DRAGOS BADITA
www.dragosbadita.com
dragos@dragosbadita.com

Date of birth:21.04.1987
Studies:- High School of Music and Fine Arts �Constantin Brailoiu� Tg-Jiu,
-now student of University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca,Romania

Professional experience:
- First Prize at the National Art Contest organized in 1999 by Canson
-group exhibitions at the Art Museum,Galeria Fondului Plastic,Casa de Cultura in Tg-Jiu,Romania
-participations at the National Olimpiads of Visual Arts in Arad,Iasi and Timisoara
-participation at the ‘Europe is my country’ project in Domaine de la Frayse,Saint-Hillaire,Franta,with the organisation “Youth without Frontiers”
-cultural exchange at Habay-La-Neuve,with works exhibited at Maison de la Culture d’Arlon,Belgia ,with the project Medi@rt
-Petrosani art summer camp
-”Europa Artium” group exhibition,Cluj-Napoca,Romania
-”Maniphesto-Cluj school of painting”,group exhibition at �Preview� gallery,in Cluj-Napoca,Romania
-Erasmus Mobility at Athens School of Fine Arts,Athens,Greece
-”Artower Athina 2008″ group exhibition,Artower Hall,Athens,Greece
-”Passport” group exhibition at ASFA exhibition space,Athens,Greece

Website: www.dragosbadita.com
Contact email: dragos@dragosbadita.com

Mieke van Ingen (born 1962, Delft, the Netherlands) studied painting and graphic art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, the Netherlands. She lives and works in the Netherlands and in the South of France as a painter and a printmaker with a special interest in the cross over between the two disciplines.
Using motifs extracted from plants, water and clouds, Van Ingen incorporates these forms in her drawings, paintings and graphics with a painterly fluidity.
There is a division of horizontal and vertical lines; the same division which was highly emphasized by the members of The Style movement (De Stijl). For the members of this movement the belief in this division, originates in western theosophy; the vertical lines are the active element and the horizontal lines the passive elements; as both are the visual equivalents for the basic facts of life.
Van Ingen creates the contrast Piet Mondriaan, the movement’s leading figure, called for; fields of color created by horizontal and vertical volumes on the one hand and a clear poetic painting on the other hand. The use of water and earth colors, as much as the sensation that the works engage in construction and destruction -and create something new out of the void- all these are associated with obvious existorial issues.
It seem’s that Van Ingen’s work brings together both ends, modern and tradition, abstract and figurative, graphical and painterly. They form a continious effort to transcend knowledge and the techniques to the one’s hand to the traces of man’s search for truth and beauty on the other.

Website: Artiste contemporain, Mieke VAN INGEN

�Oversized� Women

The weather and seasons have a clear influence on the senses of humour of most people. Though the weather in the Netherlands is not always cause for happiness, the paintings of Suzan Wolters most certainly are.
When looking at the paintings of Suzan Wolters, the sky breaks open as laughing, sizable women in an atmosphere of sun, sea and beach give short shrift to any feeling of depression.
In combination with her good-humoured, chubby ladies, Suzan plays with the clich� that happy people and a vacation atmosphere give a positive feeling and joy in life.

Dutch citizen Suzan (1958) comes honestly by her creative talent. Her mother Niesje, as a young girl, was educated at a school for graphic design and later at the Art Academy. Her father, Max, also followed an education in graphics.
You could say it had been genetically determined. Suzan also started at a young age in modelling and painting. Suzan won various prizes with her modelling work at trade fairs in New York; her sculptures are popular in Japan, Australia, Russia, America and Europe.
Suzan’s work is filled with humour, joy and happiness and is very open as a result of that. For both her sculptures and her paintings Suzan consciously shows positive subjects, which has everything to do with Suzan�s outlook on life. Her preference for painting sizable figures is stylistically motivated and obviously a positive statement of their splendour. Suzan�s paintings celebrate the natural beauty and diversity of sizes and shapes. The chubby ladies are often accompanied by a cute looking dog.
�Adding a little dog is only natural; the dog brings emotion and movement into the painting. It is essential to me that a piece of art is a source of positive energy.
If someone looks at a painting and experiences the same sense of happiness that I experienced when painting it, then I have achieved my goal!�
Suzan paints with acrylic paint on canvas and is a fulltime artist and have been for the past 25 years.

A number of paintings are also offered in high-quality �Gicl�e Fine Art�.
This manner of reproduction makes it possible to hang a piece of art on your wall at an affordable price. It also serves as an alternative if the original piece of art has already been sold but you still want to have a reproduction. The reproduction is of museum quality and is printed on canvas in limited editions, assuring exclusivity.
Interested parties can contact Suzan Wolters.
E-mail: info@suzanwolters.com
Internet: www.suzanwolters.com
Tel: (0031) 578 628767

Website: Suzan Wolters
Contact email: info@suzanwolters.com

Based all over the world (Bulgaria, Sao Paulo, Miami), it is no surprise that Edgar Gomez should work in mixed media and collage, creating works made up of a variety of elements, and styles. At times his message is urban, at others very pop, but always vibrant and expressive. Evident in Gomez�s work is a sense of humour and an affinity for a retro esthetic (not to mention leanings towards the burlesque), all of which combine in some very contemporary offerings.
ArtMoco(Canada)

1969 born in Sofia, Bulgaria
Lives and works in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Solo Exhibitions

2006″Nothing is easy”-Posters&Flyers Show-Comics Lounge Bar,Varna,Bulgaria
2005 “Mermaids” - Cafe des Arts(Galerie & Restaurant) - Praslin,Seyshelles
2004 “Who the Giants kill?”-La Plata Gallery -Buenos Aires,Argentina
2004 “Nostalgy Porn” - Prestes Arte,Porto Alegre - RS Brazil
2003 “Utopia” - Staroup Art Lofts- Sao Paulo,Brazil
Halison ART Gallery - Lugansk,Ukraine
2002 “Interval 23″- Hanson gallery - Miami,FL USA
2000 “Out of Target” - ArtCool Gallery - Amsterdam, NL
1999 “Panic/Relax” - Large Format Photographs
Gallery 222 - Breda,NL
ASA Gallery -New York, NY USA
1998 “Blink”-Galleria Silechia-Sarasota,FL USA
1996 “Despair” - Galeria Lopez Perez-Mexico City-Mexico
1994 “Mad Real” - Hose Gallery - Madrid,Spain

Group Exhibitions

2005 Nanyang Academy of Arts - Singapore
2004 Marpan Art Gallery - Valparaiso,Chile
2004 Centro d’Arte Mas Pi - Verges -Girona,Spain
2003 Art LA - Los Angeles,USA
2003 Courtyard Gallery - Dubai,UAE
2002 OMNA Center of Contemporary Art - Crete,Greece
Gruppo KRoma Galeria - Madrid ,Spain
2001 Galerie 13-Wien,Austria
2001 ACP Galerie-Wien,Austria
2000 CAFE NOD - Prague,Czech Republic
1998 Bulgarian Culturge Centre
Gallery Witgenstein - Vienna, AU
1996 Bulgarian Glimpse Show - BCIC, Moscow RU
1995 Appolonia Festival of Arts - Sozopol, BG
1994 5th International Print Biennale - Varna, BG
1993 Triennale of Contemporary Art - Sofia, BG

Bibliography

NAVIGATOR (Bulgaria LifeStyle Mag) - 2005 BG
STAROUP ART LOFT (Brazil)-catalogue
year 2003 Sao Paulo
FACE FOR SALE-(catalogue) London,UK 2003
CAMPUS JURNAL Dubai (UAE) -magazine
year 2003 - by Myrna Ayad
ARTnews-art mag march 2002
STYLE (Germany)-fashion mag 2002
NEW GRAFFITI (Holand) - independent wallpaper
issue 3, year 2001 - interview
THE REALITY (Holand) - srtreet magazine
issue 12, year 2001 - interview
THE CITY ART (Bulgaria) - art magazine
issue 53, year 2000 - interview
EGOIST (Bulgaria) - lifestyle magazine
issue 28, year 1999 - interview
T WIST (Hungary) - art and fashion magazine
issue 11, year 1998 - interview

Website: The Dazed Art of Edgar Gomez
Contact email: contact@gomezvisual.com

Lewie is a working class youngster from London England.

These drawings are part of his Puzzle… Love Money War Death.

The puzzle is a combination of Art, Poetry and Music.

See the website for more information.

Website: Lewie
Contact email: info@lewiemusic.com

Born in 1954 in Switzerland, Willoft is Painter on Glass and Acryl Glass, mainly and Plastician with recycling Materials.
He lead firstly a career in Advertising and since 2004 is focusing exclusively the contemporary artistic Field.

He established his workshop in Uruguay in 2008.

Website: Painting, Sculptures and photography
Contact email: contact@willoft.com

I “came out” pretty late in life as an artist. I have always sketched and painted but due to a demanding life-style could never take it to the next level.
I now have the time and am indulging myself.
I am an aircraft engineer to trade and find my comfort zone is in exactness. I am trying to develop a more casual and romantic flow. I still want to carry on the Scottish themes but am looking at the old masters just now for tips on expression.
My wife, who actually studied art, and I have started a web gallery to display our works. Hopefully this will give us more space in our small house and also help to fund our excursions.

Website: Scottish Art - Castle and Landscape Paintings
Contact email: peter@scotlandinoils.com

Expressionism on a personal level

Website: Rafael Arriaga website

Each work is a theatrical spectacle in which I paradoxically stage nightmarish scenes, disagreeable beauty and theaters of abjection to reveal the intent behind my work. Reoccurring themes throughout my work involve abandonment, life, death, extravagance, and the macabre.

I work in a surrealist state of mind, often described as �pure psychic automatism.� Thus, the objects I use within these images are based on intuition rather than literal symbolism. Most surrealists experimented with the objet trouve, producing unsettling, illogical combinations of objects divorced from their normal settings and functions. While playing with allegory, I want to create curious arrangements on a controlled stage.

Website: Lauren Bockow Photography

Birth Name
Chitra Subramanyam

Mini Biography

Educator and professional artist Chitra Ramanathan’s current series of predominantly large-scale multi-media paintings portray the mental emotion of happiness as a visual entity through intense colors and multiple layers of textures that attract light from various angles, pushing the boundaries of her paintings beyond the confines of a two-dimensional surface. They are inspired by short-lived garden blooms and constantly changing seasons in nature, characteristics that attribute to the ephemeral, fleeting and enticingly beautiful happiness’ “formless form”: a phrase she has coined to describe her concept. The hint of circles almost always present in her works signify the cycle of human life: trying times followed by happy phases in a positive sense, and of life and rebirth influenced by her roots from India.

Her paintings have been described as “tactile works that resonate with a quiet harmony” and “Simply luxurious” by Manhattan Arts, New York. To quote from an excerpt from an interview with the artist, “Chitra’s paintings exemplify her love of nature as well as the subjectivity of each individual’s unique pursuit of happiness. Her painting procedure often entails making mental notes of a scene in nature, including the lighting, colors, and textures. She then uses these impressions in her studio to replicate the subject matter in an abstracted form, using rich physical textures, intense colors, and varied media”.

Organizational Affiliations:

Member, Committee on Cultural Diversity Practices, College Art Association, New York. 2007-2010 (http://www.collegeart.org) (Active member of CAA since 1997 & Member, Services to Artists Committee from 2003-06)

Education:

She was educated at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA: Master of Business Administration Concentration: Arts Administration & Human Resources Art Internship: New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York 1997.

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honors) Major: Painting 1993.

Stella Maris College, Chennai, India: Bachelor of Fine Arts, 1979.

Born in Thiruvananthapuram, India, Chitra Ramanathan is a contemporary Indian American visual artist and educator. She produces predominantly large scale abstract conceptual mixed media paintings, drawings, prints, site-specific installation works, and sculpture that have been exhibited in art galleries in SoHo, Broadway Manhattan, New York, solo exhibition at the ARC Gallery & Educational Foundation at Chicago, and more recently a 2006 solo exhibition at the Indianapolis Artsgarden, Circle Centre.

Several of her colorful mixed media paintings are with art collectors around the United States and in Europe including donation of two large scale paintings on permanent display in the conference hall of the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 1995, a painting sold at the Madam C.J. Walker Theatre Center, Indianapolis towards benefit to the Eightieth Birthday Benefit Gala Dinner-silent and live art auction in 2006 and a piece created for the Indianapolis International Film Festival 2008 based on a favorite Hollywood movie “‘Breaking Away 1979′”.

Commissions include a series of post-card paintings which was a commission for the Florida International University art department, Miami, Florida in 2005 (to coincide with Art Basel Miami 2005) and a series of ten post-card sized paintings for the Indianapolis Museum of Art’s “Gallery of the Machine” in 2006.

Recently completed commission entailed creating a permanent wall mural measuring 13.8 feet wide and 4 feet high, for the front lobby of Crooked Creek Elementary School, Marion County, Indianapolis, this March 2008 site specific public art project made possible through a grant to the school by the Metropolitan School Foundation which is a public school district in Indianapolis.

Earlier site specific public art commissions and installation art projects include two large paintings for the MGM Mirage that are permanently housed inside the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Las Vegas in 2004, and five large-scale multi-media paintings for the Arts Council of Indianapolis at Chase Towers near Monument Circle Indianapolis in 2006, which is an annual project supported by the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission.

Academically, Chitra Ramanathan’s work has attracted invitational visiting artist lectures to educational institutions such as the Kansas State University art department in 2002, and the Royal Academy of Arts/Royal Academy Schools London in 2005 by current Royal Academy Keeper and Head, Professor Maurice Cockrill. Chitra earned her second Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting with Honors in 1993 during which period she also allotted time to study Painting and Art History in Paris, France, with visits to Giverny, France that influenced her later work.

Chitra Ramanathan lives and works in the United States, and travels worldwide for freelance projects.

Trade Mark

Extensive body of paintings depicting happiness as a visual entity through intense colors and complex textures

Her mixed-media paintings on and behind Plexiglas

Trivia

2004 site-specific public art commission for MGM Mirage to create two paintings both measuring 4 feet X 6 feet in dimension and signed by the artist are on display inside the Bellagio Conservatory, Las Vegas. They are based on an earlier 1999 and a 2000 smaller sized pieces by the artist.

Her custom created large mixed media painting, based on the 1979 Hollywood film “Breaking Away”, was donated towards auction for the Indianapolis International Film Festival 2008.

Her mixed media painting, measuring 36 inches by 48 inches, was sold at the Madam C.J. Walker Theatre Center, Indianapolis towards benefit to the Eightieth Birthday Benefit Gala Dinner-Silent and Live Art Auction (2006).

Two of her large-scale paintings are permanently displayed and owned by the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1995).

Her first solo exhibition in the U.S was hosted by the ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation at Chicago in 1994. This major exhibition featured her paintings as well as sculptures and prints (monoprints and lithographs). The Chicago exhibition was followed by shows at different art galleries on Broadway, New York from 1995-1998.

She coined the phrase “formless forms” to describe her visual depiction of happiness, an emotion of the mind, in her extensive body of colorful paintings with myriad textures.

When she was just twelve years old, her watercolor painting was showcased in recognition of her talent at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkatta, India, in addition to being awarded a silver trophy through the Philips India Ltd. “Parichay” Child Art Competition during an award function at the venue.

She was awarded a prize in the form of a camera at the age of ten through a national child art competition by Hindustan Unilever Ltd., India.

Has created drawings and paintings throughout her childhood and adolescent years.

Began drawing and painting from the age of four.

Has received several silver trophies from art competitions throughout her growing years.

Created and presented a singed custom portrait of Balasubramaniam S.P. during his concert at Indianapolis in 2006, on behalf of the Tamil association.

Created portraits and landscapes throughout her childhood.

Was born in Kerala but grew up in Kolkata (then Calcutta) as a child artist, and later Chennai, India.

Calls her images of happiness “formless forms”, while portraying that emotion of the mind as a visual entity.

She received the Liquitex “Excellence in Art” Product Grant ‘Award’ for two consecutive years (1994 and 1995) from Binney and Smith Inc., makers of Crayola crayons.

Has spent a month painting and drawing entire days in Paris, France that inspired her current work. Speaks very little French.

‘Chitra’ is a Hindu name for the female child in India derived from the Sanskrit word for Portrait, Picture, or Painting.

The Indianapolis Artsgarden was the venue of the most recent solo exhibition of her signature paintings.

Is a fan of Mira Nair’s movies.

To date, most of her signature style paintings have got sold to collectors in the state of California.

Has taught courses and workshops in Acrylic painting and Mixed media painting at the Indianapolis Art Center since 2004.

The major influence for her current body of work stemmed from keenly observing the gardens from inside the Claude Monet House during visits to Giverny. Her favorite painting, The Waterlily Pond, 1897.

Happiness is the common thread that runs through her expressive, highly textured abstract paintings awash with bold, vibrant colors.

Her biography is listed in the national directory Who’s Who in America 2008.

Personal Quotes

I feel happiness is like a garden. Seasons change and it’s the same with the mental state of happiness. (Optimistically) good times follow difficult phases in life - it’s a cyclical concept.

I consider happiness to be irresistible, fleeting, and ephemeral. You can never really capture it but instead imagine it in so many colorful ways. I try to put these emotions down each time I set out to create.

Right from the beginning, I think of the visual impact of my finished paintings being exposed to natural versus artificial light and of different times of day, because of the presence of iridescent hues in many a piece. Similarly, textures can “play” with the eye when viewed under different light settings. I have progressively explored methods to capture the best effects of color, light and texture.

Color, light and texture play very important roles in my work, as well as process and minute details in the tradition of Indian Miniatures.

Website: Chitra Ramanathan Biography and Paintings
Contact email: chitraramanathan8@gmail.com