounded by superlative and creative minds on a daily basis. I've been fortunate enough to have such a privilege and have around me the most talented and inventive artists.
These amazing individuals bring inspiration to us all! Some like Andy Warhol have passed, yet, will never be forgotten, whose work will live among us for ages! 2017 will be a great year and I look forward to bringing you more world-class and unparalleled talent, giving these artists more visibility while introducing them to a stronger collector base. In this issue I feature some of the most promising artists who have proven to create the kind of memorable art that will continue to be in demand and will be a sure bet for any collector.
Nadaleena with her favorite artist her son Brody Kaja Brettmann
Here's to you -- the reader, the collector, the artist! Thank you for picking up this copy of ARTCOVER as it inspires me to further COVER the best of ART through amazing art fairs, matchless museums and incomparable creative artists! All my best,
Nadaleena President/Publisher Editor in Chief
Tuscany Now booking all inclusive tours for 2017 with the famous Innocenti family of Arcidosso, Italy, at Casa Innocenti. Prices start at $2,200 per person. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to enjoy the Tuscan traditions of food, wine and hospitality. Federica
Carlo Innocenti
Romeo
Pascale
Freed'Amour Travel is pleased to invite you to experience Tuscany at Casa Innocenti in the municipality of Grosseto, hosted by Italian Master Chef Carlo Innocenti and his son Romeo. You will be immersed in a culturally rich vacation, experiencing cooking demonstrations of Tuscan dishes from centuries-old recipes, tasting the extraordinary wines of the region and visiting southern Tuscany cities, towns and villages, off the beaten tourist path, that radiate their ancient splendor of visual wonder. Airfare not included in advertised pricing. Available dates: April 16 - July 22 and Sept. 3 - Nov. 11, 2017.
Casa Innocenti 7-Day Tour Day One (Sunday): Meet in Rome and transfer to Casa Innocenti. Day Two: Siena. Day Three: Montalcino (wine country); Pienza. Day Four: The Etruscan villages: Pitigliano, Sorano, Sovana. Day Five: The small towns of Monte Amiata. Day Six: Castiglione della Pescaia: This old fishing village stands up high on a hill with its castle looking over the turquoise bay. Day Seven (Saturday): Depart for Rome and your flight home. Daily itineray details of all tours are available by contacting Freed'Amour Travel.
www.freedamourtravel.com | 877.512.6007
Deluxe Wine 7-Day Tour • Six nights in the medieval villa of Casa Innocenti. • All meals as indicated in the itinerary. • 15 wine tastings as indicated in the itinerary. • Daily guided excursions to the enchanting towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino (home of the Vino Nobile and Brunello wines); Scansano (known for Morellino wine); Siena city and the hills of Siena (where you will visit the Chianti wine region) and the delightful seaside villages of Monte Argentario (white wines and Prosecco tasting).
Contributors
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Ron Lucarelli
ajoring in Fine Art in college, Ron decided to find a more immediate source of income and plunged into the design, publishing and advertising world. From the beginning of his career he worked in advertising agencies promoting several regional and national clients. From there he began his own design agency, Lucarelli, Ltd., creating branding, advertising and collateral for high-tech and medical companies, Universities and non-profits. Merging with a publication agency, he created the branding and design for several lifestyle and financial magazines. Ron’s worked on the corporate side of the desk, as well, designing retail direct marketing and art directing photography for Lands’ End for 5 years, and then as Creative Services Manager at National Public Radio developing branding and business-to-business marketing for their Satellite Division. Upon his arrival in the Los Angeles area, Ron worked as a freelance consultant immersing himself in the entertainment world working on sets and marketing design for independent movies and for Disney, Warner and Universal on a project basis. His publishing work continued with Hollywood magazines, art galleries and online marketing and design work for home furnishings companies, direct mail, 200+ page catalogs, cookbooks and Nadaleena’s coffee table book of her art. He continues to happily work with Nadaleena as the art director for this cutting edge ARTCOVER magazine.
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Arlene Kuljis
rlene Aly Kuljis divides her boho-chic lifestyle between New York City and her Mother’s hometown of Split, Croatia. Her passion for the Arts began in high school at Convent of the Sacred Heart in NYC, and was further honed when she attended Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her passion for ArT took a special turn when she spent her Junior year abroad in Toulouse, France where the study of ArT & Architecture captivated her. Upon graduating with a B.A. however, she followed her Mother’s practical advice & attended New York Law School. After several years as a General Litigation Attorney, Arlene followed her artistic bent & worked for a Fashion Designer in the Garment District. While working there she was ‘discovered’ by Mrs. Veronica Atkins, now widow of celebrity diet guru to the stars, Dr. Robert C. Atkins. It did not take long for Mrs. Atkins to be totally intrigued by Arlene’s vibrant personality, law degree and creative mind & create a job uniquely for her at the Atkins Medical Center. It was here, at the then cutting-edge Center, that Arlene’s legal education & creative side merged. Working alongside Dr. Atkins & running his practice was fast paced; assisting Atkins’ patients with medical reimbursement for alternative medical treatments & lobbying for good causes was personally gratifying. In the midst of this high paced & ‘work hard play hard’ attitude, Dr. Atkins sadly & suddenly passed away & Arlene was propelled to turn her effervescent energy towards the vibrant NYC real estate market. At present, Arlene, as a single Mom to her 14 year-old Daughter Olivia (who resides with her Grandparents on the Adriatic Coast) is constantly motivated to combine the BEST of both Worlds. Her real estate dealings in NYC, as well as her real estate business ventures with her Mom back in Croatia, keep her very busy indeed ..... & inspired. “I live the rhythm of NYC but my soul is always breathing in the charm that is Croatia ..... “
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Bryan S.Smith
ryan S. Smith has worked in the commercial airline/travel/ tourism industry for 30 years. He began his freelance writing career as executive editor for magazines published by US Airways, United Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Allegiant Airways and the San Francisco Tour Guide Guild. He has also published a portfolio of articles highlighting every aspect of the arts and the people who create them for a number of luxury magazines. Some of his favorite stories include published articles featuring photographer William Coupon, an American photographer, known principally for his formal painterly backdrop portraits of tribal people, politicians and celebrities, Dean Torrence, co-founder, co-lead singer, and co-writer of the hit surf duo, Jan & Dean and most notably Edgar Tafel, an American architect, best known as a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright. His exposure to the national arts has been an enriching experience having lived and worked throughout the United States in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Denver, Pittsburgh and Phoenix. He believes that seeing things is what opens our mind and stimulates our senses to not only explore the world around us but to appreciate the ‘art’ of it all.
Stephanie Grilli
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Stephen Wayda
tephen Wayda is an internationally published photographer best known for his demonstrative images of celebrities and women. In the creation of entertaining and compelling images he is widely regarded as a master in the use of composition and light, both natural and artificial. After 40 years, as an editorial and commercial photographer and photojournalist, he is expanding into the world of Fine Art as a means to realize his additional Creative depth. Stephen Wayda is represented by Kavachnina Contemporary Miami and Gallery M, Denver, CO.
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contributor to Nadaleena Mirat Brettmann: Abstract 2013, art historian Stephanie Grilli has a PhD in art history from Yale University and is known as a scholar for her research on the 19th-century Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Now she is a freelance writer and curator who focuses on contemporary art (artscribe.net), and her current project is Color on Another Plane for Fresco Books. Identifying a noteworthy trend, Grilli has gathered a collection of 21st-century colorists who use paint to achieve luminescence, radiance, and transparency for expressive purpose. In 2012, she co-curated Taos Contemporary with Cecily Cullen at the Center for Visual Art, Metropolitan State University of Denver: this exhibition of 56 artists updated the fabled art colony to show that it is an outpost in touch with contemporary currents but with its own creative center-of-gravity.
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SALUSTIANO
46 NW 36th Street Miami, FL 33127 | Wynwood Art District / Midtown Tel: (786) 708-2476 | Cell: (786) 355-4394 info@kavachnina.com | gala@kavachnina.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
PORTFOLIOS
Denver Art Museum.............................................. 10
Ethel Gittlin.......................................................... 50
Metropolitan Museum of Art.................................. 11
Franco Lacosta .................................................... 52
Los Angeles County Museum of Art....................... 12
Barnett Suskind.................................................... 54
Aspen Art Museum................................................ 13
Nina Bell.............................................................. 56
The Boca Museum of Art....................................... 14
Brian Comber....................................................... 58
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art:.................. 15
Luci Geller............................................................ 59
Clyfford Still Museum........................................... 16
Mimi Chen Ting..................................................... 60
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston........................ 17 MoMA Museum...................................................... 18
THINGS WE LOVE............................................ 63
Denver Museum of Contemporary Art.................... 19
THE STRONGEST US ART FAIRS FEATURES
ArtAspen............................................................... 64
Andy Warhol.......................................................... 20
Miami Project Art Faire......................................... 66
Sarah Myers ......................................................... 24
CONTEXT Art Miami............................................... 68
Will Day................................................................ 28
Art Basel Miami.................................................... 70
Shawn Benton...................................................... 32
Art Market San Francisco...................................... 72
Darrell Anderson................................................... 36
ART Hamptons ..................................................... 74
Leo Rostohar......................................................... 40 Michael Gadlin..................................................... 44 Bill Gian............................................................... 48
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e x h i b i t i o n s M u s e u m
D e n v e r
A r t
M u s e u m
Mi Tierra:
Contemporary Artists Explore Place February 19, 2017 – October 22, 2017
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i Tierra: Contemporary Artists Explore Place will feature site-specific installations by 13 Latino artists that express experiences of contemporary life in the American West. Energizing and vibrant artwork will be presented by Carmen Argote (Los Angeles), Jaime Carrejo (Denver), Gabriel Dawe (Dallas), Claudio Dicochea (San Antonio), Daniela Edburg (San Miguel de Allende), Justin Favela (Las Vegas), Ana Teresa Fernández (San Francisco), Ramiro Gomez (West Hollywood), John Jota Leaños (San Francisco), Dmitri Obergfell (Denver), Ruben Ochoa (Los Angeles), Daisy Quezada (Santa Fe), and Xochi Solis (Austin). These artists examine diverse narratives of migration and the complex layering of cultures throughout the Western United States through ideas related to labor, nostalgia, memory, visibility, and displacement. Installations will incorporate mixed-media, performance-based video art, digital animation, fiber constructions, painting, sculpture, and ceramics. To foster creativity and provide insight into the artistic process, the on-site development of the installations will be visible to the public beginning in December 2016, with scheduled opportunities for visitors to engage with artists. The exhibition will open February 19, 2017, and will be on view through October 22 of that year. Mi Tierra: Contemporary Artists Explore Place is organized by the Denver Art Museum, and is curated by Rebecca Hart, Polly and Mark Addison Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the DAM. An exhibition catalog will be available in The Shops and online.
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Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven At The Met Fifth Avenue SEPTEMBER 26 / 2016–JANUARY 8 / 2017
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eginning around the year 1000, Jerusalem attained unprecedented significance as a location, destination, and symbol to people of diverse faiths from Iceland to India. Multiple competitive and complementary religious traditions, fueled by an almost universal preoccupation with the city, gave rise to one of the most creative periods in its history. This landmark exhibition demonstrates the key role that the Holy City played in shaping the art of the period from 1000 to 1400. In these centuries, Jerusalem was home to more cultures, religions, and languages than ever before. Through times of peace as well as war, Jerusalem remained a constant source of inspiration that resulted in art of great beauty and fascinating complexity. This exhibition is the first to unravel the various cultural traditions and aesthetic strands that enriched and enlivened the medieval city. It features some 200 works of art from 60 lenders worldwide. More than four dozen key loans come from Jerusalem’s diverse religious communities, some of which have never before shared their treasures outside their walls.
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Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Senses of Time: Video and Film-Based Works of Africa Hammer Building, Level 3 December 20, 2015–January 2, 2017
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ur hearts beat to the rhythms of biological time and continents drift in geological time, while we set our watches to the precision of Naval time. Time may be easy to measure, but it is challenging to understand. Five leading contemporary artists of Africa explore temporal strategies to convey how time is experienced—and produced—by the body. Bodies climb, dance, and dissolve in six works of video and film, or “time-based” art. Characters and the actions they depict repeat, resist, and reverse any expectation that time must move relentlessly forward. Senses of Time invites viewers to consider tensions between personal and political time, ritual and technological time, bodily and mechanical time. Through pacing, sequencing, looping, layering, and mirroring, diverse perceptions of time are both embodied and expressed. Yinka Shonibare’s European ballroom dancers in sumptuous African-print cloth gowns dramatize the absurdities of political violence as history repeats itself, while Sammy Baloji envisions choreographies of memory and forgetting in the haunted ruins of postcolonial deindustrialization. Berni Searle addresses genealogical time as ancestral family portraits are tossed by the winds and waves of generational loss, as well as the slippages and fragility of time and identity. Moataz Nasr’s work treads on personal identities distorted by the march of time, and Theo Eshetu draws us into a captivating kaleidoscopic space in which past, present, and future converge.
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A s p e n
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Gary Hume: Front of Snowman Aspen Oct 14, 2016-May 21, 2017
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tanding upwards of ten feet tall, British artist Gary Hume’s larger-than-life sculpture of a snowman, Front of Snowman, is installed outdoors on the AAM Commons throughout three seasons (fall, winter, and spring). Hume’s snowman—a recurrent and iconic subject in the artist’s work—straddles the line between representation and abstraction. In this playful, humorous exploration of form and color, the artist has rendered a temporary, ephemeral childhood shape into material permanence. AAM exhibitions are made possible by the Marx Exhibition Fund. General exhibition support is provided by the Toby Devan Lewis Visiting Artist Fund. Gary Hume’s Front of Snowman is funded in part by the AAM National Council..
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MEDITERRANEA: American Art From The Graham D. Williford Collection Boca Raton JAN. 31-JUL. 2, 2017
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merican tourism before the Civil War usually followed that of the European Grand Tour, focusing on the important cultural centers of France, Italy and Germany. But by the late 19th century, Americans were showing increased interest in points further abroad, including Spain, the Middle East, and North Africa. This exhibition explores the rich diversity of the Mediterranean region through the work of late 19th and early twentieth-century American artists, who capture the diversity and distinctiveness of its flora, the legacy of the Greco-Roman past, and the influence of Christianity and Islam.
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Evolving Visions of Land and Landscape Boulder September 29 – January 15, 2017
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rtists have always been seduced by landscape. Across the world, we witness its influence since early mark making. With Boulder attracting so many who identify with the outdoors, it’s not surprising that many artists working here also turn their focus to the land. Evolving Visions of Land and Landscape explores works by twenty-six artists who live or have lived in Boulder from the mid-1800s to the present. Through literal, realistic, abstract, and metaphorical interpretations, they offer different ways of seeing and experiencing the land in media as diverse as their messages. While many set their sights on local environs, some look beyond to other parts of the state or other regions of the globe, and a few to landscapes of the imagination. Time, place, and culture inspire artistic creation, and for artists who have lived in Boulder, the American West has offered rich source material. The evolving visions in this exhibition range from observational recording to romantic idealization of new frontiers, awe at the magnificence of nature, and concerns for the threat imposed on the landscape in the face of human habitation, industrialization, and dwindling natural resources. Acting as arbiters of taste and architects of change, these artists show us diverse ecological and sociological terrain, considering borders isolated and eradicated, personal and conceptual. In this exhibition we see the landscape as it was, as it is, and as it could be, reverent and cautionary for what it will become if we do not take these visions to heart.
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e x h i b i t i o n s M u s e u m
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Clyfford Still: The Works on Paper City and County of Denver Oct 14, 2016–Jan 15, 2017
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lyfford Still: The Works on Paper is the first exhibition ever devoted exclusively to Still’s graphic art. This exhibition of some 260 works and related programs reveal the centrality of drawing within Still’s life-long creative process and challenge prevailing assumptions about Still’s place in art history. More broadly, this project offers a unique opportunity for the public to view a vital, missing element in our understanding of abstract expressionism and a key period in America’s cultural history. Guests to The Works on Paper can visit the DRAWING Room, a hands-on gallery that features drawing activities, artist demonstrations, and a community-created art installation located centrally within the exhibition. With very few exceptions, paintings will not be on view in the Museum during this exhibition. Researchers seeking access to paintings should contact collections@clyffordstillmuseum.org. The sheer volume (more than 2,300) and variety of Still’s works on paper attest to the significant role draftsmanship played in his art, particularly when compared to his abstract expressionist contemporaries. Still explored graphite, charcoal, pastel, crayon, pen and ink, oil paint, gouache, and tempera, as well as lithography, etching, woodcut, and silkscreen. The exhibition explicates the interplay between his drawings and paintings. In some cases, paintings grew directly out of sketches or more finished drawings. In others, the opposite was true, underscoring that his works on paper were not preparatory steps but fully realized pieces in themselves. The artist felt a strong, private connection to his works on paper. In a 1978 letter to the art collector and gallerist Sidney Janis, Still described his pastels as “a visual diary of a personal world.”
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Degas: A New Vision
October 16, 2016 — January 16, 2017
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egas: A New Vision offers the most significant international survey in nearly 30 years of the work of Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (1834–1917). The reputation of this celebrated French artist has often focused on his ballet imagery, and yet Degas’s rich, complex, and abundant oeuvre spans the entire second half of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th. The MFAH is the only U.S. venue for this exhibition, which assembles some 200 works from public and private collections around the world. Degas: A New Vision showcases the continuity of the artist’s abiding interests across painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, and sculpture from the beginning to the end of his career. Not since the landmark international retrospective Degas in 1988 has the artist’s career been fully assessed. That exhibition led to a revival of interest in Degas, with dozens of shows focusing on individual subjects of his work—the bathers, the dancers, the jockeys, the portraits—or his influence on other artists. Degas: A New Vision benefits from that scholarship, puts Degas back together again, and offers an opportunity to see the artist anew. The MFAH developed Degas: A New Vision with the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, site of the show’s June 2016 world premiere. The Houston installation features most of the works presented at the NGV, as well as some 60 additional loans exclusive to the MFAH, including major works such as Dancers, Pink and Green from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and preparatory drawings reunited with the iconic paintings that evolved from them..
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Kai Althoff: and then leave me to the common swifts (und dann überlasst mich den Mauerseglern) Through January 22, 2017
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Within an environment envisioned by the artist upon seeing the gallery allotted to him, he arranges work stemming from his early youth to the very present, in a manner of a child being handed toys, new and old: some are cherished and idolized, some are semi-precious in rank, some are abandoned and neglected in slumber of increasing hate generating towards them. Some are loved to the utmost, so much he’d want to hold onto them until the very last moment before death, and beyond.” “The work being treated as such will be comprised of fragments of former larger scale environments, drawings, paintings, objects found and fabricated. In ‘and then leave me to the common swifts’, nothing is an attempt of recreating the original composition of when these works were displayed each for its first time. Instead the artist gives in to whatever his innate forces originating in his emotions command him to do upon the encounter with this work, his very own, for the most part. The result is further also constrained by time or its lack, and the pressure created by complex sociological processes, which sometimes leads the artist to surrender to a fatalism otherwise strongly fought.”
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Kim Dickey: Words Are Leaves Denver October 7, 2016 – January 22, 2017
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CA Denver presents the first major survey of work by Boulder, Colorado-based artist Kim Dickey. Kim Dickey: Words Are Leaves, opening at MCA Denver October 7th, showcases the ceramic works for which Dickey is best known, as well as work in other media, ranging from textile to photography. The exhibition highlights the artist’s ongoing study of pattern and decoration, as well as her investigation of landscape design and the history of the garden; more than 60 works from the past 30 years demonstrate how Dickey brings the decorative to life. Kim Dickey: Words Are Leaves represents the breadth of Dickey’s practice, beginning with early works that are shaped by or redefine daily experience, and including more recent works that reexamine decoration. Later works manifest an idealized or alternative environment. In exploring pattern and landscape, Dickey has spent much of her career creating foliate objects and immersive installations. These works, installed together for the first time in MCA’s presentation, exemplify how the decorative can become an object, and how an object can become an environment.
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The Andy Warhol Museum Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
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he Andy Warhol Museum is the global keeper of Andy Warhol’s legacy. The collection includes 900 paintings; approximately 100 sculptures; nearly 2,000 works on paper; more than 1,000 published and unique prints; and 4,000 photographs. The collection also features wallpaper and books by Warhol, covering the entire range of his work from all periods, and includes student work from the 1940s, 1950s drawings, commercial illustrations and sketchbooks; 1960s Pop paintings of consumer products (Campbell’s Soup Cans), celebrities (Liz, Jackie, Marilyn, Elvis), Disasters and Electric Chairs; portrait paintings (Mao), Skull paintings and the abstract Oxidations from the 1970s; and works from the 1980s such as The Last Supper, Raphael I-6.99 and collaborative paintings made
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with younger artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente. Drawings by Warhol’s mother Julia Warhola are also included in the art collection. The archives consist mainly of Warhol’s papers and other materials from his estate. This includes source materials for his art (such as photographs, newspapers and magazines); a portion of his personal collection of thousands of collectibles, books, and ephemera; 610 Time Capsules (a work of art assembled from archival materials from the artist’s daily life); a nearly complete run of Interview magazine; more than 3,000 audiotapes; and clothing, scripts, diaries, and correspondence. These materials are available for research in the Archives Study Center by appointment only. The film & video collection includes 60 feature films,
200 of Warhol’s Screen Tests, and more than 4,000 videos. Exhibition prints of all Warhol films and videos are added to the collection as they are preserved. The Andy Warhol Museum is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, and a collaborative project between the Carnegie Institute, the Dia Art Foundation, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The Warhol was designed by architect Richard Gluckman and features seven floors of gallery and exhibition space. The Andy Warhol Museum 117 Sandusky Street, Pittsburg, PA 15212 (412) 237-8300 information@warhol.org
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To call The Warhol “stimulating” would be an understatement.
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Natures Silent Heroes A conversation with artist Sarah Myers By Bryan S. Smith
The installation photos above are from Sarah’s last show, “Nature & Decay” in June 2016. The building on 1100 Niagara St. was an old barley factory that took a year, 20 people and over 1000 man hours to fix up for the show. The boulder installation required five 3-4 ton boulders and sand laid down as a path underneath the boulders. The paintings in the exhibit; “the trees” are 6’ to 10’ tall tempura and oil.
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Photography by David Moog / Courtesy Burchfield Penney
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ight years ago Sarah Myers was shown 1100 Niagara Street in Buffalo by a friend. Upon seeing the interior, Myers immediately thought it would make a profound space to exhibit art. Years later after painting a series of large tree paintings, Myers had a vision of her paintings accompanied by large boulders within the 1100 Niagara Street space. The building had the perfect architecture and unique history to showcase the work. Myers then tracked down the current owner of the Curtis Malting | Agway Warehouse, Giles Kavanagh. She presented Kavanagh with her vision. He was hesitant due to the
dire state of the building; years of neglect had taken its toll. Despite this, Kavanagh granted conditional permission. He stressed that the show “has to go off well.” With that permission, Myers wasted no time in beginning the process of making her vision a reality. She gathered a group of volunteers to assist her with cleaning out all the debris within the reclaimed space. Dumpster after dumpster were filled. Over the course of a year, and countless hours, Myers’ vision has become a reality. On June 9, 2016, Sarah Myers premiered a new series of large-scale 8'x10' tree paintings on the walls of the 123-year-old Agway Building. Eight paintings were installed along
with five, four-ton boulders in the center of the space. Trees have been the focus of the creative efforts of Sarah Myers for a number of years. Hours upon hours have been spent depicting these silent heroes onto large canvases, and their expansiveness demanded a unique space. The installation focuses on nature and its ephemeral qualities, and through them, depict the human condition – isolated within its form and continuously changing through time. Trying to capture something’s true identity can never be fulfilled because perception and time cannot allow it. We only see parts of what exists. Next page
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I enjoyed the opportunity to conduct a Q&A session with Myers about her life as an artist. Explain the figurative and literal meaning of your work. Nature is a strong focus. Landscapes are seen in their physical form, but also seen through a lens of multiple possibilities. The life force or energy of life that maintains itself within a composition, and the idea that nothing can ever be seen unchanged, is an evolving source of life and inspiration. Humans are always changing and therefore we can never fully see what exists, only what we have evolved to see in the present moment. Are you as an artist habitually expected to be surprising? Explain. The driving force behind the creative process comes from a desire to explore the unknown. While the element of surprise may be important in captivating an audience, I use the unknown to explore creativity and to express life.
Birch Tree. 112" x 81" in. Oil and tempera on canvas. 2015
Do you exaggerate or imitate your past work? Do you return to forms of your own
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invention—juggling them into new patterns, or are you shifting to fresher, warmer, more palatable colors, more graceful forms? Explain. Creation is energy. It changes and shifts and recreates itself in many forms. Ideas develop and intermingle with new ideas as well as with past forms, all part of the creative process. When returning to a past technique, the evolution of how my experience changes is always intriguing because I have changed and my thinking has developed into something new, just as anyone’s would over time. Explain the significance of color and light in contemporary art? Color itself is used as a language. It sets a tone, an intention, and a basis of where the imagination is engaged. Light and color go hand and hand. Color has and always will be used in this way. Color, along with light is also used to define environment or space. It is interesting to view these principles when considering them through a symbolic lens. One begins to realize that many factors such as tone, tint, shadow and exposure take shape in many conceptual forms.
Explain your shifts of style, sudden radical innovations and transmutations of form. The shifts in style may represent themselves as radical but it is purely a representation of what needs to be addressed at that particular time. This is rooted in the concept of perception and the portrayal of change. My work consists of the exploration of concepts during various life spans through a particular series. Ideas flow into my brain and I execute them. Either all of the ideas are executed or the technique lives its life and then it is put to rest for however long it wants to lay dormant. Has Eclecticism become obvious in contemporary art? Explain your view. (Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles or ideas). This millennium has reached a period of openness within present culture that pulls from many preexisting concepts replacing originality with artificiality, ultimately diluting authenticity.
Does life make sense to you? As an artist, does being an artist define your life or is it a lifestyle? In other words, who is Sarah Myers when she puts the paint brush down for the day?
Bio: Sarah Myers studied at Rhode Island School of Design, after which she studied at Pratt Institute (Brooklyn) and Angels Art Academy (Florence). She has exhibited her work throughout the region and her pieces are in the permanent collections at the Michelangelo Museum (Italy), The Albright Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo) and private collections. You can find her on the web at: www.sarahmyers.work
Sarah and Michael by Bryan Smith
Do you do what any good artist does—comment on life as he sees it, feels it and lives it? How is that expressed in your work? Art is used to process perceptions of life. Living amongst nature is an inspiration apparent in my work. The abstract allows the imagination to formulate the incompleteness of reality.
Growing as a human being is what is most important. Navigating through life in this creative fashion is what appeals to me most. There is no separation between the paintbrush and me. I paint my life and other lives too. I create art because I love to, because I can’t not create art, because I want to become better and better. I will always strive to be transformative.
The old barley factory
Do you ever paint in a state of enjoyable melancholy? Does it infuse creativity? There is the least resistance to being productive while working in a positive state of mind. In many instances, the expelling of intense energy and or emotion, whether positive or negative, on a large scale is responsible for creative excellence.
What lights your fuse of creative explosion? Creating artwork is motivated by the desire to interpret a higher energy that exists based on millions of microscopic atoms. These atoms vibrate at various frequencies giving off an energy or life force. My work is strongly influenced by this phenomenon. Becoming familiar with my creative process is a very significant aspect of selfawareness. Exploring the human condition through perception is what fuels my creativity. A specific technique helps me execute my desired ideas. For example, in the trees series, I used mark making, similar to Impasto to draw out the complexity or intricacy of the object. Texture is important to me. When making abstract paintings I use drips, small marks, dense strokes, washes and variations of transparency to define a texture and composition.
Basswood Tree. 100" x 75" in. Oil and tempera on canvas. 2015
When and where are you most creative? Do you construct your ideas at leisure over an unlimited period of contemplation and analysis? For me creativity is most prevalent when it exists within stages of development. Over time the creative process is refined by layering itself upon ideas, creating a much more intentional basis for creativity.
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A
bstraction is not usually the means by which artists tell a story, but Will Day approaches his canvases and wood panels as an opportunity to bring forth a story in the moment and not as a sequence of events. Many of his paintings have been commissioned, and for each he tries to connect to and relay the inner narrative of his patron. This has generated a body of work characterized by individual instances rather than series work with permutations of one concept or theme. Yet there is continuity to be found in his process of building a painting and experimenting with tools and techniques of applying his oils and acrylics. After the trauma of 9/11 in which his wife
survived the collapse of the World Trade Towers, he left a career in finance and studied architecture, which turned out to be a way station to his turn to painting. His architectural impulse carried over in the expressive actions of manipulating his implements, often those associated with construction — the cheaper the tools the better. With various surfaces serving as a field of operations, Day creates textures, layers, and effects layers, discovering relationships and using resulting edges to create structure. Working on multiple paintings at the same time in his Boulder, Colorado studio, he reaches for an emotional power based in grand design that yet defies limits, which he believes he attains through
grace. A reader of Joseph Campbell, he, in essence, enters each work as a path through the unknown to a self-overcoming experience. Considering himself a doer, it is the act of painting that drives each painting to where it wants to be. Day starts with a lone mark. Then he struggles with and relents to the viscous material accepting and resisting, using color as some sort of otherworldly force that aligns with or bursts out of the emerging configuration. As a youth, he was a spirited athlete and player of many sports, and so his natural inclination is expression through physicality, but now it is the means by which he seeks a higher power to tell a soul’s tale.
Will Day Written by Stephanie Grilli
SHADOW DANCE acrylic on canvas 48" X 60" 2016
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MORNING GLORY oil on canvas 48" X 60" 2016
Clash 50 oil, spray paint, acrylic on canvas 72" X 72" 2016 White Mist oil on canvas 36" X 36" 2016
"...he reaches for an emotional power based in grand design that yet defies limits....”
PINK HEARTS oil on canvas 60" X 60" 2016
PINK SUGAR oil on canvas 72" X 72" 2015
BLISS oil on canvas 48” X 60” 2015
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"...Day creates textures, layers, and effects layers, discovering relationships....�
HEARTS acrylic on panel 36" X 48" 2015
JOYFUL CHAOS acrylic on canvas 72" X 72" 2015
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AT PEACE oil on canvas 64" X 34" 2016
THE DANCE acrylic on canvas 30" X 40" 2016
OPEN SKIES oil on canvas 60" X 72" 2016
“Artist Trading Card 17 of 25” Acrylic on paper 30 in. x 22 in. “Artist Trading Card 1 of 25” Acrylic, mixed media on paper 30 in. x 22 in. “Artist Rookie Card 8 of 25” Acrylic, mixed media on paper 30 in. x 22 in.
Shawn Benton
S
hawn Benton, born in 1981, is a contemporary artist who paints using acrylic, mixed media and collage on canvas, plus paper and shower curtains. He is a self-taught artist from Oregon, but now resides and creates in Aspen, Colorado. His paintings depict current worldly issues as an alternative to what you may hear on mainstream news; it is his way to share with others the directions and trends that he sees will happen soon, unless we wake up. He believes we are living through a very important time in history where we are exiting out of an old paradigm and entering into a new paradigm. This shift in consciousness is what he portrays through his art. As the current system crumbles away, such as the banking system, fiat currencies and politics, to name a few, we will then be able to co-create a better way and create a world where humanity will thrive. When we are healthy and the energy of the chakras flow, we are in balance, connected, and our inner compass will lead us through life. The universe is calling Shawn right now to paint and get this message out. He is driven, focused and very passionate about his art. Truth, nature, and freedom are a few of the things that inspire him as an artist. The Artist Trading Card Series is designed after Michael Jordan’s 19861987 Rookie Card. Shawn replaced the basketball players with his favorite artists and expressed his own original take of their work. He eventually would like art collectors to trade them as you would a sports trading card. You can view more works at www.shawnbenton.com.
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“$200 Trillion Supernova of Debt Waiting to Explode” (Shower Curtain Series) Acrylic, Glitter on 75%Cotton/25%Polyester Shower Curtain 72 in. x 72 in.
“Release All Illusion Within Yourself” (Shower Curtain Series) Acrylic, Glitter, Crushed Weed, Piss, Mandala Sand By Tibetan Monks, Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue Cologne on 75%Cotton/25%Polyester Shower Curtain 72 in. x 72 in.
“All We are Saying is Give Peace a Chance” (My monopoly board series) Acrylic, oil stick, collage on canvas 50 in. x 50 in.
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“We Are All One” 50in x 50in Acrylic, Oil Stick, Collage and Mixed Media on Canvas
“The Difference Between Devotion and Addiction” 30in x 24in Acrylic, Oil Stick, Fabric on Burberry Bag
“Celestial Realm” 27in x 24in Acrylic and Fabric on Brunello Cucinelli Bag
“All Lives Matter” 50in x 50in Acrylic, Oil Stick, Collage and Mixed Media on Canvas
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“Lighting Up The Dark 6 of 10” 60in x 48in Acrylic, Mixed Media, Framed Canvas on Canvas
“SOS” 60in x 22in Acrylic and Oil Stick on Wood
“A Hollow Muscular Organ That Pumps Blood” 60in x 48in Acrylic, Oil Stick, Fabric and Mixed Media on Canvas
“Fuck It” 11in x 9in Acrylic, Collage on Paper
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Darrell Anderson Written by Stephanie Grilli
D
arrell Anderson knew he had to paint a portrait of Nelson Mandela. Over the decades, the artist had already depicted distinguished and accomplished Afro-Americans, stemming from his personal admiration for who they were as individuals and for what they represented. In the South African leader, the artist found “a small reminder that we can make our world a better place to live.” Adept at capturing outward aspect, character, and spirit, he still felt somewhat humbled by the task, making endless sketches until he felt ready to take on the responsibility. Somehow Anderson always finds the beauty and nobility in the world. Maybe that’s because he sets his sights on that which is uplifting, knowing that art has had a redemp-
Nelson
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O i l 4 ' X 5'
tive power in his own life. Choosing not to be the lone artist, he pays it forward by serving his community through his creativity and endeavors in which art brings people together. For his easel paintings and public art installations, Anderson may find inspiration in diverse subjects, but all his work stems from an underlying humanism. It is not surprising to learn that his two favorite artworks are Rembrandt’s Night Watch and Van Gogh’s Potato Eaters — each merging the monumental with everyday existence in a way that reveals a universal human truth. His guiding light may be the artist Jacob Lawrence, who said that humanism “is to be human, to think, to analyze, and to probe. To respond and to be stimulated by all living things…To respond through touch, sight,
smell, and sound to all things in nature - both organic and inorganic-to colors, shapes, and textures…” When Anderson steps into abstract territory, it flows from his empathic attunement. Undulating lines and vivid colors suggest sound, movement, and energy, an expression of the artist’s joy and an invitation to the viewer to feel more alive. This is clearly evident in Anderson’s Imagine, an interactive mural outside the U.S. Customs Building in Denver, Colorado. Drawing upon the building’s history and the people who work there, he designed a multimedia, multi-sensory experience, indicating his “sole purpose was to stimulate people’s imagination.” Is it not imagination that allows us to envision that better world?
French H or n s C olor P e n c i l 2 0 " X 20 "
Re a d T h e F o l l o wi n g Ch a rc o a l 4 0 " X 6 4 "
Movem en t C olor P en c i l 2 2 " X 28 " Imagine
Jo u rn e y Oi l 4 ' X 5 '
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Re ad Th e Followin g C h a rc o a l 40 X 6 4
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L o o k Ch a rcoal 40X56
Imagine 149’ X 10’
Ye s S h e I s
Oil
20x 20
A Sl i gh t M om en t O il 18 X 2 4
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W
hen one looks at a painting by Leo Rostohar, it may seem as if it is looking back. One of his favorite motifs is the eye, which may appear as part of a face or as a repeated element of his fanciful abstractions. The Croatian artist starts with a simple lozenge shape and sets the round iris and pupil, providing telling details from cursory to articulated. Our ready recognition is part instinctual and part due to drawing convention that most learned as children. Rostohar’s eyes generate a visual riff in which the form metamorphoses or resounds throughout. The twin curves and circle become part of the artist’s vocabulary with which he engages in sophisticated play with representation and spatial relationships of shifting planes and volumes, using hue and tonality to ever more clever effect. It’s as if it is the cusp of what the physical eye sees and what the mind’s eye can make of it. The human eye has long held symbolic and sacred meaning, representing an awakened consciousness, omniscience, or as the entrance to the soul. Rostohar
characterizes eyes are “the most precious human instrument,” while also suggesting that they embody his own spiritual seeking. He calls upon the “eye that dispels the darkness” – that which protects against the “evil eye” in the battle between light and darkness – and his energetic painting style and luscious use of paint and shadowless color encourage the viewer to be open-eyed. Also diminishing the dark is Rostohar’s visual light-heartedness. A potted plant produces leaves and also sprouts a pointing hand reminiscent of Michelangelo’s God in The Creation of Adam. Prominently displayed is a foot bottom with an extra-large big toe, a carnivalesque gesture in which the rude or lowly is elevated. Elsewhere, a muscular nude with a featureless “egg” head rides a braying donkey. Perhaps the pairing speaks to Croatia’s dual heritage in ancient Rome and folk tradition or to the sight of modern-day vacationers sunbathing with donkeys on Adriatic islands. Certainly, it is an apt caricature of the heroic and the asinine, the noble and the absurd, which is ever the human comedy.
“Life” Oil on canvas 40x50cm 2015
Leo Rostohar “Spark” Oil on canvas 50x70cm 2015
“Fear” Oil on canvas 24x30cm 2015
written by Stephanie Grilli
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“Contemplation” Oil on canvas 100x70cm 2015
“Daydream” Oil on canvas 90x73cm 2016
“Heat” Oil on canvas 70x50cm 2015
“Eden” Oil on canvas 90x73cm 2015
“Vase” Oil on canvas 50x65 cm 2012
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“Bird 2” Oil on canvas 81x60 cm 2015
“The first tear” Oil on canvas 61x51cm 2014
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“Fate” Oil on canvas 73x90 cm 2016
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Forgiven
Michael Gadlin
M
ichael Gadlin’s work epitomizes avant-garde on a large scale. His most recent paintings are about dark brooding charcoal images in varied gray and black tones that seem to embody the depth of the human spirit as well as shadows of the past. It is as if one can almost experience a sublimely ethereal resurrection within oneself as one stands in front of ‘Hope’. The overriding artistic angle of this Artist’s work -- that “direct Expressionism is the most meaningful reflection of Life” -- is an approach that reflects a transformative body of work that is refreshingly cogent and sophisticated, and intrinsically soul searching. No surprise then that Michael’s work has been exhibited only in very select galleries, museums & institutions worldwide. He has been commissioned by the government, Fortune 100 companies and private collectors and has been exuberantly heralded in the press. Though born and raised out West in Denver, Colorado, Gadlin also studied in NYC at the renowned Pratt Institute and has succeeded in penetrating the European art world,
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Written by Arlene Kuljis
most recently in France. As subjective as art may be, Gadlin’s abstract paintings of human figures lead the human mind to universally experience a deep empathy for the intricately complex layers of the human spirit. Paintings such as ‘Embrace’ embody a submission of the human soul to the hopeful notions of both faith and fate. Interestingly, because his human figures are somewhat age and gender-neutral, his work transcends and can be interpreted by all, just like an accepting embrace by the Artist of his audience. Interestingly, although Gadlin’s work touches on the past, he is also motivated to capture the spirit of the present moment & the raw reality of actual events. The two brooding portraits of refugees (Forgiven and Hope…) reflect contemporary art in its most pure form -- the juxtaposition of human vulnerability against the indomitable human spirit in the face of present-day challenges. Michael Gadlin’s art has a palpable fervor of provocation. There is an almost tribal quality in the feelings that are conjured up.
Applying paint with fingers or chopsticks, and at times scribbling on the canvas with a ballpoint pen, all add a unique dimension and texture to the paintings. Most fascinating is the fact that Michael also uses charcoal that he finds in nature, in the Colorado mountains -- i.e., direct remnants from forest fires. These elements themselves, just like the human mind that is viewing the paintings, find a re-birth/new beginning by association. This commingling of natural charcoal and synthetic materials is what makes his work especially unique... the natural charcoal gives him a tool to draw within and over the existing color, making raw marks and deeper layers and overall adding a captivating texture to the paintings. Yet, there is structure to the madness. And just like the work of a graphic designer whose imagination gets the best of him, Michael Gadlin gets the best of us and makes us question the situation at hand and yearn for deeper meanings -- in essence, this is definitely an Artist to watch out for!!!
Brave 48" x 50.5" Acrylic, Ink and charcoal [mixed-media] on wood
Union And Embrace Mixed Media 96" x 144"
Hope Mixed Media 74" x 67"
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UNTITLED (Girl + String) Mixed Media 24" x 36"
In Search of Hope 72" x 62 1/2" Acrylic, House Paint, Ink, China-marker and Charcoal on canvas
Balance 66" x 71 3/4" Acrylic, House Paint, Ink, China-marker and Charcoal on Linen
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Reconciliation of Venus De Milo 72” x 62 1/2” Acrylic, House Paint, Ink, China-marker and Charcoal on Linen Queen Refugee 66" x 71 3/4" Acrylic, House Paint, Ink, China-marker and Charcoal on Linen
New Refugee 66" x 71 3/4" Acrylic, House Paint, Ink, China-marker and Charcoal on Linen
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L
ucid associations among a painting’s fundamentals can lead a viewer to discover deeper meanings of an artist’s life. I first met Bill Gian at an art event in the early 1980s in his New York City loft. The Tribeca space was packed. Gian was showing a new series of vibrant, explosive paintings. He was also creating a garment design series for the Guggenheim Museum. I finally left the affair at 3 a.m. I’ll never forget the vivid paintings, live music and array of fascinating people. I have been following Gian’s work ever since and recently caught up with him at his San Francisco Bay area studio to observe his newest body of work. Gian’s newest series, Fractitudes, is astonishing for its economy and directness—an eloquent simplicity of movement within a mysterious allegory of abstraction. Fractuous
elements on his canvases spring about and burst into a calm tension of energy. Gian continues to express pictures that are about something while still being about what’s going on in the painting. For Gian, creating art conveys the whole gratifying solitude of being an artist. There is a constant force between shapes and color. Consumed with making art, Gian’s expressionistic style has been widely accepted and collected nationally and internationally. Each new series of work results in extraordinary ambitions of intuitive interactions. Taking time to process Fractitudes, one senses elements of persuasive buoyancy from Sam Francis, Philip Guston, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Adolf Gottlieb and Grace Hartigan. Gian pulls knots of intense, rapturous color out of a flat white background. There is a sense of lyric calm
Bill Gian Fractitudes Myth Beasts 36" x 36" Acrylic Enamel On Canvas 2016
By Bryan Smith
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that supports scowling enmity. Fractitudes presents seething, ceaseless movement and limitless depths representing a frozen instability of opposing forces. In Seldon Rodman’s book “Conversations with Artists”, Adolf Gottlieb is quoted as follows: “We are going to have perhaps a thousand years of nonrepresentational painting. Abstraction is not a limitation but a liberation.” Gian has the ability to interplay and transform his art indefinitely. Fractitudes presents vivid immediacy in expressionistic ferocity. These are paintings in a tug-of-war of wicked straighforwardness.
Gian at his California studio.
Fractitudes 30" x 40" Acrylic Enamel On Canvas 2016
Gordian Knot 16" X 16" Acrylic Enamel On Canvas 2016
ARTCOVER 49 Kairos 24" X 24" Acrylic Enamel On Canvas 2016
P O R T F O L I O
Ethel Gittlin D. Dominick Lombardi
Tell Me Oil/Spraypaint o n c a n v a s , 4 4 ” x 6 0 ” , 2 0 1 6
E
thel Gittlin’s latest series of paintings have an intriguing awareness of the physical world and an intense feeling of curiosity. Her works speak to our contemporary time and state of being with waves of color, form and movement that come to us amplified by such references as graffiti, music, nature, social behavior and a want for peace and tranquility. The narratives are mysterious, but with enough familiarity to keep us engaged and searching. We feel anticipation, we sense the promise of enlightenment, we want for resolution but we know
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Ar t w or k Phot o C r edi t : Pet er J acobs, Fi ne Ar t s I m agi ng Por t r ai t Phot o C r edi t : I nf i ni t y Phot ogr aphy C opy r i ght © 2016 by Et hel G i t t l i n & Wal t er W i cki ser G al l ery, I nc . Al l R i ght s R eser ved
it is on us to find our way to the other side. However, her art is not about some alternate state or parallel universe, no. These works are more about us as human filters, about how we take things in through our five senses, and most importantly, how this artist projects her cognitive state and her spiritual realm. "In The Story Continues" (2016) we have a bit of an edge, a few anxious moments prompted by suspicious serrated forms that dart across the painted surface – one punctuated by three flower petals, two of which appear to be skull-like eye holes. Yet overall,
there is a quiet calm enhanced by veils of blues and pinks while leaf-like shapes secure the milder emotions. There is also the addition of text, perhaps part of the tale the artist is referring to in the title, represented by a fuzzy memory or incomplete thought that we can analyze and project off of to our own end. "Surge" (2016) has a much different tenor. Here, the artist observes from above a place that is afire with emotions and assertions that can only be calmed by an edge of green that too has its own fiery perimeter. Are we looking at devastation or passion,
Weekender
Surge
Oil/Spraypaint on canvas, 42" x 46", 2016
Oil/Spraypaint on canvas, 48" x 60", 2015 - 2016
is this a commentary on climate change or a reference to political or social change – only the artist knows for sure. "Bubblegum and Wine" (2016) has a complexity and an approach that is quite like Jazz. There are passages and rhythms that are free-formed, yet connected within a common intent. There is a conversation going on between elements that is quietly conducted by a spiritual guide to the left (a white vertical haze), while factions of blues, greens, pinks and yellow coalesce to keep it both hot and cool.
Bubblegum and Wine Oil/Spraypaint on canvas, 42" x 46", 2016
Dreamworld Oil/Spraypaint on canvas, 60" x 48", 2016
"Weekender" (2016) portrays an optimistic, even up-lifting mind-set that suggests many buoyant scenarios. There is a certain playful approach to the elements – and like "The Story Continues", text returns to the fore. Here, the approach to relating form to color and to composition is quite different from the other works. In this instance we sense no danger, there are no anxious moments, no conflicting passages or aspects that cannot find their place without overpowering a neighbor or overplaying a hand. "Dreamworld" (2016) and Tell Me (2016) have
text as well. With "Dreamworld" we feel joy. There is this presence of peace, of living in the moment and smelling the roses. There is cool air to breathe and soft sun to warm – a perfect state of nature undisturbed and true. In "Tell Me", we have a similar circumstance that is about to change by the intrusion of nightfall – as spirits arise and the sounds of the night pass through an atmosphere of lessening light. Now, the level of calm switches to caution as the imagination replaces the lost certainties Gittlin leads us to a new puzzle to explore.
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P O R T F O L I O
T
his collection of images was inspired by the idea of layered consciousness as an entrance into the world of dreams. Each piece came into existence by digitally collaging photographs taken at various, at times most random, occasions. The subtlety of changing light, the blending of tones and shades and an ephemeral atmosphere were captured, with a mindset similar to that of impressionist painters. Textures were also created through painting, mixed media techniques and creating compositions out of found objects, photographed abstractly. Through its vivid colors and varied depth of perspective, the abstract subject matter achieves a surreal quality, inviting the viewer to embark onto a personal journey and interpret each piece as they see it. Inspired by travels and the inner world, by foreign places as well as familiar ones, the art aims to create a similar transcendental experience, encouraging the viewer to see beyond the shapes and discover a realm where vision, time and space fuse into an encounter with our own spiritual and reflective selves.
spring affair (8.5) 2016-05-19 22-25-22
color mist A 2016-07-21 11-03-59
Franco Lacosta 52 ARTCOVER
arlquin 1 (30x40) 2016-05-19 21-42-40
ganesh 2 A (30x40) 2016-06-24 15-39-49 aurora borealis 3(17x22)_2016-07-05 00-24-08
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P O R T F O L I O
The Innocent Barnett Suskind
T
he group of Narrative Paintings entitled “The Innocent” series is a manifestation of this artist’s response to the emotional damage wrought by the perpetual and recurring events of horrific violence that are continually occurring throughout the world. The bomb that explodes and kills many reverberates for generations in the psyche of the survivors. The impact of this violence, regardless if perpetrated by terrorists or citizens with weapons, does not differentiate in the psyche of the victims. These individuals are scarred for life, changed for life and carry these psychic injuries within them. Their emotional wounds influence how they relate to their children, family, friends and life. These wounds can generate and amplify further hate and hostility perpetuating that violence of which they themselves have been the initial victims. Whether it is the Aleppo or Columbine – whether it is Paris or Newtown – Orlando or Istanbul all of these events exemplify a callous regard for precious life – inflicting horrific lasting physical destruction and emotional pain, to the innocent – the babies, the children, the families. We have been numbed to these events – by the sheer number of them–their constant repetition – amplified by our immersion in media which serves to highlight these events bereft of emotional content. These paintings represent one artists attempt to provide an antidote to the emotional Novocain we have become accustomed to.
Mourning Prayer 72 x 60 acrylic on canvas
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“We have been numbed to these events – by the sheer number of them...” The Sorrow That Follows 36 x 48 acrylic on canvas
Death of the Innocent 36 x 48 acrylic on canvas
Just Another Evening 48 x 36 acrylic on canvas
Just Another Day 60 x 72 acrylic on canvas
Paris November 13, 2016 48 x 72 acrylic on canvas
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P O R T F O L I O
A
Nina Bell
“The City” - Oil on canvas 100x100 cm/39'x39'
“Consciousness” - Oil on Canvas 90x99 cm/35.4' x 35.4'
rtcover Magazine is excited to introduce a special artist in this issue. Nina Bell is based in New York and Los Angeles and was born and raised in the picturesque city of Zagreb, Croatia where she was exposed to the city’s lively artistic scene from a very early age. Her mother, Zorica Turkalj, a well-known Croatian artist, contributed tremendously to broadening Nina’s horizons and introducing her to different forms of artistic expression. Ms. Bell is equally versed in oil, acrylic and watercolor. Her art work is melodic and presents romantically lyrical self-portraits or expressionistic works set in contemporary settings ranging from captivating hyper-urban cities to calming sea-side landscapes… with brush stroke ease, she creates a very fine balance between opposites. Nina succeeds in provoking otherwise dormant feelings. Her work is intriguing as it manages to be simultaneously lyrical and erotic, hedonistic and sensual. Whether it be showing her uniquely bold and brave abstracts, swirling dancing couples, or pensively anonymous figures and seductive nudes, she manages to magically pull us in as if she were letting us in on a secret to her intimate seductive world. By doing so, we are made to feel involved as well... an interactive experience that touches upon our senses. For any and all inquiries relating to Ms. Bell’s artwork please contact Arlene Kuljis @ 917.767.1150.
“Simply, Love” - Oil on Canvas 100 x 100 cm/39'x39'
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“Bell’s NY”- Oil on Canvas 90x90 cm/35.5' x 35.5'
“You and I”- Aquarelle and ink 50 x 40cm/19.6' x 15.5'
“Lovers’ Road” - Mixed Media: oil, acrylic and tempera on canvas 90 x 90cm/35.5' x 35.5'
“Her Mornings” - Aquarelle and ink 65 x 55 cm/25.6' x 21.6'
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P O R T F O L I O
B
rian Combers’ collection of etchings reveals the passions and struggles of our conscience perceptions and the subconscious of our dreams. Inspired by ideas that explore the organic and uninhibited emotions that emerge when the basic human condition is tested. Combers’
deeply vibrant etchings are layered with intense feelings that portray an ardent humanity fixed on ascending above the everyday. There is a great complexity to Combers’ prints which incorporate many techniques. These include collage paper overlays and striking touches of color to the mostly sepia
and black images. Also, the technique of using two plates, one printed on top of the other, adds dimension to the imagery.
THE DEVIL - two plate etching, 32" x 48"
TOWER OF VIRTUE - etching with collage, 9" x 12"
PIETA - two plate etching, 22" x 30"
FAUVEL - etching with collage, 22" x 30"
THAT PLACE OF AMUSEMENT - etching with collage, 4' x 6'
Brian Comber 58 ARTCOVER
B
razilian visual artist Luci Geller finds inspiration in elements of nature and design. Born in Sao Paulo, Luci’s childhood in a farm , provided the background for her persistent curiosity and observation of her surroundings. Adulthood in the city brought the necessary contrast of
I Can See 22" x 14 1/2"
urban geometry and artificial textures. Finding balance and harmony in these elements is an essential quality incorporated into all of her pieces. Luci studied linguistics at the Universitity of Sao Paulo, and interior design at Centro Nobel de Artes.
Almost There
Varied experience working with uphosltery, floral designing, garden landscaping and the culinary arts influenced her thought process to create eclectic works. Her sensibility for cultivating beauty propelled her discovery of voice as a visual artist.
16" x 11 1/2"
“Looking For The Other One” - 15” x 9 1/2" Mostly Blue 17” x 14 1/2"
Where Is The Player? 22" x 14 1/2"
Looking for The Other One 15" x 9 1/2"
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P O R T F O L I O
Still Is the Sea 54” X 48” acrylic on canvas 2016
Solstice 48” X 54” acrylic on canvas 2011
Mimi Chen Ting
S
tanding expectantly before a primed canvas, Mimi Chen Ting makes her first mark. She draws a line on a pristine surface with a stick of charcoal and feels the congruent responsiveness of her hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder. From this kinetic energy, Ting pushes off into a sequence of arcs, curves, geometric and biomorphic shapes, which serve as the foundation of her painting. The traces of her actions suggest such a euphoric release that it is little wonder the artist says succinctly, “I love beginnings.” Starting with that initial contact and building to more complex, ever-increasing interaction, Ting performs a painterly dance of emerging and being in the world. Having studied both art forms in tandem, Ting brings the somatic sensibility of a dancer to her painting. Since the late nineteenth century, visual artists have turned to dance and dancers as subjects, due to the expressive possibilities of the body in motion: the way in which the human figure is subsumed into a dynamic composition or formalist construction paralleled the modern artist’s daring new enterprise. Yet aside from Mondrian’s ballroom dancing, artists drew upon dance as observers, emulators, and collaborators. Rather than approximate dance, Ting’s artworks emerge from her understanding of movement, position, direction, and attitude as communication.
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Written by Stephanie Grilli
Growing up in Hong Kong, Ting studied ballet as a young girl and loved going to the Chinese opera. This flamboyant centuries-old musical theater is known for colorful symbolic costumes, masks, and makeup of performers acting out elaborate tales with intricate gestures. Within a culture that favors repetition and refinement, Ting was equally fascinated watching similarly ritualized actions of her grandmother’s foot-washing and -binding. Settling in California’s Bay Area to attend college, Ting was liberated from her restrictive upbringing; but as she studied painting and took all the dancing classes she could, she eventually found a fecund outlet in performance art anchored in traditional practices as personally experienced. Through iteration and deliberateness, she had learned to value attentiveness and restraint. In earlier work, her embodied awareness translated into stylized yet emphatically physical figures that convey states of mind or being. Distortions or exaggerations accentuate sensing, feeling, and knowing through the body, with emphasized hands and feet denoting a capacity for extension and for inhabiting space. After Ting stopped dancing, she let go of these surrogates and developed nonobjective imagery and a one-on-one relationship with her canvases. Guided by experimentation in collage-inspired monotypes, she created rhythmic
contours, cutout-like forms, and indeterminate, fluctuating spaces. In these animated configurations, color puts everything in motion, as hues and values come forth, recede, jostle, or resist. Before long, Ting was highlighting the contingent and unstable qualities within the interplay of forms. Rather than fanciful scenarios, she created patterns of curving, undulating planes and bands of color that appear to unfold in an ongoing cycle or continuous flow. In Chinese opera, nuances of movement are based on the principle of roundness in which angles and straight lines are avoided; this quality now permeates her graceful curvilinear paths and resulting shapes —not movement in space but movement as space. Enhancing the interrelational, Ting creates dynamic systems that seem to behave and organize according to the generative mechanisms of our physical universe and of living organisms, of big bangs and flocking birds. The viewer empathically feels expansion within the welcoming void well beyond the rectangular dimensions of the painting. In the late 80s, Ting established a residence in Taos, New Mexico. Having lived in high-density urban areas, this town situated between the Rio Grande Rift and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains came as a revelation, one she describes as “an out-of-body experience.” At home in the sweeping
Cornucopia 56” X 54” acrylic on canvas 2012
One Damn Good Hug 48” X 54” acrylic on canvas 2016 the other — along with the bounce to and from positive and negative space — engenders a feeling of perpetual motion or passage from one set of conditions to another. To achieve this pictorial range of motion, Ting accesses her advanced understanding of theory, but the fullness of color in her paintings exceeds any exercise in situation and correlation. Informed by her transcultural perspective, she has a captivating palette from which she devises striking combinations and arrangements, coaxing unexpected results from a frugal number of carefully prepared pigments. Ting’s astute choices come not solely from their position on the color wheel, and her inspired teaming of shades sets off the sumptuousness and vibrancy of each — as if seen for the first time. No hue plays a secondary or supportive role, which encourages the visual flux. Rather than look upon gray as neutral or drab, Ting prizes the hue for its resonance with
the entire spectrum and lets it holds its own next to maroon or crimson. Often her imagination masquerades as logic, and the viewer accepts a vibrant pink seemingly produced by yellow and mint green transecting bands. Relying on the pure sensation of color rather than association, she imparts poetic feeling into her inexhaustible compositions. The reciprocity of plotting precision and delicious arbitrariness melds measure and intuition, bringing order to our entanglement with the world.
www.mimichenting.com Po r trai t ph oto : D a na Sp a eth
landscape bathed in a piercing, ever-shifting light, she awakened to the clarity of lines and shapes within seemingly boundless vistas. Already tending toward a minimalist aesthetic, Ting increasingly distilled her compositions to be sparer and more hard-edged. Having worked with mottled backgrounds, she transitioned to unified flatness that accommodates various permutations between positive and negative space, depth and surface, in what philosopher Suzanne Langer might have called “the familiar illusive pattern of sentience.” Lithesome and tensile lines would simply skitter across the picture plane but for the artist’s considered selection of hue and value. Color is the ingredient that adds dimensional complexity and disequilibrium, as the viewer seeks coherence and harmony from the counterbalancing tonal weights and temperatures. Laying in paint, Ting changes her original design to become more mutable and open-ended. Rather than provide fixed parameters, firm contours concentrate and intensify each color and its effect. Ting adroitly determines the proportion and acrylic pigment of each component to activate a constant visual reshuffling, such that one reading supersedes the next. Chromatic interactions create the illusion of overlay and translucence, but individual color forms can also be seen as opaque, and the swing from one to
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Nadaleena Mirat Brettmann Titled: Rags to Riches Chanel Medium: Original Chanel scarf, acrylic, matte medium, charcoal, house paint, rags on canvas Dimensions: 72x60 Year: 2015
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104 Rue Faubourg St. Honore Paris 75008 France (336) 4280 2012
201 NE 46 th St., Miami, FL 33137 (786) 355-4394
Things we Love A
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F. Milijada Barada G. Judith Carlin H. Robin Schneider I. Steve Glorius J. Ralph Rieckermann K. Flora Borsi G
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rtAspen showcases an impressive collection of 250+ important contemporary and post-war art works presented by 100+ respected artists. It is presented by an elite group of 28 prominent galleries. The fair pays homage to Aspen’s well-earned reputation as an important fine art market place. By presenting this visually compelling experience, the fair’s goal is not only to establish ArtAspen as one of the cultural highlights of the Aspen summer season, but also to make it a “must see” on the calendar of globetrotting art enthusiasts in August. Last year’s fair generated 2,500+ fairgoers which brought millions of dollars in art sales. This August, the fair expects to attract over 3,000 art enthusiasts, a record turnout. The fair is pushed back 2 weeks on the calendar so as not to overlap with
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other local art charity events. ArtAspen Teams up with Leading Aspen Charities, Including: • Anderson Ranch Art Center • Support of Influential Local Groups Expected to Generate Record Attendance @ 6th Edition Many of the nation’s top art collectors, arts patrons and business leaders are in Aspen in August. As Aspen’s only fine art fair, ArtAspen offers galleries exclusive access to this semi-private, wealthy playground of the rich and famous. This summer, the fair is collaborating with several of the city’s most respected organizations to create a philanthropy-driven, accessible and well promoted fine art weekend for Aspenites.
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he fifth Miami Project represents an ambitious step forward for the world class art fair. Miami Project Edition 5 will be erected atop and within an expansive structure located in Miami Beach, just steps from the entrance of NADA Miami. The fair will be built seamlessly into the existing architecture, elegantly housing 60 exhibiting galleries. The ground floor welcome center, four floors of dedicated parking, and high speed, dedicated elevators ensure a high-touch environment for top collectors, and Miami Project’s co-location with the NADA art fair guarantees an extremely high level of visibility for both renown fairs, creating a unique, must-see experience for Miami Beach this December.
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ONTEXT Art Miami, along with the 27th edition of Art Miami, commences on November 29, 2016, with the highly anticipated Opening Night VIP Preview. The 2015 preview attracted 14,500 collectors, curators, artists, connoisseurs and designers, and the fair hosted a total of 82,500 attendees over a six-day period. This immediately reinforced the CONTEXT Art Miami fair as a proven destination and serious marketplace for top collectors to acquire important works from the leading international galleries representing emerging and mid-career cutting-edge works of art. Convenient parking is available for both fairs through the use of a four-story parking garage with 2,000 spots, located directly across the street. A network of complimentary shuttle buses will run round-trip service between Art Miami, CONTEXT Art Miami, Aqua Art Miami and Art Basel Miami Beach.
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Miami
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n our American show, 269 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa show significant work from the masters of Modern and contemporary art, as well the new generation of emerging stars. Paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, films, and editioned works of the highest quality are on display in the main exhibition hall. Ambitious large‐scale artworks, films and performances become part of the city’s outdoor landscape at nearby Collins Park and SoundScape Park. Tickets can be purchased online or at the show venue.
In our American show, 269 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa show significant work from the masters of Modern and contemporary art, as well the new generation of emerging stars. Paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, films, and editioned works of the highest quality are on display in the main exhibition hall. Ambitious large‐scale artworks, films and performances become part of the city’s outdoor landscape at nearby Collins Park and SoundScape Park. What to expect Leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa show work from the masters of Modern and contemporary art, as well as pieces by a new generation of emerging stars. Paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, films, and editioned works of the highest quality are on display in the main exhibition hall. Ambitious large‐scale artworks, film and performance become part of the landscape at nearby beaches, Collins Park and SoundScape Park.
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A R T ositioned to launch the summer season and held annually, the fair presents 60+ dealers featuring works of art on a private Lumber Lane estate in Bridgehampton – one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in
the Hamptons.
Art Hamptons concluded its 9th edition in 2016 reporting strong attendance and robust sales. With its TONY location in Bridgehampton, the Hamptons’ longest running fair demonstrated its strength as a leading modern and contemporary art fair, drawing crowds of roughly 6500 attendees throughout the run of its June dates. Strategically timed, Art Hamptons is positioned as one of the leading attractions of the summer not only for second homeowners and their guests, but for year round residents and visiting tourists. As in past years, Art Hamptons remains the first art fair of the summer season and where Hamptonites go to acquire their fine art. About the Location: A Private Estate, Lumber Lane Reserve, Bridgehampton In 2015 Art Hamptons relocated to a grander and more accessible location, a private Lumber Lane Reserve estate in Bridgehampton – one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the Hamptons. Surrounded by homes valued in the multi-millions, this awe-inspiring location is the epitome of luxury and provides an aura of excitement and exclusivity to enter. The site’s vast acreage allows for both valet and abundant self-parking options right at the fair. Facts & Figures Art Hamptons is the longest-standing art fair in the Hamptons, now entering its 10th edition
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in 2017. Opening Night Preview attracts nearly 2,000 members of the Hamptons arts community. The Fair is visited by just under 7000 collectors and attendees over four days. Continuously growing, the 9th edition featured more than 55 galleries from 11 countries including a strong presence of Cuban galleries. Art Hamptons works with nearly 50 leading museums and institutions annually as Cultural Partners, each promoting the fair to members, donors and boards. Many dealers reported increased sales activity year over year. Average price points of artworks in the $10k-50k level. About the Location The Fair will take place at a private estate, a Lumber Lane Reserve in Bridgehampton, providing an aura of luxury and excitement upon entrance and setting the tone for Fair attendees. The vast acreage allows for both valet and abundant self-parking options on-site. Other Features A new ‘open flow’ architectural design with wider aisles, better sight lines, more end-cap booths, an easy-to-navigate floor layout and higher ceilings. Hosting receptions in the VIP Lounge: partnerships with local media and cultural organizations assure a steady flow of regional thought-leaders walking the aisles. Parking: Offering fairgoers acres of valet and complimentary self-parking options. Celebrity collectors in attendance: Jon Bon Jovi, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Eric Fischl, Rudy Giuliani, Jules Feiffer, Molly Sims, Beth Ostrosky and Howard Stern, Moby, John Leguizamo, Chris Wragge.
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Nadaleena Mirat Brettmann
Titled: Hermes Rags Birkin Medium: Original Hermes Birkin, Original Hermes Scarf, Matte Medium, Rags and Acrylic on Canvas Dimensions: 36x36 Year: 2016 Artist: Nadaleena Mirat Brettmann
Wa lt er W i c k i ser G a l l ery, i n c 210 11t h Ave #30 3 , N Y, N Y 1 0 0 0 1 2 1 2 .9 4 1 .1817 www.walterwickisergallery.com wwickiser g@aol.com