Mehdi Ghadyanloo is an contemporary Iranian street artist renown his Op Art style. Mehdi Ghadyanloo was born in Karaj, Iran in the year 1981.
Ghadyanloo worked as a farmer before attending college at the University of Tehran where he studied painting. The artist went on to earn a masters degree in animation from Tarbiat Modares University.
Below a wonderful montage of works by the artist including many before and after shots of his painting surface:
Over his career Ghadyanloo has painted more than 100 murals around Tehran. The artist uses street art to make his city beautiful. He adds color to the grays of everyday life. In this clip we view many of the artist’s mural works:
The artist had his first solo exhibition in London, England in 2015.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Ghadyanloo has a wonderful sense of design. The artist uses a great mix of organic and geometric shapes that really make his work grab the viewer’s eye.
Jeremy Deprez is an American artist renown for his blend of abstract and Op Art style. Jeremy Deprez was born in Portland, Maine in the year 1983.
Deprez attended the University of Houston, Texas where he earned an M.F.A.
Below a brief interview with Jeremy Deprez:
For some of his abstract works the artist becomes a realist painter! The paintings are representations of children’s artificial clay, like the brand Play-doh, that the artist lumped together.
Deprez is now based out of Houston, Texas.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Expect great things to come from this artist who in 2015 had his first solo exhibition in New York City. The artist has a great use of color. The abstract shapes in his work are also very interesting.
The idea of painting a ball of clay is very unique!
Luis Tomasello was an Argentinian artist renown for his Op Art style. Tomasello was a painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Luis Tomasello was born in Buenos Aires, La Plata, Argentina in the year 1915. Tomasello is renown for his style of placing white cubes on a white surface that play with shadows and reflections of light.
The artist studied for six years at the National Academy in Buenos Aires. He then went on to study at the Academy of Art Ernesto de la Cárcova for an additional two years.
In 1957 the artist moved to Paris, France. At that time Tomsello was part of a niche that included many Latin American artists living in Paris.
In this clip a brief interview with Luis Tomasello:
Luis Tomasello passed away in 2014 at the age of 99.
Price range information: Prints can be found starting around $10,000. Original works in acrylics range from $20,000 to $150,000. Works in wood range from $25,000 to $225,000.
Other Op Art masters already profiled here include Carlos Cruz- Diaz, Victor Vasarely, and Bridget Riley.
Here we look at very close up view of a work from Tomasello:
Tomasello reminds me of Carlos Cruz Diez as both artists pushed Op Art from images appearing on flat surfaces to three dimensional works.
Victor Moscoso is an Spanish/American artist associated with the San Francisco Poster movement that took place in the 1960s and 1970s. He blazed a path in the commercial industry designing concert posters, advertisements, and comics.
Victor Moscoso was born in Olerios, Galicia, Spain in the year 1936. The artist is well educated having studied at the Yale University, Cooper Union College, and the San Francisco Art Institute.
He learned color in college and art school, yet most of his posters were based on the opposite of what he learned. For his use of color he counts the artist Josef Albers as a major influence.
In this clip we catch with our beloved fellow artist and art enthusiast James Kalm to visit a show featuring drawings from the 1960s to the 1980s of Victor Moscoso:
Price range information: Drawings and posters range from $1,000 to $5,000.
Victor Moscoso remains based out of San Francisco.
What I enjoy most about the poster artists, is their modernist ideas when it comes to design. Sure the posters look great and I think sometimes are taken for granted with the use of the computer and so much digital art. But this artist used color by applying to a surface, not by working it on photoshop.
Another key aspect in his design was his use of using his hand drawn letters. He didn’t use a computer or certain font, he developed his own styles of lettering.
What a great artist that was far ahead of his time!
Anoka Faruqee is an American artist working in an Op- Art style that a viewer might call handmade pixels. Anoka Faruqee was born in
Faruqee attended Yale University earning a B.F.A. The artist went on to earn a M.F.A. from Tyler University located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Faruqee is a professor at Yale teaching painting and printmaking.
We catch up with our friend James Kalm and visit an abstract show featuring Anoka Faruqee’s work at the 13:30 mark of the clip. I was really impressed with the quality of some of the other artists in this show and will be featuring them soon. One work was very unique, a digital print on velvet!:
Price range information: Sorry none available.
I enjoy the artist’s use of line and how she creates works that seem to move as the viewer changes position. Another artist who has a wonderful sense of motion in her artwork is Shirley Kaneda.
Jeffrey Steele is a British abstract artist. Steele’s work is based on geometric abstraction and pattern and design. He was also part of the Op Art movement with his black and white paintings which recall another British artist, Bridget Riley.
Jeffrey Steele was born in Cardiff, Great Britain in the year 1931. Steele went on to attend what is now Cardiff Metropolitan University. At the time it was the Cardiff College of Art.
The artist is also a gifted musician. He plays the trombone.
Two artists that provided inspiration to work in an abstract style were Victor Vasarely and Josef Albers.
Steele taught at the collegiate level at Portsmouth Polytech.
price range information: Sorry none available.
Steele flourished as an abstract artist in the 1970s. These works were mainly in black and white. Recently the artist has added to color and many of these newer works remind me artist Carlos Cruz Diez.
Alberto Biasi is an Italian artist renown or his abstract mixed media works which include elements of Op-Art and also kinetic art.
Alberto Biasi was born in the province of Padua, Italy in the year 1937.
His works are famous for the fact that the surface of the image appears to shift as the viewer changes their position. You can even see this in the second video clip.
In this clip a montage of works over the artist’s lengthy career beginning in the 1950s:
To close we visit a show featuring Alberto Biasi that took place in 2012:
The artist is part of many prominent collections including the Museum of Modern Art located in New York City.
Price range information: Works range from $10,000 to $70,000.
I enjoy the mixture of kinetic and op art employed by Biasi. Whilst similar to such luminaries as Bridget Riley or Victor Vasarely, Biasi’s art has unique feel all to its own.
Tadasky, also known as Tadasuke Kawayama is a fantastic Japanese artist renown for his paintings using the circle and a great use of color. His works are a blend of Op- Art and color field painting.
Tadasky was born in Nagoya, Japan in the year 1935.
In this very brief clip a view of the studio of the artist. Its a great to see the very large size of many of Tadasky’s work:
The artist paints with oils and acrylics.
price range information: Works range from $10,000 to $70,000.
Some influence on Tadasky include Josef Albers and the Bauhaus School.
What a great use of the circle! Another artist who works with circles is Amelia Caruso. Her work is not Op-Art based, but her freehand drawing and painting of circles and patterns of circles led her to receive some great commercial design contracts.
Warren Isensee is an American painter working in an Op Art style. Warren Isensee was born in Asheville, North Carolina in the year 1956. Isensee attended the University of Oklahoma where he studied architecture and graphics design.
Below we visit a show from 2010 featuring the art of Warren Isensee:
What I enjoy most about the work of Isensee is that he creates his own shapes. When looking at a Frank Stella painting or a work of Op Art with Bridget Riley the viewer sees many straight hard edges lines. By creating his edges freehand it gives his work a more artistic and free feeling.
Also his use of color is extraordinary. If I were to compare him to another artist it would be the collage master Rex Ray.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
To close we view a show from 2012:
Isensee works mainly in oils but has made some fantastic works using colored pencils.
Tomma Abts is an amazing abstract painter born in Kiel, Germany in the year 1967. Abts is a past winner of the famous and prestigious Turner Prize. For an abstract painter, Abts uses a great deal of organization in her composition that reminds of the great Op Art painter Bridget Riley. Abts work has a great movement, as if you were looking at a lava lamp from the 1960s and waiting for the shape to alter itself slightly.
Abts attened the Berlin School for Fine Art.
In this clip Abts is awarded the Turner Prize. A brief background about the Prize is given:
Abts won the Turner Prize in 2006.
What a great example of modern abstraction. One of my favorite things to look for in abstract work are fun patterns and shapes. Abts uses wonderful geometric shapes and often many works use both acrylic and oil paint. Another element I really enjoy about her work is that she is not a flat painter, she will often add dimension to a work by adding a shadow.
The artist is now based out of London, England:
In this clip we view a show featuring Tomma Abts from 2013
Price range information: Works range from $2,000 to $50,000. Abts is an avid printmaker.
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