Contemporary Art Projects USA/Gallery will present a curated exhibition by our chief curator, Mariavelia Savino during Art Basel Miami Week at The Red Dot 2017. The Booth will be at the Prime Fair Location, Booth #215.
Each year, Red Dot Miami is given a curatorial theme that informs the show’s programming and provides a common thread throughout the special exhibits. The show theme for 2017 is [IMPACT]—and chosen as a Spotlight Gallery, Contemporary Art Projects USA is taking the theme a step further and exploring the impact of time. “As human beings, time is conducting our history of creators of beautiful, intense moments; as nature, from its beginning to eternity, represented by planets and stars that illuminate the universe or by the deep waters of the sea and the attractiveness of the landscapes; as an abstract concept, time guides kinetic and geometric visual artists giving them their musical rhythm,” says chief curator Mariavelia Savino. “Time is endless for human excellence, here represented by our artists.” The artists presented are from very figurative to abstract, as well as geometric and kinetic.
Participants Artists:
Ana Maria Nava | Venezuela | Guest Artist
Color is all around us, jumping from every corner of our surroundings, impossible to miss, dancing in front of our eyes, floating…
Color splashes are our first attempts to express ourselves; they are part of our earliest memories and explorations. I have gone back to that experimentation. First in the glass textiles and now in larger scale floating wall installations.
Color splashes grew in size, became hollow sometimes, began to grow appendixes, started moving along walls and ceilings as they acquired a life of their own.
Space is there to conquer and to colonize. Movement gives cadence to these growing colonies formed by organic elements that duplicate themselves on the bare wall. The shadows they cast become colored ghosts dancing under the splash.
Are the colored shadows the leading figures in this play? that remains to be found…
Light is the source that gives life to this experience, that I have entitled “Aguazul”.
Brian Blount | USA
Brian Blount, born in Tickbite, NC, resides today in Santa Fe, NM. During 1970-73, Blount studied at Haystack School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME, at Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC, and at North Carolina University, Chapel Hill, NC. In the 1970’s, a significant number of young artists moved to Santa Fe, NC, and Brian Blount was one of them. Blount achieved a nationwide outstanding prestige and success in his career, becoming a leading member of the artistic community in the area. His studio became an artists’ gathering place. To create one of a kind unique and exquisite artwork of diverse size, developed on mixed media collage, the artist uses books, maps, antique objects, his own paintings, as well as three-dimensional objects made by himself. From the 1980’s, his collages dominated the art scene depicting unique images of suggested landscape forms that captured the attention of the international art world. The Artist affirms about his Art: “My work is a narrative of torn, touched, used, loved, discarded and forgotten fragments of art, ephemera and objects; a mystery of moments, almost remembered.”
Selected Exhibitions: Concept Art Fair, during Art Basel Miami Week 2016; Corning Museum of Art, Corning, NY, 2009-2011; Goldleaf Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2009; Cast Glass & Bronze Sculpture, Lyons Matrix Gallery, Austin, TX, 1996; In 1995: Robert McClain & C ., Houston, TX, Susan Duval Gallery, Aspen, CO, and SOFA Chicago, IL; In 1994: Glass Invitational, Judy Youens Gallery, Houston, TX, Shelter, Elaine Horwitch Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ, and Mill Street Gallery, Aspen, CO; In 1987: New Mexico 87, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM, and Modem Masks, Elaine Horwitch Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ.
Selected Public Collections: Albuquerque Museum of Fine Arts, Albuquerque, NM; Amoco Production Company, Houston, TX and Denver, CO; Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ; Columbia University, New York, NY; Corning Museum of Art, Corning NY; Gannett Corporation, Washington, DC; Guinness Corporation, New Haven, CT; LTV Corporation, Dallas, TX; McDonalds Corporation, Chicago, IL; Mountain Bell, Denver, CO; Santa Fe Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM; Old Jail Museum, Albany, TX; Pitts Petroleum Company, Dallas, TX and the Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ. Recently.
Blount has exhibited his unique exquisite artworks represented by Contemporary Art Projects USA at Art Santa Fe 2017, NM, and as part of the group show Variations on the same Subjects: People, Nature and Geometry in the Art Gallery at the ArtsPark of Hollywood, FL.
Ricardo Cardenas | Mexico
Ricardo Cárdenas is a successful emerging artist born in México. His career is growing as his exhibitions and rising popularity demonstrate. Cardenas expresses his feelings and beliefs by connecting his Art, in media and technique, with his career as a successful construction engineer. To create his paintings and sculptures he cleverly uses building materials, such as concrete and steel bars, as his artistic media. Recently, he has participated in important Art Fairs in the United States presented by Contemporary Art Projects USA, such as at Art Concept 2016 during Art Basel Miami Week, Art Santa Fe 2016 in New Mexico, Art Palm Beach 2017 and Art Boca 2017. In 2016, Ricardo Cárdenas exhibited his solo show Paramo at Miami Dade College West Campus Art Gallery, Doral. About this exhibit the artist said: “My autobiographical work Paramo reunites elements from my structural engineer profession merged with creative concepts inspired by the artistic movement “Arte Povera”. I narrate events of my life, expressing feelings and beliefs using building materials concrete and steel. Paramo describes an arid desert at a certain altitude, somber, ignored, plagued by fog, rain, clouds, rocks and wind, where loneliness becomes evident. It reunites life energies that men connect with their gods, incomprehensible forces that can’t be dominated…”
Cardenas is a genuine and original creator, always presenting new unique proposals. He successfully proves this with his exquisite Series of Tributes to Great Masters. Reinterpreting the main traits of the ART from a chosen master artist, Cardenas uses as his canvas the cement and iron bars characteristic of his work, on which he will paint and also add collage, making the whole to look as a unique poster or street graffiti on a cement wall. The resulting Artwork is just astonishing and has been greatly admired by viewers and art collectors. We can certainly say that these Artworks are like contemporary walls that the artist brings from Mexico to delight and inspire the art lovers. At Art Boca Raton, Cardenas presented his unique work Mi Jungla: Tribute to Wilfredo Lam that sold during the Fair Opening event, followed daily, for the duration of the Fair, by further sales and commissions. Cardenas Artwork, Sunflowers: Tribute to van Gogh, is today part of the important Canpro Collection at One Park Building, Boca Raton FL. The Artist Ricardo Cardenas brings his interpretations to his media and technique, as well as to our present time. He uses the unforgettable imagery of an international master, but at the same time, he makes it his own. His tributes and the fusion that Cardenas creates between the diverse artistic visions are just perfect as to celebrate Frida Kahlo and Andy Warhol in his masterpiece “El Juego de las Fridas”, in addition, Cardenas has also successfully and originally commemorated renowned masters, such as Pablo Picasso, Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, the work dedicated to this last master was sold to an important Art Collector residing between New York and Florida.
Lina Condes | Ukraine
Lina Condes born in Cherkassy city, Ukraine, lives and works between Miami and Kiev. She received a BA and a Masters in Design from the Kiev National University of Technologies and Design. Condes uses technology, architecture, and biology to create her Art that contains Feminist statements, declared through Minimalist, Surrealist, and Pop Art languages, to narrate her autobiographical and psychological experiences, some intimate, others about the human beings as a whole.
Condes, a former model, and Miss Ukraine contestant have dedicated her creative talent to Visual Art merging sculpture, painting, or video, using diverse media and modern materials, to express her emotions and perception of the world. Her art is colorful and depicts subjects of common contemporary interest making her art modern and of great impact for the viewer to whom she also provokes with interaction and short-circuits in order to create an open dialogue with her public.
Her Art creates a clear bridge between artistic quality and unique technical exploration. Among her recent exhibitions, Condes has presented in 2017, her solo project Extraterrestrial Odyssey during the 57th International Art Exhibition, Biennale di Venezia, represented by CondesArt in collaboration with PDG Arte Communications curated by Paolo De Grandis, Tamara Li and Magdalena Gabriel with commissioner Carlotta Scarpa at Palazzo Pisani – Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello, that will take place from May to November 2017. In 2016, Lina Condes exhibited in Scope Art Fair Miami Beach during Art Basel Miami Week, presented by Avant gallery from Miami; Istanbul Contemporary, M17 Contemporary Art Center; solo exhibition Art Fusion, SV gallery, Beirut, Lebanon; solo exhibition Hard Art, M17 Contemporary Art Centre, Kiev, Ukraine; and at the International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations “Open19”, Stucco Museum, Venice, Italy. Sponsored by Kess Art.
Cristian Coo | Chile
Cristián Coo is a Chilean Artist. To intensify and make deeper his contemporary artistic work, he has set up his workshop on the shores of Lake Rapel, Chile, where the proximity to nature and the experience of sailing, will enhance his artistic creation. After a successful career in the business world, Coo decided to fully dedicate his talent to his creative artistic vocation. His path has been driven by research and experimentation around a theme that constantly interest him: energy as a luminous, immaterial and cosmic phenomenon.
Following his main inspiration, he attended programs at the Catholic University of Chile School of Art, where he deepened his knowledge on color, drawing, and mixed techniques, also participating in important workshops by renowned Chilean artists. There, he focused his expertise on acrylic and oil painting on canvas, in order to develop his Art around a defined tendency of Abstract Expressionism. After some time, he addressed new experimentation ways, through the introduction of digital techniques and the incursion into volumetric installations, which constitute the main expression of his present Artworks, inspired by concepts of Geometric Abstraction, where color and energy of light are the protagonists. Among others, Christian Coo has participated in relevant exhibitions at Santiago de Chile in 2011; Arte Santa Fe, NM, USA, in 2015; and Art Expo New York, USA, in 2017.
Coo says: “My proposal relies on energy, where color and spatiality are key elements to a manifestation of light, which, in contact with ethereal bodies, as those that characterize my work, reveals itself, leaving at sight the deep counterpoint between its essential immateriality and its vital energy. Thus, arise subtle worlds that are manifested through the superposition of geometric forms, color, and light, from where also flows three-dimensionality illusion. The purpose of my work is to generate personal experiences that impact in a unique way to each spectator.” Christian Coo’s abstract interpretation of movement, life, beauty, and space is unique, balanced, as well as an evidence for extremely well-conceived compositions. Coo’s oeuvre is unique by technique and construction. As a curator and a lover of Geometric Art, I feel that his Art is idyllic, attractive and imposing, no matter its size or chosen color.
Hugo Diaz | Venezuela
Hugo Diaz, born in San Cristóbal, Táchira State, Venezuela, in 1965, lives in Miami, FL, since 2003. Graduated in Computer Systems Engineering at the Metropolitan University, Caracas, Venezuela, Diaz also went to Cristóbal Rojas Art School and to the Faculty of Architecture at the Central University of Venezuela, a booth in Caracas.
As an Artist, Hugo Diaz is an important member of the ‘new generation of Venezuelan Kinetic Art’. This Art genre is based on the aesthetic of the real and the virtual movement in the geometric abstraction. Diaz represents a three-dimensional reality of optical illusions by vibration and by watching contrasted surfaces brightly colored. Inspired by Kinetic Art international great masters, such as the Israeli Yaacov Agam, b. 1928, the French-Hungarian Victor Vasarely, b. 1906, d. 1997, and the Venezuelan Kinetic masters Jesús Rafael Soto, b. 1923, d. 2005, and Carlos Cruz-Diez, b. 1923, Diaz reaches his own new dimension creating an innovative reading for the Geometric Art genre.
Created by the use of combined simple geometric forms in compositions on either virtual or real space, this Art goes beyond intuition and requires of an errorless rigorous method to achieve it. The creative proposal by Artist Hugo Diaz is conceived by emphasizing two diverse spatial dimensions in order to represent a three-dimensional reality. Pictorially, his work is based on optical illusions obtained by retinal vibration taking advantage of the impossibility for our eyes to watch simultaneously two contrasted surfaces that are intensely brightly colored.
Throughout his career, Diaz has been constant in the search to create an unforgettable visual experience by developing his interest in color, light, and vibration, integrating them to produce the impression of the energy in movement. Recently, Diaz exhibited his unique exquisite artworks represented by Contemporary Art Projects USA at Art Santa Fe 2017, NM, and as part of the group show Variations on the same Subjects: People, Nature and Geometry in the Art Gallery at the ArtsPark of Hollywood, FL.
John Dolle | USA
John Dolle born in Concord California, a small city outside of San Francisco, moved to New Jersey at 3 and grew up there. In his mid- 20s, Dolle lived in Manhattan for three years and spent a lot of his free time shooting street scenes in lower Manhattan, Tribecca, the Lower East Side or Soho. Five years ago, he moved to Miami, FL, where he lives today.
About his photography Dolle says: “I really enjoy the photography style of Peter Lik. I enjoy walking through his gallery on Lincoln road. To sell a photograph for a million dollars is an amazing accomplishment. (Lik, an awarded Master Photographer, is celebrated for his landscape images. Born in Australia, he established in USA, opening several galleries around the country.) About my style as a photographer, I am not sure if I have one. I really enjoy going out in the street and shooting whatever catches my eye. When I have my camera in my hand I always feel that I can find inspiration.” The artist narrates his beginnings as a photographer Artist: “My mother got me into photography. She always shot with a Nikon and created a small photography room in the home where I grew up. As a kid I enjoyed sorting through all her photos to see the images that she shot and remembering fun moments in time. I always thought to myself that photography is such a fantastic way to capture life. Then, I got into photography in high school. My parents got me my first Nikon when I was 13 years old. I took photography classes throughout high school and really enjoyed shooting with B&W film and developing my own prints in the darkroom. My high school teacher, Mr. Ross, was a big inspiration to me, as he had a huge passion for photography that greatly influenced me. After attending and graduating from the College of Charleston, South Carolina, I applied and was accepted into the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA, around July 2006. I didn’t attended Brooks, as I was offered a good job opportunity in NYC working for a media firm and decided to go in that direction. It was a hard decision, but at the time I felt that I was going with a more responsible direction, starting a career and making money, as opposed to chasing a dream and getting into debt. Looking back, I think that I should have gone to Brooks, because when you want something you should just go for it! During my 20’s and mid 30’s, I switched careers working in media, insurance or real estate, but always feeling that I had not really found my true calling. I always had a camera in my hand and shoot for pleasure, never pursuing anything further. I was told by friends and family that I had a fantastic eye for photography, my prints were so good and that I needed to pursue my passion… Going after your dream is not always easy. I think the fear of the unknown always held me back, fearing if I would be good enough. I have always been a perfectionist and I put a lot of pressure on myself, and in my photography… Why now did I finally go for it? It just happened slowly, and it felt right. Like my mother, I started to create a photo room in my own home, got a professional Epson printer and still shoot with a Nikon. Since my mom loved Nikon, I fell in love with them as well. I started printing and framing my shots, giving them away to friends and family as gifts. The more I did it, the more I felt right to pursue my dream and turn my passion into a career.” Today, John Dolle is represented by Contemporary Art Projects USA to expand his career participating in prestigious Art Fairs, as well as exhibitions in Public and Private Institutions. What makes the images by Dolle unique is his great eye and precise technique that allows him to create balanced compositions that are at the same time attractive and somehow intriguing.
Laura Epler | USA
Laura Epler, is a contemporary American artist, member of Phi Beta Kappa and awarded a grant to study studio art at the Parsons School of Design’s Paris Campus. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees specializing in Cultural and Intellectual History.
Recently named one of America’s best-mixed media artists by Adam Kennedy, author, playwright, and television producer of the PBS Series American Greatness. Laura Epler is an internationally established contemporary artist. Her Art has been exhibited in Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Cuzco, Toronto, move Oakland from here to after Washington D.C. and the US, in cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Santa Fe. Her Artworks are part of private collections worldwide. Epler has more than two hundred paintings in private collections, including main collectors including Jack and Helen Dickerson, associates of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and Mr. William I. Koch of Palm Beach, FL, and Aspen, CO. Quoting a Review of the Art of Artist Laura Epler by freelance writer and curator Don Lambert, whose work has appeared in the Saturday Review, American Artist and dozens of national and regional publications (He has curated exhibits in nearly 400 art museums, art centers and libraries across the country, including the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.): “While the fact that Laura Epler’s art does not fit into a specific category may seem a weakness, it is actually the fearless strength and breadth of genius. The paintings do not need categorization; they are beyond that need in both their emotional content and their technical ability. The paintings move back and forth from hints of subject matter to abstraction, from didactic to spiritual. One senses that she started where Rothko and Pollock ended, infusing them with post-modernist concerns of journalizing, mysticism and feminism.
The results are paintings, which can be read only on a solitary level, requiring intelligence and intuition. Gazing at the paintings, almost falling into them one feels the layers of paint symbolic of expression and discovery. Then, upon realizing the connectedness of it all – essentially life and art – the satisfaction arrives. “D. Lambert/ Arts Digest. Last July, Laura Epler exhibited her unique exquisite artworks at Art Santa Fe 2017, NM, and now, in December two of her impressive Artworks, respectively titled “Born With Snakes in Both Her Fists” and “Departing Budapest” will be presented during Art Basel Week, Miami, FL.
Senen Llanos | Puerto Rico|USA
Senen Llanos from San Juan Puerto Rico, currently lives in New York, NY. A self-taught fine art photographer, he says about his Art and inspiration: “The first time I saw a camera was in my father’s hand, he was a passionate Nikon enthusiast and I remember being fascinated by seeing those photos on paper. Their rich colors and the smell of the photograph was something to fall in love with. It was while studying computer science at the University of Puerto Rico that I started capturing images of friends close to me.
Immediately falling in love with the medium. It wasn’t until a close friend died that I learned about the power of an image, this served as a catalyst that sent me on the road I am now… I’m known for my work with paint and skin. Where I project form and my subject’s personal energy through textures and colors. I believe skin is the most interesting canvas of them all, and especially love working with inspired people to create impossible beautiful imagery that celebrates our sexuality. We are nothing if not sexual creatures and while we tend to shy away from our nature it is when we accept it that we create art… I moved to New York in 2011, the city and its energy inspired me like nothing before. It was there that I received the top prize for the New York Dancer Parade Photography Contest. Since then, I’ve made it my priority to work with dancers of all types, who make the impossible and theatrical seem easy.”
The Artist describes his artistic project and experience: “Three years worth of images using the bathtub as a creative studio. Where skin and paint are fused together to create fleeting textures that are captured in camera. I seek to study sexuality and desire. To embrace what makes us humans in an explosion of colors and textures. My work consistently features us in our most vulnerable element. Stripped of clothing and surrounded by the most basic of elements. In 2013 I launched my first collection in the penthouse of the magnificent Aeolian building located on Fifth Avenue and 54th Street, New York City. This series was once again presented by the end of 2013 where I had my second showing in the legendary Cipriani Hotel located in Wall Street, NYC. Recently, the Vanderbilt Hotel in Puerto Rico was the host of an exclusive event for my second series ‘The Bathtub Experience’. Keeping with the theme, select attendees were given access to see me work while I created an image in the bathtub of the exclusive presidential suite. This series was housed in a gallery space located in Miramar, Puerto Rico, available for viewing via private appointment.”
Lolo Loren | The Netherlands
Lolo Loren, born Lise Lorraine Gelderman, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, signs her art with LL that stands for all the L’s in her names and life. Today, Lolo Loren lives in Ibiza, Spain, with her children. Inspired by the island, the light, the objectivity of the people, the absolute tranquility versus the bohemian party scene, Lolo found her place to live and to develop her artistic work through paint and photography.
The artist has said: “I am looking for new inspiration through fashion, people, colors, internet, the sea, the beach, the sand, a party – everything I saw or experienced, when I have look long enough I will discover hidden faces or items or things to see which are not seen or seen differently by others, suddenly appearing without purpose.” From painting came photography. Her interaction with the camera position and her feelings in that moment determine the final image. Lolo’s only goal is that the images that she creates, either from a photograph or from a painting, let you explore your own thoughts and desires. Before dedicating her life to art, Lolo started her career in fashion and design, studying at Esmod Academie in Paris and Economics at the University of Amsterdam. She also attended the Vogue Academy in Amsterdam and worked for some famous Dutch interior designers. Lolo’s artworks are made with mixed media. The artist merges natural materials with pigments, Arabic gum, paint and canvas pieces. Recently she has been sealing her work with layers of high gloss coating. This creates a three-dimensional effect and makes the colors to look bright and intense. The artist has said: “I like the contrast between the glossy effect and the raw materials I use.”
Daniel Marin | Spain
Daniel Marin, is a Spanish-German artist born in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, from Spanish parents. Marin has spent half of his life in Spain, where he currently lives and works in his creative career. He started painting at sixteen and achieved degrees in English and Gemology in Spain. Marin worked as a Graphic Designer in the advertisement industry and as a Jewel Designer for his own brand, increasing the foundation of his true passion: painting.
Daniel Marin is interested in astrology, science, philosophy, religions, and ancient civilizations, and this rich knowledge are depicted in his works. Marin has traveled the world, residing in Brazil, India, and Morocco, as well as visiting many other countries, where he always pursued to learn from their history, life’s approach, and culture. Daniel Marin Artworks have been exhibited in relevant Art centers, like in the cities of New York, Berlin, Stuttgart, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Salvador de Bahía, Paris, Venice, Dubai, Belgrade, or Nador, among others. After exploring different styles, techniques, and figurative subjects, he decided to express his ideas and emotions through abstract painting that allows him to better communicate his complex inner world. Following the path of well-known American Masters, Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) and Cy Twombly (1928–2011), Dutch American Master Willem de Kooning (1904–1997), Armenian-American Master Arshile Gorky (1904–1948), or American Master of Russian Jewish descent Mark Rothko (1903–1970), Marin has developed a personal style merging oil, acrylic, enamels, spray and collage techniques that have also some parallels with the work of American Masters Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) or Jasper Johns (born 1930). His contact with varied cultures around the world, his own background, and his constant desire to learn makes his Art unique. His first works were related to ancient gods and cultures, such as Greek mythology or Hindu religion. Searching for spirituality, Marin explored Biblical themes and recent alchemy, allowing him to set a practical and a spiritual dimension. His goal is to transmit positive energy and feelings to benefit his viewers and our contemporary World. Daniel says: “A painter paints what he sees, an artist paints what he feels.” Recently, Marin was represented by Contemporary Art Projects USA in Art Boca 2017. This Artist’s work is part of important private and public collections in the USA and worldwide. Daniel Marin extraordinary one of a kind paintings, sponsored by Kess Art.
Juan Luis Perez | Cuba
Juan Luis Perez is a Cuban celebrated well-known Artist that lives and works in Miami.
The diversity within the Art from the Caribbean Islands is defined by its message, provenance, media, and techniques, as well as by each artist individual source of inspiration or according to each Island unique history and development. In regard to the Islands, it can be said that Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic share a similar deep Spanish background that merges with their profound African heritage, sometimes enriched by a Native American influence. We can see this unique interesting fusion in the exquisite Art of Juan Luis Perez.
He has made a great point to reach the human essence with its changes, pains, beliefs, shadows, and history. Juan Luis opens the viewer of his Art to a Caribbean feeling that he begun in Cuba, with its particular creative richness that contrasts with the lack of resources and the need for expression on an environment in which freedom of speech was significantly suppressed. Expanding his reach, Juan Luis Perez touches the other Islands, where the African heritage prevails often merging with Hindu and Chinese roots, developed during the British colonial period. Juan Luis, aware of it, begins to establish a dialogue between East and West that marks his Art. The vision of the unique world represented by the Caribbean culture that encompasses a variety of artistic expressions, such as Visual Art, Music, and Dance, in all of which the Caribbean people excels at large, is masterly depicted by Juan Luis Perez in his unique Art. Juan Luis has widely exhibited in the US and abroad participating in relevant Art Fairs, as well as in important Biennials and Institutional exhibitions. by Mariavelia Savino, Chief Curator at Contemporary Art Projects USA
Marielle Plasir | France
Marielle Plaisir, born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France, from a French mother and Guadeloupian father, spent childhood and part of adolescence in Normandie, France, later living in Guadeloupe French Caribbean Island. Marielle is a Master of Applied Arts, University of Bordeaux III, France,1999 and a graduated Honors Advanced School of Fine Arts and Decorative Arts of Bordeaux, France, 1993-1998.
Her ART include varied media: drawings, paintings, video, performance and monumental installations, all greatly inspired by Italian quattrocento, Latin and Caribbean literature. The essence of her Artworks is theatrical. As a French-Caribbean artist, she blends life and fiction in self-personal and historic Caribbean narratives related with universal themes like power, domination, life, and death. Marielle says: “I use my daily practice to examine the many aspects of the individual in the society. I use textiles, fibers, fabrics which are socially meaningful. Through my journal-like exercises, drawings, I find moments of humor and beauty and discover evidence of humanity in our increasingly digital world. Since 2015, I develop an original concept of wide tapestries blending gold pigments and acrylic painting, using fibers, and fine luxurious fabrics to achieve the wide padded frame. The dreamlike quality of these hybrid paintings and tapestries embody the poetic and chimerical side of my creative process. When I am painting my tapestries, I think of Penelope of Greek mythology, who weaved—then unraveled—her own tapestries as a means of fending off her many and obnoxious suitors, while she waited for her husband, Ulysses, to return from war. Like Penelope waiting for Ulysses, I am waiting for a better world. By painting dreamy and enchanted worlds, it’s my way of helping to bring those worlds into reality... Then, my work interrogates the concept of domination, which has existed from the time of slavery until now. The common thread throughout my work is a critique of prejudice, according to which political power supposedly is ‘a natural fact’. I use textile, fibers, fabrics that are socially meaningful, just as the cutting is functionally significant. Both dimensions of pomp and dress, are determined all at once by the status of the individual who wears it, as well as by one’s occupation in society.
Or conversely, those two dimensions determine the status of the individual as well as one’s occupation in society. I lay my installations in various spaces such as forests, streets, or cathedrals with the idea that people will come to realize that what it does not see is greater than what it sees. In this process, I engage deconstruction and reconstruction of a world in which no one’ dominates’ or ‘reigns’, but one in which we can move freely from the reality of life to the capacity of imagination. This flexibility of visual expression allows crossing boundaries such as home and migration, race and color, day and night, life and death, waking and sleeping, lucidity and dreaming, reason and imagination. This Surrealist-like approach allows me to tap into the unconscious, where I can live without constraints in the practice of strange ‘rituals’ beyond the walls of the center. I love Guadeloupe because I draw my identity from Guadeloupe. My father is black, my mother is white… I discovered that my great-great-grandmother was a slave and I think all the work today is my identity.”
Marielle has created highly intense visual experiences worldwide, at Selected Group or Solo Exhibits, International Biennials and Contemporary Art Fairs: 2017 Classe Premiere, Les Tuileries, Paris, France, Luxury Fashion trade show; 2017-16 NY Now, Design Market, USA; Acta non verba, Collaboration Anselm Kieffer/Marielle Plaisir, MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami; Flip Out: Artist sketchbooks, NSU Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL; Borderless Caribbean, Art Basel Miami Week, curator Edouard Duval-Carrié; 2014 FIAC and Art Elysées, DX Gallery, Paris, France, and Les Commodites de la conversation, Ed. Musee d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France; 2013 Global Caribbean, Miami, FL; 2012 Dublin Biennale; 2011-09 The Way of the Angels, Guadeloupe/France/Morroco, and Queens, Caribbean/Italy; 2011 Florence Biennale; 2008 28th Biennale of Sao Paulo, Brazil, curator Ivo Mesquita; 2006 Benin Biennale, curator Ernest Breleur; 2004 Dakar Biennale, Senegal; 2004-01 The Crazy Dog, Guadeloupe/Dominican Republic/St Louis & Dakar of Senegal; 2001 Santo Domingo Biennale, Dominican Republic, curator Marianne de Tolentino.
Lara Restilli | Argentina
Lara Restelli born and raised in Argentina, resides today in Miami, FL, with her husband and their two beautiful boys. From a very young age, Art was present in her life. However, her University studies were oriented to International Business for which she obtained her Bachelor degree at Buenos Aires, Argentina. From these early professional years, she developed a successful career that finally brought her to the United States. Here, her latent artistic soul woke up and Lara began to study with renowned artists, like Eva Roffe and Alberto Pancorbo, who introduced her to the intense practice of classic realism in oil painting, opening a whole new world to her. In a short period of time, Lara Restelli will rapidly show her learning skills and natural talent for the Visual Arts.
She has participated in several group exhibitions, such as in Restelli Art Studio, Miami; as Winner of BJ Spoke Gallery N.Y. fine arts competition; Artrageous Gallery, Coral Gables; Flor500.com a Xavier Cortada’s Project, FL; Dot 51, Miami; The Schacknow Museum of Fine Arts, Plantation, FL. Her artworks are part of Private Art Collections, and some of them on permanent view at the entrance lobby of prestigious condominiums in Miami, FL, like Aria on the Bay, Flagler on the River, Ski view, Oak Plaza, 25 Biscayne Park, and One Plaza. Lara has said about her Art: “Inspired by the Great Masters and influenced by Modern Artists, I create my vision of the world through paintings. My work evolves from simple lines to very detailed scenarios with each layer of paint. Although true to the essence of oil painting, I like to add a modern concept to it, something for the contemporary viewer to relate with. High contrasts and strong emotions are common denominators in my work. Sometimes, conflicting emotions are portrayed in the same body of work expressing passion, seduction, affection, strength, grace and even loneliness or sadness.
Through my artwork, I seek to create a dialog that only the viewer can complete… Art has always been part of my heart. But, it was not until my two boys were born that it became a passion. Since then, painting has nourished my soul and filled my life. It has taught me to observe and appreciate the beauty of everyday things. Nature has been my mentor and inspiration. I constantly thrive to capture the beauty of everyday objects and situations. I explore the story behind the objects and convey my feelings through my own representation of nature. My painting process is an evolution of basic masses of tones to delicate details of thin oil paint. During the process, I find excitement, happiness, and peace. I am embraced with a feeling of accomplishment every time I transmit my thoughts and emotions to a canvas, but the process is not complete until I share it with others. Through my artwork, I hope to reach and connect with those that share my same respect for simple things in life. Only then will my journey be complete.” There are three remarkable aspects in the Art of Lara Restelli that, as Chief Curator of Contemporary Art Projects USA, I will like to point out: “First, her positive inspiration on depicting the beauty of nature and humanity that makes her artworks uplifting and inspiring; second, the excellent mastership in the use of oil painting as her media, together with a skillful technique, making her realistic art to outstand and impress; and finally, her powerful management of feelings, color and composition with the intention of obtaining a resulting artwork with a Modern Contemporary conception, in order to create original and unique artworks that delight and deeply connect with the viewer.”
Anrika Rupp | USA | Venezuela
Anrika Rupp, born in New York, NY, lives and works in Miami, FL, also traveling frequently to Caracas, Venezuela and Bonaire Island in the Caribbean. Anrika, a Columbia University School of Engineering, Bachelor of Science, in addition, studied Communications Design at Parsons School of Design, both in New York City.
One key goal for Anrika is to merge Art with Science. This Artist’s Artwork has been globally exhibited in relevant Art Fairs, important national and international Fine Art Galleries in the US and abroad, in Institutions in Europe and the Americas, as well as it is part of national and worldwide well-known private and public collections. Describing her inspiration for her Series Galaxies in a Box, Anrika has said: “I stand before nature asking ‘why?’… I observe and look for patterns, symmetry, a tendency product of our evolution. With their resolution range, our eyes see certain sizes. Developing tools to see what is larger or smaller, we observe patterns and repetitions within scales emulating other scales. Few simple rules create all that we see in nature’s design, efficiency, and scalability. In my studies ‘spheres’ arise persistently: ‘Viruses are spherical as planets, moons and most celestial bodies’. My latest series of spherical objects is inspired in the space wanderers documented by the Hubble Space Telescope. Those impressive orbs floating in the vastness of space, some cold and quiet, others a furnace of atomic fusion, all together give me awe, longing, and infinite loneliness. The pull they exert on my imagination fuels my drive to search for understanding, inspiring me to find the origin of the sense of identity that the vastness of outer space and the atomic world create in me.” Recently, Anrika Rupp, represented by Contemporary Art Projects USA, had an outstanding presence in Art Concept 2016, followed by Art Santa Fe 2017 in New Mexico, and as part of the group show Variations on the same Subjects: People, Nature and Geometry in the Art Gallery at the ArtsPark of Hollywood, FL, during August-September 2017.
Nataly Schloser | Venezuela
Nataly Schloser, a Venezuelan artist based in Miami, FL, is a graduated Lawyer and a very promising unique Visual Artist. Her artistic career began when she experimented with mosaics to create unique pieces of furniture, covering dining table tops, bars, walls, screens, and headboards. She has collaborated with numerous architects and designers, as well as the worked freelance in Panama, Venezuela, and the USA. Recently, Nataly explored the art of photography, merging it with her passion for mosaics. She calls this technique: Intervened Photography. By applying this artistry, she achieves an unmatched perspective of texture, shine, and color to her work, creating one-of-a-kind pieces.
We can say that the unique and exquisite artworks by Nataly Schloser are a never seen before fusion among two of the most important media in the history of the Visual Arts: Photography and Mosaics. Photography, from the Greek phōtos ‘light’ and graphé ‘drawing’, means ‘drawing with light’. In the 20th century, became an Art genre main creative expression with styles and techniques in constant evolution. Mosaics assembling small pieces of glass, stone or other materials, flourished in Mesopotamia, Mycenean Greece, Classical Greece and Rome, the Byzantine Empire, the Middle East and in the Renaissance, made by Raphael. Modern Art Mosaics were used by Edward Burne-Jones in Rome, Italy, and by architect Antoni Gaudí at Park Güell, Barcelona, Spain.
Recently, Nataly Schloser exhibited her unique exquisite artworks, represented by Contemporary Art Projects USA, at Art Santa Fe 2017, NM, and as part of the group show Variations on the same Subjects: People, Nature and Geometry in the Art Gallery at the ArtsPark of Hollywood, FL. In 2017, she has been commissioned to create the Donor Wall, 12 x 12 feet, at Scheck Hillel School, Aventura, FL, and the Aaron Hakodesh, 12 panels representing the 12 tribes, for a Synagogue in Panama. In 2016, she created the Donor Wall, 12 x 8,11 feet, for the Synagogue Lubabich South of Aventura, FL. Two impressive artworks by Schloser are today part of the important Canpro Collection at One Park Building, Boca Raton, FL.
Merrill Steiger | USA
Merrill Steiger lives and works in New York City and Woodstock. Her Artworks, widely exhibited in solo or group shows at universities, museums, art fairs, private collections and galleries, reflect her passion for traveling, spiritual practice and collage composition developed in medium and large-scale paintings.
Her Art is part of public and private collections. In her early works, she developed “color fragmentation,” juxtaposing strong colors and hard-edged shapes. In the 1970s, she painted abstract architectural images “relating the art of an ancient culture into her own art,” after a visit to Mexico, a recurring theme later in her work. She visited spiritual Power Spots charged with positive energy, entering in contact with the art of Aboriginal Australians, the indigenous traditions of Africa and Asia, such as in Cambodia, Vietnam, India, the Himalayas and Japan, where she lived for three years in the early 1980s. In the following ten years after returning to New York, the artist made collages influenced by origami and Japanese colors, then becoming an important part of the compositions for her paintings. In the 1990s, Steiger painted abstracted nudes influenced by bodybuilding, connecting her life experiences with her art. In 2000, her spiritual path of meditation and exercise provided a new dimension to her work, inspiring the Zen Dot Energy, a series reflecting India’s circles and chakras traditions. In 2004-08, Steiger created the series Unseen Universes of organic forms, a landscape imagery with surprising changes of scale, from microscopic to cosmic, to imply “a journey through the inner space of one’s own consciousness.” In 2009, she created the series Worlds Collide, incorporating anthropological references to her previous series, like petroglyphs, Zen rock gardens, Buddha statues, and mandalas. Worlds Collide continued in the series Dreamland, with references to Cappadocia, Turkey. Completed in 2015, the series GNH, Gross National Happiness, inspired by traveling to countries solemn and/or spiritual in nature, reflects the peace and joy of spiritual self-exploration. In 2016, Steiger begun the series Sci-Fi, distancing from her color palette, she employs a monochromatic study of light, shadow, and space. Sci-Fi depicts a large fantastical imagery merging a view of pioneering space traveling with early black and white photography. In Sci-Fi, Steiger uses dotting meditative painting technique with diverse textures or patterns suggesting movement and strength, into the flow of cosmic energy. Her interest in science fiction through movies and books is then traveled around in her own imaginary landscapes that focus on a defined contrast between light and shadow. Her images are inspired by the first human views of outer space from the surface of the moon. Other black and white photography sceneries have intense light/shadow on architectural or natural scapes. The resulting Art suggests an adjournment of time and place. The monochromatic palette creates the presentiments and mysterious aura of subliminal sci-fi scapes. She supports “a universal, cross-cultural understanding of how we all strive to understand our existence.”
Recent Selected Solo Exhibitions at Art Fairs and Public Institutions: Art Expo 2015, NY, NY; Spectrum 2014, Miami, FL; The Delaplaine Visual Arts Center, Frederick, MD and Worlds Collide, Madigan Library Gallery, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Williamsport, PA in 2013; Worlds Collide, Spiva Art Gallery, Missouri Southern State University, Joplin, MO, 2012; Equilibrium, La Guardia Galleries of Fine Art, La Guardia Community College, Queens, NY and Worlds Collide, Stamford Art Gallery, University of Connecticut, Stamford, CT in 2011; Unseen Universes, at The University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI and at Barrett Art Gallery, Utica College, Utica, NY in 2010.
Recent Selected Group Exhibitions at Art Fairs and Public Institutions: BDNY, NY, NY; Allegany Arts Council, Will’s Creek Exhibition: Being Sentient/Sentient Being, Cumberland, MD; Tubac Center of the Arts, 19, Tubac, AZ; Saatchi Art’s The Other Art Fair NYC, Brooklyn, NY; Hoyt Regional Juried Art Exhibition, Certificate of Excellence Merit Award, New Castle, PA, in 2017; SHIM, Invitational 3, Brooklyn, NY; Florida State University Museum of Fine arts – Annual Tallahassee International Juried Competition, Tallahassee, FL; Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Color National Juried Art Show, Brooklyn, NY; Associated Artists of Winston Salem, 52nd Annual Dimensions’ National Juried Fine Art Competition and Exhibition, Winston-Salem, NC, in 2016; Metro Montage XV, Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, GA; I Live Here Now, SIPMA Contemporary, Goggleworks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA; Cosmos: Imagining the Universe, Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center, Dowell, MD; Gallery Gala 17, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY, in 2015.
Gary Traczyk | USA
Gary Traczyk currently lives and work in Miami, FL. Traczyk attended Miami’s New World School of the Arts and art classes at an international program in Italy, where he had resided before, for five years during childhood. Traczyk has said on his early encounter with Art: “Growing up there, studying Renaissance Art and drawing in charcoal, had an enormous influence on me.” Today, Gary Traczyk creates unique, lively and attractive, one of a kind, mirror polished stainless-steel sculptures that with their curved balanced arabesque shapes interact with their viewers, almost as if they were dancing with them.
The artist says about his creative process, which takes from eight to twelve weeks: “There are no molds… Nothing is drawn out. Each sculpture has its own personality… To create my sculptures, I use marine grade stainless steel that is cut on a band saw. The metal is then grinded down to smooth the edges. After this process, I sand the stainless steel from 50 to 400 grit and next buff it out with rouge. Then, I start to form the metal around organic objects and jigs that I previously created. When the metal reaches a form to my liking, I sand it out, polishing it again to achieve the mirror finish.
The balances of my sculptures are strictly done on a trial and error basis. They are kinetic and move for several minutes with one touch. The pivoting point is a stainless-steel bearing. I use geometric forms in space to interact with negative space, creating movement of light and reflections of the surrounding area. My final product are timeless art pieces.” One precious remarkable goal in this artist’s successful career has been to donate some of his sculptures to health-related charities, including those fighting cancer, autism, and Parkinson’s disease, such as the Lupus Foundation, Arthritis Foundation, Breast Cancer Awareness, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Young Arts (former National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts), Escondido Children’s Museum, Operation Smile, Baptist Hospital, Fisher Island Day School, Boys and Girls Club of Broward County and Miami Marathon. The Artist has also worked with the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts and the Miami Children’s Museum. The Art and life of this unique artist has been widely celebrated and published by the media, such as in Celebrated Living Magazine American Airlines 2015; ArtBlend Magazine Featured Artist 2015 and 2016; Art Daily News International; Castle Rock Entertainment “A Mighty Wind”; Miami Herald; Miami Herald “Neighbors”; NBC “I Am Miami” Campaign; NBC Featured Artist Miami Coconut Grove; Southwest Art Magazine; Palm Beach “Florida Weekly”; Malibu Times; Crafts Business Magazine; The Desert Sun; Bottom Line Magazine; and HGTV. The artist has participated in Art Fairs including SOFA Chicago, Art Palm Beach, Art San Diego, Toronto Art Expo, and Spectrum Miami. Recently, Gary Traczyk was represented by Contemporary Art Projects USA, and had an outstanding presence in Art Concept 2016, Art Palm Beach and Art Boca, both in 2017. This Artist’s work is part of important private and public collections in the USA and worldwide.
Michele A. Utley-Voigt | USA
Michele A. Utley-Voigt is an American Artist from California that recently moved to Connecticut, today living and working between CT and NYC. She studied at The Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, Los Angeles, CA; Parsons School of Design, Paris, France; Bachelor in Pre-Law/Political Science, California State University, Los Angeles, CA and Women’s History at Glendale College. Utley-Voigt tells: “I am a storyteller driven by the human condition. I paint stories of the human experience compelled by circumstance, choice, emotion, and fate, combined with the energy and influence of the past, as all conjoined lay prism to the future. What is seen and not seen. Known and not known. Contemporaneous, interacting incessantly influencing one another in a continuum of past, present, and future. I paint for history; rendering the human relationship with eternity, demonstrating that human reality is bound to the continuum of time.
My works are the complex language of layering multiple levels of imagery representing our complicated existence, the content of a consequence, condition, moment, notion or incident. I expose beauty that outlives barbarity and splendor that transcends from tragedy. The soul of life demonstrated in depictions of figures interacting within a realm of time, of realities, and with one another. I express the plane of existence pictorially divided, fragmented, as the energy and emotion around each being and happening. I create images from inside myself, carry and grow them within me until I create.” Michele has widely exhibited, obtaining awards for her unique paintings. Her painting L’ ame de la femme forges into the complex layers of female beauty to examine, embrace and extract the inner magnificence of women.
Her most recent painting Untitled, expressly made for Art Basel Miami Week, is about a woman soaring, rising, flying, frolicking and ascending. She may be at any stage or event in her life, the energy is there to express the importance of her any real tangible situation, as everything also is happening around her. Michele’s other recent impressive painting Every Child My Own is about the reverence with which any child must be treated, as well as a call to stop bullying, harassing and any kind of molestation or cruelty towards children. This Artwork is round as our World and it is a call to come back to goodness, kindness, and beauty, to exalt the real best side of our human nature. The fourth painting reunites her whole career and personality as an artist and a lawyer. Broken Treaties by Michele A. Utley-Voigt is at the same time narrative History and Contemporary Art. For centuries treaties defined a relationship between Native Americans and the United States. Treaties made primarily for land acquisitions, were also broken, changed, or nullified. This Artwork depicts the land runs that revoked Native American territory given by the U.S. government. The painting’s composition contains six horses charging and four figures invaded, splintered by themselves, the stampede and one another. The four figures embody a Witness, a Refugee, a Demonstrator and a Deity. Broken Treaties is pertinent now when nations are calling to eliminate or restrict immigration and refugees, as we see worldwide the flight of populations from their native ancestral lands. Michele has said about her Art: “I worked in oils since early life and prefer my expressions to be shared in their radiance applied using master techniques… The cause for which I create is my acute foresight and sense of the interconnectedness of all elements of all time. The dialogue I consign includes all elements past and present, their atmosphere and the energy of all elements collective interacting with one another. I paint to deliver a vision that others have not seen, I engage, evolve and cultivate these works until the moment does arise that I produce them. I recognize the progression in color, form, material, and shape… Current events are capable of influencing and altering the works. Present affairs impact the images but frequently their purpose is so interwoven with the past that they often forecast occurrences before they transpire. My works and their implications are everlasting.”