Past Solo Exhibitions
Memento Mori
by Karen Grosman, Toronto, Canada
august,01 - august,15 2020
This collection of memento mori and vanitas use the symbolism of butterflies, meat, shells, skulls and flowers to signify impermanence - death, decay, the body, fertility and the afterlife.
Flowers represent life, the skeleton and skulls signify death, the gold leaf signifies wealth and what will be left behind. The butterfly signifies hope and the fragility of life, shells represent fertility, insects are decay and meat is the body and wealth.
I am interested in death as a subject matter because it is a reminder of the fragility of life.
Anti Antisocial
by Maxim Shishov,Arkhangelsk,Russia
august,15 - august,30 2020
Art is social.
Art is directly related to reality and it should talk about its problems: politics, the environment, possible wars and social problems.
Artists are people with a certain status in society. People admire them for their unusual vision of this world. People want to follow their idols, whether it's a performer or an artist. Therefore, artists are those people who can "make" people think, give food for thought. Artists can change the vector of development, give the first impetus. So why not to do it, since art is such a powerful tool of influence?
Just like Sonnet 18
by Anna Kerman, Isle of Wight ,UK
september,01 - september,15 2020
Spent her childhood in Sweden, Anna Kerman presently lives and works in the Isle of Wight, UK. Kerman graduated with a Bachelor of Arts at Kent Institute of Art and Design, UK; and with Masters in Enterprise and Management for the Creative Arts at University of Arts London, UK.
Kerman’s work often pierced with ideas of constant search for yourself, her outlook of emotional connections to the wild and her outcry for injustice and destruction of our planet for the good of economic wealth.
Anna’s paintings often based on her childhood images of extreme climate in Sweden, viewed through the stillness of Nordic melancholy. She said: “I never start an artwork with an end result in mind, instead I simply let my emotions and mood control the outcome of the painting, working with layering and stripping of paint to capture the moment.”
If Passion Built a Gentle Fire
by Huiquan Jiang, Boston ,USA
september,15 - september,30 2020
I used my fingers to paint—to daub the paint on the canvas. These are the same fingers that caressed the female skin. In a queer outpouring way, it transposed what I learned from my relationship onto the canvas, which tinted pleasure, desire, and praise for women.
Fingers carry the most fundamental and functional sensation of touch, which could be a proper tool to express the tactile appeal of flowers. It intrigues me that a multitude of beautiful and compelling flowers are simultaneously poisonous.
This potential danger in a queer relationship could be equally deadly, especially in the cultural situation where I have lived. Nevertheless, profuse adamant power spills out from an artist’s fingers, akin to those fragile flowers capable of propagating tenaciously in an extreme environment.
Fresh Perspectives
by Xavier Bellante, California ,USA
october,01 - october,15 2020
There is one common thread in all art from the Greeks to giant balloon dogs. Light. Natural light is a great way to see art, but it doesn’t have to be the only way.
Up until now, if you wanted to see art in a different way, you had to go to a specialized exhibition. 3 lights style artwork is different. It’s gorgeous in natural light, it fluoresces and looks unique under blacklight, and then, it glows in the dark for a third experience. It does all that in one piece. Layers of color and texture interweave with light and shadow to create art that requires close inspection and investigation.
The artwork is designed for an interactive experience. Without any electronic components or specialized hardware, you can involve your senses with your own handheld blacklight, sifting through the image with your mind attuned to the details. As your eyes rove the canvas, you discover more layers and find new colors from new angles. Just when you think you’re done, turn off your lights and see an entirely new piece. This is an entirely new way to see art.
Snapshots of an Inner Journey
by Pia Nicotra, Florence ,Italy
october,15 - october,30 2020
My artistic practice is both the instrument and the result of a path of connection with inner consciousness, coming from the concern about the irrepressible experience of human life and its elusive nature.
In my paintings I include concepts taken from Kabbalah, Metaphysics and cosmological theories, linked to sensations and visions inspired by my meditation practices.
The slow working process of oil painting becomes itself an inner practice in which I develop and sometimes modify the initial idea of each composition, as that idea slowly changes in my mind while I paint.
Color Wonderland
by Emily Shih, Republic of China, Taiwan
november,01 - november,15 2020
My artworks are inspired by nature's beauty. I love using rich and vivid color on painting. By piling up different shapes of hue blocks, I transform the realist world into a bright and splendid world of my own. This is how I praise nature, and a way of self-expression.
By utilizing the bright and saturated colors, I arrange the irregular shapes and various chroma of color blocks alternatively, and simplify the details of the scenery. I would like to show the spatial extensity, rhythm and the impressionism with the colors, and furthermore I hope to construct new imagery and resonance visually.
I chose to use the colour block composition method to paint because I feel that using this method can make the image present a good 3D effect, and the flat colour block has more tension than the traditional realistic painting. Such colour blocks are like a large piece of rough-cut coloured paper, layer by layer to create depth of field and 3D effect. This silhouette style is very attractive to me and can give people more reverie and fun. I think flat coating without shadows can bring a sense of volume, and bright colours have a decorative effect.
I believe that artworks can bring people a lot of throbbing of mind, therefore, I want to use
my work to heal people's hearts. I want for people to look at my artworks and feel the same thing that I do- peaceful, happiness, joy and always believing in something good. So, I welcome you to join me on this visual journey.
In My Feelings
by Diletta Innocenti Fagni , Rome, Italy
november,15 - november,30 2020
Diletta Innocenti Fagni was born in Florence in 1988.
She started studying art during high school and later decided to continue her studies in Rome. She graduated from the University of Rome in art, theater and film. Her work draws on mnemonic images and visual resources as starting points, looking for intimacy, emotions and identity, between present and past, real and unreal.
She mostly paints portraits and bodies captured in private moments, seeking the evocative power of images and exploring relationships, psychologies, feelings, connected to memories and dreams.
She lives and works between Rome and Tuscany.
You're Fired! I Quit!
by Sarah Schneiderman , Connecticut, USA
december,01 - december,15 2020
Historically, portraits, whether drawn, painted or sculpted, have been reserved for those deemed important enough to be honored with a work of art bearing their likeness. In the United States of America, the president and those surrounding him, were (and are) common subjects. My practice of portrait making starting in 2016 after the election of the 45th president of the United States. Usually, these artworks offer a favorable depiction of subject matter. If one looks at the official presidential portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, the vast majority of these painting are austere and formal. For all but two, the artist is a man.
This current white house is a different story. It has been in turmoil since this administration took office. In less than two years in office, this white house has had six communications directors as compared to five for the whole eight years of the Obama administration. The white house has been plagued with leaks, back-stabbing, contradictions, lies, and unrest. It has experienced a high number of turnovers, not just in communication. My portraits are reflective of this revolving door both in subject matter (Sally Yate, Michael Flynn, Katie Walsh to name a few) and the reuse of found and recycled objects and those items usually sent to the circular file.
My portraits are fractured, torn asunder, reflecting the chaos in this president’s white house.
In this same vein, when my portraits are viewed from afar, the viewer sees the likeness of the subject matter. They may even delight in being able to recognize the face or have warm feelings for someone they care about. The viewer may ask if these are paintings, photographs, or carefully constructed drawings made with a genuine love and caring for the person depicted. Upon further inspection, it is revealed that these artworks are made of garbage – torn and cut debris found on the streets or generated through daily living. One of the most common forms of trash is plastic. Toxic chemicals leach out of plastic and are found in the blood and tissue of nearly all of us and in wild fish. Exposure to them is linked to cancers, birth defects impaired immunity, endocrine disruption and other ailments. This work investigates our relationship to political figures and the environment and our visions: Is what we think we’re doing helpful or hurtful? Is what we see real or something else? Is this a treasure or merely trash?
EDGE
by Thu Nguyen , Hawaii, USA
december,15 - december,30 2020
"Selfies have changed aspects of social interaction, body language, self-awareness, privacy, and humor, altering temporality, irony, and public behavior. It’s become a new visual genre—a type of self-portraiture formally distinct from all others in history. Selfies have their own structural autonomy. This is a very big deal for art." Jerry Saltz
Dystopia of the Mind
by Or Williams , UK
january,01 - january,15 2021
In this solo exhibition, featuring 9 images from the new series Dystopia of the mind, 2020 I manipulate water colour paintings, digitally operate my daily diary entry images which respond to the roles of the mother-wife-housewife during COVID-19 pandemic and the way these roles affect women’s mental state. The role of the artist as a wife and a mother is hidden from the general discourse, however, the feelings surrounding it are always visible: fear, anger, pride and criticism are all visible through the texts and imagery, however, revealing them demands more than a quick glimpse.
This body of work is part of an ongoing research which challenges the role of the middle aged women within society, in particular pursuing an ideal of perfection that constantly changes through online performances, video and photography.
GESTURES and POSTURES
by Florencia Mabromata , ARGENTINA
january,15 - january,30 2021
I was born in Buenos Aires in the summer of '71.
The witches spoke of old Greek curses of family ancestors. I had a stuffed monkey with a striped shirt and the magical stories my father told me. Then it was only navigating between those black omens of the oracle and the incandescent brilliance of freedom and imagination. Between the fine embroidery of great-grandmother and the wild and curious nocturnal wandering. With eyes open in the middle of the city.
Paint, a lifetime. Even when I don't paint. An everyday necessitie. Art as a self-managing emotional movement where an instant of oneself materializes.
Reality is something like a dream ...
As if nothing were happening, coupling turbulence I traveled lonely paths and routes in uninhabitable lands. There were adventurous journeys, music, art and life and loves here and there.
There are ghosts that one invites to leave and angels that we call eager for blessing and care.
Paint always, a lifetime. Even when I don't paint.
I went to some workshops and art school some years ... various exhibitions.
Basically art is a creative impulse throughout my life.
Always paint. Even if I don't paint, I'm painting.
NORTHERN LIGHT
by Phil Leith-Tetrault, USA
february,15 - march,14 2021
Phil Leith-Tetrault is a visual artist, currently living in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated RIT's New Media Design program in 2007.
Leith-Tetrault pursues the idea of beauty in desolation with his artworks which are predominantly represent the landscapes. Leith-Tetrault’s work includes organic shapes in the form of old houses, mountains, trees, rocks, and flowers filled with vivid color and photographed textures. In his works the landscape begins to suggest physical and emotional feelings associated with its location.
Inspired by his childhood trips to Greenland, Newfoundland, and Northern Quebec, Leith-Tetrault emphasizes the pristine beauty of these environments as well as their loneliness and distance from the modern world. The landscapes suggest places free of society's grip, places without boundaries or rules. There, beauty and desolation are inseparable and reinforce one another.
INSOMNIA
by Patricia Borges, Brazil
march,15 - april,14 2021
Patricia Borges is a multimedia artist, currently living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She explore ideas of the time flow through her work which are predominantly photographs as a material for composing installations and three-dimensional art objects.
Borges graduated in architecture, photography, cinematography and screenplay; was awarded at the biennials in Florence and Rome. Her work has been featured in numerous publications and exhibitions around the world and it is part of major private collections.
INSOMNIA Photography Series had emerged during the pandemic time. Street light passing through the window at lockdown nights painted the darkness into the variations of different tones and colours. Borges said: "The light composes poetic abstractions dandled by a lethargic state that accompanies me in the darkest hours. It is a diluted landscape.The eternal vigil of those who do not sleep lulls the shadows and defies conscience in a long silence. It is hard to tell if ones eyes are opened or closed. I inhabit a place between the sleep and the dream."
I Miss You, Karl
by Pengpeng Wang, China
april,15 - may,14 2021
Pengpeng Wang is a multimedia artist, currently living in Milan and Florence, Italy. He was born in 1991 in Heilongjiang, China. Ph.D. candidate in History of Art, Aesthetics, Languages of the Image at University of Salerno. In 2011 he studied Industrial Design at Beijing University of Chemical Technology. During his graduation period, he was an exchange student in Visual Communication and Art Market Design at Nantai University of Science and Technology and National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. He moved to Italy at 2016, studied Italian and Culture at Dante Alighieri Society in Florence, and subsequently studied Visual Arts and New Expressive Languages at Academy of Fine Arts in Florence with Master of Fine Arts graduation. He followed his second master in Cultural Planning, Art, Design, Cultural Enterprise at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Politecnico Milano from 2019 to 2020. In 2019, he founded an international art company in Beijing and collaborated with A60 Contemporary Art Space in Milan and Florence. He has extensive experience in the world of contemporary art creating solo and group exhibitions together with the reporting of prizes and competitions. His works have been exhibited in different countries: United States of America, China, Hong Kong (China), South Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Spain, England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and so on.
In the series of "I Miss You, Karl», which began in 2017, Wang wanted to explore and express is an emotional state of relationship roles and identities for relatives, partners and friends. Wang’s works reflect the theme of encounters and farewells with different people in his life. He said: «Silk ribbons, they occasionally intersect and occasionally parallel, but they are all independent. This independent relationship builds a picture. The interlaced relationship in the picture is like our social relationship: group and individual, identity and culture, society and Country.... There are many invisible nets that connect us to each other and build multiple and replicated relationships. Human beings can never break the bondage to group relations. We have a strong desire to communicate with other people, convey and express our own emotions and states. This is what I hope to express in my work, through "I Miss You, Karl" to show the essential phenomena and interpersonal relationships in our lives."
Absurdist Dreams
by Hannah Thomas, UK
may,15 - june,14 2021
The search for ‘personal meaning in the midst of the impersonal absurd’
(Worlds of Existentialism – Maurice Friedman)
"My painting process is instinctive, I work fairly quickly without a lot of traditional planning or sketching. Cautious about easy repetition, I am always experimenting and taking my own road, keen to keep the process exciting and fresh, taking me somewhere new.
Mine is a tactile process and I use a variety of techniques to apply and then partially remove materials from the canvas. I use acrylics as their quick drying and adaptable properties suit my fast and instinctive painting process.
The aim is a multi layered and textural result, with half seen elements and hints of movement, and undercurrent of darkness.
I want the work to feel visceral and energised, even a little overwhelming in its levels of activity and layers, because that is a taste of life - that messiness; the eye seeking out a safe haven and failing to find it."
In the Moment
by Lesya Karebina, RUSSIA
august,01 - september,01 2021
Lesya Karebina is a visual artist, currently living in Voronezh, Russia. She explores ideas of relationship between the person and world around him through her artworks which are predominantly created as abstract paintings.
Karebina is expanding the boundaries of perception, strengthening and exposing connections with the world of her own emotions through the prism of broad color strokes and glazes.
Color is the main driving force behind Karebina's creativity. Bright, rich, life-affirming color palette is used predominantly.
This approach reflects Karebina’s philosophy in her life - «To extract the maximum joy from every day and to accept the negative as an indisputable fact of being, reflecting, but not getting hung up».
For Karebina, the artistic process is akin of meditation, which is the more important than the finished concept.
Déjà-vu
by Doménico CV Talarico, GERMANY
september,01 - october,01 2021
Doménico CV Talarico is a figurative painter and bon vivant who lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
His style takes inspiration from the era of French Art Déco and combines it with a contemporary and reduced form of modern portraiture to build a bridge between the past and the present.
Talaricos artworks are shown in numerous exhibitions across Europe, they are part of several private collections located for instance in Vienna, Paris and Brussels. He is part of the Enter Art Foundation in Berlin and founder of the Marzipan Collective.
"My figurative, but abstract style of painting, combined with a fresh, pastel-colored palette, developed from the urge to bring a nostalgic aesthetic and a sense of beauty into the here now: contemporary vintage, neo art deco are terms that come to mind. Provocation through beauty bordering on kitsch, but never exceeding it. An act of balance that I find very important to discover. I want to elicit the courage from the viewer to find something beautiful to be good. At the same time, the aspect of the forgotten, real people plays a major role in my work. The fading of identities in the face of time is a thought that is still relevant today. What is left of you when you are no longer there? We only exist as long as there is someone who remembers us. My work should be like a mirror in your own world of thoughts and motivate others to deal with themselves."
Punto de Partida
by Moises Ramos, USA
october,01 - november,01 2021
Moises is a Puerto Rican artist whose artwork has been presented in several galleries and collective art shows in the USA and abroad. Ramos has also received various awards for his mixed media, engravings, and B&W photography throughout his career. He was the recipient of the Memphis Wood Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009 and the Cultural Council of Jacksonville Art Educator of the Year Award in 2010. Today he works as an artist and educator residing in Florida.
"I created the series because of the negative way immigrants are portrayed in the media. The work is based on portraits of people who came to the USA at the turn of the century. The goal is to spark the conversation about diversity, acceptance, understanding, and to see that immigration brings fresh ideas and unique challenges that will enrich our society. I believe that educating future and past generations to accept our differences and fight for equality help use connect with each other. "
METAMORPHOSIS
by Catarina Diaz, UK
november,01 - december,01 2021
Catarina Diaz is London-based analog collage and mixed media artist with a Portuguese soul.
"I drew and painted since ever, inspired by my very artistic family. I spent my early infancy in Africa, and when I moved to Portugal at the age of five, my mother, my very first art mentor, coloured my early memories with a vibrant colour palette. The deep orange African sunsets, the vibrant pink flamingos and the magenta of the bougainvillaea were burnt into my imagination.
After a career in Teaching, PR and International Relations in Portugal, alongside which I was always creating, I embraced the cosmopolitan life of London, which became another daily inspiration for my art.
As an artist, I relish exploring various mediums and techniques. I particularly enjoy using oil-sticks and acrylics on paper and canvas in an abstract style, combining them with analog collage.
A seminal masterclass with Royal Academician David Mach opened analog collage and mixed media to me in a completely unexpected way, and I have never stopped creating since.
I consider my art an invitation to reconnect to nature and ourselves. By juxtaposing urban life and nature, my pieces aim to evoke contemplation, and ultimately, a return to memories of more serene times as the start of a self-healing journey.
The enigmatic feminine figures akin to the relaxed presence of the wild motifs which serve as recreation of my own identity and suggest that nature can offer us the ability to restore tranquillity in a chaotic world. This is my inspiration: a message of hope and beauty, life and rebirth."
HEADSPACE
by Pollyanna, Philippines
december,012021- february,01 2022
Pollyanna is a 25 year old visual artist & illustrator from Philippines. Her artworks are made from her own traditional drawings and photography which she transforms by using digital art tools. She recently shifted into full digital illustration on her works and illustrations.
She took up Certificate of Fine Arts majoring in Visual Communication in the University of the Philippines. And has started to participate in group exhibitions Internationally. She also won international awards for some of her works.
She creates resonating art - Most of her works are portraits inspired by the concept of subtle emotionality, highlighting the beauty and strength of vulnerability and human emotions. Which often displays a mix of distorted abstract, figurative elements blending in with the subject matter creating dreamlike surreal pieces.
As an artist, Pollyanna aims to show the beauty and the force hidden behind human emotions and fragility through the series of works exhibited in “HEADSPACE”.
In the works exhibited, she aims to reflect the intimate and entrenched struggles in our head, while showing the importance of being able to process and let go. Fiercely showing outside who we are, and what makes us beautifully human.
She believes that art can catalyse discussions around untouchable topics. And Art’s capacity to transform, heal and strengthen. By this, she channels her own struggles into her work to create art people can relate to on an emotional level. Focusing on self acceptance, and shedding light on mental health. Hoping to communicate this to people, she seeks to highlight how it is pertinent that we acknowledge our inner feelings as human beings.