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Art Inter/National Reviews by Year:
This year, American artist Erin
Treacy was awarded the "2008 Best of Show"
award and Vietnamese artist Xuan Anh Nguyen received
First Place. Each one of Treacy's paintings is influenced
from different times and places in her life, either
in the northeast or from her travels around the world.
As she continues to vacation or move locations (within
cities and within nature), Treacy looks for new inspiration,
never leaving behind the memories that have formed
her art and her life. The artistic result are paintings
that churn through her memory interconnected with
new experiences, creating an imaginary abstract land.
Yet, though the locations may vary, there remains
similarities in her work. The most obvious similarity
is her; the constant, the observer. Xuan Anh Nguyen
was born in Hanoi, Vietnam. Nguyen's current body
of work explores the changing Vietnam: From ancient,
sacred structures to high buildings, the traditional
mixes with the modern creating a new definition of
Vietnamese society.
As an artist, Nguyen attempts to capture the new Vietnam
from the inside and the outside. The outside is determined
by the visible changing landscape, but the inside
is held within Nguyen's spirit. It is the hidden reality
of Vietnam, the last thing left to hold on to.
Last year, Russia artist Victoria
Goro-Rapoport was awarded the "2007 Best
of Show" award and national fiber artist Elin
Waterston received first place. Growing up admiring
the work of early 20th century Russian artists and
living in a society that was supposed to be the first
utopia in the history of humankind, Goro-Rapoport's
etchings are filled with the twisted labyrinths of
mind, depicting troubled souls, false vision and the
humbuggery of the surrounding world. Although at her
age, the horrors of repression was over, the oppression
of the freethinking and creativity continued. As a
result, the soviet people learned to live in an atmosphere
of ultimate hypocrisy, halfheartedly playing the roles
assigned to them by the government. The whole country
turned into an elaborate stage set, a giant Potiomkin
village, where beautifully painted facades were hiding
crumbling ruins and excessive make up covered up the
pallor of starvation. This explains why the topics
of illusion and disillusionment became important themes
in her work. Elin Waterston is a quilt artist now
living in an area just north of Manhattan. Her work
combines images her world that often do not belong
together - skyscrapers or stage lights with moths
and birds. This combination is indicative of her personality,
a combination of qualities that don't quite belong
together.
German fiber artist Petra
Voegtle was awarded the "2006 Best of Show"
award and Norwegian digital artist Reinhardt Sobye
received First Place. The vision and goal of Petra
Voegtle is to be innovative, narrative and imaginative.
Her current works are stitched paintings on silk which
depict the magic symbols and secrets of ancient cultures.
While the landscapes of the ancient cultures might
have changed due to climatic or sociopolitical transformations
their heritage has not. Voegtle feels that they have
left us with the fundamentals of human civilization
and it would be fatal for our modern society to ignore
and devalue this. Voegtle's work continues to celebrate
the colours and manifestations of nature while demanding
contemplation and validation of human behavior. Reinhardt
Sobye has always lived in the most remote parts of
Norway. In vast, beautiful and silent landscapes,
scarcely populated, he has found an eternity. But
his eternity is combined with his knowledge of contemporary
situations and human history that creates a sorrow
in his heart and his art. The sorrow is a measurement
of the silence and greatness of our human soul. In
his landscape, he hears our innocence and all the
insane pain we inflict upon each other. Sobye's work
is the silence of his landscapes combined with the
chilling notion that we do not comprehend the essence
of our own existence.
In
2005, artist Vladimir
Zuev of Russia received Box Heart's "Best
of Show" Award. Zuev's work is a mysterious contrast
of hundreds of sketches, made both from nature and
imagination, that combine to construct a certain abstract
sign. For Zuev, all the characteristics of the sign
are important; it's configuration, structure, force
of tone, etc. Zuev aspires to deduce the sign of his
figures and attach another unexpected abstract form,
a "graphic personage." Zuev has won numerous
awards for his etching and wood cuts. He teaches at
the Fine Arts Facility in Nizhny Tagil and lectures
Classical Drawing and Contemporary Graphic courses.
Zuev will begin Box Heart's 2006 Solo Exhibition Schedule.
In
2004, photographer Eric
Landes of Columbia, Missouri received Box Heart's
"Best of Show" Award. Landes' work not only
tells a story of personal discovery but also invites
the viewer to explore his or her own world; to seek
out the unfamiliar in the familiar so that a greater
sense of the whole is achieved. As a photographer,
Landes sees aesthetic potential in new experiences.
Something as simple as photographing the neighborhood
that surrounds his home changes with the seasons and
the consequence of changing light. As fall forces
its way into position, the world of light with shadow
changes for Landes into a world of shadow with light.
As a result, his work challenges the viewer's personal
geography, and conveys the sense that few people really
'know" where we live, what surrounds us, and
what lies even a short distance away. Landes will
begin Box Heart's 2005 Solo Exhibition Schedule with
his exhibition, "Night Work." The exhibition
will feature large format photographs of undifferentiated
landscapes. It is in these contested spaces that he
finds the most interesting subjects; a laundry line,
a tent placed in front of a house, a RV. Streetlights
with their orange or blue hues create broad swaths
of competing color that casts a mysterious glow into
the simple Midwest landscape. In Landes' "Night
Work," the familiar architecture of his neighborhood
is reduced to dramatic punctuation's of porch lights
or an occasional light from a window.
In
2003, painter Lynn
Fero received Box Heart's "Best of Show"
Award. Fero was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
but currently resides in Sherman Oaks, California.
She has spent over 20 years as an executive in the
entertainment industry as the Vice President of Business
Affairs Administration at Paramount Pictures. As a
result, her art work is an escape from "the office...
from the neutral carpets that won't show the wear
of feet traipsing back and forth to the copy machine."
Fero is drawn over and over again to draw fields of
grass, and tree lined horizons that meet the sky.
She is particularly drawn to landscapes that take
her to the edge of a wood next to a grassy meadow
or distant tree line. "At this view," Fero
states, " it has no end. Space. Just wide open
space." Feros' work has been exhibited in over
50 Juried Exhibitions across the United States and
was selected by Designer, Linda Sutton to appear in
the hospital lobby setting of the 1997 theatrical
film "Kiss the Girls," starring Morgan Freeman
and Ashley Judd. Fero will begin Box Heart's 2004
Solo Exhibition Schedule with her exhibition, "CountryScapes."
The exhibition will feature oil paintings and pastel
drawings inspired by Fero's relationship with her
surroundings of Oregon, California and France.
The
Sacred Art Exhibition
Sacred
Exhibition Reviews by Year:
Best
of Show 2008: TBD
Best of Show 2007: Tony Zinicola, Jr.
Best of Show 2006: Stephan Phillips
Best of Show 2005: Gerard DiFalco
Best of Show 2004: Tatiana R. Grant
Best of Show 2003: Brenda Stumpf
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