Jim Zwadlo

I paint the urban pedestrian from the aerial point of view.

As a discipline, painting manifests the aura of tradition, and presents a space for its renewal. I see paintings as a part of reality, as real things in themselves, and as having a demonstrable connection with other real things. My paintings can be analyzed in purely formal terms, as abstractions about color, line, form, and space. But I add a representational subject, the urban pedestrian, to make a more complex and engaging painting, to connect the reality of the painting directly with the reality of the world.

I use photographs as a way to reconstruct images from the real world and transfer them to the real painting. For me, photography functions as a catalyst, like a catalyst in a chemical reaction: photographs are instrumental in the process of painting, but they do not appear in the completed painting.

I refer to Impressionist cityscapes, Bauhaus photography, New York School abstraction, and Minimalism as some important influences

For me, the urban pedestrian symbolizes a complex social milieu; the urban crowd, which I present as literally isolated on the canvas. I paint each figure as a detailed individual portrait, familiar yet anonymous. I construct the crowd from thousands of photographs, carefully selected and arranged, randomly to suggest patterns, and in patterns that suggest randomness.

Imagery from the aerial point of view is instantly recognizable even though we rarely directly experience it. In contrast with traditional perspective, with its closer-is-bigger implied hierarchy, from above each figure is equal in scale and in space, as in a democratic vision, but with the added ambiguity between the arrogance of “looking down” versus “looking at.” The aerial view makes it possible to imply the entire infrastructure of the city: cars, buildings, streets, etc., without actually depicting any of those things.

The aerial view compresses space. The spatial flattening of the images intensifies the surface of the painting, and enhances the colors in a unique way. The compressed space is a map, a kind of living map, which shows a way of seeing, and a way of being in the world.

Artist Biography

I grew up on a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin helping my family feed about 50 cows. I started my undergraduate degree at UW - Madison, WI, and finished at SUNY-Potsdam, in upstate New York, with a BFA in Fine Arts. I lived in New York City and its environs for about 20 years, and now live on the South Side of Milwaukee.






Education:

1967 – 1970 University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

1979 – 1980 SUNY-Potsdam, NY BFA-Fine Arts 1980

1995 – 1996 Long Island University, NY MLS 1996



Awards and Grants:

2009 Poster contest winner for Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Madison, WI.

2010 Real People 2010 Juried show in Woodstock IL. 2nd prize

2010 Mary L Nohl Suitcase Export Fund grant, $300.

2010 Selected for inclusion in the Wisconsin Arts Board % for Art program, with paintings placed at UW-Stevens Point, and UW-Platteville.

2010 Winter Juried Exhibition – Anderson Arts Center, Kenosha – 2nd prize

Jennifer Li

Artist Jennifer Li grew up in Mill Valley, California. She lived, studied, and painted in New York City for nearly twenty years before moving to the woods of northwest Montana in 1998. She is married to the artist Nicholas Oberling.

Jennifer Li's unusually meticulous oil painting technique is grounded in the varnish mediums of the Dutch Golden Age. The New York Times has described her work as "straightforwardly beautiful" with "an element of the weird". Her work has been noted for its color and luminosity, its imaginative and evocative content, and for the high quality of her technique.

Jennifer Li studied painting for twelve years at the Art Students League of New York under distinguished realist painters Harvey Dinnerstein and Frank Mason. She has been painting professionally since 1990. Jennifer Li is currently represented by the Chrysalis Gallery of Southampton, New York; the G.C. Lucas Gallery of Indianapolis, Indiana; the Dana Gallery of Missoula, Montana; the Winslow Gallery of Cambridge, Vermont; and the Sylvan Gallery of Clinton, Connecticut.

Nicholas Oberling

Nicholas Oberling's work has been exhibited at the C. M. Russell Museum and is in the permanent collection of the Hockaday Museum of Art. He is a founding member of the Montana Painters Alliance. He has been a selected Quick Draw artist and participant at the C. M. Russell Museum’s Auction of Western Art and the Montana Land Reliance and Treasure State Art Auctions. He has been Artist in Residence at Glacier National Park and the Helena National Forest. He conceived and organized the Big Hole River in Paint fundraiser, which has had regional and national exposure. He has been a Top 100 finalist at the Art for the Parks competition. He has been a participant in the C. M. Russell Museum’s auction of miniatures. His work was included in the American Miniatures show at Tucson’s Settlers West Gallery. He is represented by galleries in Southampton; New Jersey; Whitefish; Missoula; Indianapolis; and Connecticut. His work has been featured in shows at the Hockaday Museum of Art in Kalispell, CM Russell Museum, and at the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls and the Holter Museum in Helena. He has participated in Masters in Montana; invitational auctions on behalf the Hockaday Museum of Art; the Yellowstone Art Museum; and the Nature Conservancy of Montana. He was recipient of the Montana Arts Council’s Visual Arts Fellowship Grant, 2000. His work has been featured in Western Art Collector Magazine and a painting of his was selected for the April 12th cover of Dan’s Papers. Nicholas Oberling was educated at Cornell University and studied painting under the atelier system at The Art Students League of New York for a decade. His biography is included in Who’s Who in America.

Sérgio Ferro

Sérgio Ferro Pereira (Curitiba, 25 de julho de 1938) é um pintor, desenhista, arquiteto e professor brasileiro radicado na França há mais de 30 anos.

Ferro se formou em arquitetura e urbanismo em 1962 na Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo (FAUUSP), tendo sido logo depois convidado pelo professor João Batista Vilanova Artigas a integrar o quadro docente da instituição, como assistente de ensino na cadeira de História da Arte. A partir daquele ano até 1970 foi também professor de composição plástica, história da arte e estética em várias escolas e faculdades de arte e arquitetura em Santos, São Paulo e Brasília. Durante este período, juntamente de Rodrigo Lefèvre e Flávio Império, constituiu o grupo denominado Arquitetura Nova, o qual foi responsável pela elaboração de uma crítica, segundo a perspectiva do marxismo, à produção arquitetônica instituída no Brasil de uma forma geral e estabelecendo-se especificamente como um contraponto teórico à obra e a escola do antigo mentor do grupo, o professor Vilanova Artigas.

Regime Militar

Durante o regime militar, Sérgio Ferro, assim como seus companheiros da Arquitetura Nova, estabeleceu relações com o Partido Comunista do Brasil, que defendia a luta armada e a guerrilha contra o regime ditatorial, como caminhos para a efetivação de uma revolução socialista no país. Juntou-se à Aliança Libertadora Nacional, de Carlos Marighella.

Em 20 de março de 1968, juntamente com Rodrigo Lefèvre e o economista Diógenes José Carvalho Oliveira , colocou uma bomba-relógio no estacionamento situado no sub-solo do Conjunto Nacional, em São Paulo, visando atingir a biblioteca do USIS (antigo United States Information Service, atual U.S. Information Agency) e o consulado dos Estados Unidos, no térreo do edifício.
[editar] Exílio na França

Devido à sua militância política e a perseguição do regime militar Ferro foi afastado da Universidade de São Paulo e exilou-se na França, estabelecendo-se em Grenoble. Impossibilitado de exercer a profissão de arquiteto naquele país, dedicou-se à atividade artística e ao magistério, em cursos de artes e arquitetura. Entre 1972 e 1989 lecionou na Universidade de Grenoble, na França. Nesse período, realizou afrescos na Villeneuve (1975) na École Buttes (1981) e na École Joseph Vallier (1983). Sua pintura se caracteriza por imagens inacabadas, nítidas citações a Michelangelo e a Leonardo, misturadas a esboços, colagens, textos manuscritos.

Sergio Ferro est né le 25 juillet 1938, à Curitiba (Brésil). Après un diplôme d’architecte, obtenu à la Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo de Sào Paulo, il poursuit des spécialisations en muséologie et en sémiologie.De 1962 à 1970, il exerce en tant que professeur d’Histoire de l’Art

et d’Esthétique dans diverses universités, puis devient professeur à l’Ecole d’Architecture de Grenoble jusqu’en 1997. Sergio Ferro est l’auteur d’articles parus dans des revues brésiliennes ou françaises, ainsi que d’ouvrages sur le Dessin (1976), l’Architecture (1979), Michel Ange (1981), etc.

De nombreuses expositions personnelles ponctuent sa pratique depuis 1963, en France, au Brésil, en Grèce et en Belgique. Sergio Ferro est représenté dans de nombreuses collections privées et publiques