|
The selected artists of the Chelsea International Fine Art Competition represent not just artists, but the countries and communities they hail from, each piece reflecting a little of humanity's many faceted soul.
The 2009 Chelsea International Fine Art Competition - Collective Exhibition
|
Erich Birchmeier
|
My work, as all creative processes, changes as time goes by. It arises from the combination of what my deepest passions, all of which play an important role in my art - music, dance, painting and architecture. Working with all these elements, I find the free and spontaneous lines. I paint while I dance. I decided to paint in the abstract style because I feel that intimate spaces are hidden there. My painting introduces the observer to a space of questioning, to fragmented images. My art, in common with life itself, is full of fragments that together generate a whole.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Tormenta"
|
|
"Pájaros"
|
|
|
|
Marie-Claude Bosc Depretz
|
I have been Parisian since my early childhood and have always been fascinated by the charm and lights of Paris' old neighborhoods . I populate brasseries, bistros, back streets and gardens with individuals half-way between comic-book characters and caricatures, sometimes touching and often humorous. My art evokes a mixture of childhood nostalgia and a feeling of gentle satire on human nature. Bordering on Naive Art, but also influenced by Lautrec and by famous French caricaturists such as Daumier and Dubout, I try to capture a quintessentially Parisian spirit and share it with the rest of the world. From a mere technical point of view, I mostly use oil on canvas trying to limit myself to a small number of colors in order to achieve the chromatic unity of my paintings.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Le Petit Singe au Carnaval"
|
|
"Studio Retro au Trocadéro"
|
|
|
|
Peter Bulow
|
I'm interested in the struggle that we go through- the process of being born, of aging and dying, the struggle of understanding ourselves and the attempt to be understood by others. I'm interested in the difficulty of coming to terms with the incompleteness, disappointment, loneliness and, at times, terror of life. In the last few years I've been carving stone, mostly limestone and marble. I like these materials because they connect me to an ancient past. Carving releases the living being inside the stone which is connected to the living being inside oneself, who needs to tell a story, sometimes a humorous one.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Knockout Mutant Looking at the Moon"
|
|
"My Birth, My Death (detail 4)"
|
|
|
|
Hellen Choo
|
I’ve been drawing and painting since I was 7 or 8 years old. I wanted to attend a famous art middle-school in Korea so throughout elementary school I went to after-school art institutions where I practiced realistic/technical still-life drawings for hours on end. I think this is the period when I developed a foundation for my drawing/painting skills. I now use everything I have learned about art to attempt to manifest externally the vast complexities of inner representations which comprise my understanding of lived experiences. The drama unfolds instinctively as I reconstruct my personal sense of poignant memories, and a period of deep introspection is also part of the process. Love, relationships and traveling have strongly affected my work, and more recently I have begun to focus on the subject of music. In addition, dreams and friends around me constantly affect my work - there is always a person/figure within the painting.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Love and Barcelona"
|
|
"Milan"
|
|
|
|
Christina Dallorso Bush
|
My first memory of drawing was at the age of nine. Living in public housing in lower Manhattan with 3 sisters, a brother and first generation Italian parents, my escape, my way of finding privacy, was to draw. I do not explain my work, because I think that when the artist does not describe or explain the viewer is given the privilege of having their own experience and telling their own story. What I can say is that I have always found people fascinating, particularly in how seriously we take ourselves and how our outer persona is often different to the way we feel inside, and I explore this in my art. I hope for people to walk away a bit perplexed and asking questions about the people in my drawings and their lives. An image can evoke an entire story about a life. This is my way of telling that story visually.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"OOOXXXX"
|
|
"Parade"
|
|
|
|
Dooney
|
I work with a technique I call "CLEE" which stands for Color, Light, Energy, and Emotion. These are the four elements that shape my work, and they always have been. I live in the moment as it relates to my creative process. My technique is driven by what visually moves me to a conclusive ending. Many times I have signed a painting, thinking that it felt right and complete, only to paint over the work and start anew. This technique is part of the story-telling process, which builds up layer by layer, with each layer being an important element of the overall story.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Redemption"
|
|
"Solid Phase"
|
|
|
|
Nelly Drell
|
I desire to communicate universally, to capture the beauty of life's simplest moments and through that develop a visual dialogue between my art and audience. I want to express both the suffering and joy that surrounds all people to create emotionally powerful paintings which reflect the present but are influenced by what came before me. They are meant to evoke emotion by representing matters of the soul. Each painting tells a story and explores it, is shaped and influenced by the events surrounding my life. The nude is common motif in my paintings, because I paint visual stories of people. I try to see past the flesh and bone and discover what resides within them, and bring the hidden thoughts of an individual to the surface of the canvas. I couldn't live without painting and because of that I paint with all of my soul.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Soul"
|
|
"Soul II"
|
|
|
|
Nine Francois
|
In taking my photographs, I need to be very close to the animal involved, frequently within touching distance, to get the visual distillation that I’m after. Consequently, finding the animals and convincing the owners to let me get so close has been a great challenge - although the majority of these animals are accustomed to a human presence, they are by no means domesticated. This usually means a long process of building a relationship of trust with the owners, and afterwards, with the animal itself. There is a lot of dancing around and cajoling that occurs during these photo sessions. It’s always an exercise in patience. There were many times I sat in the hot Texas sun for hours with nothing to show for my efforts afterwards. But when I get the animal just right in my frame, there’s a moment of magic and gratitude that makes up for the less fortunate times.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Ram"
|
|
"Wolf #3"
|
|
|
|
Ann Ginsburgh Hofkin
|
My photographs of dramatic cloud formations, sinuous bodies of water, or sensual trees and foliage articulate my appreciation for the mystery inherent in our world. I use black and white infrared film because it captures both the visible spectrum and the infrared light that lies outside what the human eye can see. This medium accentuates the contrast between light and shadow, enhancing our sense of the unknowable and the mysterious and underscoring the limitations of our perceptions. This heightens my awareness of all that is fragile and precious in our lives. I look at the world around us more carefully, and I cherish the human relationships of which I am a part more wholeheartedly. It would give me great pleasure to have my viewers join me in the appreciation of this augmented life experience.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Chile_07_7"
|
|
"Sicily_05_7"
|
|
|
|
Charles Imbro
|
As a boy I was always amazed at the lengths men went to in allowing themselves freedom of movement. I stood then, as I do now, in inscrutable childlike awe of the city. If you've ever had a dream so real, the experience so overpowering that you wanted to cry out, but couldn't, feeling instead the paralysis of having been emotionally checkmated and being, for the moment at least, willing to simply resign yourself and let the astonishment and amazement wash over you - then you know the feeling. I regard it as an apt response to the power of reason. It’s been my intent to exemplify that rapture in my paintings. I choose to embrace, rather than scorn, those qualities and achievements that sustain us as a species. I find beauty — even sublimity - in what man does for his own benefit.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"13-A"
|
|
"From Below"
|
|
|
|
James Keul
 
|
In my work, I seek to show a harmony between nature and humanity by painting landscapes and cityscapes, bathed in atmosphere, that are contemplations on our cities and parks. There is a human element in nearly all of my paintings, even though they are generally more focused on nature. This is all the easier to discover because the natural elements in my paintings are treated no differently from the human elements, reinforcing the sense of harmony that I attempt to convey. I primarily work directly from life and try to capture the action of a place, whether it is calm or stormy, rainy or clear. Most paintings that I do I later turn into monotypes where I further accentuate the action and add greater abstraction to the image.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Lake Taho Trees"
|
|
"Vermont Hillside"
|
|
|
|
Judith Kramer
|
My Precisionist Architectural Landscape paintings have always involved architectural landscape interpretations with an emphasis on geometric form, spatial relationships, patterns, color, and further explorations of geometric design. However, it wasn’t until an architect and art historian from Santa Monica, California, compared my work to the work of American photographer and painter, Charles Sheeler, and his self- proclaimed Precisionist style of painting, that I discovered a name for my style of painting. My passion for the drama and precision of simple linear, repeated forms identifies my work. Although the rigors of geometrics are evident in all of my paintings, the way I play with and change perspective can be unsettling, but creates a new dynamic of spatial movement. My paintings are uncomplicated, and appeal to anyone’s love of color and pattern as well as those seeking the stimulation of innovative and unique works of contemporary art.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Architectural Landscape Composition"
|
|
"Glass Skyscraper Reflections"
|
|
|
|
Bill Leigh
|
For me, photography is magic. I take photographs because I enjoy the process of capturing scenes that I find interesting or beautiful with a fairly simple device and then printing them using non-digital techniques. My goal is to produce images that will convey the beauty or uniqueness of the scene that I saw at the time. With today's mass-produced images and the instant gratification of digital photography, I find that the slower paced, older, hand crafted processes both force me and allow me to think more about what I am photographing and what I want to achieve and say with my photographs. In doing so, I feel that I am carrying on my father's and grandfather's love for what is truly artistic in photography.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"By the Riverside"
|
|
"Harvard Bridge/Boston Skyline"
|
|
|
|
Kathy Liao
|
I draw inspiration from my diverse Hakka Chinese and Japanese ancestries as I seek to illuminate the Asian influences, both cultural and symbolic, that color my life experiences. As such, my works are often shaped by the dichotomy between Asian and American culture that I experienced throughout my formative years. Oil painting is way of viewing these traditional Eastern concepts through a familiar Western medium. As a painter, I continue to learn and draw upon the vast existing visual repertoire of the Western masters. Each piece of my paintings is built up differently as I explore different possibilities with color and mark-making.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Saving Face"
|
|
"Nature and Nuture"
|
|
|
|
Ian Magargee
|
In each of my paintings, a superstructure of line and plane is painted on top of a complex, geometric support to further articulate and expand structural tensions which are internal to it. At the same time, the support lends properties of mass, density, and gravity to the activity of this overlying superstructure. So long as the support and its painted surfaces maintain a kind of interactive unity, the resultant piece will suggest the dynamic properties unique to a physical body in space while continuing to maintain a structure and address that are distinctly pictorial in origin.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Centrifugal Composition"
|
|
"Two Blue Fields and Mediating Tectonic Zones"
|
|
|
|
Marie Massey
|
Painting en plein, Marie Massey creates exquisite canvases in an Impressionistic style using vivid color. Like the Impressionists, she uses visible brush strokes, ample pigment, and contrasting values, to create subtle light effects. Growing up in California gave Massey a great affinity with the natural world as she saw it around her. It is nature’s simple uncluttered beauty that she captures in her paintings, and through this, strong connections form for her viewers.Marie Massey currently lives and works in California.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Pink Ladies, Taos"
|
|
"Evening on the River"
|
|
|
|
Eddie Nack
|
Working in a crisp, vivid style reminiscent of Ralph Goings and Robert Bechtle, Eddie Nack’s still lifes present a modern interpretation of Hyperrealism. His oil on canvas panels present his visions of familiar objects through clear light and penetrating colors. In such a precise style, light becomes an integral compositional element. Capturing a distinct moment in time, Nack’s paintings have a snapshot quality that transforms the subject matter from an every-day object to engaging artwork.
Born in Bulgaria, Eddie Nack lives and works in Phoenix, Arizona.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Where is the Salt."
|
|
"Three by Three Pears and Slices"
|
|
|
|
Andre Netto
|
Originally, I specialized in the painting techniques of the Renaissance and the creation of canvas and used pigments. Influenced by Dutch and German artists (Centuries XV and XVI), I learned to integrate their meticulous naturalism, details and vibrant colors, which go beyond the precision of the textures and new perspectives. I use the distorted perspective as a dramatic action resource, allowing me to create situations in suspended time. Strange characters, through their movement, disclose depths and expressions in their eyes and gestures. Magical and fantastic elements are present, including distorted time which helps to create a new and powerful perspective.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"About Little Secrets 01"
|
|
"About Little Secrets 13"
|
|
|
|
Arkadiusz Piegdon
|
I am interested in the concept of space and simple forms that create relationships within it. By using a limited syntax I create systems that are seemingly random but that nonetheless follow a specific set of rules. In addition, I use very bold and simple colors in order to reinforce the minimalism of the shapes of the system. I add text to the background in a haphazard manner to emphasize a quality of randomness and to add visual noise that accentuates the simplicity of the shapes that exist within that noise.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Untitled #4"
|
|
|
|
Steven R. Hill
|
I’ve had formal training in both music and art, enough to recognize very important similarities between the two disciplines. Musical harmony, tempo and interpretive themes are not unlike the relationships I use to explore concepts and ideas, with some visual sensibility, as a painter. Finding abstract possibilities within a representational subject, excites me far more than faithful reproduction, as does pushing the limits of light, color and textures to explain my subjects. A lot happens between initial ideas and finished paintings, especially if the piece takes a left turn when maybe I expected a right, and that’s all part of the song. Ultimately, I believe that people have a yearning for beauty inside them, and I try to address that part and encourage it through my work.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Morning Light, Krk, Croatia"
|
|
"Ancient Wall, Krk, Croatia"
|
|
|
|
Meredith Rose
|
One of the strongest memories from my early childhood is of an egg I received at Easter. It was about four inches long and covered with pink sugary icing, but if you looked through a cellophane opening you would see a village complete with trees, houses, and bunnies dancing along the streets. I was amazed that a whole world could be contained in such a tiny object. Many years later, I saw a box by Joseph Cornell, and knew I wanted to work in that medium. My art is assemblage, displayed in small wooden or Lucite boxes. I work in two stages. In the first ‘hunter/gatherer’ phase, I collect things that fascinate me. The second stage can occur months later, as I connect hoarded objects with each other to represent an idea, often family relationships or cultural phenomena, or to embody a mystery.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Mysterious Object 1"
|
|
"Mysterious Object 2"
|
|
|
|
Vania Stefou
|
The dynamic of being human serves as Vania Stefou’s primary inspiration, especially the physical complexity of the human body and its systems. The way we are wired internally, and what that wiring yields in our world - this is all part of the artistic landscape Vania explores in her art. Her work process involves her exploration of the vivid interactions between varying types of paint colors and textures, as well as using different types of paint, including acrylic and metallic. At times the composition of her paintings is deliberately symmetrical, employing the repetition of forms across her canvas as a means of highlighting variations in tone and shading. She employs a mix of abstract expressionism and real-life elements inspired by ocean life, earth-bound life and outer space to embrace a holistic view of the universe we live in and its infinite possibilities.
Vania lives and works amidst the islands of Greece, a location that continues to feed her creative spirit.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"One Million Thoughts"
|
|
"Perfect Machine IV"
|
|
|
|
Robert Telenick
|
Robert Telenick’s fascinating oil paintings deploy the techniques of classical Renaissance landscapes and myths to gradually reveal an engrossing series of historical allusions. From Russian Constructivist architecture to the war in Iraq, each composition mixes playful references and violence uncannily as our eyes travel across sweeping scenery and Baroque buildings. Telenick uses a gentle, Symbolist style of application, guiding our vision with careful plays of light and color, leading us on with lush reds and crepuscular blues whilst hiding subtle details in dark corners.
Exploring these multi-layered worlds is ceaselessly rewarding.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"A View of the Hudson"
|
|
"Central Park"
|
|
|
|
Preston Trombly
|
My art reflects my responses to the visual stimulations of contemporary life, and to the actual materials with which I work. For several years I worked as a composer and performer (Guggenheim Fellow, NEA and NYSCA commissions, MacDowell Colony Fellow residencies, recorded with jazz great Jaki Byard) and my experiences composing and creating musical structures inform my current work in the visual arts. Found objects, pieces of metal, wood, fabric, and artists' pigments are the raw materials of my current work. Each piece begins when a particular juxtaposition of elements intrigues me enough to start working on a piece. At the point when the addition of even one other element will 'destroy' the work, and the subtraction of even one single element will leave it incomplete, the piece is finished.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Polychrome Red/ Jovian Moon"
|
|
"Matisse's Window"
|
|
|
|
Zinni Veshi
|
My paintings are hybrids composed of discontinuous and incompatible elements. There are three factors that comprise the essence of my works. First, the exploitation and utilization of the physical qualities of oil paint as independent factors, such as its ability to have a three-dimensional body that generates a strong sensation of the material,and its extraordinary quality of producing spontaneous, high-speed passages of complementary color, of moving one tone to another, and, to a lesser degree, of one value to the other. Secondly, I employ means of expression in a way that reveals more of their inner nature, and their inherent relationships, than being simply descriptive instruments of the shapes and forms that they fashion. Thirdly, the human figures that participate in my compositions are geometric and schematic to inhabit better the general abstract form of the work. They relate to each other by the formal means of color, line, shape, and composition, and in terms of the disparity of their exaggerated expressions.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Three on the Subway"
|
|
"Next to Last Stop"
|
|
|
|
Evelyn Wang
|
In both sculpture and bas relief I am inspired by process and raw material with attention to surface, space, composition, form and scale. With the figure as a central means of expression I try to create a platform for a voice to be heard. These voices are small gestures that embody the masses and explore a universal human condition. The scale of these figures enables the audience to visually absorb them as a whole. They demand up-close attention be paid to their inherently fleeting impression. Some figures are precariously placed atop concrete structures. Others emerge from extremely flat surfaces with little space to move. Yet they are all accessible, interacting with the viewer, their surroundings and one another.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Angst"
|
|
"Resistance"
|
|
|
|
Dave Wisniewski
|
Being legally blind does not allow me to actually see eyes, but only dashes marking their location in the face. It is difficult for me to distinguish if someone is looking at me or not. My paintings let you experience that but also allow you to look right back and ask, “Are you looking at me?” At this point you are invited, sometimes demanded, to acknowledge the subject's attention. I generally use monochromatic earth tones and umbers so that color doesn't compromise the character. I paint on a large scale to support subject-observer interaction and, of course, to compensate for my limited eyesight. The images thus have an imposing, intimidating effect. The canvas size pulls observers from across the room to meet my "larger than life" characters. I sometimes add gritty materials, which affect the subject's interaction with the light of the room and gives the work a rugged, dusty feel.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Annie"
|
|
"Let's Have that Strongbox"
|
|
|
|
Meggie Zhang
|
My life and my paintings are greatly influenced by Chinese philosophies and Chinese classical poetry. The center of my painting reflects the beauty and fragility of life, the balance and harmony of nature, the laws of the universe and the cycle of life. The subtle things in everyday life inspire me the most and remind me how beautiful life is. The sound of the birds, the raindrops on the window glass, the leaves dancing in the wind, touch me with vitality and remind me of the smell of lilac in our yard when I was a little girl. Life is a never-ending journey of learning and experiencing. There are things that we cannot touch but each step we take brings us closer to our dreams. When the night falls, after the snow, at the lake or in the cool moonlight, I hope that through my paintings you can feel what I feel.
|
|
click to enlarge
|
|
"Birch Tree in the Moonlight"
|
|
"Fog and Winter Flowers"
|
|
|
|
