by Kristi Kohut

Named one of „7 next-big-thing artists“ by Elle Decor magazine,  she is a mixed-media artist in Chicago, IL. Her very intuitive process is inspired by color and pattern found in nature, often using a variety of media including watercolor, pastels, ink, acrylic and glass beads. 

„My process is very intuitive and is influenced by color and pattern in the natural world and in the commercial world. A permeating crack on the sidewalk, the vibrant layers of an agate rock, the exotic clothing of a faraway place, are my muses. It is an intuitive dance of play, working until I find just the right combination of color and texture. I know when it is done when it elicits a feeling inside, a zing, a ping of joy or pleasure that often only comes with that final touch or pop of color, suddenly transforming the piece. That feeling is a connection to something more, something that is not of the day-to-day routine of life. The antithesis of routine. A hint at what's on the other side of this world. The something more we feel ourselves longing for. For me, making art is to touch the divine. There is magic and mystery all around us. Beauty everywhere. That's what I am trying to capture.“

www.choosehapi.com

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by Liz Mares

„Line has always been a mystery to me. Its subtle structure and the fact that it is the starting point for all things. Over the years, I have become obsessed with the lines and its connection to natural, emotional and man-made entities.

Working with line has become a philosophy to me and my study and experimentation with it induces a sense of transcendental meditation. Each drawing, installation and mixed media work is visualized through the thought of a single line; the alpha point. That first marking, from which the rest of the work builds shape.“ 

Liz Mares is a contemporary artist based in Chicago, IL. She uses multiple mediums including works on paper, installations, multi-media and photography. Her work was recently seen in exhibitions at the Customs House Museum (Clarksville, TN), Walnut Ink Projects (Michigan City, IN), and 33 Contemporary Gallery (Chicago, IL). 

www.lizmares.com

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by Liz Mares

„Line has always been a mystery to me. Its subtle structure and the fact that it is the starting point for all things. Over the years, I have become obsessed with the lines and its connection to natural, emotional and man-made entities.

Working with line has become a philosophy to me and my study and experimentation with it induces a sense of transcendental meditation. Each drawing, installation and mixed media work is visualized through the thought of a single line; the alpha point. That first marking, from which the rest of the work builds shape.“ 

Liz Mares is a contemporary artist based in Chicago, IL. She uses multiple mediums including works on paper, installations, multi-media and photography. Her work was recently seen in exhibitions at the Customs House Museum (Clarksville, TN), Walnut Ink Projects (Michigan City, IN), and 33 Contemporary Gallery (Chicago, IL). 

www.lizmares.com

by Naomi Ernest

She considered herself an artist-on-the-side until recently she began to understand it as a deeper calling and embraced her work wholeheartedly.  

The written word was her first true love, and Naomi studied English and Literature at the University of Michigan. All the while, she fostered her ever-evolving artistry, regularly stumbling upon diverse personal projects, which explore and expand the ideas, methods and mediums for her work.

“I always have multiple projects going at once - painting, drawing, photography, writing - so if I need a break from one piece, I can turn my focus to something else; each medium inspires the others.  Most days I’m brimming with ideas, happy to finish my current work and excited to try some new thing."

Though varied, a thread of commonality travels through all of Naomi’s work. Often comprising myriad intricate details and fascination, it seeks an overall simplicity of theme and composition - just exactly as she approaches life, focusing on raw essentials while discovering beauty and significance in the nuances.

Naomi is utterly devoted to her dear little family and is ever inspired by the rural landscapes of Michigan, which she still calls home.  

www.naomiernest.com

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by Claudia Klein

"I am at war with the obvious."
      - William Eggleston

A Munich-based illustrator, she does not restrict herself to neither subjects nor techniques. Her preferred working materials: black ink, ripped pieces from old magazines, and some glue. Her work is basically analogue, random "mistakes" are welcome and included.  Her major source of inspiration is based on foreign generic packaging designs. 

www.claudiaklein.net

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by Richard Blanco

Florida based abstract artist Richard Blanco is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Blanco draws inspiration from the unconscious influence of golden ratios and their influence on the perception of beauty. Phi (the golden ratio of 1:1.618) is thought to be a mysterious number which has some related quantities and shapes. It appears repeatedly in the proportions of the human body, plants, animals, DNA, solar system, art and architecture, music, etc. Blanco uses this ratio as a constraint upon which to build his work.  Typically this involves dividing the canvas up into a grid. Each section of the grid relates to its adjacent section using the golden ratio. Some of the grids become very complex while others are as simple as just two sections. By placing this limitation on his work it liberates him to freely explore composition, color and form without being
bound by narrative.

All of his work is initially designed on the computer using vector based software. The design is then manually transcribed to canvas and painted in acrylic using several series of stencils.  Color choices are improvisational and made at the time of painting, not during the design process.     

www.richardblancoart.com

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by Hyland Mather, aka X-O

He is a found-object -- or as he likes to say, “lost objects” -- assemblage artist.  He attended Colorado State University and received a B.A. in Philosophy with a focus on Aesthetics.  He has exhibited recently in
New York (Masters Projects), Los Angeles (Center for Audio Visual Expression), Amsterdam (Kallenbach Gallery) and Oregon (Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art). X-O works in both fine arts venues and as an active street artist.   

X-O approaches every location where he builds his “lost object” installations in what he says is “a very Zen-like” form of hunting, collecting, and arranging objects that have been discarded or abandoned: “I like to dig through an old pile to create another pile of my own.” he laughs. “For me, it’s the challenge of making something useful from something seemingly useless. I also like the surprise of not knowing what materials I’ll have when I start, or what I’ll have when I’m finished.” 

His influences include mid-century makers and designers, including Ray and Charles Eames and George Nelson, as well as artists Andy Goldsworthy, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol Lewitt, and Barnett Newman.  

www.andenken.com

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by Maximilian Schachtner

He works as a designer and consultant for cultural institutions as well as commercial brands. He designs corporate identities and a wide array of printed and digital material such as publications, packaging, posters and websites. He spends at least one day a week working on personal, often art-related projects to keep himself receptive to new ways of thinking. 

The contribution for Des Artistes connects with his continuing series titled Something out of nothing. This series is based on projects that develop new work from existing material. Something out of nothing questions todays mindset of perpetual consumption and wants to show that there are multiple ways of re-using images, re-presenting the quality of the existing. For Des Artistes he developed colorful and abstract prints from fruit boxes.

www.maximilianschachtner.com

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by Maximilian Schachtner

He works as a designer and consultant for cultural institutions as well as commercial brands. He designs corporate identities and a wide array of printed and digital material such as publications, packaging, posters and websites. He spends at least one day a week working on personal, often art-related projects to keep himself receptive to new ways of thinking. 

The contribution for Des Artistes connects with his continuing series titled Something out of nothing. This series is based on projects that develop new work from existing material. Something out of nothing questions todays mindset of perpetual consumption and wants to show that there are multiple ways of re-using images, re-presenting the quality of the existing. For Des Artistes he
developed colorful and abstract prints from fruit boxes.

www.maximilianschachtner.com

by Valeria Maggiani

She graduate from the University of Pisa, exhibited in various shows in Italy and Germany. Since 2006, she is one of the members of the artist collective called LimitedNoArtGallery.

Her oil paintings show a feminine, almost fairy-tale-like world in which lone-liness, misgivings, fancies and thoughts float quietly in soundless surreal worlds. Valeria lives and works in Milan.

valeriamaggiani.blogspot.de

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by Gen Atem (aka Gen-U-One) and Miriam Bossard

Acclaimed Swiss artist Gen Atem (aka Gen-U-One) has been a pioneer of the European Urban Art Movement since 1982 beginning with public graffiti art. In the mid-eighties he got acquainted with „Old School“ graffiti legends Phase Two, Futura, Noc167, Dondie, Seen, and finally Rammellzee, who became his mentor. Until 1994 Gen Atem and Rammellzee collaborated on several art performances and exhibitions in New York and Amsterdam.

From the mid-nineties, Gen Atem studied the philosophy and aesthetics of Zen Buddism which climaxed when he entered a Buddhist monastery and became a Zen monk. This influenced an art form which he today defines as Meditated Vandalism. Gen Atem has had numerous exhibitions and art performances in New York, Amsterdam, Paris, Zurich, Istanbul and Tokyo. He is also the author of the book The Four Noble Truths, An Introduction To Buddhist Philosophy And Meditation as well as the founder of the artist groups Wild Writers and Attacking Vandalism Criminals. In 2014, he released his solo album Not Here. He lives and works as an artist and Zen teacher in Zurich, Switzerland.

www.genatem.com

www.miriambossard.com

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Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), one of the most important artists of modern and contemporary art, was born in Paris and lived and worked in New York as of 1938. Memories, sexuality, love and abandonment are the core of her complex body of work.

Proceeds will go towards Haus der Kunst Munich.

Haus der Kunst is a non-collecting public museum and a key global center for contemporary art. It is dedicated to the exploration of the diverse histories of contemporary art based on a foundation of focused exhibitions, research, and education.

Through its programs, Haus der Kunst affirms and acknowledges that the trajectories of contemporary art are global, multifocal, polysemic, and unbounded by cartographic, conceptual, and cultural limits.

www.hausderkunst.de

Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), one of the most important artists of modern and contemporary art, was born in Paris and lived and worked in New York as of 1938. Memories, sexuality, love and abandonment are the core of her complex body of work.

Proceeds will go towards Haus der Kunst Munich.

Haus der Kunst is a non-collecting public museum and a key global center for contemporary art. It is dedicated to the exploration of the diverse histories of contemporary art based on a foundation of focused exhibitions, research, and education.

Through its programs, Haus der Kunst affirms and acknowledges that the trajectories of contemporary art are global, multifocal, polysemic, and unbounded by cartographic, conceptual, and cultural limits.

www.hausderkunst.de

by Amanda Marie

Drawing upon illustrations and characters reminiscent of yesteryear’s iconic children’s books, Marie’s trademark style gives an immediate feeling of nostalgia, an ‘I Know That From Somewhere’ feeling. The storybook like imagery is an invitation for viewing the allegorical and highly painterly compositions . Signature in her work is the use of children and young adults as imagery tools to deliver clever messages that straddle the line between comforting and spooky.

The narrative power of her very graphic style invites viewers to experience the work in a familiar storybook fashion, in which she can then deliver message like, ‘How we prepare(ed) ourselves for the adult world’, or ‘Survival Techniques for Life Phases’. Her work is inviting to a very wide audience regardless of age, interest, or heritage. From lawyers to hipsters, doctors, mothers, designers, or collectors, her work appeals.

Along with Swoon and AIKO, Amanda Marie is among the very best women working in the important genre of Stencilism, and her visual language is as rich and graphically powerful as any of her peers.

With Marie, it is refreshing to see graphic stencils (cutout devices to reproduce and apply graphic imagery or text) which are not the overtly violent or super sexual images that might have originally attracted audiences to the genre. As stencil painting matures Amanda Marie’s work is keeping pace with an evolving and discerning eye.

Thematically, a regular comparison from the fine art world is Henry Darger, but Amanda Marie is also heavily influenced by classic ‘golden book’ era illustrators like Eloise Wilken, Tibor Gergely and Leonard Weisgard. Marie’s paintings use a combination of mediums and techniques. In most works, some elements are screen printed, some are wheat pasted, and some elements are drawn out and then made into hand cut stencils and spray painted. There is also acrylic paint applied by brush and splatter techniques, and of course the trademark use of vintage sewing patterns is present in many of her paintings. The complex use of multiple techniques in each piece lends to the depth and subtlety of her work.

http://www.seeyouthroughit.com

by 108

108 (born 1978) is an Italian artist in the field of street art from Alessandria.

108 has moved from working in traditional graffiti art to painting large and mysterious figures that invade public spaces. He was one of the first writers to use numbers instead of letters for his name. He started to work when he was a child on the streets of Alessandria, and used different names. His work has appeared on the streets of Milan, Paris, London, Berlin, and New York City. His first works known by people are enigmatic “blob”-like yellow shapes. It is his firm intention to make visual chaos. His new works are labyrinths, dead trees, 3D objects and installations, but especially black and gloomy shapes. In the last years, he took part in a lot of international exhibitions: Nusign 2.4 in Paris, Urban Edge Show in Milano[6], Segundo and Tercer Asalto in Zaragoza and, in 2007 he was invited to join the project called Walls inside the Biennale di Venezia. During March 2008 he was invited to join Nomadaz (a show curated by Pablo Aravena) in Los Angeles with Eltono, Dem, Microbo and other artists to represent Europe in the U.S.A.

http://www.108nero.com/

by Anna Howarth

There is a celebratory aspect to my work, which refers to the rituals of cultural identity and the joy that it brings. The cyclic pattern of the seasons and the human response to natural phenomena is represented by paper-cutting which in itself is a very basic art form, containing elements of folklore.

My work explores two contrasting themes, the visible and the invisible: the light and the shadow. The visible is my study of human nature, created from imagination and memories. The invisible explores the unconscious: a thread, which loosely connects my work to Celtic mythology, folklore and fairy tales.

My drawings stimulate a narrative, which is created by a technique of precision cutting with a sharp blade. Restricting this method to a paper silhouette, contrasting against a light background the work exploits the intrinsic properties of light, shape, narrative and structure and generates many possibilities, thus enabling the viewer to see themselves and the world in new and different ways.

Life is like the narratives I assemble. My pictures are symbols and stories from the past, present and the future, from dreams and from poems. The primal qualities of a silhouetted world are inhabited by characters from childhood memories, bringing forth powerful experiences shared by all. Such is the universal code, that a narrative is instantly recognised by the cut-out animals and children, who venture across the enchanted paper landscapes, existing somewhere between an innocent reverie and a wished for dream. Imagery is everything for me. It can make my heart pound.

This is what excites and inspires me when I visit galleries, read poetry, or go to concerts. I capture in my art what I am unable to express by any other means. I want to create magical pictures using elements of light and dark, which express the simple reverie of childhood wondrousness. 

www.annahowarth.com

by Amanda Marie

Drawing upon illustrations and characters reminiscent of yesteryear’s iconic children’s books, Marie’s trademark style gives an immediate feeling of nostalgia, an ‘I Know That From Somewhere’ feeling. The storybook like imagery is an invitation for viewing the allegorical and highly painterly compositions . Signature in her work is the use of children and young adults as imagery tools to deliver clever messages that straddle the line between comforting and spooky.

The narrative power of her very graphic style invites viewers to experience the work in a familiar storybook fashion, in which she can then deliver message like, ‘How we prepare(ed) ourselves for the adult world’, or ‘Survival Techniques for Life Phases’. Her work is inviting to a very wide audience regardless of age, interest, or heritage. From lawyers to hipsters, doctors, mothers, designers, or collectors, her work appeals.

Along with Swoon and AIKO, Amanda Marie is among the very best women working in the important genre of Stencilism, and her visual language is as rich and graphically powerful as any of her peers.

With Marie, it is refreshing to see graphic stencils (cutout devices to reproduce and apply graphic imagery or text) which are not the overtly violent or super sexual images that might have originally attracted audiences to the genre. As stencil painting matures Amanda Marie’s work is keeping pace with an evolving and discerning eye.

Thematically, a regular comparison from the fine art world is Henry Darger, but Amanda Marie is also heavily influenced by classic ‘golden book’ era illustrators like Eloise Wilken, Tibor Gergely and Leonard Weisgard. Marie’s paintings use a combination of mediums and techniques. In most works, some elements are screen printed, some are wheat pasted, and some elements are drawn out and then made into hand cut stencils and spray painted. There is also acrylic paint applied by brush and splatter techniques, and of course the trademark use of vintage sewing patterns is present in many of her paintings. The complex use of multiple techniques in each piece lends to the depth and subtlety of her work.

http://www.seeyouthroughit.com

by Jérôme Karsenti

Jérôme Karsenti, artist, painter, poet. Grew up in Nice, studied in Marseilles and Paris, earned a degree in architecture from the Ecole d’architecture de la Villette, Paris.

Since 1995 he has dedicated himself entirely to his painting and writing, with his works being exhibited extensively in Paris.  Most recently he has had various exhibits in Berlin where he has been living since 2009. In addition he founded Hand Art Publisher in 2012. 

His research leads him to reflect on the idea of simplicity within the arts and architecture, following the idea of “less is more”, the point at which concentration transforms into exuberance, architecture,...- converge through the prism of poetry.

www.jeromekarsenti.com

www.handartpublisher.com

by Amanda Marie

Drawing upon illustrations and characters reminiscent of yesteryear’s iconic children’s books, Marie’s trademark style gives an immediate feeling of nostalgia, an ‘I Know That From Somewhere’ feeling. The storybook like imagery is an invitation for viewing the allegorical and highly painterly compositions . Signature in her work is the use of children and young adults as imagery tools to deliver clever messages that straddle the line between comforting and spooky.

The narrative power of her very graphic style invites viewers to experience the work in a familiar storybook fashion, in which she can then deliver message like, ‘How we prepare(ed) ourselves for the adult world’, or ‘Survival Techniques for Life Phases’. Her work is inviting to a very wide audience regardless of age, interest, or heritage. From lawyers to hipsters, doctors, mothers, designers, or collectors, her work appeals.

Along with Swoon and AIKO, Amanda Marie is among the very best women working in the important genre of Stencilism, and her visual language is as rich and graphically powerful as any of her peers.

With Marie, it is refreshing to see graphic stencils (cutout devices to reproduce and apply graphic imagery or text) which are not the overtly violent or super sexual images that might have originally attracted audiences to the genre. As stencil painting matures Amanda Marie’s work is keeping pace with an evolving and discerning eye.

Thematically, a regular comparison from the fine art world is Henry Darger, but Amanda Marie is also heavily influenced by classic ‘golden book’ era illustrators like Eloise Wilken, Tibor Gergely and Leonard Weisgard. Marie’s paintings use a combination of mediums and techniques. In most works, some elements are screen printed, some are wheat pasted, and some elements are drawn out and then made into hand cut stencils and spray painted. There is also acrylic paint applied by brush and splatter techniques, and of course the trademark use of vintage sewing patterns is present in many of her paintings. The complex use of multiple techniques in each piece lends to the depth and subtlety of her work.

http://www.seeyouthroughit.com

by Eden Some

Vintage black ink is national heritage and legacy, traditionally from China, Japan and Korea (Chinese: 墨; Japanese: 墨; Korean: 먹). It was widely using for ink wash painting and calligraphy. Since long time ago, people make ink from the ink stick, it has to be continuously ground against an ink stone with a small quantity of water to produce a dark liquid which is then applied with an ink brush. 

Nowadays the painter Eden Some conceptualises his ideology and contemporary concept into the ink wash paintings. His work involves a great deal of philosophical matter, a feeling between the traditional and innovation. He concerns himself with the background story and every meaning behind the ink wash paintings. His creations always make him fall into deep contemplation. 

www.etsy.com/shop/manjuzaka

by Coco De Paris

Coco De Paris, based in France, is a mixed media designer who features her creations on antique french paper with a lot of humour. 

"Most of my mixed media artworks are in acrylic hand painting and ink print technic. Some are merely ink prints. For this concept, I use antique french paper almost as old as 200 years ago, after the period of Napoleon Bonaparte which you will own not only a unique piece of art and also a piece of french history."

www.cocodeparis.com

by Coco De Paris

Coco De Paris, based in France, is a mixed media designer who features her creations on antique french paper with a lot of humour. 

"Most of my mixed media artworks are in acrylic hand painting and ink print technic. Some are merely ink prints. For this concept, I use antique french paper almost as old as 200 years ago, after the period of Napoleon Bonaparte which you will own not only a unique piece of art and also a piece of french history."

www.cocodeparis.com

by Jérôme Karsenti

Jérôme Karsenti, artist, painter, poet. Grew up in Nice, studied in Marseilles and Paris, earned a degree in architecture from the Ecole d’architecture de la Villette, Paris.

Since 1995 he has dedicated himself entirely to his painting and writing, with his works being exhibited extensively in Paris.  Most recently he has had various exhibits in Berlin where he has been living since 2009. In addition he founded Hand Art Publisher in 2012. 

His research leads him to reflect on the idea of simplicity within the arts and architecture, following the idea of “less is more”, the point at which concentration transforms into exuberance, architecture,...- converge through the prism of poetry.

www.jeromekarsenti.com

www.handartpublisher.com

Rupprecht Geiger (1908-2009) was one of the leading figures in German post-war art. His oil and acrylic paintings, works on paper and screenprints are characterized by simple geometrical forms and luminescent, sensitively  modulated colors. He had a great passion for the color red, of which he said "Red is life, energy, virility, power, love, warmth, strength. With its ability to stimulate, it has a powerful function."

http://www.archiv-geiger.de

Proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

MSF is an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care in nearly 70 countries. A private, non-profit organization, Doctors Without Borders was founded in 1971 as the first non-governmental organization to both provide emergency medical assistance and bear witness publicly to the plight of people it assists. 

Rupprecht Geiger (1908-2009) was one of the leading figures in German post-war art. His oil and acrylic paintings, works on paper and screenprints are characterized by simple geometrical forms and luminescent, sensitively  modulated colors. He had a great passion for the color red, of which he said "Red is life, energy, virility, power, love, warmth, strength. With its ability to stimulate, it has a powerful function."

http://www.archiv-geiger.de

Proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

MSF is an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care in nearly 70 countries. A private, non-profit organization, Doctors Without Borders was founded in 1971 as the first non-governmental organization to both provide emergency medical assistance and bear witness publicly to the plight of people it assists. 

by Kasia Jackowska

Kasia Jackowska is a Zurich-based artist and architect. She was drawing all her life, but only started to exhibit her drawings in 2010. Since then she has been exhibiting regularly, as well as creating illustrations for magazines. Before pursuing her career as an illustrator, she had been focusing on architecture, working independently and in various architectural offices, including Herzog & de Meuron.

Kasia illustrates written and unwritten stories: like in every fairytale world, humans and beasts are equal here, and experience similar emotions. Realised mostly with ink and pencils, the drawings explore the workings of an inner life, mirroring both its quiet dramas and its wild, uninhibited dreams. The drawings are often accompanied by popular pop-song quotes, reconnecting us with feelings and situations we all know from daily life.

www.jackowska.ch

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Deidre Wicks

Unlike many artists who seem to have been born with a paint brush in their hand, the first time I seriously picked up a brush was in Fashion School in Toronto where I was taught how to illustrate. To my surprise it was illustration, not fashion, which stole my heart. I find inspiration in all types of animals but the ones who inspire me the most are the ones who keep me company all day (1 dog, 2 cats). I also used to support myself as a dog walker so I know firsthand just how individual each animal is.

My love of fashion, costume, old photographs and everything sweet also inspires my watercolours. And tea. I have an addiction to tea!
My watercolours have been exhibited in Canada and the United States and have appeared in magazines, blogs and music posters. I also illustrated my first children’s book in 2013.

I work out of my tiny studio in Toronto, Canada.

by Elli Hurst

Elli Hurst is a Munich-based graphic designer and artist.

After studying graphic design in Karlsruhe, she worked for many years as an art director for advertising agencies in Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Munich and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Elli is a mixed media artist in every aspect. She draws, paints, creates collages and uses digital techniques. Most of her artwork reflects a strong connection with nature.

Her creative process stems from the past - rare books, old letters, antique stamps, geographical maps, family photographs and odd pieces of memorabilia. The results of her compositions are playful, occasionally serious, with hidden surprising messages.

Elli works in her atelier at the Wiede Fabrik in Munich, Germany.

by Daniel M Thurau

Lessons in paint

You know there are so called songwriters for songwriters, poets for poets and writers for writers. Daniel M Thurau is a painter for painters.

Influenced by German Expressionism, Thurau shaped a style of intense colours, which produce an artificially exaggerated reality with overreaching and sometimes apparently grotesque forms. By reacting to the non-figurative paintings by Albert Oehlen, the colour range of Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh and Frank Stella’s dense and bright compositions he developed his own form of expression. His mostly figurative work shows elements which are often referring to comic-like figures.

Often Thurau uses randomly picked material as a footing to execute his extraordinary art on. His work also reflects on the environment he is currently living in.

He produces intensive paintings, satiated with a overwhelming and strong will of expression provocatively direct in the treatment of themes spanning from love, death and sex to questions of humanity or the human condition itself. His latest works reflect on the life and death of England’s Boxing Legend Jem Mace, as well as the disparate social changes in Eastern Germany where Thurau has been born.

But beside all the literary we should never forget that he in every single work consolidates the essential components of painting in a very disciplined and concentrated way: The drawing, the composition, the colour and eventually the gesture or handwriting of the painterly execution. The motive on the other hand serves him as an artefact and as the original motivation for his painting.

Paul-Christian van Leyden

www.eiland.org/daniel.html

by Deidre Wicks

Unlike many artists who seem to have been born with a paint brush in their hand, the first time I seriously picked up a brush was in Fashion School in Toronto where I was taught how to illustrate. To my surprise it was illustration, not fashion, which stole my heart. I find inspiration in all types of animals but the ones who inspire me the most are the ones who keep me company all day (1 dog, 2 cats). I also used to support myself as a dog walker so I know firsthand just how individual each animal is.

My love of fashion, costume, old photographs and everything sweet also inspires my watercolours. And tea. I have an addiction to tea!
My watercolours have been exhibited in Canada and the United States and have appeared in magazines, blogs and music posters. I also illustrated my first children’s book in 2013.

I work out of my tiny studio in Toronto, Canada.

by Deidre Wicks

Unlike many artists who seem to have been born with a paint brush in their hand, the first time I seriously picked up a brush was in Fashion School in Toronto where I was taught how to illustrate. To my surprise it was illustration, not fashion, which stole my heart. I find inspiration in all types of animals but the ones who inspire me the most are the ones who keep me company all day (1 dog, 2 cats). I also used to support myself as a dog walker so I know firsthand just how individual each animal is.

My love of fashion, costume, old photographs and everything sweet also inspires my watercolours. And tea. I have an addiction to tea!
My watercolours have been exhibited in Canada and the United States and have appeared in magazines, blogs and music posters. I also illustrated my first children’s book in 2013.

I work out of my tiny studio in Toronto, Canada.

by Valeria Maggiani

Valeria Maggiani was born in 1971 and graduated from the University of Pisa. She has exhibited in various shows in Italy and Germany and since 2006, she is one of the members of the artist collective called LimitedNoArtGallery.

Her oil paintings show a feminine, almost fairytale-like world in which loneliness, misgivings, fancies and thoughts float quietly in soundless surreal worlds. Valeria lives and works in Milan.

http://valeriamaggiani.blogspot.de

by Jens-Ole Remmers

by Ernst Jani

Ernst Jani, born in 1964, lives with his family in Laufen an der Salzach in Bavaria. He began professional training in 1983 and now works in Traunstein in the Chiemgau region of Bavaria.

I allow compositional ideas and rhythms to flow, polarities, emotions and spontaneity, structures, intuition. And then give all this a form, colour, a "top" and "bottom", a character. 

I let lines, forms and colours daringly correspond and give myself up to what mutely unveils itself before me and find a quality that opens doors and provokes response.

Associations to organic structures, things remembered, things experienced, reaching out to nature and other things perceived all join in together and all with something to say.

I let a subjective ABC of artistic metaphors arise from a "painting-drawing" system thus generated; a repertoire of forms that condenses and insistently reduces the visible and perceived world.

I provide the picture elements not only as optical stimulus, but let the material of the surface be felt, let the eye be re-inspired over and over again, scan the picture and feel the act of creation, the development of the picture. 

The art historian Otto Breicha lends a visual aid in saying: "Art, essentially an act of discovery, notoriously does not record the obvious, but makes the unseen manifest."

Moving into silence, collecting yourself, entering and seeing, listening and experiencing with all the senses keen and the soul wide open. 

An invitation to communicate, at best to communicate initially with yourself. And it does not stop there.

www.ernstjani.de

by Useless Idea

The work of Useless Idea shows an unusual and complicated formal aesthetic - research that has the continuous and relentless underlying renewal of itself. Figurative and abstract fuse into one thing, elements give shape to a strong and unique impact of style.

Some of his works have been exhibited in major international contemporary art centers, such as the Pompidou Center in Paris, Shiodomeitalia Crative Center in Tokyo, Shanghai Art Museum and the Milan Triennale.

www.uselessidea.blogspot.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Amanda Marie

Drawing upon illustrations and characters reminiscent of yesteryear’s iconic children’s books, Marie’s trademark style gives an immediate feeling of nostalgia, an ‘I Know That From Somewhere’ feeling. The storybook like imagery is an invitation for viewing the allegorical and highly painterly compositions . Signature in her work is the use of children and young adults as imagery tools to deliver clever messages that straddle the line between comforting and spooky.

The narrative power of her very graphic style invites viewers to experience the work in a familiar storybook fashion, in which she can then deliver message like, ‘How we prepare(ed) ourselves for the adult world’, or ‘Survival Techniques for Life Phases’. Her work is inviting to a very wide audience regardless of age, interest, or heritage. From lawyers to hipsters, doctors, mothers, designers, or collectors, her work appeals.

Along with Swoon and AIKO, Amanda Marie is among the very best women working in the important genre of Stencilism, and her visual language is as rich and graphically powerful as any of her peers.

With Marie, it is refreshing to see graphic stencils (cutout devices to reproduce and apply graphic imagery or text) which are not the overtly violent or super sexual images that might have originally attracted audiences to the genre. As stencil painting matures Amanda Marie’s work is keeping pace with an evolving and discerning eye.

Thematically, a regular comparison from the fine art world is Henry Darger, but Amanda Marie is also heavily influenced by classic ‘golden book’ era illustrators like Eloise Wilken, Tibor Gergely and Leonard Weisgard. Marie’s paintings use a combination of mediums and techniques. In most works, some elements are screen printed, some are wheat pasted, and some elements are drawn out and then made into hand cut stencils and spray painted. There is also acrylic paint applied by brush and splatter techniques, and of course the trademark use of vintage sewing patterns is present in many of her paintings. The complex use of multiple techniques in each piece lends to the depth and subtlety of her work.

http://www.seeyouthroughit.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Kasia Jackowska

Kasia Jackowska is a Zurich-based artist and architect. She was drawing all her life, but only started to exhibit her drawings in 2010. Since then she has been exhibiting regularly, as well as creating illustrations for  magazines. Before pursuing her career as an illustrator, she had been focusing on architecture, working independently and in various architectural offices, including Herzog & de Meuron.

Kasia illustrates written and unwritten stories: like in every fairytale world, humans and beasts are equal here, and experience similar emotions. Realised mostly with ink and pencils, the drawings explore the workings of an inner life, mirroring both its quiet dramas and its wild, uninhibited dreams. The drawings are often accompanied by popular pop-song quotes, reconnecting us with feelings and situations we all know from daily life. 

www.jackowska.ch

by Caro Jost

Born in Munich, Germany. She lives and works in Munich and New York.

After studying law Caro Jost began her art education in New York at the Art Students League and continues her studies at the Academie of Fine Arts in Munich with Professor Jean-Marc Bustamante, et al.

Her works are represented in museum collections, et.al. Chelsea Art Museum, New York, Colby Museum of Art, Maine, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München Sammlung Vass, Budapest.

Main screenings and exhibitions in 2013:
"Final Traces of the Abstract Expressionists" Film im K20, Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf
"Im Spiegel der Städte", Galerie Oberbayern, München
"GRAU", Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin

The conceptual theme of her work is the recording and documentation of situations and events at populated places and locations and the transformation into another (contemporary) context. Therefore she developed her own technique in New York in 2000, called Streetprints. Since 2000, she has been making Streetprints from all over the world.

www.carojost.com

by Kera Till

Born in France, Kera is an artist who shares her time between Paris and Munich. She has been sketching figures and fashion her entire life and now her works have been featured in numerous fashion publications such as TATLER, VOGUE, NET-A-PORTER.COM and prestigious clients such as Hermés, Ladurée and Biotherm.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

In addition to her fashion illustrations, she extends her drawing to food, architecture and nature. Her inspiration comes from everything beautiful and glamorous, from fashion magazines, photography, film and fine art to flea markets, shops and fine food. Kera's whimsical illustrations has the power to transport us to a dream-like realm that is pure and unforced. She works mostly with black ink and watercolor.

www.keratill.com

by Maki Shimizu

Maki said: I'd like to become an artist who can express my own mind and spirit (1994). Ich bin so banal (2010).

Born in 1981 in Tokyo. Inspired by the worlds of Picasso that, "Art is a lie which allows us to recognise the truth," Maki set out on her journey into art, deciding that she would become an artist. She studied fine art in Japan majoring in printing techniques, before going on to complete a graphic design degree in Bielefeld, Germany. Since 2006 she has been working as an artist and illustrator in Berlin.

www.makishimizu.de

by Sharon Paris

Sharon Paris; New Zealander, minimalist, borderline OCD, non-bicycle-rider, conflict-avoider, compulsive worrier, conceptual artist, owner of particularly long arms and legs (although on whole only exactly average in height) and designer/creator of Paris House. Paris House makes you smile. They believe in the simplicity of style and strive to create products that take New Zealand's creative thinking to the rest of the world. Held by Victor Borge's definition of humour:"the shortest distance between two people." Paris completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Elam, Auckland University, New Zealand graduating in 2001 and started working on Paris House soon after.

As a conceptual artist, she is inspired by Gavin Turk (UK), who entertains the press by showing up to interviews disguised as people other than himself, and Jenny Holzer(USA), who likes to place truisms like "Dying and coming back gives you a considerable perspecitve" on electronic billboards in Times Square.

"I come from a family that laughs a lot and when I was at Elam I studied a lot of artists, but the ones that I liked had one common thread, that was that they made me smile," Paris says. "As an artist it is essential for my work to have a deeper meaning, it is not essential that anybody else knows it, but it's important to me because that is what defines me as an artist."

parishouse.co.nz

by Amanda Marie

Drawing upon illustrations and characters reminiscent of yesteryear’s iconic children’s books, Marie’s trademark style gives an immediate feeling of nostalgia, an ‘I Know That From Somewhere’ feeling. The storybook like imagery is an invitation for viewing the allegorical and highly painterly compositions . Signature in her work is the use of children and young adults as imagery tools to deliver clever messages that straddle the line between comforting and spooky.

The narrative power of her very graphic style invites viewers to experience the work in a familiar storybook fashion, in which she can then deliver message like, ‘How we prepare(ed) ourselves for the adult world’, or ‘Survival Techniques for Life Phases’. Her work is inviting to a very wide audience regardless of age, interest, or heritage. From lawyers to hipsters, doctors, mothers, designers, or collectors, her work appeals.

Along with Swoon and AIKO, Amanda Marie is among the very best women working in the important genre of Stencilism, and her visual language is as rich and graphically powerful as any of her peers.

With Marie, it is refreshing to see graphic stencils (cutout devices to reproduce and apply graphic imagery or text) which are not the overtly violent or super sexual images that might have originally attracted audiences to the genre. As stencil painting matures Amanda Marie’s work is keeping pace with an evolving and discerning eye.

Thematically, a regular comparison from the fine art world is Henry Darger, but Amanda Marie is also heavily influenced by classic ‘golden book’ era illustrators like Eloise Wilken, Tibor Gergely and Leonard Weisgard. Marie’s paintings use a combination of mediums and techniques. In most works, some elements are screen printed, some are wheat pasted, and some elements are drawn out and then made into hand cut stencils and spray painted. There is also acrylic paint applied by brush and splatter techniques, and of course the trademark use of vintage sewing patterns is present in many of her paintings. The complex use of multiple techniques in each piece lends to the depth and subtlety of her work.

http://www.seeyouthroughit.com

Ai Weiwei is a conceptual artist, architect and political activist. Mr. Ai is widely regarded as China’s most prominent contemporary artist and one of the country’s most innovative thinkers. He is perhaps best known for helping to design the iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing.

http://aiweiwei.com

Proceeds were donated to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

MSF is an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care in nearly 70 countries. A private, non-profit organization, Doctors Without Borders was founded in 1971 as the first non-governmental organization to both provide emergency medical assistance and bear witness publicly to the plight of people it assists. 

Ai Weiwei is a conceptual artist, architect and political activist. Mr. Ai is widely regarded as China’s most prominent contemporary artist and one of the country’s most innovative thinkers. He is perhaps best known for helping to design the iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing.

http://aiweiwei.com

Proceeds were donated to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

MSF is an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care in nearly 70 countries. A private, non-profit organization, Doctors Without Borders was founded in 1971 as the first non-governmental organization to both provide emergency medical assistance and bear witness publicly to the plight of people it assists. 

Ai Weiwei is a conceptual artist, architect and political activist. Mr. Ai is widely regarded as China’s most prominent contemporary artist and one of the country’s most innovative thinkers. He is perhaps best known for helping to design the iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing.

http://aiweiwei.com

Proceeds were donated to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

MSF is an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care in nearly 70 countries. A private, non-profit organization, Doctors Without Borders was founded in 1971 as the first non-governmental organization to both provide emergency medical assistance and bear witness publicly to the plight of people it assists. 

by Kasia Jackowska

Kasia Jackowska is a Zurich-based artist and architect. She was drawing all her life, but only started to exhibit her drawings in 2010. Since then she has been exhibiting regularly, as well as creating illustrations for magazines. Before pursuing her career as an illustrator, she had been focusing on architecture, working independently and in various architectural offices, including Herzog & de Meuron.

Kasia illustrates written and unwritten stories: like in every fairytale world, humans and beasts are equal here, and experience similar emotions. Realised mostly with ink and pencils, the drawings explore the workings of an inner life, mirroring both its quiet dramas and its wild, uninhibited dreams. The drawings are often accompanied by popular pop-song quotes, reconnecting us with feelings and situations we all know from daily life.

www.jackowska.ch

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Carrie Marill

Carrie Marill was born in San Francisco, CA 1976. She graduated from San Francisco State University in 2002 with a BA in Painting and received an MFA in Painting from Cornell University in 2004. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States in California, New York, Seattle, Miami, Dallas, and Arizona. Marill’s work has been published in New American Paintings, Wired Magazine, Southwest Art, The New Times, The Wall Street Journal, Modern Painters, LA weekly and the LA Times. Her work is in the collection of Todd Oldham, Angela Missoni, Megan Mullally, Donna & Howard Stone, Disney, The Hallmark Collection and many other exciting collectors. In addition to continual exhibitions, Marill’s practice includes developing large scale outdoor murals, and running a residency program for international artists in downtown Phoenix.

www.carriemarill.com

by Jen Garrido

Born in Los Angeles, CA.
Lives in San Francisco, CA

I construct my paintings and drawings by using a delicate balance of choice and process.

In response to personal narrative and internal dialogue, to the push and pull of the compositions internal gravity, and to the medium of the paint or drawing materials, I project images and forms onto the surface. As I compose, I weave shapes through the picture plane, the gestures I record can read alternatively as flat or as dimensional and sculptural. I favor nature-based forms and rhythms and I am drawn to shapes that tangle, overlap, sit, lean and lay. In my most recent work, the compositions balance between architectural and organic, painted and drawn, collapsing and firmly rooted and formal and biomorphic.

As I work through the multiple stages and processes of each piece, by weighing ambiguity with representation, by adding and subtracting, abstracting and transforming, I gradually arrive at the final composition.

www.jengarrido.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Sharon Paris

New Zealander, minimalist, borderline OCD, non-bicycle-rider, conflict-avoider, compulsive worrier, conceptual artist, owner of particularly long arms and legs (although on whole only exactly average in height) and designer/creator of Paris House. Paris House makes you smile. They believe in the simplicity of style and strive to create products that take New Zealand's creative thinking to the rest of the world. Held by Victor Borge's definition of humour:"the shortest distance between two people." Paris completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Elam, Auckland University, New Zealand graduating in 2001 and started working on Paris House soon after.

As a conceptual artist, she is inspired by Gavin Turk (UK), who entertains the press by showing up to interviews disguised as people other than himself, and Jenny Holzer(USA), who likes to place truisms like "Dying and coming back gives you a considerable perspecitve" on electronic billboards in Times Square.

"I come from a family that laughs a lot and when I was at Elam I studied a lot of artists, but the ones that I liked had one common thread, that was that they made me smile," Paris says. "As an artist it is essential for my work to have a deeper meaning, it is not essential that anybody else knows it, but it's important to me because that is what defines me as an artist."

parishouse.co.nz

by the Zhou Brothers

The Zhou Brothers are one of the most accomplished contemporary artists in the world today renowned for their unique collaborative work process. They always work together on their paintings, performances, sculptures, and prints, often communicating without words in a so-called dream dialogue. Their thinking, aesthetic, and creativity are a symbiosis of Eastern and Western philosophy, art, and literature that informed their development since early childhood. Their indomitable spirit allowed them to leave behind their brilliant success in China, where they were hailed as national heroes for their early work, to step onto the world stage. They have since achieved international acclaim while continuing to work in the West.The Zhou Brothers have consequently maintained their home and studios in Chicago while actively exhibiting their work nationally and abroad.

zhoub.com

Proceeds were donated to the Chinese American Service League.

The Chinese American Service League has served the needs of Chicago’s Chinese community for over 30 years. CASL supports the community with programs ranging from English language assistance, refugee settlement assistance, youth outreach, adult education, childcare, elderly housing, and more. Since day one, CASL has been in a state of evolution, but the mission has never changed: to meet the needs of the community it serves with a compassionate heart. CASL gives dignity and opportunity to those who not only need it, but also are willing to work to achieve their goals. 

www.caslservice.org

by Gabrielle Ambrym

Gabrielle Ambym is a French illustrator and fashion designer who draws inspiration upon her Melanesian childhood, her travels and the rustle of daily urban life. She grew up amidst the banyan trees of the South Pacific and these early years of living in the realm of nature, surrounded by a strong tribal culture, formed her fundamental values of man's intimate bond with nature.

Gabrielle's illustrative work is mostly comprised of delicate and sensitive drawings of fine lines interlaced with personal, occasionally anonymous, old photos that traduce her feelings and sensations.

Fashion design began for Gabrielle at Esmod in Paris. After completing this, she went on to study at the National Conservatory of Art and Crafts. While assisting an influential fashion designer in Paris, Gabrielle developed a desire to create her own sensible and defining pieces using a contemporary artistic approach. Nostalgic of distant cultures, she journeyed to Rio de Janeiro to work for a fair trade label, which ultimately led to her decision to commit herself to socially and environmentally friendly fashion. Back in Paris, Gabrielle designed a collection that conveyed her love for slow and precise craftsmanship, incorporating a time dimension with every creation. It is with this last experience that persuaded Gabrielle to finally launch her own collection together with her friend, Marion, and their label 'Ambrym' was born.

Gabrielle currently lives in Paris, dividing her work between her fashion label, 'Ambrym' and as a free-lance illustrator.

www.ambrym.fr

by Renate Rosenbauer

Renate Rosenbauer was born in Linz, Austria and has been painting passionately since the age of 14. Renate studied art and art therapy and has worked as a professional artist since 1997. Her works give us an impression of the subject without inflicting on its privacy - that the subject is entangled and woven into the context of its painted realm is an exemplary approach of hers. She currently divides her time between her studios in Graz and Vienna, Austria.

by Katharina Blanke

Katharina Blanke, born in Berlin in 1975, lives and works as an artist and illustrator in Berlin. Her work has been exhibited in cities including Berlin, Dresden, Essen and Rome. Katharina was in industrial design in Berlin and, subsequently, studied visual communication at the School of Arts in Basel. She worked in Zurich as a graphic designer and illustrator at Scalo, a publishing house for contemporary art and photography, as well as in Berlin for various clients.

Her work shows the sheer pleasure of beautiful abundance and ornate opulence - losing oneself in a bizarre imagery. Widespread ornaments, like tattoos, fuse with personal objects into poetic utopian collages. Equally evident is the exuberant blend of imagery from the cluster of everyday trivial culture, as well as fairytale fantasies. It blurs the perception of reality and fiction, into beautiful, meditative labyrinths. She intrigues us with opulent material revelry executed in meticulous detail and intricately woven complex networks. Her approach is a true symbiosis of art, fashion and design.

www.katharinablanke.net

by Elvira Bach

Elvira Bach is a Berlin-based artist. In 1982 at the age of 29, she was invited to participate at the documenta VII, one of the most important modern and contemporary art exhibitions. Many of her works have been strongly influenced by her time spent as an artist in residence in the Dominican Republic.

A recurring and central theme in her sensually bright and vigorous paintings is the woman in her sexually-determined existence. It turns out that the similar-looking women depicted in her paintings is Bach herself. In 1978 she began to paint self-portraits often disguised as still-lifes, using an array of utensils and accessories with which she defines herself as a woman. Explicitly erotic elements dominated her work in the early 80s. In the late 80s, her work began to transform to a more reserved style.

Proceeds were donated to ACHSE.

ACHSE (‘Alliance for Rare Chronic Diseases’) was founded in 2004 as a common voice to represent an estimated three to four million people living with a rare disease in Germany.

ACHSE’s goal is to increase awareness of the needs and problems of those suffering from such diseases.

Presently more than 90 patient organizations have joined ACHSE to support each other, to exchange experiences and to strengthen their influence in the political arena.

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by 108

108 (born 1978) is an Italian artist in the field of street art from Alessandria.

108 has moved from working in traditional graffiti art to painting large and mysterious figures that invade public spaces. He was one of the first writers to use numbers instead of letters for his name. He started to work when he was a child on the streets of Alessandria, and used different names. His work has appeared on the streets of Milan, Paris, London, Berlin, and New York City. His first works known by people are enigmatic “blob”-like yellow shapes. It is his firm intention to make visual chaos. His new works are labyrinths, dead trees, 3D objects and installations, but especially black and gloomy shapes. In the last years, he took part in a lot of international exhibitions: Nusign 2.4 in Paris, Urban Edge Show in Milano[6], Segundo and Tercer Asalto in Zaragoza and, in 2007 he was invited to join the project called Walls inside the Biennale di Venezia. During March 2008 he was invited to join Nomadaz (a show curated by Pablo Aravena) in Los Angeles with Eltono, Dem, Microbo and other artists to represent Europe in the U.S.A.

http://www.108nero.com/

by Henrietta Dubrey

"My work is generally described as abstract, although I would describe my paintings as autobiographical deconstructions and reconstructions of life. These ideas appear on the canvas surface often as an abstract gestural web, occasionally tangled, occasionally bold and resolved. An iconic form is liberated from a void into being.’

henriettadubrey.eu

by Useless Idea

The work of Useless Idea shows an unusual and complicated formal aesthetic - research that has the continuous and relentless underlying renewal of itself. Figurative and abstract fuse into one thing, elements give shape to a strong and unique impact of style.

Some of his works have been exhibited in major international contemporary art centers, such as the Pompidou Center in Paris, Shiodomeitalia Crative Center in Tokyo, Shanghai Art Museum and the Milan Triennale.

www.uselessidea.blogspot.com

by Jürgen Messensee

Jürgen Messensee was born in Vienna in 1936 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1955 to 1960. His work is the result of his ongoing contemplation about reality. Messensee’s visual language is not necessarily obvious or self-evident, but for those who are not fixed on conventional stereotypes, a most specific spectrum of the world is revealed, using the unmatched possibilities of art.

Proceeds were donated to Bon Children’s Home.

The Bon Children’s Home is located in Dolanji, Himachal Pradesh, India. The BCH is dedicated to educating and caring for Bon children whose families are in exile Many children have been orphaned, or their families are too poor to care for them. The BCH is not only helping children, it is saving an ancient Tibetan culture that traces its roots back to over 18,000 years ago. The Bon culture is in danger of being lost since so many Bon live as refugees outside their native Tibet. Establishing schools and other organized programs will aid the Bon to nurture their culture and tradition for future generations.

by Valeria Maggiani

Valeria Maggiani was born in 1971 and graduated from the University of Pisa. She has exhibited in various shows in Italy and Germany and since 2006, she is one of the members of the artist collective called LimitedNoArtGallery.

Her oil paintings show a feminine, almost fairytale-like world in which loneliness, misgivings, fancies and thoughts float quietly in soundless surreal worlds. Valeria lives and works in Milan.

http://valeriamaggiani.blogspot.de

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Elvira Bach

Elvira Bach is a Berlin-based artist. In 1982 at the age of 29, she was invited to participate at the documenta VII, one of the most important modern and contemporary art exhibitions. Many of her works have been strongly influenced by her time spent as an artist in residence in the Dominican Republic.

A recurring and central theme in her sensually bright and vigorous paintings is the woman in her sexually-determined existence. It turns out that the similar-looking women depicted in her paintings is Bach herself. In 1978 she began to paint self-portraits often disguised as still-lifes, using an array of utensils and accessories with which she defines herself as a woman. Explicitly erotic elements dominated her work in the early 80s. In the late 80s, her work began to transform to a more reserved style.

Proceeds were donated to ACHSE.

ACHSE (‘Alliance for Rare Chronic Diseases’) was founded in 2004 as a common voice to represent an estimated three to four million people living with a rare disease in Germany.

ACHSE’s goal is to increase awareness of the needs and problems of those suffering from such diseases.

Presently more than 90 patient organizations have joined ACHSE to support each other, to exchange experiences and to strengthen their influence in the political arena.

by Valeria Maggiani

Valeria Maggiani was born in 1971 and graduated from the University of Pisa. She has exhibited in various shows in Italy and Germany and since 2006, she is one of the members of the artist collective called LimitedNoArtGallery.

Her oil paintings show a feminine, almost fairytale-like world in which loneliness, misgivings, fancies and thoughts float quietly in soundless surreal worlds. Valeria lives and works in Milan.

http://valeriamaggiani.blogspot.de

by Daniel M Thurau

Lessons in paint

You know there are so called songwriters for songwriters, poets for poets and writers for writers. Daniel M Thurau is a painter for painters.

Influenced by German Expressionism, Thurau shaped a style of intense colours, which produce an artificially exaggerated reality with overreaching and sometimes apparently grotesque forms. By reacting to the non-figurative paintings by Albert Oehlen, the colour range of Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh and Frank Stella’s dense and bright compositions he developed his own form of expression. His mostly figurative work shows elements which are often referring to comic-like figures.

Often Thurau uses randomly picked material as a footing to execute his extraordinary art on. His work also reflects on the environment he is currently living in.

He produces intensive paintings, satiated with a overwhelming and strong will of expression provocatively direct in the treatment of themes spanning from love, death and sex to questions of humanity or the human condition itself. His latest works reflect on the life and death of England’s Boxing Legend Jem Mace, as well as the disparate social changes in Eastern Germany where Thurau has been born.

But beside all the literary we should never forget that he in every single work consolidates the essential components of painting in a very disciplined and concentrated way: The drawing, the composition, the colour and eventually the gesture or handwriting of the painterly execution. The motive on the other hand serves him as an artefact and as the original motivation for his painting.

Paul-Christian van Leyden

www.eiland.org/daniel.html

by 108

108 (born 1978) is an Italian artist in the field of street art from Alessandria.

108 has moved from working in traditional graffiti art to painting large and mysterious figures that invade public spaces. He was one of the first writers to use numbers instead of letters for his name. He started to work when he was a child on the streets of Alessandria, and used different names. His work has appeared on the streets of Milan, Paris, London, Berlin, and New York City. His first works known by people are enigmatic “blob”-like yellow shapes. It is his firm intention to make visual chaos. His new works are labyrinths, dead trees, 3D objects and installations, but especially black and gloomy shapes. In the last years, he took part in a lot of international exhibitions: Nusign 2.4 in Paris, Urban Edge Show in Milano[6], Segundo and Tercer Asalto in Zaragoza and, in 2007 he was invited to join the project called Walls inside the Biennale di Venezia. During March 2008 he was invited to join Nomadaz (a show curated by Pablo Aravena) in Los Angeles with Eltono, Dem, Microbo and other artists to represent Europe in the U.S.A.

www.108nero.com

by 108

108 (born 1978) is an Italian artist in the field of street art from Alessandria.

108 has moved from working in traditional graffiti art to painting large and mysterious figures that invade public spaces. He was one of the first writers to use numbers instead of letters for his name. He started to work when he was a child on the streets of Alessandria, and used different names. His work has appeared on the streets of Milan, Paris, London, Berlin, and New York City. His first works known by people are enigmatic “blob”-like yellow shapes. It is his firm intention to make visual chaos. His new works are labyrinths, dead trees, 3D objects and installations, but especially black and gloomy shapes. In the last years, he took part in a lot of international exhibitions: Nusign 2.4 in Paris, Urban Edge Show in Milano[6], Segundo and Tercer Asalto in Zaragoza and, in 2007 he was invited to join the project called Walls inside the Biennale di Venezia. During March 2008 he was invited to join Nomadaz (a show curated by Pablo Aravena) in Los Angeles with Eltono, Dem, Microbo and other artists to represent Europe in the U.S.A.

www.108nero.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Lucia Granados

Lucia Granados is Swedish Colombian, but was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya followed by Geneva, Switzerland. It was the work of Salvador Dali that triggered an artistic craving in her at the age of 14. She graduated high school in Geneva with an International Baccalaureate Diploma, with a focus on Art and French, and then spent her university years in Paris and New York studying at Parsons School of Art & Design. She graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Lucia treats each of her artworks as a passionate journey -- a puzzle that continuously transforms as textures, colours and playful lines are added. Her interest in world cultures, nature, wild life and dreams are boldly expressed in her pieces with her inspiration drawing from past memories and life experiences.

Lucia’s t-shirt design titled “Roots” for “des artistes” was a component of a larger art piece from a body of work Lucia exhibited in London in 2008. The exhibit was titled “Memory” and was based on particular moments in Lucia’s past that continue to resonate with her. “Roots” in particular was inspired by Lucia’s cherished memories of growing up in Africa. The elephant is her chosen symbol for this time.

"The life of a single brush stroke tells me many stories and the energy of that stroke shows me how it feels. The canvas is my space to journey into as I wish. It’s my breath of fresh air!"

Lucia is a designer and artist. When she isn’t splashing away passionately on an empty canvas, she is expanding her recently founded kids design company www.watotodesign.com ("watoto" meaning child in Swahili), which offers adorable, personalized prints, stationary and clothing. Lucia is now based in Munich, Germany with her Austrian actor husband and two young children.

http://www.granadosdesign.com

Gabrielle Ambym is a French illustrator and fashion designer who draws inspiration upon her Melanesian childhood, her travels and the rustle of daily urban life. She grew up amidst the banyan trees of the South Pacific and these early years of living in the realm of nature, surrounded by a strong tribal culture, formed her fundamental values of man's intimate bond with nature.

Gabrielle's illustrative work is mostly comprised of delicate and sensitive drawings of fine lines interlaced with personal, occasionally anonymous, old photos that traduce her feelings and sensations.

Fashion design began for Gabrielle at Esmod in Paris. After completing this, she went on to study at the National Conservatory of Art and Crafts. While assisting an influential fashion designer in Paris, Gabrielle developed a desire to create her own sensible and defining pieces using a contemporary artistic approach. Nostalgic of distant cultures, she journeyed to Rio de Janeiro to work for a fair trade label, which ultimately led to her decision to commit herself to socially and environmentally friendly fashion. Back in Paris, Gabrielle designed a collection that conveyed her love for slow and precise craftsmanship, incorporating a time dimension with every creation. It is with this last experience that persuaded Gabrielle to finally launch her own collection together with her friend, Marion, and their label 'Ambrym' was born.

Gabrielle currently lives in Paris, dividing her work between her fashion label, 'Ambrym' and as a free-lance illustrator.

www.ambrym.fr

Edward Mapplethorpe, a native New Yorker, began his solo career in 1990 and was quickly acclaimed for his fine edged luminous nudes, portraits, and still lives. However, it was the artist’s innovative work underwater (Undercurrents, 1992-94) that first distinguished him as a unique talent in bridging the gap between photography and abstract painting. Mapplethorpe continued to push the boundaries of black and white traditional photography and in 2007, a solo exhibition in New York featuring the TimeLines series showcased his most ambitious project to date. These works elucidate the artist’s formal exploration of line by combining the gestural impulses of action painting with non-camera techniques. TimeLines, along with the subsequent series TimeZones, traveled to Berlin, Germany (2008) and Rome, Italy (2009). New work by the artist will be exhibited in New York in spring 2011.

Proceeds were donated to Friends In Deed -- The Crisis Center for Life-Threatening Illness.

Friends In Deed, founded by Mike Nichols and Cynthia O’Neal in 1991, has helped transform many thousands of lives through a wide array of free programs and services. Friends In Deed provides emotional and spiritual support for anyone diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening physical illnesses. Support is also available for family, friends, and caregivers of those who are ill, and anyone dealing with grief and bereavement. 

Edward Mapplethorpe, a native New Yorker, began his solo career in 1990 and was quickly acclaimed for his fine edged luminous nudes, portraits, and still lives. However, it was the artist’s innovative work underwater (Undercurrents, 1992-94) that first distinguished him as a unique talent in bridging the gap between photography and abstract painting. Mapplethorpe continued to push the boundaries of black and white traditional photography and in 2007, a solo exhibition in New York featuring the TimeLines series showcased his most ambitious project to date. These works elucidate the artist’s formal exploration of line by combining the gestural impulses of action painting with non-camera techniques. TimeLines, along with the subsequent series TimeZones, traveled to Berlin, Germany (2008) and Rome, Italy (2009). New work by the artist will be exhibited in New York in spring 2011.

Proceeds were donated to Friends In Deed -- The Crisis Center for Life-Threatening Illness.

Friends In Deed, founded by Mike Nichols and Cynthia O’Neal in 1991, has helped transform many thousands of lives through a wide array of free programs and services. Friends In Deed provides emotional and spiritual support for anyone diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening physical illnesses. Support is also available for family, friends, and caregivers of those who are ill, and anyone dealing with grief and bereavement. 

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by 108

108 (born 1978) is an Italian artist in the field of street art from Alessandria.

108 has moved from working in traditional graffiti art to painting large and mysterious figures that invade public spaces. He was one of the first writers to use numbers instead of letters for his name. He started to work when he was a child on the streets of Alessandria, and used different names. His work has appeared on the streets of Milan, Paris, London, Berlin, and New York City. His first works known by people are enigmatic “blob”-like yellow shapes. It is his firm intention to make visual chaos. His new works are labyrinths, dead trees, 3D objects and installations, but especially black and gloomy shapes. In the last years, he took part in a lot of international exhibitions: Nusign 2.4 in Paris, Urban Edge Show in Milano[6], Segundo and Tercer Asalto in Zaragoza and, in 2007 he was invited to join the project called Walls inside the Biennale di Venezia. During March 2008 he was invited to join Nomadaz (a show curated by Pablo Aravena) in Los Angeles with Eltono, Dem, Microbo and other artists to represent Europe in the U.S.A.

www.108nero.com

by Duane Hosein

Duane Hosein is a New York based artist, illustrator and insomniac. The majority of his childhood was spent hiding behind the pages of a book and drawing at the dining room table. As a result, he developed an aversion towards reality, combined with a desire to dwell in a world untainted by limitations. His work reflects a strong connection with nature and an almost unhealthy obsession to detail.

www.duanehosein.com

by Charlie Anderson

Charlie Anderson is a painter whose work plays with the relationship between art, its context and those by whom it is viewed. His paintings explore art’s role throughout history and the ever-changing importance of painting within the art world. Charles incorporates a diverse range of techniques to create layers of imagery taken from aspects of popular culture: newspaper headlines, beer bottle labels, nightclub flyers and fashion among them. The results are rhythmical paintings which provoke more questions perhaps than they answer, constantly challenging the viewer’s senses and understanding of what constitutes art. Does a fabricated relationship create the image or does the image define the relationship? In the end, it is the viewers who decide by drawing whichever connotations of modern life are relevant to them. The work of this award-winning artist is included in international collections, including British Airways.

http://www.charlie-anderson.co.uk

by Daniel M Thurau

Lessons in paint

You know there are so called songwriters for songwriters, poets for poets and writers for writers. Daniel M Thurau is a painter for painters.

Influenced by German Expressionism, Thurau shaped a style of intense colours, which produce an artificially exaggerated reality with overreaching and sometimes apparently grotesque forms. By reacting to the non-figurative paintings by Albert Oehlen, the colour range of Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh and Frank Stella’s dense and bright compositions he developed his own form of expression. His mostly figurative work shows elements which are often referring to comic-like figures.

Often Thurau uses randomly picked material as a footing to execute his extraordinary art on. His work also reflects on the environment he is currently living in.

He produces intensive paintings, satiated with a overwhelming and strong will of expression provocatively direct in the treatment of themes spanning from love, death and sex to questions of humanity or the human condition itself. His latest works reflect on the life and death of England’s Boxing Legend Jem Mace, as well as the disparate social changes in Eastern Germany where Thurau has been born.

But beside all the literary we should never forget that he in every single work consolidates the essential components of painting in a very disciplined and concentrated way: The drawing, the composition, the colour and eventually the gesture or handwriting of the painterly execution. The motive on the other hand serves him as an artefact and as the original motivation for his painting.

Paul-Christian van Leyden

www.eiland.org/daniel.html

by Franco Mondini-Ruiz

Excerpt taken from the the New York Times, Art in Review by Roberta Smith on Franco Mondini-Ruiz's exhibition of 400 paintings entitled "Quattrocento" at the Frederieke Taylor Gallery.

If you like your paintings small, cheap and cute, Franco Mondini-Ruiz's pointedly irreverent way of making and selling art may appeal. True to its title, his exhibition consists of 400 canvases, all cleverly titled: fantasy landscapes and portraits, glamorous interiors, poodles and Venetian fetes whose dashed-off verve hovers somewhere between Thomas Trosch's stylish ironies and the New Yorker covers of Jean-Jacques Sempé. They are $400 each.

The son of an Italian father and a Mexican mother who grew up in San Antonio, Mr. Mondini-Ruiz gave up a law career to become a full-time artist in 1995. His first works were installations that favored kitschy found objects, then smaller assemblages of same. Accessibility, portability and spontaneity were key concepts.

Invited to be in the 2000 Whitney Biennial, Mr. Mondini-Ruiz sold objects on the street in front of the museum, some of them made on the spot, for 10 cents to $10. A few years ago, he took up painting in earnest, determined to initiate people into the joys of art collecting and also to bring different communities into contact with one another. He staged shows in Charlotte, N.C., San Antonio, Rome and Florence, selling quantities of paintings for $99 or 100 euros each in a few hours. Demand never exceeded supply: if someone wanted a painting that was already sold, he would make a copy, guaranteeing that it would be ''as good or better.''

"My art is about following my impulses as to what I feel is beautiful, interesting, and poetic."

- Franco Mondini-Ruiz

by Duane Hosein

Duane Hosein is a New York based artist, illustrator and insomniac. The majority of his childhood was spent hiding behind the pages of a book and drawing at the dining room table. As a result, he developed an aversion towards reality, combined with a desire to dwell in a world untainted by limitations. His work reflects a strong connection with nature and an almost unhealthy obsession to detail.

www.duanehosein.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Axel Häusler

C. Alexander Häusler’s work is all invested in space. How is space perceived, how is space constructed and how is space creating social interaction. He started as painter and later conquered sculpture and architecture as ways to work with space more directly. His large scale paintings inscribe body and perception into paper, his installations re-interpret spatial conditions, and as an architect he creates spaces that invite to interact.

Born in Bavaria, Alexander studied sculpture and architecture in Munich and at Harvard. In 2004 he moved to New York where he works as an artist and an architect. Two years ago he started an architectural studio based in Munich and New York and his work has already received an international award.

by Charlie Anderson

Charlie Anderson is a painter whose work plays with the relationship between art, its context and those by whom it is viewed. His paintings explore art’s role throughout history and the ever-changing importance of painting within the art world. Charles incorporates a diverse range of techniques to create layers of imagery taken from aspects of popular culture: newspaper headlines, beer bottle labels, nightclub flyers and fashion among them. The results are rhythmical paintings which provoke more questions perhaps than they answer, constantly challenging the viewer’s senses and understanding of what constitutes art. Does a fabricated relationship create the image or does the image define the relationship? In the end, it is the viewers who decide by drawing whichever connotations of modern life are relevant to them. The work of this award-winning artist is included in international collections, including British Airways.

http://www.charlie-anderson.co.uk

by Helga Bäumler

Helga Bäumler's foray into art began during her pursuit of a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in the sixties. It wasn't until 1994 that she took her skills to another level and engaged her artistic hand in the portrayal of the human form. Human posture and its correlation with the face and expression have been a recurring theme in her work.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

Helga was born in 1942 in Nördlingen, Germany. She works in her "Taubenhaus" atelier in Ingolstadt.

www.helgabaeumler.com

by Kera Till

Born in France, Kera is an artist who shares her time between Paris and Munich. She has been sketching figures and fashion her entire life and now her works have been featured in numerous fashion publications such as TATLER, VOGUE, NET-A-PORTER.COM and prestigious clients such as Hermés, Ladurée and Biotherm.

She considers her art as a channel to discover and understand human kind. Often it is only hinted in singular fragments - the definition of the object is then lost and can vaguely be perceived again as a demeanor or gesture.

In addition to her fashion illustrations, she extends her drawing to food, architecture and nature. Her inspiration comes from everything beautiful and glamorous, from fashion magazines, photography, film and fine art to flea markets, shops and fine food. Kera's whimsical illustrations has the power to transport us to a dream-like realm that is pure and unforced. She works mostly with black ink and watercolor.

www.keratill.com