Introspection: Outside the Picture | May 4 - May 25, 2021 | Reception: Thursday, May 6, 2021 6-8 PM

Introspection: Outside the Picture May 4 – May 25, 2021 Reception: Thursday, May 6, 2021 6-8 PM 530 West 25th Street, New York, NY

Agora gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the latest exhibition Introspection: Outside the Picture. The ten contemporary artists in this exhibition address perspective and attempt to communicate across differing viewpoints; those of different languages, cultures, mediums, and individual minds. As their works meet the audience, the artists invite us to consider moments of mediated interaction, contemplation, and discovery.

Introspection: Outside the Picture will showcase works of varying mediums and styles that highlight each featured artists’ unique artistry. Surrealist mixed-media figurative tapestries meet abstract textured surfaces on Industrial substrates. Elsewhere, inks, paints, and digital renderings bring to life various scenes and subject matter. As a diverse collective exhibition, the show explores the audience’s mental and emotional reaction to artworks from a diverse range of talent.

Introspection: Outside the Picture Milana Alaro Riccardo Bartoli Aigerim Bektayeva Alberto Blanquel Manuel Dampeyroux Mar De Redin Veronica Keith Chikara Komura David Lionheart Marliese Scheller

Milana Alaro Milana Alaro is a self-taught Chechen-German artist, living and working in Berlin. She has been working as a freelance artist since 2016 while she was obtaining her bachelor’s degree in Architecture. She creates figurative pieces that feature stylistic influences from abstract art and neo-expressionism. Her subjects are human beings, with a particular focus on interpersonal connection, emotions, and identity. She draws from her own experiences and identity when creating her work, particularly her bi-cultural background. She intends her work to interact with the observer through colors, expression, and composition.

Alaro is currently working as an art instructor and a lecturer in experimental design. She has shown her work in group exhibitions in Germany, Switzerland, and Russia, as well as several curated digital exhibitions, including the MIA Art Collection exhibition.

View more of Milana Alaro’s artworks on this exhibition

Outside the Picture, 2020 Gouche on Paper 15.5” x 12”

Riccardo Bartoli Italian artist Riccardo Bartoli creates fresh, lively impressionist landscape and portrait paintings in vivid color schemes. The artist uses color and loose brushwork to around emotion and create movement and vitality to his scenes of Italian land, sea, and cityscapes. A fleeting moment, a dreamy setting, and joyful colors converge, lifting the spirit of a viewer or space instantly. To create his works, Bartoli uses oil paints for their dynamic color pigments and applies them to canvases. Through his work, he intends to convey the beauty and joy that a carefree moment can give, and gratitude for being afforded those moments in life.

The young artist is currently studying fine art, sculpture, and cultural heritage sciences at the University of Sienna. Bartoli has been published in the catalogue of modern art Giorgio Mondadori, and has already exhibited his work in several exhibitions around the world.

Additionally, he was awarded an honorary Master of Historical Archives at the Maision d’Art Academic Center.

View more of Riccardo Bartoli’s artworks on this exhibition

Sea Between Water and Land, 2018 Oil on Canvas 15.5” x 23.5”

Aigerim Bektayeva “There is no such joy as when I stand in front of an easel and begin to paint, concentrating and feeling balance within my soul.”

Aigerim Bektayeva is a Khazakhstani artist and painter. She draws strength and inspiration from her love towards the Kazakh people and her native land. The history and influence of her home country are poignantly reflected throughout her body of work in medium, style, and subject matter. The artist employs a variety of mediums including decorative stones and metals, oil paints, and glass on canvas; each lending a contemporary edge to her classical motifs. Luxurious materials accent her large-scale, striking portrait and landscape pieces that celebrate the traditions and beauty of middle-eastern art.

Bektayeva has won several prestigious awards around the world including the 2020 ‘Order of Merit for Science, Culture and Arts Award’ from the International Academy of Sciences, Culture and Art, in Paris, France. She is also the founder and CEO of the ZERE School of Fine Arts in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

View more of Aigerim Bektayeva’s artworks on this exhibition

With My Son, 2018 Oil on Canvas 35.5” x 27”

Alberto Blanquel Mexican-American artist Alberto Blanquel discovered at an early age that exploring the world through the lens of his camera allowed him to filter his own reality. As he grew up, he used his camera as a tool to escape difficult circumstances and find beauty in everyday life and ordinary objects. Now, Blanquel uses intense focus, aesthetic sensibilities, and pureness of spirit to carefully craft each of his professional images. The artist’s intention is to capture beauty from the corners of the world that are often overlooked.

He frames natural objects in unconventional ways to create monumental yet contemplative imagery. His work depicts moments in nature that are reframed in unique ways to highlight the beauty in the details; he might capture a microscopic aspect of a seashell, or a fleeting impression of tree bark, highlighting the unique qualities of their intimate details.

As a professional interior designer, Blanquel’s photographic work is part of his pursuit of Gesamtkunstwerk, where he may utilize all aspects of everyday life to create beauty. The artist moved to New York City at the age of 23, and eventually settled in Long Island, where he currently lives and works out of his studio.

View more of Alberto Blanquel’s artworks on this exhibition

Second Nature Photograph on Plexiglass 40” x 40”

Manuel Dampeyroux Manuel Dampeyroux is a critically acclaimed painter based in Montpellier, France. He currently serves as a professor of drawing and has exhibited his work throughout France and internationally. Dampeyroux’s artwork is inspired by the techniques of the Dutch Golden Age and the aesthetics of New Hollywood.

In Dampeyroux’s oil paintings, the artist combines realistic figurative images with the uncanny; through this, he intends to dissect the psyche of both the subject and the viewer. The subjects of his paintings serve as vehicles to explore psychology, silence, and emotion, captured in a moment of human stillness.

View more of Manuel Dampeyroux’s artworks on this exhibition

Interior Without Face Oil on Canvas 28.5” x 36”

Mar De Redin Spanish artist Mar de Redin creates contemporary figurative works using acrylic and spray paints, graphite, and fabrics on natural linen or cotton canvases. Influenced by her background in fashion and design, de Redin’s contemporary tapestries are full of character and characterized by unique figures with exaggerated expressions, infinite limbs, and hand-sewn appliques. Each piece she creates features flowers, a tribute to her late grandmother.

Her collections are all inspired and informed by personal experiences; females stretched into impossible positions or reflections of her relationship during quarantine.

She adds elements of the ideal and surreal, allowing nature and animals to live in freedom, wonder and chaos. Her message is that life is beautiful and full of color and surprises. Her canvases are not framed or stretched, they are hung like tapestries and feature details on the backs to allow freedom of movement in the work.

View more of Mar de Redin’s artworks on this exhibition

Aéreo, 2020 Acrylic & Mixed Media on Linen Canvas 90.5” x 82.5”

Veronica Keith The physical and philosophical theme of war camouflage is not just a military usage but has become a part of our everyday civilian milieu.

Camouflage is used as a means of transformation to blend in or for temporary concealment. It can also invade our perception of visibility and identity.

Artist Veronica Keith’s works uses iconic imagery, such as vintage-wear made for the WWI Women’s Reserve. She focuses on the notion of camouflage as something beyond a physical protective barrier; camouflage challenges the difference between our personal and private lives, the political and social innuendos of the hidden and apparent.

View more of Veronica Keith’s artworks on this exhibition

Camo Girls: Stand Alone, 2018 Oil on Board 30” x 30”

Chikara Komura Chikara Komura is a Japanese painter and photographer who uses his lens to capture the world around him from his own perspective. Through his work, the artist examines the vast and intricate history of the Earth and our place within it. He is particularly interested in the regeneration of nature; from the strata of stone formations that illustrate the Earth’s physical history to the life cycles of flora and fauna. Flowers turn into seeds and transcend to a new generation; trees die and mushrooms grow to return them to the earth. Komura’s images explore the transmigration of the soul of all beings; everything that comes from the Earth eventually returns to it, only to return in a new form.

Komura has shown his work in several group and solo exhibitions in Japan and began exhibiting in the US in 2021. His work has been featured in the contemporary art journal, Spotlight Magazine. Most recently, he was nominated as a Finalist for his piece “Agave in the Sea,’ by Art Expo New York 2020. His striking, colorful photographs are known for their expert use of light and perspective. He takes viewers beyond the subject matter, inviting them to explore their deeper meaning.

View more of Chikara Komura’s artworks on this exhibition

Satsuki Azalea in the Sea, 2020 Photography on Canvas 21.5” x 29”

David Lionheart Mixed media artist David Lionheart uses his keen sense of depth and spatial awareness to create abstract works, enhanced by color and texture.

He employs a variety of unexpected materials to create layers of dimension; these include oil paints, spray paints, and industrial materials. In his largescale compositions, he demonstrates a unique understanding in the power of movement over a canvas, which creates a powerful suggestive journey that walks the viewer over every square inch of the piece.

Lionheart credits his mother for having the greatest influence on him, especially in his understanding of overcoming trauma and adversity. Outside of his artistic practice, Lionheart is the founder of the non-profit organization ‘Play for Your Freedom,’ a charity for Veterans. He also has given a Ted Talk on turning trauma into triumph.

View more of David Lionheart’s artworks on this exhibition

Heart of Gold, diptych, 2021 Acrylic & Mixed Media on Canvas 48” x 96”

Marliese Scheller Marliese Scheller creates figurative work that focuses on the human experience. Working in a variety of mediums - such as ink on paper or oil on masonite - she creates compositions that combine traditionalism with realism, drawing influence from Russian Literature and the Middle Ages. Her highly-narrative works incorporate techniques and aesthetic influences from her travels and interactions with different artists. Inspired by a variety of artistic mediums, Scheller incorporates influences from graphic arts, historic painting and weaving, and Lebanese artisan craft.

The subjects featured in her works are often in contemplation as she explores themes of philosophy, psychology, and spirituality. Scheller views her work as an unfolding of obtained knowledge and life experiences and believes that inspiration evolves with time; an ever-present theme in her artistic journey.

View more of Marliese Scheller’s artworks on this exhibition

Coucher de Soleil, 1988 Ink on Paper 27.5” x 20”

Gallery hopping in New York Agora Gallery is located within the heart of the Chelsea Arts District with available hours from Tuesday – Saturday 11 am - 6 pm.

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