Artists Describing Their Art:

Rufus Adeniyi - I am a widely traveled Nigerian Aesthetics consultant. A graduate of South Thames College, London and University of London Goldsmith College. I believed in Art as a way of life and a reflection of the spiritual and socio-economic life of the people. My flair for natural things of beauty has no measure. Apart from my Art gallery, I also run a consultancy firm in all forms of artistic embellishment in fine furnishing for corporate bodies, private individuals and diplomatic missions. Married and strongly believed in modesty and fair play....

Daniel Lombardo - My art is first informed by the human figure, its essential vertical presentation with a focus on unique but related frontal and rear views, and the gestalt of interconnected shapes that are both linear and volumetric. It is secondarily informed by totem poles of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest and other tribal cultures from around the world, with their stacked and interconnected elements that may represent key figures or concepts in their myths and legends, combined to "tell a tale" or remind of basic cultural tenets. Though my sculptures do not represent any specific events, I imagine my pieces as abstract tales both of personal events or generally themes of human experience. The pieces develop from gestural sketches based on this visual language of interconnected forms merging and diverging usually along a vertical axis. Most recently I have worked in forged steel which has fostered new gestural elements that this material inspires. ...

Yaroslav Kurbanov - My attitude to Art in general and to my art in particular is defined with following points - There must be an idea in a piece of art, regardless of whether it is new or supratemporal. The main point is, it should move the spectator, wake up his feelings and invite him to reflection. Nowadays artists try often to shock spectators and to replace all other emotions, that art is actually called to awake, with a jar. - An artist should find a suitable material as well as an appropriate technique and a form in order to express his idea best. - A piece of art must be accomplished professionally. In my work I touch upon the themes, which are important for me personally. When rereading classical literature, I realized, though, that the same themes have moved people also a hundred years ago or even earlier. They are Love and Hate, Faith and Betrayal, Fear and Composure, Discrepancies between humans inner world and his outer image, his Mask, which he wears for the others. The time has no power over these themes. This distinguishes them from many daily sensations, which fall into oblivion in a couple of years, months or sometimes even days. ...

Max Tolentino - I do not think of art as a rationalization of an artistic thought or perhaps I am not still able to think this way. What fascinates me is the exercise of art; it is doing something that can express my personal point of view of things and the perception and the expression of the world as I see. Anything that carries human significance may cause me an emotion with the same intensity that I see at any museum in the world. Art is an emotional and intellectual product to me. Since my late starting in arts I have been sculpting my way in the artistic scenario with a differenced curiosity so that my overture to this environment gives me a privileged position. Doubts - no doubt - will arise, as my works transit between the formalism and the concept, between the beautiful and the political in art. But the doubts belong more to the one who sees then to me. Maybe I want to go further than the cultural concepts i?1/2 not that I pay much attention to it - but perhaps one day appreciating from outside I may glimpse a chance to be inside thus contributing in a certain way to this world ...

Gabor Bertalan - CURRICULUM VITAE I WAS BORN IN SALGOTARJAN, HUNGARY IN 1956. I ATTENDED SCHOOL IN BUDAPEST. I LEARNED SCULPTURAL ARTS THROUGH PRIVATE CHANNELS, PARTLY IN HUNGARY UNDER THE DIRECTIONS AND WITH THE HELP OF ATTILA BOBALY AND JOZSEF SOMOGYI, AND PARTLY IN MENTON, FRANCE. IN 1996 I ATTENDED THE SUMMER ART ACADEMY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED ARTS IN BUDAPEST. I HAD INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS IN THE MADACH GALLERY OF SALGOTARJAN IN 1993, IN THE SERBIAN CHURCH OF BALASSAGYARMAT IN 1997, AND IN THE UJPEST GALLERY IN 2004. GROUP EXHIBITIONS: 1993: SZECSENY 1995: BUDAPEST, MENTON 1996: BALASSAGYARMAT, SALGOTARJAN, NAGYATAD 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005: SALGOTARJAN - SPRING EXHIBITION, OPEN-AIR SCULPTURE EXHIBITION 2000: CANNES 2005: NAGYATAD, NATIONAL EXHIBITION OF WOOD SCULPTURES SZECSENY, WINTER EXHIBITION - PRIZE OF THE TOWN OF SALGOTARJAN CURRENTLY I LIVE AND WORK IN BUDAPEST. INITIALLY I WORKED EXCLUSIVELY WITH WOOD. NOW THE MATERIAL OF MY SCULPTURES IS MAINLY WAX AND BRONZE CAST AFTER A WAX MOULD. MY THOUGHTS, FEELINGS AND THE PLASTIC FORMS GUIDED BY THE FORMER ARE FOCUSED ON TWO MAIN CONCEPTS: "NATURALNESS AND SIMPLICITY" ...