Andre Serfontein

Andre Serfontein, “The Crossing”, Date Unknown, Oil on Canvas, 115 x 154 cm.

Andre Serfontein lives and works in Cape Town. After graduating with a National Diploma in Graphic Design from Cape Technikon in 1983, he worked in adverting agencies as a designer and illustrator.

Serfontein’s intention isn’t to capture an ideal or present the pinnacle of beauty. He distorts and exaggerates certain physical features to capture, amplify and accentuate the essence of his subjects. He look for interesting faces, for details that can be interpreted, for ways to heighten what he sees. Serfontein is drawn to a bold, resilient beauty that’s imperfect and asymmetrical… the rare magnetism of men and women who are truly comfortable in their skin.

“I think its important to work from life and gain a better understanding of the human figure, to develop my observational skills and regularly draw and paint live models. Even if one distorts a figure the distortion has to make some anatomical sense. When I paint from life I am fascinated how direct and indirect light moulds the planes and curves on a face or body . The more you look the more you see all kinds of colour and tonal subtleties which you tend to loose in photographs. But ultimately I think I enjoy the process of changing and distorting the figures into my own versions and characters.” -Andre Serfontein

Insert Image: Andre Serfontein, “Simon 1, Being Simon”, Date Unknown, Charcoal on Fabriano Paper, 130 x 200 cm, Private Collection

Andre Serfontein’s website, which includes current exhibitions, is located at: https://www.andreserfontein.com

Jack London: “The Sheer Surging of Life”

His Butt: Beguiling the Senses and Enchanting the Mind: Photo Set Eight

“He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars.”
― Jack London, The Call of the Wild

Eteri Chkadua-Tuite

Eteri Chkadua-Tuite, “Requiem”, 1993, Oil on Linen, 76.2 x 101.6 cm, Private Collection

Eteri Chkadua-Tuite is a painter from Tbilisi, Georgia. She divides her time between Chicago with her husband, Kevin Tuite, and her hometown of Tbilisi. At the age of sixteen, Chkadua studied at the Tbilisi Art Academy, one of five applicants admitted out of several hundred.

Her artwork is concerned with the expressions of people. Her paintings are usually full of groups of people engaged in activity, sometimes praying, hunting, or marching. Her palette tends to be sepias, greenish browns or pale yellows. Comparisons have been made to the Flemish and Dutch paintings of the 1500s with their round faces and bodies.

Thomas Mann” “Perfect Clarity in Ambiguity”

The Parts and Pieces Making a Whole: Set Six

“In our opinion, it is analytically correct, although—to use Hans Castorp’s phrase—“terribly gauche” and downright life-denying, to make a “tidy” distinction between sanctity and passion in matters of love. What’s this about “tidy”? What’s this about gentle irresolution and ambiguity? Isn’t it grand, isn’t it good, that language has only one word for everything we associate with love – from utter sanctity to the most fleshly lust? The result is perfect clarity in ambiguity, for love cannot be disembodied even in its most sanctified forms, nor is it without sanctity even at its most fleshly. Love is always simply itself, both as a subtle affirmation of life and as the highest passion; love is our sympathy with organic life, the touchingly lustful embrace of what is destined to decay – caritas is assuredly found in the most admirable and most depraved passions. Irresolute? But in God’s good name, leave the meaning of love unresolved! Unresolved – that is life and humanity, and it would betray a dreary lack of subtlety to worry about it.”
― Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

Alberto Helios Gagliardo

Alberto Helios Gagliardo, “The War”, Date Unknown, Oil on Canvas

Alberto Helios Gagliardo was an Italian painter and engraver who was born in 1893. He attended the Ligustica Academy of Fine Arts in Genoa. In 1925 Gagliardo exhibited his work at the International Exhibition of the Grand Palais in Paris.

Since 1931, when he participated in the exhibition in Athens, Gagliardo was present in numerous and important exhibitions abroad: Riga, Lima, Caracas, Guatemala City, Shged, Vittoria, Budapest, Stockholm, and in Buenos Aires, where he exhibited at the First Exhibition of Contemporary Ligurian Painters and Sculptors in Argentina.

Gagliardo was close to the Ligurian engraving group of the “Tarasca” and was a holder of the Chair of Engraving at the Ligustica Academy of Fine Arts, and was also listed among the “Engravers of Italy”. He was also a follower of the Symbolist and Neo-Impressionist painter Goetano Previati, later joining the Theosophical Society in Genova, Italy.

Gagliardo’s work is linked between 1919 and 1921 to Symbolism and is reminiscent of the dreamlike atmospheres and the soft brushstrokes of the Pre-Raphaelites and French Puvis De Chavannes movements. In later works, his focus was on social themes, translated into harder and more essential forms with strong tonal and luministic contrasts.

Jordi Chicletol, “Jonatan Oliva”

Jordi Chicletol, “Jonatan Oliva”, Photo Shoot for Kaltblut Magazine

Barcelona nightlife connaisseur and radio program journalist, photographer and event promoter, Jordi Chicletol is audiovisual content creator and expert in contemporary phenomena and its manifestations. He is a collaborator of the In-Edit or Moritz Feed Dog festivals and responsible for the Chicletol Curated Sessions at the Apolo Club and other venues in Barcelona. Curator of youFonic performances and its panel discussions, Chicletol will also be teaching, with model and agitator Jon Gómez de la Peña, the visual communication workshop.

Martin Lewis

Martin Lewis, “Bredford Street Gang”, 1935, Drypoint and Sandpaper Ground Printed in Black Ink on Wove Paper, Plate Size: 22.5 x 36.2 cm, Detroit Instute of Arts

Martin Lewis is considered one of the greatest American printmakers of the first half of the twentieth century. He used his superb sense of composition and his technical skill as a master printmaker to create images of New York City and rural Connecticut that are as captivating today as they were in the late 1920’s when he was first recognized as an important artist.

Lewis, a maker of archetypal American art, was an immigrant, born and educated in Australia, who came to this country in 1900. He had become by 1915 a skilled printmaker who shared his knowledge of etching with his friend, Edward Hopper. Lewis was one of the first printmakers to sell out an edition of a print during an exhibition, and many of his etchings and drypoints sold out in a few months. After the artist’s death in 1962, print collectors continued to appreciate his sensuous works of art, which have remained relatively unknown to the general public.

Martin Lewis spent most of his life living in New York City after arriving from Australia. However, he did travel to Europe and lived briefly in Japan and rural Connecticut. After the artist’s death in 1962, print collectors continued to appreciate his sensuous works of art, which have remained relatively unknown to the general public.

Thomas Mann: “The Striving of Life to Comprehend Itself”

Photographers Unknown, Parva Scaena (Brief Scenes): Set Fourteen

“Consciousness of self was an inherent function of matter once it was organized as life, and if that function was enhanced it turned against the organism that bore it, strove to fathom and explain the very phenomenon that produced it, a hope-filled and hopeless striving of life to comprehend itself, as if nature were rummaging to find itself in itself – ultimately to no avail, since nature cannot be reduced to comprehension, nor in the end can life listen to itself.”
― Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

Danny Ferrell

Paintings by Danny Ferrell

Danny Ferrell is an artist living and working in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2014 he received a BFA from Penn State University in drawing and painting, and an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2016. Ferrell is represented by the Marinaro Gallery in New York City and Galerie Pact in Paris. He is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University, where he teaches drawing and painting. Ferrell has exhibited in New York City, Pittsburgh and the New England area.

Danny Ferrell was born in Flint, Michigan, and spent his formative years in rural Pennsylvania. In this deeply conservative area, most residents placed religion above all other virtues; the result was anyone deviating from religious law was treated as a herald of immorality. Ferrell’s love for other men violated the cultural norms, forcing him to conceal his identity as a gay person from those in the public sphere.

Consequently, his work represents fantasies and fears about the Other in the form of the queer male experience. By creating code homoerotic images of ubiquitous scenes that could appeal to mainstream audiences, the work is both universal and human. Ferrell admires Cadmus and Tooker and follows their lead to bring together the epic and banal in his work.