Laelanie Larach Nieves, a self-taught artist who at 15 made her first masterpiece ( Mysterious Forrest),was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.As the years went by,she began changing her style of painting and opted to fuse two of her passions, photography with abstract painting and the surreal style.
Each of her works has a different concept, but she predominantly uses bright colors, several textures and other techniques. Her inspiration for her work comes from different sources. It may be the open spaces, a sea breeze, or a profund silent that carries different levels of consciousness with a limitless reality; all is tranferred onto a canvas and all in done for the love of art.

“Inspiration with no limits”

Cory Hunter is an artist from Miami, Florida who works at the intersection of art and science. He studied material engineering and non-western art history at the University of Florida, now using his experience with the physical sciences in his artwork. In his current project he uses high-voltage electricity in his paintings, burning organic patterns into the canvas, and then incorporating the burns into impressionist painting. The result is a blend of chance and a unique artistic style that serves to capture the intrinsic beauty of natural forms.

He explains his main motivation as demonstrating the art of nature, in an effort to show the connection between the arts and sciences. He believes it is where those two worldviews intersect that the search for meaning takes places, and where the potential for growth truly lies.

All of his paintings are made using recycled materials and gouache paint. He builds his own canvas by fusing sheets of corrugated cardboard with contact cement, and backing them with a non-porous material to prevent warping. The pieces are then coated with either polyurethane or an archival varnish to ensure longevity and create a specific surface texture.

Cory Hunter

.                              Or…                                                              Gun

 .                        Sunflower                                                 Gaby                                                   Blossom

Humberto Castro was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1957. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro and Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana.

He works in painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics and installations. In his early years, he also delved into performance art, especially using it as a vehicle for social criticism in his country.

He is one of the most active members of the group widely recognized as the “Generation of the 80s” in Cuba, which generated changes in the aesthetic and conceptual art scene of the island.

In 1983 he founded the team Hexagon in which, alongside other artists, he mounted installations aimed at provoking public participation in the work. Between 1980 and 1984 he produces an extensive body of graphics, particularly innovating in the intaglio technique. He has designed sets for theater and film in Cuba.

In 1989 he emigrated to Paris, France, where he lived for ten years and became active in the Parisian intellectual scene, holding exhibitions and giving conferences across Europe. In 1999 he moved to the United States, where he lives and works.

Since the beginning of his career, he has received numerous international awards, and his work is present in notable museum and private collections. His work and artistic attitude have influenced subsequent generations of artists within Cuba.

BIOGRAPHY

Enrique Martínez Celaya is an artist with a highly literate and non-aligned approach to art making. His practice spans a broad range of media and disciplines often embodied in the multi-faceted projects he creates for art venues as well as for environments not traditionally associated with the visual arts. Among the major public collections with works by Martínez Celaya are the Houston Museum of Fine Arts; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He has been recognized with many awards and prizes including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Young Talent Award, the California Community Foundation Fellowship, J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts and the Anderson Ranch National Artist Award. Martínez Celaya writes and lectures on art—often in its relation to literature and ethics—and his essays have appeared in many publications, including the collection published by the University of Nebraska Press entitled Enrique Martínez Celaya: Collected Writings and Interviews, 1990-2010.

Trained also as a scientist, Martínez Celaya studied Applied Physics at Cornell University and, supported by a fellowship from the Brookhaven National Laboratory, pursued a Ph.D. in Quantum Electronics at the University of California, Berkeley. As a scientist he worked on superconductivity, lasers and laser delivery systems, research for which he was issued an often-cited patent. Martínez Celaya attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine and received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was honored as the second Presidential Professor in the history of the University of Nebraska, and taught as a tenured professor in the faculty of Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University. Martínez Celaya maintains a studio and imprint, Whale & Star, in Miami and lives in Delray Beach, Florida.

Since my very childhood I’ve paid attantion to my dreams.

Dreams are usually different, sometimes they repeat, sometimes we don’t see them, sometimes they are not clear. In the dream you can sing, run, fly, you can be a boy or a girl, etc.

But It’s been impossible to me to manage my dreams. While my sister was telling me that she programs hers before go to bed. I remember I was wondering whether I could get to my sister’s head through my dream to see her dreams.
I remember that once we had the same dream.
There is the same senses in the world of dreams that we experience on earth.

I believe that a dream is unconscious process where the brain unloaded the accumulated information and digest it. That’s one point, the other side is that the dream is entry , window, door or tunnel for more information. Information about yourself and the world around you.

I started to sketch some images that I saw in my dreams. It’s important in this affair to shut down your brain and concentrate on the image you saw. You need to trust yourself and your feelings.

I have very interesting sensation around the top of my head when I’m falling asleep at night. I can feel a breeze like there is invisible gate at the top which is open. Could it be the channel of filling by ideas
and energy? In the other words I can feel like a tree’s growing from my head.

I am an artist, and most of my artworks I’ve painted I saw in a dream. It is not like I saw them in color, have already painted and ready. I remember the images and create a picture, trying not to change the essence. And then I begin to think  what I drew.

More Information

Peter Vigil uses bold colors to abstractly depict everyday or provocative, social and cultural themes that promote divergent perspectives and that transcend collective principles. He uses the resounding vibrancy of the hues, especially the red hues, to provide a sense of a physical existence to his subjects and underscore the complexity of intrapersonal, interpersonal, as well as emotional experiences. In a large body of his work, Vigil also embellishes paintings with black lines or swatches to accent the conflicting and complex nature associated with the subject matter.

Vigil is a self-taught artist that began painting in 2006. Since then his work has been exhibited at galleries, festivals, and various other venues in South Florida. He was born in Cuba in 1967 and has lived in the Miami, Florida area since 1973 after living in Madrid, Spain for four years.

www.artbypetervigil.com

By ALLISON NADING

With tightly clasped hands and a small smile, the petite form lingering in a corner might at first go unperceived by many wandering the exhibits of Art Asia.  Quite the opposite is true, however, in regards to the vibrantly-hued canvases created by those same clasped hands.  A tiny woman with bright eyes and a humble spirit, Rose Kong and her paintings captivated me with a single glance; I too falling victim to the swift and potent siren call that emanates from the women residing within each of her creations.

Born in South Korea, Kong spent the majority of her childhood with a paintbrush in her hand and wanderlust in her heart.  “I just knew it was what I loved to do,” she said in reference to her selection of art as her field of study.  After obtaining a degree in graphic design, Rose relocated to the US, unaware of the obstacles shortly to follow.  Faced with the challenge of juggling both the roles of mother and assimilation to an entirely new country, Rose was forced to place the title of ‘painter’ in a compartment that would not be fully accessed again until quite recently.

As her children grew older, Mrs. Kong gradually found the time once again to focus upon her gift, returning to her homeland in 2001 in order to become trained in classical Korean painting techniques, which she incorporates into each of her pieces. Describing her style as “a kind of modernized form of the traditional Korean genre,” Rose maintains the cultural integrity of her work by utilizing powdered pigments and very delicate paper referred to as jangji.  Prior to the application of said pigments, Rose delicately layers each canvas with multiple pages of jangji—a laborious process that can extend for weeks.

When I first gazed–entranced–upon Rose’s art, I was unaware of the journey reflected in each brushstroke. Yet–while her paintings can admittedly very much stand alone merely for their visual aesthetic–I feel for one to fully ascertain the beauty of Mrs. Kong’s art, they must be informed of the journey and techniques dwelling behind each beautiful canvas. For, in the flowing lines, joyful hues, and subjects of varying characteristics and poses, once can also view a tangible portrait of Rose Kong’s life and spirit: enduring, ageless, and full of surprises.

(To view Rose Kong’s exhibit, visit Art Asia at 110 NE 36 St. at Midtown Blvd. from December 6 – 9. For a full gallery, access: www.rosekkong.wordpress.com)

By CAMILA BARBEITO

Art Palm Beach Fair exhibited fresh and controversial work this year.  A perfect example of this was Greg Haberny’s politically-charged exhibit; particularly his main piece, titled “Beautiful Disaster.” This work, a United States-shaped garbage dump composed of kid’s toys  and random odds-and-ends, is large and obtrusive yet magnetic. People constantly surrounded it, each person waiting their turn to speak with the artist that created a piece that represented all that they were feeling, but just could not put into words. When asked about the symbolism of this sculpture, Haberny stated that he simply wanted to depict a “fat, bloated, over-indulgent” America while still showing the “glossy, beautiful” side of it as well. Even though this piece was originally part of an exhibition inspired by the Democratic National Convention held last election season, the crowd applauding it was made up of people of all political views, ages, races and ethnicities.

Haberny’s other pieces also caught the eyes of unlikely admirers, such as a seemingly-conservative senior citizen laughing with his wife over the “Giant Sex Change Coloring Book” hanging next to several other eccentric creations. Even more of his artworks satirized American healthcare, obesity, fast-food chains, credit card debt, and general hypocrisy. On another note, Wulf Treu also exhibited a few of his multi-faceted paintings, which not only feature the use of mixed-media, but mixed-time periods as well. Acclaimed by many as the new Basquiat, Treu ironically blended the late artist’s unique, grafitti-like style with Ancient Roman columns and sculptures, as well as his own witty, thought-provoking style, in several of his featured works. There is a sense of melancholy and desolation in each of the artist’s paintings, maybe due to his experiences in emigrating from his home country of Germany towards the United States in the midst of the Berlin Wall crisis. Treu is another artist that is never shy to explore controversial themes, evident in his inclusion of Basquiat’s style in his work; he explores human nature and emotions  while simultaneously incorporating comical, pop-art elements as well. Brendan Dawes also made quite the impression on the fair’s VIP invitees with his Cinema Redux Series; a collection  depicting the entire film strips of different movies of popular culture, such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Due to the fact that each of these works are practically indecipherable from afar, they were incredibly inviting and attracted an outrageous amount of people interested in taking a closer look. All in all, Art Palm Beach proved that although the event’s gratuitous champagne was not meant for all ages, a healthy dose of boldness always will be.