mixed media – Circle Foundation for the Arts

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.

Annukka

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The art as a way of expressing yourself

"I develop diary-like textile pieces from materials that are inherited, or already existing pieces from my previous textile experiments and scattered paintings, recycled textiles, cutting boards, driftwoods, stones and shellfish shells. I use recyclable materials and turn them into new stories through weaving, sewing and embroidering. We are able to feel the memories and stories of past lives that have been lived through recycled materials."

Annukka is a Finnish artist, born in 1960 and living in Espoo. She holds degrees in Pedagogy for Visual Arts and Textile arts and Design.

Aneesha Parrone

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American Artist, Aneesha Parrone has been a weaver and fiber artist since 1977 when she was selected by the North Carolina Arts Council as a Third Century Artist. Aneesha further studied Weaving at Barton College.

"From the beginning, weaving has been intuitive. Inspiration, for me, is not defined within the parameters of fibers or even the visual arts. I began to experiment with pulling warp threads and embellishing with such materials as sandstone, copper screen, gemstones."

She began to exhibit throughout the state of N. Caroline and nationally and then internationally, expressing a unique style that reflected on her natural surroundings.

"I find my own tapestries connect in an internal dialog as well as with the world of nature and the viewer. My work is a visceral expression of my inspirations."

Her piece, "The Door of Refuge" was published in Best of NC Artists and Artisans, 2006. In addition, two pieces, "Fallen Angels" and "Waterfall Retreat" were selected for the book Best in America Artists and Artisans, Mixed Media, 2007. “Converging Conversations,” “Door” and “Window of Opportunity” were selected for publication in Best of Worldwide Mixed Media, 2012. Aneesha was selected as a participating artist in the Florence Biennial.

She has learned from master weavers, participated in visual arts programs offered by internationally acclaimed visual and performing artists.

"I have learned the art of raku pottery from Toshio Ohi, 11th generation potter from Japan; puppetry from Hoby Ford, student of Jim Henson; participated in Shakespearean workshops from the NC Shakespeare Festival. I was also selected to serve as educator/coordinator for the international project sponsored by NHK TV/Japan: "Superteacher, James Turell." The integrity of excellence these artists live is integrated into each of my works of art; thus, the essence of all my experiences are woven into my tapestries and writing."

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.

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

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.

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.