Kara Walker

Still from 8 Possible Beginnings or: The Creation of an African-America, Parts 1-8
2006
Animation shadow puppets

Gone, An Historical Romance of a Civic War as It Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart

1994

Cut paper on wall

Slavery!Slavery! Presenting a GRAND and LIFELIKE Panoramic Journey into Picturesque South Slavery of “Life at ‘Ol’ Virginny’s Hole’ (sketches from Plantation Life)” See the Peculiar Institution as never before! All cut from black paper by the able hand of Kara Elizabeth Walker an Emancipated Negress and leader of her Cause

1997
Cut paper on wall

Endless Conundrum, An African Anonymous Adventuress
2001
Cut paper on wall

Burning African Village Play Set with Big House and Lynching
2006
Cut paper in display box

Kara Walker was born in 1969. Walker’s work shows themes in mainly sexuality, race, repression, and power. “Most pieces have to do with exchanges of power, attempts to steal power away from others” (Kara Walker, 2003). She uses past images of history to explore the racial issues of the present. At the age of 27 she received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur grant. She now works as a professor of visual arts at Columbia University.

http://learn.walkerart.org/karawalker/Main/IntroductionToThemes

Ann Hamilton

untitled (dissections . . . they said it was an experiment) 1988/93

Color-toned video and LCD screen

the capacity of absorption · video (1988/93)

Color-toned video and LCD screen

between taxonomy and communion (1990/1996)

Steel table, iron oxide powder, and approximately 14,000 human and animal teeth

(aleph · video) 1992/93

Color-toned video and LCD screen, with sound

linings · video (1990/93)

Color-toned video and LCD screen, silent

Ann Hamilton was best known for her large-scale installation laden with many different meanings behind it. She translates her social life to personal lived experiences as well as her pass history experience. With her expression of experience, she works through memories and use her body in videos to express herself. Since 1980s, she has created more than 60 installations that includes sculpture, architecture,video, the spoken and written words with human presence. Her artwork expression is based on her knowledge of pass time and she expresses them by inanimate objects.

Cornelia Parker

'Neither from nor Towards'
retrieved bricks from collapsed house
1992

'Mass'
charred remains
1997

'Breathless'
flattened brass musical instruments
2001

'Alter Ego'
silver plated objects
2004

'Cold Dark Matter'
garden shed, blown up contents
1991

British sculptor Cornelia Parker, was born in 1956 in Cheshire, England. Cornelia's work is very poetic and depicts a stand still in time, which in reality we have no control over. Clearly, she uses wire to suspend her work, representing time between 'now and then'. She makes many references to cartoons and tries to catch objects and moments rights before they are lost. A lot of her sculpting is consisted of remains, for example 'Neither from nor Towards' is made of bricks retrieved from an eroded house on Dover cliff, which fell into the beach. Some of her pieces have a very dark feeling to them. 'Mass' is constructed from charred pieces of a church in Texas, that was burnt down after being struck with lightening. The last piece pictured at the bottom 'Cold Dark Matter' is in some way similar to Mass. This piece started with a garden shed that was exploded, remains were collected a carefully arragned. The light bulb inside is one that was found fully intact inside the remains of the shed. I think the materials she uses tells a more detailed story than just looking at her work. I find it unusually interesting. 

Ida Applebroog

Fancy Shoes/Jimmy Choo (2003)
Oil, Charcoal, and Resin on Arches Aquarelle paper



Fancy Shoes/John Galliano (2003)
Oil and Charcoal on Arches Aquarelle paper



Fancy Shoes/Dior (2004)
Oil, Charcoal, and Resin on Arches Aquarelle paper

Fancy Shoes/ Valentino (2004)

Oil and Charcoal on Arches Aquarelle paper

Fancy Shoes/Fendi (2002)
Oil and Charcoal on Arches Aquarelle paper

American painter, Ida Applebroog, was born on November 11, 1929 in Bronx, New York. In 1949, she attended NY State Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences, then moved to Chicago in order to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. From 1972 to the 2002's, her work was exhibited in many museums, including Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York. Her work is mainly recognized for its simple, bolded human forms and its themes which include power struggle, gender, and sexual identity. Throughout her artistic career, she recieved many awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the College Art Association and the Womens Caucus for Art. She was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate from New School University/Parson School of Design.

René Magritte

The Acrobat's Exercises.

The mystery of what is visible is to be found in the body, in the powers of the body, a discovery conveyed by The Acrobat's Exercises. The suppleness of the acrobat, holding a death-dealing rifle in his right hand, a musical instrument in his left; the head, depicted three times; the sexual organs, totally excluded under these impossible athletic contortions

The Lovers.

In The Lovers, he points to the blind nature of love by doubling what is obvious and placing a veil over the faces of the lovers, who are thus left to their sweet blindness.

The White Race.

The White Race presents a surprising vision of the human body and establishes a new hierarchy of values. There is only one eye, one ear; eyes and ears are unique, like the mouth, the organ of speech. The solitary, cyclops-like eye, its dominant central position at the very top evoking a sense of transcendence, is located above the ear, which in turn is borne by the mouth.

The Rape.

The Rape demonstrates all too obviously that painting is also capable of taking hold of the anatomy of the human body, capturing it in pictures and transforming it. The eyes become breasts, the nose - the middle of the face - is now the navel, the mouth the genitals.

Dangerous Liaisons. 1926. Oil on canvas. 72 x 64 cm. Private collection.

Dangerous Liaisons, which has been strikingly interpreted by Max Loreau, depicts a naked woman. The mirror which she is holding in her hands is turned towards the observer. It covers her body from shoulders to thighs; simultaneously, however, it reflects precisely that part of her body which it is covering, seen reduced and from a different perspective.

__

René Magritte was born on the 21st November, 1898 in Hainaut, Belgium. His father was a tailor and a merchant. As his business did not go well the family had to move often. René lost his mother early and tragically – she committed suicide for unclear reasons. René was only 14 years old at the time.

From 1916 through 1918 Magritte studied in the Royal Academy of Arts in Brussels (Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts). He became a wallpaper designer and commercial artist. His early painting works were executed under the influence of the Cubism and Futurism (1918-20), then he was inspired by the Purists and Fernand Léger.

http://all-art.org/art_20th_century/magritte3.html

Brian Tolle

"Twisted Chimney", this structure was constructed in Butetown, Rhymney Valley. The sculpture is to frame the view of the surrounding valley. This was to represent the history of the land and to have a big impact on those who would come accross it. Brian ensured that this wasnt an item to be missed by consturcting it at a very large scale.

"Outgrown", this offers a creative look of the unformity of a American Dream Home. The comformity of the different objects to to represent the comformity of a individuals identity.

"Portraits Hoboken" this artwork was Brian Tolle and Frederic Schwartz work. This is structure is meant to represent two communities that will forever be linked by the river that unites them: Hoboken and the skyline of Lower Manhattan. This structure is in memorial to September 11.
This structure is 45 by 100 foot rectangular shaped structure that frames where the Twin Towers once stood and where the site's new buildings were expected to be built.

"The Tempest". This peice of art was installed at Collins Park in Miami Beach. This was a contribute to the "Art in Public Places" series, Brian saw Miami as a location that was physically and culturally shaped by the sea. Brian describes this structure as, "Sculpture of shimmering blue green expanse, which appears to have been carved from the sea, frozen in space and times, in the form of a swirling celestial maze." Brian allows his visitors to engange in this art but allowing them to wander and explore the waves structures as close as possible.

This is a Irish Hunger Memorial in Manhattan, its dedicated to raising awareness of the Great Irish Famine that killed millions in Ireland in 1845-1852. This structure includes utilized stones, soil, and native vegetation brought from the western coast of Ireland. They incorporated stones from all over Ireland to represent the recreating of Irish unity.

Hung Liu

Haitang Gold (2010)
Mixed media on panel



Little Lama (2009)
Cotton Jacquard Tapestry


A Third World (1993)
Oil on Canvas, gold leaf on wood

Last Emperor (2009)
Cotton Jacquard Tapestry


White (2009)
Oil on Canvas


Hung Liu was born in China in 1948. Hung Liu lived in China during Mao's regime. Like many others in China at that time, she had to be re-educated and only draw art that glorified Mao's rule. Eventually, she and her family fled China from Mao's Communist rules. (The third painting in my list is about Communism and Capitalism.) During this time, Hung Liu became passionate about fading Emperor's sad expression and people's hopelessness. ( The fourth and second painting.) On July 1976, Hung Liu went back to China to paint landscapes and experienced the Sichuan Earthquake that killed 90,000 people. From this, Hung Liu was able to witness people's mourning, grieving, and many other vivid expressions. (The last paintinng from this experience.)

Roger Shimomura

Shadow of Enemy #2 - 2007

Acrylic on Canvas

American Hello Kitty - 2010

Acrylic on Canvas

Dairy: December 12, 1941 - 1980

Acrylic on Canvas

Classmates #1 - 2007

Acrylic on Canvas

Fox and Banzai - 2003

Acrylic on Canvas

Roger Shimomura, a painter, print artist, and theatrical artist is largely influenced by him and his family's sociopolitically intensive experience during World War II. Shimomura's work reflects highly on the racial lines and perspectives during the WWII time period. His opinionated social and political work continue on throughout his career - with pieces like "American Hello Kitty" that play on the common perception of Asian-Americans as stereotypical cartoons with generically "cute" characteristics. Towards the earlier parts of his career Shimomura speaks to his family's experience in during WWII. He was born in Seattle, Washington and lived some of his early years in a concentration camp in Minidoka, Idaho. He was inspired by the diaries of his late grandmother who had immigrated from Japan. Shimomura had endured the concentration camps with his family, with elders who had immigrated and himself who was an American. Details of the young lives who were in these camps are reflected in pieces like "Shadow of Enemy #2", where the absurdity of placing these innocent "patriots" in a lock-box seems obvious. Shimomura received a B.A. degree from the University of Washington, Seattle, and an M.F.A. from Syracuse University, New York. He has had over 125 solo exhibitions of paintings and prints, as well as presented his experimental theater pieces. In 2002, the College Art Association presented him with the “Artist Award for Most Distinguished Body of Work,” for his 4 year, 12-museum national tour of the painting exhibition, “An American Diary.” Shimomura is in the permanent collections of over 80 museums nationwide.

Matthew Ritchie

The Universal Cell (2005)

Steel
The Universal Adversary (2006)

Oil and marker paintings, animated projections,lightboxs with backlight photographic prints, and sculptures powdercoated almunium and stainless steel

The Hiearchy Problem(2003)

Acrylic wall drawing,rbber and tyvek carpet,photgraphic light box, and oil and marker painting

Self-Portrait in 2064(2003)

Oil and marker

No Sign of the World(2004)

Oil and marker

Matthew Ritchie is an artist born in London, England, now residing in New York.He is an artist mostly known as a painter. His works based on his drawings that he scans and blows them up into three-dimensional figures, then reshapes. " Ritchies work deals with the idea of information being "on the surface", and information is also the subjet of his work. His work itself consists of paintings, wall drawings, light boxes, sculptures, and projections. His first solo show "Working Model brought him into the contemporary art world where he intertwined historical and ideoligical belief systems as a common thread. Since his first show he has blossomed as an artist and continues to make art by thinking out of the box and taking ordinary things to the next level.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Ritchie#cite_note-0

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/ritchie/

Whitfield Lovell

Absolut Lovell

Eclipse

Guide My Heart

Patience

Twine

Whitfield Lovell was born in New York in 1959 and it still living today. He is known to be an African American painter and installation artist. I really like his artwork because of the story behind each of them. He paints portraits of African Americans on a piece of wood and then adds an every day object to lay in front of the portraits that represents their lives somehow. While he uses old wood or other objects there's a sense of time moving forward in his pieces. For example, Patience, the girl is clearly dressed in a dress that was made way before the stereo was yet the pieces flow so well together. I chose to do Whitfield Lovell because something about his artwork is very attractive to me and just makes me want to look at the portrait until I know what the person's story is. I love his use of wood and charcoal and it's really interesting how he can make these life sized portraits!