Abstract Art Exhibition

The Artist Space Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the second Abstract online Art Exhibition. Along with the selected artists, the jury selected award winners in the following art categories: painting, photography, and sculpture. The show displayed a variety of artistic styles and mediums:oil on canvas, acrylic, watercolor, clay, digital painting, photography, bronze. Out of all submissions received 116 artworks were selected to be included in the exhibition.

Best of Show

Steph Blondet

Short Biography and Statement

stephblondet.com

Steph Blondet is a Puerto Rican visual artist based in Tampa, FL. Blondet creates textured and sculptural paintings as a form of visual journaling, through which she processes memories and experiences from childhood into adulthood. In her work, Blondet explores personal themes of self-growth and healing. She creates intuitively and communicates her story through color, form, and composition. Each material and placement has its own purpose and meaning. While the rough, irregular texture of each painting represents the unpredictable nature of life, the dimensional curves convey the highs and lows we collectively experience. She uses contrasting colors and shapes to reflect the duality of the human experience, and to convey that through darkness there will always be light. While she documents moments that are unique to her journey, the message she sends is universal– we are inherently connected through our experiences.

Steph Blondet - FINDING YOURSELF - textured clay on wood panel

Painting Prize

Gerhard Lämmlin

Short Biography and Statement

gerhard-laemmlin.de

How my pictures are created: The process of creating my pictures is not a feel-good event with a wellness character. Rather, it is characterized by an ongoing conflict between head-controlled, planned actions and gut-feeling-dominated spontaneous actions. The striving for harmony is countered by the omnipresent desire for tension-generating irritation. Colors and shapes are set, areas of tension are created and intuitively supported by suggested lines. I am fascinated by changing colors, letting them merge into one another, giving them structure by adding other elements, and “playing” with them and their effect. This permanent conflict only ends when your head and gut agree with the product. My artistic work is always a search that requires experimentation as well as the slow development of forms of expression. Usually in many layers and using different materials such as acrylic paint, shellac, sand, marble dust, bitumen and much more. In this way, works are created or pictures “happen” which, in addition to distinctive color symbolism, usually have an unmistakable life of their own. The starting point for the images are often moods, encounters or impressions that arise in social gatherings, in nature or mainly during my numerous and diverse “backpacking trips”, predominantly through South and Central America. My pictures are therefore forms of expression of my thoughts, although they leave the viewer enough freedom for their own interpretations and spontaneous impressions. What I want and what I don't want with my pictures: - I don't want to depict reality with my pictures. - I don't want (and can't) change the world with my pictures. - My goal is to generate “aesthetic added value” for the viewer and especially for the owner of my pictures and to offer them the opportunity to build their own “relationship” with the pictures

Laemmlin Gerhard - THE RED THAT BURNS - mixed media

Sculpture Prize

John Vinklarek

Short Biography and Statement

john.vinklarek@angelo.edu

John Vinklarek Professor of Art: Angelo State University M.F.A. University of Oregon B.F.A. Texas Tech University A native of West Texas, John Vinklarek joined the Angelo State University faculty in 1977. Along with the challenges of teaching a wide variety of courses, Vinklarek has continued his professional growth as a practicing artist. Vinklarek has exhibited in more than 200 national and international juried exhibitions and has been awarded many prizes. Also, John has shown in many one man shows. Some examples of Mr. Vinklarek's work include a 1000 foot mural for GTE in 1982, a monumental bronze for the San Angelo Fire Department erected in 1986, and an extended series of drawings with a bronze plaque for the Concho Valley Council of Governments completed in 1996. Vinklarek regularly contributes to the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art as a consultant as well as participating in the museum's Art Faculty shows. Artist Statement I am interested in a variation on the idea of textureology in my work. (a term coined by Dubuffet), I use the rough textures to give shapes brutal abruptness just as the rough is contrasted with the smooth. The resulting effect revealing something like a destruction that would be associated with the tradition of “Romantic ruin”. The corrosion and decay I aim to depict rises from my generally pessimistic mood. Adorno’s statement: “After Auschwitz, poetry is absurd” points to some aspect of our time. The absurdity continues.

John Vinklarek - PHI - cast bronze

Photography Prize

Jean Claude Bise

Short Biography and Statement

jcbise.tumblr.com

Self-taught photographer, I learned in the labs of my friends, painters, decorators and photographers during the artistic movements of the 60s and 70s. Powered by these surrounding energies, I chose photography to express my ideas. In my photographic approach I try to bring subjects of reflection, by asking myself questions about us and the evolution of our society. In my work, two distinct axes are expressed - the perception of everyday life and more down to earth compositions such as perspective, line, color and framing are the elements necessary for the construction of the image. . series – cosmos - diptych As in a dream I project myself into the cosmos in search of intergalactic spaces. Inhabited by stars, natural celestial bodies such as (sun, moon, planet, comet, star, galaxy, etc.) crossed by various objects from all sources drifting in the cosmos (identified or unknown) as well as in their interstellar spaces, spatio -temporal. For this presentation I have chosen the round, the circle, the sphere, the eclipse, the ellipse, to illustrate my point.

Jean Claude Bise - COSMOS 25 - digital

Winners