LONDON CATALOGUE SUMMER 2012
TERENCE ARPINO A Mans World 100 x 80 cm Underwater photography (Lenticular Print) ÂŁ2,000.00 'Started Underwater Photography in 1970, Exhibited - V&A-Royal Academy (Maritime England), Royal Festival hall, & continuing Exhibitions around London, have travelled & worked in Tourism, Fiji, Maldives, Kenya, Malta, Egypt (Red Sea) Thailand, Philippines, Turkey, Co-Co Islands, Belize, Australia, Jamaica, Corsica, UK, Ireland. A member of The British Society of Underwater Photographers from many of my Images am now Producing lenticular Prints. The marine world full of mystery and wonder, where you find tranquillity & colour beyond ones imagination unique & euphoric. Man as no control of this mass of water that controls our planet, its beauty can change its moods in seconds& destroy anything in its way. Worked many years in film using Fuji Velvia 35mm & 6x6 format, now using digital.'
TERENCE ARPINO 'Summer Time' 97 cm x 86 cm in 3D Underwater Lenticular 3D photograph Framed with museum glass ÂŁ2,000.00
MICHAEL BENJAMINS "Boxing" 20 x 20 x 20 cm Metal wires from champagne corks ÂŁ125.00 Recycled glass jar with Metal and Wire Men Boxing displaying a boxing scene. The thickness of the glass will give the illusion of movement while walking pass. It comes with extra Metal Men (2 more boxers in different position and 2 boxers with a referee holding the hands of the contestant) designed so the metal men can be modified to create an ever changing scenes of boxing.
'Inspired by the concept of Arvin Gupta who share simple yet stunning plan for turning trash in to seriously entertaining toys for kids which they can build themselves while learning basic principles of science design. Adopting his concept of recycling goods to give a new purpose or a second life, I used the wire from the corks of champagne bottle to share a message unique to the observer- Shapes come to life and take form giving a new message of its own. The Metal men are born early 2011 with their first exhibition (The Creation) at an advertising agency in East London. The Metal & Wire Men Movement is proud to celebrate London 2012 Olympics.'
STEPHANIE CARLTON SMITH 'Pity Me, American Maple' 40 x 25 cm Bronze and marble ÂŁ10,000 'This maple has been cast directly into bronze creating a haunting effigie to what is and what could be no more' "My work is a representation of our fragmented and fractured being and the language I use to realize these archetypal human conditions has to do with material, elemental forms and multiple motifs. It is during the process of materializing, that my emotional self and my knowledge of the chosen medium becomes entwined with one another and ideas emerge through the sustained action of making. I also believe that being a female sculptor my aesthetic is markedly different. It is this tacit language derived from the anima that ultimately creates my work, and it is this that my audience responds to most strongly."
CATFACE & ARTMANI ‘Billion Dollar Addiction’ Spray-paint and Ink on Linen Canvas £3,200.00
"A free hand illustration of Uncle Jack taking his hit of oil and gold. Representing America’s ever growing addiction to oil and wealth regardless of its own peoples or even its own capitalist system’s health. ‘Billion Dollar Addiction’ is a free hand illustration of ‘Uncle Jack’ desperately getting his hit of oil and gold. This represents America’s ever-growing addiction to oil and wealth, regardless of its own people’s or even its own capitalist system’s health. This piece shows the American Government for what it really is, not what you see in the adverts or the news. Their excessive, mindless, consumerism based culture has been advertised as something to desire or a norm to live up to. ‘Billion dollar Addiction’ is a comment on that exact lifestyle; it shows a consumerism-based culture as nothing but a glorification of an addiction to power and material wealth." I have decided to hang these pieces side by side showing the addiction first and the effects second. This parallels the media coverage of what America is doing to its self, with biases ‘news channels’ such as Fox News giving a more than ‘distorted’ view of what is really happening.
BEN COVE No Man’s Land 36 cm x 36 Oil on Linen £2,500.00 'Ben Cove was born in 1974 in Wiltshire, UK. He lives and works in London. Education: 2008 MFA Fine Art Goldsmiths College, 2001 BA Fine Art Sheffield Hallam University, 1995 BA Architecture, University of Nottingham. Ben Cove’s paintings stem from two apparently conflicting urges: to follow the seductive pull of flat geometric abstraction on the one hand, and a desire to evoke solid representational form on the other. He is interested in practices which draw upon disparate references: Le Corbusier’s late projects which marry a machine-age language with vernacular influences, or Sun Ra’s big band jazz which coupled Ancient Egyptian imagery with the promise of interstellar travel. The play between flatness and depth in Cove’s work owes much to the language of architectural drawing, particularly unbuilt schemes created in the first half of the twentieth century. Utilising geometry and symbolic motifs, his work depicts forms and spaces with a faux sense of depth that rest on, or slip off the edges of the canvas.'
BEN COVE The Substitute 60 x 60 cm Oil on Linen £3,800.00
EMMA COYLE Marylebone C.G 5# 70 x 90 cm Acrylic on canvas £1,700.00 This painting is part of a series that portrays perceptions of society’s cultural morals. 'I have always produced strong vibrant imagery working with carefully selected images, and then starting with drawings continuing through to painting. From my experiences with living in Dublin, New York City and now being based in London, it has given me the opportunity to find out what medium’s and themes that I am most passionate about. Through my style of painting I mirror current social issues and reflect on past art movements. My paintings embody power and strength of imagery, which reaches all aspects of society and ages. My current series ‘Marylebone C.G’ deals with present day imagery from fashion photography to advertisements from Marylebone magazines such as VANTAGE, Quintessentially and Epicurean Life. The thought of portraying perceptions of society’s cultural morals has always been an ongoing theme throughout my working progress. In relation to your theme of Sustainability, my work embodies the contemporary cultural issues within the ever changing world.'
EMMA COYLE 'Marylebone C.G 8#' 70 x 90 cm Acrylic on canvas £1,700.00 This painting is part of a series that portrays perceptions of society’s cultural morals.
FIN DAC The Fragile 61 x 183 cm Emulsion, acrylic and Montana Gold Spray board ÂŁ1,800.00 'Hailing from Cork (Eire), I have lived the majority of my life in and around London. Self-taught and nonconformist, my influences range from dark graphic novels through to the works of Francis Bacon and Aubrey Beardsley. In a relatively short urban art career, I have defined and perfected an atypical paint/stencil style that ignores the accepted visual language of street art almost completely - I call it Urban Aesthetics. I have painted/exhibited alongside respected artists such as Goldie, Nick Walker, Jamie Reid. Jef Aerosol and C215. My commercial work includes commissions for The Royal Albert Hall, Armani, G-Star, Red Bull and Jaegermeister. Fin is the Artistic Director at urban/digital art brand Beautiful Crime.'
AMI GADNEY Baby 220 x 290 cm Paint and collage on truck body £2,500.00 'Baby’ is a painting made from a dismantled seven-ton haulage truck bought from eBay. I cut the truck in sections to fit through my studio doors. ‘Baby’ is made from the front of the truck body and is the largest of all the pieces. As a material, the discarded truck has an intrinsic invisibility in the world that intrigues me. The material is seen to be ‘barren’ but up close it’s full of strange, incidental marks and traces of life. I used these marks to guide my process of non-representative mark-making and collage, my challenge with ‘Baby’ was to create something that embodies new, unpredictable life. In the finished piece it’s not always clear what marks are incidental and what are by design. The truck’s obscure invisibility remains, but in the studio/gallery context, the obscurity becomes explicit.'
TIMOTHY GATENBY "I Wonder Who She Is" 120 cm x 15 cm Price: £ 1,200 Oil on canvas, Wonder Stick £1,200.00 'In July 2012 I spent two months in the glorious landscape of the South Downs in West Sussex By studying and making observations directly from nature I look to revitalise the language of the majesty of nature.'
ZAC GREENING 'Polluted Sea' 41 x 28 cm 23 coca cola cans ÂŁ3,500.00 Zac Greening's is an artist whose work is inspired by nature and aims to depict man's inextricable economic, social and spiritual link with our natural environment. Common themes found in Zac's work include consumption, sustainability, ecology and recycling. Zac hopes that viewers of his work will recognise and re-engage with all of nature's attributes and be reminded of our fragile and symbiotic relationship with the natural environment.
ROWAN D G GORKILL Portrait of a Species (Squirrel) 24 x 26 cm C print on Fuji Professional DPII paper. Box Framed (white) ÂŁ720.00 'Whilst the human species have evolved in a truly unique and astounding way, this evolution has resulted in the creation of an animal which struggles to coexist with the planet. Portrait of a species places mankind as a dominant predator far beyond food chains, and questions various aspects of our existence and position on the planet: the distancing we have created from other species; the loss of natural instincts and senses; as well as our disconnection from nature and natural cycles.'
ROWAN D G GORKILL Portrait of a Species (Bird) 24 x 26 cm C print on Fuji Professional DPII paper. Box Framed (white) ÂŁ720.00
ROWAN D G GORKILL Portrait of a Species (Rabbit) 24 x 26 cm C print on Fuji Professional DPII paper. Box Framed (white) ÂŁ720.00
FEDERICK J. MANN Mother 62 x 50 cm Giclee Print, Edition 1 of 15 (1st Edition) £600.00 ‘Mother’ depicts the fragile state of our ever-changing environment and vanishing beauty.'
FEDERICK J. MANN Gun Flower Oil 65cm x 114cm Giclee Print, Edition 1/15 ÂŁ850.00 'My work represents the effects we have had on our surroundings and the consequences of our social and instinctive actions. I also want to bring our environmental awareness into the limelight through visual characterisation and symbolism. These pieces have been crafted using print making techniques and photographic manipulation.'
GEORGE MORTON CLARK Stag 122 x 92 cm Oil on wood £7,000.00 ' George grew up in south London. He de-constructs the world around him in a non-conformist way to produce art that shows the necessary truths of our society. He is heavily influenced by the experiences of his travels, which he uses to develop an abstract and objective view of his surroundings. It is often this ‘distance’ that becomes the subject and inspiration for many of his pieces.' “Society has evolved a paranoid state of mind because of our ever-tightening freedoms. I see the world as a colliding of consciousness, made violent by its increasing extremes. We are becoming more suffocated in our day to day lives by marketing, religious views and bureaucracy. I use my work to explore the effects of these pressures on each other and ourselves.”
LAURA ANA MARIA IOSIFESCU "Tectonic Plates" 120 x 290 cm Oil paint and Acrylics on linen ÂŁ2,800.00 'The contexts of my paintings are rooted to my cultural, social and personal experiences but Nature is what inspires my work the most. I believe that my love for Nature, colours and paint reflects in each of my paintings .I love to explore the paint and discover its maximum potential. What I do is transforming the paint into a physical imaginary landscape; literally I am creating my own Nature through the use of thick paint and layers which are often extreme. An intention is to break down the boarders between two and three dimensionality in the painting. In this painting I literally create my own Tectonic Plates by using large quantities of paint. The paint becomes a natural force and a landscape itself. The environment we are living in effects the plates by moving them apart. The plates are facing each other but slowly moving in opposite directions as they transport newly formed landscapes. By sewing the plates using acrylics strings I am trying to keep the Earth in one piece.'
FELICITY HAMMOND BYT 42 x 60 cm Black and white giclee print Framed ÂŁ480.00 Description of Artwork: Composite taken over a period of 4 months, documenting the area surrounding the London Olympic site. 'My photographic practice is made in response to the way in which we use our pre-existing knowledge to define and make sense of reality, and how the photograph acts as a representation of the real. Making composites of the ever-changing landscapes in East London, particularly with the run up to the Olympics, my work is explorative of the deconstruction and reconstruction of our surroundings. The photographs contain a narrative and hint to a passing of time, whereby images are made up of multiple photographs taken in the same locations over a period of months, to create a still image which reflects the performance of everyday life.'
JEWEL "Joan" 100 cm x 100 cm Fine art print on canvas with acrylics and finished with resin £1,950.00 'I was born and raised in Armenia but sunce then I have lived in Moscow, Cyprus, LA, Vegas and London. I graduated from the Art Institute of LV with a Bachelor of Science in Visual Effects & Motion Graphics. I live in London where I founded the West London Art Factory and work as both artist and Creative Director. My inspirations come from memories of the amazing cities I have lived in and the people I met along the way. Through iconic representations I try to encapsulate the fluctuating emotions of the modern woman. I use vibrance of colour empered by the emotive quotes, to convey the contrast between the strength and vulnerability that is today’s woman.'
THOMAS W KUPPLER 'Division cutting edge between the lines of blacking out and whitening' 100 x 100 cm Mixed media on four canvas panels £6.600.00 The work is about the political environmental and social contradictions and obstructions in today`s world. "Visceral, emotionally charged artwork is my trademark. As a result, I attempt to make the work transcend the merely emotional and become intelligently conceptual. My pieces are fundamentally abstract in thought, which could manifest in figurative work, but also in a more constructed style. Strong, haunting symbols appear both clearly and subtly throughout my collections and the use of mixed media, which includes photography and video as well as unconventional materials and objects, adds a unique textural quality to the work. The use of symbols and objects as metaphor and obstruction is vital The engagement with the viewer is a vital necessity for me. Communicating through my work I want him to be involved in the interpretation process of the image and not simply rely on the artist’s explanation or description of the image. "
TIEVA LOVELL Atia's Atta 122x153cm £4,000.00 Meaning Ancient Soul. Atia Balba Caesonia (85 BC – 43 BC), sometimes referred to as Atia Balba Secunda to differentiate her from her two sisters, was a Roman noblewoman. She was the daughter of Julius Caesar's sister Julia Caesaris, mother of the Emperor Augustus, step-grandmother of the Emperor Tiberius, greatgreat grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, great-grandmother of the Emperor Claudius, and great-great-great-grandmother of the Emperor Nero. The name Atia Balba was also borne by the other two daughters of Julia Caesaris and her husband praetor Marcus Atius Balbus. They were Atia’s older sister Atia Balba Prima, and her younger sister was Atia Balba Tertia. This piece is the largest within the collection. Gold fabric frame surrounds the multi colour paint effect base, layered over with mirror/CD/glass shards. All lacquered over in a clear resin finish, for that mirror aquatic- jewelled effect. The shinning masks with Swarovski crystal hanging jewels and feathers surround the Queen Mother centre piece that is situated on a round mirror with holographic eyes- for maximum real life enigmatic impact.
EMILY LUDOLF Post-Embodied 84 x 60 cm Oil on Canvas, Found Junk & Jelly: with Vodka, Yuzu, Pine and Black Truffle Taste and Spiced Apple Aroma ÂŁ1,400.00 'A multi-modal artwork exploring the future of the past, where the last gasp of Kantian ideas of the transcendental mind trap a poor survivor in life-stasis, with only the memory of sensory stimulus.'
BEN MOSLEY "Hoys Delight" 100 cm x 100 cm Acrylic paint on Canvas £3,500.00 'This painting shows one of the greatest moments in British Sporting History at the Olympic Games 2012. In this painting I have tried to depict the spirit and togetherness that has been generated through the British Cycling teams tremendous team spirit which has seen them achieve historic victories, time and time again.' Ben Mosley is one of Britain’s leading sports artists, his work capturing overflowing passion and dynamic movement in pieces that may be described as figurative, cubist and abstract expressionist. The balance between these motifs varies between works, which Mosley paints directly onto canvas to maintain a degree of spontaneity, giving each a unique personality. He has used a variety of instruments that combine mono-printing techniques
BEN MOSLEY "We Did It Brother, We did it" 100 cm x 100 cm Acrylic on Canvas ÂŁ3,500.00 'This painting shows the Brownlee Brothers embracing after winning Olympic Gold and Bronze in the mens Triathlon at the London Olympics this year. The embrace eptimises the spirit of the Olympic games and the togetherness of Team GB. I have tried to capture the brothers together when they relies they have fulfilled their potential.' with contemporary methods of painting and penning. In each case the brushwork is gestural, angular and vigorous, and conveys the explosion of energy found on the sports field. His style, reminiscent of the action art of Kline and de Kooning, is both evocative and invigorating, depicting the reality of the human narrative while hinting at the underlying emotions experienced in sport by athletes and sport fans alike. Each image is so dynamic that it demands further study.
TONY OKURA-MARTINS "Shed - Nature Recycling" 80 cm x 60 cm Photography on Acrylic Nature recycling process ÂŁ750.00 "He is a multiple artist. Sculptor. Painter. Biologist. Video maker. Photographer and moves through different territories."(Maria Maximo) My photography reflects my multicultural background and formation, with an emphasis on nature and the process behind what is visible with the naked eye, through the exploration of different media. I look for texture, colour, composition, meaning and try to isolate an image between the four boundaries of a frame and freeze it in time. This specific photo "Shed - Nature Recycling" is part of a series that explores the ageing process, life and its relation to nature and recycling, be it of organic or no-organic origin.
MARIA PAPADIMITRIOU 'Printer Pendant by Plastic Seconds' 14 x 14 cm entire length of pendant is aprox 65 cm Recycled Adornments ÂŁ95.00 'An art jewellery pendant by recycled jewellery brand Plastic Seconds. This statement pendant is made by assembling found plastic elements from printer packaging with rings from plastic bottles and a found ball chain to create a completely one off collectable jewellery piece.'
BEATRICE RIDLEY "Floating Gold" 101.5 cm x 101.5 Medium Mixed Media Golden frog floating in dry Martini ÂŁ3,700.00 Inspired by the natural world in all its forms, and the brilliant design and symmetry of many species across the continents, I seek to capture the force and essence of this natural world, focusing on the magic of the detail that often goes unnoticed, frequently using esoteric angles or unexpected colors, enabling a wholly different view of my subjects.
JAMES RYAN Isometric Dials II 100 x 75 cm Acrylic on patterned fabric £2,000.00 'James Ryan’s paintings focus on the exploration of an implied three-dimensional space onto a physical two-dimensional surface. Starting from simple line drawings or a photograph, each painting is created using the same repetitive process of overlaid, transparent geometric forms which are allowed to develop intuitively by straying away from their source material. Ryan’s use of recycled and found patterned fabrics as painting supports came from an initial wish to work with a grid in the paintings. The fabrics offer a playful ready-made grid of sorts albeit in stripes, checks or gingham, which on a material level extend the reading of the work into ideas of the domestic and the everyday. Visually, the combination of printed pattern and painted geometric form produce odd visual moments and figure/ground relationships as design and paint freely interplay over the surface of the canvas.'
BEN SLOW Pelirium Oil on canvas 100 x 70cm ÂŁ1,300.00
J JOANNA SCISLOWICZ On The Bridge Of Frennemies 145 x 145 cm Oil and acrylic on canvas finished with resin ÂŁ4,300.00 'In my paintings I try to concentrate on the value of colour, its power, significance and beauty. Through the combination of the many different qualities of colour, I comment on the role of emotions, behaviours and states of mind, observed in both my personal life as well as situations I encounter in daily life through witnessing strangers' public acts. My main focus is the pure fascination with 'watching' people on the streets. Their public and social interactions never fail to intrigue and mystify me. By expressing these emotions, but not describing them literately, I am re-establishing enquiry on the perceptual, tactile level. Refusing the use of imagery, or of figurative representation, I attempt to present painting purely as an energy field in its own right, where the quality of the colourful surface emanate and directly interacts with the eye of the viewer. Through simplifying the picture I aim to maximize the energy, the physicality of the painting, and minimize the imagery.'
CELINA TEAGUE 24,455 Suns 123 x 92 cm Oil on canvas ÂŁ3,200.00 'My paintings are a hallucinatory journey into a strange existence that imagines the under-side, the otherside, the unknown and foreign side of what I perceive to be there. Exploring the complexities of human existence and our bizarre relationship with the world in which we live, my pieces resonate with an unsettling atmosphere that harks to the darker side of human nature.'
CELINA TEAGUE Apocalypse 92 x 123 cm Oil on canvas ÂŁ5,900.00 'My paintings are a hallucinatory journey into a strange existence that imagines the under-side, the otherside, the unknown and foreign side of what I perceive to be there. Exploring the complexities of human existence and our bizarre relationship with the world in which we live, my pieces resonate with an unsettling atmosphere that harks to the darker side of human nature.'
PETER WARD "The Complexity of Life" 50 x 60 cm ÂŁ350.00 Photography A digital photomontage, the last from a series entitled 1 to 10. The image involves ideas around the variations of life The photographic work of Peter Ward (aka Urban Surface), focuses on the subject matter of shape, form, texture and light within the urban environment. The imagery sometimes literal sometimes conceptual is influenced by a love of architecture, early modern twentieth century art, minimalism and post expressionism. Created for the walls of the modern architectural space, the imagery demands that the viewer observes purely for visual pleasure at first and then may look deeper.
DARREN WEST Neon Sculpture 110 cm diameter Wood, neon glass ÂŁ2,000.00 Darren is a master craftsman of the 100 year old trade of neon glass blowing and has transformed his traditional commercial work of neon signs into extraordinary and illuminating art. Starting at the age of 17 and studying at the British School of Neon, Darren has learnt this rare trade after many years of training and learning and has been supplying neon signage ever since. He is now delving deeper into the world of wall based neon art and sculptures and he is producing some of the most eye-catching, dazzling and unforgettable pieces which harmonize and compliment the modern art world.
CAROLINE JONES Los Angeles Juried “Sand Child” Competition Winner: 58 x 30 2nd Place 136 x 58 x 58 including pedestal Sand and hydrocal, created in Marble and cast in hydrocal and sand $7,000 Caroline Jones is a British Artist based in Los Angeles, California. Her works focus on the inspiration and disruption of motherhood, the female artist, and contemporary life. She explores the tonal values within her pieces based on her under paintings, and the natural editing process that comes with working outside. Through vigorous brush strokes, considered application of her medium, and an unbending desire to capture the moment of inspiration, Jones has had such a variety of subjects – from Monks in Bhutan, to Tibetan horsemen, Chinese Opera performers, to the bridges of London. Her work reflects her immediate surroundings, recording the fluidity of water and childhood and with it the emergence of her last collection “The Pool Series”. Jones has continued this dialogue within her sculptural work. Semi monumental stylized marble heads and over sized red sandstone sleeping babies, limestone plinths of disintegrated swimming forms and rhyolite sculptures descending into marble bases, fill her studio, her exhibitions and the homes of her collectors. Living in Los Angeles has exposed her into the world of a more contemporary medium. Jones progressed the Swimming Pool Series into video and sound using her digital flip camera. Visions of aquiline pools and group aerobics, night swimming and floating children’s toys appear projected on the exhibition walls alongside the paintings and sculptures. Jones’s new works on desert rock formations have begun to explore the more amorphous state of being. Flesh folds in stone, mix with soft curves, tension and strength. Journeys into the Mojave Desert and explicit exploration of rock contours and forms are finding their way onto linen and paper, as well as into stone, and metal, and 8mm video. The new works are leading into a world of giant forms created out of a lightweight environmentally friendly and sustainable material. She is doing research and test carving prototypes with clean tech companies in America, to develop a substitute for Styrofoam in the art world. Caroline is a self-taught artist, who has painted professionally for over 20 years. Her studios and exhibitions have followed her around Europe, Asia, and the US. She studied ornamental and architectural stone carving at the City and Guilds of London whilst she ventured into motherhood. “It seemed a natural progression, the oil painting was making me sick and I had completed my series of London Bridges. My Studio in Battersea was under threat of closure, and a short trip to Pietra
Santa in Italy, opened my eyes to the great and wondrous possibilities of stone carving. It seemed quite natural to be pregnant and carving rock, very primal, and totally organic. I have found this a continued state of being throughout the disruption and wonder of motherhood. Painting is so very cerebral, and requires one to hold the vision uninterrupted in the mind as it transfers to the canvas, whereas sculpting comes from within the piece itself, and is held there irrespective of the demands from the outside world.� Previous artistic concerns were based on extensive and solitary travels through remote parts of central Asia, with cultural identities at the forefront. Hundreds of drawings and plein air painting are the root of her style.
DAI TOYOFUKU Yaoyorozu-no-kami (The Multitudinous Gods) 97 cm x 204 cm Graphite on paper Framed in white Perspex box frame, mounted $3,500
Los Angeles Juried Competition Winner: 2nd Place
A representation of all the organisms observed in a six-month period at the Pleistocene Garden between the La Brea Tar Pits and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The composition is inspired by Japanese ink paintings at LACMA’s Pavilion for Japanese Art, specimen displays at the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, and mandalas. Dai’s work explores possible relationships between humans and other species. Interested in the cultural lenses that different societies project onto their natural environment, and conversely, how non-human species influence the urban landscape, he researches local species (both native and invasive) and respond to what I observe. My overlapping interests include art, science, and biodiversity. My practice takes several forms: object/images, collaborations with biologists and other artists, and miniature urban infrastructures for plants.
DEBBIE HAN 'The Battle of Conception' 33 x 15 x 16 cm each (32 pieces), Wooden table 200 x 100 x 100 cm (2 pieces) 32 bronze pieces, 2 wooden tables $100,000 Debbie Han is a Korean-American artist who grew up in Los Angeles and received her B.A. in art from UCLA and MFA from Pratt Institute in New York. Han’s works have been shown internationally, including thirteen solo shows in the US, Korea, China, Germany, and Spain and over 70 group exhibitions throughout the US, Asia and Europe. Han was awarded the prestigious Sovereign Asian Art Prize in 2009 and was the recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2007. She has been invited as a resident artist by numerous international art organizations including ARCUS Project in Japan, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art and Gyeonggi Museum of Art in Korea, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Nebraska, and Schinkel Progressive Residency in Berlin. Han’s works have been exhibited at Santa Barbara Museum, The Saatchi Museum, Seoul Museum of Art, and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien. She currently works in Seoul and Los Angeles. The artist's prize-winning installation juxtaposes two different groups of classical heads, the Venus heads with reconstructed facial features representing stereotypical diverse racial/ethnic characterizations and the faceless heads. They face one another in the format of a chess battle. This work investigates the critical importance of human conception as the key to defining ourselves and others in human civilization. The individual belief system and perception of reality could possibly bring together humanity as well as to destroy it.
The celadon version of “Battle of Conception” is currently on show at the Saatchi Gallery in a historic exhibition of 33 Korean Contemporary Artists who were handpicked by Charles Saatchi and Nigel Hirst "I have been deeply drawn to the issue of how human experiences are shaped and defined in contemporary culture. Growing up bi-culturally, I became accustomed to considering things from more than one perspective, and also came to see how critical ‘culture’ is in shaping one’s perception of reality. My recent sculpture series explore the theme of the female imagery as a means to investigate contemporary cultural dynamics and global social relations. ‘The Battle of Conception’ presents two different groups, the Venus heads with reconstructed facial features that depict diverse racial characteristics and the faceless heads, and they are staged like a chess game. The deconstruction of the familiar and prevalent beauty standard and the battle format of the installation serve to engage in a deeper forum regarding identity, perception, and culturalization.”
TOMMY HOLLESTEIN Los Angeles Winner 'New York' Public Favourite Base 35.54 x 22 cm Height 139.7 x width 45 cm Diameter 43 cm Wood, reused paintbrushes, acrylic, mixed media $4,600
Artist Tommy Hollenstein takes viewers with him on a freedom ride through vibrant color and motion. Using wheels for his paint brush, Hollenstein’s abstract yet accessible style has been compared to Jackson Pollock, liberating the confinement of the canvas through “action painting”. As did Pollock, Hollenstein creates his paintings from a method working above the canvas, resulting in direct expressions or revelations that exhibit the unconscious moods of the artist. A native Angelino, Hollenstein is inspired by the Southern California culture in love with its wheels as well as the landscape. His work portrays a whimsical world of his own invention layering vibrant colors applied by tire treads to create the perception of fluid motion in static space. His series of paintings offer a wide range of expression and can contain up to 32 layers of form and color. Art has been Hollenstein’s life passion. In 1985, at 24 years old, he survived a mountain biking accident that left him a quadriplegic. The road to reinvent himself is captured through his work. It is a journey that is sometimes melancholy and sometimes jubilant, but always inspirational. His paintings depict a fluidity of movement with a wide range of color that will appeal to everybody.
COLE STERNBERG 'KP v. BP and The Gang' 215 x 246 cm Mixed Media on Linen $23,000
Los Angeles Sponsors’ Selection
The artist's work addresses the battle between the developed world and science against the U.S. and corporate influence. The Kyoto Protocol provides the background for the painterly elements as a world of misinformation and censorship, glossy in presentation, but rough and cloudy. One day we’ll see. “Cy Twombly scribbled 'Mallarmé’s I have seen the nakedness of my scattered dreams' fifty-one years ago on canvas. The sun continued to fall behind the horizon. The U.S. government continued to ravage the world to feed its own consumption. Human rights, civil rights and compassion followed the green faces into the sunset. Lost and naked in a system, I looked at art as a cantilever to my dreams, as a cantilever to the blindness around me, as a new sanity. My work can be serious or ironic or dark or nothing at all, it is simply a way to demonstrate my thoughts visually. It is grounded in concepts of international trade,
human rights, environmentalism and religious hypocrisy. As well as, the textual realism of influential words throughout the past two centuries, from Freud, Jung and Perls to the Geneva Convention to Bob Dylan and Kanye West. More superficially, it addresses censorship, misinformation and societal malaise. The colors, text and imagery all are meant to coincide in a strangely beautiful way with the messages inherent in the works. We’re all caught in the forest full of bears without a shotgun. We can run, hide, climb a tree or look for a way out. Vote Sternberg in 2012."
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