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Spotlight • Contemporary Art Magazine

Issue 33

On the Front Cover - Mauro Menin
On the Back Cover - Ilze Egle
Spotlight On - Tom Jean Webb

 

Discover the 33rd issue of Spotlight • Contemporary Art Magazine, featuring an exclusive selection of 127 fine artists from around the world. We examine what art looks like today through a wide spectrum of ideas, practices, and styles, offering artwork that should be collected. Leaf through the magazine online and click on each artist’s link to see more work and contact them directly.

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Artists On Review

CFA Artist of the Year: Thomas W. Schaller

Treehouses Without Trees - Watercolor 24 x 18 in.

"Why we paint is far more important than how or even what we paint. It is always my aim to paint the expressive experience of my inspirations rather than any physical reality. My work is always a study in contrasts: light / dark, vertical / horizontal, warm / cool, the real / the imagined, and elements of the past, present, and future."

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Dot by Dot: Jingfeng Li

"The beauty of realistic pen-and-ink painting is that it uses just a black line to paint a rich and delicate picture. It presents a beauty of vicissitudes. I like the color of black, white and gray. Its deep, quiet yet noble quality profoundly attracts me."

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Art-chitecture: Marc Brousse

A Leaf for Eternity - Sculpture with burnt wood, stained glass, gold leafs 4 x 3.5 m

"The artist interweaves his architectural knowledge with the different modes of artistic expression; sculpture, drawing, video. In the continuity of the process of architectural and artistic design, the artist explores new medium to magnify and illustrate the intimate link between the Architecture of Man and Architecture of Nature."

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The Perfectionist: Herman Smorenburg

Dream Cat - Oil on canvas 50 x 40 cm

"I see my paintings as archetypical images, as universal 'icons' that are for the most part unhooked from the limitations of the spirit of the age and culture. They invite the onlooker to experience the psychic power with which the image is charged. This interactive effect of the spirituality of the imagination is the deepest motivation for my being an artist

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Lyrical Abstract: Mariclair Plante

The Messenger Bird - Gallery canvas 40 x 60 in.

"My work comes in 4 major series: Emotion, Energy, Perception, Cocooning. On a canvas coated with textural mediums, I paint in a state of being in suspension, freed from the interferences and constraints of everyday life, from which spring its "pictorial synchronicities."

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Collage: Bob Conge

An Egon Schiele Night - Mixed media 33 x 39 in.

“I am a sponge and everything in life influences who I am becoming and in turn my work. I am inspired by being. I make things in gratitude for this opportunity to be able to do so. It is so amazing to be alive.”

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The Abstractionist: Petra Schott

Plants Taking Over II - Oil on canvas 120 x 120 cm 3800€

"My work is influenced by the tradition of hundreds of years of painting. I learned from the old masters and from the modern masters, not in the way that I copied them, but in the way that I take up certain aspects of their work. Also, I am influenced by nature and my regular walks in the mountains which I find very healing and calming. I take up all these influences and try to find my own path in art. I want to open a door with my works allowing the viewer to enter new inner spaces and have visions of freedom and a truth beyond words."

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Historical Sculpture: Barry Davies

Saint David - Bronze 140 x 75 x 70 cm £45,000

"As a professional figurative bronze sculptor depicting historical figures in statuary, and beauty inherent in human and animal anatomy, I adopt a thoroughly researched approach achieving anatomical precision supported by mathematical applications bridging science and art. If nature provides mathematics inherent within anatomy then its for the sculptor to identify this and calculate it in his work."

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Portraits Revisited: Kathryn Bagwell

Pinball Girl - Oil and graphite on canvas 24 x 18 in. • Sold

"Synesthesia is something I have experienced firsthand, as I sometimes see colors when I play the piano. Interestingly, I find that I cannot listen to music that I have never heard before when I am working in my art studio. I tend to listen to the same music over and over, and currently have the Dave Brubeck quartet on repeat. I am grateful for this chapter in my life and the opportunity to connect with people through art.”

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Misheard Dialogs: Daukante

Grief Lunch - Markers on paper 100 x 70 cm

"I'm Daukante, an illustratress from Lithuania with a passion for quirky objects. Art schools that I have attended encourage conceptual thinking and experimentation, however studies led me to seek inspiration in the opposite direction. It's the casual everyday situations that I find most intriguing."

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Playful Surrealism: Lili Jiang

Fantasy series, Love of Nature -Oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm

"Art has become life-like, and the development potential of society makes it possible for people who have not engaged in art education to become artists. The key depends on whether they have the idea of participating in society and creativity."

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Equine Photography: Tori Gagne

Isadore Cruce - Photography on dye sub aluminum 16 x 24 in.

"The horse is a highly sensitive intuitive creature. My experiences with wild and domestic horses have had a longterm grip on my photography practice. I spend a good deal of my time photographing wild horses in the western states in order to advocate to keep their lives free on our public lands."

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Beauty will save us: Julia Hacker

Secret Garden 8 - Acrylic 76 x 60 in.

"Today art and my life are intertwined. My desire to learn how to live in the moment, how to be truly present, and search for awareness is a lifelong quest that I cherish. It is a state of consciousness when I feel appreciation and humbleness, and interconnectedness with the universe that I strive to express in the process of the evolution of my art."

Eberhard Marx: Twisting Reality

Water Musical Fountain of Youth - Oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm 2300€

"Early on, I was fascinated by the old masters and the Romantics. The precision of the depictions, the painterly mastery and the wealth of ideas. These unconditional prerequisites for their work had cast a spell over me. Deep artistic feeling and high quality craftsmanship are for me the standard for successful art."

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Mixed Media: Jean Pederson

Blink - Mixed media 40 x 40 in.

"It is my desire to employ different materials, scale and processes in my work and are the evidence of an artist always taking risks searching for that connection, that one "true" moment between myself, subject and you the viewer."

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Art & Science: Linda-Saskia Menczel

The Celestial Mechanics of Providence - Wood, glass, engraving, sound system, kinetic system 150 x 175 x 200 cm

"The Beautiful, the Good and the Noble are reflected by the artist in his creation, and from his creation, into the world. A sacred theme, interpreted with reverence, urges its creator to rise to the level of the message he expresses through his vocation."

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The Realist: Otto Schmidinger

Alpha - Oil on canvas 91 x 91 cm • Sold

"I started my art career at 16 as a retoucher and Illustrator, rendering hyper real images using the airbrush. In the 50 years of my freelance career, I learnt to use all mediums to achieve the client's required result. My first painting was hung in the salon des refusés of the Archibald Australia's major portrait prize. I started painting seriously after retiring from my advertising career."

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Unknown Topographies: John Ralston

Janoxeh - Paint, Gypsum Powder, Resin - 14"x18"x4" - $2300

"This work accelerates and embellishes natural forms of accumulation and erosion. While it could be said that they are emulating nature, specific methods and materials are used to disrupt the relationship between our earth-bound perception and evoke the true synthetic characteristics within each piece. Jarring color changes and manic tooling are employed to convey alien topography while the reflective surface disrupts the immediate association to scenery that we collectively understand."

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Intricacies: Massimiliano Pezzolini

Finestra in stile manuelino del convento di Tomar, in Portogallo - Watercolor on Pescia paper 35 x 50 cm

Pezzolini graduated in Scenography at the Brera Academy. He painted architectural sketches and miniatures in collaboration with Mondadori for the monthly magazines Bell’Italia and Bell’Europa, and has drawn sketches for Jean Paul Gautier, Versace, Escada, and Lacroix. Massimiliano Pezzolini's works are done with a wide range of media and techniques, but the protagonist is undoubtedly watercolor.

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Contemporary Women: Monika Furmana

On the Kurgan. Ukraine - Oil on canvas 210 x 165 cm €10,000

My creativity is attached to my everyday life to what I look us from a distance and question why people or generally humanity act in one or another way in certain situations which appears as a layers of creative subject matter during my painting process. I collect archive pictures of details and objects for my painting during all time I spend on a social media or in the real life. Those details become a part of my paintings and become some kind of diary and a proof of my existence.

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Life of Animals: Annik Janssens

The Sprinter - Pastel 40 x 50 cm

"All my life I have had a huge passion for animals and everything that has to do with nature. I strive to convert my passion for animals into realistic portraits where I try to approach the character of the animal as much as possible. I often draw endangered species and want to include a message."

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Pencil on Paper: William Charuhas

Christina and Teddy - Colored pencils 15 x 10 in.

"As a retired architect and retail design executive, I draw unconventional subjects in a representative style. My illustrations are 'snapshots' from unfinished or untold stories that peek into a fantasy world where anything is possible."

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Romantics: Elisabetta De Maria

La fille aux Fleurs - Pastel on on Pastelmat 30 x 40 cm

Born in Genoa, Elisabetta De Maria graduated in Piano in just 5 years with honors (10/10) at the Verdi Conservatory in Turin.She took courses in painting in Italy and Spain, and in 2019 in the Usa, she was awarded the CDA. Her works are made of intersecting pastel lines and layers of buttery mines that overlap to form faithful hiperrealistic portraits. Elisabetta's perfect transpositions of photos.

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In-Betweenness: Flo Dinis Klopries

The Desert In Me (2) - Oil and mixed media 100 x 140 cm

"My artwork has gradually developed from a personal form of figuration to Abstraction and Abstract Figuration, although I haven't abandoned figuration completely. Another important aspect of my work, is what I would call an immanent state of cultural and artistic "In-Betweenness" in part due to my biography."

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Art Magazines by CFA Press

Circle Quarterly Art Review #8

Circle Quarterly Art Review #6

Circle Quarterly Art Review #4

Circle Quarterly Art Review #8

Spotlight Magazine #31

Art IDEAL #2

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Cyclus - Photography, 19" x 24", $900

Heather Allison

Shadows of Remembrance: A Memento in Still Life

Living near the tempest-prone shores of the northern coast of California, Heather Allison's work is shaped by fog-filled skies and moody beaches. Best known for her pensively lit still life photographs of exotic and domestic ephemera, Heather arranges taxidermy, flowers, bones and books into dramatic compositions reminiscent of vanitas style Dutch master botanical paintings. Her photos dance the line between the macabre and the sublime: a nod to her love of Victorian memento mori; she venerates both equally.

Her love of and background in art history can be seen in her works, connecting the modern age to her predecessors in visual art. Though she began her career in photojournalism and event coverage, it was the sudden passing of a family member that inspired Heather to explore the transience of life through still-life imagery; it is here that her passion for the medium was revitalized and continues.

Heather has an AA in Photojournalism from Brooks Institute of Photography, a BFA in Art History from the Academy of Art University, and is currently working on an MFA in Fine Art Photography at AAU. Showing across the United States and internationally, Heather Allison's imagery has been featured in such art publications as 'The Shoutflower,' she maintains close working relationships with luxury interior design firms such as Raven Vanguard, and her works can be found in private collections both domestically and overseas.

Read a Q&A with Heather Allison >>

Bryce August LeFort

Dynamic Crafted Reflections

Bryce LeFort is a craftsman and an artist. He grew up on and near the water with constant devotion to the ocean, competitive sailing, and building. Bryce received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in both communications and fine arts. Combining his love for making and sculpture with sailing and water, he began his career as a boatbuilder by attending the International School of Yacht Restoration.

Over the next 15 years working in the marine industry, he honed his skills, advanced his abilities to create, and laid the foundation for his work as an artist today. In the spring of 2022, Bryce received his master's in Fine Arts from California College of the Arts. Bryce currently lives in Los Angeles.

Read a Q&A with Bryce August LeFort >>

Ain't No Mountain High Enough, 2022 - Laminated Douglas Fir ; 48" x 54" x 28" ; $4200
OUT OF CIRCLE AT 15:16 - Acrylic, pencil and red chalk on canvas - 91.44 x 91.44 cm - 3000€

Dal Hrk

A Look at a Unique Mixed Media Practice

At the age of 12, Dal Hrk got his first oil colour kit and canvas. He didn't know much about the technique, and he started alla prima. In 1976, the artist was refused entry at the Slovak Academy and instead he began studies in Architecture at the Technical University of Slovakia. In 1977, Dal was introduced to master artist Jozef Bubak. After five years of sucking up the knowledge from his wisdom and experience on nature, light and shadows, objects, animals, materials, portraits and human anatomy, Dal started to find his own way of expression. From 1979 to 1998, he exhibited his art in a few collective exhibitions in Slovakia. After repatriating to Canada, Dal Hrk continued painting.

Hrk's work is inspired by real people and their life situations. He interprets the human body in terms of well-being, perseverance, energy and relaxation. He conveys his version of subconscious and conscious reality. Dal is trying to achieve an enhanced depth of color with layering techniques. The work takes on an individual character perceived not only with the visual but through other senses as well. Portraying the body in an abstract way, he may use individual parts, and symbols connected to the emotional life of the model. His compositions are usually adorned with symbols, animals, insects, flowers or any other objects. Dal employs a strict geometrical layout in his compositions embedded with storytelling.

Read a Q&A with Dal Hrk >>

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Circle Foundation is a platform dedicated to discovering and introducing current trends and original practices in all visual arts fields. Through our high-quality magazines and our juried member artists’ pages, we offer a selection of remarkable art worth collecting.

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Fine artists working in all visual arts media, styles or disciplines can apply for feature on our website. See more details and submit your application form today.

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We publish international magazines that tell the story of what art looks like today. Available to read online for free, our publications are optimally designed to help the reader connect with the artist, by a simple click to their linked website. Our magazines are printed in Europe in deluxe quality paper and are available in two sizes; pocket and regular. 

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