surrealism – Page 2 – Circle Foundation for the Arts

Jason Engelbart

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What themes does your work involve?

The more our world is unsteady, the more the intentions for positive charging and balancing become stronger in me. It is not about painting the things in my works looking beautiful, but rather about using the tools at my disposal to trigger reflection and create a positive awareness of our daily togetherness. Here is the source of my sacral-abstract emotional artworks. In the creative process I feel deeply connected with my soul, my spirit… with God. My so-called digital neopaintings of the work cycle THE JOY OF BEING (2016 until today) are created in a purely intuitive creative process and are reflections of my personal feelings and experiences. My art is a testament to a cultivation of wholesome, human qualities, for positive change and development, which I state as my artistic vision.

Describe your creative process.

Using my characteristic digital painting technique, developed over the years, I abstract selected original works of the Baroque art epoch by superimposing picture levels, blurring, overpainting and re-composing them. In the process, my very own flowing structures and pictorial rhythms emerge, while the original colour composition remains largely untouched. In sum, colour and form transform into a single aesthetic-abstract event that is experienced on a purely emotional level and independent of time and space as a holy moment. Through this form of digitally painterly, an abstract re-staging of the original, I build a finely balanced bridge to contemporary art without disenchanting.

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

The trigger for my abstract-baroque serie of works was a visit to the Würzburg Residenz in Germany in 2016. Overwhelmed by the opulent ceiling frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Antonio Giuseppe Bossi and Johannes Zick inside the Baroque castle, a deep desire arose in me to mirror this splendour of spirituality in the form of an abstract translation into the present. I closed my eyes while looking at the exuberant works on the walls and ceilings, except for a narrow slit of vision, until the figurativeness of the paintings dissolved into abstraction. Thus the foundation stone for my work cycle THE JOY OF BEING was laid.

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

In my opinion, good art is timeless and at the same time enables reflection on the respective present moment. It touches on an emotional level, inspires the viewer and encourages him to pause and to contemplate.

What is the role of the artist today?

From my personal point of view, all forms of art are expressions of human existence. They are instruments for dealing with the past and at the same time have a dimension directed towards the future through visionary content, that can be guiding for the further development of society. This is why it is particularly important for an artist to use his/her possibilities of artistic expression in a respectful and responsible manner. In our multi-ethnic world, art therefore has a particularly high status. At best, it is an engagement to support integration and to highlight the positive elements of cultural diversity. In this sense, art is an invitation to a dialogue between the most diverse cultures and it offers the opportunity for self- reflection – for the artist and also for each recipient.

Michael Herbert Dorn

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What themes does your work involve?

One of several thematics involved in my work is a question regarding the fundamental truth value of the received historical records that are used to validate modern concepts of reality. A leading concept within my work is the singular idea that a metaphysical inversion has imprisoned all possible conceptions of reality. I use canonical representations of European history and mythology as a visual jumping-off point to set up conditions for a pictorial argument about the racialization of historical representation. But, the thematic of race is really just a primer.

Describe your creative process.

My process begins with a search for a suitable classical or canonical painting. Whenever possible, I do try to study the painting directly from life, making my own sketches and photographs during that session. However, COVID restrictions have made this nearly impossible. So, now I either purchase or locate free high-resolution images online. The images need to be high resolution. Using Photoshop, I'll make adjustments to the saturation, color temperature, and other image aspects. After this, I create the inverted image of the subject painting. I usually make one or two poster studies with the added figure. From the very begining of the process I am thinking about the placement of the additional figure. I use the "story" of the painting to help guide me.

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

Today, the artist's ability to actually engage their sensitivities with the events happening in the world are the primary measure of good, great, and worthless art. True art goes beyond self-expression or any financial interest.

About my current work, and what is the Post-contemporary?

I call myself a “post-contemporary” oil painter. What I mean by post-contemporary will become more apparent as I briefly describe my working processes. My current painting project takes a look back in art history. It appropriates (or expropriates—depending on one’s viewpoint) the view of a particular foundational oil painting of the early renaissance, northern renaissance, mannerism, baroque, or the neoclassical periods of art history, respectively. I use both religious and secular themed paintings. Using digital images of these paintings, I essentially recreate these “classical” works of art as color-inverted images—they appear as what used to be called a (film) “negative” in the commercial heyday of photographic films like Kodak, Fuji, and Ilford. But that’s not all. I have painted an additional figure within the negative field of these images—a so-called “racially-black” figure. I usually place this “interloper” figure within a pictorial space that appears to me to be inactive in the original paintings. This creates a new, two-way visual context.

My process begins with the search for a suitable “classical” painting. Whenever possible, I try to directly study and take high-resolution digital photographs of the actual painting. Museum visits have become nearly impossible with the manifestation of COVID-19. So, now I either purchase or locate free images online. Within Photoshop, I then make color adjustments to the image, including its color inversion. In addition to color inversion, I will sometimes alter the images overall color temperature, and in selected areas, the color saturation. After that, I will usually make one or more small freehand color “poster-studies” in oil paints to explore the color relationships and the composition. I carefully study the color relationships between the reconfigured and color-inverted oil painting and the virtual image captured on the mobile device’s screen. In these sketches, I include all aspects of the inverted “classical” painting and the added “non-color inverted” (color-positive) figure. Once I am satisfied, I will then make an underdrawing on my canvas using blue Staedtler Lumichrome drafting leads. I’ll then apply a very thin layer of semi-transparent titanium white and marble dust paint to the entire canvas. This scumble layer is referred to as a “half-paste.” This half- paste becomes what in the early Italian method is termed the campitura layer. Over the dry half-paste layer, I begin to apply my color upon the now faintly visible blue lines of the underpainting, modeling the forms as I go along. I work each section very close to the final finish, except the central background, which I’ll generally lay in during the final stages. Of course, this is a very fluid process, and it never follows—one-two-three—like I’ve just written.

Both my creative process and the ideological foundation of my project depends upon digital media. Of critical importance in this painting series is the spectator’s use of their digital mobile device to provide an active digitally color-inverted view of each of the paintings displayed within the actual exhibition space. Viewing an analog painting with the aid of a mobile digital-media device is explicitly a new way of encountering and extending a painting’s semantic potential by challenging the conventional notion of how we (traditionally) experience or view a “painting.”

This project came about as I began to explore and question the development of European and Eurocentric racial ideologies (namely, white-supremacy) that were concurrent with the development of many of the aforementioned art historical periods and many confluent Eurocentric philosophical systems. My current project also resonates with my questioning of how contemporary political, social, and cultural ideas interact with the plastic arts from the European past.

Some artists/writers might classify the post-contemporary as an aesthetic or a critical construct. But I am doubtful of the limiting framework of those terms. Other writers have called the post-contemporary a movement akin to the Baroque redux or Neoclassical redux. Not me. By post-contemporary, I do not mean the widely held consensus that post- contemporary artworks merely or mainly exhibit the traits of skillful execution, creativity, and expresses some degree of “empathy.” I would say that there are many works done by some of the most well trained and technically skilled artists in the world that are not post- contemporary. I’m afraid I also have to disagree that what is being called post-contemporary art is some newfangled way of positing traditional, global, or universal values—as opposed to contemporary art, which they claim pertain to transient (or spurious), topical, or local values.

For me, the post-contemporary artist holds a generous view upon all the myriad forms of what we call art history. By generous I mean two things. First, the totality of art history is taken as a barometer of both the global and national social, political, and cultural environment. Second, this generous view is taken as through a holographic lens. It is a view enabling a capacity towards moral imagination, that distinct quality of understanding (a work of art) within the general and specific context of its creation. Above all things, beyond this said specific context, the post-contemporary implementation proceeds as a form of inquiry into how historical (Eurocentric) visual culture has been used and is being used to inculcate, delineate, underscore, and establish the political, social, and cultural artifacts of our age. The post-contemporary artist is not at all interested in the so-called art historical tradition for the sake of hegemonic notions of tradition and the idea that “it was better back then.” The post contemporary artist understands that art history is foremost an ideological political field. For me, post-contemporary artists must make an in-depth inquiry into how the visually received narratives function within our contemporary milieux to create injustice, lies, and outright (psycho-cultural) deceptions. Within this post-contemporary sphere, my primary interest is in exploring and challenging the ideas fomented by the representation (or lack thereof) of non- white peoples in classical European art.

Kristen Eisenbraun

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Kristen Eisenbraun’s paintings explore the relationship between people and nature. In each painting, she immerses a unique human figure into a beautiful and mysterious landscape. The relationship that is created between an individual and their outdoor surroundings becomes very emotional. Art viewers will feel the connection to the figure in the painting and desire to be part of that beautiful and surreal atmosphere created by nature. Each viewer will have a unique relationship with Kristen’s paintings but as they stand before each artwork, they all share the desire to leave the mundane behind, step out of doors and experience the extraordinary.

Kristen's paintings are developed in her imagination. Her inspiration comes from people she passes on the street or of the many magical phenomena created by mother nature. She uses oil paint on stretched linen to express her ideas and create stunning pieces of art that can be recognized as her own.

Kristen's unique perspective and incredible technical skills have been widely celebrated. Southwest Art Magazine named Kristen as one of the top young artists to watch and Highlight Hollywood declared her as one of the Best Contemporary American Artists.

Kristen Eisenbraun believes every individual old and young has an uncommon beauty and it is her greatest privilege to have the ability to express their unique soul in paint.

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Picturewall

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Francesca O’Malley

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"Growing up in New York was a real benefit. I attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School as a child, and also studied piano into my twenties. I attended Pratt Institute and ultimately earned a Master's degree in painting. After my graduate studies were complete, I found myself in the publishing world, which was friendly to women. I designed books and finally earned my current title Art/Design Director. I am grateful for this experience and exposure to technological tools, and software, which now help me in making art. My marriage to a scientist has been the source of many interesting conversations concerning the nature of reality, the multiverse, and so on. These discussions help to inform my current work in which I explore space and dimension, light, symbol, and the human figure, often placing these things in contradiction to each other. I tend to work in series and often use images appropriated from NASA or satellite maps reconstituted as backgrounds—sometimes chosen for their beauty, or just as random geographic locations. We can be virtually anywhere thanks to technology. Graphic or typographic glyphs are also incorporated at times, adding another layer of interest and meaning."

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Roland Reinert

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Lukáš KÁNDL

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What themes does your work involve?

My art includes esoteric and erotic subjects, sensuality, poetry and sometimes an anecdote or even black humor. I also love animal art and to pay tribute to people I admire.

Describe your creative process.

Inspiration comes to me fairly easily. I feel as if ideas were stored in a large spiritual library, with an endless number of books and subjects. I just need to take a stroll in my library, stretch out my hand, and let the composition of my painting appear before me, both magically and very naturally. I always work on only one painting. I choose the format of the canvas according to the size of the main elements I will need. I like to draw things in real size.

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

I am influenced by the Old Masters. I am more especially inspired by themes in the domain of esotericism, poetry, literature, or biblical. I make art because I have the technique and skill for this artistic expression and I love it. I always did it. My father was an artist and I started specialized art school four years before the baccalaureate.

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

As I said before, I admire the Old Masters. For me, the technique must be perfectly mastered. It must not be an obstacle to the imagination of the artist but must accompany positively his inspiration. His personal style must be easily recognized by the public.

What is the role of the artist today?

What is the most important to me is to offer paintings in front of which the spectator will take time to sit down, to enter in harmony with the painting, and then have his own walk, as an awaken dream, giving him, even for a short time, a rare and unusual feeling. My dream: that supernatural, strange, sublime and magic, would take more and more space in our lives and that beauty and spirituality would become a life's belief.

Arati Reddy-Devlin

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"I completed my Fine Art Printmaking postgraduate at Brighton University, England in 1986 after completing my degree in Graphic Design in 1984. In 1986, I was also awarded a British Council Scholarship to study Fine Art Printmaking at the Ljubljana Art Academy in Slovenia. This was a pivotal point that enhanced my technical skills and understanding of traditional printmaking processes and continues to guide my approach in creating my artworks. Following this scholarship, I trained to be an Art and Design teacher. Between 2009 – 2013, I lived on a small island near Dubrovnik, Croatia, where the vastness of sky, shifting light on the sea and abundance of natural forms and scenery around our house up on a hill profoundly influenced my landscape drawings.

As a trained printmaker I usually work backwards in my work, seeing images as layers of shapes, forms, colours and patterns. My black and white landscapes start as line drawings that force me to be highly selective in my choice of shapes. These landscapes often start from the bottom of the page, creating distinct positive and negative shapes. This process has encouraged me to see the micro rather than the macro to capture the complexity of the natural world beneath my feet and around me. The discipline of observing fine detailing seeps into my current artworks and has evolved by the use of mechanical parts and technology interwoven with natural forms. These new works fuse my love of Sci-fi, Medieval Art and organic forms, to mirror the natural world and create a more complex type of micro-world."

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Scott Wixon

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American Artist, Scott Wixon holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale Universtiy, New Haven CT and a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Massachusetts College Of Art, Boston, MA. He grew up on Cape Cod and has travelled extensively.

Select Collections

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Citibank International

The Prudential Insurance Company

Best Products Company, Inc.

Numerous private collection

Museum Exhibitions

1996 Evanston Art Center Evanston, IL, Butterfly Idol and Recent Works

1978 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, NY, Young American Artist: 1978 Exxon National Exhibition

1972 Boston Museum Of Fine Arts Boston, MA, Earth, Air, Fire and Water: Elements of Art

Selected Gallery Exhibitions

2020 Abstractions / Metaphors, Dacia Gallery, New York, NY

2019 Persistence, Vision And Passion = Longevity, Conduit Gallery, Dallas, Texas

2018 Far & Wide National Exhibition, Woodstock Artist Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY, Winner of the Nicholas Buhalis Award

2018 NYC Phoenix Art Collective @ Lazy Susan Gallery, New York, NY

2018 Sideshow Gallery,The Greatest Show On Earth: Sideshow Nation VI

2017 Lichtundfire, New York, NY, Past as Prologue or the Effects of Modernism on Contemporary Art

2016 TOAST Art Fair Japan, Osaka

2008- 2016 TOAST, New York, NY

2002 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY, Recent Paintings

1998 80 Washington Square East Gallery New York, NY, Small Works

1977-1980 Touchstone Gallery New York, NY, Recent Paintings; Color and Surface; Season Previews;

New Works I and II; New Talent

1977 The New Gallery Troy, NY, Drawings

Residencies

Cill Rialaig Project, Ballinskelligs, Ireland, July 2017

Foundation OBRAS, Portugal, October 2018, October 2019

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Iva Troj

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What themes does your work involve?

The underlying stories, especially the conflicts, are much more interesting to me than mere portraiture. I want to know what’s going on, which is why I have always been interested in research. When I went back to university for a second BA and a Master's, I chose software design, philosophy, and cognitive science rather than fine art, because science fascinates me. My themes are almost always about taking things apart and putting them back together and for that you need to look outside yourself.

Describe your creative process.

I sketch a lot before starting a piece. It's an ongoing thing. The painting technique I mostly use resembles the Flemish method of layering thin veneers of paint between layers of varnish. I am no fan of white canvases so I often prepare my canvases in advance either using pastels and ink or just diluted acrylics. After the underpainting is done I paint a lighter layer with acrylics and finish with a couple of thicker layers using oils, occasionally acrylics, and sometimes gold leaf and ink.

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

Traditional elements are central to my body of work. It’s not a need to keep the style ”traditional”, but the way I speak. I grew up in a communist country. We sang songs about machines' superiority to man and praised modernity while destroying nature and killing creativity and the human spirit with it. At the same time, my summers were spent in the mountains with my grandmother who had hanging gardens, thousand stories and no TV. My head is full of dichotomies. Art is how I make sense of it all.

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

There are two inseparable aspects of the art process that really need to coexist and function together - ideology and skill. Ideology without skill is silly and skill without ideology is empty. The day you find a way to get those two working as a whole is the day you become an artist. And I'm allergic to self-indulgent art. Do we really need one more artist who is only looking to himself for answers? We have a patriarchy to dismantle and a world to save. You can't do that looking at your navel.

What is the role of the artist today?

What is the role of the human today? There is a saying in my family: "If you don't have food on your table, you have one problem. If you have food on your table, you have thousand problems." Artists should be our culture's caretakers and not self-serving, standing on the top of the hill looking down monarchs. We have to stop following the cult of the individual s.c. "genius". It's the ecology of talent that raises us so we need to nurture it. The art industry has killed most of it already.

Jason Engelbart

What themes does your work involve?

Describe your creative process.

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

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

What is the role of the artist today?

Michael Herbert Dorn

What themes does your work involve?

Describe your creative process.

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

About my current work, and what is the Post-contemporary?

Kristen Eisenbraun

"The paintings I create use mythology to tell the story of the relationship between people and nature. This important relationship is often lost today. My paintings act as a Bridgeway between modern society and the planet that sustains us."

Picturewall

Francesca O’Malley

"The ethos of our times is bound up with technology which affects us on a daily basis. The reach of technology, our connection to other realities through screens and the internet effects our perceptions. Advances in tech and science make this moment unlike any other time in history."

Roland Reinert

"My intention in my art is to paint and compose out of my imagination in order to express my thoughts and my view of the world and the human existence."

Lukáš KÁNDL

"I like to think that in another life, I was yet living in Prague, as somebody in charge of Rudolf II’s fabulous collection in which you could find, for example, astrological tools, potions to make gold, the philosophical stone, impenetrable manuscripts full of VITRIOL formula."

What themes does your work involve?

Describe your creative process.

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

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

What is the role of the artist today?

Arati Reddy-Devlin

“I dream my painting and then I paint my dream.” - Vincent van Gogh

Scott Wixon

"Color has always been extremely important to me and is one of the defining elements of my work. Over the years I have developed a personal vocabulary of shapes and gestured markings. The recognizable imagery I use has enhanced the development of my abstract forms."

Iva Troj

What themes does your work involve?

Describe your creative process.

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

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

What is the role of the artist today?