Talieh Kesh
Talieh has a multi-disciplinary background with degrees in architecture and mass communications and resides in San Diego. She is a truly exceptional, multi-talented master artist in the classical tradition. Oil, acrylic, water color, pencil, paper, bronze, brick, mortar, ceramic, copper, glass, plastic, textiles, wood and many other media are magically transformed by her skillful hands and vision into objects of compelling beauty and stunning realism. Drawing on her architecture background, her careful and detailed acrylic paintings in particular inevitably draw the observer into the scene. Her uncanny ability to capture the finest nuances of light and the dynamic use of space and color is complemented by an insatiable intellectual drive to grasp the scientific fundamentals of natural phenomena and interests in astronomy and quantum physics. Her instinctive sense of Nature’s splendor permeates each of her works.
Masu D. Turan
Dani Olivier
Dani Olivier (born 1969) is a photographer from Paris. He graduated from the business school HEC Paris and began photography as a teenager. From 2000 to 2006, Olivier worked on digital self-portraits where his models were asked to use a digital camera to shoot their first nude selfies. He tried to capture a unique moment that could not be reproduced: a person’s very first selfie, long before the concept became popular. From 2007 on, Olivier specialized on abstract nude compositions he created by projecting patterns on his models, coupled with movement and optical deformations. He uses a minimal design (“a body, a black backdrop and lights”) coupled with top-notch, state-of-the-art light projectors and cameras. Dani is an internationally recognized artists who has exhibited, among other venues in Kiev, Ukraine, 2010 and 2012: at the Found Art Gallery, Paris, France, 2012: At the Art and Events Gallery, Moscow, Russia, 2012: LUX Exhibition, Arles, France, 2015: Voies off (fringe festival) “Nude Body and Soul”, Paris, France, 2015: La quatrième image, Los Angeles, USA, 2015, MOPLA and published four photography books: Nus abstraits (2011), ISBN 978-2-35355-776-9; Nus abstraits et psychédéliques (2011), ISBN 978-2-35355-776-9; Anthologie de la photo de nu de Dani Olivier ; 2012. Editions ESI Nus corps et âme (2015) Editions passage des soupirs.
Manss Aval
Manss moved at an early age to Germany where he stayed to attend college, then on to Canada where he completed his degrees in Vancouver and finally to San Diego. He presently concentrates on painting, photography, and sculptures and has a broad set of skills with backgrounds in media, communications and the sciences (including a Ph.D.). A Nature enthusiast, Manss dedicated much time studying wildlife to captivate movements in time and space, creating enchanted sceneries with animals at center stage. His works levitate between fantasy and mysterious quantum space, leaving the viewer in meditative explorations of familiar memories, dreams and perhaps alien realities. His work feature a distinctly natural quality, full of soft, energetic shapes, earth tones, and subtle, vibrant colors and present a unique intersection of arts and science.
To view more of Manss Aval’s work click here.
Uwe Arendt
Born in 1945, Uwe spent his formative years in Vienna, Austria, and entered the professional School for Graphic Design at 15. He frequented the Kaffee Havelca, a popular hangout for artists, where he was exposed to leaders of the Vienna School of Surrealists, including Hundertwasser, Leherb, Fuchs and others. At night he studied with a leading graphic designer and in his spare time drew inspirations from earlier Viennese masters, Gustav Klimt, and his favorite, Egon Schiele. He was particularly enthralled with Schiele’s line work and his edgy composition style. After graduating from design school Uwe relocated to Seattle and launched his own design firm. He specialized in creating logo designs, strategic branding concepts and corporate designs for regional and national companies. Now he is poised to undertake his final challenge: the artistic expression of universal themes that resonate with all people. He creates layered and iconic portraits that draw from all aspects of his background, his youth in Vienna, his career as a graphic artist and life in the Pacific Northwest.
Isabel Brinck
Isabel works predominantly in the medium of oil painting. Her use of color is a celebration of light that continually delights the eye and engages the mind. Chilean born, Isabel Brinck graduated with honors in Graphic Design from the University of Chile and worked in this field for many years. She has taught art for children and has a strong influence in children’s creative art expressions. Isabel paints professionally since 1999 & lives and works in Miami since 2003. She worked under the direction of the outstanding Chilean artist, Jaime Ferrer for 10 years. Isabel has showed her work throughout the country and Latin America. She was selected to participate in Arte Americas 2009 & 2010, Palm Beach Art Fair 2010, WAG Croatia 2013, Buenos Aires II Biennale 2014 where she got special mention prize in painting, Art Spectrum 2013, 2014 and 2015, among others. Her knowledge of Graphic Design has been the foundation of her serious and constant work thus achieving compositions with a perfect balance between form, color and space. She produces a peculiar Neo-figuration, overflowing with a universe of characters, almost (or completely) self-contained, often human-like, which the artist draws as she works. Roberto Vega Masso, professor in World History and Academic Director of Finis Terrae Chilean University, said: The project named PASSION by Isabel Brinck resolves the question in a very extraordinary way to the point where we are allowed to see her spirit. And why does she achieve this? Simply because her question isn’t more than an excuse to keep doing with a PASSION what keeps pushing her in life and moves her sincerely which is: To Paint.
Curt Brill
Born in 1952 in the Bronx, New York, Curt began his serious pursuit of an art career while attending Cornell University. It began with exhibitions at Cornell that showcased his drawings, ceramic work and silk screening. Even though drawing has been his first and enduring love, professionally he has been most noted for his 3 dimensional work. His ceramic pieces have been widely collected across the United States since the mid 1970’s. He began his career in bronze in 1980, with pieces that were a direct outgrowth of his history with clay. The work has always been sensual, a direct response to the feel of the materials he has chosen to use. Being a people watcher with a keen eye by nature, and having a potent sense of humor and an easy demeanor, it is easy to see how his personal style has evolved. His work has now been met with wide appeal by individual collectors within the United States, Europe and Japan.
Laura Villarreal
Born in Monterrey, Mexico; Laura initiated her art studies at the University of North Carolina. Later she continued her work in New York City at The New York School of Visual Arts and the Art Students’ League. In 2011, she graduated from the Universidad de Barcelona IL-3 with a Master’s Degree in Analysis and Management of Contemporary Art.
She resides in Miami and has exhibited her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Mexico and the United States which include the Instituto Cultural de Mexico in Miami and the Embassy of Chile in Washington D.C. She was selected to participate in Arte Americas 2009 and 2010 as part of the Mexican Pavilion in Miami, FL as well as Pool Art fair and Spectrum Miami. Her work is part of private and public collections throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe.
NONOS
NONOS are unique sculptures that playfully join motion and color to a fluent form of sensuality, eroticism and femininity. The sisters Franziska and Mercedes Welte have been artistically active under their pseudonym NONOS for years. They create their sculptures from combinations of various metals, polymers, fiber glass, epoxy resin and non-fading pigments. Filigree and at the same time extremely dynamic, the artists arrange their sculptures for dance and involve the spectator in a thrilling ensemble of color, form and movement. NONOS personify cheeky elegance and symbolize sensuality, power and spontaneity. Besides their work in the sculptural area the sisters are also active in the fields of painting and photography. The list of their international exhibitions ranges from Berlin, New York, Shanghai, Malta, Vienna, Amsterdam and Florida to Taipei. The sisters also work as designers, such as in exclusive designs for porcelain, Danish chairs and fashion with the couturier Nhut La Hong.
Sam Shendi
Graduating in 1997 with a first class BA degree with honors from Helwen University of Fine Arts in Cairo, Egyptian born sculptor Sam Shendi creates joyfully coloured abstractions of the human figure which, with the subtlest of indicators, hints at the complexity of human interactions.
Shendi’s works references the work of “minimalism”, the style of paring-down design elements and focusing on the medium of steel, aluminium and paint. Some of his works are deceptively simple in form but include the qualities of metaphorical associations, symbolism and suggestions of spiritual transcendence, which is what the artist of the 60’s and 70’s were trying to avoid.
His works whittles down the human figure to its simplest form enabling the exploration of the idea of the human form as a vessel. So by reducing the human body to a container or minimal shape, his creations become centered on an emotion or an expression. The simplicity is no longer the end result and devoid of meaning but a revelation of a hidden truth and intellectual expression.
Shendi’s work, therefore takes a fine line between representation and abstraction. Whilst he appreciates the abstract form his interest is in the human and psychological dimensions to his sculptures. Stripping human nature down to its essence, and then expressing it in a sculptural language.
Firmly based in modernist morphology his colorful architectural forms abbreviate the human figure and nod to his background in monumental sculpture and interior design. Shendi juxtaposes cartoonish lemon, ultraviolet and pumpkin-coloured blocks, conjuring associations with children’s toys and industrial design and lending his pieces an emotive and playful quality. His candy-coated palette animates the archetypal themes he addresses in his work. Assisted by the use of colour to deceive the eye, flouting a sense of gravity and taking the attention away from the material also gives the work a strong optical impact.
Sometimes we may feel the tension which despite their moderate size almost bear a ‘’will to grow’’ into monuments that we could easily imagine standing in the center of any city or landscape. Pieces balance between public art, sculptural and on the border of design.
With laconic titles his work takes on themes both in subject and style and it is clear to see pieces that group together in an exploration of an idea. They form a visual story and a unique style. There is always one important element, functioning as a keystone connecting all his creation – the theme of a human being in his most genuine form. Shendi always develops his creation around subjects, which are common, understandable and important to all of us, no matter what our taste, age or cultural background may be.
Describing himself as a figurative sculptor it is important to Shendi that the work, however minimalistic still has an impact on the viewer visually and emotionally. Recognizing his work as both literally geometric forms and industrial materials but also with additional meaning in bringing back the idea of traditional academic sculpture of humanity and emotion, results in a distinctive blend of modernity and timelessness.