Severin Falkman

Severin Falkman, “Antonio”, 1870, Oil on Canvas, 112 x 74 cm, Finnish National Gallery

Born in Stockholm in April of 1831, Severin Gabriel Falkman was a Swedish-born painter who was one of the pioneers of Karelianism, a late nineteenth-century art and literary movement in the Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1835, Finnish author Elias Lönnrot published his compilation of oral folklore and mythology from the Karelian and Finnish traditions. The cultural sections of Finland’s society became curious about the heritage of the historical, eastern province of Finnish Karelia. Gradually, this interest in Finland’s heritage developed into the Karelian movement, a Finnish version of European National Romanticism.

The youngest of four children born into the merchant family of Hans Johan and Sofia Falkman, Severin Falkman relocated with his family to Finland in the 1840s. He received his initial education at the private Helsinki Lyceum and, in 1848, became one of the first students of the Finnish Art Association’s school of drawing. From 1857 to 1861, Falkman studied in Paris under French history painter Thomas Couture who taught such artists as Édouard Manet and William Morris Hunt.

After beginning an extended art study tour of Europe, Falkman studied at the University of Helsinki and the city’s Academy of Fine Arts. For a period, he was also a student of painter and printmaker Christian Forssell, who held the position of Professor of Drawing at Stockholm’s Academy of Art. Between 1864 and 1870, Falkman worked and painted in Rome, Paris and Munich.

In 1870, Severin Falkman returned to Finland where he settled in Helsinki. He was given permission in 1872 by the Helsinki City Museum to build a studio for himself within its structure; it is now the oldest remaining artist studio in the museum and currently open for public viewing. After undertaking a photographic trip to the eastern area of Finland, Falkman published an account of its people and ethnographic objects in his 1885 “I Östra Finland (In Eastern Finland)”.

During his lifetime, Falkman painted in several genres including portraiture, still life, and scenes, both interior and exterior, that portrayed both local and medieval figures. His most important painting is the 1880-1886 historical painting “Karl Knutson Bonde Leaving Vyborg Castle for the Royal Election in Stockholm 1448”, now housed in the Finnish National Gallery. An example of the Finnish Karelianist movement, the painting conveyed the national romantic message of Finland’s important role in the political history of Sweden.

Severin Falkman was a recipient of the Imperial Order of Saint Anna, awarded for a distinguished career in civil service or for valor and service in the military. It entitled recipients to either hereditary nobility or personal nobility. Falkman died in the Finnish city of Helsingfors in July of 1889. His work is in both private and public collections including those of the Helsinki City Museum, the Pori Art Museum of Finland, and the Finnish National Gallery.

Second Insert Image: Severin Falkman, “Easter Procession in Rome”, 1866, Oil on Canvas, 112 x 87 cm, Finnish National Gallery

Bottom Insert Image: Severin Falkman, “Nature Morte (Eurasian Woodcock)”, Date Unknown, Oil on Canvas, 41 x 32.5 cm, Pori Art Museum, Finland

Dominic Finocchio

Paintings by Dominic Finocchio

Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1950, Dominic Finocchio is an American painter who creates narrative figurative works. The son of Sicilian parents who immigrated to the United States in the 1920s, he spent his childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, living with his parents and Italian-speaking grandparents. Interested in art from an early age, Finocchio began in his teens to study art more intensely with frequent visits to the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Central Library’s art department.

Finocchio, although interested in various genres and styles, became particularly influenced by the figurative works of Michelangelo and French neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. He also discovered the Mannerist style of the late sixteenth-century Italian High Renaissance, a movement which paid attention to lighting, clarity of line, and color. Finocchio was particularly interested in the works of Mannerist portrait painters Jacopo da Pontormo, Agnolo Bronzino, and Rosso Florentino, one of the founders of the Fontainebleau School.

Dominic Finocchio, encouraged by his supportive art instructor Father T. Brug, prepared a portfolio of work and submitted a grant request for attendance at Missouri’s Webster University. He studied at the university for two years before enrolling in the art curriculum at Meramec Community College where he studied drawing under department head David Durham. While attending classes, Finocchio began singing in several bands and also working as a display designer, an occupation that would support his life as an artist for the next forty-two years.

During most of the 1970s, Finocchio continued his drawing but did not produce any paintings. Eventually, he began to focus solely on painting during his time away from the display work. Although St. Louis at that time was not an art-centered city, it did have several non-profit support organizations, such as Art Saint Louis and the St. Louis Artists’Guild, which provided exhibition opportunities and association with other artists. With such oppurtunities available, Finocchio retired early from his display work and concentrated on painting. Having gained exposure in the art world through the non-profit organizations, he was contacted in 2021 by contemporary gallery owner and lecturer Duane Reed for a studio visit. In late 2022, Dominic Finocchio had his first solo exhibition at St. Louis’s Duane Reed Gallery, recognized for showcasing innovative established and emerging artists.

Dominic Finocchio’s paintings are tableaus, narratives depicting the modern male set in contemporary social situations that explore aspects of masculinity. The initial combinations of figure, fauna and landscape evolve through a lengthy process of editing before the composition is finalized. Finocchio’s figurative compositions, like many of the early mannerist works, show attention to color and lighting as well as off-center placement of figures. Although aware of each other’s presence, Finocchio’s protagonists present an ambiguous story line that is left for the viewer’s exploration and interpretation.

Finocchio has presented his work in curated, invitational, and juried exhibitions for over thirty years. In 2014, his work was included in edition #17 of the quarterly publication “The Art of Man”, a journal featuring articles on artists whose portfolios contain male figurative works in the classical tradition. Finocchio’s solo exhibitions include the 2017 “Lies Provide” at the Mildred Cox Gallery in Fulton, Missouri; the 2018 “Imaginaria” at the Schmidt Art Center at Southwestern Illinois College; and the 2022 “Desire and Indifference” at the Duane Reed Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri.

Dominic Finocchio’s work has been exhibited regularly at the annual Art St. Louis Exhibition and frequently at such venues as the Springfield Art Museum in Missouri; The Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, Missouri; The Jones Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri; the Jacoby Arts Center in Alton, Illinois; and the Evansville Museum in Indiana, among others. Finocchio’s paintings are housed in many private collections as well as public institutions, among which are the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science in Indiana, the St. Louis Marriott Renaissance Hotel, Koetting Associates in St. Louis, and the Bristol-Meyers Squibb Corporation in Evansville.

For his work, Finocchio has won the 2021 Mary Jane Twomey Award for Best of Show at the Buchanan Center for the Arts, the 2020 Caroline Karges Merit Award from the Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, the 2006 Phil Desind Award from the Butler Institute of American Art, and both the Elise Strouse Merit Award and Mary McNamee Bower Purchase Award from the Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences in 2002-2003.

Dominic Finocchio’s paintings will be on exhibit April 25-28 at the 2024 San Francisco Art Market/Art Fair in the Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Boulevard, Building C, Suite 260, Booth A17

Notes: Dominic Finocchio’s website is located at: https://www.dominicfinocchio.com

Finochio is represented by the Duane Reed Gallery of Saint Louis, Missouri. Inquiries regarding his work and current exhibitions can be directed to: https://www.duanereedgallery.com or info@duanereedgallery.com

Top Insert Image: Dominic Finocchio, “Companionship”, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 61 x 45.7 cm, Courtesy of Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri

Second Insert Image: Dominic Finocchio, “Eight Eyes”, Oil on Canvas, 76.2 x 101.6 cm, Courtesy of Artist

Third Insert Image: Dominic Finocchio, “Worldly”, 2023. 76.2 x 101.6 cm, Courtesy of Artist

Bottom Insert Image: Dominic Finocchio, “Sit, Stand, Walk, Fly”, 2023, Watercolor and Gouache on Paper, 45.5 x 48.3 cm, Courtesy of Artist

Julien Nguyen

The Paintings of Julien Nguyen

Julien Nguyen’s work is firmly situated in the academics of art history and its philosophies as well as the informalities of everyday life; his images are often populated with fellow artists, lovers and friends who have posed for him in his Los Angeles studio. A history enthusiast, Nguyen uses the past as a lens through which he views, analyzes, and recreates the present moment. He harmoniously blends iconographic images, such as Renaissance altarpieces, with more contemporary components, such as video-game graphics, to create tableaux of lavish colors and delicate forms that speak to his personal life.

Nguyen works consistently in his studio to develop a more traditional studio practice, as well as, further improve his skills and techniques. He works in oil paints and tempera on a variety of substrates including canvas and linen, wood panel, and copper and aluminum sheets. Besides tableaux with posed acquaintances, Nguyen has produced carefully planned, complicated devotional images of traditional subjects such as Saint John the Baptist, the Virgin Mary, and the Temptation of Christ.

In addition to his paintings, Julien Nguyen has collaborated with designers in the fashion field. He first worked with Cosima Gadient and Christa Bösch, the founders of the avant-garde fashion label Ottolinger. The designers’ 2017 Fall collection was based on Nguyen’s painting “The Baptism”, which shows a young man being baptized in a silvery river. The Spanish luxury fashion house Loewe partnered with Nguyen for its Fall/Winter 2023 Paris Fashion Week show that was held in January of that year. He created three artworks for Loewe: a miniature watercolor on vellum, done in the style of Elizabethan portraitist Nicholas Hilliard, which depicted his muse Nikos decorated with messages and symbols, and two digital artworks that featured Nikos in a Paris hotel. The watercolor miniature was the feature image on the show’s invitation.

Two works by Nguyen, “Executive Function” and “Executive Solutions”, which depicted nymphs and demons on the front page of The New York Times, were included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial in New York City. He had solo exhibitions at Munich’s Kunstverein München in 2014, New York’s Swiss Institute in 2018, and Cincinnati’s Comtemporary Art Center in 2019.

Julien Nguyen participated in a group show, titled “Positioner”, from October through December at the Matthew Marks Gallery in Los Angeles in 2018. He had his first major solo exhibition, titled “Pictures of a Floating World”, from June to August in 2021 at the Matthew Marks Galllery in the Chelsea district of New York City. Nguyen’s next solo exhibition at the Matthew Marks Gallery will be in Los Angeles from June 24 to August 12 in 2023. This will be his first one-person show in Los Angeles in seven years; it will feature fourteen new paintings and works on paper.

“(Julien Nguyen) achieves what few artists manage, the acceptance that nothing is new and nothing lasts, that we inhabit a world built beautifully from the rubble of other worlds, and that is is here we make our stand.” —Travis Diehl

Note: Julien Nguyen’s painting “Semper Solus” was up for auction at Sotheby’s in October of 2022. After receiving fourteen bids, the oil and tempera on wood panel portrait sold for 453,600 Pounds (503 723 US Dollars).

Further information on Julien Nguyen’s 2023 Los Angeles exhibition can be found at the online site of the Matthew Marks Gallery located at: https://matthewmarks.com/exhibitions/julien-nguyen-06-2023/

Second Insert Image: Julien Nguyen, “Study for the Temptation of Christ”, 2019, Oil on Panel, 62.2 x 52 cm, Private Collection

Bottom Insert Image: Julien Nguyen, “Hic Manebimus Optime”, 2021, Oil on Linen on Panel, 51 x 41 cm, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

Erwin Olaf

The Photography of Erwin Olaf

Born in Hilversum, the Netherlands in July of 1959, Erwin Olaf Springveld is a Dutch photographer known for both his personal and commercial work. He is primarily known for his lush large-format color prints of staged scenes that depict complex and dramatic narratives.

Erwin Olaf studied journalism at the School of Journalism in Utrecht. an important Dutch city with roots back to the eighth-century. He started his photographic career by documenting pre-AIDS gay liberation in Amsterdam’s 1980s nightlife. This work soon led to Olaf’s personal exploration of varied series shot in both black-and-white and color. Assuming the role of both photographer and director, he currently shoots cinematic-styled tableaux whose arrangements and diluted color palettes evoke memories of the early 1960s.

Olaf has been commissioned to photograph advertising campaigns for large international companies including Microsoft, Nokia and Levi’s. His bold approach to photography has led to a number of prestigious collaborations, among which have been Louis Vuitton, Vogue Magazine, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Throughout his forty-year career, Olaf has maintained an activist approach to equality. His diverse series center around the issues of society’s marginalized individuals, including people of color, women and the LBGTQ+ community.

Erwin Olaf designed the national side of the 2013 Euro coins for King Willem-Alexander Koning, which commemorated two-hundred years of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Olaf served in 2017 as the official portrait artist for the Dutch royal family. In 2018, he completed a triptych of photographic and filmic tableaux depicting periods of sudden change in major world cities and their effects. Olaf became a Knight of the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands in 2019 after five-hundred works from his oeuvre were added to the collection of the Rijksmuseum. He was awarded the Netherlands’ prestigious Johannes Vermeer Award, as well as Photographer of the Year at the International Color Awards, and Kunstbeeld magazine’s Dutch Artist of the Year.

Among the many photographic series produced by Olaf are the 2005 “Hope, Grief, Rain” which centers on the suspended moment when emotional reaction begins; the 2012 “Berlin” series shot outside of the studio in six different locations in Berlin, sites reminiscent of the city’s past; the 2020 “Im Wald” which was shot purely on location and highlighted isolated people in their relationship to nature; and the 2001-2002 “Paradise Portraits”, a series of close-up shots of party goers at Amsterdam’s renowned Club Paradiso on New Year’s Eve in 2000.

Erwin Olaf’s work has been shown in major galleries throughout the world, including London’s prestigious photographic space Hamiltons Gallery, Berlin’s Wagner + Partner Gallery, Amsterdam’s Flatland Gallery, and the Galerie Magda Danysz in Paris. Museum exhibitions have included the Haifa Museum of Art in Israel, the Fondation Oriente Museu in Macau, the Museo de Arte Contemporaine de Rosario in Argentina, the National Art Gallery in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.

In the spring of 2019, Olaf’s work was the subject of a double exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and The Hague Museum of Photography, as well as a solo exhibition at the Shanghai Center of Photography. In the summer of 2021, the Kunsthalle München mounted a major exhibition of 220 artworks, including Olaf’s two most recent series, the 2020 “April Fool” and “Im Wald”, the latter of which was made specially for this show.

Note: More information of Erwin Olaf’s work and extensive exhibitions, including videos in which he explains his work, can be found at London’s Hamiltons Gallery website located at: https://www.hamiltonsgallery.com/artists/erwin-olaf/overview/

Erwin Olaf’s website, which includes contact information and an extensive list of exhibitions, is located at: https://www.erwinolaf.com/art

Top Insert Image: Erwin Olaf, “Self Portrait”, Date Unknown, Color Print

Second Insert Image: Erwin Olaf, “Chessmen XII”, 1988, Gelatin Silver Print, 37.5 x37.5 cm, Private Collection

Third Insert Image: Erwin Olaf, “Kleines Requiem II”, 2022, Color Print, Edition of Ten, 110 x 110 cm, Private Collection

Bottom Insert Image: Erwin Olaf, “Self Portrait”, 1985, Gelatin Silver Print, Futomuseum Den Haag, The Hague, The Netherlands