I began by making small still life studies on paper and, for the past two decades, these have gradually evolved, increasing in scale and complexity. I continue to work on paper because it allows for a level of detail and a range of ways of handling paint that I find hard to achieve on other surfaces. Painting is a way to explore the beauty and mystery I see in nature and to go beyond observation to a greater understanding of its structure and variety. I have been concerned with texture and color within my compositions, which I hope to achieve a strong sense of light and balance. Although I am drawn to a wide range of sources, my primary influences are in Spanish seventeenth-century painting and Asian painting. I strive to create images which acknowledge a debt to the past while communicating my sense of wonder in nature in a personal way.

Lukasiewicz was born in 1974 in Pulawy, Poland and since 1995 lives and work in Antwerp, Belgium. “My paintings are of the human form, the soft tenderness that it can transfer to the viewer; never the anger of the world but the peace and harmony that humans are capable of. I have been influenced by living in Belgium and painters of the Benelux countries and I try to show the placid side of the subject using light, the reflection of light and the shadows to emphasize the subject’s form and curves. I never use color but the subtleness of tone to achieve these effects. I try to achieve the smoothness of skin and the body so no brush strokes are visible to the viewer. I have developed this technique for painting the human body and have works in many collections.”

In his most recent paintings, Michal has started to explore how bold, “patches” of color can create a more “contemporary dynamic” to his classic, figurative works.

My work deals with themes of social class, interpersonal connections, group identity and the public/private self. I am especially interested in the ways individuals and groups attempt to construct or live up to idealized personae or experiences, and how those efforts fall short of expectations. Inspired by my own personal and family history – as well as by broader social phenomena – the paintings frequently depict their subjects at unguarded moments of vulnerability, reflection or preoccupation.

Daniel Coves, born 1985 in Spain, is the recipient of many awards and grants for his meticulous figurative paintings which capture moments suspended in time, drawing influence from cinema. He has been selected for the prestigious 2015 BP Portrait Award, “the most important prize for portraiture in the world” whose aim is to exhibit “the most outstanding and innovative new portraits from around the world.” As part of this, Daniel’s work was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London. He has also shown his work in Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and the UK.

Daniel Bilmes is a contemporary painter, working in Los Angeles. His approach is characterized by deep personal exploration, combining realism with elements of symbolism and abstraction. Through tactile textures and delicate expressions, his paintings weave together the magical and mundane. His work is at once hopeful and brooding. Realistic and symbolic. Somewhere between the vitality of the Russian circus and the gravitas of a Churchill speech.

Daniel began his art education at the age of 8 under the tutelage of his father, the respected artist and educator, Semyon Bilmes. Being immersed in art from such an early age had a profound impact on his personal growth and creativity, laying a lasting foundation of curiosity that continues to drive and inform his work today.

Nick Alm got accepted to the Florence Academy of Art in 2007 where he also became a teaching assistant. After graduation, Nick received a scholarship to join The Hudson River Fellowship to paint landscapes. A big part of 2011 was spent together with Odd Nerdrum in Norway and France before moving back to Sweden to set up a new studio.

Nick has received several international honors and awards. In May 2012 he exhibited in the Portrait Society of America show in Philadelphia where he received an “Exceptional Merit Award”. In 2013 he won the First Place Prize in ARC´s international salon, followed by a “William Bouguereau Award” in 2014.

Steinberg was born in Romania where he was to study philosophy for a year at the University of Bucharest, later enrolling at the Politecnico di Milano, studying architecture, graduating in 1940. During his years in Milan he was actively involved in the satirical magazine Bertoldo.

Steinberg left Italy after the introduction of anti-Semitic laws by the Fascist government. He spent a year in the Dominican Republic awaiting a U.S. visa; in the meantime, he submitted his cartoons to foreign publications. In 1940, he was given commissions from magazines and newspapers and sold cartoons to Harper’s Bazaar and Life. In 1942, The New Yorker magazine, having published his first cartoon in 1941, sponsored his entry into the United States– thus began Steinberg’s lifelong relationship with the publication. Through well over half a century working with The New Yorker, Steinberg created 87 covers, 33 cartoons and 71 portfolios containing 469 drawings and several hundred other works amounting to more than 1,200 drawings.

Steinberg exhibited throughout his career at art museums and galleries. In 1946, Steinberg, along with artists such as Arshile Gorky, Isamu Noguchi, and Robert Motherwell, was exhibited in the critically acclaimed “Fourteen Americans” show at MOMA, as well as in a retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1978) and a posthumous show at the Institute for Modern Art in Valencia (IVAM), Spain (2002).

     A painter, etcher, muralist, and sculptor, Gottardo Piazzoni was a highly prominent, active figure in the Northern California art world in the early 20th Century. Many of his paintings were plein-air, impressionist style California landscapes that were simple in composition and quiet in tone, reflective of his search for refuge from an increasingly mechanized society. He also created a number of paintings in the Symbolist style that expressed an ideal, dreamlike world of muted, restful colors.

He was born in Intragna, Switzerland to Swiss-Italian parents and got his early schooling in Locarno, Italy, where he was much impressed by local mural artists who decorated the churches of that city. In 1887, he emigrated to California with his mother to join his father who had established a dairy farm in Carmel Valley. He persuaded his parents to let him go to San Francisco to get art training, and from 1891 to 1893, he took art studies at the San Francisco School of Design under Arthur Mathews and Raymond Yelland, and won a Gold Medal for drawing. He became friends with fellow classmates Joseph Raphael, Xavier Martinez, Maurice Del Mue, and Granville Redmond.

He then went to Paris for three years to study at the Academie Julian with Benjamin Constant, Henri Martin, and Jean-Paul Laurens and from 1896 to 1898, studied with Jean-Leon Gerome at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In Paris, he shared studios with Douglas Tilden and Granville Raymond, with whom he would remain life-long friends in California. Returning to San Francisco, he shared a studio for ten years with his friend, sculptor Arthur Putnam (1873-1930) and was a member of numerous organizations including the Bohemian Club and the San Francisco Society of Etchers. His first major solo exhibition was in April 1905 at the Mechanics Institute Pavilion, and he made enough money to return to Europe, this time with his bride, Beatrice Del Mue (sister of Maurice Del Mue), and Arthur Putnam and his wife. The couples traveled for the next two years through Italy, France, and Switzerland.

In 1907, the Piazzoni’s returned to San Francisco to deal with his studio that had been destroyed by fire. Relocating from Sacramento Street to Presidio Avenue, he began the first of his many mural commissions that reflected his commitment to the integration of art and architecture. He also gave studio classes, conducted plein-air painting excursions, traveled extensively in California for landscape subjects, began a series of monotypes, and took on teaching responsibilities at CSFA.

Piazzoni was a teacher at the California School of Fine Art in San Francisco from 1919 to 1935, and established in that city the Piazzoni Atelier d’Art on Sacramento Street. One of his major public accomplishments was the painting of ten large murals on the grand staircase of the downtown San Francisco Public Library. Completed in 1932, five of them depicted the “sea” and five the “land”. Piazzoni died at his home in Carmel Valley, and in 1959, the California Historical Society held a retrospective of his work.

Source: “Artists in California 1786-1940” by Edan Hughes and “Plein Air Painters of California, The North” edited by Ruth Westphal.

 

Born and raised in The City Different, Robert Carr is a fourth generation Santa Fean. Carr’s parents and Grandmother encouraged him to develop his artistic abilities, whether his work involved toy modifications, puppetry, or drawing. He showed artistic talent from an early age, and he has pursued his dream to become a professional artist since childhood.

Carr studied art at the The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Kansas City Art Institute, and the College of Santa Fe. He holds a Master’s degree in Art Education from The University of New Mexico and has experience with a wide range of mediums and processes.

Carr’s animal bronzes are playful and explore the relationships and sense of spiritual connection that people form with animals. In his work, he celebrates the richness of the human-animal relationship and the distinct, mysterious nature of every creature. He loves all animals, in particular the bat and the whale shark. In addition to sculpture work, Carr is proficient with pen and ink and works from his home studio in Santa Fe.

JK Inson has been a working artist for 45 years, including work as a muralist, plein air oil painter, and a scenic artist in the film industry. He began carving stone when his wife, Cynthia Inson, asked him to create gemstones for her silver settings. From these small treasures, Inson moved onto larger stone work. 

Spontaneity, and the substance of the stone, inspires his sculpture. “My work begins with the first mistake,” he says. “That first stroke that forces an intimidating disturbance of the material I have selected to modify and call my work of art.” Working with hand tools, Inson begins with the broad areas. He follows with pneumatic and hand grinding tools, finishing with polishing tools. His carving process is meditative, philosophical, and fluid. 

“I work to balance what needs balancing,” Inson says, “and at same time to understand what the stone is trying to say.” The final piece reflects his insights regarding the character of the stone, as well as his love for realism and abstractions of nature.

Inson’s work is also influenced by his training in archaeology, anthropology, and art history. He received a Master of Arts in Anthropology and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art History from Wichita State University. In his designs, he balances the stylistic elements of different cultures with contemporary perspectives. Imbued with a blend of old and new, nature and humanity, ideology and technique, Inson’s sculpture is rich with philosophy and uncommon beauty.