Elias Crespin was born in Caracas in 1965. He received a
Bachelor's degree in computer science at Universidad Central de
Venezuela in 1990. In 2002 he started to explore ways to create
movement from computer controlled electronic systems. Today he
creates motorized kinetic sculptures that encourage the spectator to
observe a dancing surface whose connection to mechanics or
electronics is not obvious; the link is inferred rather than seen.
The beauty of the forms implies that technology is the instrument
and not the goal.
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Marc Swanson is a contemporary American artist
whose hand-made works combine a preoccupation with personal history
and identity conflict. He works with a variety of media, including
sculpture, drawing, video, and photography. In addition to his
well-known series of rhinestone-based sculptures, Marc has embarked
on a new installation of wall dioramas made with various materials,
including light, wood, glass, fabric, gold and silver chain, and
mirrors. The image shown above includes a photograph from the film
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and is from an edition of
two.
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Berend Strik takes photographs but then alters them
with mixed-media and embroidery. These mutations simultaneously
underscore and undermine the reality presented in the photographs.
By perforating them with a needle and thread, the two-dimensional
quality of the image is disrupted, creating a work that is both
tactile and conceptually driven. The embroidered photographs and
collaged textures contain a nuanced layering of pattern: fabric and
image that come together to explore the notion of the exotic.
Since 1987, Strik has been embroidering
photographs. The narrative of the photo is subsequently changed, and
new layers and realities are presented. Through this process, Strik
plays with historic atmospheres and art historical clichés.
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Another artist fascinated with collage is Matthew
Cusick. He uses maps, book pages, Folger's coffee among other
objects on wood panel to create his paintings, enhancing the visual
quality of tone and density in his works. Most of the maps used for
Cusick's pieces come from his own collection of world atlases,
antique maps and school geography books.
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Munich-based sculptor Martin Wohrl was first introduced in
the United States last year with a solo exhibition in New York City.
He uses found wood on the street and materials sourced from budget
hardware stores to craft his free-standing and wall
pieces. The handcrafted detailing and sensitivity to patina
and color elevate this seemingly minimalist platform into a
sculptural work that can be enjoyed by all.
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Well-known Brazilian photographer Vik Muniz also
uses recycled objects for his masterpieces. From puzzles pieces to
chocolate to toys and objects found at a junkyard, Muniz
creates images out of heaps of junk, paint pigment or cut-out paper
(whichever series he is working with) and then takes an aerial
photograph of the finished product. Muniz tends to
re-create images from recognizable paintings in art history or
people or places that are personally meaningful to
him.
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Nina Bovasso's work re-interprets the language of
high-modernist abstraction by blending psychedelic pop-art like
references. Her paintings are executed with water-based
material-ink, acrylic, watercolor and gouache on handmade Abaca
paper. However, her newest venture has been reproducing one of her
works as a limited edition handmade rug. Hand-knotted in the
Kathmandu area of Nepal from high quality woven wool and silk,
each rug is unique and signed by the artist on the back.
Additionally, the Goodweave Certified label is on the back of each
rug assuring that no child labor was used in the manufacturing of
the rug. Furthermore, a portion of the purchase price helps to
educate children in the Kathmandu area. James Siena and James
Welling have also contributed designs for this project.
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David Nash, one of Britain's foremost sculptors, is
renowned for his skillful and dynamic transformation of fallen or
uprooted trees. He has developed an eloquent understanding of trees
and the natural environment, successfully working with their traits
to create sculpture, installation projects and related drawings. His
large wood sculptures are sometimes carved or partially burned to
produce blackening. His main tools for these sculptures are a
chainsaw and an axe to carve the wood and a blowtorch to char the
wood. Nash's obvious dexterity with a chainsaw defies belief.
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Rosemarie Fiore's drawings are created by containing
and controlling firework explosions. She bombs blank sheets of paper
with different fireworks including color smoke bombs, jumping jacks,
monster balls, fountains, magic whips, spinning carnations, ground
blooms, rings of fire, and lasers. As she works, she creates the
imagery by controlling the chaotic nature of the explosions in
upside-down containers. When the paper becomes saturated in color,
dark and burned, she takes it back to the studio and collages blank
paper circles onto the image to establish new planes and open up the
composition. She then continues to bomb the pieces. These actions
are repeated a number of times. The final works contain many layers
of collaged explosions and are thick and heavy. Fiore considers the
firework drawings invented dimensional spaces in which the forces of
chaos and control fight with each other. The visible traces of the
fireworks' detonations transform the explosive spectacle into
fixed mini-universes of streaks, shooting sprays of vibrant
pigments, and shimmering fields of color.
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Cuban-born but Brooklyn-based photographer Luis Gispert's
works were a big hit. His large format photographs combine
