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Diana Leidel

May 4th, 2009 5 Comments

leidel_tourjours_pret

Toujours Prêt, collage and paint on wood, 14″ x 10″

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Black and White Chair, acrylic on paper

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4-Part Red and Yellow Chair, acrylic on paper

Artist Bio
Diana Leidel is an artist who is also a creative director in magazine publishing and is currently art director at Playbill Magazine. She has been the recipient of numerous design awards for her work with Pointe magazine, Pilates Style magazine, and Dance Magazine, and has been a contributor to Graphic Design USA. She holds a BFA from The Cooper Union and an MA from New York University, where she also taught graphic design.

She exhibits in New York and Brooklyn and is a member of the Brooklyn Artists Gym.

Her paintings, on canvas and paper, are color studies of single objects that celebrate the world of the everyday.

Diana describes  her collages and drawings as Non-Fiction Art, in which the fictional world in the artist’s mind meets the news in the real world. She combines words and statements from news stories and consumer media with painting, collage and found containers to make wall-piece boxes. The pencil drawings are portraits of newsmakers, performers and innocent bystanders, from chickens to tango dancers
and health workers. Her abstract work is also inspired by images from print media.

Website
http://dianaleidel.com

Helene Mukhtar

Apr 4th, 2009 2 Comments

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East West (2007)
Paper collage and oil paint on canvas
30″x40″

“East West” explores the visual similarities between Western graffiti and images from Eastern societies. This series, which I just started, is inspired by a recent trip to Pakistan.

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Subway Space 2
Paper collage and oil paint on canvas (2006)
36″x36″

In my series “Subways”, I contrast the vulnerability, helplessness and passivity of the subway riders to the hardness of their surroundings: the metal structures, beams, platforms and tunnels. The riders are reduced to “subway legs” which evolve in an angular, distorted and somewhat threatening environment. These paintings and collages were triggered by the subway bombings in London and Madrid and my own experience riding the subway in New York City.

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Harmony 4 (2007)
Paper collage and oil paint on canvas
30″x40″

“Harmony” is an attempt to reconcile and join two geometrical symbols, the
circle and the line through the imagery of architecture and music.

Artist Statement
My work reflects the tension, uncertainty and unease permeating our societies today. These feelings are in part generated by international terrorism, violence and militarism.

My photographs are usually at the base of my creative process. I travel extensively and the shots taken on my trips are integrated into my paintings. In recent years, I have been particularly fascinated with graffiti and photographs of graffiti have now become an important visual element in my work.

These images are printed on paper and glued onto the canvas. Graffiti from New York, Paris and Berlin, glass architecture from modern European cities, Mogul buildings from Pakistan, headless mannequins from the streets of Paris are collaged together. They may or may not “fit together”. Out of this visual cacophony, I create a harmonious whole. It is like a puzzle. I use oil or acrylic paint. I proceed through trial and error and constantly build and destroy. Each piece is different with its own unique problems and solutions.

In my latest series “ Veni, Vidi, Sgraffiti”, I started incorporating drawings into my work. This new development has enabled me to inject humor in a serious discussion about war and violence.

Website
http://www.helenemukhtar.com/

Tom Motley

Mar 28th, 2009 Leave a comment

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About the Artist

Tom Motley is a comic artist and cartoon illustrator.  A native of Denver, Colorado, Tom moved to Brooklyn about a year and a half ago and now resides happily in Kensington, along with his wife and daughters.  He teaches cartooning at the School of Visual Arts and the Abrons Arts Center, and his Tragic Strips appear monthly in The Brooklyn Rail.

Tom’s cartoons range from the funny to the grotesque, and include a healthy measure of surrealist play and formal experimentation.  The illustrations shown here are from a book of short stories, The One Marvelous Thing, by Rikki Ducornet, published by Dalkey Archive Press.

You can find Tom’s Aline the Alien comics for kids at Kidjutsu.com, visit his sketch blog, and check out his website for more cartoons and illustrations.

Meghan Keane

Mar 17th, 2009 Leave a comment

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“Hair Urchin”
Oil based ink on white rag paper (paper origin unknown)
16 x 16 in.
2008

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“She never saw it coming either”
Oil based ink on white Arches paper
30 x 22 in.
2008

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“Vanity Curls”
22 x 30 in.
Oil based ink on white Arches paper
2008

Artist Statement

My artistic vision takes traditionally unsavory subjects and playfully seeks to extract beauty from them, suggesting that the viewer always take a second look–that which repulses us has equal capacity to attract and fascinate.  Having previously used human hair to render line physical in paintings, I am now using drawing and printmaking to achieve the effect of hair (the whirl, the loop, the ringlet) without reverting to a material so burdened by its historical connotations. I find that the immediacy of drawing–either in the traditional sense or via monotypes–lends itself to my process of constructing dense forms out of line en masse.  In larger conceptual terms, I am greatly informed by the idea of the abject, the gendered, and the liminal in these recent explorations. Through ongoing experimentation with line quality and layering, I have come closer to the place I had been seeking with these new works: an oeuvre that flirts with the universal by emphasizing the curious and unexpected.

Website

http://meghankeanestudio.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/meghankeanestudio/57207652532

Alex White

Feb 1st, 2009 2 Comments

Traffic Lights, Pastel on Paper, 20×26

Side by Side, Mixed Media on Paper, 14×17

Pencil and Pastel, 20×30 paperboard

Artist Statement

Through expressionism, my work intends to communicate energies and questions that are nestled within our everyday surroundings, yet uncovered only in glimpses and moments. My work begins with a questioning of a temporal communication or detection of a striving connection made with my surroundings in a certain moment. I am using pastels, pencil, oil paint, watercolor and mixed media to explore the reflection of these sensations; recreating the city in a language of line and color that speaks to that moment of mystery and clarity. I am questioning the city – how it relates to us as a human form, a collection of humanity, a source of inspiration and energy.

The city, as a collection of energy and humanity is a source from which we all draw or can draw, and its’ synergies and metaphysical phenomenon allow us to experience life in parallel to others and experience collective emotions. But as a consequence how does this reality affect our mentality and reflection, both individually and as a society/culture, and ultimately instill itself in our identities.

The city as the mental construct of a built, social and natural environment, changes and morphs in relation to our state of mind. When one closes their eyes, everything we associate with the city, in this case New York, can vanish; we can take ourselves anywhere. Yet in the moment we open our eyes we are flooded with the associations, emotions and self-identification that is our place and connection to the city. What is this connection and what does this tell us about ourselves, as both a social and imaginative people?

We must push these notions by examining our environment further to better understand ourselves as it is our imagination, systemization, fear, and humanity that we instill in our built environment, and it is under different lights, hours and mettles that the city changes, just like its creators. Creating a language that can stimulate and explore this dialogue is my challenge.

When people see my work, I’d like them to leave more imaginative, curious and sensitive to their surroundings, and more inquisitive of how we are and how we bend with the temperament and air of the city.

Website

http://alxwyt.blogspot.com/

Barbara Ensor

Nov 4th, 2008 Leave a comment

House Beautiful, October 2008

Bio

Barbara Ensor is an author and artist whose words and pictures have been praised in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Vanity Fair and elsewhere. A graduate of Brown University, Ensor’s previous careers include stilt walking, and journalism. She is a dual citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom, has two children and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Website
www.BarbaraEnsor.com

Exhibit

Opening party for Thumbelina, Tiny Runaway Bride, an exhibit and a book.
WHERE: The Old Stone House, Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets, Park Slope Brooklyn
WHEN: Saturday November 8th, 6 to 9 pm
MORE INFORMATION. OldStonehouse.org

Visit the exhibit throughout the months of November and December during these hours:
Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 4 to 6 pm
Thursdays 4 to 8 pm
or by appointment (917) 604-8732

Dmitry Borshch

Nov 4th, 2008 Leave a comment
Untitled, 2008
Ink on paper, 15 x 15 ins.
The work of Dmitry Borshch will be shown in the following exhibits:
“Common Threads: Artists in Spite of Retail”  at the Brecht Forum
November 7-31, 2008
“Allied Artists 95th Annual Exhibition”  at the National Arts Club
November 14-December 2, 2008

Pamela Enz

Sep 27th, 2008 2 Comments

“I Have Been Circling God ” – Oil, paper, ink and cut plastic on canvas – 36×53 inches
“  ….circling round that great tower and I still don’t know if I am a falcon, a storm or a great song” – Rilke.

“Down Here” – oil, cut paper, ink on canvas – 16 x 20 inches
I started this piece after reading personal accounts of the mostly anonymous builders of our grand public spaces.   One worker Mr. Kumaran  “.. I wish the rich people would realize who is building these towers, I wish they would come and see how sad this life is.”

“Traveling Thru” – oil, paper, crayon, ink on canvas – 20 x 26 inches
I struggle to put this one into words, as it was driven by the impalpable. It concerns the sense of aloneness common to all creatures big and small.

“Re:Henry”- oil, paper, plastic, pencil shavings on canvas – 36 x 26 inches
I completed this piece after the death of my best friend Henry forcing myself to go on out of respect for him and who he was. It was just one of the numerous gifts of his friendship.

Artist Statement

Over the past decade I have worked as a performance artist, a filmmaker and visual artist. Most recently I have been working on ever expanding collage. I start with a collection of my own drawings which I then tear, cut and layer before pencilling and painting into them. They are on both paper and canvas. Often however the foundation of a piece is text – most often my own – but also a range of words that haunt and continue to inspire. Some I have taken from the sublime ( the poet- Rilke ). Others from the absurd ( The New York Post ).

Biography (partial)

Exhibitions – Recent Work

ArtWalk 2008   Brooklyn , NY July 2008
Incongruities 2.0 – Ashawagh Hall East Hampton, NY July 2008
Private Viewing – Sunday Afternoon Series. Brooklyn Heights –Nov 2007
Letters to Joan  Emergency Arts – solo – collage –  NYC  – April 2007
Recent Works  Emergency Arts – group show – NYC- November 2006
2006 Square Foot Show – Art Gotham   NYC  – March 2007
Incongruities   Ashawagh Hall – East Hampton, NY. – March 2006
Cryptopsychographies  Tin Garage – Tarrytown, NYC – December 2005

Traveling the globe Ms. Enz exhibited in Corfu, Paris and Tel-Aviv as well as stateside at Hofstra University, East Hampton, North Shore Arts and NOW in NYC.  Due to the toxicity of materials and the proximity of her newborn daughter she worked to become a performance artist, filmmaker, and playwright. After winning a second Edward F. Albee Fellowship for writing which included a residency at The Barn in Montauk, she began with Mr. Albee’s encouragement to incorporate her own text into large collage which she now uses as a backdrop for performance work. They also stand alone as works of art .

More Information

http://sonofanobody.com/bios_pamela.html

Dmitry Borshch

Sep 2nd, 2008 Leave a comment


1. Untitled, 2008, photograph (edition of 10), 11 x 22 ins.

2. Untitled, 2008, photograph (edition of 10), 9 x 12 ins.

3. Untitled, 2008, photograph (edition of 10), 7 x 9 ins.

4. Untitled, 2008, photograph (edition of 10), 9 x 22 ins.

5. Untitled, 2007, photograph (edition of 10), 5 x 7 ins.

6. Untitled, 2008, photograph (edition of 10), 10 x 21 ins.

Artist Statement

I favor a compound approach to all visual problems that occupy me. By compound I mean multiform – I present my solution to a given problem in as many forms or through as many means as are available to me. These may be painting, printmaking, sculpting… The meaning of each completed piece is deferred until other pieces, materially and thematically linked to it, are completed. They form the understructure upon which their meaning could rest.

Not able to describe a piece outside of its progressing context I hesitate whenever I am asked for an “artist’s statement”. I cannot “state” my art’s meaning; its current subject, however, can be “stated” – it is rectilinear geometry.

Please visit http://www.thetatechelsea.com and http://www.fineartadoption.net and find Dmitry Borshch there.

Susan Norton

Jul 28th, 2008 Leave a comment

Artist’s Statement

Skool: a Comic

Skool began as a personal project, started in college to remind myself of lessons learned outside the classroom. Now, like a graduate program, it is what employs my time in replacement of having a full-time job or a savings account. I draw it by hand, with a pen that I dip in ink.

All of the stories are culled from actual experience (quoted as faithfully as a panel’s small space will allow), my dream world, and my fantasy life. Invaluable to this are my excellent friends and family, the crowds of people with whom I regularly interact, strangers, children, and the creative personalities who drive my experiences. Also the unearthly beauty of the Vermont Republic and the soundtrack constantly rolling through my headphones, my speakers, and my memory.

I currently live in the last cheap shithole apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I may be contacted for illustration work and would be happy to provide those interested with printed versions of my art. More information about me is available by reading my comics, viewing my blog, and/or sending me an e-mail.

Artist Website and Contact
www.nortonanalog.blogspot.com
nortonanalog@gmail.com

Niesha White

Jun 12th, 2008 1 Comment

Niesha White,

Niesha White, “Deer”

Niesha White,

Niesha White “Eloise”

Niesha White, “Bottom In Drag”

Artist’s Statement

My name is Niesha White and I am the daughter of an ex-Mormon hippie mom and an ex-Muslim hippie dad who raised me in the sea-salt air of a fishing town south of LA. After surviving a cross-country relocation, I ended up rooted in the beautifully strange spiritland of Brooklyn.

When I was small, I trusted art to be my companion. I knew, in that bold knowing way of children, that I would be an artist. But, just as knowing develops layers and confusing corners with experience, my artist identity bumped into various obstacles. What I have learned, however, is that each time I come back to my artwork, there are trace elements of whatever I have experienced while I was away. My art, therefore, carries hints of all the stages of my life, from magic realism to political activism, from modern dance to linguistic exploration.

Most recently, I have been working on a series of wood burnings and paintings which I call masks. This series, which uses animal heads on human bodies (and vice versa at times), is an exploration of how identities can change in stages of one’s life or even due to a new situation. The following narrative was written from the perspective of one of my pieces:

Masks Narrative

She was straight up fierce once, all boots and dreams. But the spin of the clock and a few unexpected outcomes had worn down her dreams into new shapes she kept mistaking for ordinary objects. Even her boots lost their shine. But what choice did she have but to live that way, waiting between breaths for a big bang shift of perspective.

On a random day in snow covered January, the tilt that she would later refer to as the ‘new beginning’ occurred. A casual downward glance is all it took, a realization that the subtle sexy sag in the seams of her tired boots made them more beautiful than ever. Then, like the slow relief of a late night aspirin, she began to see bits of glimmer in the corners of her dreams again. Packing this new view of herself, now masterfully woven from the reeds of who she had been, she picked up the mask and took her first grown-up swagger into ‘I can be anything’.

Contact the Artist

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