Sheng Qi is a modern contemporary artist renown for his work with political activism and figure. Sheng Qi was born in Anhui Province in the year 1965. Sheng Qi is a painter, performance artist, and photographer.
Sheng Qi had a fantastic collegiate career studying in some of the world’s best institutions for art. Qi attended the Central Academy of Art and Design located in Beijing. Qi also lived and work in Italy for a few years before earning a M.F.A. from the Central Saint Martin’s Academy of Art and Design located in London, England.
In this clip we view Sheng Qi’s first solo exhibition in London, England:
Qi’s often paints with acrylics on canvas.
Price range information: Most works priced between $5,000 and $40,000.
Curiot is a street artist from Mexico renown for his work with imaginary creatures. Curiot’s government name is Favio Martinez. Curiot blends his creatures with symbols from his culture including the Day of the Dead.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
The artist is based out of Mexico City, Mexico.
In this clip we view the artist at work on many pieces:
I really enjoy the many subjects the artist puts into his work. A flower, a beast or creature, and the human figure are represented in many images. His work reminds of the Italian master Guiseppe Arcimboldo. Its amazing the diverse strokes the artist is able to paint with spray paint.
We close by taking a view the artist at work on a wonderful mural:
Akbar Padamsee is a contemporary painter from India renown for his surrealist style, and his work with the figure. In addition to painting Padamsee is a printmaker, sculptor, photographer, and film maker.
Akbar Padamsee was born in Mumbai, India in the year 1928. Padamsee attended the Sir J.J. School of Art.
One unique style of painting associated with Akbar Padamsee is discussed, the Metascape. These are mental landscapes which are discussed in further detail in this clip:
Price range information: Works range from $5,000 to $1 million. As a painter he uses watercolors, acrylics, and oils.
Alejandro Diaz is a contemporary artist renown for his work which features text, neon, and humorous sayings.
His basis for much of his art was based on cardboard signs that he made and sold in Mexico that he titled “Mexican wallpaper.”
Although the political and social ideas behind his signs are the same as always, he now uses neon to create more contemporary art. Many works make a racial or class statement cultural statement.
Diaz was raised in San Antonio, Texas. Diaz has also lived in Mexico City and now is based out of New York City.
The artist has also finished sculptures for public commissions.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Diaz is certainly one of the funniest artists out there! I found his take on Warhol’s 15 seconds of fame to be spot on!
Liu Baomin is a wonderful contemporary artist renown for his work with the figure in a very abstract style. Liu Baomin was born in Xian, Shaanxi province, China in the year 1968. Baomin’s style gives the viewer plenty of action and movement to keep the eye busy as you focus on a head that appears to be covered with layers of water or perhaps a sheet of plastic. For his artistic education Baomin earned a diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts located in Xian, China.
price range information: Newer works at auction are bringing in nearly $50,000. No prints are available.
The process is very time consuming and the artist produces only 3 to 4 works per year.
Most of these works fall under the Extreme Illusion series. These works, which can take years to finish, have been very successful at auction world wide.
Baomin lives and works out of Beijing, China.
In his artist statement Baomin tells us his works are to evoke the viewer to take a look at themselves as if they were the face they were looking at. Similar to many Eastern artists Baomin is trying to show the disappointment and various emotions people show as they are caught up in attaining materialistic goals and trying to fit into a more Western world. These artists all seem to have one goal in mind, that people enjoy living in a consumer driven society, but what cost does this society do to the many people caught up in their dreams.
Its a very thought provoking idea to bring consumerism into this picture. Are we interested in people for their thoughts, or for the consumer brands they represent. Are we interested in the person, or the distorted person more?
Wonderful questions to contemplate whilst looking at this fine painter!
Jacco Olivier is a wonderful contemporary artist who takes many photographs of his works when he paints and when finished he combines them together to make a short animated film. Jacco Olivier was born in the year 1972 in Goes, Netherlands.
In this wonderful short animated film that is typical of the artist’s loose brushwork and many photographs, we watch a polar bear swim in water. From the Denver Art Museum!
The gallery consists of film stills taken from Olivier’s films.
In this clip we view a scene at the beach.
Jacco Olivier lives and works out of Amsterdam.
price range info: Sorry none available.
Olivier has exhibited in Denver at the Denver Art Museum and New York, Spain, and Germany.
Jacco Olivier sure has a unique technique in how he develops his paintings!
Sudarshan Pattnaik comes from India and was born in Puri in the year 1977. His medium is something you can find anywhere in his native country, SAND! He is known the world over for his wonderful three dimensional works of art out of sand. For those of you who have never watched live sand sculpture events its quite a team process. You have only a certain amount of time to finish, and in television events they usually blow up a few works for added excitement and the artists just have to start over and rebuild. Its very funny to watch the team competition.
Pattnaik is self taught and learned his craft from trial and error. Pattnaik made his first sand sculpture at the age of seven.
He has also won several international sand sculpting events such as the first Moscow International Sand Sculpture competition.
Included in the Guiness book of world records for the biggest sand sculpture of Santa Claus ever made.
He is a great teacher and enjoys having people pick up this new and exciting form of sculpture. Pattnaik will incorporate various Hindu gods into his work to make people more aware of their surroundings. For illustrating his point on global warming he made a sculpture with Ganesh, the Hindu god of , sitting atop melting glaciers.
The website above is great and very informative. Pattnaik has been running his own academy for sand artists for a decade now! Awesome!
In this clip watch an international sand sculpture competition that was held in Denmark in 2012. Pattnaik won first prize for his sculpture.
Pattnaik is great at using his art to show his feelings of certain events. This time he honors some fallen policemen that got killed during an uprising. Pattnaik wanted to make the world aware of what happened and he accomplished this goal.
Live art in all forms is great. Acting and singing are awesome, but I love to see art being made. Speed painters that could make good likenesses always capture my attention. Pattnaik was to design a live sand animation for the country of India to view as the new year came in 2010. The piece made reference to the unity of the people of India. He also pays his respects to Gandhi. Very interesting to see the sand animation take place in such a short period of time.
No price range or anything of that sort available about the artist. I should think he would take pictures of his work, sign them, and sell them but no such luck! Maybe in the future!
In the gallery all pictures by Atul Dobiya except the last two. His wife made the second to last one and Greg Miller made the last painting.
The artist hails from Bombay, India and was born in the year 1959.
For his artistic education he attended the famous J.J. School of Art located in Bombay. He finished college in 1982.
A great clip here. Atul Dodiya is interviewed and talks about collecting art and the high prices sometimes involved.
In this clip see an exhibition that took place in September and October of this year at Galerie Daniel Templon located in Paris, France. The focus of the show was the scribes of Timbuktu. The interview is in English and subtitled in French.
The artist won a prize given by Sotheby’s in 2000.
One of the most famous contemporary artists working in India today. The artist not only works in mediums, but combines many mediums in one of art. Giving the viewer an overdose of eye candy! What makes his works very unique is that they make statements about India’s past, present, and future states of being. Dodiya cleverly mixes slogans with cultural icons. In one series he has even paid homage to current artists using quotes from David Hockney and Bhupen Khakhar.
Atul Dodiya is not very prolific as an artist as far as output. He prefers to pour much of his energy into a few works of art. Thus his very high prices!
The artist is included in many museum collections including
Dodiya currently lives and works out of Mumbai, India.
Price range information: Dodiya has worked in watercolors which range from $13,000 and up. Lithographs start at $12,000. Acrylics record is $144,000. Also has produced works in steel as well as paintings with enamel and other mixed media that can reach as high as six figures.
Atul is married to another quite famous painter named Anju Dodiya. Below is an example of her artwork.
The artist reminds me of current contemporary artist Greg Miller. Miller works in a similar pattern of using pop culture and iconic material as well as mixing advertising making both of their works a symbol of current life in each of their respective cultures. Miller works out of California. Below is a work of Greg Miller.
Dodiya is also very creative in his use of surfaces. Sometimes he prepares and paints directly on shutters that one would expect to see while walking down a street in India. Sometimes the artist will work on a prepared steel surface.
I went to the second showing of the day and although only two other people were in attendance, I thought the movie explained what I wanted it to. That A.I. was more of a movement now than just a person or an artist.
Here is the official preview of the movie.
We find out that the artist had a child with a friend and not his wife. He just explains to us that is what happened. He then shares with us that he visits the child daily.
Another great treat is that we can view the artist when he IS NOT preparing for an interview or a camera. He was just being himself. The artist seemed to be eating something all the time. He appears always happy and tells us he is mainly an optimistic person.
We get to see how the government always has some people watching his next move. From the cameras the government installed in his private personal compound, to the plain clothes police he sees assigned to watch him for the day. The artist’s father was also put under survaillance for being anti-party long ago. His father was sent to prison but became more famous in China and eventually world wide for his poetry.
Another recent incident occured in 2008 for the Beijing Olympics. Ai Weiwei was the master architect and designer of the Birds Nest. After the party displaced nearly one million Chinese to make way for tourists and Olympic travellers Weiwei was so mad he refused to attend the games.
Also in 2008 a devastating earthquake hit in a province in China called Sichuan. This earthquake killed close to 70,000 people. Ai made a very large complaint that so many children would not have died had the school been built properly. The Communist Party was very upset at the poor publicity. The government refused to name how many kids had died. That was a great start for Ai Weiwei who got some volunteers working on the project. The volunteers did interviews with survivors and Weiwei was able to come up with a reasonable of children that had died. It embarrassed the Party and they wanted revenge on Weiwei.
Weiwei found more than five thousand names and published them on a wall in his office and publishing the list on line. Soon after Weiwei was forced to close his blog and the government set up cameras outside of his house.
This is a great movie if you like to see what is behind the artist’s work. It documents his life and struggles for freedom perfectly!
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