Alex Israel is an contemporary American Pop artist who works with themes of the culture of Hollywood. Alex Israel was born in Los Angeles, California in the year 1982. Israel is a painter, sculptor, and installation artist.
Israel earned a B.F.A. from Yale University. The artist went on to earn a M.F.A. from the University of Southern California based out of
The artist is part of the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Artist.
Below a great interview with Alex Israel:
Price range information: The artist works with acrylics on very large surfaces. Works range from $250,000 to $1,000, 000.
Israel has been part of exhibitions in the United States and Europe.
What I enjoy most about Alex Israel is his use of color.
Sarah Sze is an contemporary American sculptor. Sarah Sze was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1969. In addition to sculpture the artist creates site specific installation works.
One of her constant themes to explore is the never ending appearance of commercialism and information in our culture. Often times she includes many man made items in her art.
The artist attended Yale University where she earned a B.A. degree. Sze went on to earn a M.F.A. degree from the School of Visual Arts located in New York city.
She has created installations for the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston, Ma.
In this clip from we view Sarah Sze when she appeared on the P.B.S. documentary series Art21:
The artist represented the United States in the famed Venice Biennial in 2013. In this clip we view her work for this exhibition:
Sze is the past winner of a MacArthur Fellowship.
Sarah Sze is now based out of New York City.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
The artist also produces wonderful prints that feature a mix of silkscreen and engraving.
Charles Burwell is an African-American painter renown for his abstract style which features strong design patterns and color.
Charles Burwell was born in the year 1955. For his collegiate education Burwell earned a B.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art Temple located in Philadelphia. The artist went on to earn a M.F.A. from Yale University located in New Haven, Connecticut.
What I like most about the artist is his sense of design and layering shapes on top of each other. Some works, especially when seen in small thumbnails on a computer screen, appear to be collage works. With his wonderful sense of repeating shapes and placement Burwell is able to create a tremendous amount of depth in the picture plane.
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!
Mark Eberhard is an outstanding painter of floral and bird imagery. Mark Eberhard was born in the year 1949.
Eberhard attended the University of Cincinnati earning a B.F.A. The artist went on to earn a M.F.A. from Yale University.
What I enjoy most about this artist is his sense of design and vivid color. Though his birds are sometimes painted as floating on water, the water doesn’t show any ripples or circles. Its just a flat shape of color. Simple but beautiful.
Farrah Karapetian is a wonderful American photographer born in California in the year 1978. Karapetian attended the Yale School of Art earning a B.F.A. The artist went on to earn a M.F.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Karapetian had her first solo exhibition in 2008.
Her work often deals with people caught up in historical moments such as war or sometimes just doing everyday tasks. Some of her latest work includes images of ice that were taken and glued to a mirror.
If you enjoy this style of photography be sure and check out Man Ray. Karapetian also reminds of Andy Warhol for the fact she uses items we see in everyday life, but breaks them down to simple geometric shapes.
The way the images are cropped the viewer isn’t exactly one hundred percent sure of the image they are looking at. Is the shape a drum or a ferris wheel? A simple form when reduced in shape and color can become very interesting when composed creatively.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
In this clip we view a short interview with the artist talking about her photography. Two other artists are shown in the discussion. The segment featuring Farrah Karapetian begins at 18:30 minute part of the clip:
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.
George Nelson was a contemporary American furniture and industrial designer born in Hartford, Connecticut in the year 1908. One of his famous designs was the pretzel chair. He was also known for the marshmallow chair and platform bench.
Below a wonderful clock designed by Nelson:
Nelson attended college at Yale University. He graduated with a degree in architecture and easily found employment before he graduated from college with a firm.
The beginning of his professional career he was mainly a writer appearing in many industry magazines. Nelson made great use of his position by getting to meet and exchange ideas with the leading industrial modernists in the world.
He also helped to write a book titled Tomorrow’s House. This book had some very new ideas about house design. Impressed by this book a representative from the design company Herman Miller offered a full time furniture design job to Nelson despite his having no experience at the position.
His contract was very generous because it allowed him to work outside the company if he desired. He was also able to collaborate with artists of his own liking. He would take the money earned and actually start his own design firm in New York City using the industries leading designers.
Nelson retired in the early 1980s.
Below another clock designed by Nelson:
George Nelson passed away in 1986 at 77 years old.
One thing that is important to remember about Nelson is that he was similar to a CEO in charge of a company, not always directly responsible. It was found out much later that designs that were given credit for being made by Nelson, were often times designed by someone else who was not given any credit.
This man was a very modern thinker when it came to design. He first developed the outdoor shopping mall so popular in American right now back in 1971.
Below a wonderful exhibit that took place at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art:
price range information: Sorry none available.
To close we take a look at another popular George Nelson design, the coconut chair:
In this clip we view a show featuring Deborah Zlotsky from 2011:
Price range information: Works range from $3,000 to $15,000. Zlotsky works with oils on canvas.
The artist has a wonderful sense of color. Her work is very abstract with a great sense of composition. The artist gives the viewer a sense of dimension despite not painting a horizon line. Her works seem to float above the surface with a great sense of movement.
Ann Toebbe is a wonderful mixed media artist working with interiors in a flat style. Anne Toebbe was born in Chicago, Illinois in the year 1974. Toebbe is both a painter and collage artist.
Ann Toebbe attended many of the best art colleges in the country including Parson’s School of Design and earned a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Toebbe went on to earn a MFA from Yale University.
What I enjoy most about the work of Ann Toebbe is her ability to change perspective viewpoints. Toebbe does a wonderful job at exercising her artistic license to make a wonderful work of art that is reminds me of the whimsical realism of great Disney master artists of yesteryear.
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