By Judith Aquino
Opening day at the International ArtExpo in the Javits Center was a slow day according to exhibitors, but artist Victoria Yin, 11, was hardly fazed. “Just being here is great,” said Yin, who lives in Andover, Massachusetts with her parents and younger sister and was perhaps the youngest artist at the ArtExpo.
Since she was a toddler, Yin was different. When other children were scribbling in preschool, Yin’s teachers noted that she was drawing complete shapes. Yin’s abilities as a gifted child quickly manifested themselves in various ways. At age 6, she had skipped ahead to the third grade and in the following year, she was painting large watercolors of animals and landscapes. When she was 9, she was named Gifted Child for the state of Massachusetts by the National Association for Gifted Education.
Yin is self-conscious when explaining why she enjoys art. “Art is how I express myself,” she said with a shy smile. “Most of my ideas just come to me and then I quickly paint what I see.” At the ArtExpo, Yin displayed her latest work, which was inspired by her growing interest in human cloning. “We studied genetics in a science class and I became really interested in cloning and how everyone could be a clone in the future,” explained Yin. “My favorite piece shows the contrast between Adam and Eve and the future where cloning is common and everything is fragmented.” Yin’s piece, “The Age of Cloning” is an acrylic painting of a woman’s naked figure composed of angular shapes with fragmented faces etched over it. In the background are two rounded human forms, a man and a woman, reaching for an apple on a tree branch.
Many of Yin’s subjects are set against stark landscapes and washed in shades of gray, dark red and blue, in a style reminiscent of Frida Kahlo and Van Gough. Yin says her heroes are the masters of the human form, Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, Auguste Rodin, but she struggled to name any contemporary artists that inspired her.
Eva Xu, Yin’s mother, says she and her husband were proud to learn that their daughter was extremely talented, but were wary of allowing her to take formal art lessons. “Teachers influence their students a lot and we wanted Victoria to develop her own creativity,” explained Xu. “I bought her several drawing books for her to study and she created her work on her own.” Neither parent is an artist; Yin’s father, John, is a biomedical scientist and her mother is an architectural developer.
Like many gifted children, Yin is involved in numerous activities and art is only one aspect of her life. In addition to keeping up with her advanced assignments as a 7th grader, she also takes violin and piano lessons. Weekends are reserved for drawing, painting and experimenting with other art mediums.
Yin’s first solo exhibition was at the Pantano Gallery at South New Hampshire two years ago and last year she participated in the Las Vegas ArtExpo. Her pieces range from $50,000 – $100,000, which Xu admits are often bargained down, but their priority is not to sell paintings. “We’re not relying on Victoria to support our family through her work,” said Xu. “Of course I want my daughter to do well, but as a mother, it’s more important that I raise a good child and then maybe great artist.”
By Danielle Walker
The 2009 kickoff for the International Art Expo appeared to be an eclectic explosion of lights, paint, and mixed media. On Thursday afternoon, countless exhibits --often manned by sellers or subdued artists – occupied the Jacob Javits Center showroom. The floor was snowed with white display backgrounds, which shadowed impressive statuettes, three-dimensional designs, and colorful collages. In the art haze, one could have easily missed the bubbly, outspoken Tribeca artist, whose exhibit was tucked in the far left corner of the showroom. Luckily, a jolting five-foot painting of a silver tree drew in a small stream of young viewers. Scores of clear marbles clung to Jennifer Contini’s chrome-like piece, “First Fallen,” which was inspired by a trip to Vermont. The painting seemed to illuminate right off the wall.
“I really get the beat of the city, and that’s what I’m painting,” said the 37 year-old mixed media artist. “There’s a lot of hatching in my work. I see it in cubes—the edges of the city streets and lights.”
The Ohio native has found her perfect muse in New York. Contini moved to the city in 1993, and has since discovered her passion through re-creating the vitality she sees every day. With a degree in art history from the SUNY Purchase liberal arts college, Contini continues to make art which speaks to a younger generation of art lovers, who “just get it.” Growing levels of interest towards Contini’s pieces have also stirred interest in Upstate New York galleries. The promising artist is also a writer and much of her art work coincides with her poetry. Contini’s uninhibited process is part of what makes her collections so gripping.
“What I see tangible in the city- I throw into my work,” said Contini on her preference to use keys, marbles and other small trinkets that magnify her art. One painting in particular, “Don’t Say Black,” seems to be very telling of Contini’s mission to embody the city’s brightness. “It started as a black canvas and I illuminated it,” said the artist while she looked at the textured, multi-colored piece to her right. To explain the protruding, paint-covered object at the center of her piece, she added: “I threw in my paintbrush.”
Although Contini’s eagerness to attract young buyers, in particular, helps driver her ambition; she is not hoping to merely gain a following of check-writing Manhattan hipsters. The artist also wants to give back. She frequently donates to a children’s fund in Haiti which gives kids the opportunity to find a positive outlet through art. Contini insisted that her art “is not a boring story.” She intends to light up every canvas within reach. “I will soon go to Haiti and paint with the children. It’s not just about me, me,me. There’s another element to it.”
By Christine Sylvain
Amongst the countless artists and paint-strewn canvases to be seen at the New York City Art Expo last weekend, only one person stood wrist deep with paint on their hands.
That person was 11-year-old Joshua, who is a member of The Prodigy Factory, a two-week old membership-based website seeking to connect artists with teachers. Wearing a jumpsuit splashed with a Crayola rainbow of colors, Joshua painted an impressionistic Lilly flower, as Solomon Robinson, the company’s Vice President spoke of his desire to “promote prodigiousness” in art.
What criteria exactly constitute ‘prodigiousness’ in art production remains unclear however, as at this time the website has an open registration policy for active art students or instructors.
The website aims to connect artists with great potential but few resources with the know-how of gifted art instructors worldwide. The site is membership based and relies on the charity of established artists and instructors to post tutorials to teach art aspirators with few educational resources. “It works a lot like Myspace, except that its education based and hopefully will provide a chance for high school and collegiate level artists to avoid the starving artist path.”
The artist members of the website network can sell their work through is parent company, Prodigious Art Ltd, a gallery in Hot Springs, Arkansas. While one may not usually think of Hot Springs as a hotbed for nascent artistic talent, Robinson was effusive about its geyser like potential as a center of art production and trade. A city that boasts of being Bill Clinton’s boyhood hometown and proudly dons the moniker, “City of the Arts.” In fact Hot Springs was ranked #4 in the book, “The Best Art Towns in America”, by John Villani.
The students will also have the chance to compete in art competitions and The Factory will eventually allow students to compete for a full four-year scholarship to art school. This program has not taken affect yet, although Robinson hopes that the company will receive grant money to pay for the scholarships.
The Factory, in time, will also provide marketing and business help to artists through its parent company by showing their pieces in national trade shows and providing agent like services. As someone with a strong background in advertising, Robinson hopes his business plan will be a success. “The key is marketing,” said Robinson, who has marketed in variety of fields including the automotive and construction industries.
Robinson made the leap into the art world in June last year, and remains undaunted, “It’s all about exposure and diversification. We have our gallery for showing art and the website for promoting it.”
It remains to be seen if his experience with construction and cars will be easily translated to success in the folding art industry, however, meanwhile Robinson has structured his Prodigious Art, Ltd. with as many diversified interests as a well balanced stock portfolio (albeit this might be an elusive analogy to make in this economy).
Utilizing the advertising phrase “Publishing Prodigiousness, Prodigiously,” the company aims to attract artists without regard to style or genre. “We accept art of all kinds from all places,” said Robinson. “The pieces must be prodigious.”
Looking at the sampling of works hung at the Expo it seems that the main criteria for being picked up by Prodigious Ltd, is the simple application of the descriptor, “prodigious” slapped on business cards below each work. In the hopes that this might increase each piece’s trade value tenfold, this type of word play may be exactly what Robinson means by good marketing.
By Julia McCallum
It was late afternoon in a cavernous exhibition hall at the Jacob Javits Center and Wyland was getting annoyed. Over the blare of a classic guitar riff pumping into the his work space, the self-described artist of the sea was trying to explain his work to a pair of young women in tight, low slung jeans. “No way,” he growled, shaking his head with conviction, “sharks are my friends.” The women giggled, shrugged and scurried off as Wyland climbed back onto a stool and proceeds to brashly apply strokes of eco-friendly turquoise paint to a 12X18 foot canvas.
The Aliso Viejo, California-based painter, sculptor and photographer was in New York to kick off his “Global Green Artists Challenge,” an effort to encourage environmental awareness among the arts community, during the 31st Annual Artexpo at the Jacob Javits Center. Wyland, who only uses one name, is as passionate about the environment as he is about marine life. Having recently completed a 27-year effort to paint 100 whale murals to raise environmental awareness, the artist was perhaps the only exhibitor in the Javits Center actually working while they shilled his wares. More specifically, while a team of serious looking men and women shilled them for him
“He was green before green was in,” cooed Tamara Smith, a square shaped woman in a leopard print sweater, flared jeans, high heeled boots and plenty of eye shadow, who serves Director of Corporate Sales for Wyland Worldwide. Today, the artist was actually blue: blue baseball cap with the logo of a whales tail embroidered on the front; blue jeans; navy blue t-shirt and a left forearm covered in blue tattoo ink. Under the bright lights of the exposition hall, Wyland’s gold wristwatch, which he wears on his right arm, glinted as he filled in what looked to be the counters of a whale’s tail. “I’m just winging it right now,” he said with a grin and deep laugh, turning his shiny, tanned face toward his crowd of onlookers clustered under a video camera on a towering tripod.
Nearby, a merchandise table was laden with the fruits of the artist’s labors. Wyland has written several books, including “The Art of Wyland: America’s Leading Marine Life Artist” (published by Wyland Studios 2008); “Ocean Wisdom;” and “Hold Your Water” and put out two DVDs “Artist of the Sea” and “Visions of the Sea.”
In case there is still any confusion, Wyland loves the ocean. He loves the “enthusiasm” and “joy” of aquatic creatures and he loves to render these creatures in acrylic paint or bronze. Occasionally, the dolphins or whales are joined by a scuba- diving Disney creature, but more often they frolic peacefully in vibrantly blue waters. What Wyland loves more than anything is money. Now, now can you really say that; did he say that Prices for his work range from $950 for a giclee on canvas rendering of Donald Duck hitching a ride on a dolphin’s fin to $5,478 for a Scope-nice colored plastic molding of two dolphins going in for a kiss $38,850 for “Breach for the Sky,” a six-foot tall cast bronze humpback whale sculpture that greeted visitors to Wyland’s Artexpo exhibit. An elderly couple strolled in and examined the leering whale as it twisted out of a flurry of glittery, bronze waves. They ohhed and nodded as Dameon Clark, a sales associate in a cheap black you are so mean! suit and dark hair gelled into menacing spikes, told them the price.
Back at the mural, the crowd was growing. “We’ll survive it,” says Smith confidently when asked about the recession. Of course, she is quick to note that she is very worried about how others might fare
By Nadia Arumugam
For most of us, a mention of shellfish may conjure up thoughts of garlicy mussels, steamed Littleneck clams or simply shucked oysters with a squeeze of lemon. Alla Baksankaya thinks of showgirls, toucans and the personification of evil.
It’s not because the Brooklyn based artist is prone to strange imaginings or under the influence of a mind-altering drug, but because she uses seashells to create her unique three-dimensional artwork. At the 2009 International Artexpo in New York, Baksankaya, a first time exhibitor, displays a collection of her favorite works. A pair of toucans whose piercing black tail feathers are offset with accents of yellow, red, green and blue and made from painted clam shells hang alongside a guitar playing Rastafarian intricately crafted from scallop, mussel and yellow lutorine shells. Lilac and midnight blue Irises composed of oyster shells look down on two singing dusty pink and mocha Canarium seashell birds. A modern interpretation of the Statue of Liberty, a moving tribute to the victims of 9/ll, a vivid underwater scene of rainbow colored swimming fish; Baksankaya’s creativity with shells seems limitless.
Baksankaya, who moved to the U.S. from Azerbaijan 15 years ago, scours miles of shoreline in search of material for her art. She and her two teenage sons will frequently travel to Coney Island and Brighton Beach. And when they vacation further a field to Miami, Key West and Cape Cod, Baksankaya combs the beach for interesting and unusual specimens to add to her seashell, sea urchin and star fish collections while the rest of the family enjoy the waves. And it’s not always perfectly formed, whole shells that she seeks. Sometimes, when Baksankaya trawls through the labeled compartments of her shell organizer for the perfect piece to complete a dancer’s shoe or the decorative edging on a Venetian mask, a tiny fragment of a scallop or oyster shell is all she needs.
As for Baksankaya’s technique, she explains in her idiosyncratic English that it’s as organic as the material she uses. She begins by scattering her latest finds on a base, usually wood, preferably recycled or salvaged from the sea. Then she moves them around with her fingers as if she is “figuring out a puzzle,” she says and a “picture” will appear out of the mass of shapes on the base. Baksankaya will develop the image with more shells, sea urchin exoskeletons or starfish until she has fleshed out a complete collage. She then fixes the pieces in place with multipurpose glue. If the shells are attractive with unusual or colorful natural hues, she will merely varnish them to a glossy finish. She prefers her art like this, but when she works with clams or oyster shells which are dull and grey, she enlivens them using bright tones of acrylic paint.
On occasion, Baksankaya knows what she wants to create even before the shells come out. Like when she set out to re-create the color and vibrancy she experienced on holiday in Puerto Rico. The result; the toucans. Or when she produced her Statue of Liberty inspired by Peter Max’s iconic images of the same landmark.
Seashell art is nothing new. Artists and crafters across the globe having been working with the medium for hundreds of years. But Baksankaya’s offbeat works bear little resemblance to the seashell decorated jewelry box or quaint tableaus grandmothers are especially fond of. She speaks endearingly of an elderly seashell artist in Brooklyn who fervently disagrees with her avante garde approach. “She says I’m very brave to do what I do,” Baksankaya says with a melodious laugh, “but she always argues with me.”
In her hometown of Baku, Baksankaya practiced as a pediatrician in an altogether different life. When she moved to New York in 1994 she worked with her husband in his computer programming business and her art was little more than a hobby. She had always been fond of seashells, having collected them on the beaches of the Caspian Sea as a child and fashioned them into jewelry and much simpler, cruder versions of the complex artwork she produces today. Her first piece, she recalls excitedly, was of Mickey Mouse made from clam shells and mounted on a simple black board when she was ten years old.
It was not until 2002 that Baksankaya decided to focus solely on her shell art and set up her studio in her cramped kitchen. As for her showroom, well, it’s the rest of her Bay Ridge apartment. “I think there are about 65 paintings on the walls,” she says turning a little pink, “yes, I know, I must think about packing them up or something.” She sold her first work three years ago, to a friend who fell in love with a depiction of roses in oyster shells. “I made $250”, she says, clapping her hands together at the recollection. “I was so happy, because for the first time I felt like a real artist.” Since then she has sold over 40 pieces and exhibited at the Coney Island Art Gallery and at the Brooklyn Public Library. Baksankaya’s work is currently priced between $150 - $2000. The simpler pieces take up to a month to complete, while it took her two and a half months to perfect a $2000 abstract mosaic. And because the inspiration comes hard and fast, she works on up to four collages at any one time, “because I don’t want to lose my ideas,” she says.
And she has plenty of those. Baksankaya’s next project is to shift the copious works she has already produced, hopefully into the hands of generous buyers. She is optimistic about the future, despite the financial dire straits. “I believe tomorrow will always be better than today,” she philosophizes. But she is not waiting for the world to come to her. After the Artexpo, Baksankaya will go to Sanibel Florida in March to participate in an art competition. And her pièce de resistance? A miniature collage of a boy and girl sitting in a car heading to an art competition.
By Julie Sobel
Humberto Benitez says he paints memories from his early childhood in Cuba. But his paintings, vibrant explosions of color depicting mainly beautiful women dancing and men strumming musical instruments, don’t look like the memories of a child. “My father used to be the electricity director for a traveling show, like a Vegas show,” he says, recalling that he got to accompany his father frequently between the ages of six and nine. “I had a very good childhood!”
“He remembers these beautiful women,” adds Lisette Benitez, his wife of 24 years. “And they loved him.”
The couple, who live in Coral Gables, Miami, are manning a booth at the International Artexpo in New York City. The Artexpo, a trade show, runs from February 26 - March 2.
Surrounded on three sides by his work, they discuss his unusual painting techniques. Humberto doesn’t pre-sketch anything. “The canvas dictates him, he doesn’t dictate to the canvas,” Lisette explains. He rarely paints with a brush, preferring to use a spatula and knife, which create texture and images that almost seem in motion. He also grinds his own paint, which allows him to create the exact shades he desires.
He traces his passion for art to his childhood in Cuba when he had no toys and began painting at age six using red dirt and charcoal. He came to the U.S. in 1970 but still finds his inspiration in memories and stories of his homeland.
One of his paintings featured at the expo shows a seductive looking woman in a red slip with a slit up to mid thigh lounging on a bed, a candle left carelessly burning in the background of a disheveled bedroom. It’s called “El Cuarto de Tula” (Tula’s room).
“She was a very well-known prostitute,” says Humberto. He never met her, of course, as a child in Cuba, but he’d heard the vivid stories of her burning down her room when she fell asleep with a candle burning (she made it out safely), and the image of her formed in his head.
Another of his paintings shows women cavorting in a field of sugarcanes in the moonlight. Though it’s evening, the colors jump out intensely. The green sugarcanes form a backdrop for the exquisite women in their blue, violet and golden gowns.
It’s not all color all the time. The third wall of the booth stands in stark contrast to the other two: it features monochromatic paintings, subdued next to the joyful and multi-hued paintings on the other walls. Humberto says he does a monochromatic piece about once a year. “I need to do them. The colors get so bright,” he says of his annual need for a brief respite. Afterwards, “I go outside and the greens are so green and the yellows are so yellow.”
“It’s like when you go on a diet,” says Lisette. “And then after a few days you crave sugar.” Since Humberto paints his memories, anyone craving more current depictions of Cuba from him will have to wait. Though he could travel back to Cuba if he wanted, he refuses to do so until the country is free.
By Preethi Dumpala
As you walk around the International Art Expo at Jacob Javitt’s Center in New York City, you ignore words like “abstract expressionism” and “light preserved figurative.” You’re looking for something that appeals to you - something bright, colorful and glittery.
You spot Charles Fazzino’s “Construction of a tooth.” It’s colorful, glittery and it three dimensional! But the best part is that it mocks dentists. It’s a series of comic strips created over a painting of a tooth. The comic strips make fun of dentists, especially focusing on how they take advantage of patients in pain.
If you’ve had five root-canals performed on one tooth, three surgeries – same tooth, and if you paid $2,000 to a dentist (whose office overlooks the Central Park pond), so that he could drill hole through your gums in error, you definitely hate dentists. And you love this art.
One of the strips shows a man with gleaming teeth talking to his dentist. He is saying, “Thank you for the new implants. Can I pay you next year?” The dentist is smiling back at him, but there is a bubble above her head that shows what she is really thinking – of strangling him.
Another shows a man who has had his tooth extracted praying to the tooth fairy. He is on his knees saying, “Please tooth fairy, I need a billion dollars!”
This strip strikes a chord with you. It shows a dentist with a cylinder of nitrous oxide saying, “First we knock you’re a** out, then we drill.” This reminds you of your dentist promising you as much gas as you needed, and you thinking what a great guy he was…and now you’re stuck with a hole in your gums.
You hate dentists so much and love this artwork so much that if it didn’t cost this much, you would buy it right away. But someone would buy it. Someone like you, who hates dentists. Hates them so much that he would pay $9,000 to hang this in his living room as an insult to dentists everywhere.
$ 9,000. That’s how much your first four root-canals cost you.
“Fazzino makes a lot of tooth art,” says Ann Lynch, the gallery manager. You ask her why he is interested in tooth art; you want to know the story behind that. She says it’s because a lot of his art is hung in dentists’ offices.
Opening day at the International ArtExpo in the Javits Center was a slow day according to exhibitors, but artist Victoria Yin, 11, was hardly fazed. “Just being here is great,” said Yin, who lives in Andover, Massachusetts with her parents and younger sister and was perhaps the youngest artist at the ArtExpo.
Since she was a toddler, Yin was different. When other children were scribbling in preschool, Yin’s teachers noted that she was drawing complete shapes. Yin’s abilities as a gifted child quickly manifested themselves in various ways. At age 6, she had skipped ahead to the third grade and in the following year, she was painting large watercolors of animals and landscapes. When she was 9, she was named Gifted Child for the state of Massachusetts by the National Association for Gifted Education.
Yin is self-conscious when explaining why she enjoys art. “Art is how I express myself,” she said with a shy smile. “Most of my ideas just come to me and then I quickly paint what I see.” At the ArtExpo, Yin displayed her latest work, which was inspired by her growing interest in human cloning. “We studied genetics in a science class and I became really interested in cloning and how everyone could be a clone in the future,” explained Yin. “My favorite piece shows the contrast between Adam and Eve and the future where cloning is common and everything is fragmented.” Yin’s piece, “The Age of Cloning” is an acrylic painting of a woman’s naked figure composed of angular shapes with fragmented faces etched over it. In the background are two rounded human forms, a man and a woman, reaching for an apple on a tree branch.
Many of Yin’s subjects are set against stark landscapes and washed in shades of gray, dark red and blue, in a style reminiscent of Frida Kahlo and Van Gough. Yin says her heroes are the masters of the human form, Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, Auguste Rodin, but she struggled to name any contemporary artists that inspired her.
Eva Xu, Yin’s mother, says she and her husband were proud to learn that their daughter was extremely talented, but were wary of allowing her to take formal art lessons. “Teachers influence their students a lot and we wanted Victoria to develop her own creativity,” explained Xu. “I bought her several drawing books for her to study and she created her work on her own.” Neither parent is an artist; Yin’s father, John, is a biomedical scientist and her mother is an architectural developer.
Like many gifted children, Yin is involved in numerous activities and art is only one aspect of her life. In addition to keeping up with her advanced assignments as a 7th grader, she also takes violin and piano lessons. Weekends are reserved for drawing, painting and experimenting with other art mediums.
Yin’s first solo exhibition was at the Pantano Gallery at South New Hampshire two years ago and last year she participated in the Las Vegas ArtExpo. Her pieces range from $50,000 – $100,000, which Xu admits are often bargained down, but their priority is not to sell paintings. “We’re not relying on Victoria to support our family through her work,” said Xu. “Of course I want my daughter to do well, but as a mother, it’s more important that I raise a good child and then maybe great artist.”
By Danielle Walker
The 2009 kickoff for the International Art Expo appeared to be an eclectic explosion of lights, paint, and mixed media. On Thursday afternoon, countless exhibits --often manned by sellers or subdued artists – occupied the Jacob Javits Center showroom. The floor was snowed with white display backgrounds, which shadowed impressive statuettes, three-dimensional designs, and colorful collages. In the art haze, one could have easily missed the bubbly, outspoken Tribeca artist, whose exhibit was tucked in the far left corner of the showroom. Luckily, a jolting five-foot painting of a silver tree drew in a small stream of young viewers. Scores of clear marbles clung to Jennifer Contini’s chrome-like piece, “First Fallen,” which was inspired by a trip to Vermont. The painting seemed to illuminate right off the wall.
“I really get the beat of the city, and that’s what I’m painting,” said the 37 year-old mixed media artist. “There’s a lot of hatching in my work. I see it in cubes—the edges of the city streets and lights.”
The Ohio native has found her perfect muse in New York. Contini moved to the city in 1993, and has since discovered her passion through re-creating the vitality she sees every day. With a degree in art history from the SUNY Purchase liberal arts college, Contini continues to make art which speaks to a younger generation of art lovers, who “just get it.” Growing levels of interest towards Contini’s pieces have also stirred interest in Upstate New York galleries. The promising artist is also a writer and much of her art work coincides with her poetry. Contini’s uninhibited process is part of what makes her collections so gripping.
“What I see tangible in the city- I throw into my work,” said Contini on her preference to use keys, marbles and other small trinkets that magnify her art. One painting in particular, “Don’t Say Black,” seems to be very telling of Contini’s mission to embody the city’s brightness. “It started as a black canvas and I illuminated it,” said the artist while she looked at the textured, multi-colored piece to her right. To explain the protruding, paint-covered object at the center of her piece, she added: “I threw in my paintbrush.”
Although Contini’s eagerness to attract young buyers, in particular, helps driver her ambition; she is not hoping to merely gain a following of check-writing Manhattan hipsters. The artist also wants to give back. She frequently donates to a children’s fund in Haiti which gives kids the opportunity to find a positive outlet through art. Contini insisted that her art “is not a boring story.” She intends to light up every canvas within reach. “I will soon go to Haiti and paint with the children. It’s not just about me, me,me. There’s another element to it.”
By Christine Sylvain
Amongst the countless artists and paint-strewn canvases to be seen at the New York City Art Expo last weekend, only one person stood wrist deep with paint on their hands.
That person was 11-year-old Joshua, who is a member of The Prodigy Factory, a two-week old membership-based website seeking to connect artists with teachers. Wearing a jumpsuit splashed with a Crayola rainbow of colors, Joshua painted an impressionistic Lilly flower, as Solomon Robinson, the company’s Vice President spoke of his desire to “promote prodigiousness” in art.
What criteria exactly constitute ‘prodigiousness’ in art production remains unclear however, as at this time the website has an open registration policy for active art students or instructors.
The website aims to connect artists with great potential but few resources with the know-how of gifted art instructors worldwide. The site is membership based and relies on the charity of established artists and instructors to post tutorials to teach art aspirators with few educational resources. “It works a lot like Myspace, except that its education based and hopefully will provide a chance for high school and collegiate level artists to avoid the starving artist path.”
The artist members of the website network can sell their work through is parent company, Prodigious Art Ltd, a gallery in Hot Springs, Arkansas. While one may not usually think of Hot Springs as a hotbed for nascent artistic talent, Robinson was effusive about its geyser like potential as a center of art production and trade. A city that boasts of being Bill Clinton’s boyhood hometown and proudly dons the moniker, “City of the Arts.” In fact Hot Springs was ranked #4 in the book, “The Best Art Towns in America”, by John Villani.
The students will also have the chance to compete in art competitions and The Factory will eventually allow students to compete for a full four-year scholarship to art school. This program has not taken affect yet, although Robinson hopes that the company will receive grant money to pay for the scholarships.
The Factory, in time, will also provide marketing and business help to artists through its parent company by showing their pieces in national trade shows and providing agent like services. As someone with a strong background in advertising, Robinson hopes his business plan will be a success. “The key is marketing,” said Robinson, who has marketed in variety of fields including the automotive and construction industries.
Robinson made the leap into the art world in June last year, and remains undaunted, “It’s all about exposure and diversification. We have our gallery for showing art and the website for promoting it.”
It remains to be seen if his experience with construction and cars will be easily translated to success in the folding art industry, however, meanwhile Robinson has structured his Prodigious Art, Ltd. with as many diversified interests as a well balanced stock portfolio (albeit this might be an elusive analogy to make in this economy).
Utilizing the advertising phrase “Publishing Prodigiousness, Prodigiously,” the company aims to attract artists without regard to style or genre. “We accept art of all kinds from all places,” said Robinson. “The pieces must be prodigious.”
Looking at the sampling of works hung at the Expo it seems that the main criteria for being picked up by Prodigious Ltd, is the simple application of the descriptor, “prodigious” slapped on business cards below each work. In the hopes that this might increase each piece’s trade value tenfold, this type of word play may be exactly what Robinson means by good marketing.
By Julia McCallum
It was late afternoon in a cavernous exhibition hall at the Jacob Javits Center and Wyland was getting annoyed. Over the blare of a classic guitar riff pumping into the his work space, the self-described artist of the sea was trying to explain his work to a pair of young women in tight, low slung jeans. “No way,” he growled, shaking his head with conviction, “sharks are my friends.” The women giggled, shrugged and scurried off as Wyland climbed back onto a stool and proceeds to brashly apply strokes of eco-friendly turquoise paint to a 12X18 foot canvas.
The Aliso Viejo, California-based painter, sculptor and photographer was in New York to kick off his “Global Green Artists Challenge,” an effort to encourage environmental awareness among the arts community, during the 31st Annual Artexpo at the Jacob Javits Center. Wyland, who only uses one name, is as passionate about the environment as he is about marine life. Having recently completed a 27-year effort to paint 100 whale murals to raise environmental awareness, the artist was perhaps the only exhibitor in the Javits Center actually working while they shilled his wares. More specifically, while a team of serious looking men and women shilled them for him
“He was green before green was in,” cooed Tamara Smith, a square shaped woman in a leopard print sweater, flared jeans, high heeled boots and plenty of eye shadow, who serves Director of Corporate Sales for Wyland Worldwide. Today, the artist was actually blue: blue baseball cap with the logo of a whales tail embroidered on the front; blue jeans; navy blue t-shirt and a left forearm covered in blue tattoo ink. Under the bright lights of the exposition hall, Wyland’s gold wristwatch, which he wears on his right arm, glinted as he filled in what looked to be the counters of a whale’s tail. “I’m just winging it right now,” he said with a grin and deep laugh, turning his shiny, tanned face toward his crowd of onlookers clustered under a video camera on a towering tripod.
Nearby, a merchandise table was laden with the fruits of the artist’s labors. Wyland has written several books, including “The Art of Wyland: America’s Leading Marine Life Artist” (published by Wyland Studios 2008); “Ocean Wisdom;” and “Hold Your Water” and put out two DVDs “Artist of the Sea” and “Visions of the Sea.”
In case there is still any confusion, Wyland loves the ocean. He loves the “enthusiasm” and “joy” of aquatic creatures and he loves to render these creatures in acrylic paint or bronze. Occasionally, the dolphins or whales are joined by a scuba- diving Disney creature, but more often they frolic peacefully in vibrantly blue waters. What Wyland loves more than anything is money. Now, now can you really say that; did he say that Prices for his work range from $950 for a giclee on canvas rendering of Donald Duck hitching a ride on a dolphin’s fin to $5,478 for a Scope-nice colored plastic molding of two dolphins going in for a kiss $38,850 for “Breach for the Sky,” a six-foot tall cast bronze humpback whale sculpture that greeted visitors to Wyland’s Artexpo exhibit. An elderly couple strolled in and examined the leering whale as it twisted out of a flurry of glittery, bronze waves. They ohhed and nodded as Dameon Clark, a sales associate in a cheap black you are so mean! suit and dark hair gelled into menacing spikes, told them the price.
Back at the mural, the crowd was growing. “We’ll survive it,” says Smith confidently when asked about the recession. Of course, she is quick to note that she is very worried about how others might fare
By Nadia Arumugam
For most of us, a mention of shellfish may conjure up thoughts of garlicy mussels, steamed Littleneck clams or simply shucked oysters with a squeeze of lemon. Alla Baksankaya thinks of showgirls, toucans and the personification of evil.
It’s not because the Brooklyn based artist is prone to strange imaginings or under the influence of a mind-altering drug, but because she uses seashells to create her unique three-dimensional artwork. At the 2009 International Artexpo in New York, Baksankaya, a first time exhibitor, displays a collection of her favorite works. A pair of toucans whose piercing black tail feathers are offset with accents of yellow, red, green and blue and made from painted clam shells hang alongside a guitar playing Rastafarian intricately crafted from scallop, mussel and yellow lutorine shells. Lilac and midnight blue Irises composed of oyster shells look down on two singing dusty pink and mocha Canarium seashell birds. A modern interpretation of the Statue of Liberty, a moving tribute to the victims of 9/ll, a vivid underwater scene of rainbow colored swimming fish; Baksankaya’s creativity with shells seems limitless.
Baksankaya, who moved to the U.S. from Azerbaijan 15 years ago, scours miles of shoreline in search of material for her art. She and her two teenage sons will frequently travel to Coney Island and Brighton Beach. And when they vacation further a field to Miami, Key West and Cape Cod, Baksankaya combs the beach for interesting and unusual specimens to add to her seashell, sea urchin and star fish collections while the rest of the family enjoy the waves. And it’s not always perfectly formed, whole shells that she seeks. Sometimes, when Baksankaya trawls through the labeled compartments of her shell organizer for the perfect piece to complete a dancer’s shoe or the decorative edging on a Venetian mask, a tiny fragment of a scallop or oyster shell is all she needs.
As for Baksankaya’s technique, she explains in her idiosyncratic English that it’s as organic as the material she uses. She begins by scattering her latest finds on a base, usually wood, preferably recycled or salvaged from the sea. Then she moves them around with her fingers as if she is “figuring out a puzzle,” she says and a “picture” will appear out of the mass of shapes on the base. Baksankaya will develop the image with more shells, sea urchin exoskeletons or starfish until she has fleshed out a complete collage. She then fixes the pieces in place with multipurpose glue. If the shells are attractive with unusual or colorful natural hues, she will merely varnish them to a glossy finish. She prefers her art like this, but when she works with clams or oyster shells which are dull and grey, she enlivens them using bright tones of acrylic paint.
On occasion, Baksankaya knows what she wants to create even before the shells come out. Like when she set out to re-create the color and vibrancy she experienced on holiday in Puerto Rico. The result; the toucans. Or when she produced her Statue of Liberty inspired by Peter Max’s iconic images of the same landmark.
Seashell art is nothing new. Artists and crafters across the globe having been working with the medium for hundreds of years. But Baksankaya’s offbeat works bear little resemblance to the seashell decorated jewelry box or quaint tableaus grandmothers are especially fond of. She speaks endearingly of an elderly seashell artist in Brooklyn who fervently disagrees with her avante garde approach. “She says I’m very brave to do what I do,” Baksankaya says with a melodious laugh, “but she always argues with me.”
In her hometown of Baku, Baksankaya practiced as a pediatrician in an altogether different life. When she moved to New York in 1994 she worked with her husband in his computer programming business and her art was little more than a hobby. She had always been fond of seashells, having collected them on the beaches of the Caspian Sea as a child and fashioned them into jewelry and much simpler, cruder versions of the complex artwork she produces today. Her first piece, she recalls excitedly, was of Mickey Mouse made from clam shells and mounted on a simple black board when she was ten years old.
It was not until 2002 that Baksankaya decided to focus solely on her shell art and set up her studio in her cramped kitchen. As for her showroom, well, it’s the rest of her Bay Ridge apartment. “I think there are about 65 paintings on the walls,” she says turning a little pink, “yes, I know, I must think about packing them up or something.” She sold her first work three years ago, to a friend who fell in love with a depiction of roses in oyster shells. “I made $250”, she says, clapping her hands together at the recollection. “I was so happy, because for the first time I felt like a real artist.” Since then she has sold over 40 pieces and exhibited at the Coney Island Art Gallery and at the Brooklyn Public Library. Baksankaya’s work is currently priced between $150 - $2000. The simpler pieces take up to a month to complete, while it took her two and a half months to perfect a $2000 abstract mosaic. And because the inspiration comes hard and fast, she works on up to four collages at any one time, “because I don’t want to lose my ideas,” she says.
And she has plenty of those. Baksankaya’s next project is to shift the copious works she has already produced, hopefully into the hands of generous buyers. She is optimistic about the future, despite the financial dire straits. “I believe tomorrow will always be better than today,” she philosophizes. But she is not waiting for the world to come to her. After the Artexpo, Baksankaya will go to Sanibel Florida in March to participate in an art competition. And her pièce de resistance? A miniature collage of a boy and girl sitting in a car heading to an art competition.
By Julie Sobel
Humberto Benitez says he paints memories from his early childhood in Cuba. But his paintings, vibrant explosions of color depicting mainly beautiful women dancing and men strumming musical instruments, don’t look like the memories of a child. “My father used to be the electricity director for a traveling show, like a Vegas show,” he says, recalling that he got to accompany his father frequently between the ages of six and nine. “I had a very good childhood!”
“He remembers these beautiful women,” adds Lisette Benitez, his wife of 24 years. “And they loved him.”
The couple, who live in Coral Gables, Miami, are manning a booth at the International Artexpo in New York City. The Artexpo, a trade show, runs from February 26 - March 2.
Surrounded on three sides by his work, they discuss his unusual painting techniques. Humberto doesn’t pre-sketch anything. “The canvas dictates him, he doesn’t dictate to the canvas,” Lisette explains. He rarely paints with a brush, preferring to use a spatula and knife, which create texture and images that almost seem in motion. He also grinds his own paint, which allows him to create the exact shades he desires.
He traces his passion for art to his childhood in Cuba when he had no toys and began painting at age six using red dirt and charcoal. He came to the U.S. in 1970 but still finds his inspiration in memories and stories of his homeland.
One of his paintings featured at the expo shows a seductive looking woman in a red slip with a slit up to mid thigh lounging on a bed, a candle left carelessly burning in the background of a disheveled bedroom. It’s called “El Cuarto de Tula” (Tula’s room).
“She was a very well-known prostitute,” says Humberto. He never met her, of course, as a child in Cuba, but he’d heard the vivid stories of her burning down her room when she fell asleep with a candle burning (she made it out safely), and the image of her formed in his head.
Another of his paintings shows women cavorting in a field of sugarcanes in the moonlight. Though it’s evening, the colors jump out intensely. The green sugarcanes form a backdrop for the exquisite women in their blue, violet and golden gowns.
It’s not all color all the time. The third wall of the booth stands in stark contrast to the other two: it features monochromatic paintings, subdued next to the joyful and multi-hued paintings on the other walls. Humberto says he does a monochromatic piece about once a year. “I need to do them. The colors get so bright,” he says of his annual need for a brief respite. Afterwards, “I go outside and the greens are so green and the yellows are so yellow.”
“It’s like when you go on a diet,” says Lisette. “And then after a few days you crave sugar.” Since Humberto paints his memories, anyone craving more current depictions of Cuba from him will have to wait. Though he could travel back to Cuba if he wanted, he refuses to do so until the country is free.
By Preethi Dumpala
As you walk around the International Art Expo at Jacob Javitt’s Center in New York City, you ignore words like “abstract expressionism” and “light preserved figurative.” You’re looking for something that appeals to you - something bright, colorful and glittery.
You spot Charles Fazzino’s “Construction of a tooth.” It’s colorful, glittery and it three dimensional! But the best part is that it mocks dentists. It’s a series of comic strips created over a painting of a tooth. The comic strips make fun of dentists, especially focusing on how they take advantage of patients in pain.
If you’ve had five root-canals performed on one tooth, three surgeries – same tooth, and if you paid $2,000 to a dentist (whose office overlooks the Central Park pond), so that he could drill hole through your gums in error, you definitely hate dentists. And you love this art.
One of the strips shows a man with gleaming teeth talking to his dentist. He is saying, “Thank you for the new implants. Can I pay you next year?” The dentist is smiling back at him, but there is a bubble above her head that shows what she is really thinking – of strangling him.
Another shows a man who has had his tooth extracted praying to the tooth fairy. He is on his knees saying, “Please tooth fairy, I need a billion dollars!”
This strip strikes a chord with you. It shows a dentist with a cylinder of nitrous oxide saying, “First we knock you’re a** out, then we drill.” This reminds you of your dentist promising you as much gas as you needed, and you thinking what a great guy he was…and now you’re stuck with a hole in your gums.
You hate dentists so much and love this artwork so much that if it didn’t cost this much, you would buy it right away. But someone would buy it. Someone like you, who hates dentists. Hates them so much that he would pay $9,000 to hang this in his living room as an insult to dentists everywhere.
$ 9,000. That’s how much your first four root-canals cost you.
“Fazzino makes a lot of tooth art,” says Ann Lynch, the gallery manager. You ask her why he is interested in tooth art; you want to know the story behind that. She says it’s because a lot of his art is hung in dentists’ offices.
