Alexa Meade and Sheile Vand

Alexa and Sheile have collaborated on a body of work that explores the fluidity of form in relation to time and space. By stripping the subject of depth and dimension, a displacement of identity ensues, demonstrating the power of context over content.​​

Meade paints on Vand’s body, submerged in a canvas of milk. Vand’s performance is dictated by the opposing forces of fixed shadows and fluid space. The surface of the milk intersects Vand’s body at an uneven and unusual plane, creating a sense of movement and depth beneath her compressed form. This play on dimensionality in the picture evokes an optical illusion that activates the viewer’s experience by challenging their common perceptions. The identifiable becomes ineffable, giving the flat photography of the painted three-dimensional space an unsettling tone. By blending the borders between the subject and its surroundings, identity is muted and we’re left with the distilled nuances that shape the space.

All images © Alexa Meade and Sheila Vand

Carne Griffiths

Working primarily with calligraphy inks, graphite and liquids, such as tea, brandy and vodka Griffiths’ fascination with drawing focuses on the creation and manipulation of the drawn line. Images explore human, geometric and floral forms, in a combination of both literal and abstract translation and in response to images and situations encountered in daily life. Images are recorded in a dreamlike sense onto the page where physical boundaries are unimportant. His work creates a journey of escapism which focuses on scenes of awe and wonder, projecting a sense of abandonment and inviting the viewer to share and explore this inner realm.

Originally from Liverpool, Griffiths graduated from the Kent Institute of Art and Design in Maidstone in 1995. After completing a one-year KIAD fellowship and moving to London he served an apprenticeship at the longest-established gold wire embroidery firm in the world. Here he worked as a gold wire embroidery designer for twelve years, eventually becoming the creative director. Carne produced intricate designs for the military and the film, theatre, fashion and advertising industries. His designs were used for the uniforms in the films Valkyrie, The Last King of Scotland, and in particular his ‘Red Death Coat’ was used in The Phantom of the Opera. Carne’s elaborate floral designs for Asprey were included in their first ever catwalk collection and his work was featured on the embroidered cover of the 80th Royal Variety Performance programme in 2008.

Since establishing his own studio in 2010, Carne has exhibited in the UK at the London Original Print Fair at the Royal Academy, the London Art Fair in both 2011 and 2012, and overseas at Urban in Ibiza in 2011 and Arts After Dark, New Orleans in 2010. Carne also collaborated with the British photographer Rankin for a feature in the 2nd edition of Hunger Magazine early in 2012.(ref:  Carne Griffiths )

All images © Carne Griffiths

ANTONIO SANTIN

Antonio Santin’s paintings of carpets seem to hide something dark, cover something up – only revealing a silhouette. He himself understands his hyperaesthetic paintings as still life's. Since he enjoys adjusting the fabric’s proportions the paintings are very large, measuring up to more than three meters. By reconstructing and reinventing the essence of certain textures and weaves of the textiles, he creates an effect that easily raises ones hackles. He states: ‘In animation characterizes the painting but it is the beholder who gives or takes breath away.’

The paintings are based on photographs he takes himself and manages, despite the fact that hyper realism seems to be incredibly popular these days, to create something new.She says,"I don’t really have the deepest knowledge of carpets, but it’s more like intuition. At one point, I saw some ripples in a carpet, and began to be interested in them. I thought there were too many figurative paintings in my production, and I was wondering if I got rid of the figure if I could still make something figurative without an obvious reference. Every carpet is a new world, a different approach. The form itself is very sculptural, and to find the perfect volume for the carpet is endless."

After graduating from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Antonio came to Berlin and started painting portraits of men. Later he started one of his most haunting series, which displays young women laying on patterned carpets. While Antonio’s earlier works contain large sections of realism, his recent paintings are far more abstract. The most striking aspect of these paintings is their lack of distance and the uneasy feeling evoked in viewers as they confront the painting.

Antonio: "I moved to Berlin in 2004, for 8 years, and started my painting career there. In Madrid, where I’m from, I was doing the sculpture. In fact, I have a public sculpture there that’s famous for being vandalized. I spent one year in Athens to focus on the sculpture. That city is chaos. But I had a beautiful connected with the materials, like clay—they’re so strict over there. I’ve only been here for less than a year, and I like it. Berlin was so cold that I escaped its winters by coming to New York"

All images © Antonio Santin

Heather Hansen

Utilizing her body movements, Heather Hansen creates breathtaking, large scale charcoal paintings. In 2012 she began experimenting with kinetic drawing and has been searching for ways to combine her passion for visual art and dance. The idea for the series ‘Emptied Gestures’ was sparked on a trip to the beach. Whilst dancing on the beach she noticed that the lines carved in the sand by her turns had an interesting quality. She explains her work as follows: ‘Emptied Gestures is an experiment in kinetic drawing. In this series, I am searching for ways to download my movement directly onto paper, emptying gestures from one form to another and creating something new in the process.’

Heather Hansen's combination of choreographed performance art and charcoal drawing can be witnessed in her six-minute video "Emptied Gestures," a demonstration of what she calls "kinetic drawing."

All images © Bryan Tarnowski

FELIPE ACHONDO

Painter Felipe Achondo specialized in abstract realism paintings with great emphasis in the human figure and interiors. Further he has been in a constant research and development of figurative oil painting technics, which are in contrast to classic realism, where the work of realism is expressed in the whole aspects of painting, leaving ‘imperfections or mistakes’ on purpose as an essential part of the piece. ‘The main thematic that I am actually working on situates the human figure in empty spaces and interiors, mixing the thematic of 2010 with my portraits of 2012 to 2013′, the artist explains.

He says about him and his work: "My name is Felipe Achondo Moya, I was born in 1982 in Santiago, Chile.

I paint since I was 12 years old, thru my short trajectory I have participated in several collective shows in different Chilean cities, including Santiago. I’m currently focused in my first solo exhibition in Santiago. In this blog I’d like to share some of my present work with you, as well as any other stuff I might come up with in the near future."

All images © Felipe Achondo

UNDRESSING BY ADARA SÁNCHEZ ANGUIANO

 Adara Sánchez Anguiano is an illustrator born in Sevilla in 1987. She started the series ‘Take Off Your Clothes’ four years ago and sometimes she still has an urge of continuing it. The act of undressing amazes her in a way that is difficult to explain, ‘It’s like a romance with the human body, a cupid’s arrow every time I contemplate it,’ she explains. The project revolves around a quotidian gesture, the intimacy and sensuality of a casual and ephemeral movement. In her illustrations she explores the expressibility of human figure in sometimes forced poses. She is fascinated by the idea of the extraordinary exposure of the anatomy by a simple and daily gesture like undressing. But it goes further than a simple human body study. ‘The act of undressing is a rebellion, the uprising of the skin over the tyranny of clothes, it’s actually an act of freedom,’ Adara states.

Adara is an amazing artist. With her watercolors armed, Adara can create can some amazing art pieces! Here is a little about the artist:

I’m an illustrator who was born in Sevilla (Spain) twenty four years ago. I started studying Fine Arts in my born place but the desires of travelling made me spend a year abroad in Antwerp (Belgium) three years ago. *It was then when I decided to become an illustrator*. After that I came back to Spain, to Cuenca this time.Finally, last year when I finished my degree, I decided to move to Barcelona.And here I am now, sitting on a bulrush chair on a beautiful tiled floor.

All images © Adara Sánchez Anguiano