mixed media – Circle Foundation for the Arts

Maryse-Anne Couteau

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Maryse-Anne Couteau is a self-taught French artist. Her preferred medium has long be the pencil and she employs a colored pencil technique not widely used by grown-ups! In recent years, Couteau has been also working in ink.

In her early work, Couteau used very little color with very fine graphics and successfully suggested volume by a black stroke gently underlined in color. Subsequently, color increasingly imposed itself, and eventually supplanted the line. At first, the tones were quite assertive but were gradually refined. By superimposing different colors, the artist creates mixes and nuances, which are one of the characteristics of her work.

Although the human body and face have a great place in her world, Maryse-Anne Couteau is not limited to any particular style or type of representation; staging objects as well as animals and people. The artist finds an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the real world; the fertility of her imagination and her keen sense of observation intermingle a wonderful inner universe and a precise and detailed reality.

In her surprisingly original compositions, we see the impossible desire to get right up close to the subject and reach its very essence. The covering, the sliding, the transparency of surfaces, in reality, opaque, the repetition of shapes at different scales or the modification of angles of view on the same subject testify to a wish to see higher and deeper; to embrace the subject in its totality instead being limited to the superficial; to see further by projecting into the future and the past; to explore beneath the surface of things; go beyond the limit traced by the outlines and reach the infinite riches that hide in every aspect of reality.

After years of studies and a professional life, which was far from artistic, Maryse-Anne Couteau has decided to invest herself entirely in drawing and has devoted herself for nearly thirty years to her passion.

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Aleksandra Sheren

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An artist and film producer from Saint Petersburg, Russia, Aleksandra Sheren received her second degree from the International School of Photography and Cinema. She has been numerously featured in 'Photographize Magazine' and included in the 'Photographize Magazine Annual book', as well as published at the Marvelous Art Magazine. Sheren has exhibited at Agora Gallery, New York, at the Photo D’Femme Contest “Seeing Women” exhibitions in France, and had an online exhibition in the Marvelous Art Gallery. She has been featured as an emerging artist to watch for by ArtConnect, a platform for contemporary art worldwide. Her style is leaning most towards photo surrealism, but not confined to it. Besides her photo art, Sheren is currently working on a project in filmmaking.

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Yulia Artemeva

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Yulia Artemeva is an embroidery artist from Russia who also works as a fabric restorer. She has worked professionally for 7 years and employs the techniques of the Old Russian goldwork embroidery of royal craftswomen of the X-XVII centuries, as well as stone embroidery.

Select Exhibits and Awards

"Art week in Barcelona, Spain, 2020" 3rd Place Award, Project "The Cello"

"Russian art-week in Moscow, 2017", 2nd Place Award, Icon "Holy Trinity", 3rd Place Award, Icon "Unfading flower"

"Art week in London, the UK, 2015" 1st Place Award, Icon"The Lord Almighty"

"Art week in Rome, Italy" 1st Place Award, Icon "The Lord Almighty"

"Art week in Luxembourg" 1st Place Award, Icon "The Lord Almighty"

"Art week in Sofia, Bulgaria" 1st Place Award, Icon"The Lord Almighty”

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Aomi Kikuchi

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Aomi Kikuchi is a textile artist based in Kyoto, Japan. She holds a BFA from Kyoto University of Art & Design (Japan) and an MFA from Pratt Institute (USA) and is currently an artist in residence at the Textile Arts Center (USA). Aomi has exhibited her work throughout the world including at Today’s Silk Road Exhibition (China), LA Art Show Modern + Contemporary (California), and the annual Japan Contemporary Art and Craft Exhibition (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum).

With over 30 years of practice, Aomi has dedicated extensive and immersive practice to Japanese Kimono Haute Couture, Yusen dyeing techniques, and silk fabrics after becoming a fashion designer. This background inspires her artistic exploration and her artwork utilizes various textile materials and techniques including extremely thin fibers, goose down, and cotton flower along with knitting, weaving, embroidery, and other craft techniques.

Aomi’s figurative dyeing, textile installation, and soft sculptures exemplify her intentional selection of materials that are defined by delicacy and brittleness. With this, she aims to express Buddha's philosophy of impermanence, insubstantiality and suffering of all life. Aomi is currently working on a series of large scale installation pieces and sculptures that explore impermanence through the use of biology and nature with textiles. This new work will be on view at the Textile Arts Center in Fall 2020.

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Cristina Corvino

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Italian artist, Cristina Corvino attended the Liceo Artistico Renato Cottini as a pupil of Antonio Carena, an established painter known for the "Heavens", and of the designer Giorgio Ceretti, known for the creation of the "Pratone" sofa. The teachings of these masters gave Corvino an aptitude for research and a passion for art that will grow and become expressed in a variety of visual languages: painting, installations, fashion, theater; experimentations which over time will give life to mixed media series of works, independent of the will of the client.

With a Degree in Architecture and a career as architect and restorer, Cristina Corvino continues her artistic activity in parallel. In some cases inserted as an integral part of the workspace and in other cases as a continuous comparison with ancient works and various executive techniques.

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Bernd Reichert

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“I was born behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany. I am now living on the surreal shores of Belgium. I studied printmaking in Germany (Berlin, Magdeburg) and Ireland. After many years of producing limited edition prints in all forms, I stopped for a few years my art production and traveled the world extensively. Now I have moved my area of interest to collages and paintings. I like to see myself as a kind of surrealist artist in the tradition of Leonor Fini, Eileen Agar and the likes.

My collages are a juxtaposition of elements, images, and objects incoherent to each other, thereby exercising a de-contextualizing form of violence on language and image alike. They contain a kind of strangeness, a disturbing element disquieting the spectator/reader who is confronted with a series of elements taken from one's everyday life which, being put one next to each other, provoke, suddenly, an incoherent situation, a source of obscurity and vagueness. Working with text and images, I like to encourage the viewer to oscillate between reading and looking. It is about reusing, recycling and re-contextualizing the over-abundance of images and information we can choose from Time, the various cultural influences of the placed I traveled to and a Babel-like plethora of different languages are recurring aspects of my work.

The artwork is telling stories, influenced by my travels, but also often containing autobiographical elements."

Select Solo Exhibitions

Gallery Kaire-Desine, Vilnius (LT), 2005

Gallery Meno, Cultural Centre Jonava (LT) , 2005

Musée de l’Art Spontané, Brussels (BE), 2008

Gallery 89, London (UK), 2010

Kunstwerkstatt, Magdeburg (GE), 2010 and 2013

Gallery ORT, Birmingham (UK), 2012

Cultural Centre, Minden (GE), 2014

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Brigitte Kratochwill

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Austrian Artist, Brigitte Kratochwill was a music, art, and German language teacher in Salzburg until 1999. She led art projects for various institutions and became Headmistress of the Secondary Modern School Bürmoos, Salzburg (1999-2013). Kratochwill actively exhibits since 1988 in Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Portugal, Switzerland, Luxembourg, France, Great Britain, Czech Republic, South Africa, Spain, Finland and China including at the Galerie Artlet in Salzburg, BOS, Berlin Open Studio, Galerie M Beck, Saarland, Galerie der Zülow Gruppe in Linz, Galerie ARTtime in Udine, Palazzo Ca' Zenobio in Venedig (Biennale Venedig), Galleria La scala d'Oro in Rome, Royal Arcade Opera Gallery in London, European Museum of Modern Art of Barcelona, Galleria KOOKOS in Helsinki, Klebelsberg Cultural Center in Budapest, Art.Fair Köln, Luxembourg Art Week, ART Innsbruck, Luxembourg Art Fair, Art Karlsruhe.

In 2018, Kratochwill received the Audience Award "Il Premio Borgo" at Galleria La scala d'Oro Roma and the same year she was the winner of ArtConnection 2018 Münster, Germany. In 2019 she received Woman Art Award at Venezia Biennale and in 2020 the Artist of the Year title by World of Art, London.

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Katie Wild

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What themes does your work involve?

Each series is different. In 'Color Buy Number', I have envisioned myself as the heroine or victim of constrained and perplexing narratives. These color-driven alter egos directly and un-apologetically impact the viewer’s space due to the lifesize scale of their cutout installations. Mimetic oil paint renderings combined with found or constructed three-dimensional elements demand viewers to look more closely at the details of these self-portraits to decipher the truth of the artifice.

Describe your creative process.

My process is concept-driven and often begins through experimentation that occurs during an artist residency. I typically have two or three ideas floating around in my head for series that I would like to expand upon. It is during these artist residencies once a year that I have had the studio time to explore different materials and methods for executing a concept in order to settle on something that works. In order for me to fully express an idea, I work through 5-10 pieces per series.

What influences your work? What inspires you? Why do you make art?

My artwork evolves and changes according to my influences and life experiences. I look to a variety of other artists; Cindy Sherman, Kehinde Wiley, and Alexa Meade just to name a few, for inspiration. I also reflect on pressing political, economic, and environmental issues and use my artwork to represent and express some of my frustrations as a way of drawing awareness. I make art because it is an impulse, a passion, and sometimes it is the only voice I can use to share and make viewers think.

What is good art? What makes a piece of art great?

Good art should be appreciated by both artists and non-artists. Good art engages viewers with its originality, forces them to pause and consider it, and also speaks to some universal truths. There are many established artists whose work is worth a great deal, but in becoming a commodity, has exhausted all original thought. Famous artists are not necessarily making great art. I believe the struggling artist whose work is not so well known often has the greatest potential to make a difference.

What is the role of the artist today?

I believe artists should use the power of engagement to start conversations and catalyze change. Art is necessary as an outlet and as a provocation. It is difficult and rare to be a successful artist, so most artists are also well-rounded people who use other means to make ends meet. This allows for cross-pollination with other fields and a broader global perspective. I am an artist and educator, which allows me to nurture future artists in addition to using my own artwork to inspire.

Georg Douglas

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Primarily self-taught, Georg Douglas has attended courses at Reykjavík College of Art and Kópavogur College of Art continually for about 15 years. He exhibits regularly since 2010 both in group and solo shows and his work has been published in international art magazines and websites. In 2017, Georg Douglas was accepted as a member of The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists (SÍM). Full details on exhibitions, awards and published work can be found on his website.

"I like my paintings to be strong, whether from colour, form or something else. I want them to invoke an immediate reaction, either confronting the viewers or drawing them into the work. They do not require much analysis or philosophical consideration, but rather appeal to the emotions and create an atmosphere. The world of flowers and Irish dance has been my inspiration for some time.

My flower inspired paintings use strong colours and form and I also extend the field of view by incorporating microscopic and molecular elements. I like to obfuscate by ignoring scale and jumbling elements which I feel comes closer to nature itself than realistic painting.

In my dance-inspired paintings, I want the viewers to experience the flashes of light on the moving dancers and their bright costumes and in their mind to hear the thundering Irish music.”

“The delicate abstract paintings of Irish artist Georg Douglas display a vibrant rhythm. Through the masterful blending of lively colors and the complex intertwining of resonant lines, each composition echoes a unique abstract melody. The paintings are very lyrical and it is no surprise that Douglas is inspired by music.

Often large in scale, the works have a celestial quality maybe reminiscent of a moment of creation with an explosion of broken down motifs coming together through a radial balance that guides the viewer's eye around the canvas and toward the center of the creative drama.

Observing the body of the artist's work it becomes quickly evident that he has built up a unique approach which is recognizable yet not repetitive. Georg Douglas' paintings can be likened to abstracted visual rhapsodies reflecting upon an idiosyncratic painting style with each piece reverberating a fresh, passionate melody.”

- Circle Foundation for the Arts, Director

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