Homage to Russian Avant-Garde

My work is politically based and emerges from a place of inspiration and social concerns. I must be inspired by the subject I am compelled to recreate upon canvas. It may be the stance of the person; the color of their skin; the shape of their body or what they are wearing. The best portraits are when the soul of that person emerges from behind his eyes. Even when I paint a tree or a rock, I become one with the object. Whatever it is, when I paint, I become excited, sometimes frustrated and finally satisfied as I see what I have created with the help of my ancestors, long deceased. I believe being an artist involves a social responsibility to incite change, and transform consciousness. It also to bring peace to a troubled soul. I believe if I had started oil painting at 13 instead of 63, I would have been a fashion designer. I love the lines that form the shape of the human body, and the texture of cloth and it's movement upon that body like a human tree fascinates me. When I was young, there were not many images of young, defiant, black women like the ones were described in the poetry of Maya Angelou such as "I'll Rise"...she writes, Does mu haughtiness offend you? .... .You may shoot me with your word, you may cut me with your eyes,, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise. Does my Sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise that I danced like I've got diamonds at the meeting of my things." I love my work to be powerful!

I was born in N. Little Rock, Ark in 1938. When I was six years old I moved to New Brunswick, N.J., home of Rutgers University, so college has always been in my blood, but I would not get my degree from Otis College of Art and Design in 2007 until I was 69 years old. I began oil painting when I was about 63 at the El Camino Jr. College. Today I still take classes there. I went started College when I was 19 and but after a few sessions my disease took control of my life. I moved to Los Angeles in 1961, married, lost babies at birth and most of my life was darkness until Jan 4, 1971 when I stopped drinking. I worked as a secretary, and a Medical transcriber in the day time and took every course I loved until even today. When I started oil painting at age 63, I finally matriculated. I applied to Otis College of Art and Design and graduated on the Dean's list in 2007. The great African American artist of LA took me under their wings and invited me join them in many of their exhibits. I have been extremely blessed to know these gifted life-time artist. I am the new kid on the block. I have been in the CA African Art Museum and with many other groups that are well know with great professional artist. I am grateful for their friendship and knowledge. I have been in the exhibit Day of the Dead in Los Angeles and many exhibits.

Tatyana Apraksina's artwork is a form of exploration. What does it mean to be contemporary yet timeless? How can a person experience given places, cultures and callings, while learning above all what it is to be human?

In her art, traces of music and musical states of being become emblems of each person's work of spirit.

Tatyana Apraksina is a native of St. Petersburg, Russia. As an artist, she has focused for many years on the theme of classical music performance. She has worked with internationally renowned soloists and ensembles including the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Borodin Quartet, and the Moscow Virtuosi.

She has exhibited at venues for music and art in Europe and North America. In the United States, her work has been shown under the auspices of the Soros Foundation. She has created an extensive body of art and writing while based in California.

Since 1995 Apraksina has served as editor-in-chief of the cultural magazine Apraksin Blues. Her publications in English translation include "California Psalms" (Radiolarian Press).

Nature inspires me, from walking in the Italian forests surrounding Florence, to primordial volcanic landscapes in Japan to hikes in the hills of the Santa Monica mountain range. I’m interested in the natural world that we view and the relationship to the metaphysical space of the inner world.

In my art the idea of journey and process merge – daily drawings that map a mindscape and idea process in automatic drawing that reflects walks in nature and things seen visually in the inner and outer world combining.

My art also encompasses ideas about structure(s), habitat and space shaped harmoniously in a continuous process inspired by musical composition.

Painting is the laboratory where I explore ideas in a formal structure that holds play and whimsy. I’m exploring biomorphic shapes and word compositions which reflect an environment I live in presently that reminds me of my childhood.

Lisa Bahouth studied art at Rhode Island School of Design and received her BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture. The award-winning artist and concert pianist exhibited her work in New York City before moving to Los Angeles.

Her art encompasses ideas about architecture, structure(s), habitat and space shaped harmoniously in a continuous process inspired by musical composition.

As she puts it in her own words: "Painting is my primary laboratory where I explore concrete and vague ideas simultaneously, in a formal structure that hopefully holds some play and whimsy. Although my work has the appearance of abstraction, it is not non-objective; conveying references to rooms, interiors and conceptual spaces. Paintings, drawings and installations often refer to each other as I build upon groups of work. "

In her more recent works, she has been exploring the creation of biomorphic shapes and word compositions merging into an all-encompassing metaphysical style.

Bahouth’s work is currently on exhibit internationally in Japan, Russia, Armenia, and the US.

Presently painting abstracts on canvas using acrylics. Other art work ranges from painting on silk using French dyes, mix media using found objects, drawing with pastels, photography when time allows and creating wall hangings by manipulating fabric in various ways (was a member of the Missouri Fiber Artists until September 2014). I simply love the creative process - whether starting with a blank canvas, a blank sheet of paper, a piece of fabric and ending with a wonderful work of art!

Have been creative as long as I can remember. Received a BA in Fine Art 1980 from UMass Boston. Additionally, I have taken silk painting classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), New York City in 1997. Have done many arts and crafts venues over the years. My art work has been exhibited in MA, NY,and MO. Since retirement, I have been free to create more art uninterrupted. I was one of the founders of a Women's art gallery in St. Louis, MO, 2010. I am now looking forward to experiencing the art community here in the California area.

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality

but a hammer with which to shape it.”

― Bertolt Brecht

Born in Italy in 1972, Michele Castagnetti spent his formative years in Rome, studied graphic design in Milan and received a Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles where his work has appeared in numerous exhibitions curated by notable curators and critics such as Peter Frank, Mat Gleason and David Pagel of The Los Angeles Times.

informacion adjunta en fotografia

documento adjunto en fotografia

I experience much joy expressing my ideas and passions through my art. I am always surprised at the result as I am working spontaneously, focusing on the process as opposed to working for a particular outcome. In my recent work, I am enjoying the playfulness I experience when making my whimsical animal watercolors and my mixed media/collages.

I have evolved through the years and expressed my creativity in different styles--drawing and painting the figure, making expressionist paintings of jazz musicians and singers, making mixed media pieces and whimsical watercolors. I have also acted in the theater, performed stand-up comedy and wrote and illustrated a book of poetry for children. This varied background in the arts has directed and informed my visual art which is my basic focus and love.

Marlaya Charleston has been drawing and painting since the age of twelve. She began her formal training at the age of sixteen at The Art Students League in New York City. Growing up there, she had the privilege, at a young age, to visit The Modern Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum where she was moved and inspired. She continued her studies in New York at Parsons School of Design, Cooper Union and eventually earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from The School of Visual Arts.

Her influences are African Art, the German Expressionists, Picasso and Matisse.

Marlaya continued her artistic exploration making compositions combining realistic images with abstract shape, texture and color. As of late, she is enjoying making whimsical watercolors mostly depicting animals and the human figure.

Her works have been exhibited throughout the Los Angeles area and are collected internationally.

Highly influenced by artists like Hopper, Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Diebenkorn, I paints multicultural urban Los Angeles with all its contradictions and poetry.

I am trying to blend my classical European artistic background with contemporary conceptual approach. In the LA urban environment I am looking for and finding manifestations of eternal human values, such as love, faith, longing, and the strife for a better life. I try to see real people and their life through the facades of the buildings depicted with much love and connection.

Born in Moscow , Russia /f. USSR/

Moscow's Art School at Kropotkin St.

MA graphic design from Stroganovskaya School of Art and Design, Moscow.

Graphic Design Workshop Artist Union USSR

Group Show at Bienalle/ Chekhoslovakia, Praga

1989- Came to USA, Los Angeles

1990-2009 Decorative painted furniture and murals

2008-1st Solo show TALK TO ME LA1 Modern Art Gallery

2010-2nd Solo show TALK TO ME LA 2 at Modern Art gallery

2012 Group show at Santa Monica Art Studios

2013 Group show "Seen and Unseen"Downtown LA

Phantom Gallery

curator and artist

2013 Group show "Oneness"Phantom Gallery

2015 Group show at Civitella d'Agliano

2015 Group show at Nuremberg ,Germany

2016 Solo show at Lark Gallery Hawthorne

and curator for CALIFORNIA show

I am a professional scientist, but my genetic makeup always pushed me to the artistic world. I preferred company of artists to the company of peers, which even manifested in my choice of spouses. So, being immersed in the artistic world all my life, I finally realized I needed to let my personal artistic juices out. And allow visceral part of me to kick in and get out.

As a scientist, I thought it will be a good idea to find a balance between cognitive and visceral sides. Hence, I decided to use opto-electronic approach to create images never existed before. But building blocks for creating these novel images are everyday very familiar objects. The closest definition for the final images will be ‘digital still-video’. The reason for that is that either the object involved in the creation of image is moving, or the imaging device, or both.

When creating an image, I seek, by transformation, to reveal in objects of everyday life what they can be, or manifest, given they are brought in motion, which is not particularly pertinent to their nature. So, it’s the opposite of what I try to do as a scientist, where molecular motion at nanoscopic level is translated into steady-state observations with opto-electronic devices.

I hope the approach to creating my images results in new and unexpected visual creations enriching viewers with new emotions and thoughts.

My life is a cascade of transitions, transformations, and quite unobvious and unpredictable revelations regarding what I was, am, and/or potentially can be. There are several examples of that throughout my lifespan. The pertinent one is that I started my adult life as a Ph.D. in Biophysics and may retire as an ‘artist’. The start happened in Russia, and retirement will, hopefully, happen in the US.

the language of life.

The type of Art that I do is beyond the spoken words.

When it emerges spontaneously because of the process, I accept it with gratitude.

Jenik

No question but the painting of Jenik Cook - and hardly less the work she realizes in other media (most notably ceramics) -is abstract-expressionist. But it is not necessarily Abstract Expressionist. That is, however much it may evince the DNA of mid-century American "action painting," or even European counterparts such as tachism, l'art informel, or CoBrA, Cook's art only incidentally revives the method, much less the look, of these bumptious, scrappy art movements. Rather, to power her vision, she goes back to the roots of gestural modernism, finding dancing line, elastic contour, and fervid color in surrealism, in fauvism, in expressionism itself. The painting of Pollock and Kline, and of Fautrier and Jorn, gives Cook permission to work unfettered like this, and gives us the context to comprehend fully - even to empathize kinesthetically with - what she does. But she is not emulating, much less imitating, Afro or James Brooks in her graceful, muscular paintings on paper or rehashing Sam Francis or André Lanskoy with the rhythmic clots and scatterings of pigment that collect on her canvases (well, on a wide variety of more-or-less canvas-like support material). Look instead to Miro, Masson, Marc, or Münter, Pechstein or Picasso, Marcks or Matisse, for Cook's sources.

Indeed, look into Cook's own cultural heritage. The line that whips and loops throughout Cook's oeuvre, whether hurling forms across canvas expanses or tracing them on the sides of pots, whether describing slashing trails of pure pigment or the sinuous contours of human bodies, is no more a painted line than it is a written one. It is made less with the whole body - although one can sense a change of stance, a hip motion, in so many of these dancing whiplashes - than with the whole arm. These gestures issue from the wrist and the shoulder. They are in fact as much inscribed as painted. Their energy is not just telegraphic; it is calligraphic. If the vivacity of the image bespeaks Cook's Armenian blood, the rhapsodic curvaceousness of her line betrays her Iranian childhood. As comfortable speaking and writing Farsi as she is Armenian, Cook marries her disparate cultural sources -which of course now include the western European and American influences of her adult life - into an aesthetically cohesive mix with a surprisingly broad formal reach.

Perhaps the breadth of that reach, given the variety of sources, isn't actually so surprising. But it is always a bit startling to witness - that is, to be allowed to witness - an artist master such a conceptual and expressive range. Most artists have this range in them, but so many suppress it. For her part, however, Cook refuses to suppress her stylistic multivalency. Not only does she not limit her vision, but she uses that vision very consciously to drive her artmaking in as many ways as it needs to go. She may edit, but she does not self-censure. Her style, ultimately as coherent and personal as a signature, emerges from and among her plethora of approaches, approaches which themselves spring from her persistence, her prolific output, her knowledge of art, and her irrepressible verve. Jenik Cook's art springs forth -in several directions at once.

Peter Frank Los Angeles January 2010

Los Angeles-based artist Sandra Cooper is renowned for her distinctive abstract expressionist style. Her paintings and drawings are unique in their ability to stimulate viewers visually and emotionally with both passion and contradiction. Her striking images encourage viewers to use their own mind’s eye to interpret the movement of paint across canvas. Cooper wants to evoke an emotional response to her art, rather than merely object recognition. “If I wanted to recreate exactly what I saw, I would use my camera. My style celebrates the randomness of abstract expressionism.” “Why paint the entire scene when it’s the negative space that fills my imagination with the creative possibilities of ‘What if’” Cooper says.

Cooper’s “Heart Felt Series,” painted under her “nom de art”

R. Vega, is reflective of the powerful abstract nudes for which she is known.

Cooper’s style and technique are reflected in the media she uses. Whether it is watercolors, mono prints, mono types, charcoal line drawings, acrylics or collage, her work is recognized as a consistent signature of talent.

Cooper?

Exhibitions/Tours/Representations

1) Februrary 20th from 3:00-4:00PM (PST) BlogTalkRadio. The ORACLE Speaks, hosted by Denise L. Cook, with special guest Artist Sandra Cooper. UK Songwriter Artie Q\'s single \"Not a Lot of Love\", which was inspired by Cooper\'s \"Out of Control\", will be played.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/denise-lyles-cook

Call In: (805) 285-9772

2) In 2011 Daily Art Calendar, All For Love, www.ArtWanted.com/SandraCooper

3) The Whole 9 Gallery - Culver City, California - The Peace Project

http://www.thewhole9.com/thepeaceproject-merchandise.php

4) In 2010 Artist Sandra Cooper was featured on BlueHighways TV in conjunction with Lark Gallery Online. The show was viewed in over 220 countries.

http://country-cooperative.com/index.php/artists/category/mixed_media .

5) In 2010 Sandra Cooper artwork Out of Control was chosen by internationally renowned UK songwriter and singer Artie Q for LarkGallery Online E-exhibition Colors of Life - Music

6) In 2010 The Whole 9, juried competition, The Peace Project, Culver City, CA

In 2010 The Pop/Lock Gallery, Global Art Exhibition , Los Angeles, CA

Animoto

http://animoto.co/play/kcodPxjQSc56io2yu6LQOA

2009 Woman\'s Club of Hollywood, guest artist, 12th Annual Rose Variety Arts Show, Hollywood, CA

2009 Woman?s Club of Hollywood, featured cover artist for Denise Cook, The ORACLE, Speaks just because, Hollywood, CA

2009 The Hive Gallery, Art & Action, Los Angeles, CA

2009 LarkGalleryOnline.com, featured artist, Sandra Cooper, Santa Monica, CA

2009 Fantasy 2000, Sherman Oaks, CA

2009 Clouds, ?Heart Felt Series? painted under R. Vega, Santa Monica, CA

2008 Malibu Art Assn, Memories and Appreciation, Juried Exhibition, Malibu, CA

2008 Malibu Art Assn, Colors, Colors, Colors, Emeritus College, Juried Exhibition, Santa Monica CA

2008 Beverly Hills Country Club, Rose Breast Cancer Foundation, Visions of Hope, Beverly Hills, CA

2008 No Ho Gallery, Visions, North Hollywood, CA

2008 Haziaz Gallery, Art48, Sun Valley, CA

2008 Finegood Art Council of the Valley Alliance Jewish Federation, Studio Tour, Los Angeles,CA

2008 Malibu Art Association Juried Exhibition, The Challenge of Colors, Pacific

Palisades, CA

2008 APA Art Association Members Only Exhibition, The Washington Convention Center, Washington DC

2008 Art Treasures of Los Angeles, the Hidden Gems Art Collection, curator: Pasqual Bettio,Westmoreland Art Lofts, Los Angeles, CA

2008 Clouds, ?Heart Felt Series? painted under R. Vega, Santa Monica, CA

Nature’s infinite pallet of color and diversity awaken our hearts and mind.

*** The Law of the Universe:

No matter how dark the night gets, the sun will rise. It always does.

*** Innocent and beautiful colors of sun are ready to dance with you at winter solstice, awaken your heart and mind.

*** Sun’s rays are inviting you to the new year journey! Be ready to fly!

** Galina Kovshilovsky’s paintings derive from her Russian origins. One feels the breath and wildness of a massive country and yet the simple handy work of it dedicated population. Galina’s paintings capture the sprawling epic about the erosion of tradition with visually striking exploration of color in its infinite variety and vitality. Her painting, be they large or small, capture the imagination with visually stunning Swirls and movement of the eye, emotion and the imagination. We are left breathless with the fascinating lovingly layered colors where the rules of organized thought clash and intersect with rituals and beliefs. We are moved. We are coaxed. We are seeing and drawn into a study of inclusiveness always before us.

Her color is gorgeous and she paints energy.

Dr. Marion Somers.

My photographic collages are layers of my reflections and observations, being personal, political or historical.

Like our life experiences, these thoughts accumulate on top of each other, to create my feelings and emotions that get expressed in the artwork.

The layering process coincides with the synthesis of creating visual pieces that invites one to investigate and explore the given information.

Like in previous works of mine, made on glass, the technique and the transparencies in my photographic digital collages are an important part of the art, they emphasis the build-up process and the blending which creates the images.

Vered Galor has been involved with the fine art world as an artist, curator and educator for over thirty years. She received her BA and MA in Fine Art from California State University in Northridge in 1975 and 1978.

Mrs. Galor started her career as glass sculptor. In 1981 she established a business doing curatorial projects and consulting in Contemporary Fine Art.

She lectured, participated in discussions and wrote art programs to encourage the collaboration of Art and Architecture.

Since 1989 Mrs. Galor has been concentrating on photography. She has been creating here own work, teaching photography and showing with galleries in Los Angeles California, Fort Collins and Loveland, Colorado and Las Vegas Nevada.

My Art is a Concert on canvas where paintings became music, and music became paintings.

Olha Hernandez ia a nationally recognized abstract artist from South Bay know for her Modern Art.

She was born, raised and educated in Ukraine, residing in Los Angeles since 2007.

“I am an artist in my heart with life long interest in Art”.

She has developed her skills through independent study, art courses, and associations with other professional artists.

Her work has been exhibited in local and regional shows where she won various awards.

Her work can be found in public institutions, books, medical offices, and private collections. “Eyes on: Abstract”, “Eyes on: Landscapes “- books are edited by Joe Guimera, Manhattan Beach.

“My goal when creating art, is to do it with my heart and to breathe life into each of my peace of

art.”

Music is my favorite source of inspiration!

I process song as a color, music that translates into brilliantly colorful paintings what is sharing the same story. I am painting what i hear, feel, sense...

My brushes are dancing on the canvas, glass, wood, board, rocks, plates and my paintings became alive with story behind...

We live in a technologically oriented society. Less and less importance is given to our creative and spiritual development. Mechanistic, ritualistic forms of behavior have replaced feelings and emotions, diminishing the spontaneity and joy in human experience. Our society continues to impose these models of behavior through mass-media images, in a process I call cultural imprinting.

My artwork speaks to my life experience, examining how cultural imprinting affects me, and by implication how it affects all of us. I hope to serve as a catalyst, signalling creative interplay between myself and others, participating in life at a place where cultural imprints and assumptions cannot exist. Therefore, I am interested primarily in exploring how we can create, broaden and experience ourselves as human beings at a deeper level, and thereby affect wider social change.

Los Angeles-born and based, DIANE HOLLAND received her BA (with honors) from Immaculate Heart College and her MFA from Otis Art Institute. Exhibiting internationally as a multimedia artist and performer since the 1980s, her work has been acquired by numerous collectors, including the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. She has recently participated in a number of exhibitions around Southern California, including the LA Art Show, the Palm Springs Art Fair, and at the Los Angeles Photographic Exhibition (PhotoLA). She was part of three shows in West Hollywood celebrating women in the arts, “At the Core,” “Hear Me,” and “AWAKEN: The Female Voice.” She also showed in “Abstract Never Is” at MuzeuMM and was included in “Fresh 2017” at the SoLA Gallery, all in Los Angeles, and in “Music For Your Eyes” at the Orange County Center of Contemporary Art in Santa Ana. Diane Holland’s work can be seen at Galerie Denis Bloch in Beverly Hills.

Narine Isajanyan was born in Armenian and began drawing and painting at the age of five. During her childhood she visited many museums and galleries in Armenian and St. Petersburg, as well as receiving training in music and dance. In college she continued her training in art and received a Bachelors degree in 1987 from the College of Architecture in Yerevan. She moved to Moscow to study at the Moscow Architectural Institute but found Soviet regulations with architecture too restrictive and sought more freedom to express her ideas through her art. She returned to Armenian and studied art with Manvel Bagdasaryan and Samvel Bagdasaryan and later received a Masters degree in Fine Arts from the Yerevan University of Art and Theater. She first started exhibiting her art in 1990 in Armenia and has participated in numerous shows in Moscow, Beruit, Abu Dhabi, Croatia and Belgium. She came to the United States in 1998 when she was invited to participate in an art exhibition and since then has exhibited her paintings at many galleries in the Los Angeles area.

Inspired by the impressionist painter Monet, Narine's work is expressionist, minimalist and conceptual by turns. Whether on canvas, paper, board, wood or actually made of metal, her pieces become abstract landscapes that are as fluid within as they are consistent and organic as a whole.

About her art, Narine says, "When I paint, I feel like I am flying and dancing; I hear music in my mind. Through my art I want to express the freedom I feel in my soul."

The exterior World comes to us in pieces, from which we alone build a Whole. But who can say whether or not we construct Whole Correctly?

In Svetlana Ivanova's series of photoanagrams from the 1990s, upon confronting and overcoming a personal crisis of mortality, the artist fulfilled her vision of art as repetition and translation, merged with her notion of the double as one who is "together with me, my second 'I.'" The exterior world comes to us in pieces," she has written, "from which we alone build a Whole," and for these striking, often disturbing images she has used a backdrop of appropriately biomorpic surges and swellings for her emotionally-charged, figures wrapped in fetal embrace that, as they may be the kinds of doubles embodied in ghosts, can be equally interpreted as lives, or many lives, in contorted, distended and yet beautiful floating states waiting to be born or preparing to die. And at the end you realize just how microscopically she has let us into her phantasmagorical world.

I make art

to communicate

what I cannot communicate with words;

what I need to say

about what's going on in the world around us;

what I cannot fix;

what I wish I could make different

with my paint and clay

or metal and wood;

I work very hard at it -

always with my hands,

smearing, scraping, sanding -

until the experience becomes intimately personal;

communication is at the heart of every creation,

wedded to a humanistic concern;

I yearn with passion to make sense of it all;

fulfillment comes

only after I am personally satisfied

with having known, experienced and conveyed -

or at least tried to convey,

an ongoing, meaningful conversation;

a conversation that has found its way in the work itself;

a conversation that may potentially transpire

a continuance of the same with each viewer -

long after the paint has dried.

Julienne Johnson is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice includes drawing, painting, sculpture, and assemblage. She has been engaged professionally in a variety of other creative disciplines, most notably songwriting, with both Grammy and Dove Award nominations to her credit. Her latest music was released in Oslo, Norway, April 2019 for award winning producer, Knut Asphol. Her poetry has been published in the United States, and the UK. Despite her success in these areas, Johnson's most profound connection is with the visual arts – her strongest, most direct form of communication.

She trained classically as a fine arts major at Taylor University, Indiana and continued painting representationally for the next ten years doing commissions, while exhibiting minimally. Much later, after re-settling in Los Angeles, Johnson returned to studying art briefly at Otis College of Art & Design in 2005, transferring to Art Center College of Design in 2006 where she custom coordinated a Master’s-level type program and was mentored by the late Franklyn Liegel.

Since 2010, Johnson has been honored with 5 solo exhibitions across the United States, including a solo museum show at the Southern Nevada Museum of Fine Art; her sculpture and paintings have been included in numerous museum shows around the world, including: Armenia, Japan, China, Qatar, Italy and Thailand. Her work can be found in 7 Museum Permanent Collections internationally and can be viewed on permanent exhibition at the Arab American National Museum in Michigan, and several museums in Italy and Thailand. Residencies include: China, Italy, Japan, Thailand and Mexico.

Her work can be found in private and corporate collections across the globe. She resides in Southern California.

Taking "reduce and reuse" principle to the next level I build abstract 2d and 3d compositions with found objects from hi-tech world. Disassembled practical gadgets become pieces of the puzzle that join paint and clay in my artworks. The concept of my current series "Deconstructed" resonates well with "Evolve. Women. Wisdom." theme. It deals with the evolution of knowledge (computers, phones, robot gears, data, concrete) into wisdom (balance, minimalism, harmony, intuitive awareness, abstract).

Lina was born in Kiev, Ukraine, where she graduated from the School of Visual Arts. She has always strived to find balance between her passion for arts and interest in technology. In 2000 she obtained a

masters degree in computer science with a specialization in multimedia and creative technologies from USC, and now enjoys a successful career in software engineering. Lina has pursued her interest in visual art and has studied ceramics and sculpture in Los Angeles since 1996.

Linas clay and mixed media creations have been very well received in exhibitions at the Orlando Gallery, The Style Lounge, Pacific Design Center, VIVA Art Center, American Museum of Ceramic Art, Xiem Gallery, Red Dot Gallery in Palm Springs, Neutra Museum in Silver Lake. Her art is in private and corporate collections nationwide. Lina participates in the Annual California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Art in Davis, California, and is a member of Los Angeles Experimental Artists group.

My art is imagination of created things which do not exist in everyday life. The purpose of my life - is creation of the fantasies. I was always attracted to science fiction books and movies. I put my images of my fantasy’s creatures in paintings and sculptures.

Faina Kumpan was moved from Odessa, Ukraine as a political refugee. She graduated from the Theatrical Art College in Odessa. In her not very exciting childhood, she was dreaming of other worlds. She was obsessed with science fiction.

Her emigration to New York opens the new opportunities. She worked as a designer and changed a lot of different professions. After moving to LA she returned to her love for art and Science Fiction. She attended numerous classes at UCLA Extension and many private workshops. She exhibited in many important galleries in LA and NY. She creates a fantasy world that is a once surreal and abstract, whimsical and vibrant. Whether creating painting or sculptures, her subjects are mystical creatures from another world, like fantastic figures stepping out of the pages of the futuristic fairy tale. She was participating in many group exhibitions.

She was awarded as a creative artist by City of LA for working together to celebrate Los Angeles as Creative Capital of the world. Her works are in many private collections.

My art name is Lark - the bird that lingers between the earth and the sky. We artists do it at the moment of inspiration and meditation. That's how I create my art. I meditate and start with the spontaneous movements of my instruments; usually it is not a brush. A brush makes me think. My instruments are usually just pieces of cardboard. I also paint on any surface – canvas, board, plexiglass, glass, wood, etc – and I love to experiment and see what happens. My best creations take place in a state of no mind.

Although I begin the way abstract expressionists do and use some sumi-e techniques, eventually most of my creation starts shaping as abstract or impressionistic landscapes as ocean, sky, trees, flowers and mountain views start appearing from the formless. Nature is my source of inspiration, but instead of landscape details I channel nature's moods, the feeling of being one with nature, and swimming in its atmospheric light.

Light is what drives me to continue working. My mission is always to bring more light to people around me with my art, poetry and meditations. I know that viewers feel joy, peace and harmony when they look at my work, enter and settle inside it because it heals their emotional wounds and it makes me happy. Being an artist is an opportunity to express the fountain of my creative energy and at the same time serve people's needs in beauty that will heal the world.

When people perceive the light, the high and playful energy that my paintings emanate, they start feeling they are back in the fairy-tale world of their childhood, when their soul was open to transformations and miracles, and they feel like Alice in her enchanting wonderland.

From the beginning of her art career, Lark’s art caught the attention of art lovers and gained recognition from art jurors including LA Weekly critic Peter Frank, Santa Monica Museum Art Director Lisa Melandri and MOCA curator Alma Ruiz.

Fusing classical and contemporary art traditions, Lark's award-winning artworks carry her signature gestural brushstrokes and vibrant color palettes. They have been featured in the many prestigious exhibitions, art catalogs and sold globally in France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Russia, Armenia, Canada, Sweden and many other countries. In 2021 - 2025 Lark's art was exhibited in the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art and the Shiba City Museum of Art In Japan where Lark got two Gold Awards in the group shows.

I use art as a means to express my reactions to my environment. In this way what you see is akin to the emanations from a sound box where the acoustics of sounds, life circumstance and landscape have combined at one moment in time. The subject matter is not the subject. The process is often as important as the result. I have recently included with my abstract, tactile paintings, more objective work, but the impetus is the same. Just as each person responds differently to music, I expect each viewer will respond differently to what they see.

Born Elizabethtown, Kentucky

BA, MA California State University, Northridge

I hope to create work that reveals the organic foundations of humanness.

As a woman, I believe there are always parts of ourselves that carry the innocence and curiosity of a little girl. That energy—the wonder, the fearlessness, the vulnerability—still lives within us.

"Mirror Twins" are characters that many people can see themselves in. I choose not to reveal too much about them—I’d rather let viewers discover their own meaning and stories within the work.

Now more than ever, artists and creatives must stand up for the value of art. Even when the world isn’t ready to hear our voices—especially as some are being censored, edited, or erased—we must keep creating. It’s painfully clear that many of our communities are being silenced and pushed to the margins.

As an artist, cartoonist, creator, and teacher, I’m committed to encouraging others to stand boldly and make art that speaks truth. My own journey is always evolving. Maybe it’s okay that I don’t reveal everything. Maybe my role is more about connection—and keeping a few secrets of my own.

—Cristina Natsuko Paulos

Cristina Natsuko Paulos is an award-winning artist, animator, cartoonist, designer, and educator. She currently teaches commercial arts and digital media at a high school in the Clark County School District, and works as a freelance artist and workshop leader. She also likes to remind people: she’s a good human.

A BFA graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Paulos’s work blends fine art and illustration, often featuring mirrored or twinned characters, expressive portraiture, and imagery inspired by real life. Her style draws heavily from cartoon aesthetics and deeply personal themes, creating a space where vulnerability, identity, and duality intersect.

Her original animation work has appeared on Sesame Street, and her artwork has been exhibited in prestigious galleries including La Luz de Jesus, Giant Robot, and the Cirque du Soleil Contemporary Art Collection. She has also been featured in two published books: Garden of Eye Candy and La Luz de Jesus 25: The Little Gallery That Could. Her films have screened at festivals in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and she has collaborated with puppeteers to create toy theatre performances.

Since relocating from the San Fernando Valley to Las Vegas in 2002, Paulos has received multiple grants from the Nevada Arts Council, including two Jackpot Grants, a 2008 Artist Fellowship, and a 2005 Sesame Street Workshop Scholarship.

Paulos works with a wide range of materials—ink, paint, dye, handmade paper, canvas, wood, and mixed media. Her process is rooted in the philosophies of drawing, aiming to expose the raw, often hidden elements of identity.

“My artwork derives from life, juxtaposed with the cartoon world,” she says. “Using drawing philosophies, I try to reveal the marks we often try to erase—the flaws, the discomfort, the quiet parts of ourselves. Whether through cartoons or figures drawn from life, I explore what it means to be fully seen, completely vulnerable—naked, beyond form.”

David Phillips is an American artist whose work has shown at over 50 galleries throughout the United States. Including The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Carnegie Hall (NYC), and The Downtown Art Center Gallery of Los Angeles. Working from his studio in Venice Beach, California, he’s been featured by the CBS News, The LA Times (twice), and over 75 websites on the internet where he has a significant presence.

Inspired by his influences, he moved his studio from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Venice, California. “Moving to Los Angeles allowed my career to progress in ways I could not imagine. However, the work will never lose its country roots.”

His bold, conceptual, and avant garde works continue to amaze patrons, bring buyers, and captivate collectors all over the world. David’s unique vision and style goes beyond traditional standards of art on canvas and pushes the boundary of what art is and can be. "I named my online home wino-strut. I needed something that was larger than the art world. I make films, collage, abstract paintings, figurative paintings. I make contemporary art out of anything I can get my hands on.”

Phillips is also a songwriter and performer under "wino-strut".

STATEMENT

"I love the sea, the grass, the tree, the animals, the animate and inanimate world. The

material. Am I perhaps a narrow-minded materialist? No, the spirit is immaterial but the

material is the worldly manifestation of the spirit. When I worked as a dental technician, I had

to cast metal and mould wax, plaster and porcelain. I was not captivated with this narrow

range of people. I studied Biology and drawing and also taught them, I was wandering

around in the world, loved the colourful, transparent world of the Cuban seas, the whirling

movement of the barracudas, the endless and timeless space of the Mongolian deserts, the

chaotic and artistic magic of Indonesia, enjoyed skiing among the peaks of the Elbrus

considered even by Reinhold Meissner one of the most amazing natural slopes. I savoured

exploring Vanatau, Tonga, Tahiti and Bora Bora and the friendly people there, their songs,

sorrows, faith, their endless respect for their beloved islands and enjoyed their unrestricted

appetite for beauty, erotica, exuberance and abundance. I was diving in seas and oceans

where lemon, steel-blue and red fish were flashing and gleaming with intensive colours never

seen before in the tropical sunshine together with corals and plants. The impenetrable rain

forests have presented all the variations of green. And the island of real peace: New

Zealand. I love it. Although my homesickness drives me home to Hungary, being here I do

not know where my real home is and I long to return there. I have travelled around the world

and know: it is small, blue and fragile! This is what I see from the height of 11.000 metres.

But through my microscope I can sense the cavalcade of similar momentary magic as well. I

am an earthling like so many, seemingly animate and inanimate creatures of God abounding

with colours and shapes. As time passes by I have experienced during my trips that all this is

perishing. I do not want my children, my students, the explorers of the future not to be able to

see this magic. I am presenting some fragments from the endless world and giving them to

the spectators with love."

These are Igor Jeno Prokop's words about himself, his philosophy and his

understanding of the world.

PROKOP IGOR EUGEN

Born 1953 Budapest, Hungary

Lives and works in Visegrad

EDUCATION

1971 -1973 Dentist technic i

1974 -1978 Teacher Art and Biology

1981 ? 1984 Biology

1985 - 1986 Philosophy

1987 - 1988 Film aesthetic

1990 - 1992 Design manager

2001 ? 2002 Environmental Protection

AWARDS

Chianciano Biennale 2009 Special Mentions

Chianciano Biennale 2011 Biennale Leonardo Award for drawings 2.

Chianciano Biennale 2011 European Confederation of Art Critics Award for drawings 1.

Chianciano Biennale 2013 Special mention for Excellence

Chianciano Biennale 2015 Biennale Leonardo Award for painting 3.

London Art Biennale 2015 International Confederation of Art Critics Award 3.

Mantova 2017 International Prize Andrea Mantegna

Chianciano Biennale 2018 Biennale Leonardo Award for painting 3.

Chianciano Biennale 2018 Oxford University Alumni Society Award 1.

My work is a visual dialogue between the discarded and the resilient. I find beauty in "fragments"—crushed metal, torn envelopes, weathered stamps, and forgotten notes—transforming these remnants of urban life into harmonious compositions.

In the series submitted for "Bridging Through Colors," I use mixed-media assemblage as a metaphor for healing. Just as a crumpled piece of paper or a discarded object can be integrated into a new, balanced whole, our fragmented experiences and diverse backgrounds can find unity through the universal language of art.Each piece serves as a "bridge": between the industrial and the organic, the personal and the collective, the chaotic and the serene. My process involves layering textures and colors to create a space for quiet reflection. By giving a second life to materials that have been cast aside, I invite the viewer to see the possibility of rebirth and transformation in the world around us.

Tatiana Savchenko is a Los Angeles-based mixed-media artist whose practice explores the intersection of urban materiality, personal memory, and emotional resilience. Her work is characterized by a "visual dialogue" between found objects—such as industrial remnants, vintage correspondence, and discarded fragments—and expressive layers of acrylic and watercolor.In 2026, Savchenko’s presence in the Southern California art scene was highlighted by several key exhibitions. She was featured in the "March/Forward" showcase at Shoebox Projects within the Brewery Arts Complex and participated in the StARTup Art Fair at Venice Beach. Her collaborative artist book, LA: Two Voices, One City, created in partnership with Gregory Desgouttes, exemplifies her commitment to exploring unity and connection through shared creative narratives.By transforming everyday debris into layered, atmospheric compositions, Savchenko invites viewers to find tranquility and "healing" within the chaotic textures of modern life. Her work serves as a bridge between the mundane and the spiritual, aligning perfectly with the global call for empathy and connection through the universal language of art.

Jane Serebrenikov’s narrative graphical art works reflect her deeply lyrical and uniquely poetical vision. All her life she is interested in visual art and, grown up on fairy tales, combines magic, vivid imagination and sense of humor in her art works. She also inspired by the arts of Mark Chagall and Reno Magritte.

Jane is started etching 5 years ego and has been taken part of several exhibitions. She sold her arts nationally and internationally. She makes aquatint etchings. This is where the plate is immersed in acid and the lines and tones achieved when the acid “bites” the areas which have not been masked. Than color applied manually and print on printmaking press. Each print is unique.

Jane was born in Moscow, Russia and immigrated to Los Angeles in 1995 with her family. She graduated college as a graphic designer, holds AA degree and contentious working in printmaking studio.

Each one of my pictures is a scene.The background, props , clothes , hair-styles , grimes and of course the attitudes themselves - gestures, facial expressions - raise exuberant stories. Every story is relative, everything is slightly warped so that even on the tenth of twentieth viewing it continues to intrigue. The story is never finished.

Biography

Photographer Heike Suhre was

born in 1960 in Münster, Germany and lives

in Emmen in the Netherlands. After studying at

the Arts Academy of Enschede in the Netherlands,

Suhre went on to have many exhibitions and awards all over the world .

International Exhibitions :

2015 “CONVITTO RAGUSA” MUSEUM in NOTO SICILY

2015 Dundas Street Gallery Edinburgh , SCOTLAND

2015 “ARTIST FOR Unicef at the Politeama Theatre in PALERMO.

2015 SPECTRUM FAIR MIAMI USA

2016 INTERNATIONAL TRIENNALE IN VERONA ITALY

2016 Blank Wall Gallery ATHENS GREECE (solo exhibition)

2016 Southern Museum Fine Art in LAS VEGAS NEVADA USA

2016 Museum of Marrakech MOROCCO

2016 LEYDAN Art Gallery ,WINDSOR , ONTARIO – CANADA

2016 International Exhibition in NAPLES - Castel Dell'ovo

2016 PARIS - FRANCEART FAIR – CARROUSEL DU LOUVRE – PARIS.

2016 ROME - ITALY at the Palazzo Brancaccio

2017 Biennale de Arte Barcelona - Spain

2017 Biennale Peschiera del Garda .

2017 BIENNALE MEART IN PALERMO – SICILY

2017 INTERNATIONAL EUROPEAN MUSEUM OF MODERN ART Barcelona - Spain

2018 BERLIN INARTE WERKKUNST Gallery - Berlin Germany

2018 International BIENNAL of Flanders at Oud Sint Jan Museum

2018 South Korea The Haegumgang Theme Museum

2018 Emmen The Netherlands

2019 New York at the Big Appel Artosino Gallery

2019 South Korea The Haegumgang Theme Museum

Awards:

2012

Heike Suhre wordt Grote Paul 2012 - Netherlands

2015

Award Artists at the Castle – Nerola (ROME) Italy

International Noto Award – Unesco Heritage- Italy

Marco Polo International Price, Art Ambassador - Italy

2016

International Prize Leonardo Da Vinci - The Universal Artist- Italy

2016 International Prize CANAletto Artistic Career AWARD in Venice -Italy

2016 INTERNATIONAL PRIZE WOMENS ART WORK - MOROCCO

2016 INTERNATIONAL PRIZE SHAKESPEAR AWARD - Verona -ITALY

2016 INTERNATIONAL PRIZE Excellence Palm Art Award -Germany

2016 WINNER of the INTERNATIONAL FIRST PRICE - People's Choice PX3 AWARD - Prix de la photography Paris - FRANCE

2017

INTERNATIONAL PREMIO TROFEO ARTE IMPERO AWARD in ROME ITALY

BIENNALE MEART IN PALERMO – SICILY Winner of the Award Best photographer

Winner of the International Prize Dante Alighieri – Peschiera - ITALY

Winner of the international Award Galileo Galilei – Pisa – Italy

Winner of the Milan International Art Award, The critic committee presided by Vittorio Sgarbi, the italian art critic most known in the world.

Winner of the International Award Francisco Goya Barcelona – Spain

2018

International Award Raffaello – in Bologna - Italy

www.hsfotografie.com

To make art and see it being born from my own hands fulfills one of my

greatest dreams.

I like the moment when a new creation is not yet mine, not yet in my

imagination - but already is tickling my subconscious.

Working with paints, knowing their elasticity, and exploring new

textures and color shades allows me to move them on the canvas

spontaneously.

But it only seems so. In reality it happens under the guidance of my

soul.

It is my soul that expresses itself on canvas, showing its flights and

falls, joys and sadness, and then gives birth to an image. My hands only

choose and move colors around, before the appearance of a new image

gives rise to new fantasies.

When a fantasy desires to continue over a series of my art, the process

gives birth to imaginary realities which emerge from the depth of my soul

and cry out to find release on the canvas. Only then can my hands

themselves put down the paints and hang alongside my body. Fatigue and

relief cover me with a light veil. Nothing more needs to be corrected

and completed.

My soul enjoys the liberation of previously collected feelings and

impressions of life whose meaning was unclear to me but which I can now

express. Also what my paintings let me express on canvas is a joyful light shining

from the soul. It is the wonderful space of creation.

Tatiana Yartseva is a Siberian and moved to California in 2024. She is an artist and interior design and lives and works between the city of Omsk and Los Angeles, where she received her formal art education and immersed herself in the local art scene, working at the Lark Gallery. In addition to solo shows, the artist is an active participant in international projects such as "Peaceful Freedom" (2018), "Evolve. Women. Wisdom." (2019), and "Homage to Russian Avant-Garde" (2019) in the USA, "Seeking inner Joy(2002) in Russia", "The Temple of the Dreams"(2025) in Italy, "LAOpen" (2026) in the USA. Visionary Art Show Artsper Award. Since 2025 showing her art work at Artsy platform.

Participated in Digital Art Exhibition organized by Art Screen TV in the Biennale, Florence, Italy in 2025.

Her works have been featured in the American art publication Art & Beyond, Artistinish, and are held in private collections.

My paintings come out as attempts to "translate" from ideograms and fantastic hieroglyphs that I see in the patterns of nature, most often in the tree bark.

It is like listening to a song in an unknown language. Everyone will have their own guess of what the words might say, but the main theme of the song will be recognized.I am so thrilled by the moments of gazing into the patterns of nature when intuition gives a glimpse from the world of archetypes. I think that trees are books and libraries that can be read, perhaps as well as any thing around if we attune to it…

My paintings are sort of "snapshots" from the process of reading the Book of Nature by the mind;these "snapshots" are somewhere in between the imagery and the language.The mind projects meanings onto the shapes and lines, but they are being reflected back, startling and puzzling… there is always a sensation of a mirror dialog, of having been "read" yourself by the Book of Nature...

born in Baku, Azerbajan, lived in Moscow since 16 years old, moved to L.A. in 1992;

M.F.A. in Film &Tv( Animation major) from UCLA;

involved in painting, writing and illustrating, cartooning, mixed media, paper theatre, small size dioramas

My current work, informed by sacred geometry, explores synchronicities, interconnections, aggregation, and relationships. This body of work is primarily painted with gouache, graphite and colored pencil. Previous works have been painted in oil paint and mixed media, including collage and re-purposed objects such as switch plates and screws. Installations have also included lights, projection and sound.

Laurie Yehia is a visual artist based in Los Angeles. Her award-winning artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in private and public collections. She studied painting, drawing, photography an printmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Stanford University, Wesleyan University (Connecticut), the School of Visual Arts (New York) and the Tom Wudl Studio (Los Angeles Arts District.) Her artwork is also informed by her legal practice and philosophies underlying her work with Quantum Leadership Solutions. A founding co-chair of StudioEleven Artists in 2014, she continues to exhibit with the group and co-curated its exhibits in its formative years. Since 2018, she has served as an adjudicator for the annual Santa Monica-Malibu USD’s Districtwide Visual Arts Competition. Yehia served as a Santa Monica Arts Commissioner 2016-2025, as Vice Chair 2023-25, Chair of its Public Art Committee 2019-23, member of its Media Arts Committee 2020-2025 and member of its Bergamot Ad Hoc Committee 2016-2024.

These painterly collage pieces are a continuation of my Beach Rock painting series. I was initially inspired by rocks on a deserted beach. Submerged in water, they reminded me of strange creatures pulsating with spirits, and inspired me to reimagine them on my canvas.

The idea behind my collages was to bring out the mysteriousness I felt about these rocks and make their strangeness even more vivid.

Each collage piece has several vignettes generated in the process, either intentionally or incidentally. They are like mini dramas within a bigger show and, when viewed as a whole, meant to heighten surreal feeling.

The way I see and express nature might have been influenced by shamanistic spirit that I had witnessed as a youngster in my old country.

Young Yun Summers is a Los Angeles based artist. She was born in Korea and came to USA as a high school student. She inherited a love of art from her family and always knew she would be an artist.

Majoring in design in fine arts, she earned her BFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and worked in retail advertising for many years. However, her passion to be a serious fine artist was not pursued while she was working full-time and raising a family.

After her son went off to college to study piano, she finally decided to fully commit herself to art.

Young started out painting her favorite subjects, such as her family, trees, rocks, things in nature. Then, she began to incorporate collages, as a way to enhance her paintings. Soon the painterly collage took over and became her signature medium, garnering great responses and awards. Lately, her collages have become more sculptural and experimental. Finding beauty and harmony in most unexpected way from items soon to be discarded, while reducing waste and recycle are important aspects of her artistic life.