Biography
Peruvian native Maria Baraybar came to the United States at the age of 8 with white sand in her shoes and a head full of questions. The youngest of an immigrant family moving around in the US shaped a young Baraybar’s sensitivities. Trying to answer those questions through poetry, she found her self-expression through the Visual Arts.  A coping mechanism soon turned into a lifeline. Eschewing conventional art school studies, Baraybar opted for broader education, embracing non-traditional channels to creativity.

Baraybar’s work has been featured in several NYC galleries and is currently on view at Brooklyn’s Nu Hotel. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, with her partner Allison Tray and their cats Julio and Gertie.

Artist Statement
The inspiration behind Artie’s Red Shoe Diaries came out of a personal situation. I’ve had to endure the difficult process of becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen all my life in the states. 20 yrs of hiding in the shadows with an unresolved immigration case left me with one choice: survival. Survival became more important than self, more important than happiness, more important than my dreams. Faced with my life’s own unique set of absurd trials and tribulations, I created an imaginary friend named Artie. This genderless character became my own life force. These unique experiences opened up the opportunity to document the often “peculiar” way of life in suburban America while exploring the juxtaposition of absurdity and meaning through travelogue note-type drawings.

Website
www.mariabaraybar.com

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The Street (detail)

Biography
“A creative mind not content to simply sit back and observe- her work is alive.”

Linda Zacks has a passionate love affair with words and letters. Her signature is the way she uses type in her art – clever verbiage drawn from her trusty stack of sketchbooks. She uses words like artillery, firing back Life as it whizzes by your nose.

Linda’s work- part poetry, part paint reflects the adoration, anxiety, filth, fear, and visceral energy of just being alive and aware, and that makes its way into each picture. Tension. Calamity. The urban obstinance that turns a jackhammer into a musical instrument. That’s what it’s like. If it’s not cathartic, it’s not in her artistic vocabulary.

Her creations capture the essence of a restless mind- clever commentary about the world we live in: the wonders of being female, America the strange, Love & Hate and the twisting of traditional concepts, such as beauty and war. Every moment has the potential to be captured in a painting or a unique handmade book.

Nothing is out of the question: old wood, torn paper, rusty metal, ink, duct tape or a scribbled-over Polaroid. And the textures–gloppy skid marks, bumpy nodules and crusty scabs smother the surface.

Linda spent much of her life moving around – including living overseas in England as a young child and attending high school in Holland. Before moving to New York City in 1995, Linda graduated from Brown University studying semiotics and creative writing and spent her junior year across the street at The Rhode Island School of Design. This unique blend of studies led her to a career as an accomplished designer and fine artist.

Website
http://www.lindazacks.com

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Empty House

Muse

Psychic Carnivale I

Psychic Carnivale II

Sanctuary
Artist Statement
These mixed media “drawing/paintings” find their roots in the exploration of unconscious images.

That” inner landscape” of the  human soul where the boundaries of reality seemingly merge with the uncontrollable “netherworld” of dreams, visions, and nightmares.

Executed in pen and ink, as well as pulverized graphite, oil paints, oil sticks, pastels, charcoal and collage on both canvas and paper, the intention is to leave space for the viewer  to individually engage, seeing or not seeing in relation to their own imagined perceptions of the images before them.

Website
http://sparrenbergerstudio.com/

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