Category Archives: Artist Presentations

Francesco Albano /// Dania Hubard

In 1976, the artist known as Francesco Albano was born in the town of Oppido Mamertina located in southern Italy. At the age of 12, Albano was apprenticing underneath the artist Stefano Albano, his father. Francesco started his artistic journey at a young age and developed his art with the guidance of his father. He finished in apprenticeship in 1996 and then joined the Fine Art University of Carrara to finish his studies; which he graduated four years later. He traveled quite a bit after that, though at this time he is based in Buenos Aires. Albano is a pretty accomplished artist. In 2005, he won the National Prize of Arts for one of his sculptures.

            Francesco’s art is very visceral and draws in the audience’s attention with its grotesque view of the human body. At first his sculptures seem like a gross perversion of the human form and twists it into an unrecognizable piece made of flesh and bone, but there is so much more to his work and what it is saying about humans to their core. His art explores many themes of mental illness and is basically a visual representation of the emotions of loneliness, emptiness, and fear.

“What deeply interests me is how the physical appearance of the human body can be affected by the psychic and mental state and how the disarray of these states can reshape the body; how it can be annihilated by social pressure, how a specific unrest can deform, distort, void and overfill the body; its container. Through my work, I record experiences and the people around me. My sculptures are fantasies-phantoms that depict desire and emptiness.”

(Bahadur, 2017)

Currently, some of Albano’s artwork is available to purchase. His pieces are being sold for as much as $1,000 to $15,000. https://www.artsy.net/artist/francesco-albano

On the Eve (2013)
Acedia
On the Eve
One of these Days (2013)
35 kg (2009)
When Everyday was Thursday (2010)
The Straw Man Fallacy (2013)
Study of Head of Shouting Man (2017)
The Temptations of St. Anthony (2016)
After Galenus (2013)

Albano, F. (2009). TWELVE YEARS AGO NEW YEAR’S FEAST. [online] francesco albano’s blog. Available at: http://albanofrancesco.blogspot.com/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2020].

Albano, F. (2014). Francesco Albano. [online] Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=478vTmTSF9M [Accessed 26 Feb. 2020].

Artsy.net. (2010). Francesco Albano – 12 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy. [online] Available at: https://www.artsy.net/artist/francesco-albano [Accessed 26 Feb. 2020].

Bahadur, T. (2017). Going Deeper into Fear, Emptiness, Incapability: The Visceral Sculptures of Francesco Albano. [online] On Art and Aesthetics. Available at:

Going Deeper into Fear, Emptiness, Incapability: The Visceral Sculptures of Francesco Albano
[Accessed 26 Feb. 2020].

Aliza Nisenbaum-Sebastian Arellano

Aliza Nisenbaum was born in Mexico City in 1977. Initially, she began studying psychology in Mexico City before deciding she wanted to go into painting. Aliza moved to Chicago where she got her B.F.A and M.F.A at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her style is greatly influenced by the Mexican Muralist movement and artists like Alice Neel, who painted intensely personal portraits.

‘London Underground: Brixton Station and Victoria Line Staff,’ 2019. (Courtesy of the artist and Art on the Underground, London; Anton Kern Gallery, New York/© Aliza Nisenbaum)

In 2012, while Nisenbaum was living in New York, she was asked by artist Tania Bruguera for help teaching at Immigrant Movement International, a community center for local immigrants. Many of the immigrants were undocumented, and spoke little to no English. She decided to teach them English while also teaching them about art history.

During her time teaching, Aliza became very close to her students. After becoming involved in their lives and hearing stories about their lives, she decided she wanted to paint them.

Aliza Nisenbaum – Las Taliveritas, 2015 courtesy the artist and Mary Mary, Glasgow

Nisenbaum would often paint students in their own homes or invite them into hers. Because her students were often adult women with families, their children and husbands were often painted with them. She also liked to use textile patterns often found in their homes in the paintings.

Aliza paints her portraits from life, and therefore spends hours staring at her subjects. She is very interested in the personal relationships that are formed as she paints. Many conversations are had about her life and her subject’s life. I think the personal relationship she has with her subjects can be seen in her works.

Aliza Nisenbaum, Eva, Juan Carlos, Yael, Christian and Samantha, 2014. Oil on linen, 129.5 x 83.8 cm / 51 x 33 in Courtesy the artist, Mary Mary, and Frieze New York

Aliza Nisenbaum – Veronica, Marissa, and Gustavo, 2013 courtesy the artist and Mary Mary, Glasgow

My Yoga, 2019, Oil on linen, 24 x 22 inches (61 x 55.9 cm)

Nisenbaum sees a lot of her works as political statements. Her paintings help bring light to people who are obliged to live in shadows.

“To pay attention to someone can be a political act.”

A frequent Nisenbaum subject, the young Mexican woman depicted in Marissa’s Room, 2015, is surrounded by her own artworks, her guitar, and a Virgin Mary calendar serving as protection for her family.Photo: Courtesy of the artist / Mary Mary, Glasgow
La Talaverita, Sunday Morning NY Times, 2016, on show at next month’s Whitney Biennial, portrays Marissa and her father reading the news.Photo: Courtesy of the artist / T293 Gallery, Rome / Mary Mary, Glasgow

Sources: https://www.vogue.com/article/aliza-nisenbaum-artist-immigration-political-portraits https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2016/october/26/aliza-nisenbaum-why-i-paint/

Eric Carle – Savanna Pitchford

Eric Carle is an American writer/artist of children’s literature who published many best-selling books around the word in 60 languages. The most famous of his books would be The Very Hungry Caterpillar which sold over 50 million copies.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Born in 1929, Carle comes from a German family that moved to the United States to live a better live till his father was drafted into the German army during World War ll. Living in Germany was very dramatic for him.

© Eric Carle all rights reserved 413-586-2046

He completed his schooling in Germany where he studied graphic art (graduated 1950). Then he returns back to the United States making it his goal to be an artist in New York City.

The New York Times was his first job as a graphic designer. He was living his New York dream till he was drafted into the US army during the Korean War.

Later returning back to his same job to leave it to focus more on his own art. Eventually he published his first book in 1967 called “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”.

Carle made over 70 books independently using his own unique technique which made him very well known.

To create such beautiful art work as Carle you need to use acrylic paint, tissue paper, pencils, glue, crayons, and colored pencils.

He paints acrylic paint on top of the tissue paper, which made his art have more textures. Where he can make a lot of unique patterns.

Carle used a lot of different techniques to make textures and shapes in his artwork.

The themes of his stories/books are drawn from his knowledge and love of nature. He wants his readers to learn something about the world around them with amazing art and wording. He wants the readers to understand their feelings, creative knowledge and growth about the world around you. 

Now at his age of 90 years old, he won many awards for his amazing books and just had an 50 years celebration at The Frist Art Museum of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” .

Work Cited https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eric-Carle / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Carle / https://www.carlemuseum.org/artists/eric-carle / https://fristartmuseum.org/calendar/detail/eric-carles-picture-books

Elliott Hundley- Hollie Wilson

Elliot Hundley is a 45 year  old artist living in Los Angeles. He uses a collage of different pictures, lines, etc. to create a large piece on canvas. Hundley’s work has been exhibited in lots of different galleries in New York and Los Angeles. 

In “Let the House Crash Season I”, I really loved his use of color. He has lots of bright colors and they are mostly analogous. I really like the yarn that is suspended and I think it would be really cool to see this piece in person because of the texture. 

My favorite thing about “Tabloid” is the message it shows. I think it talks about how advertisements make up so much of our world. The colors are extremely bright and I really am attracted to it visually. 

“Secrets” makes me feel like I am looking at an A&W restaurant wall. It is a gigantic collage of colorful photographs. What I really like is that most of the photographs do not have manipulated color. They are in their natural background. 

“Agave” makes you feel like you are looking at an iSpy puzzle. There are so many different objects across the canvas. He constantly uses beautiful bright colors and in this piece he uses a black background to contrast. 

“Lighting’s bride” has a beautiful analogous color scheme. Up close it is a large collage of various objects with colors within the scheme, but when looked at far away, it is a beautiful piece of different pictures of a woman. 

“Plague” is a very interesting piece because of how different it is up close and far away. Up close it is a collage with multiple colors. It seems to be a colorful piece. However, far away it is mostly red. The color of red used has an angry feel to it, making contrast emotionally. 

“There is No Firmament” makes me feel like I am looking at a TGI Friday’s ceiling. There are lots of pop culture references and cds collages onto it. It has beautiful bright colors. 

Let the House Crash Season I Elliott Hundley
Tabloid Elliott Hundley
Secrets Elliot Hundley
There is No Firmament Elliott Hundley
Agave Elliott Hundley
Lightning’s Bride Elliott Hundley
The Plague Elliott Hundley

Kris Kuksi

Unveiled Obscurity, Mixed Media Assemblage, 2013

Kris Kuksi is an amazing assemblage artist whose highly detailed works carry beautifully dark Gothic overtones. He was born in Springfield Missouri in March of 1973 but later moved to a town near Wichita Kansas. Due to his extremely quiet home environment and support of his grandmother his creativity was allowed to grow into the art you see today. It wasn’t until after he received a master’s degree in painting from Fort Hays State University that he realized it wasn’t his medium of choice. After many hours of hard work and training he moved on to an assemblage style of art.

The Evidence of Tyranny, Mixed Media Assemblage, 2011

His works often hold a deeper meaning with details so small and fine that looking closely is like reading words on a page. You could stare at them for hours and notice something new after every time you blink. He pulls a lot from real historical events and even the Myths and Legends of many different cultures. He has many art pieces that heavily relate to religion partially because of the way he was raised but also because he loved classical sculptures.

Hercules-vs-Diana, Mixed Media Assemblage, 2011

This work has ties to both Greek and Roman Mythology with the Greek hero Hercules on the left and Diana the roman goddess of hunting on the right.

Sanctuary of the Bewildered, Mixed Media Assemblage, 2009

He has several stand out pieces that are less clear on the stories being told and are more like visually stunning architectural masterpieces. These works are a lot of fun because he really seems to let the Gothic aspects of his art flow freely.

A Tribute to the Madness of Beethoven, Mixed Media Assemblage, 2009
Pan Discomforting Psyche, Mixed Media Assemblage, 2009
A Rather Noble Cock, Mixed Media Assemblage, 2009

He also has several that I genuinely have no explanation for.

Sources: https://www.kuksi.com/

Billelis the Best Yet!

I believe 3-D art is all about perspective. Looking at the same piece from different angles really shows you the content and values which make the piece worth looking at. I went through a few different artist’s work to find one that really popped to me. BillElis who hails from the UK is by far my favorite 3-D artist that I have been able to find so far. The way he uses his materials, mostly metal, brings out the darkness of his pieces which are Gothic in style. Although the idea is dark and the setting of the piece is too, you can see so much contrast due to the content that his work is portraying. He has been approached by the video game market because of his illustrative work. His work on Wick is great! Death and Darkness, is what I see when I look at his work and this really intrigues me to look at the shadows for inspiration. 

Billeils has produced some of the best art of the top athletes, musicians for ad companies and magazines in the world. He inspires me because it seems that he dabbles in everything and is a master of creations that not only should intrigue but give you inspiration too. He can engrave, carve hard stone, make an anime in a virtual world which he can blend and create his own beautiful dark style of art. All the different techniques he uses not only takes desire but dedication and will power to complete his ideas in a provocative manner. His contrasts bring darkness to a new light. 

Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1941, and while the first time he’d blow glass would be in 1965, he’d truly discover his passion for the craft in 1968 following a trip to Venice where he’d learn its secrets and intricacies. Chihuly is one of, if not the most well known glass artist of the modern era, creating hypnotic pieces heavily inspired by aspects of the natural world, such as plants and ocean life. Over the course of his over forty year career, he’s created dozens upon dozens of pieces and exhibitions that have been seen in museums, galleries, and other organizations all over the world and 32 states, including Cheekwood and the Frist Museum. Though losing sight in his left eye and an injury in his right arm caused by various accidents throughout his career prevents him from taking a more hands on approach in the creative process nowadays, he still remains an active part of his team as “more choreographer than dancer, more supervisor than participant, more director than actor” in his own words. 

Chihuly is a pioneer to the art form of glass blowing, emphasising the force and power of heat, gravity, and centrifugal force in otherworldly pieces that seem to almost defy the laws of physics at points.

White Pearl Seaform
Silvered Rose Ikebana with Silver Stem and Yellow Flower
Nightfall Macchia
Seaform Installation, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California
Gibson Chandelier, 2000
Mille Fiori 

Works cited:

https://fristartmuseum.org/calendar/detail/chihuly-at-the-frist

https://www.chihuly.com/

Yayoi Kusama – Marsha Itsaleumsack

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese woman who made her title as an avant-garde artist, raised in Matsumoto before moving to New York in 1958, as recommended by her therapist who said her dysfunctional family would swallow her whole. Kusama was a diamond in the rough, having at first had to use scraps she found and mud sacks to craft her art after her mom threw out all of her supplies. Her mother condemned Kusama’s passion for art which only fueled her further. Her most popular works that gained traction delve into psychedelic and what she calls, a ‘self obliteration’. Many if not all of her works are hallucinatory projections and this notably comes in the form of polka dots — her trademark.

Infinity Mirrored Room – Brilliance of the Souls by Yayoi Kusuma 
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Room, 2013

 
Yayoi Kusama, Transmigration , 2011

“These rooms reflect all of her elements: her obsessions, her accumulations, her infinite repetitions. And it’s all very bodily and immersive,” Yoshitake said. 

            But there was a time before she adapted to the new scene. Her works when she was still a fresh and new, innovative artist had much to do with innate promiscuity and elemental nudity. Kusama abhorred sex, lost and disoriented with the concept of skinship and intimacy, stemming from childhood trauma. This trauma translated into her early works, many of which that puts multitudes of phallic objects on display to more performative pieces of nude men and women alike. 

 
Yayoi Kusama posing with , New York. ©Yayoi Kusama and Yayoi Kusama Studios Inc.


A nude happening and fashion show at Kusama’s Studio, New York, 1968

”I don’t know how long I’m going to survive even after I die; there is a future generation that is following in my footsteps,” she said, sitting in the bright open space that is her new gallery in central Tokyo. “I would be highly honored if people would like to look at my work and be moved by my work.”

Vija Celmins

Vija Celmins is a Lativian-American who has been engaged in art since she was a child. She has a career spanning over fifty years in Los Angeles and now New York, and continues to create amazing works of art to this day. She is featured in Manhattan at the Met Breuer. Starting her career in the 1960s, she drew and painted everything from her stove burner and lamps to the waves from her beach walks.

Untitled (Big Sea #1) 1969
https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/vija-celmins-met-breur-1684402

She uses graphite pencil in life-like yet surreal ways, observing nature or rendering images from magazines and newspapers.

Untitled (Spider Web #1) 1998
https://ago.ca/agoinsider/icymi-vija-celmins-her-own-words

Vija, in an interview, commented on her works made from using real life and newspaper clippings, saying about her art:

“This is an invented thing. You know that it’s not like a copy of nature, or copy of photograph. It’s an invented thing you have in front of you” (Vija, Art21 32:49).

She has been inspired to make art concerning space in much of her work after the 1960s space race and the moon landing in 1969.

Night Sky #18 1998 Vija Celmins born 1938 ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Anthony d’Offay 2010 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/AL00178

Vija also uses paints and sculpture to bring her art alive. In her work “To Fix The Image In Memory”, she made bronze casts of eleven different rocks and than painted the casts to resemble the real rocks as much as possible. In the work, the rocks and casts are placed together and the viewer is challenged to tell the real life and painted ones apart. Vija saw this as a way

“…to create a challenge for your eyes. I wanted your eyes to open wider ” (Celmins).

To Fix The Image In Memory 1977-82
http://www.genetology.net/index.php/73/anthropology/archaeologie/

Vija emphasizes the fact that the canvases are part of her work and she spends a good amount of time preparing and “building” them.

“…I often now talk about building a painting instead of painting a painting,” (Vija, Art21 31:14).

she commented when explaining her process of sanding, applying paint and then sanding again as she adds more layers to her work and rethinks the work as a whole.

Vija at Work
https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/book_report/chuck-close-in-conversation-with-vija-celmins-about-her-dense-yet-infinite-drawings-54732

Vija’s work is meticulous but creative in the way she brings her works to life.

Clouds 1968
https://www.vogue.com/article/vija-celmins-retrospective-met-breuer-review

The thoughtfulness and humility that she speaks with when explaining her work is clearly seen in the works of art themselves. Though many of them are black and white images, the works come to life and feel as if they are moving and breathing.

Ocean 1975 Vija Celmins born 1938 Purchased with assistance from the American Fund for the Tate Gallery, courtesy of the Judith Rothschild Foundation 1999 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P78336

Her work is truly inspiring and thought-provoking in a simple and calm manner.

Works Cited

“Vija Celmins In.” Art21, art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s2/vija-celmins-in-time-segment/. 32:49.

Celmins, Vija. “Vija Celmins. To Fix the Image in Memory. 1977-82: MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org/collection/works/100210.

“Vija Celmins In.” Art21, art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s2/vija-celmins-in-time-segment/.31:14.

Vija Celmins

Maya Lin by Abigail Wiencek

Maya Lin is an artist with a passion to make her work mean something. She was born in Athens, Ohio, 1959. Both of her parents were immigrants from China with creative backgrounds and they worked at the Ohio University. With such an upbringing it is no wonder why Maya grew to be a prestigious artist who has an eye for design and the want to make a difference.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial 1982

Maya is most widely known for her Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. which commemorates those who fought and died for our country. She designed it while she was a student at Yale University which may be why it doesn’t look like a conventional memorial or monument. She brought a modern and honest design that may seem stark but that is what makes it so breathtaking.

“Folding the Hudson” A River is a Drawing Exhibition

Maya is also a strong environmental activist who is using her work as a way to talk about important topics such as climate change. Pieces like this she has done specifically focus on bodies of water and their importance. Also another interesting concept Lin introduces through this exhibition’s title is that rivers themselves can actually be classified as drawings which is an interesting line of thought considering what is classified as a drawing. A river is really just the remnant of how water has eroded soil and left a mark on the landscape which can be effectively classified as a line made with mark making. This piece she made was created with many recycled glass marbles that come together to form the Hudson River running all throughout the space.

The Deglaciation of Laurentide

As previously stated Maya likes to focus on climate change in her work. She likes to focus on water and is fascinated with its ever-changing state and the role it plays in history. With pieces like this she compares the original sizes of glaciers and their current shrunk form. Its like bringing geological topography maps to the fluid state of water. When she makes pieces like this the plan is usually put into a computer program and then printed by a 3-D printer. This method is how she is blending technical architectural practices with that of the art world to end up creating something that is beautiful with a strong message.

This piece entitled “Flow” is Lin’s interesting depiction of water’s fluid movement crafted from a rigid medium of wooded blocks. The result is a beautiful composition that draws the eye to slide over its lines of movement. With the wave’s tilted angles it makes viewers feel like a chunk of the ocean has been frozen in time and stowed away.

Overall, Maya Lin is one of our nation’s most inspirational and important artists. She has a mission and purpose behind her art. Not only that, she also is innovating the art world and how we look at how nature and its honest life can fuel beautiful works of art that say something. Lin is starting a conversation in a unique way through the use of art that may open people’s minds that previous ways haven’t before. Either way her work inspires, from her great stone memorial to her fragile glass marble river her work will forever be in people’s minds and maybe even leave a lasting impression on how they view the world.

Works Cited