Damian Ortegá is a contemporary artist renown for his large installations, photography, and video art. Damian Ortegá was born in Mexico City, Mexico in the year 1967.
Ortegá spent time as a political cartoonist. This shows up in his skill for finding unique patterns and shapes in his designs.
The artist studied in the atelier of famed Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco.
In this clip we view a work by Damian Ortega with the title ,” Controller of the Universe” The show began in late 2014:
Ortegá is based out of Mexico City, Mexico and also Berlin, Germany.
Price range information: Photographs can be found between $10,000 and $25,000. No pricing available for sculpture works.
Below we visit a show featuring Damian Ortegá that took place in 2009:
His large works that show items that are dissected take me back to the days of my childhood. Before “You tube” and the Do It Yourself network a person was to assemble something complex from a drawing/ painting that looked exactly like one of these installations. Very creative!
Jet Martinez is a popular illustrator and muralist who often works with floral and animal imagery. His work is similar to the Amate style of Mexican folk art painting. Animals and birds are painted with bright colors and mix of floral and botanical imagery.
Jet Martinez was born in Mexico. He often paints scenes that represent areas where he grew up. Martinez attended the San Francisco Academy of Art. Martinez is based out of San Francisco.
Below a look at a mural by Jet Martinez featuring flowers:
In this clip a great interview with Jet Martinez. He talks about what inspired him to become an artist:
Watch out for this question on Jeopardy! Who was the first artist in residence at Facebook? Jet Martinez is the answer. He talks about this experience in the second clip.
The first street artist who painted the Facebook headquarters was David Choe. Choe became a multi millionaire since he chose to be paid for his work in stock. Facebook has proven to be very lucrative for some artists!
The story of how Martinez came to be an artist is one that is repeated over and over. People have self doubt and often aren’t exposed to enough art at an early age. Its funny that his “a-ha” or epiphany moment came when he had a teacher whose work wasn’t very good. Martinez then thought if he can teach anyone can be an artist.
Ricardo Mazal is an contemporary abstract artist. Ricardo Mazal was born in Mexico in the year 1950.
The artist didn’t pursue art as a career until he was 36 years of age. For his first career Mazal ran a successful design company.
Mazal taught himself the world of art by visiting many museums and reading many books. His process of painting includes using photography and also digital technology.
Mazal explores various themes including death and burial ceremonies in his art. An example might be to compare what happens to a body after death in the cultures of the United States, Mexico, and Latin America.
Price range information: Prints can be found for $1,000 to $5,000. No price information available on originals.
The artist is based out of Sante Fe, New Mexico and New York City.
In this clip Mazal talks about preparing for a show in late 2014:
Fernanda Brunet was born in Mexico City, Mexico in the year 1964. Brunet works in a very unique style, painting realism but with a contemporary Pop twist.
The artist paints mainly in acrylics. Brunet is also a sculptor.
I enjoy the artist’s sense of design. The image of the zebra crossing water that looks like a tribute to Japanese Print Master Hirohige.
Pablo Vargas Lugo is a contemporary artist based out of Lima, Peru. Lugo makes paintings and also creates wonderful installations.
Pablo Vargas was born in Mexico City, Mexico in the year 1968. The artist attended the National School for the Fine Arts also located in Mexico City where he earned a B.F.A.
In this clip we watch as Pablo Vargas Lugo creates an installation:
Price range information: Sorry none available.
I enjoy the collages of this artist. These works have a great movement across the surface and also use patterns and shapes that repeat, two great themes in artwork of any kind.
The artist is also similar to Andy Warhol, both spent some time depicting disasters. Vargas Lugo did some works based on the extinction, or disaster of the disappearance of dinosaurs. Very creative and always looking to explore a new medium, a great contemporary artist.
Stinkfish is a wonderful street artist from Mexico who paints portraits with fantastic color and vibrancy. Stinkfish was born in Mexico and grew up in Bogota, Colombia. The artist works on anything that can be painted on! My personal favorite works of the artists are the works created on found magazine covers including Playboy and the New York Times.
The artist began to work with stencils in the early 2000s and in 2003 created a great work that put him on par with other great street artists. The work was of John F. Kennedy saluting his dead father. Stinkfish prefers to paint on older walls, even with cracks in them that are highly textured.
The artist paints mainly on the continent of South America.
In this clip we view Stinkfish at work on a piece of art!
Price range information : Sorry none available.
What a great use of color and design in this remarkable street artist!
Jose Clemente Orozco was born in the year 1883 in Zapotlan el Grande, a small city in the Jalisco region of Mexico. His father was a businessman and his mother occasionally sang for money. His parents worked hard to support him and two other siblings, but the family was on the poverty line. It was difficult time for much of the country, in the midst of the Mexican Revolution. Whilst he was young he was able to view the famous Mexican artist Jose Posada at work. This provided a never ended source of fuel for the man who wanted to become an artist.
He was originally in school to study agriculture, but gave this up after his father died and began taking art lessons. Like many other artists from the this region Orozco attended the San Carlos Academy of Fine Art.
In order to help earn some money for his family after his father died, Orozco took many odd jobs including hand coloring portraits of people that had passed. He was also able to find employment as a draftsman for an architecture firm.
This is when tragedy struck the artist at this time. Orozco was making some home made fireworks to help celebrate Mexico’s Independence Day. Something went wrong and a chemical explosion occurred. It was during the national holiday so he was unable to see a doctor immediately. By the time he got to the doctor his hand was so infected they had to amputate the hand.
He would work various smaller jobs in the art world including as a caricature artist and even painting dolls to help pay the bills.
Along with George Sisquerios and Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozc was among the most well known Mexican artists renown for their mural paintings.
In this clip from PBS we view a brief documentary about Jose Orozco:
Some wonderful footage here! We get to see some of the many murals painted by Orozco, not in a museum, but on the sides of buildings out in the open as they were painted decades ago:
Orozco illustrated the book titled “The Pearl” which was written by John Steinbeck.
Jose Orozco passed away in 1949.
What a multi-talented artist with an incredible life story.
Gunther Gerzso was born in Mexico City, Mexico in the year 1915. His father died shortly after he was born, his mother remarried a German, and the family moved to Europe and then back to Mexico. These were tough times especially economically and his mother sent her child to live in Switzerland with his uncle.
Gerzso’s uncle was well respected in the art world and Gerzso found his creative side whilst living with his uncle. Gerzso also became interested in theater and set design whilst in Switzerland. Economic times would find their way to Europe and the artist was sent back to Mexico to live with his mother. The artist kept sketching and creating in Mexico and became involved in the theater creating sets and even writing plays.
Gerzso was very successful in the theater world winning his country’s version of the Oscar award five times for his work.
The artist began to paint in the early 1930s.
Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship for his art.
Gunther Gerzso passed away in 2000.
Price range information: Works range from $1,000 to $100,000. Gerzso worked as a painter and sculptor.
Gerzso can be considered a very important artist as he contributed so much to different fields of study. A great painter and writer Gerzso was an artist’s artist!
Manuel Bravo was a photographer renown for his work with the people of Mexico and their everyday life. Manuel Bravo was born in Mexico City in the year 1902. For his artistic education Bravo attended the National School of Fine Arts located in Mexico City. Bravo enjoyed shooting the life of the peasant and middle income lifestyle. Even the working class heroes like fireman, were a great subject for Bravo. Bravo is considered by many critics to be the first photographer to put Mexico on the map for fine art photography.
The artist lived during the time of the Mexican Revolution and the rise of mural painters like Manuel Bravo. As a child it was not uncommon for him to come across dead bodies.
In this clip a brief montage of works from Bravo:
In the 1940s Bravo developed a technique using an extra wide lens to shoot the landscapes of Mexico. Bravo was shooting for a panoramic view, similar to the painter Rackstraw Downes. Below an example of Rackstraw Downes painting style. The artist makes several sketches from various horizon points and makes his own image converging these sketches.
He started work as a freelance photographer in the 1930s working for national magazines. For these works he would include photographs of murals by artists like Diego Rivera.
A collection of photographs by Manuel Bravo:
price range information: Works range from $2,000 to $50,000.
In the later years of his life his poor health forbade him from traveling, he then concentrating on photographing the nude.
Manuel Bravo passed away in 2002 at the age of 100.
Vladimir Cora is a contemporary artist born in Acaponeta, Nayarit, Mexico in the year 1951. Cora is a self taught artist and began selling paintings as teenager. Vladimir Cora is known for his painting of the figure with a blend of abstraction and some art deco style works. He was inspired to become a painter after seeing Monet’s Waterlilies. Cora is a painter and sculptor. Some themes of the artist are females, birds, and flowers.
His first love of art was music. Cora wanted to become a famous musician like Carlos Santana, but thankfully for us ended up becoming a visual artist.
The artist was able to work under another world renown painter from Mexico named Rufino Tamayo. Tamayo was influential in Cora’s development, especially in the abstract quality of his figure works. Below a wonderful example of Tamayo’s work. Rufino Tamayo lived from 1899 to 1991.
Cora is a bird enthusiast and owns his own aviary.
First exhibition was in 1974.
Doesn’t like to fly.
In this clip we view a montage of works by Vladimir Cora. Love the mix of abstraction he includes in his figure work:
The artist is a recluse and doesn’t attend many social events. He enjoys staying at home and working day and night in the studio! The artist lives a very balanced lifestyle exercising, painting, and enjoying life at his own pace. For this reason he has not moved to Europe or even Mexico City to further his international standing.
His father gave him the name Vladimir because he was a huge fan of Vladimir Lenin.
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