Gabriel Specter is an American street artist renown for his work with the face and figure. Specter works as a painter, printmaker, and installation artist.
Another great aspect of the artist’s work is his attention to the sense of history of a certain place or time. He does this by paying attention to different lettering styles, such as those find in different advertising campaigns. The artist also uses clothes as a main subject.
Specter has worked with major international brands and is very successful as a commercial artist.
The artist is now based out of Brooklyn, New York.
Raoul Hague was a wonderful sculptor renown or his abstract works made of wood that often have the torso as the subject matter. Raoul Hague was born in Constantinople, Turkey in the year 1904.
price range information: Sorry none available.
The artist was well schooled attending the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois. Hague also studied at the Beaux Arts School of Design located in New York City and the Art Student’s League of New York City.
The artist was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Raoul Hague is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement.
The artist was in his mid fifties when he had his first solo show.
Raoul Hague passed away in 1993 at the age of 88 years of age.
For much of his working career the artist was based out of Woodstock, New York.
What a wonderful style he had working with the torso as the subject matter but using wood which has fun repeating patterns and lines. Its as if we as viewers get a couple of works of art with the wood and with the torso!
Jonas Wood is an artist renown for his fantastic paintings of interiors. Jonas Wood was born Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1977. Wood works in many mediums including acrylics, oils, colored pencils, and gouache.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Wood attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges earning a bachelors degree. This four year liberal arts college is located in Geneva, New York in the Finger Lakers or upstate region of New York. Wood then went on to earn a MFA from the University of Washington located in Seattle, Washington.
As far as being a very successful artist working in many genres, Wood enjoys painting sports figures and in this clip he talks about this exciting genre:
In this clip we view a show featuring Jonas Wood that took place in 2013:
I enjoy the use of artistic license used by the artist. Some objects are drawn flat but his pictures have some degree of depth or dimension by the Wood’s spectacular use of patterns.
Jonas Wood is based out of Los Angeles, California.
I have written about this artist before, but as luck would have it Kara Walker has a new shoe and some works were made with sugar. The location was the Domino Sugar Factory located in Williamsburg, Brookly, New York. In this clip we visit her most recent show with our friend James Kalm:
The show is free to the public, so if you have the opportunity be sure and see Kara Walker’s work!
As usual her work has managed to cause controversy about racism. But the main work of a large “Mammy” type character is executed well using many tons of sugar and loads of assistants.
In this clip we visit a show featuring Joyce Pensato with our beloved art friend James Kalm a.k.a. Loren Munk:
Joyce Pensato is an American artist renown for her work with cartoon style figures done with a black and white palette. A more sinister side to all of our carton friends from Homer Simpson to Mickey Mouse is shown. Joyce Pensato was born in Brooklyn, New York in the year 1941.
Pensato works with enamels, charcoal, and pastels. She also makes installations which use stuffed animals.
Joyce Pensato was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship.
Also a winner of the Pollack-Krasner award.
Her work represents the American Dream gone sour and heading in the wrong direction. Perfect social commentary for a time when people are protesting against low pay and asking for an increase in the minimum wage.
So James Kalm and the Kalm report are often referred to when we visit art shows on this website. James Kalm is the internet name for the artist Loren Munk. Munk was born in the year 1951. Munk is based out of Brooklyn New York and is also a curator. His work has something for everyone from great use of color, to various types of text and letters, and even maps.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Kalm’s youtube channel featured here often shows the artist traveling by bike to shows across the Brooklyn area.
In this clip we visit a show featuring Loren Munk from 2011:
Rafael Tufino was a wonderful artist from Puerto Rico born in the year 1922. Amongst his people Tufino was given the name “The Painter of the People.” The artist was born in Brooklyn, New York and lived in the United States until he was 10 and he went to live with his grandmother in Puerto Rico. Began his art career at the age of twelve painting signs and working with letters as his chosen form of art. This would come in very handy years later when working on producing posters.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Tufino was part of World War 2 serving in the army. After his service the artist took off for Mexico where attended the San Carlos Academy studying painting and printmaking.
Rafael Tufino is included in many prominent museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art of Puerto Rico.
As a fan of all art forms I think that poster art has been under appreciated until recently. At auction some artists featured here such as Toulouse- Lautrec or David Klein have broken the $10,000 barrier mark at auction. To me the art of making posters is just a cheaper version of a lithographic print. You must be a great artist to make fun and exciting posters.
A wonderful selection of works by the artist. As you can tell through some etchings Tufino was a great draftsman:
A brief interview with the artist. The artist’s voice is interpreted:
Rafael Tufino passed away in 2008 at the age of 85 years of age.
What a great style the artist had. When I compare it to other great poster artists such as David Klein, its amazing to see how they made the letterform the main part of their artwork. Long before the days of computers its important to remember it was all done by hand. If you enjoy the letterform as art be sure and check out my favorite artist in this category, Robert Cottingham. Below an example of Cottingham’s style with the letterform.
Frank Bowling, whose government name is Richard Sheridan Franklin Bowling, is a fantastic artist born in what is now Bartica, Guyana, South America. In Guyana his father was a policeman and his mother was a seamstress. At the age of fifteen Bowling moved to England and the artist moved in with an uncle.
In England he studied at the Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art. At the Royal College of Art several now famous artists were his classmates including David Hockney and Peter Phillips.
Bowling began as a painter working with the landscape and doing paintings that the public would expect from an artist in the Caribbean. Thus after he left London for New York city. It was in New York city where Bowling was able to produce what most critics say are his strongest works. This was the period of time in the United States when Abstract Expressionism was en vogue.
Bowling came to the United States in the mid 1960s.
From 1969 to 1972 was an editor for Arts Magazine.
Winner of two Guggenheim Fellowships.
Two very important honors for the artist include being elected a member of England’s royal Academy of Arts. The first person of color to be a member!
Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2008.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
In this clip a brief bio from the Tate.
A brief clip from a longer biographical documentary filmed about Frank Bowling.
If you love this artist’s work as much as I do then be sure and check out artist Richard Mayhew. Mayhew is also a person of color born in 1924 that enjoys painting landscape but in a loose and relaxed manner that has more to do with tonalism and feeling of the atmosphere rather than a specific time or space. Below an example of Richard Mayhew’s.
Matthew Ritchie was born in Great Britain in the year 1964. In this clip from art21, we visit Ritchie before a show. Ritchie is known for his bold style mixing oil paints and marker.Ritchie works out of London.
For his collegiate studies Ritchie attended the Camberwell School of Art in London. In addition he attended Boston University for one year. His first major exhibition was in 1990. This brought national attention to the contemporary artist and paved a pathway to a succesful art career.
When looking at Ritchies work it close to the abstract artist Julie Mehretu. The conceptual side reminds me of Matthew Barney. Since conceptual art is best explained by the artist and here Barney explains some ideas behind his work.
Ritchie concentrates more on drawing than painting in his art. First drawing images freehand and then scanning then into a computer. Once in the computer Ritchie can shrink or enlarge his images according to their placement in the final work. Similar to the way Mehretu uses architecture plans for cities in some works and then includes abstract shapes on top. As themes for his art he enjoys exploring ideas of religion, science, and philosophy.
For his sculpture work Ritchie uses sheet metal.
From the Saint Louis Museum of Art Ritchie talks about his art work.
The artist was part of a unique show given by the San Francisco Museum of Art. The show featured artists whose forms of art that could be found only online. Another work had the viewer visit a certain website, once on the site you would meet people well known figures from history. Another theme explored by the artist was gambling. Ritchie was looking to explore the human desire to be a winner. In his game each player that took a card played a unique and important role in the evolution of the universe.
Ritchie has been included in high profile exhibitions at the Dallas Museum, Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Price range info: Oils range from $50,000 to $230,000 These works are fairly large and most times include drawings done in black marker. No price range available for installations. Lithographs and watercolors range from $3,000 to $10,000.
Ritchie is married to an actress who has appeared mainly in independent movies. Her name is Garland Hunter.
Another sculptor who makes a similar round shape in her work similar to Ritchie is Bonnie Collura. With her dynamic composition Collura’s figures seem very animated and lively. Collura was born in 1970 and is also great at sculpting clothing, fabric, and the different folds each contain. Here is an example of Collura’s sculpting style.
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