Peter Tunney is an American Pop artist renown for his creative use of text. Tunney works as a painter, photographer, installation, and collage artist. Tunney had great success with a series that specialized in skulls.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Below we view the artist in his studio:
Tunney worked as an investment banker on Wall Street.
Below an interview with Peter Tunney:
The artist is based out of New York City and Miami, Florida.
Tunney shows a wonderful sense of creativity in his use of text. Some of my favorite artists working with text include Mel Bochner, Steven Powers, and Robert Cottingham.
Mino Argento is an Italian painter and collage artist renown for his Abstract style. Mino Argento was born in Rome, Italy in the year 1927.
Argento had a background as an architect before becoming an artist. He left Italy in order to further his art career. At that time in Italy figurative art was the preferred style of painting. The artist relocated to New York City.
Argento uses basic geometric shapes to form new dimensions on the canvas. He paints using mixed mediums on most surfaces including oils and acrylics.
Argento’s art reminds me of the kinetic and Op Artist from Venezuela, Carlos Cruz Diez. Both use simple shapes to create amazing layers of depth and light.
In this clip we view a variety of well known abstract painters including Mino Argento, whose work is shown at the 4:13 mark in the clip:
Mara De Luca is a contemporary American abstract artist. The artist has developed a unique working process that combines painting with collage.
De Luca attended Columbia University located in New York City where she earned a B.F.A. The artist went on to earn a M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts located in Valencia, California.
The artist has been included in exhibitions in the United States and Europe.
Price range information: Sorry none available
De Luca first pours a thin layer of acrylic paint onto raw unprimed canvas. She then puts a layer of fabric on top of this. Depending upon the mood she wishes to create, the artist uses either transparent or opaque fabric. The artist credits Duchamp for inspiring her unique approach.
In this clip a brief interview with the De Luca as artist in residence in Irvine, California. De Luca was the first official artist in residence at the Irvine Fine Arts Center. Her printmaking process is quite detailed.:
De Luca also gives credit for inspiration to the daily life she lives in Los Angeles, California. A wonderful mix of digital technology and natural beauty.
R.H. Quaytman is an American artist renown for her abstract style and mixed media works. R.H. Quaytman was born Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1961. The artist attended the Skowhegen School of Art in Maine and Bard College located in New York state. After earning a B.A. at Bard the artist studied abroad in Ireland.
Her mother was a poet named Susan Howe. Her father was an artist named Harvey Quaytman. Harvey was an abstract painter who employed geometric shapes and vivid color in his work. Harvey will be the next post.
Her work includes many mediums and many works use a silkscreened photgraphic image or on some occasions just text.
The artist uses very large pieces of wood for her works.
Quaytman is married to a film maker.
The artist is a past participant in the Whitney Biennial. She is also part of many modern art museum collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Price range information: Works start in the low six figures around $150,000. Works can reach as high as one half million dollars.
In this clip a brief interview with R.H. Quaytman:
What a unique voice. I enjoy the fact that her chapter’s series includes history about the sites installation location.
Ezra Jack Keats was a fantastic children’s book writer and illustrator. I remember reading what is probably his most famous book, The Snowy Day. This book won him the prestigious Caldecott award given for the best children’s book.
Ezra Jack Keats was born in Brooklyn, New York in the year 1916. His family was poor and his father often discouraged his son from wanting to be an artist. Just a few days before winning an award for the best artist at his high school, his father died.
His dad kept the local newspaper clippings of Ezra in his pocket, but never showed him any outward praise for his artistic talents. Keats developed his skills by many trips to the library and taking art classes in his public education.
After his dad died the artist took a job in the comic book industry rather than go to college. He painted background in comic scenes and also designed camouflage the U.S. Armed Forces.
After his service in the war the artist moved to Paris where he fine tuned his art skills. After returning to the States the artist began illustrating children’s books. Over his career Keats wrote and illustrated 22 books.
The book snowy day featured Peter, a young African- American boy and his adventures on a snowy day. In this clip below we hear from a member of the Ezra James Keats foundation and her thoughts on Mr. Keats. It was the first time a children’s book had a person of color act as the hero or main character:
Ezra Jack Keats passed away in 1983 at the age of 67.
Keats experimented in his children’s illustration art using many different and fun ways that a child might use to apply paint such as spattering paint with a toothbrush. The artist was also among the first to use collage in the genre.
The art of Ezra Jack Keats brings me back to the wonderful time when I myself was a kid. His clever design and multi media works are full of fun shapes and patterns that helped to make his stories so much fun to read. His work also reminds me of Disney artist Mary Blair. Both of these remarkable artists were among the first to feature children of color in their art and as a main character of their stories.
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We close with some examples of Keats’ work and the thoughts of a curator:
Noriko Yamamoto is a Japanese artist renown for her abstract art born in the year 1929. As a child she was taught the fine art of calligraphy by her father. Yamamoto’s family moved to Tokyo, Japan when she was a young child.
Her family lived in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1935 to 1941 before moving back to Tokyo, Japan in 1941.
In the 1950s the artist would relocate to the United States where she attended the California College of Arts and Crafts located in Oakland, California. An important mentor for the artist was the painter Richard Diebenkorn.
Yamamoto earned both a bachelors of fine art and masters of fine arts degree.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
The artist works in acrylics, watercolors, oils, sculpture, and collage.
John Pavlicek is an American abstract artist renown for paintings and prints.
John Pavlicek was born in Lubbock, Texas in the year 1946.
Pavlicek attended the University of Dallas, Texas.
Most works employ multiple mediums including painting, collage, and gold leaf. Some artists that inspire Pavlicek are George Braque, Pablo Picasso, and Kurt Schwitters.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
I enjoy the work of this abstract artist because of the shapes he creates. The shapes are so interesting even a work done with little color has wonderful movement throughout the picture.
Dwinell Grant was born in Springfield, Ohio in the year 1912. Dwinell Grant was renown for his style of abstraction that used basic geometric shapes.
Grant attended the Dayton Art Institute located in Dayton, Ohio. Grant then moved to New York City and attended the National Academy of Design.
Dwinell Grant taught at the collegiate level at Wittenberg College also located in Ohio.
Here we view one of the many short animated films made by Grant. Remember he didn’t have Microsoft Windows Paint! On many occasions one film might require more than 3,o00 separate drawings. These works are still underappreciated to this day!
The artist enjoyed trying new mediums and produced many short animated films of less than ten minutes in length. Of his time spent in the commercial arena of art the majority of his time was spent medical illustrations.
Much of the artist’s early work was purchased by the Guggenheim Foundation.
Grant was a very successful commercial artist illustrating medical books and even producing training videos for the United States Navy.
Be Free is one of the many exciting street artist from the city of Melbourne, Australia. Be Free uses stencils and also collage materials in creating her art.
Be Free is known for pouring buckets and drips of paint.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
I enjoy the artist’s use of black and white and color imagery.
Below we see some works by Be Free from the street:
Some of my favorite women street artists include my favorite Swoon. She uses art to help people, such as rebuilding Haiti. Excellent drawing and painting skills and she uses wheatpaste’s for much of her work. Another awesome artist is Faith47, both have already been profiled here and are worth checking out!
Kevin Appel is an artist who has worked in many styles over his career. Kevin Appel was born in Los Angeles, California in the year 1967. For his artistic education Appel attended Parsons located in New York City earning a B.F.A. Appel went on to earn a M.F.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Appel has been a teacher and the Chair of graduate studies at the University of California at Irvine.
Appel now works in a very abstract work but its his interior works of the 1990s that I enjoy the most. When I see his interior works I am reminded of the modern Farnsworth House located in Illinois. Very modern line work, just as in in Appel’s works of the 90s. His works of this period have a great architectural base. Appel’s work now seems to have an interior design feel and is far more abstract than his earlier works. Here is an image of the Farnsworth House:
Appel is based out of Los Angeles, California.
Kevin Appel is part of the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art located in New York City.
Price range information: Works range from $8,000 to $50,000.
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