abstract – Circle Foundation for the Arts

Franco Margari

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Italian Artist, Franco Margari lives and works in Florence. He began his artistic experience in the graphic field in the 80s and specialized in engraving techniques, from the early 90s he also devoted himself to painting.

During this time, he has qualified his exhibiting activity by participating in numerous prestigious collective exhibitions and has set up many solo exhibitions, including at Art Point Black Gallery in 2000 in which he presented his "Horizons" series for the first time. He has solo shows at Puccini Art Center and at the Villa Medicea in Poggio Imperiale and the Diocesan Museum of Florence (2004) with 12 works inspired by the Gospel of John, one of which is present in the Museum's contemporary collection and the one to the Council of the Tuscany Region, where he exhibited 20 works of intense evocative abstract art, one of which is part of the Regional Art Gallery.

Also in 2004, Margari participated in the International Competition in Florence and won the first Golden Florin award for Painting. In 2008 he was present at the Italian art pavilion in Beijing for the Olympic Games, one of his works is part of the CONI collection. In 2010 he began a collaboration with the American gallery Damoka Gallery which led him to do two solo shows in Los Angeles and New York. An important personal exhibition was in 2011 in the prestigious spaces of the Circolo degli Artisti Casa di Dante in Florence on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the unity of Italy.

In 2013, he presented his latest works in the series "Breath of the Elements." In 2016, he showed at the deconsecrated church of Santa Maria dei Laici in Gubbio. The last appearances of his works was in 2016 in Amsterdam - Institute of Italian Culture, in 2017 in Berlin - The Ballery Gallery - and London - ART MOOR HOUSE, 2018 Stockholm SVEA GALLERY. Moscow GALERIA MASTERSKAYA LEGA.

Margari has numerous presences in public and private collections.

Arrachme Art

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Peaceful World Series - International Awards in mixed media, creating a journey to familiar and unfamiliar places.

Arrachme is a known contemporary abstract fine artist and art educator with paintings that suggest something more in a world underlying; inviting the viewer to finish the story. Her artworks are consistently awarded, published, curated in museums, collected and recognized worldwide, including humanitarian an environmental cause which is her foremost passion. Not limited to galleries and events in New York, Monte Carlo, Art Basel Miami, South Korea, Portugal, England, Iran, Norway, etc., her paintings are collected privately. Arrachme's works are as unique as her background; from an education with a master painter, sculptor, and philosopher from the Caucasus Mountains to a client who held the title of the most powerful man in the world.

Additionally, she has developed an endorsed educational program which she offers both online and in person at the Enrichment Academy. In classes, she says to the students, “It’s all about you, not where you’ve been or where I have been but the peacefulness that is in your heart. This is the place where I start and where I end. You are welcome to journey with me.” Visit the artist’s website to see a detailed list on numerous exhibits, awards and accolades she has received over many years of being active as a full-time international artist.

Flaten

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Cecilia was born in La Reina (Santiago, Chile) in 1950, a key day that marks the beginning of transcendental changes in her country. In the same way her passage though the world has been subject to changes and diverse variants of cyclical nature, all of them linked to the most sublime manifestation of her spirit: Art.

At the age of two, she begins to recreate in her own flesh the history of her mother, who was a prima donna in the National Ballet of Santiago. From age four to 27, dance comes at the epicenter of her focus while simultaneously she maintains sporadic romances with painting, theater, and literature. Flaten’s spirit persists in the search for a more tangible art and retakes her flirt with painting, which is today her main passion. At the beginning of this engagement, things happened in a rather playful and innocent way, all which is completely demonstrated in her naïf works, in which she experiments with techniques and colors that allude directly to her Scandinavian ancestors. Entering into a more mature stage, she works with oil, examples that provides her the stability and the so much yearned pattern of expression, which allows her to become able to represent properly the legends, the myths and the dreams that nest in her mind and her blood. In the last 15 years, Flaten works also with lapis lazuli pigment, the blue stone of Chile.

Flaten holds a Bachelor’s and Teaching Degree in Dance from the University of Chile. Her paintings have received notable awards including the 2006 Medal and Certificate of Excellence Palm Award by Art Domain Gallery in Leipzig, Germany, a 2008 Award of Excellence by Artoteque, London, a 2009 Medal and "Mención Honrosa" Award by Salón de Invierno in Barcelona, a 2010 Palm Art Award of Excellence, Leipzig, Germany, a 2012 Vincent Van Gogh international Art Prize and 2015 Sandro Botticelli Prize.

Zbryk

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Raised near Denver, Colorado, American artist Scott Zbryk served in the US Navy submarines from 1971-73 and built a career in Architecture for 26 years. Returning to college at age 50, he earned a BFA from Metro State College of Denver in 2008 and MA (Hons) degree in Fine Arts from Regis University, Denver, Colorado (2014.) Zbryk currently resides in Evergreen, Colorado, creating artwork in his studio/gallery. Zbryk's work is influenced by a range of artists; from the skewed perspectives of M.C. Escher, the sculptural frolic of Red Grooms, the surreal atmospheres of Salvador Dali, and the whimsical environments of Dr. Seuss.

Atom Hovhanesyan

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Atom Hovhanesyan was a New York-based artist working in oil and ink. Atom lived a life not many would understand. To this day, his family and friends still don't understand the struggles and depression he faced for nearly the past decade, but his art speaks volumes. In his abstract works, Atom's goal was to create a unified atmosphere and sense of luminosity. Bits and pieces of forms from memory were utilized as building blocks for constructing the composition. Atom was trying to create a complex space compelling enough to act as a point of departure while retaining the often accidental mystery and painted energy.

As a faithful and respectful learner, Atom loved traditional media and ground his own colors. He committed a colossal dedication to his art, beyond any imaginable passion or love. Sometimes spending 72 hours nonstop working on a painting or drawing, Atom unintentionally, or maybe subconsciously even, created a unique and unprecedented style and technique in post divisionism and ink drawings never observed before.

Atom's own statement about his art: "The goal here is to utilize the whole surface of the support, challenging the viewer's perception of negative space. Essentially divisionist, the figure/composition is woven into the fabric of the plane and the space warps into the figure. In the painting process, repetitive, almost automatic, application of the cross-hatched lines allow the subconscious the opportunity to direct the composition. There is a tension between the desire to hide vs. the need to reveal, conflicting within the human mind. As far as drawings, I worked with ink with the same approach, because of the fine lines unique to this medium and the texture that arises from multiple built-up layers of cross-hatched lines, allowed me to focus on light and texture and the feel of the drawing ended up being quite different from the paintings."

Newel Hunter

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"I rarely know what I'm going to paint beforehand, choosing to let my subconscious direct the work and guide my hand, allowing chance to play an important role in shaping the final product."

Newel Hunter is an award-winning American artist who has developed a dynamic style of painting crafted around action, drama, and vitality. His stated ambition is to create a body of work where, "ideas, discovery and surprise reign supreme." And in doing so, he skirts the boundaries between realism and abstract, fiction and fact. Every image is a whole body exercise in storytelling.

Hunter is proud to be one of only 44 international artists featured in Aleatoric Art in the 21st Century. At 240 pages, this coffee table-sized book is the definitive volume on the role of chance in contemporary fine art. He has exhibited globally, and his artwork is in the private collections of many international collectors.

Jean Jacques Porret

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"I'm a self-taught artist who believes the journey into art begins at birth. I was born to parents who were collectors, and living in an art-filled home sparked my creativity. I began creating wooden sculptures at the age of 6 and stopped when I was a teenager, to later pick it up at age 28. I haven't stopped since. In my early years, I was looking at some of the greatest sculptors of all time for ideas and techniques. However, I found myself becoming too influenced by them. I then concentrated on creating my own style and path. That was maybe crazy and for sure an expensive decision, but today I'm on my own, with my own style.

While practiced in stone carving and other sculpting methods, I prefer the sensual -if unpredictable- outcome of bronze cast in the lost wax technique, where each step is more demanding and riskier than any other sculpting mean. That’s not to say that I, an engineer by training, leave much to chance. It does help me to understand how things fit together, but that’s where the value of my formal training ends. For a while I was casting my own sculptures, today I prefer to let that to be done by others, concentrating on the creating of 3D pieces which are sensual and which I can live with."

Bernd Steinert

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German artist, Bernd Steinert was born in 1964 in Wegeleben and today lives and works in Friedrichsbrunn. He has studied at the University Potsdam (1985-90), the University of Art and Design Burg Giebichenstein in Halle, Germany (1998-2002) and was a member of Ramberk Artists' Association from 1999 to 2003. A founding member and chairman (2003-7) of the Kunstverein "Arbeitskreis 7Kunst - Kunstlervereinigung E. V., Steinert directed the 7kunstgalerie.

He has lived and worked together with Sylke Steinert since 2011 and since 2012 he has been a member of art association “Art | Quitilinga" in Quedlinburg. In 2016 he established Studio Steinert & Straka in the cotton spinning mill in Leipzig.

"There are two complementary directions in my paintings. On the one hand, I create mostly abstract pictures and on the other hand pictures in which a predominantly figurative scene must assert itself against non-figurative picture elements."

Ray Besserdin Paper Sculpture Artist

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Born to artist parents, Ray began his passion for paper in childhood, about the time he also became fascinated with nature. Graduating from LaTrobe University in 1982 and starting out as a graphic designer/illustrator, he soon began innovating sculpture techniques with paper. Over 30 years, his work has ranged from miniature to gigantic and abstract to ultra-realistic, but his signature work is a style he terms “Impressionist Sculptured Paper,” associating it with the painting style of that name because it is only loosely representative, concerning more with stimulating emotive responses.

“I want the nature of the paper to show through as I speak to viewers’ hearts without the clutter of detail."

Ray uses mostly hand and mould-made sheet formed cotton, mulberry and hemp papers from Europe and Asia. Nature and people are his favourite subject matter.

Ray has been recognized both in Australia and internationally with 24 awards to date, including two gold from New York, one for a Macquarie Bank corporate commission and First in the Nature Exhibition of LightSpaceTime Gallery, Florida 2018. He won the People’s Choice Award, National Works on Paper 2018, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria and a highly coveted International Art Professionals “Gold Medal for Creativity” by the Mondial Art Academia, France.

Corporate clients include Macquarie Bank Australia, Amcor, Ford Motor Company and Northern Territory Government of Australia to name a few. Private commissions hang in London, Munich, Manhattan, New Zealand and throughout Australia.

Recent interviews: ZoneOneArts https://zoneonearts.com.au/ray-besserdin/ ACS Magazine Chicago, USA https://www.acs-mag.com/acsmagjanfeb2019 and Art & Museum Magazine, UK https://lnkd.in/gWbhQqx

Ray Besserdin is Australian Ambassador for Mondial Art Academia, France since 2018.

2019 Exhibitions: July in Melbourne, Australia presented by the Royal Botanical Gardens of Victoria; October in Paris, Carrousel du Louvre

Mahood

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“As a teenager, I learned to develop and print black & white film before moving on to SX-70 film manipulation and Polaroid transfers. I then became interested in digital photography which I see as an outlet for creativity and experimentation. There is no set formula for the way I work, and every piece is unique in that respect. I appreciate art that tells a story, makes you look twice, and leaves you in doubt. My photographic art is currently featured in the Contemporary Masters XI edition, Art Professionals 33 (Masters of Today Art Books), Important World Artists, A World of Art 2, and The Art Book 2018 (The Artblend Artist Agency). My images have also been featured in magazines and books including the 2016 edition of "Bird Photographer of the Year”.”

Franco Margari

"I look for a way to every beyond, every mystery, enigma beyond the boundaries of knowledge, to worlds in which I feel I exist, where bright white calms my thirst for infinity."

Arrachme Art

"I have found a place where science, spirit, and art converge. It is in this peaceful place where time expands and endless possibility exists."

Flaten

Cecilia Flaten's works are inspired by Scandinavian Mythology, the Midnight Sun, the Northern Dawns, the lands of Arctic and Patagonia.The magic and the strength of her Norwegian roots are always present in her spirit and in her mind, obtaining the name of "The Painter of the Magic Lights.”

Zbryk

“My work consists of highly stylized pen and ink compositions, imbued with an "Escheresque" nuance, and a Dr. Seuss sense of fantasy. The viewer is immersed in iconic and ambiguous architectural elements, exhibiting travels abroad that combine nature, music and form into dynamic works of art.”

Atom Hovhanesyan

After refining and continuing to develop the post divisionist technique by painting not so much in a narrative sense, Atom painted bits and pieces of thoughts or emotions/memories, at times incidental, at times directed consciously, unified in one mood or an atmosphere.

Newel Hunter

"I'm fascinated with the idea of exposing what can't be seen, what's underneath it all; the history, the story, the abstract and random image. And while some of my work is very precise and structured, I revel in the unfixed nature of things. Imperfections are so much more interesting."

Jean Jacques Porret

Bernd Steinert

"Whenever I realize that a picture is becoming too harmonious and slick, I intervene and destroy what is pleasing."

Ray Besserdin Paper Sculpture Artist

Mahood

“I am a digital photographer who is heavily influenced by nature and the natural environment. I am self-taught in photography and art and use digital techniques to convey the mood and feel of the places I photograph. Early Impressionism is an influence.”