Hunt Slonem was born in 1951 in Kittery, York County Maine. He is a renowned American painter, sculptor, and printmaker. Slonem is best known for his abstract depictions of animals, specifically Birds, Butterflies, and Bunnies.  His whimsicality has captured the hearts of many across the globe, enchanting us all with a phenomenal power to elevate and inspire effortlessly. His works can best be described as monumental and uplifting as these forces certainly are the cornerstones of his inspiration. His pieces draw upon a spiritual connection celebrating nature, animals, and history. This bond stems from a love of exotic birds, as he has over 90 of them in his studio, painting them from life almost every day.  His travels around the world since a young age has brought much passion for landscapes, as his father was in the Navy, living in Hawaii, Nicaragua to Mexico.  And lastly, his unique joy in preserving historic homes has brought him to collect over 8 historic properties in the US, realizing too many of the country’s architectural gems have fallen into disrepair, bringing them back to their original beauty while decorating them with genuine antiques and his own creations.

Hunt possesses a unique gift, a gift that stretches far beyond his creations in art. Stepping inside his studio is an experience to behold. It is like stepping into a magical world, where you feel anything is possible; similar to the feelings you get when gazing at one of his enchanting paintings. The music of birds echoes and creates the soundtrack while enjoying other treasures placed perfectly in the design of his studio. You can find a family of harps positioned in a centered arrangement, a forest of tropical plants in another, objects and vases situated and resituated, as Slonem is inspired by the decorations arranged almost daily with-in this seemingly endless stretch of space. And that’s not all, there is a collection of antique top hats rested on top of a 19th Century French table, a dining table set with gorgeous china wear ready for a dinner party at any moment, marble inlaid tables and busts, Gothic furniture with his own fabric designs, and his incredible birds that have the freedom to fly where they desire.

These collections surely fuel his creativity as Slonem finds that collecting gives an exciting element to his artistic process, as placing objects and arranging the rooms with in his studio acts as a cathartic experience. Most of his paintings are housed in a wonderful antique frame that is sourced from all around the world, some of which date back to the Rococo period as far as the 17th Century. His pieces exhibit a true ethereal quality, which is no wonder why they go together so effortlessly. And this is just a small glimpse into the phenomenal reality of this prolific artist's studio.

Recently Slonem has been shown at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. In 2017 and 2018, he will be featured by the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the National Gallery in Bulgaria, and Slonem’s works can be found in the permanent collections of 250 museums around the world, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Whitney, the Miro Foundation and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Eric Alfaro was born in 1991 and is best known for his lily pad series, Koi fish, and Saint-Cloud porcelain vases with flowers. Alfaro is a Cuban artist recognized for his distinct contemporary style that blends elements of the past with today’s fast-paced lifestyle. He graduated from the Academy of Arts in Cuba and APAP (Provincial Academy of FINE Arts) Raúl Martínez of Morón, Ciego de Ávila, Cuba. Now based in the United States, Alfaro is inspired by history and the great impressionists of the 19th Century. He describes his current artist expression as having been influenced by the great painters of different periods in history, working in various styles, hyperrealism is present in a large portion of his compositions.

His paintings have been exhibited internationally, participating in exhibitions in several events and art institutions like MOCANOMI (Museum of Contemporary Art of North Miami ) and Contemporary Art Fairs in Miami, New York, Italy, and Luxembourg. He has participated in various exhibitions such as the “Copperfest” Arts Festival in North Miami, Florida, United States; and at the “Paratissima” Contemporary Art Fair in Torino, Italy. His pieces can also be found in private art collections in Cuba, the United States and abroad, as well as permanent collections from institutions like the Copperbridge Art Foundation; the company F&F Media Corp., and in the collection of the Lincoln Center Orchestra, in New York.

His artworks have been published in the Spanish magazine CdeCuba Art Magazine, Artists & illustrator’s Magazine from the UK, International Artist Magazine in the US, and The Four Seasons Magazine. Also in two published books that showcase a selection of his works from the earliest moments (beginnings) in his career until 2021. In recent years Alfaro’s works can be found in the public space, creating several large murals in the city of Miami.

From 2010 to the present date he has been developing his work between painting, drawing, and sculpture through different series ranging from portraiture to landscape. His approach and his results are constantly evolving as he perfects his style. With an extensive artistic career, Alfaro is motivated by romanticism, bold brushwork, and thirst for storytelling, as he approaches each project with total enthusiasm and dedication, always looking for the next opportunity to reflect his everyday experiences through his artistic expression.

Inspired by whimsey and purity of the feminine form, Cindy Shaoul is known for her impressionistic and abstract style. She is best recognized for her series ‘Brides’, ‘Dripping Dots’ and ‘Hearts’, as well as her ‘Plein-Air’ street scenes of quintessential New York locations. Shaoul’s works can be found in hundreds of private and corporate collections worldwide.

Since her first group show at Parsons School of Design in 2009, her work has been showcased internationally – from Italy to South Korea – and has been shown at various art fairs nationwide including Miami, Palm Beach, Dallas, and New York. Shaoul has had numerous solo exhibitions and has garnered the attention of notable celebrities such as Emma Roberts, Lily Collins, Ashley Park, Catherine Deneuve and John Malkovich.

Her love of painting began at the age of 18 when she was on Thanksgiving break from college. She painted a 9-foot colorful, abstract mural in her mother’s art studio and has been painting ever since. Shaoul later traveled to Israel and Hungary, and studied abroad for 2 years at the Budai Art Institute, which created lifelong experiences that still influence her art today.

Upon her return to New York City, she continued her artistic education at the Art Students League, working under the tutelage of Joseph Peller, Gregg Kreutz, and Tom Torak, where she learned techniques from the great masters of impressionism. But it wasn’t until she met renowned street artist LA II (Angel Oritz) - who previously worked with Keith Haring - that her work would become strongly influenced by street art and graffiti, propelling her reputation and pushing her into the city’s explosive urban art scene. Shaoul and LA II worked on a collection that was an homage to New York’s streets, where Ortiz and Haring began collaborating when they first met. This style of creation heavily impacted Shaoul’s technique, expanding her voice of discovery and moving her hand, not only from impressionism, but to boundary-free expressions in the abstract world.

While Shaoul honed her skill at the Art Students League, in her studio ‘Dripping Dots’ began a whole new aesthetic. This abstract style started as she would clean her brushes and leftover paint from her pallet onto a new canvas, not to waste the leftover oils, and soon, the motion of cleaning turned into dots on the canvas. She began connecting the dots with linseed oil and this is how the motif of ‘dripping’ was imprinted. For her, it would become a freeing moment while painting abstractly after going to school and learning the impressionist technique. The experience of discovery with color and emotion in the brushwork became very cathartic, and felt familiar from the times she would collaborate with LA II.

Shaoul would continue to explore new themes in her work. In 2018 she began the ‘Brides’ series which balances her love for impressionism with an abstract hand. While exploring the purity of the feminine form and the drama of French haute couture, she would create a dialogue between the figurative and the abstract. ‘Brides’ would give a new meaning of expression to her practice, and allowed nuances to emerge, demonstrating a whimsical expression of femininity and formality adding a stunning display of awe-inspiring grandeur to her work.

Later, in 2019 she began ‘Hearts’, an extension of her love for abstraction. In this collection, she would fuse a symbol into the abstract. First, she uses a pallet knife to slather thick and rich impasto oil paint directly onto the canvas. Creating worlds of color and rich textures, an exciting new technique that she would become fixated on, allowing the flow of oils to speak for themselves while loading up the pallet knife with several different colors at once. Uncovering how the different colors would interact with one another is what motivates Shaoul in this series. The wild and exotic forms of paint would then propel her to find the colors for the heart that layer on top with a thick brush over the mesmerizing colors. The hearts are then titled after fun themes like ‘candy’, ‘ice cream’, or more spiritual statements like ‘follow your heart’, and ‘free your heart’. The hearts would become a tribute to feelings of independence, childhood memories, and moments of love that inspire and excite.

Publications (Vanity Fair, LUXE, Authority, Aspire Design & Home, among others) have written about her work. Her studio is a vibrant and exciting place that is ever-changing with art pieces, tables lined with oil paint tubes, backgrounds for hearts, and new and worked-on canvases that line the walls. In 2011 she began her journey as a singer and songwriter creating music alongside painting. She lives and works in New York.

For more than a decade, Thierry Guetta, under his moniker, Mr Brainwash, has been pushing the envelope of contemporary art. The orchestrated collision of street art and pop art has been his balancing act. The tipping point for Mr Brainwash was his groundbreaking footage from the widely-acclaimed documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop. This Academy-nominated film
demonstrates the evolution of the street art movement with Mr Brainwash, who, alongside Banksy, brings the art to the masses. Navigating between worlds of film, celebrity culture, music, and sports, Mr Brainwash has cemented his legacy in the world of art.

From the very moment he emerged, Mr Brainwash rocked the art world with his innovative and fearless style. He uses elements from pop art’s past and the raw components of his street art beginnings to create larger-than-life exhibitions and collaborations. Mr. Brainwash’s imaginative construction of gallery exhibitions and art shows throughout the world has continued to attract the attention of critics and celebrities alike.

Mr Brainwash has designed album covers for Madonna, Rick Ross, and KYGO. His artwork was featured in films and television productions such as Molly’s Game, Billions, Shameless, and The Kardashians. Mr. Brainwash’s talents are showcased in creative partnerships with powerhouse brands like Hublot, Coca-Cola, and Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee He also collaborated with world-known soccer player Pelé, who joined the artist in splattering paint on select artwork.

Mr Brainwash’s passion extends his commitment to giving back to the community. He continues to donate artwork in support of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, created commemorative 9/11 murals to honor the victims, and partnered with Product RED to raise AIDS awareness. Mr Brainwash also lends his yearly support to organizations such as the Prince’s Trust for the benefit of vulnerable youth. He met with former First Lady Michelle Obama in support of her organization, “Let Girls Learn” which helps adolescent girls attend and complete school. He was also honored to meet privately with Pope Francis in Rome to raise funds for Scholas, the Pope’s personal foundation to serve the youth of the world.

On December 18th, 2022 Thierry Guetta inaugurated The Mr Brainwash Art Museum, with the ongoing exhibition Enter Through the Museum, a nod to Exit Through the Gift Shop, and the first Contemporary Art Museum in the world created and run by a living artist.  As a restless creator and pop culture analyst-catalyst, Mr Brainwash sees the museum as an all-ages art playground, a new platform to express uplifting messages bringing hope, positivity, and beauty to the Beverly Hills community, Angelenos, and world visitors.

Inspired by vibrance and an optimistic outlook on life, Ash Almonte is recognized for her distinct abstract expressionistic style. She is best known for her series of Chandeliers, Butterflies, and Fashion from the Seventh Avenue Design District. Almonte's award-winning works can be found in private and permanent collections around the world. She is motivated by change, compassion for others, and miraculous phenomena that can impact others for good. 

Her flair and admiration for fashion and art have been a staple of her life since childhood. As a young girl, she would experiment using anything she could find to make art; from tearing apart bushel baskets at her father’s fruit stand, to tearing out old magazine clippings from her mother's magazine collection; anything and everything around her could potentially be used to create.  She would continue to seek out opportunities throughout her young adult years, as her love for fashion grew, allowing her to collaborate with celebrity stylists creating looks for top billboard artists, as well as apparel worn at New York Fashion Week for designers Sherri Hill and Alice + Olivia. These experiences imbued her with an appreciation for couture, that would propel and influence her unique style today. 

After graduating with a BFA in Fine Arts from McMurry University, Almonte continued to hone her craft, dedicating her life to art and nurturing her mission to bridge the healing power of creativity with others around the globe. Reaching out to help teens in foster care, and is passionate about her work with "Hopefully Sow", an organization dedicated to better serving teens in foster care, 10 percent of all her sales go to support this effort and mission. For Ash, her practice is more than creating, it's an opportunity to give back to further impact the world for good and allow her to share light, which is also a common theme in her work. 

In 2011 Ash began the Chandelier Series, where she felt compelled to portray an inner mantra with her audience, that light is a fuel in which we all connect and how important it is for her to share this very sentiment. She goes on to explain: "We all have a light inside of us and that light is how we connect in some realm; whether it be a mentor, a friend, a stranger, a nurse. It is this innate human connection that brings us together and for me, a chandelier represents the complexity and beauty of this and so the idea of providing this light for one another is what motivates me in this collection." Using a technique of thick brushstrokes and bright, bold colors with resin and other varnishes, her canvases glimmer and shine, much like the inner voice that Ash communicates with her viewer, and the spark of Joie de vivre that fuels her purpose in life to create. 

Almonte is constantly developing her aesthetic, today she further breaks the barriers of how she applies paint onto the canvas by carefully manipulating her dried acrylic pallet. She cuts and reapplies the leftover paint onto new works of art, creating a refreshing and unique design that gives her work a new dimension and a more 3D-like feel. Almonte continues to draw great inspiration from the theme of rapture and positivity generating palpable connections to the world through her art. She is passionate about using art for philanthropic endeavors and giving back to those in need. Her artworks have been exhibited and collected worldwide, including Austin Texas, Germany, Los Angeles, New York, and Hong Kong, and featured in publications like Paper City Magazine, TRIBEZA Austin and TX Lifestyle & Travel Magazine, as well as featured in major motion pictures as well as episodes of HGTV’s Bargain Mansions.

Gieler was born in 1982 in the Netherlands. In the late 90’s he began experimenting with graffiti in Amsterdam. For years, he remained active with spraying letters on walls and as he got older, graffiti evolved in street-art and he also started to experiment on canvas. The street influences can still be recognized and by using hand torn collected street posters, he is able to compose unique images on canvas captivating the viewer with the voice of the people and his own. Blending urban elements in a highly intricate way, he creates beautiful compositions that differentiate him from his counterparts. Since 2014 he has been diligently creating this body of work by replicating the captivating beauty of pop icons with his own style. As an emerging artist from The Netherlands, his collage works are always being provided with posters he collects from walls out of the streets; he has developed a technique of ”Sustainable art" which gives a living and edgy character to his paintings. He also uses other old materials, like damaged brushes, blunt stanleyknives or other older and sometimes broken tools. Since by working with these tools and materials the result is always more surprising and exciting.

Antoinette Ferwerda is a renowned Australian artist largely recognized for producing a bold collection of fine artwork that joyfully explores the geometry of shape and the changing light from dusk to dawn. Championing her love for shape, reflection, and nature using a diverse pallet of mixed media to portray her abstract interpretations of nature. Antoinette's diverse past and a childhood that was somewhat nomadic has inspired much of her work today. Antoinette’s backstory reads like something out of an adventure series, having spent her early days living in remote pockets of Papua New Guinea, where she was lucky to spend time in a seaside shack on Ela Beach in Port Moresby, as well as the volcanic town of Rabaul, the Cargo Port Lae, before moving on to Darwin where her Dad worked for the Red Cross and helped with the re-build process after Cyclone Tracy. This was followed by a family stint in Europe, visiting Netherlands, London, Belgium, France, Italy, and Switzerland, before finally settling back in Melbourne for her formative years.

Her love for nature and exploring the patterns and relationships she finds within started early. “I’ve been forever fascinated with color and the magical interplay of light”. “Blessed to have a teacher Mum who fostered regular creative time during our nomadic stint, my childhood was largely spent creating, especially outdoors”. Never without a pen, sketchbook or scraps of paper, her natural ability to create in layers instinctively started in these early years. Although her work continues to evolve, she consistently creates works that are rich in layers, resulting in pieces that are optimistic, luminous and full of stories from her colorful life.

Her signature work is abundant with color and texture, resulting in a transparent quality to her works. Adaptable to any palette, Antoinette has produced works from a diversity of spectrums and mediums – sun-soaked, muted and ethereal, vibrant, as well as monochromatic with accents of gold. Her themes include abstract and metaphysical interpretations of fossicking in rock pools, exploring the rolling hills of the countryside both here and abroad, the rock formations of the Australian outback and the magical light of a European summer to name just a few. Her dream and longing to become an artist became a reality after starting her own family and farewelling a corporate life in the pharmaceutical industry, with her debut solo exhibition in 2014.

Six years on, Antoinette has fast become a firm favorite amongst interior designers, stylists and home decorators alike, having been represented by fenton&fenton, Thom Gallery and Trit House (formally Click On Furniture) to name just a few. Continually experimenting and evolving as an artist, Antoinette invites the viewer to look deeper through surface layers to find hidden stories of color and form. Past collections have been inspired by visits to the bustling markets of India, the morning light outside her childhood beach shack in Papua New Guinea, fossicking in Australian rock pools and the romantic interplay of light that a European Summer brings. Antoinette’s most colorful and expansive collection to date is currently in the making and will launch in June 2019, coinciding with the unveiling of her working studio transformation. Wonderland is brilliant, bold and alive with vibrant hues.

Laila Jalallar is best known for her hand-cut paper butterflies, floating together in suspension forming themes of Hope, Love, and inspiration. Each butterfly is hovered in mid-air, individually with pins and clustered together to form icons, symbols, and words against the backdrop of fun and exciting canvases.

These works conjure sensations of nostalgia, created from maps, cutting out words, symbols, and places to create feelings of unity within the piece. Standing in juxtaposition with the contrast to clean, pixelated designs that the butterflies form, Laila emulates Robert Indiana's famous "Love" and "Hope", as well as Hearts, and the theme of "Home," which pops off the canvas in three-dimension.

With a background in the art business and collecting, Laila is a self-taught artist based in New Jersey. She combines her love of paper, art history, and design to create works that are fresh and thought-provoking.

Kim Jae Il was born in 1969 in Seoul, Korea. Kim Jae Il's process of expression is hiding and burrowing to make the image and appearance visible. His forms differ with every work displaying themselves by perspective and sculpturesque convention. He believes in expressing the objects and ideas farther dynamically, assuring the works cannot be plane figures; existing somewhere between cubic and plane concepts by containing flat structures. Creating 3-dimension sculptural expressions and 2-dimension pictorial expressions, in one screen, is how Kim Jae Il's work is best described. Forming a unique process of intaglio, materializing several traces of our surroundings. It is his own language to engrave his vestige, unwilling to lose this in his works.

Kim Jae Il earned his B.F.A and M.F.A at Hong Ik University in Seoul Korea. He has had numerous solo and Group Exhibitions through out Europe, Asia, and the US including, Korea, Hong Kong, New York, and Miami. His works have been a part of many important collections through out the world and he has received Awards from the Seoul Museum of Art, the National Museum of Contemporary art in Korea, and a Contemporary Sculpture award in Seoul Gallery. He is a member of Hongik Sculptor's Association, the Korean Sculptor's Association and the Korean Fine Arts Association.

- Artist’s Exhibition "COLLECTIVE" -

- Artist’s Exhibition "FOUND VESTIGES" -

- Artist’s Biography -

Gee Gee Collins was born in Atlanta, Georgia. She studied painting under Michael Phillips at the College of Charleston and received a bachelor's degree in Fine Art from the University of Georgia. She also traveled and studied at Lamar Dodd School of Art in Cortona, Italy. From the start of her career, she has been captivated by bright colors and the essence of minimalism. Her bold brush strokes and colorful palette combine to create layers of paint that give each piece a history and an ethereal quality. She approaches the canvas with ease and spontaneity, resulting in paintings filled with energy and movement.

Gee Gee is best known for her abstract paintings exploring unique pallets with line and texture. She is heavily influenced by Joan Mitchell, Franz Kline, and Matisse. After intensely studying the ever-changing world of fashion and eccentric colors used in mixed media, Gee Gee has blossomed her style into an array of extravagant design. She follows forms which evoke organic lines and whimsy, triggering a sense of fun and elegance within each work. Using the theme of fashion but also playing with the theme of femininity, Gee Gee creates pieces which exhibit a strong sense of lust and beauty, while effortlessly depicting her subjects with the use of shape and color. Her pattern creates abstract paintings that explore an environment ever changing, shaped by pigmentation and a balance struck between beauty and chaos.

Today Gee Gee creates in her studio and a lot of her style is influenced by a free spirit and we can feel this freedom in the movement and use of her colors, a strong sense of lust and beauty, while effortlessly depicting her subjects with the use of shape and color. Her mother is a Fine artist, and for her growing up, she was constantly surrounded by art and fashion, as her mother also owned a chain of woman’s clothing stores. Gee Gee was constantly exposed to new trends and exciting colors in textile and design; where a lot of this exposure has transcended into her body of work today. As a mother, she is nurturing this lineage of art to her kids, allowing them to grow freely into their own.

Gee Gee is also heavily influenced by her studies under Michael Phillips. At the age of 18, she was able to capture her style freely, as Phillips techniques emphasize the theory of “no rules;” a completely liberating experience for Gee Gee, as she was able to thoroughly express herself with no boundaries. She was also introduced to artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Mother Well, and Cy Twombly, who guided her in her exploration as a young artist. This was a truly exciting time for her because at such a young age she didn’t feel the pressure of restriction in art. And today, we can feel this heavily in her execution. Collins’s works are featured in "100 Artists of the Midwest", a prominent book which takes a fresh look at 100 living artists from the Midwest, their personal stories, and inspirations, along with several examples of their works.

John Stango is America’s artist, born and raised in working-class Philadelphia in 1958. Today, John stands as the Frontier of Modern American Pop Art, best known for his distinctive imagery and multifaceted mosh up style paintings. Using methods of both silk-screen done by hand in studio, and freehand painting, we are drawn to his use of bright colors, and animated characters leaving us in a dizzying yet profound world of his own.

John carries the pop art movement into the 21st Century with his powerful play on iconic trends and household names. He builds this upon 1950’s tradition, infusing it with a new, vibrant, colorful, and masculine approach. Musicians, art collectors, politicians, actors, and professional athletes alike prize his work and can be found in stadiums, corporate offices, and galleries across the country.

Frances Elaine Rockwell, John’s mother, was a talented painter with her family’s heritage tracing back to famed American artist Norman Rockwell. Early in life, John’s teachers noticed his unique artistic talent and although he defied his family’s wishes by attending Tyler School of Art at Temple University, John quickly began to hone his gift and stood out among his class. One professor noted that he was one artist everyone noticed.

Graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Graphic Design, John drew the attention of Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s department stores who hired him as a visual merchandiser and display artist. John soon began to create original silk-screened t-shirts that his former employers chose to carry in their stores and as his reputation in the region continued to grow, he turned his attention and energy to painting full time. For the past 30 years John has been working actively out of a large backwoods warehouse in Philadelphia.

As well, John draws artistic inspiration from retro advertising, pop icons, B-movies, mid-century modernism, magazines, noir films, vintage signage and all things pop-culture. Forming a unique combination of both silk-screening and hand painting, John creates pieces that are all at once nostalgic and modern. He is defined by intense brush strokes, painting with his body using explosions of color, aggressive textures, jarring contrasts and intense highlights. His subjects usually consist of iconic bombshell women, designer logos, sports heroes, stewardesses, Americana images, all while competing with and complementing one another, yielding exceptional compositions we are instantly drawn to. Batman, Elvis, Audrey Hepburn, Lucky Strike, Mickey Mouse, and Heineken all find themselves reborn in John’s paintings time and time again, all while using an element of surprise.

JM Robert was born and raised in Macon, a small country town in the French region of Burgundy in 1987. JM Robert started painting at a very young age before getting an Art and decoration degree at the Beaux-Arts School in Paris. He studied graphic design and décor at the Métiers d'Art in Paris where he learned and refined his technique, in particular, that of trompe l'oeil. Today he strives to create paintings that draw from his experiences from a young age, expanding into impressive and powerful canvases. His work is characterized by a pictorial act in two phases. He first uses different techniques such as graffiti, scratching and scraping with knives and trowels to mimic the effects of patina, dirt, and degradation. Following the fluidity of this first layer, a face begins to appear in the eyes of the artist before he begins to paint his muse. He then hand-draws this face in black to simulate stencil work.

Scarcely evoked, the facial features are already vanishing. It seems that the faces were sketched, but did not have time to be completely formed. It is also a trace of an anonymous passage, a presence that is fragile, precarious, and always feminine. His abstract backgrounds of bright and flashy colors contrast with the black graphic by which he captures characteristic expressions of female faces. On his canvases, colors burst into a myriad of fragments that no longer manage to find their meaning to take shape. The use of vivid colors often help to classify his work in the category of pop art but he crosses the boundaries of style to create pieces which exude a timeless emotion, bridging classical and contemporary, creating a completely unique style of his own.

Ruins and damaged walls of big cities full of rough-cast, bits of tags and old posters fascinate him and became the source of his inspiration. What is the passage of time? What is left of our presence in a place? What trace do we leave of our passage on earth? These are the questions that artist JM Robert raises in his works. There are sad, joyful, sometimes distant looks. But these faces are always in the hope of something, a trace of life in a chaotic setting as in Pompeii or Hiroshima, Robert wants to represent the shadow of these figures. He picks up these feminine faces from everyday life, in his opinion, they bear witness of our time.

He exhibits in France, Hong-Kong and has done many live performances in street art festivals and collage around the world. Lilac Gallery is proud to be presenting his first solo exhibition in America.

LA II (Angel Ortiz) was born in 1967 in the Lower East Side of New York, New York. Also known for the artistic names LA II, LA2, or LA Rock which stands for “Little Angel” are often seen as tags in his artwork. LA II began his career when he met Keith Haring in 1980 at the age of 13. Being one of the most recognizable Graffiti artists from the Lower East Side in the 1980’s Ortiz collaborated side by side with Keith Haring for a number of projects. Having dropped out of High School in Manhattan, New York in 1983, he traveled around the world working with Keith Haring until 1985.

LA II is for Haring what Jean-Michel Basquiat was for Andy Warhol. Today LA II is considered an iconic graffiti artist, being unearthed from the massive power of Keith Haring’s body of work. LA II’s role in Haring’s artistic development is clearly delineated by the unique and original look of their co-produced works. Fortunately, LA II is still alive, and his career is in its prime. LA II has a very collaborative nature. He seeks to work with other artists giving a characterization of his unique calligraphic patterns and lines to each piece. He has worked with dozens of artists in the art market today. Some of these names include Richard Hamilton, a number of street artists from the LES, Delta 2, Ero, and Cindy Shaoul. LA II's Urban Art style and graffiti heavily influenced Keith Haring’s work. If it is to be found the LA II, LA2, or LA Rock tag within a Haring artwork, then the piece was produced in a collaborative effort between Keith Haring and LA II.

LA II complimented Haring’s “empty space” drawings, Angel Ortiz helped fill out Haring’s drawings. Haring said, “All the work [Angel and I did] was about surface and usually covers or transforms the object it is applied to”. Haring and LA II combined their styles to create an overall surface of intermingling lines. They worked on Day-Glo painted plaster sculptures, real objects, or room-sized installations with graffiti writing that mixed with contemporary and ancient symbols that Keith loved so much. They worked on hundreds of works until Keith Haring’s death in 1990. LA II and Haring were constant creative partners for almost six years of Haring’s decade-long career. Their collaboration produced hundreds of admired, sought-after and valuable pieces, which are exhibited in galleries worldwide, from New York to Tokyo to Europe. This partnership mirrored that of Braque and Picasso, except, unlike LA II, Braque was given due recognition for his work. It is also to be noted that in Keith’s own writing, LA II was always mentioned as a part of Keith’s history. It would seem that critics, business people, and even art historians have “overlooked”, or perhaps omitted, the crucial role of LA II in the history, development, and impact of Keith Haring’s body of work.

The influence that LA II garnered over Keith Haring by meshing their creativity produced some of the most iconic works of art that exist in the art market today. Among some selected exhibitions in which LA II has participated are: Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York City, with Keith Haring in 1982, in 1983 alongside Keith Haring at the Fun Gallery, New York City, at the Galerie Watari, Tokyo, Japan, at the Robert Fraser Gallery, London, United Kingdom, at the Special Projects Paint Fiorucci, Milan, Italy, in 1990 Future Primeval Queens Museum, Flushing Meadows and Corona Park, New York with Keith Haring, Follin Gallery, New York City in 2001, Clayton Patterson Outlaw Museum, New York City in 2002, LA II & Keith Haring, Due amici a New York in 2003, Scope Art Fair, Los Angeles, California in 2004, and Galleria Leonardo Galerie, Bolzano, Italy in 2005. After his work with Haring ended, LA II continued to make his own artwork fighting to make his past and current work more well-known. In 2008 he was famously caught tagging his name in a restored Haring outdoor mural without permission and in 2011 he went to jail for one month due to graffiti around Manhattan. LA II lives in New York, New York, and works to continue creating graffiti art with a promising art career ahead.

Rudi Sgarbi was born in 1975 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Rudi Sgarbi is a versatile artist in search for a language that overcomes technical frontiers. The difference between his work and that of experimental and performance artists is that he always tries to associate art to well-being. 

His creative production is a libel in favor of democratization of Fine Arts and leads us to believe that every work of art can indeed be in perfect harmony with the environment in which it is placed. His root in desing and decoration makes him tirelessly seeking the discovery of a large and multifaceted language in an attempt to prove that regardless of the complexity of a work it can fit any space.

His referrals are the most diverse possible. From classical artists he inherits the meticulous and complex labor of those who study biases of all artistic possibilities; from contemporary ones, the courage to expose and to recreate himself, and the attempt to achieve a multifaceted work that bears his signature .

Noting the influences of the past and the everyday, Rudi Sgarbi is always looking for new materials and new techniques of implementation. This search recreates and gives new meaning to his own versatility, making him not restricted to just one style or a certain material, enabling his own process to be a symbolic/artistic interaction, where intuition is always in the first place.

- Artist’s Exhibition "COLLECTIVE" -

A native New Yorker, Christie Owen lives in Edmond, Oklahoma and is known for her geometric 2D and 3D, minimalistic compositions. Her works are included in local and national museums, galleries, public venues, private collections, and retail locations. Owen’s approach is to find visual solutions and utilize a variety of tools, mediums, and applications to transfer concepts and techniques from project to project. Her motivation is to simultaneously unite harmony within each work, going back and forth between controlling the brush without intention and careful planning. The materials Owen uses help guide the process while always searching for new combinations. Being both a designer and an artist, she cultivates an intermix of minimalist and organic themes, producing work which is visually textured and rich with layers of mixed media and bold patterns.

Her work tends to have a rustic and heavily textured quality, but the final result is intended to appear quiet to reflect a more minimal outlook on life and art. Creating pieces that allow us to escape the technological realm, contemplate modern living and nature and then communicate how each domain influences another. Her pieces aim to engage the viewer with an emotional and environmental disposition that evokes a sense of balance and tranquility in the modern world.

Her works can be found in the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art, and Oklahoma Contemporary. Individual Artists of Oklahoma, Oklahoma Festival of the Arts Sculpture Park, Science Museum Oklahoma, Chesapeake Arena Thunder Family V.I.P. Lounge, American Institute of Architects Oklahoma Chapter, Penn Square Mall and BD Home. She has been featured in printed publications, television shows and documentaries, including OETA Gallery, FOX 25, KSBI, KFOR Channel 4, The Oklahoman, The Gazette and ArtFocus Magazine.

Born in Narbonne in 1987, Aiiroh is a French pop/street artist. At a young age, he started as a graffiti artist in train stations in several cities. Soon after, he was introduced to stencil work which made it possible to create art faster on the street. With a guidance of a friend, he eventually discovered the work of the “affichistes” such as Raymond Hains, Villeglé, Dufrêne and Rotella. The latter became a real obsession for the artist. "I take great inspiration from this movement which has a great poetic dimension for me. I sometimes spend whole nights wandering to find and snatch the poster that I like. I think I add a touch of optimism and color and do not like to politicize my work, but now more than ever, my artistic practice of “affichiste” finds an echo to the exhibition of 1961 of Hains which moved me a lot, "France in shreds.”

In some of his works, Aiiroh incorporates brands to remind us of current trends and how they may influence our daily lives. The anarchy of dripping, the turbulence of the compositions come to stand in contrast with the pure lines of the graphics of the brand logo, but also of the famous LOVE of the American artist Indiana. Does the graphic strength of these logos also have an effect on our collective unconscious as well as on our aesthetic codes? The artist ponders. For several years, he has been exhibited in some twenty galleries in France as well as internationally (Switzerland, Italy, UK, Greece, Israel, USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan). His latest accomplishments have been commissions from large brands such as Ferrari.

"Thanks to Banksy and before him Blek le Rat, young street artists like me can have a visibility they would never have before. The works that were intended before to some passers-by in a dark alley, can today be seen by more people. Social networks, especially Instagram, play a big part in the rise and the explosion of street art. I define myself as street artist but also a pop artist, in the original sense of "popular", which brings to life the culture of the street. I like the irony and to play with the references and icons that touch and unite my generation. I most often try to keep a spirit of love and optimism."

The Parisian-turned-Angeleno’s very graphic, raw form of art draws from street art, graffiti, photography, fashion and the female form. He counts Alexander McQueen and John Paul Gautier among the fashion icons that inspire him, alongside designer Philippe Starck and artists like Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Salvador Dalí. And one of the era’s most major fashion/beauty idols has already taken notice: Kylie Jenner commissioned a large lilac butterfly piece from PunkMeTender for her recent Kylie Cosmetics x Stormi launch.

Love, beauty, sensuality and desire are major themes that PunkMeTender explores in his work, alongside a broader theme of unity. “There’s an aspect of beauty in everything I do, as seeing and appreciating beauty brings people together,” he says. He works based on instinct, never following specific rules. But there is one constant: Like the butterfly that has become his signature, the artist strives to create a transformative experience for anyone who comes into contact with his work.

Spin art is one of the major techniques the artist employs in the work displayed in A Battle Won. “The technique I use is itself a transformation: I lay down colors over white butterflies, and watch them transform,” the artist says. “The same way a butterfly is born, and how it transforms itself from a chrysalis—my whole body of work is based on that.” PunkMeTender is also known for his use of original photography, bold colors and high-gloss embellishments like glittery Swarovski crystals, diamond dust and glossy acrylic coatings that push his work right over the top.

Lee Ok Nam's work is calming the world's howl to a quiet sleep by using newspapers paired with traditional Korean paper to form the most basic fundamental shape- A Circle. She has created a movement of reflection. Accumulated from the layers of time, thus telling the story of us all - A wave of calm and strong mind through history and time. 

In the works of Lee Ok-nam, the will of differentiation between form and content is what creates a juxtaposition of abstract and concrete. The content is the form and the concrete substance forms abstracts images. There is no symbol and analogy and narration in the image created by her, but at the same time, there are overlapping realities, formed from the subject of her materials, newspapers. 

Cut newspaper lengthwise in a certain width while allowing many to stick to each end of the strips, create certain overlapping designed in a wave-like pattern. The newspaper strips essentially become endless. And a concentric circle is rolled with the strips. The rolling of the newspaper goes on and on in repletion. So the thickness of the diameter of the disc gets bigger and bigger. The circular plane of the disc is formed with the thickness of every over-lapping newspaper. It forms an eccentric wave in the color of the ink of the newspaper only. But there is no analogy and explanation to the newspaper material and it only shows a certain state of the newspaper. Therefore the material of the newspaper is exposed as it is, raw and never ending, just as in life and in real time. Lee ok-nam aims to create timeless pieces reflecting the world in all of us, inviting us to perpetuate the feelings in her work with the emotions we feel with the world around us.

Daniel Fiorda was born in 1963 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Of Italian ancestry, his lineage includes a grandfather highly respected as a wood craftsman, also is father was a craftsman in addition to being a musician and poet. Because a privileged life was not his, there was no university for Fiorda. In the Old World tradition of passing on knowledge from parent to child, he learned about machinery form his father, who recognized his son's talent and encouraged it. With some private tutoring he began sculpting in high school using found objects.

The press reviews of his first exhibit, at age 20, stated that Fiorda had a definite “poetic feeling”. With this encouragement, he continued to pursue his art. After leaving Argentina, he arrived in Miami Beach via a circuitous route and set up his studio in the South Florida Art Center. He has exhibited widely throughout the US including the OK Harris Gallery, Allan Stone Gallery in New York as well as the Heriard Cimino Gallery in New Orleans, Lélia Mordoch Gallery in Paris France and Lilac Gallery in New York City. Daniel was one of the winners in the 7th Annual Sculptures Competition (2003) held at Washburn University in Topeka , Kansas.

Selected on the inaugural 2006 Palm Beach International Sculpture Biennale, and exhibited for a 3rd time in Sculpture Key West. He is an alumni Artist of ArtCenter/South Florida. Two Pieces from his “Convertible Couch projects” were selected by Art in Public Places in Orlando (2002-2003) and was on display for one year in the entrance to the Orlando Science center. The Highlands Museum of the Arts in Sebring Florida, has acquired for their permanent collection the “Red Hunter”, one of the heavy toys “Series 2008” sculpture, which has been installed in front of the Museum's Garden. The MOLAA, Museum of Latin American Art in Los Angeles, has incorporated one of Fiorda's “Square Series 2008” in their permanent collection, and was the recipient of “Auction 08: Contemporary ,Honorary Award”.

Fiorda links past and present, old and new, with a subtle irony and criticism. The works become a critical mirror for our post-Industrial society and its polluting daily activity. Fiorda’s works have found a key place in the great currents of Contemporary sculpture. Daniel Fiorda’s sculpture breaks up the logic of representation characterized by traditional Western-Art sculptures. His works are made with discarded metals assembled in a complex and busy structure that recalls a Neo-Baroque approach to art. The sculpture's material becomes a morphological generator of its figurative shape. As an archeologist, Fiorda captures the “presence” and the elusive meaning of each work of art, most lately with discarded remnants of the industrial world. Fiorda currently lives and works in Miami Florida.

- Artist’s Exhibition "ARGENTINEAN AFFAIR" -

- Artist’s Press -

- Artist’s Website -

Born in New York 1980 and raised in Ireland, Derick Smith initially began a career in design before moving on to chemical photography which resulted in his first solo exhibition in New York, 2006. Later, he began to experiment with sculpture and painting after graduating from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin 2012, and has since exhibited nationally and internationally.

Within his practice materials are tools with a view to honoring their integral essence and of not losing sight of their primitive nature. The paint is treated primarily as paint; it is employed as a means towards exploring the possibility of the existence of 'pure vision'. Through the interaction of the paint with itself and, in so far as possible, the least intervention, one can bear witness to the unfolding of what may appear to be microcosms. The dripping and shifting textures, like water in nature, seeks the paths of least resistance and the lowest points of rest. Gravity is the primary inescapable force which touches everything and these snapshots seem stolen from the timeline of an otherwise downward demise.

Within any piece one may be drawn into certain microcosmic 'universes', the echoes of happenings, which invite closer inspection. While stepping back a more distant view allows for an overall comprehension of the macrocosm. Aesthetically and technically, a balance is sought between this overall view and the density and depth of the echoes within. Somewhere between these viewing planes a form or image may be distinguished which pulls away from the paint.

It can absorb the attention for a moment before the illusion fades and the awareness of the physicality of the paint as an object takes over. It is this dialogue, this toggling back and forth between form and object, the momentary suspension or interruption which is most readily pursued in Derick's pieces. 

Looking at the works of Roh Jae-soon, we can feel many stories being told through just one simple element: the mouth. Roh refuses to let daily life slide by, incorporating elements of sympathy into his paintings. If the sentence inscribed in the wall becomes a sentence, the lips on the canvas will tell stories as if they had become a reporter. We can hear the cry of the times through Roh Jae-soon’s canvases, embracing the stories of the world. The lips drawn on the canvas are about to tell a story. Roh's drawing's are not simply the lips, but the ‘expression’ of the lips.

Roh Jae-soon began to draw from the early days. Sometimes he drew the whole body, but mostly focused on eyes and faces. This collection of the lip work has its significance in telling the story of the world. The moment the artist commits the photographed lips to the canvas, the atmosphere and message of the art work are determined. For instance, tight lips express the absence of communication, and open lips the carpe-diem kind of gaiety. Depending on the expression of the lips, some lips suggest hope for the future, and only the lips are highlighted. Roh expresses the lips in various ways. 

From biology student to owning and running a creative agency in London to a career as a fine artist, life has taken Jon Davenport on a rewarding and unconventional journey. Despite his scientific beginnings, he’s always had a strong artistic streak weaving its way through his different career paths.

Growing up in Ipswich, UK, Jon was always an avid drawer, and could often be found with a pencil and paper in hand. With the arrival of his first computer, he embraced the new frontier of digital art and had work published in one of those early computer magazines.

His creative urges took a backseat to get a biology degree at Brunel University in London. It was afterward, in his first job working at Archant newspaper group in Ipswich, that he quickly progressed from plate maker to becoming an integral member of the art studio. It was during this time that he taught himself photoshop, desktop publishing, and graphic & web design.

After a few years, he set up a design agency, and eventually went full time and moved to London. This proved to be a successful move, working for a number of clients such as Nike and Virgin, and gaining praise from the likes of Richard Branson and Tony Blair.

It wasn’t until Jon moved to the USA to marry his wife, Atlanta artist Christy Kinard, that he began indulging his pure creative urges, with her constant encouragement. Thanks to all the previous twists and turns, as well as embracing a new found love for photography and the paintbrush, it was only then that he could truly begin to create artworks that he was proud of.

Robert Gregory Phillips was born in 1955 and is a contemporary American artist. He works in a broad range of media including painting, photography, drawing, collage, video and code art. His paintings are in corporate and private collections in the USA, Korea and China. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Painting from Troy University, Alabama. Abstraction, realism, impressionism, minimalism and color field are among the influences of his art.

Robert's work considers the dualities which encompasses an authentic life inspired by the spirit. Deeply connected to poetry and the tranquil essence of nature, Robert discovers unique patterns and colors to reveal his inspiration drawn from people, history and underlying simple, everyday moments. His paintings explore a unique color pallet which is at times soft and vulnerable and at others frivolous and chaotic. Both drawing upon the pureness of the moment which evokes a raw, elegant and modern feel.

As an artist, he states that when he does art, he prays and waits, he waits for something to come, not so much a direction, but a feeling or maybe better, a knowing. As he explains that it is not an “all-at-once thing”, he usually needs to make a mark, or choose a color before he can know the next thing to do. Then, for him, one mark leads to the next, one color to the next. He would only consider his art as complete until a certain aesthetic is reached, and he never knows how long is going to take.

Sometimes he will stop after a few minutes and re-start it again on the next day. Some other times he will work in this process of 'art aesthetic' for months or even years until the piece is finished. Film, music, poetry, philosophy, theology, nature, science and technology have certainly a deep influence on his artwork, but the dominant element is relationships. Relationships with friends and family but also, as he defines, with the ever-present influence from the author of creation, always having a deep yearning of his soul. Phillips lives near Austin, Texas with his wife and family.

- Artist’s Biography -

Eva O’Donovan is a Dublin based contemporary artist. Her work is a marriage of two passions, fashion and interiors. Eva’s portraits in oil are modern and timeless. Inspired by fashion magazines, her subjects are usually adapted from behind-the-scenes fashion show shoots, the poses reminiscent of Haute Couture editorials.

All aspects of femininity are embraced in her striking portraits. The wonderfully intricate pieces entice the viewer, emanating strength, as well as a sense of elegance and modernity. Eva obtained her Fine Art degree as a mature student at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD). Her highly sought-after pieces are popular amongst interior designers and feature in many private and commercial collections throughout Ireland, United Kingdom, Brazil, Iceland, United States of America and Germany.

Eva’s work embraces two main interests, interiors and fashion. These elements are prominent attributes which define her work. The patterned textiles refer to life, the domestic, heritage, era and taste of our times. Textiles furnish both the homes we live in and the clothes we wear, while textile designs pass from one world into the other. Trends ebbing and flowing, documenting social and economic movements are the very essence of the domestication which is displayed through fabric. Integrated into our everyday lives, they change with time, historically mapping the passage of one’s life. Similarly, fashion also tells the story of our lives. It encompasses eras, represents social standings and of course, augments individual personalities. The very nature of fashion presents statuesque women. They are at the forefront, modelling the designs from fashion houses and mapping the passage of taste and time. Eva’s work embodies these very notions with every brush stroke, as she finds the balance of these worlds effortlessly; marrying art and fashion in a most striking yet enigmatic way, leaving us room to fill in and write the rest of the story with our own imagination.

Anabel Leiner is a contemporary artist from Hamburg Germany. Her process deals with constantly experimenting with mixed media and colors to find her abstractions. Her experimentation process is one that motivates her and drives her to find new media. Her artwork highlights the catalytic role of materiality and technique in the contemporary quest of abstraction. The result is refreshing with long lines contrasted with soft colors, balancing these features delicately and skillfully. Her use of color evokes elegance as her lines create an innovative touch.

The feeling of Anabel's work comforts the viewer with rich color juxtaposed with aggressive darker tones. In a whirlwind of elements we can feel specks of dust, drops of rain, rays of sunshine; taking you to a landscape bursting with sensations, emotions and most of all, the feeling of a thousand things happening in an instant.   

Corinne Natel is a London based contemporary artist mostly known for her circular fluid mixed media paintings. She was born in 1978 and holds a BA Honors Degree in Multimedia from The University of Bedfordshire.

By exploring form and color, Corinne creates works inspired by nature, her travels around the world and fashion. Wanting to explore the multi-levels of space and texture, she is able to capture the movement of paint effortlessly with the use of gravity, science, and math. The outcome is a splendid design with the right amount of heaviness, balanced seamlessly with negative space. These forms take on almost graphite, Carrara like effect leaving us with an endless discovery of color, movement, and vibrance. Using mostly acrylic paint with mixed media, the blank white contrasts take on new forms through the expression of energy and begins to develop a life of its own. A new entity is expressed beautifully on the canvas, as Corinne aims to create bursts of emotive works that allude to a transcendental theme. 

She also often explores the theme of seasons and nature, further expanding how she is inspired by color. Thus learning how this relationship can grow and multiply with the use of texture and design, to then create new and wonderful environments in her paintings.

Lee Seung Chul was born in 1962 Seoul, South Korea. In 1985 he joined the Art team at munhwa Broadcasting Corpration, and in 1997 he was part of the Computer Graphic Designer at Seoul Broadcasting System. In 2004 he became the Art General Manager at Inchon Television Limited.

For two years before 2017, he decided to paint roosters, nothing but roosters, only roosters. His choice was made because of the year of the Coq (Rooster) in Chinese astrology, which is a practical and philosophical way of approaching mental and emotional truths through allegorical and symbolic means. By painting roosters, Lee Seung Chul has chosen to dive into the mysteries of this animal with an acute awareness of the painter's work. To paint is to raise to the height of the symbol of the elements where figures come from reality. A symbol is an element figure that acts with great intensity both on the mind of the painter and the beholder. A painter is an essential actor in the field of culture and therefore he is the equivalent of a magician or a shaman of today, that is, an active clairvoyant of expectations of explanations about the future; to offer such an opening of spirit, he must manage to operate in his art this magic transformation of a figurative element in symbol.

By discovering Lee Seung Chul's roosters, we understand both what the painter's work is and what is the transmutation of a figure, in this case, that of the animal rooster into a rooster symbol. And it can't be done all at once. It is necessary, indeed, to plunge into the plastic richness that the animal offers, but also into the numerous meanings which it carries. The symbol is what allows the deepening of the sensitive consciousness. Lee Seung Chul by painting a large number of roosters has perfectly understood that it was like a kind of method to stimulate our emotions, to awaken our sensations, to make our eyes sing, and that the pictorial intensity could be attained by the accumulation and the variation.

In front of his paintings, we stand at the threshold of a sensation, at the moment when a new state of consciousness is awakened in us. For him to transmit a part of his power to us, the painter had to open up to a great deal of freedom in his gestures as well as in the use of color. Thanks to his talent as a painter, each rooster is a radiant source of light and color, emotion and movement. In the Chinese zodiac, the rooster is excessive in everything. It has tremendous qualities but also enormous flaws. He is loyal, outgoing, optimistic, and jovial, but also tiring, stubborn, and proud. Roosters like to show themselves spectacle because they consider themselves better than they really are. They have great ideas, huge hearts, and desires to be the hero of their life.

In Lee Seung Chul's paintings, the rooster is king. His head crowned on his crest and his dewclaws with sharp points that clutch at the sole gives the impression of a will to dominate the world. The rooster is a symbol of power and exuberance. But the most likely human expression that Lee Seung Chul manages to give to his roosters lets us perceive that they are inhabited by a form of restlessness.

Wolfgang Leidhold is a prominent contemporary German painter, drawing upon mythological, religious, and historical themes to depict his whimsical vision of the world. Through his use of traditional Renaissance painting techniques, Leidhold incorporates archetypal images into his work, unifying the past and present.

Leidhold was born in 1950 in Dortmund, Germany. He studied painting from 1972 to 1975 under the mentorship of Hans-Jürgen Schlieker (1924 - 2005), a leading figure of the German Art Informel at the Arts Center of the University of Bochum, Germany. In 1982, Leidhold received his PhD in Social Sciences, with minors in Chinese Studies and Philosophy. As a research fellow, he studied at Stanford University in 1976 and Georgetown University in 1986. Since 1992, Leidhold has been a professor of Political Science at the University of Cologne, Germany, with a focus on History of Ideas and Political Theory. He is the author of numerous books and articles.

In addition to his distinguished scholarly career, Leidhold has gained extensive recognition as an artist; his works have been widely exhibited in Germany. Some of his most notable exhibitions include: Galerie Freiraum in Cologne, Germany in 2004 and 2006, Autoren Galerie No. 1 in Munich, Germany from 2005 to the present, and Jörg Heitsch Galerie in Munich, Germany in 2008. Leidhold participated in the Art Fair 21 in Cologne in 2009 and most recently, his work was shown in the project room of the Curatorial Partners at the Art Karlsruhe in 2010.

Leidhold has also had a successful career in philosophy and science as he had just published 'The History of Experience' where Wolfgang presents a study in experiential turns and cultural dynamics from the Paleolithic to the present day, exploring the changing structure of human experience and its impact on the dynamics of cultures, civilizations and political ideas. This book is of great use to upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars interested in the relationship between history, human experience, culture, and political order.

Suki Maguire (Kim Jong Sook) was born in Seoul, Korea in 1949. She grew up in Seoul, and always displayed a propensity for the arts. As largely self-taught, her style reflects a strength and a passion that grew out of these struggles, as the Korean War broke out on 1950. However, after finishing school, the demands of work and family all precluded her from becoming seriously involved in her beloved art. Over a quarter of a century of teaching at the Seoul British School, has allowed her some outlet for her creative impulses through instructing the children or setting up seasonal displays at the school. Later, she felt it was time to get serious about doing her own work, and she enrolled at Hong-ik University's Adult Education Art Program. There she had the precious opportunity of studying under some of Korea's most illustrious artists. Suki has always retained her own unique personal approach to painting. An illustration of this was her methodology in painting nudes, her first major area of focus in her re-discovered art career. She would go into a Korean public bathhouse for women, without brush or camera, where she would employ her hands and arms to sketch invisibly, her chosen subject in her artistic minds eye. Later this creation of her very fecund imagination was to be rendered on canvas. 

Unorthodox; yet effective, Suki treats us to a series of works that tantalizes the imagination with bold strokes of dark and light, hinting at shapes both human and ethereal and pulling us through the two-dimensional surface of the canvas into the mysterious depths of a multidimensional world. Her works resonate with strong, masculine strokes, vibrant colors, and passionate themes. There is a great potential for discovery in Maguire's world of symbols, but a passing glance will not do, you have to allow your gaze to linger on this part and that of each painting so that your subconscious will have the opportunity to retrieve the elusive forms that seem to be hiding within the more obvious shapes. This holds true even in those works that incorporate letters of the Korean or Latin alphabet, which serve as glyphs bearing some symbolic meaning that goes beyond the mere representation of sound. She has exhibited internationally in Seoul, Nantucket, New York and Italy. Her styles and materials have ranged from realism to abstract, from water and oil colors to acrylics and coffee grounds. The common factor is that when looking at her pieces you can spend some time letting your mind play within each painting and you'll come away with a much richer understanding of what Suki Maguire's art has to show at a simple glance.

- Artist’s Biography -

Chaval (Damian Kaliyeski) was born in 1975 in Buenos Aires. In his early art career drew comics with an apocalyptic sense of humor wile studying fine art painting. In search of a new media of artistic creation, he started to paint on vinyl surfaces such as cushions and punching bags, which has become an important body of his work. Since moved to New York in 1999, he has developed a series of works embodying his signature characters PIPU the Mutant butterfly, and PEPO the mutant walking pet. In April 2003, his work received Artist Achievement Award given by Charlotta Kotik, Curator and Chair of Department of Contemporary Art of Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Chaval's work is characterized by free-spirited humor. He produced mostly comics in his early career, and after studying fine art and painting further, continued to illustrate comedy. Caricatures, objects and people with surreal elements are the cornerstone of his inspiration.  He became well known for his works painted on vinyl surfaces such as cushions and punching bags. 

Inasmuch as Chaval can be defined by one particular movement or concept, he has simultaneously created a genre of his own.  He uses mixed techniques and philosophies in a succession of images, lacing them with his apocalyptic sense of humor. Chaval's individuality stems from his ability to break down the present complexity from a point of view that is sublime yet horrifying- an uncanny world inhabited by pleasure as much as pain.

Chaval's work expresses the static limitations of painting, both aesthetically and conceptually. His works convey powerful emotions, yet also maintain tranquility. His works draws inspiration from our every day lives: our minds' reactions to diverse stimuli and everyday situations. He uses popular western symbols, along with the cacophony of consumerism to deliver what he calls "beauty.”

Santiago Fuente Bo was born in 1975 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was taught art in Centro Polivalente de Arte de San Isidro and Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte, Bachelor in Fine Arts, and graphic design at University of Buenos Aires. Since the early years, he worked as an independent artist, a graphic designer and illustrator. In 1998 he got an Art Professor Diploma at IUNA, Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Fuentas Bo has a unique style in that he marries photorealism with surrealism. His work speaks about memories. Santiago connects personal memories with collective images. He takes from his dream world, and ties his story in each piece, bringing memories alive with pop imagery in surreal conceptions. He tells stories with timeless effortlessness; something that may seem mundane but becomes conscious in his dream like world.

Fuentes Bo displays a graphic style as he starts creating with enamel, pencils and pens on wood or PVC, connecting the world of street art and graphic design that he comes from, and creating fantastic and delirious images with an urbane and contemporary sense of humor. His hallucinatingly refined depictions of animals remind us of Frans Snyders’ portraits; that’s how we have a Dutch still life in the midst of chaotic graffiti, randomly annotated supermarket receipts, slogans, pixels, and coffee spots. The result is paintings with object-like feeling. Pieces of something that could have a previous life. Half stories with no ending. A celebration of everyday life through everyday elements.

After years working as illustrator and in the advertising industry, in 2011 he moved to Nicosia, Cyprus and set up his studio where he produces his artwork and teaches art. His work is part of private collections in Buenos Aires, Nicosia and Larnaca.

Alec Monopoly is an American street artist whose moniker is derived from the Monopoly board game’s Rich Uncle Pennybags. Reminiscent of British street artist Banksy, Monopoly uses his work to subvert the capitalist hierarchies presented in existing popular culture as evinced in both his series Richie Rich and Scrooge Money Mesmerized. Using various materials, like spray paint and newspaper, Monopoly’s paintings, prints, and photographs are collected by many famous actors and musicians. Born Alec Andon in 1986 in New York, NY to an affluent family, he began his artistic career making graffiti around the city. “Painting on walls is more fun for me because it’s exposed to everybody, not just art collectors or enthusiasts,” he said of graffiti. Monopoly cites Salvador Dalí as an inspiration to his practice, as well as the pioneering street artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The artist currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Robert Mars was born in 1969 and is a graduate of Parsons School of Design in New York. At a young age, between 7 and 8 years old, he was drawn to muscle cars, custom vans, superheroes, and other icons that were relevant as a child. This idea of icons has been an obsession within his life and has continued into his adult life and throughout his artistic career, but the imagery has been refined over time. With the use of graphic compositions, glossy textures, and rich colors Mars provided the ultimate medium in which to explore his fascination stemming from the Golden Age of American popular culture and the icons of the 1950’s and 60’s. Drawing inspiration from the near-mythical fame that surrounded celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Audrey Hepburn, Elvis Presley, and many others, before the instant and all-encompassing presence of the internet, Mars’ daring approach creates paintings with a nostalgic yet innovative vintage feel.

Employing concepts rooted in abstract expressionism, Mars has expanded on his body of work in the last years to abstract compositions, finding a balance between chaos and control by precisely cutting the painted vintage newspaper into predetermined patterns with multicolored paint layers of loose and dynamic brushstrokes in order to bridge to the events of the past and anchoring each of his artwork in a particular time of history. Robert Mars taps into the feelings that emanate from his paintings which vacillate between memory and desire. The taste of nostalgia pulls the viewers towards the iconic stars and the consumerist historical subject material of Mars’ works. Mars’ sources are the very core of these dreams. Photographs of stars like Bruce Springsteen, logos of products like Coca-Cola and TIFFANY & CO., and vintage ephemera are layered beautifully with news stories of seminal events; from the death of JFK to the 1969 moonwalk. By capturing these moments in history, his paintings serve as vehicles for bringing the American brand to the world.

Based on traditional quilt patterns from American history, the mix of handcraft, and the meditation of time contained in that often overlooked folk art, these tessellations also echo the backgrounds utilized in his representational body of work. By creating a dialogue between the layers of color, and the events glimpsed through the paint; he sets the palette for the final composition. Choosing to sometimes highlight and sometimes obliterate this record of events acts as a rebellion to provide structure and order. As Mars rebuilds the composition to keep the structure, composition, and color that he has in mind, he walks through a process of discovery, having a final sense of resolution as the result of reconstructing these compositions.

And although his main focus has been American cultural icons for the past two decades, his vision has shifted to become a more global approach. He started to incorporate International brands, iconic figures, and products, becoming absorbed into American culture and he was able to add these subjects therefore broadening his body of work. Introducing new icons into his body of work for his current showcase, Mars yet again bridges the past and present in perspective by depicting larger-than-life personalities like Lady Gaga and Daniel Craig’s James Bond. With many solo exhibitions in the United States and abroad under his belt, his pieces are part of important Corporate and Private Collections like Coca-Cola, ESPN, Nike, Absolut Vodka, Oceania Cruise Lines, Microsoft, Adidas, Neiman Marcus, Philip Morris, and Bank of America among others, and also his works are have been found in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California, Yellowstone Art Museum, Evansville Museum of Art in Indiana, Coral Springs Museum Of Art, Taubman Museum, International Museum of Collage, Minart Museum Guadalajara Mexico, and the New Bedford Art Museum in Massachusetts.

Please feel free to visit our Contemporary Art Archive by clicking here Archive 1, Archive 2.