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Shannon Vaught is a representational realist painter based in Columbus, Ohio. She creates narrative portrait and figure paintings that are classically based but take on a more modern approach by way of color, mark making, and choice in subject matter. The figures in her paintings are often a manifestation of the intangible, exploring a fleeting feeling, experience, or moment in time.
The Poetess – They Shut me up in Prose, 2025
Oil on wood panel
20 × 20 × 1 in | 50.8 × 50.8 × 2.5 cm
"Listening to the Universe" opens a space for the search for the transcendent. The seashell, a symbol of cosmic resonance, becomes a bridge between the inner self and the infinite. The gentle composition and the intimate gesture of the figure capture the moment when the inaudible becomes palpable—a silent dialogue with the metaphysical order of being. In a world of constant noise, the work advocates for a return to the essential, subtle sounds of life and seeks to inspire a dialogue between humanity and the infinite.
Read moreAlexandra Telgmann specializes in the natural interaction between the female form and the element of water. The deep connection between the artist and the sea is visible in many of her paintings. For her, the sea is a decelerating place of power that creates inner peace and at the same time reflects states of consciousness of one’s own life.
What is the purpose or goal of your work?
My art aims to forge a deep connection between nature and the view- er, inspiring awareness and conservation of our environment. I draw inspiration from the natural element of water, capturing the beauty, power, and adaptability of marine life and the female form in the ocean. Through my paintings, I hope to evoke a sense of serenity and strength, encouraging people to pause, reflect, and appreciate the world beneath the surface. By highlighting this connection, I aim to foster a deeper appreciation for the ocean and its protection.
Do you have a network of other artists, and how do they support you?
Connecting with artists worldwide is a significant part of my life. Through international exhibitions, workshops in Europe, a scholar- ship in Rome, and social media, I’ve met amazing artists who share my passion. This network provides valuable support and insights on techniques, galleries, and exhibitions. I especially appreciate the 33 Contemporary/Poet Artists community led by Didi Menendez, which offers unwavering support and fosters connections among artists. This community has been a source of encouragement and inspiration, helping me stay motivated and engaged in my work. It’s wonderful to connect with others, especially since we often work alone. I’m truly grateful for everyone’s support and the sense of camaraderie it brings to my personal and professional life.
What is the best advice you have received in your career?
To become what you want to be, you must be patient with yourself and others. Stay focused, and understand that time, combined with discipline and dedication, will reveal new directions to both yourself and those around you. The best advice I’ve received in my career is to remain focused on my goals despite obstacles or setbacks. Envision the goal and work toward it day by day.
Has the press or media ever mentioned your artwork?
I’m very grateful for the interest the press has shown in my art- work. Earlier this year, I was honored to be a finalist in the NTD International Figure Painting Competition, which included an ex-
hibition at the Salmagundi Art Club in New York, USA. This recog- nition led to interviews and features on platforms like the Epoch Times and on TV, where one of my statements was broadcast on the news. My work has also been showcased in magazines such as American Art Collector and Fine Art Connoisseur, and featured in various newspaper articles in northern and central Germany.
As my visibility in the media grows, I feel it’s essential to use my voice to engage the audience in a deeper conversation about our connec- tion with art, nature, and the importance of its conservation. Through my art, I aim to inspire a greater appreciation for the beauty and signif- icance of the natural world, encouraging viewers to reflect on their own relationship with the environment and to find a beautiful pause from the hustle and bustle of life through mindful observation.
Describe a piece of art you are most proud of. Why?
When starting a painting, we never know how it will resonate with the world; it begins as an idea brought to life on the canvas. One piece I’m particularly proud of is my shark series. For me, sharks symbolize strength, power, and focus. My second shark painting, titled Golden Ocean Reflection Shark, features a shark moving gracefully through the ocean waters. The sun’s reflection on the surface is depicted with 24-carat gold leaf, creating an intense and captivating shimmer. This reflection also forms a beautiful pattern on the shark’s body, which I love to paint and observe.
This painting holds special significance for me because it embodies personal strength and connection with the ocean’s beauty and its creatures. It was the first painting from my collection to be included in the Lunar Codex, stored on the Moon thanks to 33 Contemporary gallery. You can also find it for sale on Artsy. This painting is dear to me because it represents a journey from the depths of the ocean to the Moon, marking a significant milestone in my art career. It also invites viewers to connect with the wonders beneath the ocean’s surface.
American artist Patricia Schappler is best known for her evocative figurative drawings and paintings. She combines realist and expressive traditions of observation, memory, and imagination, creating sprawling narratives of family life. Her work is characterized by strong lighting and expressive surface. Rooted in home; themes of birth, childhood, motherhood, aging, and partnering, recur. She is inspired by the complexity of human relationships and the bonds that hold them. Schappler is a native of New Hampshire with her BFA in Drawing from the University of New Hampshire, and her MFA in Drawing and Painting from Brooklyn College. You may see her work published in magazines which include American Art Collector, Pastel Journal, American Artist, Strokes of Genius, Manifest INPA and INDA, PoetsArtists, and Studio Visit. Schappler has exhibited nationally and in Ireland, and her awarded works may be found in both public and private collections throughout the States, India and China.
What's the purpose or goal of your work?
Most of my work begins with the desire to share a meaningful image and in that sense, connect with the viewer. I want to create moments of recognition whether through a familiar gesture, a quality of light, or the passage of time which reaches the viewer in a way that remains, so we join within the space of the work as friends.
Which art trends inspire your current work?
I look at contemporary realism and work from centuries past equally, swayed by quality, mood, and conviction. I love pattern and look at textiles from around the world and have been thinking more about connecting the spaces I’m interested in: nature/our planet, animals and the figure.
How do you manage a work-life balance as an artist?
Sometimes managing a work life balance is messy. I teach drawing and painting, paint out of a home studio, have four adult children just beginning families, and an extended family with both spectrums of newly born and far into the aging process. I exhibit as regularly as possible and don’t when I can’t. At the moment, I have work at WMOCA, and at the Dunfey exhibit, as well as online with 33 Contemporary. Within the next month, I’ll be exhibiting with Great Bay Community College, New Hampton School, and St Anselms College. Work balances with family, tipping to and fro depending on human needs, but art is a way of living and never far from my thoughts and actions. I have a lot of good energy, prioritizing home and community and within that, finding many subjects and points of inspiration.
What are your favorite and least favorite parts of professional art?
I love the process of thinking and doing, creating something from ideas and observations, moving materials in my hand, watching work come to life through methods and processes until something that wasn’t much becomes something satisfying, engaging… shared. The same applies to seeing works and engaging with ideas, feeling enlightened through another persons’ choices. Demands of social media and marketing are time consuming activities and add to pressure over deadlines, time which I’d prefer to spend in the studio.
What are your most valued skills as an artist?
I see with empathy.
Do you have a network of other artists, and how do they support you?
I have a small local group of artist friends…we comment on imagery, let each other know when competitions are coming up, try to attend exhibits where we have work from the group, hurrah each others’ wins, and in general help each other to feel a part of something a bit bigger than ourselves. I am also part of several artist associations and groups like PoetsArtists where even if I’ve never met the members, we feel like we know each other from our posts, our art work, our general enthusiasm for each other.
How can your work affect societal issues?
I’m not making work that directly affects societal issues and yet I cannot make work that isn’t about society, how I am feeling within it, where my concerns lay. I’m a woman, a mother, daughter, wife, instructor, artist, so many labels, but it comes down to creating images as a window into my life giving voice to experiences both of joy and sorrow, and, in the process, discovering domestic and heroic scenes are not dissimilar. I present figures through the lens of wonder and respect, the sharing of stories around themes of family, friendship, home … I believe when we recognize loved ones in others, we remember the best of what it is to be human, so perhaps I’m working on my own quiet revolution that celebrates humanity, resiliency and possibility.
Born in America, Sydney-based Kim Leutwyler migrated to Australia in 2012. She works in a variety of media including painting, installation, ceramics, print media and drawing. Leutwyler's current body of work features paintings exploring notions of beauty, gender and queer identity. She has come to focus on painting as a medium because of its primarily masculine history in the western art canon. Her artwork has been exhibited in multiple galleries and museums throughout Australia and the United States.
Rachel Linnemeier’s subject matter includes powerful women in situations that both evoke strong feelings of nostalgia and inspire narratives. The overarching theme of Rachel’s work includes tension between the idea of modern adulthood and residual childhood. Each piece is composed of bright and vivid colors creating a youthful feeling while simultaneously expressing maturity through the pose and expression of the figure. Recent works have begun to explore the addition of landscapes to create complexity in narrative.
Pauline Aubey
Nebula, 2024
Lego bricks framed in silky black staircase box
15 × 15 in | 38.1 × 38.1 cm
Paulina Aubey uses lego bricks to create portraits who question our relationship to cultural icons through an interplay between abstraction and realism. Inspired by stained glass, she now adds some luminous effects to her artwork using a superimposition of matte and transparent bricks that she calls glazing. She mainly focuses on intimate close-up portraits that remain undecipherable despite close inspection. Her body of work is an attempt at alleviating the inherent tension between technology and mysticism. She is part of the Lunar Codex and a judge for Lego Masters France.
Chris Clark is a self-taught visual artist, illustrator, and muralist living and working in Jacksonville, Florida. Art, to him, is a form of journalism.
Using acrylic, oil, ink, and spray paint, he explores the rich culture and history of the Black community across the diaspora and the social issues affecting them today. For Clark, reflecting the human figure is very powerful, which is why he uses graphic-style portraiture and figurative works to depict Black life in America through his personal lens of a Black man. At the core of his work is the notion that representation matters. As the artist explains, “By telling my story, I want to help the viewer rediscover theirs.”
Clark’s artwork has been shown in exhibitions around the U.S. and abroad, including his recent solo exhibition “New Growth” at Kent Gallery FSCJ in Jacksonville and at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He has received multiple art awards and grants for his work. Clark was chosen to participate in the House of Sedulo Artist Residency in London, UK and the Chateau Orquevaux Artist Residency in Champagne-Ardenne, France in 2022-2023. Most recently he completed his first artist fellowship the DEAR (Digital Evolution Artist Retention) fellowship through the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute in New York.
Amy Ordoveza is a contemporary realist artist who creates detailed, imaginative still-life paintings. She carefully crafts and arranges the delicate cut-paper plants, animals, and architectural elements that she depicts in her oil paintings. The fragility of the paper objects suggests impermanence while Ordoveza’s close observation and meticulous handling of paint hint at their significance. Her compositions evoke a sense of beauty and mystery in ordinary surroundings.
Ordoveza received her MFA from the New York Academy of Art and her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her historical influences include 17th century Dutch still life painters including Rachel Ruysch and Jan Davidsz de Heem as well as surrealists such as Kay Sage and René Magritte. Ordoveza’s work is included in the Lunar Codex and the Nova Scotia Art Bank and has been featured in publications and websites including American Art Collector, PoetsArtists, and Booooooom!
Diana Carolina Lopez | Kate’s Resilience, 2023 | Oil on canvas | 31 9/10 × 23 9/10 in | 81 × 60.8 cm
In the realm of painting, there's a profound beauty in artists painting their peers. This practice is more than just a mere portrayal; it's a tribute, an intimate dialogue between creatives who share a relentless impulse to express. The online exhibition "Artists Painting Artists" magnificently en- capsulates this concept, offering viewers a chance to witness one artist's perspective of another's essence.
Imagine a world where each brushstroke is an ode, where every color and line is a symbol of respect for a fellow artist's journey. In this unique form of portraiture, the artist is both a narrator and a participant, engaging in an unspoken conversation with their subject. It's akin to self-portraiture, yet here, the artist sees themselves through the eyes of another, providing an external viewpoint that is often enlightening.
The exhibition leads us through various narratives, each portrait unfolding a story that beckons us to explore deeper. There's a certain magic in the gaze captured by these artists. It invites us to ponder, to lose ourselves
in the depths of the subject's character. What lies behind those eyes? What stories do they tell? These are questions that resonate throughout the gallery.
Historically, the art world is rich with examples of artists painting their contemporaries. These portraits are not just mere records; they are tes- taments, eternalizing the honor and reverence of being the subject of a fellow artist's canvas. They forge a bond across time, connecting the past, present, and future in a continuous thread of artistic admiration.
As you delve into this exhibition, let each portrait intrigue you, drawing you into the narratives they weave. Each piece is a journey into the heart of creativity, a celebration of the artistic spirit that connects us all. This is not just an exhibition; it's a homage to the enduring bond between artists, a tribute to the shared passion that fuels their creative souls.
- Sergio Gomez, MFA
Erica Calardo is a figurative painter living and working in Italy. Her works in oils, watercolors, and pencils are windows on the solitude of lost souls. She explores the realm of Beauty, Grotesque, and Magic, by creating eery oneiric feminine figures who tell tales of long forgotten dreams, of an imaginary timeless past.
Deeply rooted in the Italian Tradition, her technique is inspired by the Renaissance and Mannerism old masters (Leonardo, Bronzino, and Lavinia Fontana above all). She is mostly self-taught and has learned her skills from old dusty books. She has recently studied academic painting with Italian master Roberto Ferri.
Since 2010, she has showcased her work in galleries in Italy (Mondo Bizzarro, Studio21), and abroad (La Luz de Jesus - LA, Auguste Clown - Australia, Modern Eden, Swoon, Flower Pepper, WWA, and Spoke Art, Distinction - USA, Pinkzeppelin - Berlin among others). Erica's paintings have appeared in several magazines and books, like Miroir Magazine, Beautiful Bizarre, Il Manifesto, Inside Art, Italian Pop Surrealism, Illustrati.
Eugen is an artist who has developed a highly personal style that makes his beautiful pieces instantly recognizable. His paintings from the last few years, is simultaneously beautiful in both technique and aesthetic, but also creates a subtle sense of unease in the viewer. The work demands answers (or at least questions) from the viewer. It demands contemplation. And yet, the sheer honesty of it makes it something that can be lived with. This is challenging art that could take pride of place in a living-room and be accepted into your life. Eugen is one of the bravest artists that we know, in that his paintings are a refined, but almost excruciatingly honest, recording of the journey of his life, both the highlights and also the dark depths of thoughts and emotions that generally are hidden away and never shared. Even though they can be uncomfortable, something of Eugen’s innate empathy and compassion is also contained in each of his paintings and they provide a deep sense of support and strength that comes from exploring and knowing your limits.
Ariane Kamps
Kamps’ pieces juxtapose the traditional and the modern with the real and the surreal, both in technique and in subject matter. Traditional portraiture is spiked with neon. These pieces are an uncensored expression of deep fears, soaring joys, and gnawing anxieties.
1- What is different from your art work than other artists working in contemporary realism?
My work is different in that I tend to use a lot of punchy colors, lots of neons, etc and the subject matter is often centered around modern problems, mostly concerning how technology is affecting society on a spiritual level. My goal is to create modern mythologies.
2- How important is the process versus the end result?
The process means a lot to me, I enjoy a lot of the little things. I enjoy sanding panels of all things, gilding the edges with gold, little things like that. I'm always excited to begin a piece. That initial excitement is what carries me through the long process that becomes the end result.
3- What is your ultimate goal when creating contemporary realism?
I want to have a conversation with the viewer about our modern life, the choices we make each day and the world we're ultimately building.
4 -What do you like best about your work?
I like to creating little worlds and making peculiar dreams become reality. It helps me think about the issues we're facing when I can see it represented.
5- What do you do you like least about your work?
I dislike having to explain the meaning or inspiration behind the work because I often don't have a "message" attached to each work, just loose ideas that I wonder about when I look at each painting.
6 -Why contemporary realism?
I'm a very literal person, I get stuck on details which is useful in realism and I've found a safe haven in contemporary realism. I feel like the artists that work in contemporary realism are pushing boundaries and asking important questions, it really feels like an art movement that is alive and growing.
7- Which are your greatest influences?
I love the work of Frank Frazetta not only for his fantastical worlds and narrative work but also because, not unlike myself, he started oil painting later in life. He was very gutsy, and made being true to himself and his vision paramount. I also love the work of Mucha, Klimpt, Monet, and Waterhouse. In terms of living artists I'm very moved by the work of Kari-lise Alexander, Ali Cavanaugh, and Kristin Kwan.
8- What is your background?
I didn't end up going the conventional education route but much of what I learned was from fellow painters, workshops and what I could find online.
9- Name three artists you'd like to be compared to in history books.
I would feel honoured to simply be mentioned in a history book, I can't imagine being compared to any of the incredible talent out there today.
10- Which is your favorite contemporary realism artwork today?
I love this egg tempura piece by Julio Reyes. It feels timeless yet still contemporary.
LORENA LEPORI
Lorena Lepori's figurative oil paintings have a narrative based on the representation of feminine figures beyond gender, relating to everybody who can express the power of femininity. She uses cross-dressing to reach out and create iconic alter egos to expand and embrace a hidden part of her models’ personality through look transformation. She relies on myths, fairytales and clichés challenging the traditional representation of the matters, re-introducing them in a contemporary setting, mixing old and new symbols to relate more with universal concepts.
What is different from your art work than other artists working in contemporary realism?
I believe intentions are what makes every work unique. Mine are unpredictable, sometimes. I am mostly inspired by personal memories, abstract feelings and references from movies and music I grew up with. This combination of elements characterizes what I produce.
How important is process versus the end result?
In my case the two are deeply connected. Once the right idea hits me, the creative process evolves quickly; subjects, backgrounds, outfits and props are already in the picture before I touch the brush. They are so clear to me, that ,rarely, I found something different from what I have planned on my canvas.
What is your ultimate goal when creating contemporary realism?
Make the viewers curios about the references and amuse them with the twist I like to add in the composition.
What do you like best about your work?
In the process I like the attention I give to the concept. In the end, I like to see the materializing of my abstract idea.
What do you do you like least about your work?
I would love to be more spontaneous, less obsessed with technical details.
Why contemporary realism?
I consider myself a pragmatic soul, but nothing trigs me more than realistic figures, amazingly executed, immersed in the abstraction of an idea.
Which are your greatest influences?
My very first love was Tamara De Lempicka, flamboyant colors and beautiful women in glamorous and swoony poses. I think I got my imprinting from her, and that would explain the focus of my attention into feminine figures.
Caravaggio, and his incredible dramatic work, definitively represents a level I have always aimed to. Last but not least, Gustave Klimt who stimulated my curiosity with his ethereal pale women, wrapped in symbols and flat fabric.
What is your background?
I used to be a cartoonist and illustrator in my twenties. Life drove me away from that world for several years. Only in my forties I went back to my original passion, and I started to train myself as a painter, with the help of artist friends and a lot of self-teaching. It is now 9 years that I am totally committed to oil painting. And I love it!
Name three artists you'd like to be compared to in history books.
I would love to see my name mentioned next to the three artists named above, that would be of course very ambitious and not very humble.
Which is your favorite contemporary realism artwork today?
A huge masterpiece by Sergio Martinez - The portrait of Desire
1- What is different from your art work than other artists working in contemporary realism?
I think my work looks different because I work in three picture planes, a foreground, midground and background and they are clearly separated by dimensional feeling. I like to play with texture and use color harmonies to push the near too far feeling. I think the individual elements of my paintings are realistic but the overall composition is imaginative.
2- How important is process versus the end result?
I spent so much time developing a process with oil paint using material surfaces that were mostly handmade. I hoped to create textures that were not seen before. Being a painting teacher, I surrounded myself with more people who were focused on technique and HOW to paint. When you have a show and you discuss your work with more non-painters you learn they are talking about and focus on the final image and WHAT you painted.
3- What is your ultimate goal when creating contemporary realism?
To paint my truth but ultimately connect with a wide enough audience which make my paintings immortal.
4 -What do you like best about your work?
It is a reflection of my thoughts.
5- What do you do you like least about your work?
How long it takes me to call it complete.
6 -Why contemporary realism?
Because when I walk out of every museum and art fair I visit that is the genre that stays with me and can’t stop thinking about.
Field of Lilies, 2018
Oil on panel
20 × 30 in | 50.8 × 76.2 cm
7- Which are your greatest influences?
I’m going to go with the living ones because I had the opportunity to study with all of them starting with David Leffel then Steven Assael and weekend with Bo Bartlett.
8- What is your background?
I went to art school with a focus on illustration and design. I began painting after art school at the Palette & Chisel Academy where I was able to paint with dozens of great artists and talk art talk art 24/7.
9- Name three artists you'd like to be compared to in history books.
I like Vermeer for his thoughtful picture making, I like Thomas Dewing for his etherial quality and made up color harmonies and I like Degas because when you think of dancers you automatically think of him.
10- Which is your favorite contemporary realism artwork today?
Daniel Sprick’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
MICHAEL VAN ZEYL
Michael Van Zeyl is a full-time artist living and working in Chicago. His formal training began at the American Academy of Art, continuing on at Chicago’s Historic Palette & Chisel Academy. His art has been featured in several publications such as: American Art Collector, PoetsArtists, and American Artist magazine. Michael’s work is already appreciated in many public and private collections, such as the United States District Court, University of Chicago and was the 2014 recipient of the Dorothy Driehaus Mellin Fellowship for Midwestern Artists.
Terry Strickland paints realistic, conceptually provocative figurative oil paintings. They have a modern sensibility and vibrant color with an old master’s attention to detail. The results are beautiful, compelling paintings with universal themes. Much of Terry's work investigates the idea that a choice of costume can reveal or conceal truths about our shared humanity. She explores the concept that change is the one constant in life and is necessary, at times turbulent, painful, or joyful.
Strickland's work is in The Bennett Art Collection and has been collected, published, and exhibited extensively throughout the United States.
Was 2022 a good year for you?
It was a very good year for me. I spent a lot of time painting and finished my first large piece since before COVID and that was exhilarating.
I had some wonderful encouragement from curators, writers, and editors when they included my paintings in their exhibitions and art publications. It’s a great validation that the direction of my work is one that’s resonating.
I enjoyed teaching, too, classes and workshops in person and through my Patreon, where I mentor artists one-on-one, and post instructional and inspirational materials.
What were some of the highlights in your art career?
I’m now represented by Didi Menendez at 33 Contemporary Gallery. I’ve been doing group shows as an invited artist for a few years and I’m looking forward to working with them in a closer relationship.
My painting Phoenix Rising made the cover of Fine Art Connoisseur. That was a very nice surprise!
I was honored to be invited by Peter Trippi, Fine Art Connoisseur, editor in chief, to teach at Realism Live, A Virtual Global Art Conference. It was fun to virtually meet people from all over the globe and be presenting along side some of my favorite artists.
What was the craziest thing that happened?
Images of some of my paintings are going to the moon! They’re included in a time capsule as part of the Lunar Codex, founded by Samuel Peralta. I wish my dad, who worked at Kennedy Space Center as a Quality Inspector on the space shuttle, had lived long enough to see this. It means so much to me a "Rocket Kid" who grew up watching every launch and having the space program and integral part of our lives. Thank you, Dr. Peralta.
Did your art sell?
I sold some in the last quarter of the year and am hopeful that’s a good sign that the economy is recovering. I’ve been in this business long enough to know that there are ups and downs. My strategy is to keep making art, entering shows, and connecting with people. The market will come around.
Were you included in any shows?
It was a busy year for online and physical exhibitions. I had work in several 33 Contemporary Gallery exhibits, The Final Frontier, the Summer Pop-Up show.
My paintings were included in Painting the Figure Now, International Exhibit off contemporary Figure Painters at Wmoca in Wisconsin, in the International FIKVA Award 2022 Exhibition, Antwerp, Belgium, is a finalist in the Art Renewal Center’s International Competition, and was in the Realism Live Faculty Art Auction.
Were you published in any art magazines or periodicals?
Yes, the first this year was Fine Art Connoisseur’s March/April, 2022, issue in an article about collector Robert C. Kennedy. After the purchase of my painting, Voice of the Tiger in 2010, Robert said, “It’s acquisition helped solidify my realization that I was developing a substantial collection and prodded more serious thinking about that fact.” For me seeing the painting was like seeing an old friend.
My work is in feature articles in American Art Collector, about Painting the Figure Now, July 2022, Fine Art Connoisseur, Dressed to Impress, Nov-Dec issue.
What are you looking forward to in 2023?
Painting more provocative paintings that connect with people. Continuing to push my craft. Working on new ideas for several new series. I look forward to what 33 Contemporary will accomplish together with exhibitions and art fairs.
Was 2022 a good year for you?
It was an awesome year
What were some of the highlights in your art career?
Exhibition at the Meam Museum, Semi Finalist in ARC 16 Salon, huge article in the weekend journal in the local newspaper, finalist in the member only competition of the Portrait Society of America
What were some of the pitfalls?
Working very hard and now I´m a bit exhausted.
Did you art sell?
Yes I´m pretty happy with all my sales and I have a lot new art collectors.
Were you included in any shows?
MEAM show and upcoming show with gallery Artelibre and the Pictor gallery in New York.
Were you published in any art magazines or periodicals?
Yes in our cross regional newspaper in the cover page of the weekend journal.
How has social media affected your daily practice?
Since reels are the new thing, I tried to film a lot more this year than taking photos and I still have additional material to cut. Also, I created an artist statement video.
What are you looking forward to in 2023?
The show at the Pictor gallery, to start more great paintings, creating NFTs, to sell prints, submitting to magazines, being the best version of myself and getting better every day
Alexandra’s work specializes in the natural interaction between the female body and the element of water. The deep connection between the artist and the sea is visible in many of Alexandra's paintings. For her, the sea is a decelerating place of power that creates inner peace and at the same time reflects states of consciousness of one's own life. This intention always flows into her work.
The beginnings of Alexandra Telgmann's artistic work were influenced in her childhood by her father, an important goldsmith artist. After successfully completing her master's degree in goldsmithing, she studied portrait and nude painting at the College of Art and Design in Savannah/ USA and gave her artistic career a new direction. Numerous international and national exhibitions in Charleston (South Carolina), Las Vegas, Colorado Springs, Paris, Munich and Leipzig followed her first solo exhibition “Laconella” at the Pinnacle Gallery/Savannah USA. Her oil paintings are currently represented by the Grand Bohemian Gallery in Charleston /USA and the 33rd Contemporary Art Gallery in Chicago.
“A conceptual surrealist, I combine technical virtuosity, an inquiring mind and a love of storytelling, to make quirky, often humorous, observations on the world around us. ”
Featured in BRW as one of Australia’s top 50 artists, Matthew Quick began painting as a teenager before being one of the youngest students to study art at the University of South Australia. Upon graduation Quick joined Emery Studio in Melbourne, designing for major corporations such as Rio Tinto, Fosters and BHP.
After a prosperous career in design and advertising and having written a number of fiction books, Quick returned to painting in his mid 30’s. In the past few years he’s won, or been a finalist for, 70 national juried art awards. He’s had 14 solo and more than 80 group shows. His work is included in the permanent collection of Australia’s most significant museum.
CURRENT SERIES
Matthew Quick’s exquisitely created paintings turn a mirror on our contemporary online existence in his latest body of work The Mirror Electric. The artist’s visual commentary drives to the heart of the imagery that populates our social media feeds. Ricocheting from the amusing to the vacuous and absurd, his reading of the new visual shorthand of the online world is as sharp as ever. The mirrored surfaces and the ensuing interplay of one’s own reflection and the rendered surface of the painter’s hand is an immersive experience.
Q&A
All of the paintings are intended to engage the viewer with a narrative that operates on a number of levels.
At its most basic, it is intended to be intriguing, engaging and, hopefully, beautiful. However, it the viewer chooses to look a little deeper, layers of additional stories are revealed. Upon the combination of title and image, deeper meanings emerge, triggering the opening chapters to an endless array of stories the viewer is invited to create.
The goal is pursue conceptual ideas that reveal societal issues and contemporary thinking.
This is achieved by subverting symbols images of power with irony and humour. Statues and monuments were my starting point, as they frequently map the rise and fall of Empires with overt symbolism, providing the foundation for a revisionist take on the notions of beauty, pride, and nationalism.
By replacing their crowns and thrones with ordinary objects, the aura of emperors and gods are demoting to powerless nobodies. Through ridicule, I play with their initial grandiose goals, querying their motivations and questioning the orthodoxy of accepted history. In doing so, I reference themes such individual freedom, social control, surveillance, and the deceit of rulers who intentionally fail to act as they speak.
What do you believe to be your roll as an artist?
Like many female realist artists, I have a passion to be a voice for myself and other women.Through all my paintings, I am looking for myself. They are from me and part of me. I am also representing the everyday lives of women who are isolated within their society. This isolation stems from powerful limits imposed on them by the culture at large—a culture they also define as mothers. I am studying and sharing their emotions and feelings in the form of lines and colors in my paintings. My ideas sometimes take the form of women’s pain or suffering and sometimes take the form of their pleasure.
What informs your work currently?
My paintings represent two main chapters in my life as they relate to women: one of oppression and one of opportunity. The first part covers my childhood in Iran, and the second covers my life after I immigrated to the USA and since I became a mother. Both phases provided impetus for my own introspection and discovery around what it means to be a woman. So, what is life for me as a woman? The meaning of life and my purpose for living used to be a mystery to me. They often still are, but now I use my past experiences consciously and subconsciously to express the reconciliation I am navigating with all the storms of my life and identity. I am recovering, reclaiming, and redesigning what it means—to me—to be a woman.
My art gives voice to the harsh experiences and societal constraints of Middle-Eastern women. It encompasses psychological aspects of their suffering under the oppression of government, religion, and men. As a creative woman, I faced much difficulty in my attempts to exercise any kind of freedom and independence. The first twenty-three years of my life in Iran were entrenched in wars, violent protests, and revolutions. The sum of these experiences shaped my ideology of life and art. My perception of the role of women in society is no longer ruled by submission or fate. It is sustained by the resiliency and strength of women. My discovery of these attributes in myself have influenced my way of talking about and painting women. I am looking to express this kind of freedom. I want to interpret and translate my emotions and experiences without fear of reprisal and even in the face of retribution. Painting is the expression of my internal emotions in response to the external world.
What is one of the biggest lessons painting has taught you?
Dairies, fragments, experiences, suffering, pain, happiness, and observations enable all artists to explore themselves. To understand better how surrealist artists approached the meaning of self, Chadwick provides this interesting explanation of self in Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism, and Self-representation:
We are born with a nuclear core of personality, which is the seed from which a cohesive structure called self begins to form during the second year of life. This process unfolds gradually through the interaction between biology and environment. The self under normal circumstances grows, matures, and remains flexible all of our lives. But first, all of its parts need to work in unison, as a well-integrated mechanism; only then can we sense our self as whole and not have to think about it. Otherwise we experience the self as unintegrated, fragmented, unbalanced, incomplete, even empty, and we go about our lives self-absorbed, attempting to sustain a sense of cohesiveness in artificial ways by attaching ourselves to someone or something we believe will provide the means to keep us whole. Without a sense of self, we attempt to establish self-objects, relationships that mimic the ones we had or wish we had in infancy, when we were as one with the people around us. (Chadwick 88-91)
When I stepped onto my artistic path, like many surrealist artists, I began to know myself and my paintings as mirrors of self, or as the reflections of my feelings in the response of the society. I started to paint my history and started to imagine myself in the free world. And then, I started to reflect myself in all my paintings.
What excites you about figurative art today?
I enjoy looking at subjective figurative art pieces that represent an artists’ feeling of life experience. They are rich with historical, realistic, or surrealistic meaning. I am attracted to stories and the opportunity art offers to silently express emotion to the outside world.
