In recent months, the world has suffered one monumental natural disaster after another. Mother Nature has waged a fury with such unimaginable resolve that countless innocents will forever suffer. However, in times such as these, it is imperative to remember that triumph is often at the heels of tragedy and heeling begins with hope and imagination. ROCK PAPER SCISSORS GALLERY hopes that the imagination fueling its new group art show will help those in need. ANGELS OF NEW ORLEANS is both acting title and impetus behind this exhibit scheduled to open Saturday, November 5. A portion of all proceeds until January 1, 2006 will be donated to HABITAT FOR HUMANITY and gallery owners, Doug Forbes and Elena Matyas have also contacted the organization to volunteer their manpower in the devastated area early next year.
Though all five featured artists offer dramatically distinct works, the common thread that binds them is a deeply rooted concern of environment and the natural and unnatural demands placed upon it.
Pennsylvania resident, Ellen S. Rosenberg, ventured into photography naively believing it was a form of art demanding far less vulnerability. She was happily mistaken and has since waged enough vulnerability to be juried into over 50 international art shows, and the National Association of Women Artists. She is also a free-lance photographer for Jazz Improv magazine. Her photo titled "Angel of New Orleans" was the inspiration behind the title of this show and is one of many shots of street life and musical brilliance in the recently ravaged city of New Orleans. Although her photographs represent a moment in time, they also reflect an absolute timelessness.
Texas resident, Todd Allison, composes paintings saturated with the hunt. Inspiration comes from daily journeying through the sub, urban and digital landscapes which constantly raises questions about sense of place. Every element in his visual narrative relates to space and how space relates to consumption with consumption becoming a chronicle of current social and environmental concerns. Allison disrupts our expectations and encourages us to contemplate the vast distance between the romantic landscapes we so yearn for and the real environment that we have milled into something far more unstable and undesirable.
Columbus, Ohio Art professor and celebrated painter, Walter King, has a discernibly eclectic and mercurial style that employs uniquely metaphorical images to explore contemporary issues. His complex commentaries are both haunting and triumphant and a fitting portrait of post-modern social conflict. Contemporary media such as auto body primers, wall paper samples, toys, and a range of applications including collage, spray enamel, oils, acrylics, egg tempera and encaustic straddle five or more centuries of technique, yet all the while, King portends that not much has changed in terms of an artist's constant iconic struggle to address concerns about the nature of progress.
Following a commercial career as a graphic designer, illustrator and photographer, New York artist, Ann Haaland, returned to full time painting in the late 1990's. Exhibiting continually, Ann has been in over 45 group and solo shows throughout the country. Her latest series of paintings is a triumphant evolution in non-traditional landscapes, especially the adventurous treatment of trees. Fractured structure, abstracted light and flavorful color comprise scenes the likes of which appear as if one were walking through a stained glass grove of birch and maple, fir and oak. Haaland has firmly recognized how the transcendence of environment can be based upon unique personal perception and experience.
Baptiste Ibar has emerged with a hybrid style of narrative painting that utilizes mythological components to address a crucial period of transition in global politics. The French Basque painter has provided a meaningful launch to a new initiative that aims to make art populist once again. His fascination with indigenous people and their art is immediately evident as is his penchant for tackling contemporary themes with a hybrid style that successfully blends the current rage for colorful graphic imagery with ancient sources of inspiration such as Sumerian picture writing. The redemptive qualities of Ibar‚s works make his paintings some of the most sympathetic and memorable that one is likely to come across.
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS GALLERY features contemporary works of art from some of today's most visionary emerging artists. These works are afforded to both residential and commercial audiences with unbridled passion, vision, commitment and service.
Four of the artists are Premiere Portfolio Members at absolutearts.com. Ellen S. Rosenberg has promoted her work at absolutearts.com since 2005. Her works can be viewed at http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/e/ellenotr/. Todd Allison is one of the original artists at absolutearts.com, active since 2000. View his Portfolio at http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/t/tallisonodd/. Walter King is also an early absolutearts.com Portfolio member. View his extensive body of art at http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/w/walterking/. Ann Haaland has been an active member at absolutearts.com since 2003. Her Portfolio maybe viewed at http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/a/annhaaland/.
IMAGE
Walter King
Red Rover - Variations on a Theme
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