LandEscape Art Review // Special Issue | Page 2

LandEscape

CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
SUMMARY
C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w
Klaus Grape
Francine Gourguechon
Gail Factor
Ehud Schori
Raúl Moyado
Jing Zhou
Germany
USA
USA
Israel
Mexico
USA / China
Using pure pigment to build up layers of paint on each canvas , Klaus Grape creates highly textured , sculptural mixed media compositions . As he builds up layers in his work , Grape introduces varying pools of interest , pulling the emphasis on the composition from large splashes of color to bumps and mountains of diverse materials . Each piece is packed with bright , saturated colors and substances that shine or slip out from under the paint , reacting in different ways to appear both spontaneous , natural , and , at the same time , carefully constructed . At times , geometric patterns emerge to reveal an unexpected regularity among the tumult of color and structure . Each work becomes a relief with its own logic and tangible environment . From pebbles to splintered glass and fabric , and even Swarovski crystals , Grape imbues each canvas with its own particular combination of forms . Working from Munich , Klaus Grape creates works that account for a freedom inherent in art . Nature and time mingle in each of the paintings , each unique combination suggesting a different landscape and history in its layers an materials .
Special Issue
As a life-long artist , I have worked in many mediums including painting , drawing , sculpture , photography and mosaic art . Combining my experience in all these mediums I have focused on mosaic art as my primary direction . Mosaics are an ancient and beautiful medium , long used in places of learning and worship . The historic and enduring quality of mosaics challenges and inspires my work while offering vibrant decorativeness and fascinating detail . Taking mosaics from a representational approach to an abstract art form using color , movement and impact is the goal for my recent mosaic work . Recently , I have been working on 3 dimensional human forms , mosaicked in art glass , stones , sea creatures , glass eyes , semi precious stones and brass bullet shells . “ The Tribe ” are human forms chosen for their inherent beauty and shape and their intriguing presence .
For Gail Factor , painting is a means to access serenity , a calm soul . Artists throughout history have created bodies of work in an effort to solve their personal aesthetic dilemma . Laid at the feet of Factor ’ s quandary is a life ’ s work . The unrelenting impulse to create something of beauty and personal truth has resulted in five decades of focused and committed painting ; a daily offering of sorts , whereby the act itself generates luminosity and eradicates darkness .
Harmonizing rich color , tone and texture , Factor strives for pure abstraction , but as images emerge , the past often makes an unwitting appearance . Memories surface and integrate into the visual field . With only slight reference to the tangible world , she takes the viewer along on a journey through an altered reality , the unknown . She is after a synthesis of it all . Reaching for an archetype of her life experience , in paint .
Art is to the eye , as music is to the ear .
I choose the materials I use according to the work I am going to make . If it is a traditional sculpture like a head of a boy , than the material is going to be bronze . I do all the work involved in the process , from the clay model to the patina on the finished sculpture . If it is an installation in the desert , then most of the materials are exist on site and I have to add the materials which serve the idea of the artwork . Some years ago I found a dry riverbed with very deep cracks . I widened three cracks , picked two tiny flowers and put them in two of them and poured some water into the third . A face of a man appeared on the ground . I took a picture and sent it to an exhibition " The Paradox of Water ".
Raúl Moyado , using Google Street View technology , created a series of virtual paintings that manage to expand the two-dimensional boundaries of traditional pictorial medium . Google Maps through its social networks mentions his artworks , describing it as a hack that allows you to see unknown artistic realms . That experiment evolved into the Mobile Cyclorama project . A virtual reality painting series that refers back to a precursor pictorial medium of immersion technologies : panoramic painting . Opening this paintings with a smartphone and using a virtual reality headset , it virtually takes you inside of the painted landscape to live the experience of being inside of a cycloramic painting . This painted landscape becomes the means for internal search which explores the artist ’ s memory and subjectivity . Such pictorial space can only be discovered with the movement and action of the viewer around the virtual space .
As an international artist and designer , I am fascinated by the splendid cultures and great architectural achievements . After years of world travel , this project contains fifteen abstract photographs captured on four continents . This growing body of work reveals the exquisite beauty of architectural design in natural light , the geometric transformation of space , and the magnificent cultural identities . As a Chinese woman artist living in the Western world , I am aware of art , literature , philosophy , and mythology from both cultures . My understanding of Chinese philosophies has shaped my thinking and conduct . The prudent and contrary-minded Taoist beliefs , the attachedtothe-earth reality of Confucianism , and the sudden enlightenment and intuitive insights of Zen are the foundation of my life . On the other hand , Western culture has inspired me and opened new ways of thinking . Developing a personal visual language that expresses universal ideas , I create artworks for the stories and aesthetics of each image , and for making visible those concepts which reflect my personal experiences .