18 minute read
Neoteric Abstract
My artwork takes what many people see as ordinary and showcases it as extraordinary. From a marble to a piece of string, from a reflection in a river to a flower petal, I explores ways to expose and illuminate the beauty in commonplace items. Molten Photography 25” x 35”
Eric Seplowitz ericseplowitz.com
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For me its the act of painting- the possibilities of water, paint and imagination are limitless. My surroundingswhat’s happening in the world in that moment, all influence the outcome. Working in isolation during the pandemic, my paintings are like a diary of events unfolding in the city of Chicago, the feeling of chaos and uncertainty prevails. Life at the Carnival-44” x 22”-watercolor on 90lb paper
Rowen Murphy rowenmurphy.com
L.I.P.Y. #6 (Emerald) Encaustic Mixed Media on Cradled Wood 10” x 10” x 1”
My body of work explores human life as a journey and examines our soul and emotions. This work is from the ongoing Stars and Desert project. The title L.I.P.Y . is my acronym of “L’essentiel est Invisible pour les Yeux” (What is essential is invisible to the eye) in French. I was inspired by this phrase in the book The Little Prince (by Antoine de SaintExupery) and the Bible verse 2 Corinthians 4:18. I abstractly integrate the timeless messages and contemporary computer-programming languages (codes) that correlate with the stars, desert, universe, and our lives. The work L.I.P.Y. (and there are more) is also my emotional response and factual visual statement to global climate change with a conceptual and philosophical approach. Although scientists and professionals continually research about nature, there is still something beyond human understanding. If you look closely at art and life, the marks and details may emerge. However, what is essential is sometimes invisible to the eye. My signature color is blue. Yet, I started using green occasionally as the dominant color in 2019. I make my own encaustic paints for those green shades. Emerald green comes from the Seattle nickname ‘Emerald City’ where I have lived and still create my work (in addition to Japan). The name is due to the lush, green forests of Washington State, which have been beautiful and essential for our lives. Misako Oba misakooba.com
Ocean Heat Oil on canvas 25” x 30”
My recent paintings encompass environmental and socio/political concerns. The works also reflect my interest in language, visual and information overload, and the growing digital interface that separates humans from genuine encounters with nature, and with each other.
Robin Arnold robinarnoldstudio.net
Bright II, In The Sand Photography 23” x 17”
Even though photography is a recreation of images, I find it to be a connection with my inner world, my minds eye. What I see in the natural designs of the lava sand palette that the Pacific Ocean waves are constantly shaping, is a reflection of my connection to the natural world My goal in these photographs. is to be able to articulate to others emotionally what I see and feel in and about these timeless patterns. All are unique, constantly changed by the gentle undulatin of waves. My hope is that my vision will be recognized as kindred to other visions which each of us call our own.
Nancy Breakstone nancybreakstonephotography.com
Untitled no. 7 Oil, pastel, graphite and gesso on paper 53” x 41”
Untitled no. 7 is part of a series I did for the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro, VT. The fifteen paintings became, during the time I worked on them, a place to hang my fears, hopes, confusion, and strength as I recovered from a long illness. They were done over nine months, painted almost exclusively to a beautifully haunting album by the Estonian composer Arvo Part. The album is called Alina. Over the past decade, I have been uncovering and developing my own personal symbology through my childlike abstract drawings and paintings. I call them my own hieroglyphics. Like hieroglyphics, they remain still, even to me, as strange and mysterious and fascinating as any lost language or foreign collection of symbols.
John Clarke theartofjohnclarke.com
My series Inside Outside is a meditative exploration of the idea of balance through geometric compositions. Working with formal dualities such as dark/light, unity/division, geometric/ organic, I create compositions in which they work together in purposeful ways. Similarly, our world seems to be made up of pairs of opposites- good/evil, pleasant/ painful, left/right, us/them. Although we tend to favor one and push away the other, in truth any balance or resolution within ourselves or between others involves acknowledging and working with both sides in order to reach a higher understanding. Through creating images of balance and transcendence, I hope to inspire those qualities in my viewers.
Wyatt Mitchell wyattmitchellart.com
104 Ink on paper on panel 8” x 8” x 2”
Memory Reposed Jacquard Woven 50” x 49”
In my weavings, the strong and inherent grid of the medium is used in tandem with the matrix of digital design. The mathematics involved in all aspects of the process provides a foundation of logic and order that influences design choices. A network of pattern is created in response to the grid through layering of motifs that exist both on the surface and within the structure. There is a sense of order and disorder combined with the contrast between the flat, two-dimensional plane of the woven field and the illusion of depth created by patterns of shifting scales.
Robin L. Haller robinhallerart.com
From Dxo Series, Acrylic on canvas, 11.8” diameter
While expression verifies our existence [as Heidegger pointed out,] the configuration of language determines the architecture of our thoughts. The eluded essence is like a complex skeleton of the visual tissue. Love nesting in will-power. An address to a friend-to-be or a new acquaintance, a chance visitor to the exhibition. The spawning-place of imagination flirting with recent history. A tiny surface challenging imagination. A miniature, an infinitely small format of the painting challenging concentration. Explainable, combinable, rapidly put in order, intense and communicative. Irrational symbols embedded in the surface like emblems forming mutual orchestration. A rhizome, like the essence of visual tissue; visual tissue like a rhizoid filament. The decision triggers realization in times unkind to visual art. Situational solutions for scheduled exhibitions: every man for himself - with a limited choice of materials, scarce attention of the public and meager financial help of cultural institutions. The eluded essence is lost in the causation of repetition. This way of expression and post-event action is unmatched in modern American history. Emotion colored with a degree of indefiniteness. I’m inventing a soothing balm for hurt emotions. The balm is conceived like a visual tissue, a pictorial pill for re-establishing spiritual balance. Assumed responsibility, cries of surprise: How can you exhibit, write, take photos and draw in those harsh global circumstances? The stereotypical reply leaves us speechless: This is my job: presenting a Pictorial pill for re-establishing inner balance, and much more ...
Iztok Smajs-Muni hopna.net/smajs
Richard Del Rosso richdelrosso.com
I work in traditional media as well as digital, both representational and abstract. The image at right is an untitled video composed completely inside of Adobe After Effects without the aide of outside imagery. It was inspired by the work of Carmen Herrera.
Untitled Video Work: youtube.com/watch?v=06digiel5ZI Robert Frankel RobertFrankelArt.com
I was always fascinated with the idea that colors can have an effect on our emotional, physical, and mental states. Examples of this can be found in the expressions “Seeing Red,” or “Having the Blues.” I like to use bright bold colors set against each other in a geometric structure to create positive energy and motion. It is difficult to focus on a single point in my paintings without wanting to wander.
Farbe ist Alles #1 24” x 24” x 1.5” Acrylic on canvas
Untitled Pulled acrylic lamina on aluminum 40.75” x 51”
I was originally trained as a sculptor, but have recently shifted my creative process to working two-dimensionally. I use a variety of nontraditional techniques, my paintings are achieved by layering, pulling, and cutting handmade pieces of acrylic lamina. The resulting works communicate the duality of meticulosity and unpredictability, juxtaposing ideas of intention and non-intention. I identify with non-Western artistic practices and draw inspiration from the intellectual thoughts and feelings connected to my work as an inventor. I am the co-founder of Genedics, an invention company working in the fields of telecommunications, clean energy design, holographic/3D imagery, and digital technology including object code, cloud-computing systems, and media recommendation. With my business partner, Gene Fein, we have become one of the most prolific invention duos, creating and holding over 100 patents with an additional 100 patents pending.
Edward Merritt edwardmerritt.art
Lydia Kinney lydiamkinney.com
Color makes me happy. I work with color to express this happiness. Color, light, and space have been key influences in my work. I enjoy the investigation of color relationships and illusions specific to shape, space, and form. I primarily use geometric shapes as the foundation of my work. Geometry and color are the head and the heart of what I do. I look forward to the change that occurs when color and design mingle. This change leads to revealing what may not be seen at first glance. I know a piece is finished when I feel it displays a sense of balance and unity. Four Squares 3 has many layers of oil paint applied with a round brush. Each layer of oil paint allows the preceding layer to show through creating an interesting matrix of color. I paint spaces that do not and cannot exist. My paintings are homes for tight spaces with detached floors, stars falling through skylights, and rooms just constructed enough to vacillate from images of interiors to paint for paint’s sake. I employ the freedom of these abstract spaces and their detachment from reality. My work is a reference point of discomfort and unease, an illustration of anxiety. The spaces visualize uncertainty in the search for exploring all possibilities, even
Living Room Acrylic on panel 20” x 21”
Carey Conaway careyconaway.com
the most fluid and outlandish.
Four Squares 3 Oil on wood 11” x 11”
This painting, Yellow Triangle, was shown once before in a solo show at The Empire State Plaza as a part of a collaboration with The Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, Synesthesia. It was projected behind the dancers for one of the modern dances, Continuum, in the annual spring performance. For someone who has chosen to work on an intimate scale, it was arresting to see the painting fill the large stage. Every painting is a new adventure and takes me someplace I have never been before. I find my way through each new work. I was born in a small town in North Carolina and was always looking outward. After East Carolina University and a summer at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, I completed an MFA at The University of Idaho. Travel has been a large influence and I have been a visiting artist in Barbados, Ireland, Italy and Russia. I have had artist residencies at the Millay Colony Yellow Triangle Acrylic on paper 12” x 12”
for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY, the Cill Rialaig Project, Ballinskelligs, Ireland, Emily Harvey Foundation, Venice, Italy, Milkwood International Residencies, Cesky Krumlov, South Bohemia, Czech Republic, Atelier Cres, Cres, Croatia and Obras Holland, Renkum, Netherlands. I have shown in solo and invitational exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad. My work is included in museum, university, corporate and private collections, and has been supported by a grant from Artist’s Space, NYC, several Faculty Development grants from Russell Sage College and by eleven Strategic Opportunity Stipends from New York Foundation for the Arts. After several adjunct positions in the NY Capital Region, I taught painting and drawing at Sage College of Albany. Now Professor Emerita, I am in my studio full time painting.
Willie Marlowe williemarlowe.com
Untitled Mixed media on Arches paper mounted on wood 30” x 22”
The intrinsic need to create helps me navigate a new representational form where the rectangular shape of the paintings, ready to hang, brakes into organic shapes that call to embrace our own internal nature of synapses, veins and organs. The empty spaces in the works respond to my interest in sculpture and how volumes play in the space. The shadows the work projects onto the wall modify its depth and the viewer’s perception of the whole. Those empty spaces can also be taken as an opportunity to dive into a calm abyss of exploration of self
Isabel Cotarelo icventure.wixsite.com/isabelcotarelo
Blue Line Painting Oil on canvas 24” x 48”
As an abstract artist I am exploring three simple aspects: line, color and form.
A line tells us how to follow what’s happening in a piece of work. It shows the path through the work. A line creates the form, direction, tension and articulates how the composition is run. The idea of thick and thin, rigid and playful all these make up the line.
I love to mix color. I can start with a simple red, add one small dot of blue and it becomes something else altogether. Color can change how we as humans actually feel - making color a worthy pursuit to study and master. I love that about color and will continue to play with it for as long as I can.
Form gives the painting its shape. It provides the work a sense of balance, tension and rhythm.
Lincoln Rogala lincolnrogalaarts.com
Hollow Ghosts for Those Restless Spirits Mixed media 30” x 47”
The Frozen Air Evoked the Analogical Still of Ephemeral Swarms Mixed media 20” x 32”
The Indistinct Notion of an Object Trajectory Mixed media 30” x 22” The Solar Flares for Transient Modulation Mixed media 23” x 32”
My work develops and demonstrates a hybrid/multi-layered process. Variations in scale, juxtaposition of different forms, intertwined textures and tones are applied to reflect the spatio-temporal conditions of our ever-evolving urban and ecological environments. It is created to act as the catalyst for defining speculative changes in our notions of cities, societies and cultures. In the drawings I explore a hybrid drawing/collage technique, combining both traditional media (ink, acrylic, and graphite) and digital media (algorithmic processing, scripting and image compensating with custom software). Ryota Matsumoto Studio, my design office, is based in Tokyo. My current interest gravitates around the embodiment of cultural possibilities in art, architecture, and urban topography.
El Chupacabra Watercolor 11” x 14”
The Ativan Jungle Acrylic on canvas 18” x 18” Jimmy Gockel GOCK ART facebook.com/gock.art.7
Above: Darkest Light Outpost #9, Oil and spray paint on wood, 50” x 50” Right: Darkest Light - Harbor, Oil and spray paint on wood, 36” x 24” x 1.5”
Jason Sisino JasonSisinoArt.com Instagram: @JasonSisino
I believe that my paintings come through me from another world and I am a conduit they pass through in order to live in this one. Over time, I’ve come to understand that wherever the stories come from, they are also shaped as they pass through me. I am inspired by fairy tales, myths, dreams, and stories of all kinds. My goal is not to make the most lifelike image possible, but rather to explore skewed angles and odd placements of characters within a landscape that has a personality of its own. I am especially aware of the emotional interactions between
The Wedding on Top of the World Oil on canvas 36” x 32”
everything that appears on the canvas. All of these elements come together and a painting is finished once I have created a harmony of images, colors, textures, personalities and emotions that feels like a glimpse into another world.
Abigail Lee Goldberger AbigailLeeGoldberger.com Instagram: abigail_lee_art
Fracture, Wood scraps on wood panel, 18” x 20”
Hilary Saner hilarysaner.com
Hilary Saner hilarysaner.com
Friends, Oil on Wood, 48” x 60”
3 Realitites Acrylic on canvas 66” x 66” x 2” Journey Acrylic on wood 20” x 30”
At times my paintings reference recognizable forms, but usually are deconstructed, contesting the division between memory and experience. I create personal moments, luring the viewer round in circles.
Patricia Maus patriciamausartist.com
Challenges (detail) Oil on canvas
When I understand Myself, then I can understand the Universe and the Spirit of the Universe.
Desy Kamen de-artarch.com
In The Spotlight Oil on canvas 19.6” x 23.6”
Global Meltdown
After It’s Gone Mixed Media with Hand Embroidered Illustrations ( Fire and Fat Cat) 32” x 28”
This piece was inspired by the 1% who have most all the wealth and how so many are driven only to continue to amass more wealth, no matter the consequences, giving nothing back. It’s a statement of what could happen if the appetite for more, more, more, is not controlled. We will all be left with nothing. My artistic practice strives to be a wakeup call. It is not intended to reflect doom, but rather to inspire awareness, which can lead to hope, promise, and action. Here, as in the other pieces, the subject is a bit cartoonish, the classic “fat cat” with his champagne and cigar in a lonely, parched landscape. Cause and effect. You can’t take it with you, as they say.
Robin McCarthy robinmccarthyartwork.com Instagram: robin_mccarthy
Power Driven illustrates Man’s pursuit for power, thru the control and use of Fossil Fuels. The machines produce devastating environmental changes. The work is reflective of the greed for power, and the pollution that is destroying our Earth. Power Driven 10” x 16” Archival Pigmented Print
James Wille Faust jameswillefaust.com
Rich Fedorchak rfedorchak50@gmail.com
I tend to create gently surreal mystical utopian worlds that present an alternative to the sometimes harsh realities of life in the 21st century. I think that my work may act as an antidote to the daily news of human and animal suffering, violence, racism, and global environmental disaster.
Life In The Land Of Covid 11” x 8” Collage
Denise J Howard DeniseJHowardArt.com
My response to COVID-19. The shears symbolize the many powerful tools we have, none of which work against this new menace, so our efforts to date are futile and frustrating. It’s an unflattering self-portrait because my feelings are not pretty. The backdrop is a graph of the cases. I portrayed it in black and white because the situation has drained all the color from the year.
The Angry Response Graphite on paper 11” x 14”
The Apprentice- You’re Fired Dye sublimation metal print 48” x 48”
Shannon Sadulsky sadulskyart.com
I feel art is a form of civilized conversation. Especially true during divisive times, discussing current issues often result in little compromise. With creating art comes the ability to express one’s ideas freely without judgment, later allowing the viewer their own freedom of opinion. With the expectation that we won’t all feel the same way about a piece of art, we can often have a more meaningful debate.
American Tragedy Oil on canvas 30” x 40”
Every work of art is a kind of prayer, and it is a practice. It is our eternal reaching and it always “exceeds our grasp.” I believe that love exists beyond duality and every time we create with love, we are drawn closer to our divinity. Making art, the prayer, the practice, is the way I live in the world. It is grace and it is my voice.
Deirdre Laughton deirdrelaughtonarts.com
