I hope the piece communicates how hopeful and resilient the human spirit can be, and how important it is that we find ways to stay connected with one another as we go through this strange era.
This image documents the thoughts of one person on one day during the past eight months when Americans of all ages have dealt with a combination of crises brought about by the world-wide Covid 19 Pandemic. This single portrait is one of over 250 produced these past eight months intended to record everyday people during this unique year. The caption best describes the image: (5:50 PM, Wednesday, September 30, 2020) "I think the whole world is lonely - I know I am. I don't think there will be one day, one moment when everything goes back to normal. I don't think it will be normal ever again." -Nine-year-old Mya Shuler, reflects upon the world during the Covid pandemic at her home in Martinez, CA.
I wanted this image to convey the grace and beauty created out of pause and reflection, one of the facets of social distancing, while also revealing the loneliness and isolation.. I wanted to reveal this duality.
As an American, "The Grifters" is an observation on the current state of our nation. I am seeing an increase in the emptying of our coffers by these corrupt elected officials and fear our Country could be robbed of all its resources. My work observes the pitfalls of allowing corruption to thrive and grow amongst a people. It is election year, we are in the middle of a world pandemic, and we are so busy fighting amongst ourselves that we are no longer paying attention to them, that small, yet powerful group of people who control our world, "The Grifters."
I created this piece in late April of 2020, as I was witnessing the new reality of the pandemic. I purposely put this older white businessman facing off with the "universal man", clad in an orange jumpsuit and gas mask, angry at his opponent. His hand is clenched in a fist, ready to strike, whereas the businessman is unflustered, almost amused at the notion. It represents how this crisis affects people differently, based upon their economic and social class. The background is some basic, abandoned city... perhaps a hint of the future?
For two weeks leading up to labor day weekend, I was the artist in residence at Glen Falls House in the Roundtop, New York. While I was there I began the latest chapter of my Itinerant Portraitist Project and completed 57 socially distanced masked portraits from direct observation. The portraits were exhibited at GFH on Sept 6, 2020. I am continuing the project in my parking lot in Brooklyn. The Itinerant Portraitist is an issue-driven, multi-year project in which I explore the constructive effects of portraiture in communities around the globe. Previous chapters have included the Aboriginal population of Taiwan, girls from an orphanage in the United Arab Emirates, taxicab drivers in Cuba, artists in Brooklyn, residents of a nursing home in the Bronx, and women in Saudi Arabia.
She receives the last letter from relatives who are about to perish in the pandemic.
"Survival" is an acrylic painting on panel created with hand-painted circular patterns of dots. When I first started this painting, my thoughts were about how we are all isolated in our houses and how that has become our safe environment. Then, I read an article about the California wildfires in the United States and learned that rabbits and other small animals survived by digging holes as a temporary home to escape the fire. My painting could represent their struggle too. We all have that natural instinct to survive and that what is happening globally is affecting us all.
HIDE, I don't want to hear anything about reality.
This sculpture was created in 2012. Human-looking figures were made by pressing clay into my closed hand. These were then added to a sphere, covering the entire surface. Although it is quite different from my usual work, it still speaks of man and his world. With the current pandemic, this work has taken new importance. It still speaks out for the smallness of our Earth and communication between living beings. But now the sculpture visually reminds us of the shape of viruses and of the difficulty of social distancing in a world of almost 8 billion humans. This reflects my concern to place man in context with the geological world showing that we are part of an inseparable and fragile unity.
Social Distancing 7 is part of a larger series, aimed at providing a contemporary commentary for our new world. The reductive style encompasses some of the alienation and separation we all feel right now. The images show how 2 meters apart may keep us physically distant, but the bright and hopeful colours illustrate a hopeful message for the future where we can come together again.
This is number three in a series of 10 paintings that dealt with the loneliness and isolation of a 100-year pandemic. Initially, I was interested in the view through the window as a metaphor for longing, but in the final analysis, the paintings became more about lonely interior spaces and the stark reality of separation.
It is not an ostensibly serious message. There is an old German fairy tale about Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. I adapted it to the pandemic and made a mask out of the cap. On the other hand, there is currently a heated public discussion about the spread of the wolf in Germany. I also want to show that I am in favor of the spread of wolves in Germany. They are useful for our ecosystem!
The work is about the feeling I am experiencing in the times of Covid. The isolation, inability to see what lies ahead, in a way a feeling of a hostage, taken by the ongoing warlike events. The work has an additional meaning, as I finished a few days before the great artist Christo had passed away and I felt this was in a way a homage, paid to his memory unintentionally.
At first mention of the possible Corona - lockdown people started stocking up on everything imaginable to secure their future stay at home but one of the most hoarded items was toilet paper. People were buying it in unimaginable quantities, with no rational reason. The " Corona Lockdown Armchair" is dedicated to the COVID 19 lockdown. The toilet paper is a symbol of panic, while the armchair symbolizes the time spent at home. The chair was made for the 55th Zagreb Salon 2020, held in June and July in Zagreb, Croatia.
This work is about taking Covid19 seriously and protecting yourself at all times. The piece was shot in my studio and composited in Photoshop. Meditation can be challenging...its difficult to calm the monkey mind, especially in the midst of a global pandemic.
In this painting is a book once read, a chair once sat on, and a mask once is worn. A note on the wall reads 'called 911.' I developed this painting intending to emphasize humanity, isolation and loneliness.
The sculpture was made in response to the pandemic. In the very early days of the outbreak, I witnessed a flock of sandhill cranes take flight and move in tandem making twists and turns as if they were of one mind. My hope is that because the virus threatens all of us regardless of color, gender, age or economic status, we can learn to put aside our differences and work together to heal ourselves and our beautiful planet. We are all in this "Together Flying Through the Sky".
This work is about big data and laboratories where viruses and data are being examined. It's about science and the psychology of social media. The setting is like a sci-fi film set showing a space which most people don't have access to.
Art is a global visual language that connects us. We don't have to be in a same place, same time or even in a same culture to understand each others feeling by visual images. The pandemic gave us new perspectives to reconnect in a virtual space. I personally got inspired by visiting other artists online talks or studio critiques by my online virtual residency.
With this work, I wanted to express the disconnection in human relations and the dilemma of human isolation. In today's crowded world, people are lonely and insincere. There are no people here, only their shadows. However, life and relationships in nature are very different: there is a life intertwined in nature with its birds, butterflies, ants and all other creatures and they are in dialogue. I think here, there is a more sincere and respectful life compared to human relations. If we give nature a chance to live, I think humans will live in a much more beautiful world along with other creatures. I made this study to emphasize this conception.
This painting of South Williamsburg where my studio is, explores the various responses to the mask mandate. It echoes Piero's "Flagellation" with the close figures and recessional groupings.
Alter ego 'Covid 19' is my latest (17th) Alter ego and part of a series of self-portraits which I am making since 2002. These self-portraits are cut-outs which means they are standing free from a wall and placed on a plinth like a sculpture. It shows my state as an artist in this pandemic. Although It's for artists (like many other people) a very hard time, I will always continue painting and drawing! Covid or not Covid, Art will always continue!
The drawing ''Narrowness_Drawings in time of Corona'' is inspired by the current situation with the Covid-19 Virus pandemic. The drawing focuses on describing feelings of anxiety-narrowness . It is about the feeling of limitation, mind modeling, behavior pattern creating, feeling of inability to breathe, move and think freely.
I began making this work just after the first Coronavirus shut down in March. These drawings have origins from an idea I've been working on over the past several years. I generally work in cycles and exploring these figures came back to me as we all hunkered down in our homes and studios. This work is about the need to support, lean on each other, when times are difficult and weight us down. It's a reflection of the confusion, pain, burdens we endure and humanity's need to 'carry' each other through these experiences. Without each other what do we have? The figures are gender/ethnically ambiguous to represent all of humanity - the symbols on the ground plane are inspired by ancient glyphs. The colors are muted like a dreamscape, and soothing, a reminder of the gentle touch we all need.
Homemade inks and material found around the studio on found fragile antique graph paper, used to describe the current state of affairs in 2020 in the USA and the world.
It's about a lonely house in the night. Regarding the current crisis around the lonely individual households. This work shows us what loneliness looks like. I photographed the facade of an office building, edited it digitally and cut it out.
"Witch in A New Time" was created in September this year in the Palace in Kamionna near Wrocław, Poland. The history of this palace, its charm and at the same time its present state as a ruin touched me and I chose this place for my new series. The original manor house was built here in the 16th century and belonged to the von Seydlitz familie. During World War II, the palace was greatly damaged and the lack of renovation after the war meant that the palace was completely ruined. There are historical moments when the future changes direction. We are living in this moment right now.
"Comfort" portrays a couple going through the chaos of seclusion and illness. Their desperation and fear, at being cut off from interactions with others. They are together alone and still share a common bond. They love and comfort each other! This piece depicts the survival of the human spirit and love, even when going through a pandemic.
The picture shows the isolation of the human being, in the times of pandemic more relevant than ever. But there is a spark of hope on the horizon...
This painting was inspired by Trump's statement that he thought he looked like the Lone Ranger while wearing his protective black mask. Trump's silver bullet is Hydroxychloroquine aka HCQS (stamped on every pill). As usual, he's blind to Covid-19, despite being infected by it.
These pieces come from a larger body of work that was my solace was grieving the passing of my mother. My use of the simple symbol of the open hand and thread leaves the viewer to place their only meaning to the process of loss and hope. The introduction of the white crane is was to bring a symbol of "devotion" and "prevailing" happiness, a blessing, to life's resolve.
My works are mixed media. I find it important to use "old" technology such as film-based photography and traditional embroidery to create new mixed media-based narratives. I feel that along with the content of my work discussing continued dynamics of life history, the construction of my work supports the content using a historical craft that is also commonplace in female history.
Fuzzy Pink" is about a feeling when you are not sure of how things gonna work out and yet you're willing to go anyway cause deep down inside your gut tells you that things will gonna work out just fine. I try to achieve this feeling through light and warm colours and combine with raw and bold strokes, playful lines to suggest being in the moment and providing space around to feel oneself and yet there is warmth and joy that feels like home.
"US" is a relational object; a pillow that connects two humans and concurrently detains them together. The two of them make up this image and step by step it seems that their identity fades and they are seen as one. This object creates a symbiosis of these two people in which each one is depending on the other. However charming and recognisable this object is in its appearance, one feels the negative tension this object bears. The longer these persons are sharing this intimate dialogue the more they seem to lose themselves and even suffocate each other. "Us" tells the story about an unseen space and a social space that is not pronounced but wears a tangible tension.
This is a 3'x4' oil painting depicting, "Pestilence on Destrier." It is a modern iteration on an art tradition that reaches back centuries; plague art and the "Danse Macabre". Pestilence arrives as an invading and triumphant king, announcing his arrival with the ever-present flashing emergency lights. In train is his invading army, myriad vectors of disease. At his side, calmly and confidently strides death, dressed and headed to address his work with business-like efficiency. At the margins, all others look on in terror.
This work is about all of us and our different choices during the same moment. It is a "street scene" during the covid-19 pandemic where you can see masks on some and not on others. Whatever we choose to do we are still connected and directly affecting each other. I used a ball-point pen to draw this because it is the most accessible drawing utensil.
This work was made during the first lockdown and is part of a series. The drawings were intended to visually describe social distancing. Showing us all together, but apart, floating in space as time stops and days merge into one.
We live in very tempting times. Diversity of culture is being consumed by a universal wasteland known as the 'modern way of life'. This is the soulless kingdom of the five senses, where only our emotions and intellectual intuition are both standing as the last frontiers before the world plunges deep into a dark age. Humanity is at a crossroads like never before. We need a breath of inspiration, a little ray of light that'll lead us to a 'New Renaissance', long-lasting times of peace, harmony and human touch above all. "There are three classes of people - those who see, those who see when they are shown and those who don't see." - Leonardo Da Vinci
"New Normal", portraits from a social distance. I am interested in observing details and moments that show our human and more vulnerable side, exploring how we live and cope with life. Going food shopping in North London after recovering from Covid-19, I was struck by the unsettling atmosphere and started thinking of how to photograph it. My idea was to visually break the social distancing, by taking close-up portraits with a long lens, but from a distance of 2-3m. Even though their faces are half-covered, we still get an idea of how these people felt that day.
This work is about transformation; physical or spiritual with the guidance of a healing hand.
Since the corona situation started, our kitchen table started to be very interesting. One is that my husband decided it would be his office desk now working from home. The other is that we started actually eating breakfast cooked at home. Sitting at the table trying to eat in the mess around, our two cats decided to join me on the table. You cannot find any more chaotic scene and the anxiety that corona virus may be floating around the kitchen table though invisible. The Japanese proverb I wrote out and intertwined in the image is "見て分からんものは聞いても分からん", which translates as "If you don't get it by looking at it, you won't get it by hearing about it"
During the first lockdown, I missed my children, my grandchild and friends so much that it almost hurt. I am a person who wants to be surrounded by other human beings. Nobody was there to hug anymore, nobody was there to comfort or laugh together ... It was a total period of nobody in my life anymore. Therefore I made this series "No-Body" memory portraits with nobody.
My work was born almost unconsciously. For a very long time, I was carrying the image of two close but separated young people. The white stripe symbolizes the screen of the gadget, which can only be touched by fingers, and the people themselves are separated. Who are they? Beloved ones? Brother and sister? I left it to the viewer to come up with it, I think that the viewer is a full-fledged participant in art. Outwardly, the picture resembles the characters of the Renaissance. I love this particular era in painting, the ideals of those artists, the idea of humanism are close to me. And I hope that after the crisis we will have a new Renaissance.
When he left after 35 years of marriage, I was devastated. Late at night, I pulled the loom beater as hard as I could, shouting every crass, vulgar word I knew, adding layers of weaving, painting, felting, surface design and quilting. I slashed through his head at top right, I reduced his curled arm & legs at right bottom to the background, his rigid "rules" condensed to woven pattern squares, putting him in shadows, his face barely visible. I became the blooming rose emerging from the past. Yes, all that shouting and banging was cathartic. I created and stopped crying! I wish to communicate how I felt, how I got past the hurt and starting blooming again, how creating artwork allows me to work through my life problems with yarn, texture, design and pattern interlacing on my loom.
"Tomorrow Never Came", a mixed media illustration inspired by lovers who spend their nights waiting to be reunited.
"Les branches" is part of my project titled "Time in a bottle". I try to express the expansion of days in a single long thread of time, which not being marked by daily rhythms, duties and pleasures, has undermined our certainties, taking away the possibility of escaping from ourselves.
It's the story, "filmed" through editing, of the fears, anxieties and hopes we shared closed in our cocoon, seen through the eyes of a teenager, my daughter. Talking about freedom during this time was hard, especially with her, being at the moment of her existence she should blossom into life. I was able to do it better through my camera, trying to shed some light where there was too little.
The single blue strip in a field of deeply textural whites and neutrals symbolizes the loss of self and rediscovery. This piece rejects the idealized female body as a sexual object and instead realizes the complicated idea of female in its entirety.
Particularly sensitive people suffer from structures of power during a crisis. They feel isolated and deprived of their utopias and hopes. Despite communities, the cold dark wind of nihilism blows. An individual is more than just a part of a whole.
The work was made in 2012, long before anyone knew about the coronavirus pandemic. However, the work seems to illustrate the virus itself and its insidious spreading on surfaces. A virus-like object rests like a crystal ball in the middle of space. The atmosphere in this series seems to reflect times of the pandemic: social distancing, deserted empty spaces, masked faces, anxious atmosphere and nearness of death.
Originally, the series interpreted the blind spots of society, how luxurious overconsumption has led to surreal dimensions. The work spoke of death masked under Western prosperity. - Today, researchers see pandemics as becoming visible of one blind spot, how man has lived on Earth by destroying it. The planet of death and lost biodiversity must learn a new way of life.
This work is part of a photographic series called “Decisive moment”, a work in which I reflect on inaction against climate change, global warming, and all aspects that affect our environment. Finally, I reflect on us and our world.
The concern of this work focused on the climate situation when the pandemic appeared, irremediably deriving that concern towards the pandemic. The situation reinforces the message of the need for individual responsibility in the pandemic and with the environment if we want to keep our planet safe. With visual poetry as a vehicular language, “Decisive Moment” is a project that wants to show a series of dialogues about the problems our world faces.
It is a realistic work in the manner of an abstract collage with photo realism, with traits of sensuality and decontextualization of the human figure through bodily details and scale breaks.
I use fruits to represent female figures, and this work considers how we need to be aware of the space necessary between us during the pandemic. I sculpt in clay and the work is then cast, using the lost wax process.
My fruits are anthropomorphic and this work represents a time of social distancing during the pandemic. We can see people but not touch each other. I was shielding and had lots of time to think about such a monumental change in our ability to communicate emotion and love. The original is made in clay and the work is then cast using the lost wax process.
Within my body of work, I experiment with the combination of charcoal realism and mixed media. The portrait is drawn in charcoal, the painting is loosely rendered in gouache, and the mask is prominently featured as the theme of the piece in a bright, embellished paper collage. The wearer casts an earnest, yet gentle gaze to the audience, asking them to remove all politics and examine the deeper motivation behind their stance on mask-wearing. It is a commentary on the absurdity of the need for such a plea, especially with all of the research we would ever need to back up the necessity of masks in this pandemic fight. It is a heartfelt request to remove politics from the equation and consider our neighbors in a posture of love.
According to my own observation, in the age of hypermodernism, very many people have become completely alienated from their true self. As pure consumers and soulless consumers, they wander through our world like zombies. My work "THE REVELATION" is more of a metaphysical dimension on the stage. Rather, it is an allegory for the mystery of being human, which among other things is fed by the collective consciousness and in turn flows into the mass of the collective unconscious, the people's soul. The individual, detached from the whole, separated from the unity, asks and pleads for redemption and a return to the unifying divine principle. The human being as a social being is driven by these controversial "covid-19 pandemic protection measures" additionally into isolation and hopelessness.
This window scene, I found in Santiago de Chile in 2015, when I visited my daughter who was working over there. I painted it this year during the first lockdown in Germany because I thought the topic of books and literature would fit very well with the current situation.
I found this motif in Prague in 2018, as a part of my Facade series. These paintings are focused on the presentation of randomly observed everyday life in an urban context. Window scenes, first photographically captured in passing, show a glimpse into the lives of the anonymous inhabitants, on the border between private and public space. In times of Corona, these paintings are gaining an unintended actual meaning, because the living spaces are experiencing a much more existential importance.
My work is about everyday life, happiness and hardships. It concerns the events and things that have happened and are happening in my life and in the lives of many others as well. Being sick is part of that. Your life is paused due to illness and that also happens due to the coronavirus. By this disease, you become isolated, not only by being sick but also because we have to keep our distance from our loved ones. What can be a very difficult task.
"The use of textile, knitting and embroidery, as used here, is often surrounded by a sensitive, tactile and even a vulnerable atmosphere. Consequently, this work encompasses both a tenderness and a fragility in its appearance, yet because it is firmly grounded in the 'temporality', the 'soberness' and the 'tragedy' of existence, it never becomes shallow or sentimental. On the contrary, this art has an extraordinarily gripping resonance. "(text: Daan Van Speybroeck).
The face mask keeps the viruses and bacteria out. Normally the face mask is important to protect vulnerable people. But with the corona virus, the function of the face mask raised many questions.
This is one of my Covid characters which I did last summer. You would not want to touch this one...
Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. This painting is round with a diameter of 145cm. It's the circle of life, and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, 'till we find our place, on the path unwinding. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were.
Because of the dire circumstances that we find ourselves in, I wanted to show that there is always "The Light at the End of the Tunnel", and that things will return to normal some day. We all just have to take it slowly and help each other in any way that we can. Showing hope in my paintings is a genuine way to give encouragement to others. Many of my other paintings use bright colours and creative textures to also show that the future is full of life and endless possibilities.
In this group exhibit, we look at work by artists from around the world which was recently created and deals with the current pandemic. This novel situation has undoubtedly impacted our political and economical lives as citizens and most importantly it has imposed new norms on our social life, daily habits, the way we connect with each other as well as the way we connect to our communities. From the personal to the political the 2020 pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives.
But what about art? How has the production of art been affected by recent restrictions and changes? How has the consumption of art been changed by social distancing? What is the purpose of art in processing this new normality? Can art provide refuge for makers and viewers alike? How can art shape our perspective in this rapidly changing reality?
Artists have a unique way of perceiving, visualizing and communicating and in this decisive historical moment, their visions become immensely significant in providing insight into current circumstances as well as documentation for future retrospection.
It might be too much pressure to expect from contemporary artists to be our mentors or philosophers. For me, the power of art stands in its open-endedness. Art has an influentially non-didactic way of pointing at the truth but instead of blatantly instructing, it invites. Each artwork, actively suggestive, provides space for a dialogue between itself and the viewer’s projected thoughts and intuitions, resulting in the cultivation of a personal, idiosyncratic truth.
I invite you to look at each piece in this exhibit with complete freedom of interpretation and create your personal truth which may provide solace in processing the current crisis, inspiration for surviving it as well as hope to overcome it.
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