The Rapture of Form Soulful paintings and sculptures of powerful beauty explore spirituality, love, and the depth of human experience. Technical skills and intellectual sophistication give each work a distinct personality, reflecting intense perception through the use of abstract shapes, forms and primary colors
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Mounia Dadi
 
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Mounia Dadi's paintings ask the viewer to consider the inner world against the outer world. Her human figures are blank canvases onto which Mounia conjures all the drama and emotion of a rich inner life. Dadi locates her inspiration within "the human condition in all its facets, I believe the story of each of us is written within ourselves, from ecstasy to agony, every single pain, affliction has its own untold story and its own exploration." Indeed, her paintings are an exploration of the density and depth of human experience, rendered through lush colors and delicate lines. Mounia Dadi was born in Casablanca, Morocco. Dadi has exhibited her work worldwide and one of her pieces has recently been selected for the annual poster of the International Festival of African and Creole Film. She currently lives and works in New York.
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"Burden (diptych)"
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"Les Amants - Lovers"
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Nadia El Tatawy
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Egyptian painter Nadia el Tatawy was strongly influenced by her father's love of art, and her early life growing up in Egypt. "Living amongst the ruins of the oldest civilization known to man," she says, "is an incredibly humbling, and enriching experience." The confrontation between traditional and modern cultures has been an inspiration for Tatawy's work, as she explores the past and future of her home country's culture.
The conflicts associated with colonialism, poverty, plus traditional Egyptian culture and its attitudes toward women have all helped to shape her as an artist. Her life as a mother and an artist have informed her personal vision. "My art centers around the subjects of love, folklore, history, humanity, and God." History, both personal and cultural, is everything to Nadia el Tatawy, as it holds a mirror up to who you are now, and also the story of where you have come from. As she says, "Age is good for understanding your own inner process."
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"Violin Dream"
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"Musica"
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Michael Joseph Hibbard
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Michael Hibbard creates intriguing sculpture with an emphasis on the juxtaposition of disparate materials. The dichotomous nature of steel and ceramics speaks well for his particular artform, one that is natural and industrial in the same breath. Hibbard’s totemic form reflect the post-industrial region of upstate New York where he grew up, shapes of aging factories forming the backdrop for monumental art and architecture. These qualities bestow a range of associations with his work. One piece may be reminiscent of the machines found in a manufacturing facility while evoking the graceful quality of sails in the wind. “My main objective is to have the viewer focus on the different materials and to realize how well they can come together,” Hibbard explains. Hibbard has a keen eye for texture and color in his work combined with strong angular qualities. Each piece is unique, incorporating elements that allow for unusual positioning and display. Though a young artist, he has already created public works and has recently acquired representation in New York. Hibbard lives and works in Buffalo, New York.
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"Untitled 122"
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"Untitled 120"
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William C. Mang
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Bill Mang cuts, welds and hammers his personal visions into steel, bronze and other natural materials to create sculptures of powerful beauty and startling originality. With tools of metal and torch, his works find their inspiration in the pop culture world of gothic sci-fi, fantasy, dragons and aliens. Yet Mang also sculpts natural figures which reveal a more contemplative side, and abstracts which hold powerful insights into human nature. Whatever the subject or mood of his pieces, whether the gleaming hide of a horse or the enigmatic "Forgotten Warrior", Mang brings out the multiplicity of possible textures from metal. With his extraordinarily wide range of subjects, he explores how metals interact with each other, or with glass, and, of course, with the space they inhabit and the light he manipulates on their surfaces. Bill Mang has shown his work in many venues in California, and also applies his skill to domestic designs such as furniture and fixtures, in both metal and exotic wood. He was commissioned to sculpt a portrait of an award-winning Welsh pony, and the piece, which was in the 2005 California State Fair Fine Art Exhibit, received an Award of Excellence.
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"Future Shock"
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"Sphere"
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Gregory Allen Page
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Gregory Allen Page’s soulful paintings are an exuberant reflection of a person with a passion for life. His career path, uncommon for an artist, aid in the individualist nature of his style. A painter in his youth, Page studied anatomy and biology before going on to practice Reconstructive Surgery. Page has set aside his career in medicine to fully devote himself to painting, after an enlightening spell in Italy altered his perspective on the art of living. The rich brushwork and color found in his paintings meld well with his subject matter, focusing on spirituality, love, and beautiful life experiences. Correspondingly, Page’s works are raw and personal, with an expressive impasto application of paint. "Oil painting is not photography,” Page states, “The soul of the painter is in the freedom of his hand and the brush." Page lives and works in Chicago.
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"Cash Crop"
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"Serenity"
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Nava Revital
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Nava Revital is a painter whose artwork is profoundly inspired by the culture of her native Jerusalem. Her paintings are pictorial renditions of color and contrasts, opacity and transparency, intense light and shade—like a reflection of the Holy City itself—rendered in fleeting impressions of oil on canvas. Her strong color palette captures the very essence of Jerusalem and evokes emotion; the powerful hues demand commitment, the intensity grabs the eye and draws the viewer’s into the tale told therein. Revital paints according to her own rules. She uses three-dimensional vistas and a strong compositional structure to render her everyday subjects, which she imparts with an eternal quality, spiced with a hint of Israeli flavor. Her themes reflect the cultural patchwork of Jerusalem and mirror the diversity of the Holy City’s rich cultural heritage. Her primary consideration is creativity, which is the major contributor to the quality of her work. She draws her inspiration from her Israeli culture and her deep involvement in the Jerusalem art scene. Major influences on her artistic development were Jerusalem artists Tova Berlinsky, Haim Kiwe and Yosef Hirsch at the Bezalel art academy where she studied. The artist exhibited at the Florence Biennale in 2005 and received a positive critique from the show’s Director, Professor John T. Spike
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"In a Log Cabin"
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"Dan.com"
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Bergen Rose
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"Islandscape 25"
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"Islandscape 16"
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Marc van der Leeden
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Quick brushstrokes, simplicity of design and the development of negative white space allow me to create loose and dynamic watercolor paintings in the context of architectural and landscape subjects. My limited palette of raw umber and Prussian blue serves to unite my paintings, hopefully evoking an emotional response from the viewer.
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"Blue Ship"
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"Cape Cod"
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