JoAnne Artman Gallery

Exhibitor's Artists:

• Pedro Bonnin
  Biography : “I was born in 1967 in Cuernavaca, the city of eternal spring as people call it, 50 minutes south of Mexico City. I studied philosophy, so when I’m not painting I spend most of my time reading impossible books about truth, being, perception, meaning, reality and so on. In 1989 I traveled to Europe for the first time, I visited every single museum I could and every single gallery opening too (free wine is always welcomed when you are a poor traveler and I had the perfect alibi since I had a legitimate interest in art). I went to Italy and there I was mesmerized by the works of Giotto and the Italian masters of the Quattrocento like Simone Martini, Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Duccio di Buoninsegna to name a few. They opened my eyes. I suddenly realized up until that point in my life I’ve been living in a world of shadows. I’ve been an inhabitant of Plato’s cave and finally I was beginning to see the light. Art captivates us, seizes our minds, our bodies and souls, and makes us fall in love with it. Art can only be understood at the risk of our own lives. I don´t mean that we need to die to understand a masterpiece but we definitely need to be shocked by it and changed by it, which is a way of dying and being born again. So art can be dangerous. Picasso, who was a very smart man, once said that "Art is a weapon" and also that "Art is a lie that speaks about the truth". What kind of truth is for each one of us to find out. For my part, instead of talking forever, I would like to leave you with a very modest bunch of lies hanging from these virtual walls. I hope you enjoy them,” Pedro Bonnin.

  

  Constellation V

  

  Constellation IV
• Jana Cruder
  Biography : Jana Cruder, born and raised in western Pennsylvania, fell in love with photography in her early teens. Jana’s dad built her a darkroom where she spent countless hours teaching herself how to process and print film. She went on to graduate from the prestigious photography program at Rochester Institute of Technology. There, Jana learned the technical side of creating imagery, and after college moved west to start on her own studio. In Jana's series “Great Expectations,” Barbie becomes ‘Working Barbie’ and Ken enters the story. Since the economy is down, Ken who is un-employed assumes the role of ‘Domestic Ken’ and spends his time entertaining himself at Barbie’s expense. As Barbie gets deeper into her career she notices Ken’s increasingly distracted. Conflicted himself, he finds he enjoys spending his time with his new BFF Joe. The story of these three plays out through a series of vignettes into the subtle dysfunctions of seemingly perfect relationships. This is an exploration and examination of the importance of appearance and how the societal roles of woman, man, husband and wife are learned and how the influence of today’s media and culture shape us through icons such as Barbie and Ken.

  

  Awakening

  

  Working Girl
• Sophie Kahn
  Biography : Sophie Kahn earned a BA (Hons) in Fine Art/History of Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and an MFA in Art and Technology Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited her artwork in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, Osaka and Seoul. Her video work has been screened in festivals including Transmediale, Zero1 San Jose Biennial, Dance Camera West, Trampoline, Frequency, Currents New Media Festival and the Japan Media Arts Festival. Most recent exhibitions include 'New Romantics' at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, New York, and Paddles On!, an exhibition and auction of digital art in London at Phillips auction house. Sophie has taught in the Department of Digital Arts at Pratt Institute as a Visiting Associate Professor, and at Columbia College, Chicago, as a visiting instructor. She has recently completed residencies at the NARS Foundation and at the Museum of Arts and Design, both in New York City. Her work has been supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic, and other private funding bodies. Her work is held in public and private collections in the United States and internationally. Sophie is a 2011 New York Foundation for the Arts Digital and Electronic Arts Fellow.

  

  "G: Silver."

  

  Periode de Clownisme, F

  

  "Periode de Delire, K."

  

  LISA Artist Sophie Kahn
• Robert Mars
  Biography : Robert Mars’ artwork chronicles an evolving fascination with the Golden Age of American popular culture and celebrates the icons of the 1950’s and 60’s by taking inspiration from this culture long past. Through the application of a rich color palette and tongue-in-cheek attitude, Mars’ paintings evoke a vintage quality of design and pay homage to the idealized age of growth and hopefulness that was prevalent in the USA at the end of the Depression. A time before the internet and mobile technology, where information was not instantly available to millions and there was no such thing as instant internet celebrities, and instead people lived with the myth of the unique, untouchable and unforgettable personalities of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Audrey Hepburn and Elvis Presley. A graduate of Parsons School of Design in New York, Mars begins the creative process by preparing his surface with multiple layers of brown paper in order to define the edges and delineate the background planes of color. He then alternates layers of paint and vintage paper ephemera, sanding away portions of the layers as he works, revealing the desired portions of under painting with the overall intention to provide the viewer with a muted window into America’s past. Chronicling this fascination with 1950’s and 60’s iconography, Mars has produced a body of artwork from his studio in New York that celebrates the commonplace objects and icons of an America long past, in a thoroughly modern and exquisitely constructed manner. His eye for a distinct facet of American history is impeccable and his ability to manipulate the color and wordplay of vintage printed material has earned him reference with the likes of Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Richard
Diebenkorn among other masters from the School of Pop.

  

  How to Light Fires Jackie O

  

  Magic Kate

  

  New Fire Marilyn
• America Martin
  Biography : AMERICA MARTIN is an internationally represented Colombian-American fine artist based in Los Angeles. America is a painter and a sculptor. The magnetic pull of Martin's work is authentic, generated by both her ability to express a unique gesture that speaks to a universal truth (thus, we recognize it instantly) and her exceptional skill at rendering that truth via the human form. She pulls from the stylistic lessons of the classics and its derivations with indigenous subject matter, while redefining what it is to combine abstract and indigenous motifs.Martin’s art and personality encapsulate a sense of enthusiasm and hope. While born in the US, the roots of America’s Colombian heritage deeply penetrate her work. People are Martin’s dominant subject. They are large in size, vivacious and accessible, and seem to burst out of the limits of each canvas or sculpture. Within this pulsating interplay of color, texture, line, and shape there is always America’s signature expression that identifies each work as an America Martin. Detailed Description : ON THE NATIVE AMERICAN SERIES: The mountains and plains of New Mexico are vast. The sky is constantly changing, while the land lies still and lets the wind come rolling in, full of memory and motion. Last summer I attended the enormous July pow-wow in Taos, New Mexico. I appreciated that I was a guest as I took photos and listened to a very visual story -- a story of people who come together to celebrate, to commemorate and to remember. From the beginning of time, men and women have created ceremonies and rituals to commemorate particular moments of victory or loss, beauty or pain. These celebrations are as important as the seasons, for they mark time by adding punctuation to our lives. My Native American paintings are a series or works inspired by the places and people I met. They are not meant to be representational. I paint from memory, and from a reverence for the dignity of the men and women and children whom I met and observed, who gathered together to honor, not only their own ancestors and their own history, but time itself. -America Martin.

  

  Sunshine Man

  

  Teepee
• Stallman
  Biography : Stallman, Jason Hallman and Stephen Stum, are a Pacific Northwest based artist duo, merging talent and vision to create multifaceted sculpture. They are partners in life and work in tandem on each piece they create. They find inspiration from patterns in cellular biology and gradients in the natural world. The duo merged their names Stum and Hallman to create Stallman. Creating together, one acts as the right side of the brain and the other the left. This union dissolves the boundaries of what is possible turning the ordinary into extraordinary. Canvas on Edge - Stallman is pioneering a new technique using paint and canvas as sculpture, naming this body of work Canvas on Edge. They are taking canvas and paint and giving it a creative edge. Now the canvas has the leading role, creating form, highlight and movement. The cut edge of the canvas creates an elevated line drawing and when seen at an angle, fields of color emerge as your perspective to the piece changes. Each length of painted canvas is bonded to itself and to the background creating a rigid structure within the frame. The hue of the painted canvas reflects on the background creating a spectrum of color. By using reflecting light, pigment and structure they can multiply the hues and tones within each sculpture. Each piece is sealed with an archival varnish that protects it from moisture and UV light.

  

  Triptych

  

  Black and White Triptych
• Marjorie Strider
  Biography : Marjorie Strider’s three-dimensional paintings and soft-sculpture installations place the techniques of Minimalism within the Pop Art movement. Inspired by images of pin-up girls, Strider’s paintings carved from wood, foam, and urethane placed her Pop culture subjects within a formal, medium-centered ethos.

  

  "Bond Girl."
• Anja Van Herle
  Biography : Born in Belgium in 1969, Anja Van Herle combines a European sense of high fashion in her artwork with an American sense of wonder. Her childhood years were devoted to exploring the fundamentals of her art using crayons, pencils and watercolors. In 1987, she enrolled in Belgium’s Higher Institute for Art Education where she earned a Master’s of Fine Arts in Painting. Anja now concentrates on figurative paintings that are inspired by both classic and contemporary fashion while exploring issues of identity, emotion and human interrelationships. As timelessly chic as Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Anja’s women are playfully sexy, and their expressions and eyes tell stories that go far beyond the simple exhibition of fine fashion. In Anja’s masterful hands, fashion becomes alive. “These women—they feel.” “My work is an attempt to capture the complexity of emotions that are conveyed in the human face. I’ve been painting portraits since I was a child, continually drawing closer to the face and eyes in order to explore the emotions they contain. There’s a story behind every face; my paintings are an attempt to tell these stories by capturing delicate facial expressions and juxtaposing them with vibrant color and the dramatic interplay of shadow and light that both inform my subjects and maintain their enigmatic aura. I’m constantly delighted by the various interpretations my work receives. For some, a subject may be pensive, while to others it may be seductive or confrontational. Part of the viewing experience is for a viewer to attach his or her own emotional meaning to a work,”-Anja Van Herle.

  

  Check Please

  

  Crystal Blue
• James Verbicky
  Biography : Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from Polish descent, James Verbicky lived the majority of his early life between Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia. As an adult, Verbicky moved to the U.S., and after struggling with legitimacy for many years, was awarded the rarely bestowed 'Extraordinary Ability' green card from the U.S. government due to his extensive involvement with a myriad of museums, galleries, charity organizations, and publications across America. In 2008, his work was selected for a 110 year-old juried exhibition at the Louvre, in Paris, France, with the Societie Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 2010, Verbicky debuted the media paintings, mixed media works that stimulate the viewer with both content and texture. The three dimensional surfaces transcend traditional painting and venture into the realm of sculpture, and by utilizing vintage media and graphics, advertisements, and obsolete branding materials, Verbicky presents us with the result of decades of attempts to persuade, manipulate, and coerce through subtle and suggestive imagery. His works are at once deeply conceptual and hauntingly beautiful and abstract, capturing both forgotten and persisting icons of media and reminding us that we are constantly being influenced.

  

  Divisionaire 4

  

  Citta Samtana, Metonymy Diptych 1

  

  Blitz 54