Cuban artist Darian Mederos transforms his passion for the human figures and the study of Masters like Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Diego Velazquez, that brought him to explore the ubiquitous human features.
Looking through something is one of the many obsessions that every artist has; Using an obstacle makes the vision more intriguing and less obvious: that's why Mederos has created a series of works that use bubble wrap over his subjects to obscure their form and features.
Young artist Marcos Anziani born in Dominican and based in New York brings a new breathe into the highly esteemed neo-expressionism. His artistic dialect is close to that of such artists as Willem de Kooning, Joan Miro and Jean Michel Basquiat. In each of paintings, Marcos aims to 'curb' the energy of color within the framework of a canvas. He combines abstract forms with primitivist images of people and objects done in simple lines.
Various, mostly warm, colors balance the artistic chaos of forms in Marcos' paintings. His compositions remind us of Kandinskiy's abstractions. Marcos is actively evolving as an artist and seeks for an art that would continue the ways of the great artists of the XXth century.
Anziani understands painting as a means of expressing his emotions and thoughts. While working, he imagines himself being inside the painting and concentrates on one particular image or idea, finds a way to express them through painting and then develops the whole painting around them. He builds the composition from the inside, fully giving himself to it, and that produces actually sincere 'portraits' of the inner feelings of the artist, prints of the fly of his imagination.
Marcos Anziani is exclusively represented by ASKERI GALLERY in Russia
Continuum Remix v.2 is the second in a series of works by Krista Kim in collaboration with Efren Mur (@efrenmur) and Ligovskoï (@ligvsk) to be released on Sedition Art platform. Continuum Remix v.1 was launched in Summer 2020 as part of the @Digital.Decade SE 2020 collection, curated by us - @Designcollector Network.
“Meditation will save us from the machine; art will save us from ourselves. I believe in the healing and transformational power of visual art + sound + meditation on an individual and a social level.
Our future is unknown and unstable. There are difficult times ahead due to social and economic unrest due to pandemic risk, digital disruption, automation and climate change. Collective fear is undeniable, but we cannot allow ourselves to be dominated by fear — we must face the unknown with open hearts and mindfulness. In chaos, there is creative opportunity. We must create a better future with compassion and love.
My collaboration with Efren Mur (video artist) and Ligovskoï (electronic music band) was created during the COVID-19 crisis. Our purpose is to present a vision of meditativeness and digital beauty to collective consciousness. The world is forever changed, and we must adapt with mindfulness, self care and connection to creative energy that will help us navigate the unknown.”
Studio Studies
ГЦСИ Санкт-Петербург
Studio Studies is a series of video interviews with St. Petersburg artists and a logical continuation of the work with the artists' studios, which was launched as part of the 1st Curatorial Forum. Then, in the fall of 2019, the artists of St. Petersburg opened the doors of their studios to the public. The program called Open Studios raised important questions about the ethics of visiting and hospitality, the attitude of the artist and the public, and the very essence of these private spaces.
In 2020, we continued to work with the studios, now in an exploratory way, to clarify for ourselves, the audience, and the artists the designated "blind spots". We revised the format of open studios in favor of videos about the artist's life in the studio. This decision was also forced by the epidemiological situation, in which we think it is right to avoid mass visits to the studios.
Calling the series Studio Studies, we appeal to an already existing field of knowledge, relatively developed in European and American art criticism. Studio Studies is an area of knowledge that explores the artist's studio as an ecosystem of aesthetic and material production, and as a place that defines the entire future cultural process. We asked questions about the artist's daily life, looked at internal processes and relations with the outside world, i.e. we were engaged in topology and ethics of these special spaces.
Based on a research perspective, we invited artists representing different types of contemporary art: painters, graphic artists, sculptors, photographers, media artists, activists, etc. in order to see, perhaps, the specific routine of each direction.
Curator: Anna Zavediy
Russian release
Государственный Центр Современного Искусства в Санкт-Петербурге (Северо-Западный филиал ГМИИ им. А.С. Пушкина) @ncca_northwest при поддержке «Фонда поддержки инноваций и молодежных инициатив» представляют первую часть спецпроекта Studio Studies – девять видео-интервью с петербургскими художниками в их мастерских.
Ася Маракулина в мастерской
Studio Studies – логическое продолжение работы с мастерскими художников, начатой осенью 2019 года. В рамках 1-го Кураторского форума была запущена программа Open Studios: во время Art Weekend художники Петербурга открыли двери своих мастерских для широкой аудитории. Программа, сфокусированная на этике посещения и гостеприимства, отношениях художника и публики, а также на самой сути этих приватных пространств, оказалась успешной.
В 2020 году работа с мастерскими продолжается, теперь уже в исследовательском ключе. Формат открытых мастерских был пересмотрен в пользу фильмов о жизни художника в мастерской (или о жизни мастерской).
Мастерская художника – это пространство со своей экосистемой, как правило закрытое для широкой публики. В серии видеоинтервью исследуется повседневная жизнь художника в мастерской и таким образом десакрализуется художественный труд.
Ильдар Якубов в своей мастерской
STUDIO STUDIES
Серия исследовательских видеоинтервью с петербургскими художниками.
http://curatorialforum.art/2020studiostudies
Куратор: Анна Заведий (@anna_zavediy)
Участники: Анна Андржиевская, Ася Маракулина, коммунальная галерея «Егорка», Анна Прилуцкая, Никита Селезнёв, студия перформативных искусств «СДВИГ», Илья Смирнов, Наталья Тихонова, Ильдар Якубов.
Bite tongue, deep breaths
Azamat Akhmadbaev (b.1991) is a visual artist who lives and works in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He works across many disciplines including painting, photography, video and digital art. His artworks operates in the gap between glitch art, abstraction, minimalism and graphic art. Also he is a founder/editor-in-chief of @dontpostme_magazine - a magazine about contemporary art. Private collections in Russia, Spain, the USA, the UK and Poland
BITE TONGUE, DEEP BREATHS, 2020 is a part of an ongoing series of digital artworks by Azamat Akhmadbaev. This artwork continues to explore the limits of digital art world, and it was inspired by a song by Clams Casino & Imogen Heap ‘I’m God’.
Having taken the repeating words ‘bite tongue, deep breaths’ from the song, the artist has transformed a sampled song’s melody and text into the colorful artwork with infinite number of layers. Using glitched, vandalized images and texts (in a special, manually designed fonts) as brushes on a digital canvas, Akhmadbaev represents a dualism of the digital and the real, physical world. Technically, the artist checks out the ability of auto and manual software tools to create the image with glitched, lost, degraded effects. Conceptually, the artist launches the self-reflexive process with a manifestation of his attitude to the legacy of the post-war (abstract painting) and 90’s (usage of computer technologies in art) periods. And references to the popular song are the digitally manipulated links with culture and time in history discourse.
When the drape falls, Digital Decade SE, 2020
Award-winning artist Grégoire A. Meyer creates digital illustrations that evoke thought-provoking reactions. His art examines the body in its extraordinary simplicity as a biological, digital and aesthetic organism. He captures the essence of fleeting moments, like a splash of water or a disintegrating face, and freezes them in time in objects that appear almost tangible. His works create a complex relationship between fact and fiction.
““The horse represents our last hope and challenges the concept of black as darkness and as the drapes slips off with its own weight - the future of humanity will be exposed..””
Digital Decade SE 2020 - VR Exhibition
Sound by: Killawat
With no doubts, 2020 is a total game changer. Digital officially becomes a part of our life in all possible ways and words “Internet”, “IoT”, “Online” does not make any sense now. It is life in all its beauty, pixels and germs..
During Digital Decade 2020 we hand-picked several artists and asked them to come up with visual representations of post-2020, post-isolation and post-identity. From today this set of artworks is available for collecting on Sedition Art Platform. The platform is dedicated to collecting digital art limited copies that you can enjoy as a part of your digital life, on a laptop, mobile or even wall frame TV.
This release is accompanied by VR/3D Gallery that you can access anytime and enjoy the atmosphere of a late night party (thanks to Ben Paul for the music mixtape). The exhibition features works by Krista Kim, Aristarkh Chernyshev, Eliška Sky, Azamat Akhmadbaev, Joëlle Snaith, Dimitri Daniloff and Grégoire A. Meyer.
Sedition + Designcollector
Digital Decade SE 2020 is the latest in the Digital Decade series of events by DesignCollector. Digital Decade is the brainchild of Designcollector founder Arseny Vesnin, who has curated and coordinated public phygital art events in London, St Petersburg and Barcelona since 2013. Since then Designcollector have presented the work of more than 150 pioneering, exploratory and celebrated artists working between the physical and the digital, as well as partnering with organisations including OFFF, Ello, Depositphotos and FutureFest.
On 8 July a new collection of digital editions curated by Designcollector Creative Network launches on Sedition. The exhibition features works by Krista Kim, Aristarkh Chernyshev, Eliška Sky, Azamat Akhmadbaev, Joëlle Snaith, Dimitri Daniloff and Grégoire A. Meyer.
Virtual Exhibition available by the link below
Digital Decade events are live artistic responses to current changes (geopolitical, environmental, social) influencing life in the digital age. For the latest iteration, held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, artists have creative speculative and critical comments on how phygital life may change post-pandemic. The artists participating present works in a range of media including photography, audiovisual collaborations, 3D digital sculptures and animation
Continuum remix v.1 (w/ Ligovskoï and Efren Mur) (video)
When The Drape Falls
Ultrahumans (video)
Human Unlimited
Bite tongue, deep breaths
No Color, No Taste, No Odour, or Critical Update
ISOLATION
Distortion (video)
Delphine Diallo is a Brooklyn-based French and Senegalese visual artist and photographer. Wherever she can, Diallo combines artistry with activism, pushing the many possibilities of empowering women, youth, and cultural minorities through visual provocation.
Sought to challenge the norms of our society, Diallo immerses herself in the realm of anthropology, mythology, religion, science and martial arts to release her mind. Her work takes her to far remote areas, as she insists on spending intimate time with her subjects to better able represent their most innate energy “I treat my process as if it were an adventure liberating a new protagonist” — Diallo’s powerful portraitures unmask and stir an uninhibited insight that allows her audience to see beyond the facade.
“We are in constant search for wonder and growth. I see art asa vessel to express consciousness and an access to diffuse wisdom, enlightenment, fear, beauty, ugliness, mystery, faith, strength, fearless, universal matter”
Delphine is currently represented by MTArt Agency (@mtartagency) lead by Marine Tanguy (@marinetanguyart)
Award-winning Fine Art conceptual artist Romina Ressia (recently evaluated by Sony as an exceptional Latin American Photographer and nominated for Global Leadership Prize of 2020 Tällberg/Eliasson Foundation) constantly pushing the borders of art photography perception. Represented by The House of Fine Art (@thehouseoffineart) in London she is a part of virtual group exhibition “Myth-Making” opened this days.
Owner of a pictorial style, she is well known for her anachronisms and the use of the absurd and the irony to approach modern issues. The attempt to grant a fresh air to the classic style is another important characteristics of her work.
“From the experience of the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the world over the past two months, I realized that meditation is a universal tool to help us manage future instability and stress responses from massive disruption caused by future pandemic risk, climate change and automation. It is inevitable that our future will be unstable and chaotic for many years to come.
The world is ready to seek spiritually driven changes of how our civilization and economy are structured. Meditation has become a scientifically proven practice for the well-being of the individual and therefore, the well-being of society and the world. Millions of us are meditating en mass like never before and social media is helping us build community around it.
While in quarantine, I became inspired to create my vision of a world of meditativeness; my vision of how the practice of meditation can also be integrated into our every day lives through art, architecture, design and fashion. My vision is of a future based on the individual practice of meditation, extending to every aspect of our every day lives. I am inspired by Japanese Zen art, architecture and design. It’s very existence has shaped the world culture in profound ways, and will continue to impact art and design as it lives through my creations.
I believe there is hope for the future if more people meditate. We will manage stress, but most importantly, we can tap into our maximum creative potential. More than ever, creativity and collaboration are the antidote to fear and war. Beauty, collaboration, co-creation and meditation are the attributes that we must focus on collectively and globally in order to thrive and navigate opportunity amidst the chaos of disruption.
“I hope that we all gain insight, wisdom and compassion from this pandemic. I hope you are inspired to create a beautiful world.”
Peter Opheim’s oil paintings are windows into a world unlike any other, one populated by the unconventional and provocative juxtaposition of a childlike imagination with adult thoughts and emotions.
Ongoing collaboration “KIRO ╳ Zhostovo” is a clear example of how traditional folk art integrates with contemporary art. Abstract artworks of Irina Kiro (from her series “Emotionalia” she created during art residency at Mas els Igols, Spain) found new meanings as they transformed as an artistic reflection of traditional Zhosotovo painting on metal trays. The new visual meaning is painstakingly reproduced by masters from Zhosotovo factory strictly following classic cannons of 19 century.
Emotionalia, Irina Kiro
Exceptional photographer and our friend Anna Radchenko reflects on isolation and social distancing through photography with her “The Comfort Zone” series
What does isolation mean to us? How do we feel about it once it’s imposed and our freedom is
taken away?
“Although these photos were shot before the
international lockdown, they’ve become even more relevant in the current landscape. Much of
what we took for granted, including the freedom to leave our homes, go to work and meet people,
has been replaced by a growing feeling of uncertainty and confinement. We find ourselves in an
alternative reality, where we have to change our habits and some of our traits as we are spending
so much time on our own”
“When I lived in Tokyo, I was a newcomer to the city and I would discover the it on foot, navigating the Japanese signage, architecture and overall system of life. On a spring day, I wandered down side streets in my neighborhood, and I suddenly chanced upon a serene Zen garden. This Zen garden was an energetic vacuum because the world seemed to stop when I stepped inside it’s parameters. I stood still, fascinated by the beauty of negative space, peace and silence. I felt serenity. It was in that moment when I understood the principle of Zen and the meaning of art.
For centuries, Zen masters created these gardens with the intention of creating empty space in the mind of the viewer.
Art is a mirror of the mind.
I realized that our digital environment, though it is virtual, is a parallel reality of human existence—this environment is new, chaotic and distracting. The key to connecting to our humanity is to find and protect our inner sanctum of silence and peace. Younger generations are at high risk of losing this inner sanctum from digital technology.
I created a digital zen garden. One that communicates pure consciousness in the digital medium through the powerful harmony of color, light and sound.”
Music by Ligovskoï
In what is set to be a defining moment in London’s art scene this year, HOFA Gallery will launch their new flagship space in the heart of London’s prestigious Mayfair on 18 March 2020. The highly anticipated state-of-the-art 4000 sq. ft space will see HOFA make their permanent mark on the art world to the delight of collectors and enthusiasts in London and international art markets.
HOFA will commemorate the launch with an inaugural exhibition featuring a new and innovative collection of captivating and vibrant sculptural paintings of renowned contemporary artist, Zhuang Hong Yi. Colourful, exquisitely detailed and inspired by nature, Zhuang’s 3-dimensional paintings have been a favourite with collectors since his emergence as an artist of reckoning. His ‘Flowerbed’ and ‘Landscape’ series have won him the attention of art connoisseurs globally.
Zhuang’s newest and most daring explorations of colour and structure within these series will make their début at the March 2020 solo exhibition. Developed in his signature sculptural style which captures his visceral expressions on canvas, the art to be unveiled highlight Zhuang’s journey of artistic discovery and self-development. The show promises to mark a major milestone in the evolution of this artist whose work endlessly fascinate and intrigue even as they harken to the sometimes-chaotic beauty of nature.
HOFA Gallery has built a reputation for representing ground-breaking contemporary artists and producing some of the most well-received art exhibitions of recent times in their galleries spread across London, Los Angeles and Mykonos. Their current portfolio of 30 global artists includes headline names such as Marco Grassi, Joseph Klibanksy, Camille Hannah, Emmanuella Rybojad and Loribelle Spirovski as well as other acclaimed Asian artists like Ilhwa Kim and Wang Ziling.
Founded by Elio D'Anna and Simonida Pavicevic in 2012, HOFA Gallery has grown exponentially in a few years, largely due to their commitment to diversity and foresight in supporting talented emerging artists from around the world. HOFA's rich portfolio of artworks in diverse media has also proven to be a strong selling point as it affords collectors and art lovers a taste of the various artistic disciplines that characterise contemporary art today.
The scheduled launch of the flagship gallery has been years in the making. Describing the significance of the event, co-founder, Elio D'Anna, says "From this year we will be in a better position to bring the most exceptional contemporary artworks to the world’s stage, and create lasting success for the artists who created them and our collectors who acquire them. Our vision is to nurture diversity and cultural inclusiveness in the world of contemporary art through excellence, integrity and innovation.
Pokras Lampas performed large silk-based calligraphy art installation presented in the Old House in Shanghai, China
“CHINA, as the epicenter of work with silk, has historically been a place of strength, knowledge and inspiration associated with silk-based arts and crafts, therefore it is symbolic for me to present my first project with this material there.
Working with fashion 5 recent years, I’ve often seen great works with fabrics: prints, patterns, color, rhythm, texture — which is connected with creating bold images and connected not only with art or fashion, but also with non-verbal communication in the new environments, because the artwork speaks of itself better than any words”
Photo: @Denbych \ Denis Bychkovsky, 2019
“Economic studies are based on a series of basic principles: one of them states that, for any given individual, “the more, the better”. My work tries to push this axiom to the limit of excess and abundance, in order to tense it, question it or even defy it.”
“My pieces are about desire, opulence, ostentation and luxury. I apply the concept of the “hedonic treadmill” (the tendency of humans to return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite increases in wealth or the achievement of major goals) and the straight-forward myth of King Midas and his Golden Touch. Social ascent, the “American Dream”, economic inequality, endless irresponsible consumption and the effects of capitalism are also recurring themes.” text from MTArt Agency
Represented by Marine Tanguy Art Agency @MTArtagency
