New Visionary Magazine: Contemporary Art + Professional Development - Issue 11

NEW VISIONARY C O N T E M P O R A R Y

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY VISIONARY ART COLLECTIVE ©

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P R O F E S S I O N A L

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ISSUE 11 SUMMER 2024

Our mission at Visionary Art Collective is to uplift

emerging artists through magazine features, exhibitions, podcast interviews, and our mentorship programs.

Contact + Submission Guidelines VISIT OUR WEBSITE www.visionaryartcollective.com FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @visionaryartcollective @ newvisionarymag FIND US ON FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/VisionaryArtCollective EMAIL info@visionaryartcollective.com SUBMIT TO OUR PLATFORM www.visionaryartcollective.com/submit LEARN MORE OR SUBSCRIBE www.visionaryartcollective.com/magazine We post all submission opportunities to our website and social media pages.

COVER ARTIST MARIA YOLANDA LIEBANA

Just A Touch of Euphoria acrylic, mixed media collage, and molding paste on wood panel, 60x48in

BACK COVER ARTIST LAWRE STONE The NIghthawk Doesn’t Nest Here, acrylic and oil on canvas, 48x48in

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CONTENTS MEET THE VISIONARY TEAM VISIONARY INTERVIEWS Marlee Katz Snow Maria Liebana Andrea Zieher Odilia Iaccarino

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VISIONARY WORDS Where Is The Ugly Art? The Case for Sharing Imperfection The Absolute Stillness of Lucy Mackenzie’s Aesthetic Realism A Tapestry of Identity: The Multidimensional Artistry of Ophelia Arc Architects of the Aesthetic Experience

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VISIONARY ARTISTS Harumi Abe Sahar Alizadeh Andrew Arkell Fawn Bailey Shweta Bist Paul C Blake Paula E Borsetti Bryan Brown Jules Bulleid Jaina Cipriano Adam Crowley Sandra Di Leo Ashley Garrett Susan Grace Joanna Hoge Cindy D Ingram Symantha Jones Shaina Kasztelan Mari Keeler Cornwell Laura Klopfenstein Rashid Elon Lane Scott McDermott Sara McMahon Henry Morales Rachel Morrissey Hien-Tu Nguyen-Thanh Grace Ren Perryn Ryan Lawre Stone Stephen Von Mason

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VISIONARY VISITS MG Vander Elst Charles Leak Linda Turner Greenpoint Open Studios

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VISIONARY FAIRS Art Placer Superfine Art Fair

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VISIONARY COMMUNITY VISIONARY ARTIST DIRECTORY

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VICTORIA J. FRY

Overgrown (detail), watercolor on Arches paper, 9.5x6.5in

EDITOR’S NOTE VICTORIA J. FRY Founder of Visionary Art Collective + Editor in Chief of New Visionary Magazine

We’ve already reached issue 11! Our mission at New Visionary Magazine to uplift artists remains steadfast as we continue to provide opportunities for exhibiting both online and in our Brooklyn-based gallery, Warnes Contemporary.

For this issue, we had the pleasure of partnering up with Andrea Zieher, co-founder of the prestigious ZieherSmith gallery based in Nashville, TN. Since opening their gallery nearly two decades ago, Andrea Zieher and Scott Zieher have uplifted many emerging and mid-career contemporary artists.

Additionally, we have partnered with amazing art fairs such as Superfine and Affordable in NYC to distribute copies of the magazine, further expanding our reach.

Our podcast listeners and reader base are continuing to expand as well, and we couldn’t be more grateful for our supportive, growing community.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us. xo,

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Meet the Visionary Team VICTORIA J. FRY she/her

BLAIR BEUSMAN she/her

VALERIE AUERSPERG she/her

Victoria J. Fry is a New York City-based painter, educator, curator, and the founder of Visionary Art Collective and New Visionary Magazine. Fry’s mission is to uplift artists through magazine features, exhibitions, podcast interviews, and mentorship. She earned her MAT from Maine College of Art & Design and her BFA from the School of Visual Arts.

Blair Beusman is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in literary theory. She has worked for a variety of cultural publications and organizations, including The New Yorker, Literary Hub, and PEN America.

Valerie Auersperg is a self-taught artist, illustrator and designer living in Auckland, New Zealand.

She describes her work as a dose of optimism with a sprinkle of escapism.

When she is not painting on canvases or walls she works as a graphic designer and illustrator for companies in New Zealand, Switzerland, Austria and the U.S.

Editor in Chief

victoriajfry.com victoriajfry 4

Head Writer

blairharr.tumblr.com blair.beu

Graphic Designer + Artist Liaison

valerism.com iamvalerism

BRITTANY M. REID they/them

ERIKA B. HESS she/her

CHUN PARK they/them

Brittany M. Reid is a visual artist, creative strategist, and educator based in Upstate NY. Reid’s work explores the wide spectrum of nuanced human emotion through paper collages and acrylic paintings. When working with clients, they bridge the gap between art and technology, helping artists build digital fluency and develop sustainable creative practices.

Erika b Hess is a painter, curator, writer, and host of the I Like Your Work art podcast. Hess’s work has been exhibited nationally and featured in numerous publications. She lectures at various colleges and institutions while teaching at The Works, I Like Your Work’s professional practice membership.

Chunbum Park, also known as Chun, is an artist/writer, who received their MFA in Fine Arts Studio from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2022. Park’s main area of interest or focus lies within figurative painting, but they are also enthusiastic about all types of art, including performance and photography. Park wishes to promote emerging and mid-career artists who pioneer strong, original visions and ideas.

Writer

Writer

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brittanymreid.com brittany.m.reid

www.erikabhess.com erikabhess

SUSO BARCIELA he/him

VERONICA PETTY she/her

EMMA HAPNER she/her

Suso Barciela, an art historian and critic, specializes in curating and coordinating exhibitions. He was trained at the University of Seville and the NODE Center in Berlin. His expertise in art criticism and cultural dissemination is reflected in his collaborations with national and international magazines.

He has worked with international artists and is renowned for his blog “El Espacio Aparte” where he analyzes art and exhibitions in Seville and Madrid.

Veronica Petty is a PR professional and art advisor in NY. With a decade of marketing experience, she’s managed successful campaigns for AAF, PULSE Art Fair, Create!, KUNSTRAUM, VAC, and many individual artists and exhibitions.

Veronica champions Latinx artists through Domingo Comms; featured in artnet, House Beautiful, and more.

She’s currently VAC’s Director of Media Partnerships.

Emma Hapner is a New York City based artist and educator working primarily in oil on canvas to create figurative works that reclaim the language of classical painting from a woman’s perspective.

She graduated from the New York Academy of Art with her MFA in 2022.

Writer

elespacioaparte.com forms.follow.function

Director of Media Partnerships

domingocomms.com domingocomms

www.chunbumpark.com chun.park.7

Administrative Assistant

www.emmahapner.com emmagracehapner 5

TEAM SPOTLIGHT

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elespacioaparte.com forms.follow.function BIO Suso Barciela is an art professional with academic training and practical experience in various aspects of the field.

He graduated from the University of Seville with a degree in Art History, and during his studies, he collaborated as a technical assistant and curator for several exhibitions organized by the university, gaining insight into the curatorial world.

He expanded his education with two master’s degrees from Nebrija University Madrid, specializing in Curating and Exhibition Coordination, as well as Art Direction. His education also includes specialized courses, including Art Criticism at NODE Berlin Center.

Currently, Barciela is dedicated to writing articles for specialized art magazines, collaborating with publications both in Spain and internationally. These include Plataforma Arte Contemporáneo (PAC), Trépanos Magazine, Piece With Artist Magazine, New Art Project Magazine, and New Visionary Magazine.

In addition to his work for these publications, Barciela has maintained a personal art criticism blog, “El Espacio Aparte,” since 2021, where he shares his perspectives and analysis on the contemporary art world.

Barciela additionally works as an art advisor for private collections. In this role, he manages connections and advises private clients on decisions related to their art collections, bringing his experience and knowledge to guide acquisitions and the development of the collection.

This multifaceted career positions him as a versatile professional in the art field, with experience in curating, criticism, cultural management, and art advisory, supported by a solid academic background in art history and theory.

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CURATORIAL STATEMENT As a curator and art critic, Suso Barciela bases his practice on the belief that art is a powerful catalyst for social change and critical reflection. His curatorial approach focuses on creating dialogues between contemporary and abstract art and the urgent challenges of our time, always seeking new ways of interpretation and connection with the audience.

His area of specialization encompasses contemporary and abstract art, with a particular interest in works that challenge conventions and explore the limits of perception and experience. Barciela firmly believes that art plays a fundamental role in contemporary society: not only as a reflection of our realities but also as a tool to imagine alternative futures and question the status quo.

In his curatorial and critical methodology, he prioritizes thorough research and constant dialogue with artists and audiences, aiming to create exhibition experiences that are both accessible and intellectually stimulating, fostering active participation from viewers in the construction of meanings.

Moreover, his commitment to inclusion and diversity is evident in his active search for underrepresented voices in the art world. He is dedicated to promoting emerging artists and those from marginalized communities, believing that a plurality of perspectives enriches our understanding of art and the world. Sustainability is a fundamental pillar of his curatorial practice, as he strives to implement strategies to reduce the environmental impact of exhibitions and promotes artistic projects that address ecological themes, recognizing the urgency of the climate crisis.

Ethics are central to his approach. He strives to maintain integrity in all his professional interactions, respecting the vision of artists while promoting constructive critical dialogue. Additionally, he carefully considers the ethical implications of the works he presents, especially those addressing sensitive or controversial issues. He aspires to create meeting spaces where contemporary and abstract art can challenge, inspire, and transform, always with an unwavering commitment to ethics, diversity, and sustainability.

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victoriajfry.com victoriajfry BIO b. 1990, Wiltshire, England Victoria J. Fry is a New York City-based painter exploring the relationship between perception, memory, color and experience through contemporary landscape painting. Fry received her MAT from Maine College of Art & Design in 2014 and her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2012.

Through her work, Fry seeks to gain a deeper understanding of loss, longing, nostalgia, and hope. She views the landscape as an access point to examine these themes on both a personal and universal level.

Fry’s work has been featured in exhibitions at Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia, Greenpoint Gallery in New York City, and Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition. Her work has been featured in notable publications including Create! Magazine, Art Reveal, and Pif amongst others.

In addition to her work as a visual artist, Fry is the founder of Visionary Art Collective, New Visionary Magazine, and Warnes Contemporary Gallery.

Fry currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

ARTIST STATEMENT In my work, I explore the relationship between place and memory through contemporary landscape painting.

I capture moments seen in the space between waking and dreaming, a semi-conscious state where imagination and reality blur. Drawing upon early childhood memories of the English countryside, I find solace in fog-laden fields, patchwork hills, and trees that reflect the changing seasons.

Years after leaving rural England, this once-familiar place now feels elusive and intangible, as though viewed through the lens of a dream. My work is an attempt to preserve, and perhaps romanticize, these moments lost in time.

As I create, I often wonder: Is it possible to reconstruct memories of a place I once knew? And if so, can I truly distinguish between what is real and what no longer exists, if the memory is still present?

These essential questions continue to guide my work.

Titles of paintings, such as Finding Our Way Home and Do You Still Remember? refer to my personal narrative that unfolds throughout this series. I see this work as an opportunity to further understand the complex relationship between perception, color, emotion, and experience.

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ARTIST MARIA YOLANDA LIEBANA Wish YOU Could Be Here, LOL (detail), mixed media collage, acrylic, and molding paste on wood panel, 60x48in 8

VISIONARY INTERVIEWS As part of our ongoing interview series, we chat with artists, curators, entrepreneurs, authors, and educators. Through these interviews we can gain a deeper understanding of the contemporary art world.

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What part of your work in the art field are you the most passionate about?

My favorite part of the field is working in tandem with artists. Building a strong foundation, witnessing their growth, and being a stepping stone in their careers is incredibly rewarding. I take great pride in being the go-to person for artists when they have businessrelated questions or want to connect with others on the platform, striving to create an environment where they feel comfortable reaching out for support.

Establishing relationships and fostering a community through Collect Bean is what I love the most.

If you had to choose one, what has been the most impactful experience in your career so far?

Starting my own business and being confident in my point of view has been the most impactful part of my career. Developing something from the ground up

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Championing and working with artists is paramount to me. Going into 2024, I wanted to create a thoughtfully curated platform to showcase artists I love and admire directly from their studios. Collect Bean aims to support artists and highlight their work while making the collecting process streamlined and unintimidating.

I want collectors to feel comfortable and confident in their purchases without the pressure of sharing their collection details or dealing with waitlists. If they love a piece, they can buy it, invest in a growing artist, and build their collection with ease.

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You founded Collect Bean, an online platform that showcases and supports artists. What inspired you to develop this program?

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Collect Bean x Harsh Collective, Entropy, Shot by Inbar Gold, Left to right: Nicole James, Etta Harshaw, Marlee Katz Snow, Gabriela Kramer

Entropy Install, Shot By Garrett Carroll 11

The July Collection, Jonathon Downing, Holy Matrimony, oil on canvas, 16x20in

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in a space with barriers to entry is tough, but pushing through and making it happen is incredibly rewarding.

I’ve learned to trust my eye and go with my gut, only working with professionals when it feels right and genuine. This ability to make discerning choices and follow my instincts has been the biggest driving force in my career in the art world.

With your many years of experience as a collector, curator, and gallery owner, do you have any advice for emerging artists or those who want to work in the art world?

The January Collection, Josiah Ellner, After The Storm, oil on canvas, 16x16in

Absolutely! See, do, and meet anyone and everyone who interests you. Go to the openings, schedule that studio visit, and reach out to art advisors without fear. Learn as much as possible about the industry to determine what parts you enjoy. The more you see, hear, and do, the more informed your decisions will be.

Everyone should work at a gallery or assist an artist at some point. Understanding the industry’s business and creative sides is crucial for success.

When selecting artwork for your collection, what typically catches your eye? Do you have any favorite pieces in your collection?

The most important aspect of the work in my collection is building a relationship with the artist. Over the years, I’ve learned that the person behind the painting is more important than the piece itself. Caring about the creator makes it easy to love their work. My tastes continually develop, and I enjoy supporting and living with works by artists I’ve shown, such as Josiah Ellner, Emma Hapner, and Jonathon Downing. Recently, I acquired pieces by Darien Bird and Aoife Dillon. These works are softer and more feminine than others in my collection, reflecting my evolving taste. Jonathon Downing introduced me to Darien’s unique painting style, and Aoife’s beautiful color palettes with gold and silver leaf add an alluring touch. Seeing and learning as much as possible informs what catches my eye.

Are there any projects you’re working on now that you’d like to share? We would love to hear about them!

Nicole James, Run, Rabbit, Run, acrylic on linen, 48x60in

Moving forward, Collect Bean will become even more collaborative. Future iterations involve co-curation with artists, curators, and creatives in the field. I love the idea of educating artists on the business side of the art world through curation and working with likeminded individuals to bring our worlds and networks together. Additionally, I will curate shows in New York, participate in art fairs, and become more involved with the art scene in Miami. There’s more to come in 2025, so stay tuned!

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Your collages are highly detailed with many layers of different media; what materials are you most drawn to in your practice?

This is a tough one—I love them all. I will admit I go through phases and obsessions with materials that I either discovered at the dollar store or on the internet.

Currently, I’m really into styrofoam. I just started using styrofoam for the pop-up elements to my mixed-media collages because it weighs less than wood. The pieces are already so heavy that this was the best alternative.

I love using a foam hot knife to slice and burn through the foam to create the forms I want. It gives me very ASMR in IRL to watch the foam melt away as I move the hot knife through. I can easily create forms I want rather than buying premade shapes. And I can’t forget about the glitter. I love glitter! It’s messy, gets everywhere, and leaves a trail, giving me that magic component. It also brings me back to my childhood and the sparkles of my collection of bellydance costumes from when I used to practice and perform in my mid-twenties.

What does a typical day in the studio look like for you?

Before becoming a parent a year ago, my typical day in the studio would start after a full day of teaching art at school. I would come in, put my stuff down, turn on music, plop on my blue velvet couch, look at the work on the wall, and think about what to do next. It was a time that was more chill, in some ways. Now I am more focused and eager to jump right into working on art pieces as soon as I arrive home. Since becoming a parent, my priorities have shifted, significantly impacting how I manage my time and productivity in the studio. Time management is a skill I have developed within the past year. I have to balance home, work, and studio. I still give myself time to reflect on previous

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You Never Been to Heaven Have You, LOL , acrylic, mixed media collage, and molding paste on wood panel, 60x48in 15

Beauties Invasion, acrylic, molding paste and mixed media collage on wood panel, 60x6 4in

work from the day before. I can’t always be on the go, go, go, or else I will burn out. Music is always playing in the studio. It plays an important part in my studio practice. While I’m doing research, either on my phone, or looking through books, I will listen to my playlists I have created and make sure it has a flow to it for an upcoming art performance.

How does your cultural background impact your work as an artist?

My art is heavily influenced by my life in the United States. As a first-generation American with parents from 16

Latin America—my dad is from Peru and my mother is from Colombia—I’m a little bit of this and a little bit of that; I’m a mix of so many things. In my artwork, I love to blend elements from all three cultures, creating a unique fusion. My work includes aspects of pop culture, food, and childhood nostalgia, all of which is interwoven to reflect my obsessions of creating another world that provides a glimpse into my history. My upbringing in the United States during the ’80s and ’90s was pivotal, all that pop culture from teen magazines, TV shows, toys, clothing, and especially MTV. The music videos blew my mind; the storytelling and worlds that were created within a few minutes on the screen ate me up.

This was all before the internet, and I loved discovering

things that went beyond what I was familiar with. And religion, growing up Catholic and attending Catholic school exposed me to the maximalism of religious iconography and its storytelling and rituals. I mixed it all up with my obsession with pop culture.

Your work is very distinct and visually cohesive. How did you develop your personal style?

I am a pop-culture vulture! I love fashion, music, TV shows, movies, etc… I devour everything that takes over my senses. I love to collect images, objects, and audio clips. Through this absorption it marinates in my mind. I take a little bit of this and a little bit of that and allow my influences and obsessions to flow into the work. The style is maximal, campy, and kitschy.

Can you share more about the themes or concepts that you frequently explore in your work?

There are so many themes happening at the same time in my artwork. It goes from religious iconography and storytelling to silhouettes of celebrities to my childhood nostalgia of ’80s and ’90s pop culture to music, gardens, folks I admire, and the celestial. The gardens in the artwork are places I encounter everyday on my walks to and from the subway station, pushing my daughter in her stroller.

I am fascinated by the inclusivity and exclusivity we witness. I love to play with it in my artworks in many ways. The gardens in Queens give that to me everyday. I can only access them from the sidewalk, peeking through the decorative iron gates.

It is only accessible to the residents living in the buildings around them.

When a person views my work, they may or may not know the references I use.

Are there any specific artists, movements, or other media that have a significant impact on your work?

This question is hard for me to answer because I have had so many artists, movements, and media that have impacted and continue to impact my work. Drag culture and drag queens, especially RuPaul and Trixie Mattel. I met RuPaul on her book tour back in the ’90s for her book, Letin’ it All Hang Out. I have a signed copy. She was my first introduction to drag queens and drag culture. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I also love Trixie Mattel. Her aesthetics eat all the time! I am always drawn to her to whatever she does; I am there (on social media). One day, I will go to the Trixie Hotel in Palm Springs!

Music and music videos, fashion campaigns, window displays, social media, etc… As I said before, I am a popculture vulture, and I allow that to come into my work to create this in-between world, a new language and maybe a new aesthetic that flows within beauty and the grotesque.

Flexin, acrylic, mixed media collage, and molding paste on wood panel, 30x26in 17

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In 2006, we showed up in Basel for our first time and participated in the second ever Volta-Fair. We presented a solo show featuring Eddie Martinez alongside other incredible booths of work by (then) emerging artists like Rina Banerjee. It was a little nerveracking to have all our eggs in one basket with just one artist, but it couldn’t have been a better decision. One evening, a slightly unkempt Jeff Poe walked into our booth and started going off. It actually took a minute for us to realize he was complementing the work. The

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Over the years, ZieherSmith has presented a wide range of exhibitions and participated in numerous international art fairs. Could you share a particularly memorable exhibition or fair experience and what made it stand out?

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By the fall of 2000, my partner, Scott, and I were working at established N.Y.C. galleries, but our social life revolved around exciting young artists who were not represented. We spoke of having a gallery as a long-term dream but did not seriously consider it until September 11, 2001. After that day, our priorities and our timeline changed. Suddenly, it felt there was no time to waste in pursuing our dreams and showing those artists that inspired us to the wider world. By March, 2002, we’d written a business plan and were borrowing, scrimping, and saving, even taking on additional freelance art writing jobs. Luckily, my boss was supportive, and I was able to keep my gallery director job until just three weeks before we opened our doors on West 25th Street in Chelsea on March 15, 2003.

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Co-founding ZieherSmith in 2003 was a significant milestone. What were some of the key experiences and learning moments in the early days of establishing the gallery?

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Solo show by Eddie Martinez in New York, 2010

Nashville gallery show featuring TN-based artists Vadis Turner, Jodi Hays and Lindsey Rome 19

Booth featuring work by Louise Jones and Rachel Owens at Untitled Art Fair Miami Beach 2023

following summer, Blum & Poe featured six Martinez works in their show “So Bad, It’s Good,” alongside Jonas Wood. It was one of many positive results of that fair, arguably launching both the artist and the gallery to the next phase of our careers.

As a founding partner of Primer art software, what gaps in the market did you aim to address, and how do you see technology shaping the future of art galleries and artist studios?

It took a while to believe in the concept of a sunk cost. We’d spent more than $5,000 in start-up fees for an art software. We felt stuck with it, even though it was clunky, and we had to pay extra for updates or even customer support. In 2012, my brother created a program just for us, and when others saw us using it, they wanted it too. By 2014, my brother and I incorporated the business as Primer to be the best database with a pricing structure that minimizes risk to galleries and artist studios (including free data import, no contracts, and unlimited client support). I find it very gratifying, as our work impacts many more artists and galleries than I ever could as a single dealer.

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Many galleries and artists think that tech tools are only to find new clients. Meanwhile, they have interacted with hundreds, if not thousands, of collectors who have never bought work from them. Primer’s CRM helps identify those under-utilized contacts, allowing users to quickly make bespoke offers based on their past interests. Using software like Primer alongside your innate curatorial skills can turn those one-time leads to actual buyers. If your outreach is truly tailored, people enjoy being remembered and approached.

With your extensive experience in fundraising, major event planning, and educational programs for artists and galleries, what advice would you give to emerging art dealers and consultants looking to make a meaningful impact in the industry?

Be honest and sincere with both your artists and your clients. Be proactive with your offers and your ideas. Sometimes the only thing holding you back is taking the first step. Be organized from day one—your information is precious and your memory is faulty.

Don’t hold grudges.

How do you envision the future of ZieherSmith in Nashville, and what plans do you have for the gallery’s growth and its engagement with both the local and national art scenes?

We started programming summer pop-ups in Nashville in 2011 to be closer to family and connect more deeply with the scene here. Our positive experiences laid the groundwork for our permanent move in 2019.

The incredible growth of Nashville has attracted both engaged collectors and exciting artists, including Nashville natives returning home, such as Vadis Turner, and newer transplants like Jonathan Edelhuber and

Jodi Hays. In addition, there are established, nonTennessee artists who want their work to be seen outside of the art centers, and we are in discussion for some exciting collaborations that weren’t possible in New York. Exhibitions do have a different flow—they’re more event-based, rather than the stream of daily visitors we had in New York. However, we also have more flexibility for other endeavors. For example, Scott runs the Little League, and I’m a trustee for our kids’ school.

It’s fulfilling to be involved in our local community in different ways.

Scott and Andrea Zieher with work by Rachel Owens in New York Gallery, 2017 21

Odilia Iaccarino

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www.odiliaiaccarinoart.com odiliaiaccarino Odilia Iaccarino is a self-taught, award-winning painter whose work has been featured in exhibitions across the world. During a trip to Spain, she became fascinated with las meninas—figures first captured in Diego Velázquez’s mysterious painting of the same name that have taken on a new life in the imagination of other artists. Her emotive, gestural work blends abstraction and figuration to combine her own experience with that which came before her, drawing from art history, her cultural heritage, and her memories.

What draws you to the figure of las meninas?

What inspires you artistically?

Inspiration comes from the desire to create, to experiment with new things, to investigate matter, and to create a unique environment—to launch my imaginary world into the visual one.

What advice do you have for aspiring artists?

Work on your technique every day until you master it.

I would also suggest working on both small sketches and on big projects. Never listen to negative voices, and always do your best with humility.

The figure appeals to me because of its authentic value in art history and its connection to my Hispanic culture.

The menina (meaning girl) brings back memories of my childhood, where wide-skirted dresses were worn on special occasions, such as quinceneras, weddings, and baptisms. These luxury garments were a representation of celebration, a time that joyfully and harmoniously brought together family, friends, and acquaintances.

How does working with different mediums affect your artistic process and your creative expression?

For me, working with different mediums has been a great learning experience because it gives me freedom of expression. For example, when working with gold leaf, I can emphasize the figure, achieving different dimensions and adding backgrounds of abstract landscapes. Moving between media, I bring my creative source to the canvas in stages, allowing me to gradually develop my human expression.

What do you want viewers to take away from your work?

I want to bring the iconic figure of la menina to new generations and to inspire them to look into its history .

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Tiempo Entre Cabañas, oil pastel, acrylics, graphite on canvas, 30x30in

Secretos De Damas, oil pastel, acrylics, graphite on canvas, 60x48in

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ARTIST OPHELIA ARC

We’re Just So Glad You’re Home, installation image 24

VISIONARY WORDS In this section we invite contributing writers to share their perspectives on contemporary art, education, and other notes of interest related to visual arts.

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Typical studio behaviors include trial-and-(many) errors, weird experiments, and producing unique works that bear no resemblance to our usual style. For all of us, this is an important process through which we refine our skills and gain deeper insights into our own creative identities.

view ourselves as brands, the more difficult it becomes to navigate the natural fluidity that comes with being an artist.

Clinging closely to this notion of “brand consistency” can have an insidious effect of creating more risk-averse artists who are less willing to step outside of their familiar style.

However, social media has fundamentally changed the way we perceive other artists’ creative practices. We’re presented with polished feeds showcasing perfectly staged pieces, which heighten our sensitivity to our own “mistakes.” Instead of sharing the random mile markers of their creative journey, artists often lean into their more polished and completed works—leaving out works that left them disappointed or turned out just plain “ugly.”

This mentality is particularly harmful to new artists. Those who are just beginning their craft and want to share their journey with others may feel pressured to reach an expert level or have an established style before they even begin revealing their progress. The pressure of deciding what to share, especially when you believe everyone else is producing flawless work, can be overwhelming. The sterilization of our timelines makes us less apt to engage in experimentation, straddle mediums, or divulge work we’re less proud of.

I ask this: Where is the mess? As artists, we invest time, money, and energy into outcomes that are simply part of the process, not the final product. Aren’t these projects worth doing? Aren’t they worth sharing?

This overcuration can make us less likely to experiment. We draw inspiration and ideas from social media, but we’re less inclined to celebrate that which we don’t see. The more we

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To foster an environment more conducive to authentic expression, it’s imperative that we embrace the raw, incomplete, and imperfect. This sends a critical message— that every aspect of our work, from the messy beginnings to our magnum opus, is equally valuable and worth sharing.

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The Absolute Stillness of Lucy Mackenzie’s Aesthetic Realism

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written by Chunbum Park

Lucy Mackenzie, who recently exhibited at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in Chelsea, New York, is a master of meticulously rendered realistic still lifes. Mackenzie’s work may appear almost photographic due to its high level of believable detail, but it is not traditional realism, nor photorealism, nor hyperrealism. The type of realistic representation that Mackenzie is pioneering could be termed “aesthetic realism;” she is curating visual information and re-interpreting what is visible externally with an internal vision of her own. She brings greater clarity to her subjects with a style that is more lucid than the fuzzy chaos of reality itself. Painting various objects, such as toys, edible goods, chinaware, and vehicles, Mackenzie arrives at a vision that is wholly resolved with a sense of absolute stillness.

This elevated stillness is not merely harmonious. Harmony is present in Mackenzie’s art, too, but it is insufficient to explain the still silence of her work. Harmony is mainly a visual and formal phenomenon involving color and form, the result of an artist striving for a pleasing effect through the balanced opposition of elements.

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Engraved Glass Dish, oil on board, 4x5in Image courtesy of the Nancy Hoffman Gallery.

Stillness as seen in Mackenzie’s work goes beyond the ideas of balance and harmony. The striking silence of her images emerges from her unmoving subjects, captured in a state of resolution— a sense of completeness that overcomes chaos and imperfection. In Mackenzie’s paintings, the subject exists in absolute completeness.

The still-life painting first gained popularity in Europe in the 1600s and saw many revivals throughout subsequent centuries. Mackenzie is reinventing the genre with contemporary subject matter and compositions. Her work is reminiscent of Giorgio Morandi, who pushed the vocabulary of still-life to the limits in the 1900s with simple paintings of wine bottles and other containers.

In Mackenzie, still-life painting sees yet another rebirth in the form of aesthetic realism. The paintings are not realist works; Mackenzie is not replicating a photographic reference verbatim. Instead, she is curating information to present a reality altered from that which she observes, filtered through her interiority.

White Cup And Fluted Silver Vase, oil on board, 4x5in Image courtesy of the Nancy Hoffman Gallery.

A Shropshire Lad, oil on board, 4.5x7in Image courtesy of the Nancy Hoffman Gallery.

In addition to the absolute stillness of her subjects, the key defining feature of Mackenzie’s aesthetic realism is that she re-interprets the visual observation into an aesthetically curated set of information, whether that is color, form, light, and patterns (and texture visible to a lesser extent). The subject of her painting is an aesthetically elevated, fictional hyper reality that is selectively put together from our current, physical reality.

For example, look at the work titled, “A Shropshire Lad” (2017), which depicts the book of poems by the same name published by Alfred Edward Housman in 1896. In the 63 poems expressing Romanticist kind of pessimism, Housman wrote from the perspective of a farm laborer in Shropshire, a place he had never been to at the point of beginning the writing of the poems.

The colors and the details are formed through firm and even brush work aimed towards achieving an average or summation of the variations and irregularities of what is observed. In other words, the artist denies much fluctuation or gradation of hues, tints, and shades that do not make sense, aesthetically-speaking. The colors are often subtly mixed and applied, and neutralized or averaged through the artist’s intuition; there is a great deal of precise control that pushes Mackenzie’s painting towards a meditative quality, which ultimately translates to sense of profound reality.

Another painting of significance from Mackenzie’s exhibition is the “Pink Boat” (2021), which was painted from a mix of direct observation and photographs and surprisingly was executed with the omission of other boats from the original setting. Again, here the subject matter of her painting is revealed to be not the photographic or realistic imitation of reality, but an internalized simulation of the boat (anchored onto deck that is outside the picture frame and floating on the water) in the form of a painting. This is not a mimetic representation or imitation. Achieving this outcome involves a process of internalization (of what the artist observed) and her painting capturing the essence of this observed reality and packaging it as an aesthetically curated hyper-reality.

While there can be much more that can be said about

Pink Boat, oil on board, 5.5x4in Image courtesy of the Nancy Hoffman Gallery.

Mackenzie’s work, I conclude here to summarize what I have garnered about her still life paintings into three key points.

First, there is a great, profound sense of stillness and silence in her work, and this quality is elevated by the aesthetic curation of visual information, resulting in aesthetic realism.

Second, the artist achieves this aesthetic realism through the total absorption and internalization of the subject, and she can reproduce and represent the subject at its core. And third, this representation is not mimetic but an internalized simulation, indicating a hyper-reality that exists as a clear and lucid vision inside the artist’s mind.

French Cup and Paper Cases, oil on board, 3.5x7in Image courtesy of the Nancy Hoffman Gallery.

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A Tapestry of Identity: The Multidimensional Artistry of Ophelia Arc

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written by Emma Hapner

Walking along a quiet street in Tribeca, I happened upon 81 Leonard Gallery and discovered a treasure trove of work by Ophelia Arc in her debut solo show, “we’re just so glad you’re home,” curated by Nakai Falcón. Arc is a versatile artist whose canvases span the intricate realms of crochet, sculpture, drawing, and video. Her pieces, imbued with reflections on personal history and societal norms, provoke viewers to confront their assumptions amid a landscape where answers remain tantalizingly out of reach. Arc navigates this uncertainty with a profound exploration of health research and art history, crafting a visual dialogue that invites introspection and discovery.

Arc’s work recalls bodily functions in many ways; the organic forms and flesh-colored palettes intertwine with fragments of journal entries, family photos, and medical texts that allude to a story just beyond our understanding.

The artist has described herself as an archivist, and she surely is in the truest sense of the word. According to the dictionary, an archivist is “a person responsible for preserving, organizing, or servicing archival material.”Arc has certainly preserved many things, from experiences to moldy berries, and her collages give us an insight into her own recollections of her past, distorted by repeated remembrances and translated into a visual language that only she can fully understand.

Each incredibly complex piece, whether it be her sculptures, drawings, or those that fall somewhere inbetween, beckons the viewer to look closer, like a fly drawn into a beautifully crocheted web. Her fibrous creations, made up of yarn, latex, photos, handwritten notes, toys, goya cookies, human hair, bread, tulle, ribbon, mold, strawberries, thread,and more, are repellent in a way I just can’t get enough of.

“we’re just so glad you’re home” was a wonderfully articulate, thoughtfully curated exhibition that has not left my mind from the moment I stepped in the door at 81 Leonard. Arc’s memory museum (literally) weaves together concepts of beauty, past trauma, life experiences, health, and the human body while challenging societal norms and the way we understand our own recollections of the past.

Both tenacious and thought-provoking, the work of Ophelia Arc is technically brilliant in its intricacy and absolutely mesmerizing.

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you’re my favorite, thread, latex, Arcoroc Canterbury Dinner Plate impression, digitally manipulated photo, photo and acrylic sheet on ink stained frame, 14x18”

transitional specimen l, colored pencil and thread paper, 44x48”

gray mold, hand dyed yarn, tulle and thread, 10x5x16”

neglected experimental animal l, hand dyed yarn, tulle and thread, 12x18x24” 31

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written by Suso Barciela

The role of the curator has significantly transformed, gaining unprecedented relevance and becoming a true link between art and the general public. These professionals, far from being mere organizers of exhibitions, have become true architects of the aesthetic experience, shaping public perception and defining the narratives that form the artistic discourse of our time.

Today, the curator’s work goes beyond the simple selection and arrangement of works; the role has expanded to include the creation of complex interpretative contexts, mediation between artists and spectators, and the articulation of critical dialogues around artistic productions. This evolution has positioned the curator in an influential role, adapted to modern times, directing public attention towards specific artistic practices and catalyzing reflections on socially and culturally relevant issues.

In this sense, the curator acts as a visual storyteller, weaving narratives through the juxtaposition of works and the creation of exhibition spaces that invite reflection and questioning. Their critical perspective and ability to establish unexpected connections between different artistic manifestations imbue exhibitions with a conceptual depth that enriches the viewer’s experience. Moreover, curators face the challenge of making art accessible to

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an increasingly diverse and demanding audience. This involves not only creating inclusive and plural discourses but also exploring new exhibition formats that transcend the traditional boundaries of the museum or gallery.

Interventions in public spaces, collaborative projects with local communities, and initiatives that merge different artistic disciplines are examples of how curators are currently expanding the horizons of contemporary art. In the art market, the curator’s influence is equally significant.

Their curatorial decisions can have a substantial impact on the valuation and recognition of artists, which can be “dangerous,” as this ability to influence the art ecosystem carries great responsibility, demanding constant reflection on selection and representation criteria.

Today, this role faces important debates concerning accessibility and ethics in exhibition practices. The growing awareness of the impact large exhibitions have on the public has led many curators to rethink their working methodologies, seeking more responsible alternatives, with the hope that this will generate interest and direct the public’s attention to what is correct. Additionally, issues of diversity, inclusion, and equitable representation have become fundamental aspects of curatorial practice, reflecting a commitment to social justice and plurality in art. This responsibility, for better or worse, falls upon the figure of the art curators.

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Architects of the Aesthetic Experience

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ARTIST SUSAN GRACE

Reverberation, oil on canvas, 48x48in 34

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Andrea Zieher is a contemporary art dealer, consultant, and entrepreneur. In 2003, she co-founded the art gallery ZieherSmith in New York City, staging hundreds of exhibitions that received regular press, including from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and Artforum, and participating in over 60 international art fairs. She relocated to Nashville in 2019, and the gallery now operates on a pop-up basis in Tennessee and around the country. Zieher is also a founding partner of Primer art software for galleries and artists studios. Her nonprofit work includes four years as the President of the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) and consulting with various arts organizations on fundraising, major event planning, and educational programs for artists and galleries.

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VISIONARY ARTISTS

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Harumi Abe

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www.harumiabe.com harumiabeartist Harumi Abe’s landscape paintings engage with the sublimity of nature, a place where the ephemeral and the eternal meet, containing both beauty and terror. The natural world can be a haven—a place of growth and reflection, of sustenance and replenishment—or a source of devastating destruction. This duality is something that Abe understands intimately: in 2011, the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan forever altered the familiar landscape of her father’s hometown. Through her work, she strives to capture this sense of impermanence, simultaneously celebrating and mourning the inevitability

of change. At the same time, her paintings convey a sense of universality; she overlays images from her current residence in Florida and her childhood home in Japan, working across time and space to create images that transcend both. Abe is an award-winning artist who has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including Refinery29 and Hyperallergic. Her work is held in several public and private collections, including de la Cruz Collection and the Girl’s Club collection.

Arch Creek Drive, acrylic and acryla gouache on cavas, 48x72in

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Inner Paradise 3, acryla gouache and acrylic on cavas, 66x52in

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Sahar Alizadeh

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saharr_aliiizadeh Sahar Alizadeh’s paintings are a poignant exploration of the self and its fragmentation. In her work, there exist two distinct but overlapping realms: the threedimensional world we inhabit, and a two-dimensional one filled with shadows. The interplay between flatness and dimensionality is the crux of her artistic exploration; in her work, shadows form a kind of mirror, shallowly reflecting the richness and complexity of our spiritual and metaphysical experiences. This tension is heightened by her use of color, which she recently introduced into her compositions. Subtle hues flush against her otherwise

monochromatic or muted canvases, disrupting their sense of monotony and despondence. Alizadeh’s use of layering results in multi-faceted, emotionally resonant works. She moves between figuration and abstraction, creating shapes that seem almost animate. The result is unsettling and mysterious, inviting viewers to complete the narratives she has begun. Alizadeh is an award-winning artist and architect. She has exhibited in exhibitions in her native Iran and across the world. She has been selected for multiple international art fairs, and her work is held in the CICA Museum’s permanent collection.

Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 32x20in

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Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 60x40in 39

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Andrew Arkell

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www.andrewarkellart.com andrewarkellart Andrew Arkell draws from varying practices—painting, photography, and architecture—to create striking watercolors that ask viewers to pause and consider unconventional, quotidian beauty. His current series focuses specifically on shadows, which, at their most dramatic, can push ordinary structures toward the abstract. The subject is industrial: complex latices of metal and wood that embody rationality and regularity.

But the approach is almost impressionistic, focusing not on the objects themselves but on the interplay of light and dark that introduces a sense of defamiliarization.

Arkell’s process begins with photography; he notices and captures particularly striking scenes, often in unexpected places, as he moves through the world, before translating these images into watercolors that bring the shadows cast across these structures into the foreground. His work celebrates the beauty of light and of our often overlooked environments—the intricacies we’ve become inured to that surround us. Arkell is an artist and architect who has been featured in festivals, group exhibitions, and a solo show. His work is held in numerous private collections.

El Lookout, watercolor on watercolor paper, 22x30in

Coaster, watercolor on watercolor paper, 40x60in

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High Voltage, watercolor on watercolor paper, 22x30in 41

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Fawn Bailey

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www.fawnbaileyart.com fawnbaileyart Fawn Bailey synthesizes her deep connection to the natural world and her background in the sciences— intuitive and empirical understanding—to create mixedmedia pieces that uniquely honor and represent the earth.

She seamlessly traverses genres, from bold, saturated abstracts to emotive expressions of earthy realism. At the heart of her creative exploration is a fascination with the organic geometry found in fungi, lichens, plants, and geological formations. She replicates these shapes, and creates her own, through monoprinting, collaging, and innovative mark-making techniques, imbuing her pieces

with a palpable sense of tactile allure. In her current series, “Landlines,” Bailey delves into the landscapes that have shaped her personal narrative, from the rugged beauty of the Adirondacks to the towering peaks of the Sierra Nevadas. Through a masterful interplay of form and texture, Bailey invites viewers into a sensorial exploration where the boundaries between art and environment dissolve, inviting them to rediscover their own connections to the natural world. Bailey’s work has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the U.S.

Pacific Meditation, mixed media, 36x48in 42

Before the Superbloom, mixed media, 30x48in

Landlines, mixed media, 24x36in 43

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Shweta Bist

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www.shwetabist.com shweta.photo Shweta Bist’s photographic work explores the complexities of maternal subjectivity, insisting that the viewer see the often-overlooked narratives of caregiving.

Through her lens, Bist seeks to highlight the true value of motherhood and to unveil the emotional landscapes that women navigate daily. In her series “Sh!t I Do,” she employs composite digital photography to construct intimate domestic tableaus featuring a mother performing mundane tasks. Her subject meets the viewer’s gaze, insisting on acknowledgment of her labor and its worth.

The images compel viewers to confront the multifaceted nature of maternity, underscoring its physical, intellectual, and emotional dimensions. Symbolic imagery plays an essential role in Bist’s work: the daughters are overlain

with flowers, emphasizing the importance of nurturing them as they grow; the mother wears formal dresses made of rupees, calling our conceptions of value and work into question. Through her art, Bist catalyzes dialogue on motherhood as a transformative force, enriching communities and shaping future generations. By making maternal labor visible, she advocates for a reevaluation of its cultural and economic significance. Bist has exhibited internationally and presented at academic and art conferences in the U.S. and the U.K. She is an artist mentor with Spilt Milk Gallery in Edinburgh and a co-founder of Mother Creatrix Collective, a New York-based collective of artist-mothers.

Cooking (Sh!t I Do), archival pigment print, 20x30in 44

Test Prep (Sh!t I Do), archival pigment print, 20x30in

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Paul C Blake

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www.paulcblakeart.com paulcblake.art Paul Blake creates postmodern landscapes where colors crisscross and images unfold in unexpected ways. Using organic shapes and vivid hues, he makes images that flirt with realism before absurdity takes hold: mountains transform into creatures, clouds resemble birds, fish take flight. This juxtaposition of elements challenges conventional reality, presenting a world where illusions reign. Blake works primarily with oil paints, mixed media, and pastels, creating layers of color to depict nature’s fluidity and vitality. His work evolves in series, each offering a reflection on the changing environment in the face of

the climate crisis. Through his art, Blake portrays nature not as static scenery but as a vital force, perpetually adapting and harmonizing amidst discord. His work is a testament to the sacred and the profane, exploring themes of transfiguration, discord, and equilibrium. Blake is an award-winning artist and a former art educator. He has exhibited across the world in group and solo shows, including at the Bronx Museum of the Arts; Viridian Artists Inc, in New York City; and Galerie Onil, in Bremen, Germany. His work is held in private collections in New York and Germany.

Climatology 13, soft pastel on paper,24x18in

Climatology 7, soft pastel on paper, 24x18in

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Climatology 5, soft pastel on paper, 24x18in

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Paula E Borsetti

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www.paulaborsetti.com locuststreetstudios Paula Borsetti’s bold, busy abstract paintings pay homage to the people and environments she cherishes.

Rooted deeply in the landscapes of New England, her canvases reflect a tapestry of influences: verdant woods, pristine lakes, vast coastlines, lush marshlands.

Her compositions, rich with symbolism and narrative, draw from a palette that echoes the hues of her beloved surroundings. Working predominantly with acrylics, she deftly combines colors, patterns, and textures, inviting viewers into a dialogue of movement and form. In her latest series, “Fear of Flying,” Borsetti delves into the emotional barriers that constrain us, exploring the complexities of

reaching for one’s full potential. Each piece begins with an intimate dialogue—a conversation between artist and paper, often written in reverse and with her non-dominant hand, wherein marks transcend language to become movement, line, and shape. This method imbues her work with a dynamic energy, allowing each painting to evolve organically, unfolding stories both personal and universal.

Across these canvases, Borsetti’s exploration of fear and liberation is interwoven with love, light, and vibrant color.

Borsetti’s work in on display year-round at the Salted Cod Arthouse; she also exhibits locally, nationally, and online.

There Is a Crack in the Infrastructure Where The Light Gets In, acrylic on panel, 24x36in 48

Lipstick Optional, acrylic on linen, 36x36in

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Bryan Brown

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www.browno.art brownoart Bryan Brown uses surrealism as a tool for catharsis. His vivid paintings play with perspective and scale, inviting viewers into defamiliarized imaginative realms. His work is a tribute to the power of creation: by transforming his experiences and perspectives into immersive works of art, he hopes to encourage others to take charge of their own destinies. Brown believes that visualizing one’s destiny is essential for attaining it, and his images are a reality of his own making. The settings of his created worlds—often landscapes or seascapes—are personally significant, representing Brown’s profound affinity for nature and the

importance of feeling a connection to the world around us. His current series, “Infinite Satori,” depicts individual and collective quests for self-awareness, emotional insight, and holistic well-being, spanning mental, physical, and spiritual health. Each piece is a testament to his belief in the ability of art to illuminate, provoke thought, and elevate the human experience. Aside from his fineart practice, Brown is a book illustrator and a muralist who has collaborated with the New Orleans Pelicans. One of his pieces was recently acquired by the New Orleans African American Museum.

The Rebirth, acrylic on canvas, 36x24x2in

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The Boy Who Touches Dirt, acrylic on canvas, 24x24x1in

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Jules Bulleid

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www.julesbulleidart.com julesbulleid_art Jules Bulleid’s landscape paintings don’t merely capture the places she’s visited; they’re refracted through her experience and her memory, resulting in otherworldly, subjective representations. She describes her process as osmotic, beginning with her absorbing the fabric of a place into her being. She then revisits her recollection in the studio, where intuition drives her mark making and color selection. Her current series is inspired by a road trip through the Australian outback in 2023, riffing on the idea of postcard images—how the idealized images of these sites often hide their secrets and history. During her travels,

she wondered: What else does this place signify? What are the dark secrets that this country holds, particularly of the history of the First Nations peoples? This series engages with but ultimately subverts the sentimental superficiality of sightseeing. “It is natural to notice and witness the beauty around us,” Bulleid says. “But the inquiring eye should be matched by the inquiring mind.” Bulleid has been a finalist for many Australian art prizes, and her work is featured in galleries throughout Western Australia, Sydney, and Melbourne.

You Can Feel Them There, acrylic and charcoal on board, 24x18in 52

Same Path Different Journey, acrylic and charcoal on board, 16x16in

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Jaina Cipriano

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jainaphoto.com jainastudio Jaina Cipriano’s theatrical self portraits explore the emotional toll of religious and romantic entrapment.

She constructs intricate, dreamlike sets from metal, wood, foam, fabric, and found objects, which she then photographs herself in. These sets serve as both stage and sanctuary, where she reshapes her narrative and reconnects with her true self, free from the weight of her past. Cipriano grew up in a fundamentalist Christian cult, in a family suffering from unspoken mental illness.

Through her art practice, she seeks to communicate with her neglected inner child and to tell a new story about herself. Each photograph is a transformative act,

illuminating the dark recesses of her psyche while offering newfound areas of light and hope. “Creating these worlds is a way of changing my internal narrative,” she says.

“When things are not going the way I want them to, I can use photography as a little bit of psychomagic. It is a safe space for me to open up, be present and trust the process.” Cipriano’s images invite viewers to confront neglected inner landscapes, offering a soulful exploration of liberation and self-discovery. Cipriano has exhibited extensively across the world. She has written and directed award-winning short films and is the executive director of the Arlington International Film Festival.

You Get to Make The Choice, photograph in built environment, 20x24in 54

The Devil Walked Here, photograph in built environment, 24x24in

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Adam Crowley

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adam_m_crowley Adam Crowley’s work is a contemplation of the ephemeral, capturing small moments of beauty that gesture toward the passage of time: browning overgrown foliage, refuse caught within a natural landscape, light subtly shifting and changing. His paintings are reflections of the perpetual movement around us, whether it be the natural growth and decay of plants or the already forgotten remnants of human activity. His process, too, engages directly with temporality: he adjusts the scenes he is painting several times throughout, rendering each new iteration to subvert

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the assumed stasis of the still life. Crowley’s methodology is traditional; he works in oil and tempera, using chalk and rabbit-skin glue. The resulting images, however, are anything but, calling attention to their own artifice. He leaves parts of his canvases unpainted or unprimed, reminding viewers of the objecthood of his work, even as they are subject to its painterly illusions. Crowley’s work has been shown in multiple group and solo exhibitions. He works at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Rosebush Outside A Public Pool, tempera on paper, 11x17in

Offramp, oil on panel, 17x20in 57

Sandra Di Leo

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sandradileoart.com sandradileoart Sandra Di Leo’s acrylic paintings are a vibrant exploration of emotion and experience, drawing from color theory and abstract expressionism to create narratives of love, loss, transformation, and new beginnings. Through meticulous attention to the fundamentals of color and form, and guided by the principles of graphic design, she crafts canvases that pulse with life and emotion. Each piece is a striking symphony, orchestrated to create a sensation of rhythm, movement, and depth. Her gestural brushstrokes

infuse her canvases with dynamic spontaneity; her signature black markings dance across the compositions, adding layers of meaning and texture that enhance the overall sensation. Through this interplay of color, form, and emotion, Di Leo invites us to explore the complex landscapes of the heart and mind, finding beauty in every hue and meaning in every stroke. Di Leo’s work has been shown across the world in solo shows, group exhibitions, and at art fairs.

A Love Song, acrylic on canvas, 48x40in 58

Come Away With Me #1, acrylic on canvas, 36x36in

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Ashley Garrett

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ashleygarrett.com ashleygarrettny Ashley Garrett’’s paintings celebrate the natural world and remind us of our place within it. Her images begin with a walk, during which she has the intention of being completely present, fully experiencing the environment with all of her senses. She then returns to the studio and conveys that experience to the canvas, grounding herself in memories, sensations, and emotions. Her images de-center the human actor, instead focusing on the living world’s unmediated existence. Her process is highly physical, a kinetic translation of the energy she experienced—she works with paintings on the floor or

on palette tables, covering their surfaces with gestures and marks. Garrett seeks to shift our awareness from an anthropocentric perspective, asking us to take a more holistic view by emphasizing our interconnectedness with the natural world. This engagement is mutually rewarding, providing an opportunity for joined healing. Garrett has exhibited extensively across the U.S., and her work has been featured and reviewed in numerous publications.

She has collaborated with several poets, including Billie Chernicoff, George Quasha, Lila Dunlap, Robert Kelly and Tamas Pantiz.

Cantations, oil on canvas, 26x34in 60

Goddess, oil on paper, 16x12in 61

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Susan Grace

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susangracestudio.com susangracestudio Susan Grace’s oil paintings have their basis in the human form, but each portrait captures a figure in flux: abstract and organic elements transform the subjects into chimeras. Before she became a full-time painter, Grace taught at universities, and her academic background in English literature and theater informs her art practice.

Using layering, fragmentation, and distortion, she creates space for multiple interpretations, gesturing toward a narrative that she ultimately leaves open. “I see the figures in my paintings as participants in unfinished dramas in which they are continually evolving, exploring possibilities for metamorphosis, delighting in the fluidity of identity,

and remaining indifferent to a final resolution,” Grace says, and her deft movement between realism and abstraction, between individual and interiority or environment, creates rich images that are rife with meaning but elude simple categorization. Grace is an award-winning painter who has exhibited extensively throughout the U.S., in both galleries and museums, including ARC Gallery in Chicago, Illinois; the Museum of Arts and Science in Macon, Georgia; the World Trade Center of New Orleans; and Riverside Art Museum in Riverside, California. Her art is held in numerous private and public collections, including the Mulvane Art Museum and the Art of Emprise.

Aria #1, oil on canvas, 36x58in

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Filigree and Rose Silk, oil on canvas, 48x48in

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Joanna Hoge

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joannahoge.com joannallyson Joanna Hoge’s evocative drawings stand at the intersection of psychology, medicine, and personal narrative. They explore and subvert the idea of a mindbody division, blurring the lines between a scientific understanding of the body and a personal sense of embodiment. Recently, their focus has shifted to explore the multifaceted dimensions of motherhood and the dichotomies that surround it: precarity and strength, choice and expectation, life and death. Hoge draws realistic images of the human form and anatomy, which they then cut into and stitch with thread, creating visual allegories where healing and trauma converge. Delicate

thread sewn into fragile surfaces evokes both the tradition of feminine craft and the functional aspects of sutures.

This material presence, often subdued against the paper, gestures toward the unseen labor of women and mothers.

Through their drawings, Hoge makes poignant inquiries into the ways in which societal dynamics shape our understanding of identity, motherhood, and autonomy, prompting us to reconsider the narratives we construct around the body, parenthood, and personal agency. Hoge is an award-winning artist who has exhibited extensively across the country. They are the recipient of multiple grants and residencies.

Somniferous Bliss, ink & embroidery, 20x16in 64

Beyond Repair, ink & embroidery, 16x20in 65

Cindy D Ingram

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cindy.ingram.art Cindy Ingram describes herself as a “color farmer”—she is driven by her obsession with radiant hues, especially those of the flowers she grows. In her paintings, strange nature and landscapes materialize as a simulacrum of her inner world; she allows spontaneity to be her guide and is often surprised by the shapes and shades that emerge on her canvases. Her free and impulsive gestures lend themselves seamlessly to abstraction, and she embraces a dynamic process that blends mediums with abandon.

From the initial burst of spray paint on to the intricate

layers of acrylics, liquid inks, tempera sticks, and markers that follow, her technique is as diverse as it is experimental.

Brushes, scraps of cardboard, palette knives, and even her fingers become tools in her quest to capture the essence of color and texture. Creativity abounds in Ingram’s studio: she often has six pieces going at once, each of which is a testament to her ongoing dialogue with color and form. Ingram owns a small farm called the Happy Hill Homestead, which, like her art practice, is dedicated to spreading happiness.

Purple Coneflower, spray paint, acrylic and ink on canvas, 48x80in 66

Tungsten Hour, acrylic and ink on canvas, 40x30in 67

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Symantha Jones

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symanthajones.com symmytry Symantha Jones creates home-creature hybrids from the detritus of memory and experience. Whether sculpting, drawing, painting, or collaging, she combines broken, marked, and imperfect fragments to make strange but sweet structures. Simultaneously alienating and inviting, these constructions invite us to reflect on the psychological and physical significance of home in our lives. What Jones calls “rescued materials” are central to her work; using primarily reclaimed paper and cardboard, Jones draws together multiple forgotten histories and unknown stories to make the familiar strange. Her

assemblages are a visual representation of the theory of hauntology—in them, the past is always present.

Layering clay, acrylic, graphite, gouache, metal leaf, and silverpoint on top of her base materials, Jones explores the accumulation, degradation, and lingering presence of memory. Her work dances between the uncanny and the mundane: her subjects and materials are ostensibly ordinary, but she transforms and twists them, distorting our sense of what these things truly are. Jones is an artist, researcher, and assistant professor. She has exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and in the U.K.

Lurid Beams Capture Dreams (Xavier), mixed media, 13x7x8in

The Girl In The White Room, mixed media, 33x17x14in

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I Know Which Way The Wind Blows But It Doesn’t Help (Edwin), mixed media, 8.25x3.5x3in 69

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Shaina Kasztelan

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www.shainakasztelan.com clowntearz Shaina Kasztelan’s multimedia assemblages revel in the refuse of late capitalism, combining thrifted consumer objects, craft supplies, and commercially manufactured textiles into psychedelic dreamscapes. By remixing these elements with plastic-based paints, rubbers, and resins, she transforms familiar items into uncanny artifacts that challenge conventional aesthetics. Operating between painting, sculpture, collage, and installation, Kasztelan creates a feeling of sensory overload, simultaneously disorienting, delighting, and disgusting the viewer. These confusing and contradictory sensations replicate the

experience of living in a hyper-consumerist society, where material objects bring momentary, hollow joy before they are discarded; their long afterlife unfolds unseen in second-hand stores and landfills. By elevating these ephemera to the level of art, Kasztelan asks us to consider the impact of constant coveting: What has our insatiable appetite for mass-produced goods done to us, and to our environment? Kasztelan has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows throughout Michigan. In addition to her fine-art practice, she has worked as a muralist, set designer, and a prop maker.

Burn Her Like A Rat, mixed media, 6 4x46x1in 70

Mystic Picnic, mixed media, 36x18.5x8.5in

Thots And Prayers, mixed media, 39.5x32x13in 71

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Mari Keeler Cornwell

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www.daydreampilotstudio.com daydreampilotstudio Mari Keeler Cornwell’s portraits capture women as she sees them: multi-faceted, strong, vibrant, complex. She grew up in Venezuela, in a household of grandmothers, aunts, cousins, and sisters who navigated societal sexism and other obstacles with dignity; her grandmother, Mary Calcaño, was Venezuela’s pioneering female aviator.

Drawing inspiration from those who raised her, Cornwell creates images that pay tribute to feminine fortitude and resilience. Classically trained in painting, she combines realism and impressionist techniques to make paintings that are more than mere representations: they also

offer a glimpse of her subjects’ interiority. The women she paints sometimes merge into their backgrounds but retain full autonomy, gesturing toward the ways in which we are shaped by our environments but ultimately defined by ourselves. Each image is a celebration of individuality—and of the shared, empowering experience of womanhood. Cornwell is an award-winning artist whose work has been featured in numerous publications and featured in group and solo shows across the country, as well as at international art fairs.

Afsatou, acrylic on canvas, 48x48in

Alishan, acrylic on canvas, 48x48in 72

Ruby, acrylic on canvas, 48x48in

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Laura Klopfenstein

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laklopfenstein.com lauraklopfenstein Laura Klopfenstein’s mixed-media pieces combine disparate symbols and imagery to create work that is at once whimsical and reverent. Made with a variety of media—acrylics, gouache, graphite, ink, water, magazines, encyclopedias—her painted drawings and collages integrate the natural world and her imaginative one. Her process is guided by layering, both physically and metaphorically; her images contain a multiplicity of meanings. Storytelling and humor are an important part of her practice, and many symbols recur throughout her work–teeth, cacti, oceanic organisms, and especially fishing lures, which serve as a stand-in for humans. In

many of her pieces, clumps of fishing lures are set against images of flora and fauna: a visual allegory for our parasitic relationship to the environment. Klopfenstein’s work is informed by the concepts of stewardship, activism, playfulness, and awe, exploring such themes as gender and labor roles, disposable culture, climate change, and socioeconomic imbalance. Each piece speaks with a unique voice, quietly explosive and deeply reflective of our times. Klopfenstein is a self-taught artist whose work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and publications and is held in private collections across the country.

Glacial#2, collage, acrylic and ink in paper, 12x8in 74

Fire Rise, collage and acrylic on paper, 18x24in 75

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Rashid Elon Lane

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www.rashidlane.com rashidlaneart Through his work, Rashid Lane delves into the complexities of identity, race, and globalization. This exploration is both personal and profound, rooted in his own experiences within the African diaspora. His artistic process begins with keen observation and photographic documentation; the images he takes serve as the inspiration for his drawings, which incorporate charcoal, graphite, and acrylic paint. His use of models, each with a unique story to share, further enriches his creative process, infusing authenticity and depth into his portraits.

Lane is particularly interested in the cultural identities of

Black men, and his intimate portraits capture moments of vulnerability and tenderness, a less frequently examined aspect of Black masculinity. His series on fatherhood, especially, offers a glimpse into deeply personal moments and poses questions about how we become who we are—and how we can provide a stronger foundation for future generations. Lane spent nearly a decade as an art educator, teaching visual arts and art history. His work has received numerous accolades and been exhibited in group and solo shows.

Keep Going, graphite and charcoal on paper, 11x16in

Tamo Junto, graphite and acrylic on paper, 20x20in 76

The Rescue, acrylic on canvas, 16x20in 77

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Scott McDermott

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www.scottmcdermott.art scottmcdermott.art Scott McDermott’s high-contrast photographs offer a striking new perspective on iconic subjects, ranging from portraits of celebrities to studies of cassette tapes by beloved artists. His most recent body of work, “The Backline Series,” isolates the equipment that powers Rock n’ Roll—worn guitars, amplifiers, drum kits, gear cases— and posits it as worthy of consideration in its own right.

Focusing not on the intangible effect of music but on the physical items that produce it, McDermott brings the artistic process to its basic foundation. His pop-art color

scheme winks towards the regularity of these objects that are capable of producing transportive, sublime sound. McDermott has been working as a photographer and a director for more than twenty-five years. He has photographed international campaigns for global brands and major magazines, directed commercials and a feature film, and won numerous photography awards. His fine art has been shown at solo and group exhibitions and is held in collections across the world.

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Shure Mic, dye sub print on aluminum50x40in

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Sara Mcmahon

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www.saradelighted.com saradelighted Sara Carmer McMahon’s cut-paper works transform simple moments into intricate works of art. Using an excel blade and a single sheet of black Canson Mi-Teintes art paper, she draws from her observations, memories, and photographs to create unique scenes imbued with her own experience and emotion. Each artwork, often capturing a domestic or quotidian moment, is a single pane from a larger narrative. Her pieces evolve organically as she navigates the paper; a mistake becomes a new path forward. Just as McMahon slices away negative space to reveal her subjects, so she cuts through the metaphorical

layers surrounding the self, presenting individuals in authentic, unguarded moments. The resulting work is a testament to her ability to blend creativity with personal insight, meticulously capturing the world as she and those close to her experience it. McMahon’s work has been exhibited in galleries and featured in journals and other publications. She has collaborated on public projects and murals and is actively involved with a variety of projects that seek to use art as a tool for greater good, increased cultural representation, and impactful storytelling.

Keith Resting At The Park, cut paper, 9x11in 80

Self Portrait 2024, cut paper, 7x12in

Her Between Sea And Sky, cut paper, 8.5x11in 81

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HENRY MORALES

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henry-morales.com hmorales123 Henry Morales’s practice spans a variety of media— paintings, videos, installations, murals—to explore cultural hybridity and personal history. Drawing from his experience as a first-generation Guatemalan American, he creates powerful work that addresses themes of labor, immigration, identity, hybridity, and place. Morales works with both traditional and unconventional materials, incorporating dirt from his parents’ yard into his paintings, or constructing an American flag out of a broom and trash bags. His work finds power in the everyday, elevating humble materials and celebrating quiet moments of work and rest; his portraits of laborers bestow a regal dignity on their subjects. Morales delves into the immigrant

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experience through his carefully observed depictions of his family and his community, reflecting on the complex experience of migrating to a new land while maintaining deep ties to another, and reverently navigating the intersections of these overlapping identities. Through his art, Morales hopes to bring visibility to marginalized people and to build a sense of community, a mission that is also reflected in his artist-engagement series and public art works. Morales is an award-winning artist and curator who has exhibited in group and solo shows across the U.S. His work is held in the Haverford College Fine Arts Collection.

Descansando (Resting), dirt from my parents front yard mixed with acrylic and oil paint and newsprint junk mail we get in the mail on canvas, 42x60”

No Pues Wooow (Wow…Okay Then), dirt from my parents front yard mixed with acrylic and oil paint and newsprint junk mail we get in the mail on canvas, 60x42”

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Rachel Morrissey

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www.rachelmo.com rachelmorrisseyart Rachel Morrissey’s vibrant organic paintings encapsulate her lived experience, drawing inspiration from the themes of motherhood, mental health, and her ongoing battle with Lupus. Morrissey’s fascination with plant life goes beyond aesthetic appreciation; it serves as a profound metaphor for life’s transient nature. Her images vividly capture the resilience and fragility of both natural and human forms.

She initially seduces viewers with her rich palette and evocative forms, only to reveal deeper layers of turmoil and transformation. In her latest series, specially crafted for the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, Morrissey explores the fertile relationship between imagination and

reality, melding fantastical blooms with indigenous flora.

This series celebrates the splendor of Florida’s coastal ecosystems while serving as a poignant reminder of their imperiled state, offering a captivating glimpse of an ephemeral world teetering on the brink of ecological and existential change. Morrisey has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows, including at Voltz Clarke Gallery in New York City and 19 Karen Gallery in Queensland, Australia. Her work has been featured in Create! Magazine, Art Seen Magazine, Women’s United magazine, and Friend of the Artist.

Hopeful Hibiscus, acrylic paint on canvas, 48x48in

Delighted By Dahlia, acrylic paint on canvas, 48x48in 84

Coneflower Confessions, acrylic paint on canvas, 48x48in

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Hien-Tu Nguyen -Thanh

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www.hientucolor.com hientu.color Hien-Tu Nguyen-Thanh’s delicate paintings explore the interplay between strength and softness, introspection and liveliness, radiance and subtlety. Drawing inspiration from the natural world and her emotional relation to it, she creates images that pulsate with vitality and contemplation. Her artistic process is a fusion of intuition and reflection—a dance where the movement of water and the layering of media converge into harmonious textures and mesmerizing forms. Nguyen-Thanh moves between freedom and control, letting her first brushstrokes guide

her then bringing her own vision forth. This approach allows her to remain deeply rooted in the present moment, capturing fleeting moments and immortalizing them on canvas. Through her art, Nguyen-Thanh invites us to pause and celebrate the richness of every moment.

Her works are not just expressions of creativity but also powerful reminders to cherish quotidian beauty. NguyenThanh has exhibited in group and solo shows throughout Canada, and her work has been featured in publications and at private events.

Soft Landing, acrylic on canvas, 24x48in

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Connecting Hearts, acrylic on canvas, 24x30in

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Grace Ren

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www.graceren.com Grace Ren is a multidisciplinary artist whose embroideries offer cheeky but poignant commentary on the ways in which we attempt—and often fail—to connect with others and to understand ourselves. For her, the medium through which ideas are conveyed is as important as the ideas themselves. Through her stitching project, for instance,

she hopes to unravel the intricate workings of human behavior, and the ways in which it can be translated and transformed through creative expression. Ren earned her B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently enrolled in an M.F.A. program at the Glasgow School of Art.

Today’s Specials, embroidery sewing, 5x8in

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Limerence, embroidery, 20.5x18.5in

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Perryn RYAN

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www.perrynryan.com perrynryanart Perryn Ryan’s evocative, emotive use of line and color invites viewers into a world thrumming with feminine energy. Using soft pastels, she creates images that capture the multi-dimensionality the female experience, centering wellness, self-identity, autonomy, and spiritualism. She begins with loose, abstract sketches in postures of power or tranquility; as she progresses, these figures evolve, speaking with their own unique voices. Her painterly compositions are characterized by the interplay of softness and strength: bold colors curve gently across her canvases, capturing the complexity

of modern women. Ryan’s current series, “At Home,” explores the joys of solitude and self-care, celebrating the pleasures of disconnecting from the frenetic noise of the world in favor of being fully present with oneself. Exploring themes of modern life, isolation, and self-acceptance, the introspective series invites viewers to explore the richness of their own inner lives. Ryan has exhibited in group and solo shows and painted murals in New York and Chicago. Her commercial illustrations have been commissioned by brands like Kate Spade, HarperCollins, and Pressed Juicery.

This My House, soft pastels on paper, 17x23in unframed

No Pants Allowed, soft pastels on paper, 17x23in unframed

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Slumber, Part Of 1!, soft pastels on paper, 17x23in unframed 91

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Lawre Stone

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www.lawrestone.com lawrestone Lawre Stone combines natural imagery and the language of abstraction in otherworldly landscapes. Her intricately layered work explores environmental issues and the relationships between interior worlds and outer experience. Her process begins with a series of preliminary ink sketches; she then uses thin layers of acrylic on canvas to construct an atmospheric foundation, gradually building depth and mood. Switching to oil paint and employing bold, gestural strokes, she creates a dynamic space where bold flora take form. The resulting images are almost archetypal organic forms; they are not depictions of individual plants so much as representations of the

essence of nature. Stone’s most recent series, “Vegetal Turn,” considers how the environment has adapted to human intervention, capturing a sort of dystopian beauty— both the devastating impact of our depredations and the enduring capacity for natural regeneration and renewal.

Her hybrid creations are an amalgamation of observation and imagination. Neither entirely real nor fictional, these botanical entities evoke a sense of transformation and resilience. Stone’s work has been exhibited throughout the U.S., including at White Columns and MoMA PS1. She serves on the Board of Directors of Millay Arts and is the Associate Director of Bard M.F.A.

Vegetal Turn, oil on canvas, 30x30in

The Moon’s Silvery Eye, acrylic and oil on canvas, 48x48in 92

Resurgence, acrylic and oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

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Stephen Von Mason

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vonmasonart.com stephen.von.mason.art Stephen Von Mason’s paintings and sculptures serve as a testament to resilience, renewal, and the pursuit of beauty amid adversity. He sees storytelling as an essential tool for understanding and transformation, and the intensity of his colors and starkness of his symbolic imagery underscores the urgency of the stories he tells. Central to his work is the concept of cultural healing, which he promotes in two distinct ways: confronting historical injustices and celebrating the accomplishments of Black people in America. His series “Cultural Healing” highlights Black excellence and celebrates unsung heroes. His

Black Wings of Gold Without Sanctuary, polystyrene with mixed materials, 11x17x28in

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current series, “Broken,” delves deep into the complexities of his community, unearthing narratives that are often overlooked or silenced. In each, as well as his body of work as a whole, Von Mason seeks to resurface and retell history with the aim of working toward a better future— holding the ugliness of the past up to the light so we can build something beautiful. Von Mason has exhibited in group and solo shows across the world. In 2012, he received an invitation from Barack Obama to present to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

Irrational Anxiety, polystyrene with mixed materials, 13x13x38in

A Familiar Sound, oil on canvas, 48x36in 95

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VISIONARY VISITS Our studio visits in New York City and beyond provide us with a deeper understanding of the work in which we are viewing. Through this ongoing series, we travel to artist studios to meet contemporary artists who are creating powerful, thought-provoking work.

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MG Vander Elst

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www.mgvanderelst.com mgvanderelst_images BIO MG Vander Elst is a fine art photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. Raised in Antwerp, Belgium, MG Vander Elst was surrounded by art from an early age. She regularly visited the Rubens house, studied the Dutch Masters, and shared her parent’s love for Modern Art.

Her photography journey began when she enrolled in an evening photo class while abroad working as an au pair.

A pivotal moment occurred as she reviewed images of one of the girls under her care, with one photo leaving an indelible mark, igniting a lasting passion for photography.

The profound intimacy captured in that moment remains a driving force, influencing her creative expression in every photograph she takes.

Vander Elst then enrolled at the Portfolio Center in Atlanta and earned a Certificate in Photography (1990).

Subsequently she worked as a photographer’s assistant in NYC (David Stewart) and developed her own freelance Portrait business. Her work has evolved to include still life, abstract, and landscape images. IIn her recent project, she explores flowers with a distinct approach that is entirely her won. She is captivated by the curves of their stems, the shapes, and the textures of their petals. She seeks out the hidden flaws and imperfections, finding beauty and truth in their vulnerability.

Recently her still life images gained national recognition with group exhibitions in Dallas, NYC, and Vermont, curated by notable figures such as Aline Smithson, Debra Klomp Ching, and Anne Jabstrab. Several of these images were chosen as Juror selections and received honorable mentions. Additionally, her recent work has been featured in F-Stop Magazine, AAP Magazine, and Float Magazine.

She also contributed to a book associated with one of her group exhibits titled The Same but Different. Vander Elst has joined TI Art Studios in Brooklyn and is an active participant during the Fall Gowanus Open Studios. This past June Vander Elst held her second solo exhibition, titled (Un)veiled, at Sweet Lorraine Gallery, this exhibition showcased a collection of still life images in both color and black-and-white, displayed as a mural collage and also printed on silk panels.

She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and 2 sons.

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ARTIST STATEMENT I’ve always steered clear of contrivances or illusions, thus, the through line of my work is to illustrate vulnerability. I simplify each image by stripping it to its core elements, emphasizing the quality of light and inviting the viewer to connect on a tactile level, creating an intimate experience.

My approach, whether photographing still life, abstract or landscapes is intuitive and stems from an idea or an emotion. The result in each of my projects becomes a journey of self-discovery and a reflection of my current state.

Art enveloped my upbringing and my childhood years in Antwerp, Belgium with regular trips to the Rubens house, delving into the world of Dutch Masters, and embracing my parents’ passion for Modern Art, these influences have left an enduring imprint on my creative endeavors.

The light, the gestures and the intimacy of the Dutch masters, and the minimalism of modernists are still shaping my artistic expression. Today, flowers have been my main area of focus. I use them as metaphors and imbue them with the different feelings I am reflecting on.

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Charles Leak

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www.charlesleakstudio.com charlesleakstudio BIO Charles Leak (b.1953 Dallas, Texas) received his BFA from North Texas State University. As a multidisciplinary artist working in New York City and East Hampton, Leak’s mixed media work portrays his exploration of the universe in a deeply personal and investigative way. Leak’s work has recently been in several group shows including ones at East Hampton Guild Hall, the silent auction benefit for “Wings Over Haiti,” as well as Folio East’s curated “Black, White and Blue” show at Ashawagh Hall. His paintings and works on paper are held in many private collections.

ARTIST STATEMENT ”The cosmos is within us. We are made of starstuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”

– Carl Sagan

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This quote defines how my feelings and work has progressed over the recent years. By exploring space travel, planets, star systems and galaxies, I have been able to extend my vision of life into the universe where the deepest secrets are hidden and account for the mysteries and stories yet to be told.

Every work becomes a unique adventure within the network of a solar system. Whether it’s a moment in time and space, a collision of planets, or an explosion of elements that create cosmic clouds and dust. All are the result of the evolution of our world.

Because of this, the materials represented are gold dust flakes, metallic inks, anthracite, pigments that portray the earth and space. Printmaking paper allows for the immediacy and pureness of color and gesture to create the experience.

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Linda Turner

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www.lindaturnerart.com lindaturnerart BIO Linda Turner, raised in both NYC and Northern Virginia, resides in Brooklyn. She achieved a BFA in Surface Design/Textile Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and later completed her Masters in Art Therapy at Pratt. Additionally, Linda has studied at the Arts Students League, SVA, Parsons and painted with Tribeca Underground. Linda is a member of two collectives within the Shim Art Network on Artsy, Spliced Connector and Digital Odetta. She has participated in various group shows and her work is in private collections.

ARTIST STATEMENT My work can look like many things, yet underlying are visual conversations of who I am and who we are, as individuals, as communities, and in the world. Art-making for me expresses feelings, asks questions, seeks answers. It is also a space of respite and play, a way to move forward, enlivened, in an imperfect body and an imperfect world.

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Many years spent as a home textile/product designer, combined with training and practice as an art psychotherapist, have informed my use of pattern, texture, layering and color; for all apply as much to design principles as they do to the human psyche and social condition.

Layering, texture, scratching or scraping, the push and pull of paint, all invite what is hidden to emerge and what has emerged to retreat. Circles can be metaphors for an individual or the world, a container to hold polarities, unity, oneness and separations, within and around us. Pattern connects what appears to be random, contains what is messy, has me see what is hard to accept, and at times to envision something new. The use of marks, boxes and squares explore the scaffolding of next stages in life. I see my job as inviting them to come forth and teach me what needs to be known.

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Linda Turnder’s studio, Photo by Jane Fry 105

GREENPOINT OPEN STUDIOS greenpointopenstudios.com greenpointopenstudios

Greenpoint Open Studios (GOS) returned to Brooklyn on Saturday, June 1st, and Sunday, June 2nd, 2024, for its eighth year. The event showcased over 200 local artists who opened their studios to the public. Free and open to the public, attendees browsed artists’ studios, attended special exhibitions, and participated in events. The weekend drew thousands of art enthusiasts, including residents, art students, gallerists, and tourists.

Greenpoint, home to a vibrant community of artists, provided visitors with an opportunity to meet artists, see their creative process, and join special events hosted by local businesses, galleries, and organizations.

We had the pleasure of visiting Greenpoint Open Studios, meeting with artists in their studio spaces, and learning more about their work.

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Kelly Olshan www.kellyolshan.com kellyolshanfineart Kelly Olshan is a Brooklyn-based visual artist and arts manager with a BFA in painting from UNC Asheville and an MA in Arts Administration from Columbia University. Her work, part of UNC Asheville’s permanent collection, has been exhibited nationally, including a recent solo public art installation at the Garment District Alliance’s Space for Public Art in New York.

She has held solo exhibitions at venues such as Earlville Opera House (NY), Ground Floor Contemporary (AL), and Sean Christopher Gallery (OH). Olshan has been an artist in residence with Chashama and was named an Emerging Leader by NYFA. She serves as a frequent panelist for the NYC Percent for Art Program and the NYC DOT Public Art Advisory Committee, and has lectured at institutions like SVA, RISD, and Columbia University. Currently, she is a Program Officer at NYFA, managing professional development programs for artists.

Photo by Sean McCutcheon

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Mel Reese www.melreese.com melaniereese Reese (b. 1991) is a Brooklyn-based observational painter inspired by formalism. She holds an MFA from SVA and a BS from Skidmore College. She has completed Artistin-Residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Elsewhere Studios, and JX Farms. Reese recently had a solo show at Warnes Contemporary Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. She has exhibited widely throughout the United States including Collar Works (Troy, NY), Deanna Evans Projects TROVE (online), and THE GALLERY by Odo (NYC) and has been featured in several publications including New American Paintings Northeast Issue 134, New American Painting Featured Artists, Inside Artists, Studio Visit Magazine, and New Visionary Magazine.

Reese lives and works in Greenpoint, BK with her husband, their new baby son.

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Affordable Art Fair, 2023, Photo by Phillip Reed 108

VISIONARY FAIRS To increase visibility for the artists we feature, we’ve continued partnering with major NYC art fairs, including The Affordable Art Fair and Superfine Art Fair, to distribute copies of our magazine.

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ART PLACER www.artplacer.com artplacer.app

affordableartfair.com affordableartfairnyc

ArtPlacer is thrilled to announce its collaboration with Affordable Art Fair New York City for the upcoming Fall 2024 edition. As the official Art Marketing Partner this September, ArtPlacer will elevate the fair experience through innovative digital integration and interactive art engagement opportunities for visitors, exhibitors, and galleries alike.

How did your collaboration with Affordable Art Fair come about, and what are you most excited about?

“We are excited to partner with ArtPlacer to bring a new dimension of digital innovation to the fair,” said Erin Schuppert, Director of Affordable Art Fair NYC. “This collaboration underscores our commitment to enriching the art-buying experience by integrating advanced technology and providing valuable resources like ArtPlacer for our art community.”

Recently, we had the chance to visit Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland, and it was a transformative experience. By talking with local exhibitors, we noticed we needed to be present in the spaces we share as part of the artistic community, being part of the conversation and the experience.

Nicolas Michael is the CEO and Co-Founder of ArtPlacer. An art lover and collector, he is an avid visitor of local and international art fairs. With an artistic family heritage as the son of renowned architect Rafael Viñoly, he deeply appreciates the arts and has served as the manager of business development in previous tech companies. He has combined his two passions into ArtPlacer as a project that bridges art and technology to expand the reach of artists and galleries, making art more accessible to people through immersive digital experiences.

The Affordable Art Fair team contacted us a few months ago with the idea. From the first conversation, we realized we shared a common interest in making art more accessible and helping artists and gallerists reach a bigger audience.

We are thrilled to bring those ideas to the Affordable Art Fair NY. We want to showcase in our city how to create digital engaging experiences around how art is experienced and even acquired. We will be there to help exhibitors present their work and help collectors make informed art-buying decisions.

In what ways do ArtPlacer’s visualization tools enhance the experience for collectors considering an artwork purchase?

From the start ArtPlacer wanted to make art-buying a fun and personalized experience for collectors, closing the gap between what they see in an exhibition and what they see once they take the art home. One of the first features we created was “Personal Spaces” which allows people to upload pictures of their space, and digitally place artworks at scale, adding digital frames and mats to get a realistic preview of what the collector wants to purchase.

For gallerists and art consultants, this used to take a lot of time and resources to create. We simplified the process so that with a few clicks, art can be placed and viewed at real scale.

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that matches their taste, will now be available digitally in four immersive Virtual Exhibitions featuring the themes Sustainability, Emerging Young Artists, Uncanny and Identity Forward.

We are giving another twist to an existing visitor’s favorite feature: the Fair Director’s Picks.This curated selection of works presented at the current edition will be portrayed in a selection of Room Mockups which are digital spaces where you can visualize art at scale. Now we are offering a practical and visually striking way to showcase the artworks in context outside a booth. We aim to enrich the overall visitor experience, providing innovative ways to engage with the art and the fair.

What do you hope visitors and participants will take away from ArtPlacer’s collaboration with the Affordable Art Fair?

At this Affordable Art Fair, we are setting up a consultation area. Attendees can book an Art Wall Advisory session, bring pictures of their space, and get a preview of how the pieces they intend to purchase will look when hung in their homes.

What is the ArtPlacer Academy, and how will it support participating galleries at the Affordable Art Fair?

ArtPlacer Academy is our way to give back to the community, we are not only a one-stop art marketing tool, we are your companion in your art journey. We have set up this learning space for artists, gallerists, curators and art dealers, where they can access hours of recorded webinars with industry experts sharing insights on everything from art sales strategies to creating email campaigns to promote their pieces.

This partnership is an amazing opportunity to strengthen our bonds with the art community, generating conversations and providing them with innovative digital experiences that integrate with the traditional fair model to elevate it. We expect attendees and exhibitors will gain a deeper appreciation for the intersection of art and technology.

We want attendees to experience firsthand how readyto-use tools can enhance the art-buying process, making it easy and fun. For participating galleries and fellows, we thrive to offer effective tools and support that streamlines their exhibition process and maximizes their impact at the fair.

We hope this partnership fosters a more dynamic, accessible, and enjoyable art experience for everyone involved.

For the Affordable Art Fair we have curated a guide to support exhibitors with assets that will help them to prepare for a successful show at the Metropolitan Pavilion. This includes a comprehensive marketing checklist designed explicitly for participating galleries, plus bespoke content from our brand ambassadors covering how to create a project statement, planning your art show in advance, website and social media updates, press releases, and how to leverage their social media to create buzz around their exhibition.

Can you tell us about the exclusive curated Route Guides and Fair Director’s Picks and how they incorporate ArtPlacer’s Virtual Exhibitions and Room Mockups?

From our first conversations with Erin Schupper, director of the Affordable Art Fair NYC, we saw an opportunity to elevate certain experiences they provide to attendees in every edition. For example, their Route Guides intended to help visitors find art

Martin Zaleski, Co-Founder & CTO with Erica Goldemberg, Head of Marketing 111

SUPERFINE ART FAIR www.superfine.world superfineartfair

Superfine is the art fair that puts a new age of art collectors in touch with hundreds of cutting-edge works by the world’s top emerging artists and their champions. As art lovers and collectors themselves, Superfine’s co-founders wanted to see a space to buy art where it didn’t matter who you are, what you looked like, or the size of your bank account.

A place where people who love art can connect directly with artists, and support them directly too.

S P O T L I G H T O N S U P E R F I N E A R T FA I R A R T I S T

For 10 years, Superfine has put cutting edge art in the hands of those who love it, redefining what it means to be a thriving artist, an art supporter, or even a fan who wants a little something made by an artist to remember their experience.

Laura Cleary Williams www.lauracleary.com lauraclearywilliams Williams, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, earned her BFA from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and her MFA in Printmaking from SCADAtlanta. At SCAD’s Southeastern Center for Printmaking, she worked with Kiki Smith and Valerie Hammond and co-founded Straw Hat Press. She has exhibited with PXP Contemporary, Viridian Artists, Van Der Plas Gallery, and the New York Equity Association. In 2023, she had her first solo show at Good Art Co. and was an artist in residence at Carrie Able Gallery, with another solo exhibition in 2024.

Williams’ paintings, influenced by abstract expressionism, explore the boundaries of imagination. Each work, deeply rooted in drawing, captures ephemeral moments of beauty and serves as a tribute to both her past self and the unspoken expressions of others.

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Sarah Fishbein sarahfishbeinmosaics.com sarahfishbeinmosaics Sarah Fishbein, a contemporary mosaic artist from Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, has been innovating the visual imagery landscape for over 20 years. Initially rooted in traditional photography and video production, Fishbein’s artistry has evolved, embracing Pop Art Mosaics. She skillfully merges the vibrant essence of pop art with 1950s and 60s romance comics and characters, creating modern pop culture expressions in glass.

Fishbein’s unique approach combines aesthetics with technical mastery, pioneering a fusion of stained glass and mosaic techniques. Her works, while drawing inspiration from the past, resonate with contemporary themes such as feminism, empowerment, sexuality, and the complexities of modern relationships.

Fishbein is not just an artist but a storyteller. Her mosaics, rich in history and current narratives, guide viewers through a journey of time. With her ever-evolving style, she continues to shape and redefine the mosaic art landscape, infusing it with vibrant stories and emotional depth.

S P O T L I G H T O N S U P E R F I N E A R T FA I R A R T I S T

Marie Seguret www.marieseguret.com marieseguretart At the heart of my art lies a vibrant celebration of nature’s most vivid expressions. As a self-taught French artist, I channel my passion for the natural world into pulsating, luminous works that reflect the power of color to evoke deep emotions and reveal hidden beauty.

My art is an exploration of light and color, aiming to create a visual experience that is both immersive and transformative.

Each piece invites viewers to see the world through a lens of wonder, celebrating the resilience and optimism found in nature. Inspired by the neo-impressionist movement, I strive to infuse every canvas with an inner glow, reminding us that even in dark times, light can shine through and transform our perception.

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ARTIST ALEXIS HERMAN 114

VISIONARY COMMUNITY Designed and led by our founder Victoria J. Fry, The Visionary Community is our online community membership for women & non-binary emerging artists who are ready to grow together in a supportive group environment.

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Pauline Emilie Bird emiliebird.art Pauline Emilie Bird is a painter based in Washington, D.C. Born in France, she immigrated to the United States in her mid twenties, pursued a corporate career, and started a family. After being creatively dormant for many years, she renewed her art practice in her forties. Bird is a self-taught artist, an eternal learner, and an avid reader.

Bird explores a mother’s intention to create a warm and gentle home while pursuing often delayed personal dreams. Her artwork draws on adverse childhood experiences, individuation through chaos, and the vulnerability of caregiving.

Bird uses textiles, abstraction, layers, and color fields to create emotionally-charged paintings on canvas and paper. In her most recent series, she uses vintage lace, both delicate and strong, as a focal point, layering earthy tones, pastel colors, and kintsugi gold around it.

SPOTLIGHT ON VISIONARY COMMUNIT Y ARTIST

Valerie Catherine Browne www.valeriecbrowne.com valeriecbrowne Valerie C. Browne is a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2017. She has long been inspired by the portraiture and still life of the Baroque and Rococo periods, as well as the traditional painting techniques of the Old Masters. In her work, she explores social isolation, contrasting it with vibrant substances. She investigates the internal tension an introverted individual may experience while yearning to immerse themselves in “the party,” along with the complex layers of emotions and thoughts that arise during social and sensory overload. The core of her work reflects her own struggles to project a colorful, outgoing persona while feeling overwhelmed by social and emotional anxieties. Although oils are her primary medium, she enjoys experimenting with materials such as gold leaf and glitter.

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Anne-Sophie Goblet annesophiegoblet.com annesophie_goblet_ Anne-Sophie Goblet is a French multi-disciplinary artist based in New Jersey who explores womanhood and its spiritual bond with nature through mixed media drawing, painting, printmaking, and ceramics.

During her October 2023 residency at Peters Valley School of Craft, Goblet created her new series, “Las Lloronas,” after losing her last grandparent. The nature around her provided a ground for exploring her roots as an expatriate.

The series, featuring ethereal self portraits and embroidered roots, was named after La Llorona, the goddess of death and rebirth. “Las Lloronas” represents ancestors, wise women, and protective family souls, forming a supportive network of roots for new growth. In her creative process, the act of piercing, separating the strands, and stitching the paper come as a healing ritual.

Alongside her artistic career, Goblet facilitates mindful art workshops and teaches art in French bilingual schools.

Her work is held in private collections in France and the United States.

SPOTLIGHT ON VISIONARY COMMUNIT Y ARTIST

Alexis Herman www.alexishermanstudio.com alexishermanstudio Alexis Herman (b. 1962) is a contemporary representational painter who explores the regulating and meditative qualities of water. Her paintings, which are characterized by simple organizing compositions and richly saturated colors capturing water’s transfixing moments, also include, as part of her process, “sanctification” in the water that inspired her.

Herman has been exhibited along the East Coast, including at Kelly-McKenna Gallery, as a showcase artist at 14C Art Fair, at Mattatuck Museum, and at Monmouth Museum. Her work has been featured in several publications, including New Visionary Magazine, Create! Magazine, and To the Shore Once More. Her work is held in private collections throughout the United States and Europe. She received her B.F.A. from the Rochester Institute of Technology and her M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Herman resides in Little Silver, New Jersey.

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ARTIST KATIE DUMESTRE YAQUINTO A 118World Away, acrylic on canvas, 24x24x1.5in

VISIONARY ARTist DIRECTORY We are proud to feature a wide range of talented artists in the Visionary Art Collective Directory. Coming to you from numerous states and nations, our directory artists work across a wide range of mediums and disciplines. visionaryartcollective.com/directory

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Allison Belolan

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allisonbelolan.com allisonbelolanart BIO Allison’s art is influenced by observations, documentation, and research of her surroundings. Her work appears in art fairs and galleries throughout the United States, including the 2024 Every Woman Biennial and the Bruce Museum Fine Arts Fair, where she won an award for artistic excellence. Allison studied Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated in 2001, then worked as a jewelry designer until returning to school in 2009. At the School of Visual Arts, she earned a Master of Arts in Teaching Art Education and taught art in New York public schools until 2019. She lives and works from her home studio in Mamaroneck, New York. Allison collaborates with individual collectors, curators, and industry professionals for commissions, wholesale, and licensing

Recent work incorporates materials from the immediate environment through papermaking, printing, and alternative photography. Handmade recycled papers, created from found materials and older artworks, combined with cyanotypes incorporating foraged plants strengthen the connection to the environments that inspire my artwork.

Each series begins with a limited color palette, uniting shapes, textures, and lines. As I carefully select and prepare my materials, I simultaneously work on multiple compositions, tearing or cutting shapes and arranging them intuitively. I continue to add paper or make marks through this process until a sense of balance emerges. The play of textures, colors, and edges becomes increasingly responsive, guiding the artwork’s evolution.

ARTIST STATEMENT My artistic practice centers on observation, reflection, and curiosity. Lines and textures I discover in everyday surroundings inspire my collages and mixed-media abstract landscapes. I find myself compelled to capture and document these discoveries through photography, sketches, or direct rubbings on paper. These become references for larger compositions, utilizing found papers, handmade papers, and existing artwork.

The final compositions draw attention to space, prompting contemplation of real or imagined landscapes. Subtle variations in edges, textures, and paper layers invite exploration and discovery. The artwork aims to evoke thoughtful observation, encouraging viewers to pause and reflect, fostering a meaningful connection between the art and its audience.

Durham Winter 2, Handmade recycled paper, and cyanotype on handmade paper, 11x14 in

Untitled with Gold #16, handmade papers, handpainted papers, repurposed artwork, and gold leaf details on paper, 11x14in

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Cross River 4, handmade recycled paper, cyanotype, and gold leaf on handmade recycled paper, 8x8in

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Katie Dumestre Yaquinto

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katiedyaquinto.com katiedumestreyaquinto BIO Katie Dumestre Yaquinto is a contemporary artist based in New Orleans. She attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and LSU where she studied fashion design and merchandising.

ARTIST STATEMENT My work primarily focuses on introspection and identity. My practice allows me to process and express my innermost thoughts and feelings through various brush strokes and mark making. These distinctive marks have become my own private visual language and have developed over time through body movement and muscle memory.

Thank You, More Please, acrylic and oil stick on canvas, 48x36x1.5in 122

The Dreaded Spiral, acrylic and oil stick on canvas, 48x60in

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1 ROBIN ADLER

5 REBECCA ANNAN

6 ASHLEY BLANTON

Robin Adler is a Woodstock, New York-based abstract artist who transcribes emotional experience into visual form, while expressing boundless enthusiasm for abstraction. Using line, shape, and color, she works intuitively, pushing past limitations toward possibility.

Adler explores her inner landscape and the natural environment for inspiration. Her intention is to create an interaction between the viewer and the work, to find commonality that extends both beneath and beyond language.

Rebecca Annan is a multi-disciplinary artist from England, U.K. who returned to her art practice in 2021 after a decade in nursing.

She is inspired by the world around her to create art that captures the temporal and impermanent.

Her most recent series “Look Above” focuses on the transitionary time of dusk as the trees become silhouettes against the sky- instilling a moment of peace and reflection as the day turns into night.

Ashley Blanton is entangled in a desire to find magic in the mundane, for looking closely at details and disparate parts helps her cultivate and connect to the sense of wonder that she seeks. Combining watercolor, gouache, cut paper, collage, and transfer techniques, Ashley creates mixed media works on paper that are evocative of emotional and visceral felt senses.

robinadlerart.com robinadlerart

2 SUNNY ALTMAN

www.rebeccaannanart.com rebecca_annan_art

ashleyblanton.com faint.as.fog

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www.sunnyaltman.com sunnyaltmanartstudio_

My art is inspired by nature and its spiritual connection to human life. My work celebrates the natural world and its profound impact on human experiences. I use a combination of mediums and techniques to bring to life the emotional depth and spiritual connections in all living things, inspiring viewers to appreciate and cherish the beauty of the world around us while reflecting on the deeper aspects of our existence.

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3 JAYN ANDERSON

www.jaynandersonart.com jaynandersonart

Jayn Anderson is a North Carolina-based abstract painter. Her work is inspired by life experiences, emotions, music and how they all relate to fundamental humanness.

She creates to uncover the deeply personal and at times, uncomfortable parts of life.

Through her work, she strives to present a visual language that we can all relate to on a deeper level. Jayn’s desire is to provide a safe space for others to feel the freedom and vulnerability to connect to their innermost thoughts through art.

4 PHYLLIS ANDERSON

www.phyllisandersonart.com phyllisandersonart

Phyllis Anderson is an award-winning artist who divides her time between Colorado and New Jersey. She received a BFA at the University of Texas, and later studied at the Art Students League in New York. Her current multi-media paintings are landscapes which invoke dreams and memory, where a threatened wilderness has become an idea, mythic, legendary, unreal. Fantastic color, image fragmentation, and scribbled lines create romantic, mysterious works. Phyllis’s paintings are shown regularly in Philadelphia, and at RGallery in Boulder, CO. Her work is available at Framewerx Gallery in Winter Park, CO, and is in several private & corporate collections.

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The program includes: 12 group sessions with Victoria in a supportive environment (90mins each) Proven tools and strategies to increase visibility & sell your work Opportunities to share your work and receive specific feedback Email support in between sessions Plus established guest speakers from the art world who share their knowledge & wisdom with you Victoria will focus on strategies and tools to grow your collector base, increase sales, exhibit your work, and move through creative blocks

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7 STEPH BLONDET

11 INGRID BUTTERER

Steph Blondet is a Puerto Rican artist based in Tampa, FL. Blondet creates textured and dimensional paintings as a form of visual journaling. In her work, Blondet explores themes of personal growth, grief, and the societal pressures placed on women. She creates intuitively and communicates her story through color and composition to reflect the duality of the human experience, and to convey that through darkness there will always be light.

Ingrid Butterer is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her B.F.A. from the University of Michigan and EdM from Columbia University, Teachers College. Her work has been published in Orenda Arts Journal, Quarentine Magazine and Womxn Artist Project. Ingrid’s work has shown at Lincoln Center, A.I.R. Gallery, Atlantic Gallery, 440 Gallery, Benheim Gallery, Kyoto Shibori Museum and Yamashita Gallery (Japan).

www.stephblondet.com stephblondetart

8 SARAH E. BOYLE

saraheboyle.com saraheboyle_painting

ingridbutterer.com ingridbutterer.art

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Sarah E. Boyle is a Chicago-based painter who explores place and memory through landscape – alluding to narrative, symbolism, and the tension between knowing a place and translating it with oil paint. Her “Firescapes” series captures the transformation of familiar American West landscapes after recent wildfires. Sarah studied fashion and design at Syracuse University and Ringling School of Art and Design before receiving her BFA at the School of the Art Institute.

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9 PAULETTA BROOKS www.paulettabrooks.com PBWearableArt

Pauletta Brooks is a jewelry artist who also branches out into other mediums. Her designs, under the label Pauletta Brooks Wearable Art, involve the use of raw minerals and gemstones set in unique and unusual ways. She is known primarily for her inventive use of thermoplastic resin, creating meshlike sculptural webs that house the minerals and stones. Her work has been featured in numerous magazines, journals, and galleries throughout the US and abroad. She resides in New York City.

10 OWEN BURNHAM www.owenburnham.com owen.burnham

Owen Burnham is a Brooklyn based photographer and multimedia visual artist creating from the investigation of movement and abstract imagery. Spanning photography, painting, and collage their practice contextualizes motion as a means to abstractly deconstruct identity. Collections are reflections, reclamations - who and what makes us move? An NYU Tisch Alumni (BFA, Dance), they currently capture New York City dance, with their visual art collections showcased in various virtual exhibitions.

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12 MARCIA CONLON musingwomen

I like working with materials that are a little rough, grungy, maybe a little dirty. I juxtapose feminine images from vintage magazines or antique photos next to found material like cardboard, vintage paper and deconstructed book pages. I have been drawn to artistic practices most of my life, even though I have had an eclectic professional life. I have a degree in Art History from the University of Michigan but am mostly a self taught artist. I was born in Detroit, but have lived in Traverse City for 23 years.

13 MARGOT DERMODY www.margotdermody.com margotdermody

Margot Dermody is a Pittsburgh-based artist whose work primarily focuses on painting and sculpture. She uses abstraction to explore memories and emotions, examining the connections between human experiences and the natural world. She works in stone and glass for sculpture and mixed media for painting. In abstract layers of opacity and translucency, her works ask how to locate beauty in the shadows and bring light into life.

16 THOMAS FLYNN II www.thomasflynnii.com thomasflynnii

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Thomas Flynn II is an artist living and working in Austin, Texas. In his acrylic paintings, he explores the perceived connection between plants, celestial bodies, and human bodies.

Seeking to ultimately delve further into the ancient relationship that humans have with their environment and how that informs our current lives. He has exhibited in Texas, Georgia, and curated into virtual group and solo exhibitions internationally. Flynn received a B.F.A. in painting and a minor in art history from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2016.

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14 JACQUELINE DIESING www.jacquelinediesing.com jacquelinediesing

Over the past 10 years in Chicago, IL, I have come to realize I process my feelings and heal myself through my mixed media artwork comprised of detailed, freehand micron ink and soft pastel drawings. My journey began with a desire to restore crumbling, architectural masterpieces in my hometown of Detroit to their former beauty by surrounding them with colorful life. Since then, I have been drawn to examine my own health and healing by digging deeper into issues stemming from childhood. The art I am working on now depicts my path towards wellness.

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15 TARA ESPERANZA www.taraesperanza.com taraesperanza

My paintings share my intimate viewpoint of succulents. I feel deeply connected to my subject and I’m inspired by the abundant varieties of textures, colors, forms, and shapes. I imagine myself as a bee as I delve into the plants and explore what they reveal to me. My paintings celebrate the diversity in the world of succulents. They are magnified images that illuminate the distinct beauty that I see.

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17 ERIN FRIEDMAN

21 KIM HOPSON

22 ANDREA JONES

Erin Friedman is an abstract artist just outside of Washington, DC in Bethesda, Maryland. Using acrylic paint and oil pastels, Erin’s work is an accumulation of feelings and experiences over time that transfer onto the canvas. Inspiration comes from moments and reactions to everyday life and my emotions. Erin will make marks, alter her ideas, add layers and change directions.

We all experience conflict, change, joy and sadness. Erin does her best to embrace this process and allow those feelings to be revealed throughout her work.

Kim Hopson is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. In her work she explores themes of ableism, caregiving, and identity.

Experiencing life with a disability has given her a unique viewpoint that is reflected in her paintings, drawings and collages. She focuses on the body’s relationship to the world, both physically and emotionally.

I am an artist from Liverpool, England and for the past eleven years I have worked as an art teacher in a prison. My artwork has featured in several magazines of art and literature in the U.S., U.K. and Berlin, Germany. One particular style that I work in is based on my alter ego, this is inspired by wanting to be somebody else, taking elements from different people to create new characters, I call these characters my alter ego people. The images are painted in acrylic on canvas or drawn onto paper.

erinfriedmanart.com erinfriedmanart

www.kimhopsonstudio.com kimhopsonstudio

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www.modandart.co.uk andrea_jones_art

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18 LUCY JULIA HALE

www.walltowallsecrets.com

Lucy Julia Hale is a Georgia feminist / social activist artist and art educator. She often selects scenes from our cultural archives of mass-produced publications or vintage vernacular snapshots to which she adds drawn, painted, and/or collaged images to portray a deeper history. She serves as an advocate supporting the dignity and wellbeing of vulnerable populations, which unfortunately now include all inhabitants of Earth. Her work has been selected by prominent jurors for numerous national exhibitions. She holds an Ed.S. and an M.Ed. in Counseling and Educational Psychology, and a B.S. Ed. in Art Education.

19 MEAM HARTSHORN meamhartshorn.com meamhartshorn

Meam Hartshorn is an abstract painter.

Her work explores the relationship between landscapes, geology, and natural phenomena with expression, emotion, and memory. Her paintings create undulating and constantly deconstructing landscapes that often draw inspiration from the geology and ecosystems of the Western United States.

Meam currently lives and works in Austin, TX and she is the founder The Artful Collective, a platform for connecting and supporting emerging artists.

20 ROBERTA HOINESS www.robertahoiness.com robertahoiness

The world can be a noisy and complex place.

I create organic abstract landscape art with the hope of inspiring moments of calm. I layer hand-painted paper, pigment, oil pastels and occasional touches of metallic leaf to recall the “feeling” of a place rather than the details. I am continually inspired by the quiet, stillness & rustic beauty of the Canadian prairies where I live with my husband and three children.

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23 ZARA KAND

27 MONA LERCH

Zara Kand is an oil painter based in Southern California. She has exhibited throughout numerous venues within the US and has been featured in many online and print publications across the globe. Her work is often highly symbolic and focuses on figurative elements within dreamy environments. She currently lives in the hi-desert, spending her time painting, art writing for various art magazines, and dabbling in curatorial projects. She is also the editor of The Gallerist Speaks, an international interview series focusing on gallery directors, arts organizers and curators.

Mona Lerch is a contemporary visual artist and founder of Art Mums United and Women United ART MOVEMENT, residing in the Czech Republic. Mona began her art journey as an abstract oil painter; however, her creative passions and love for experimentation led her into watercolor botanical illustration and portraits, linocut prints, collages and acrylics.

In her current body of work, Mona steps away from abstract landscapes and focuses on the female form. Natural elements play a vital part in many of these pieces. It’s her means of emphasizing the connection with our surroundings that enables us to stay grounded.

www.zarakand.com zarakandart

24 DIANE LAMBOLEY www.dianelamboley.com dianelamboley

Diane Lamboley is a contemporary photographer who strives to brighten the lives of others by helping them free their imaginations from the cage of their conditioning. She embraces adventure and finds much of her inspiration exploring the beauty earth offers. Lamboley is called to capture the wonders of nature through her photographs which are digitally transformed for people to experience a visual journey. Her artwork is printed on aluminum enhancing the contemporary feel.

25 SANDY LANG www.sandylang.art sandy_lang_art

Creating is like telling yourself a tale of the world you feel. Born 1980 I am a self taught artist located in Germany. I mostly work with oil colours since I love their brightness and texture. It allows me to explore strong dark and light effects and to express the themes my paintings deal with. Being a lover of symbolism, I am working with allegories in a figurative manner of painting with a very personal approach to themes such as shadow and light, memories in time, and love – or its absence.

26 CHARLES LEAK

monalerch.com monalerchwallart

28 LAUREN LEWCHUK

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www.artbylewchuk.com art_by_lewchuk

Texas-based artist Lauren Lewchuk is a self-taught creative inspired by nature. Her work ranges from small-scale paintings to large-scale murals. She creates detailed and elaborate compositions that are inspired by nature, micro-organisms and nature macro-photography. Use of color, movement, flow, patterns and repetition are important visual elements in her work that symbolize underlying themes having to do with mental states of being, identity, societal expectations, personal boundaries, spirituality, and existentialism.

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charlesleakstudio.com charlesleakstudio

Charles Leak (b. 1953, Dallas, Tx ) is an artist who lives and works in New York City and East Hampton. He combines oil paint, enamel, gold, copper powder, and graphite on canvas and paper. “I am influenced by all the great artists from Da Vinci to Diebenkorn. And all the great writers, musicians, and filmmakers.

But more importantly, my greatest influence is the wonderful natural world we were given that surrounds us all”

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29 JODI MILLER

www.jodimillerfineart.com jodimillerfineart

Jodi Miller is a Canadian prairie-based contemporary, impressionist painter. Her work explores connections with our roots, our stories and our surroundings. Drawing on her childhood on a family farm and years spent in the Royal Canadian Air Force across Canada, her landscapes are familiar yet fictitious.

“Each painting begins with a memory, then evolves to tell a story of its own.” Jodi’s work focuses on human connections as observed through our environment using the metaphor of our imprints on the land as an entry point for personal narratives.

30 NICOLE MILLER

33 RACHEL MORRISSEY

www.rachelmo.com rachelmorrisseyart

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Rachel Morrissey is based in Massachusetts.

She received her MFA in 2016 from MassArt. Morrissey makes highly saturated narrative paintings that employ organic forms to convey her daily experiences, which include motherhood, anxiety and more recently, life with a chronic illness. The motifs oscillate along the continuum of her lived experience, love and joy at one end and utter despair at the other. She is represented by Voltz Clarke Gallery and 19 Karen.

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www.nicolemillerart.com nicolemillerartist

Nicole Miller is an artist who shares her passion through teaching. With degrees in Studio Art, Interior Design, and Education, her artwork reflects a journey filled with joy, happiness, and gratitude. Using brayer techniques combined with oil pastels and acrylic paints, Nicole explores organic objects and pushes the boundaries of color saturation. Each piece is thoughtfully crafted, with heavy influences from her family and life experiences.

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31 STEPHANIE MULVIHILL stephaniemulvihill.com smulvihillart

A New York City-based artist and educator, Stephanie Mulvihill works primarily with the drawn image on paper because of its tactile surface and fragile, impermanent quality. By drawing with graphite, she taps into the tradition of drawing as a means of investigation and dissection of both nature and ourselves. In her work, Stephanie explores themes of creation, motherhood and personal evolutions: physical, spiritual and intellectual. Visual references to the body and internal anatomy overlap, meld and transform to create totems honoring our individual and collective transformations.

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32 JENNIFER AGRICOLA MOJICA jenniferagricolamojica.com jenniferagricolamojica

Jennifer Agricola Mojica is a contemporary painter, educator, and mother based in San Antonio, Texas. She has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her paintings can be found in private collections and has been featured in multiple publications. In her process, a painting begins with a disruptive start and ends with a harmonious stillness.

Planes shift and shapes repeat, forms are portrayed at different vantage points, and figures become fragmented. The chaos then becomes a calm meditative process as she weaves concepts and elements together.

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34 CAMILLE MYLES

38 PAULINA REE

Camille Myles is an emerging Canadian contemporary artist living on the shores of Georgian Bay in Tiny, Ontario. Park Superintendent & formerly an archaeologist, Myles has a deep connection to nature & history bringing hope and transformation to her community. Working in painting, sculpture, installation and public art, she creates conversations about identity, motherhood and celebrates change and growth in her work. She’s exhibited extensively and is part of private collections internationally.

Paulina Ree is an Oslo-based painter, educator, curator, and the founder of Female Artists Oslo (FAO). Her focus is on looking at life through the prism of the female experience. She reflects and works towards understanding the complexity of being a human, and uses it in her art as a way to both explore and provoke contemplation about societal expectations and the quest for selfunderstanding and acceptance.

www.camillemylesart.com camillemylesart

35 RUCHITA NEWREKAR

ruchitanewrekar.com/contemporary-works ruchitajewlery

Ruchita Newrekar is a jewelry designer and contemporary jewelry artist. She uses jewelry as a platform to explore thoughtprovoking concepts. Her designs express the undeniable existence of connections and how their effects play a significant role in making us human. Each piece she creates is a visual narrative, an invitation to reflect upon the interconnectedness that underlies our existence, symbolizing the intricate web of relationships that shape our lives.

36 JESSICA OLIVEIRA

www.paulinaree.com adiosalasfresas

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39 MICHELLE REEVES

michellereevesart.com michellereevesartnashville

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Michelle is a botanical/floral artist who lives with her husband and son in Nashville, TN. She began painting at the age of 52 after a gentleman asked, “What are you passionate about?” during a job interview. This question led Michelle back to school to pursue an Interior Design degree, but through coursework she started to paint. Her latest paintings are inspired by pages from her childhood coloring books. Bold outlines of brush strokes and intricate backgrounds fill the canvas.

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www.jessicaoliveiraart.com jessica.oliveiraart

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Imitating the unreliable and fluctuating nature of her memory, Jessica Oliveira (b. 2000, Yonkers, NY) works to develop worlds that can be explored and experiences that can be rediscovered. In remembering, we can reflect and in reflection we can learn. Jessica is assessing how different people, places and objects are remembered and what happens to her memory over time.

37 REBECCA POTTS AGUIRRE www.rebeccapotts.com pottsart

Rebecca Potts Aguirre is an artist based in Southern California. She explores themes of motherhood and gendered labor, memory and visibility, trauma and healing. She sculpts polymer clay and play-dough, building “paintings” with slight relief. Her materials draw connections to craft and childhood, while her imagery reflects flickering memories and the early fog of motherhood. Through her art practice, she seeks connection and asks: how do connections persist?

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40 BRITTANY M. REID

44 AJ SCHNETTLER

Brittany M. Reid lives and works in Rochester, New York. Reid’s creative process was supercharged when she began working with collage, leading her to create over 200 pieces within only two years of adopting the new medium. Blending the feelings that different images hold into one artwork creates both a story and an experience. Her own experience as a queer, Black woman and mother flows into her work, imbuing her work with both individual and universal layers.

AJ Schnettler is a nonbinary, multi-racial photographer and printmaker born and raised on Long Island. They decided to get a new perspective on life and education by moving to pursue their B.F.A. degree in Photography with a minor in Printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2019.

Their work is based around what one does to provide self-acceptance. Working through identity or the space surrounding them; how to feel at peace overcoming negative, social, and cultural pressure.

brittanymreid.com brittany.m.reid

41 MADDIE REISS

www.maddiereiss.com maddiereissart

Maddie is a landscape painter based in Greater Philadelphia. She works primarily in acrylic but enjoys sketching in ink and watercolor. Nature and wildlife are her main sources of inspiration, but she also relies on words, song lyrics, and poetry to guide the look, feel, and mood of her visual work. Her current collection of paintings is centered on western landscapes from her travels, featuring scenes from Arizona, Colorado, and Big Sur.

42 MARIA ISABEL RODRIGUEZ www.mariaisabelrodriguez.com mariaisabel_art

Maria Isabel Rodriguez resides in Montreal, Canada and her interest is in destigmatizing mental illness using flowers as an analogy for the resilience of the human mind and spirit.

Growing up amidst the turmoil of the civil war in Guatemala (her native country) and facing the challenges of mental health within her family, have developed in her a deep appreciation for the transformative power of art.

www.ajschnettler.com ajschnettler

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45 NAOMI THORNTON www.spiritisaboneart.com spirit_is_a_bone_art

Naomi Thornton is a mixed media artist and psychotherapist living in the expansive beauty of Northwest Montana. In her art, she highlights the historically undervalued stories of women while emphasizing a connection to nature as a life-giving resource. Vintage portrait photographs are the inspiration of her work. She uses collage and paint to evoke a textured layering of desires, hopes and dreams using found images, handmade papers, and text from old books. Through her art, she intends to create a new narrative of empowerment, resiliency, and connection to the natural environment.

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43 HANI ROSENBAUM

www.hannahrosenbaumartwork.com hani.rosenbaum

Hani Rosenbaum works in a variety of mediums, from abstract acrylic paintings, to illustrations, and more recently intaglio etching designs. Hani’s visual art explores themes around magic, surrendering to nature, celebration of queerness, transitional shifts, and are rooted in continuous self-discovery.

She states: “This work has allowed myself a lens for curiosity to bloom and reflect back to me as a way to understand my own identity and inner landscapes.”

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46 ERIN WHEARY

www.erinmonetwheary.com

erinwheary

Erin Monet Wheary is an interdisciplinary artist. Her work explores concepts of growth and decay and order and chaos. “Visual art is my lens to see and understand the physical world and humanity.”

Wheary’s recent exhibitions include the Female Artists Club, Belgium, and a site-specific installation at Swarthmore College. Artist residencies include Chateau d’Orquevaux, France (2020) and Casa Taller El Boga, Colombia (2023). She currently teaches at Western New Mexico University.

47 LAURA CLEARY WILLIAMS www.lauraclearywilliams.com lauraclearywilliams

Laura Cleary Williams’ abstract spaces are an ode to an imperfect language. Through motion, she makes marks that translate thought - subconscious – a viscerally understood language. Williams works from her hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In 2009 she received her B.F.A. from Tufts University and the SMFA, Boston and her Master’s in Printmaking in 2012 at SCADAtlanta. Williams founded, managed, and coowned Straw Hat Press, which specialized in fine art publishing and contract printing.

48 YAHEL YAN

50 ZIFENG ZANG

51 JOSEFINA ZORRILLA DE SAN MARTIN

Zifeng Zang, an abstract painter based in Philadelphia, passionately explores the intuitive sense of color and how nature inspires and informs her work. Her love for art began at a young age, leading to dual BFA degrees from Jilin University in China and West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Her extensive career experience in graphic design and brand management in China honed her skills, but she always felt drawn to traditional painting. Now, Zifeng focuses on developing her favorite abstract style, a universal language for expressing personal experiences and emotions through color and form, connecting viewers to the natural world.

Josefina Zorrilla de San Martin is a South American painter born in Uruguay and living in Maui, Hawaii. She is deeply inspired by the contrasts in Nature as a reflection of the dualities that exist in us. Working intuitively across multiple pieces she works fast, applying random marks and loose brushstrokes. She describes her process like a dance, every move is a reaction to the previous one.

www.zifengzang.com zifengzang

www.josefinazorrilla.com josefinaz.art

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www.yahelyan.com yahel.yan.art

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49 KATIE DUMESTRE YAQUINTO

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Yahel Yan lives in San Diego, but she was born and raised in Mexico City. She specializes in oil, acrylics and copper etchings. Her palette and compositions lend life and spirit to inanimate objects which are often overlooked. Yahel is always seeking to express the unexpected, unseen hidden magic of “thing.” She gives her imagination full freedom to pursue this mysterious journey. Yahel strives to create colorful happy art that brings joy to the viewer; a recurring theme in her art are chairs, which have become a staple of her work.

katiedyaquinto.com katiedumestreyaquinto

Katie Dumestre Yaquinto is a contemporary artist based in New Orleans. She attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and LSU where she studied fashion design and merchandising. My work primarily focuses on introspection. My practice allows me to process and express my innermost thoughts and feelings through various brush strokes and mark making. These distinctive marks have become my own private visual language and have developed over time through body movement and muscle memory

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CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY 52 2nd Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215

To inquire about upcoming exhibitions, openings, and events at the gallery, or set up a private viewing, please email us at info@warnescontemporary.com

Painting by Mayowa Nwadike

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