Milostka Center for Exhibitions
Head and Sentiment: Dreams of an Artist
Explore the stories of society, the act of living, perception of the self, notions of company, and more in 125+ artworks. How can you tell the story of time and people? How do you want to be remembered? View paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures.
Featured Artists:
Cecil Norris, Lorenzo Barajas, Annaleah Gregoire, Traci Findley, David Mason, Carl Mitchell II, Oscar Garcia, Christopher MacNeil, Jibril Emmanuel, Barboza CS, Lilwaynedyer, Austen Brantley, Bria Erby, Patricia Basiliades, John Boudreau, IAM, NA Art, Ife, Jean Mirre, Laya Joseph, Chongyuan Du, Ayla Gregoire, Sonika Gupta, Xiao daCunha
Director of Curatorial Affairs: Sidney Tanaka
VIRTUAL 3-D EXHIBITION
Click the video below to explore the 360-degree view gallery room with 125+ artworks by artists from around the world!
ARTISTS
For a full interview, click on their name
Instagram: @garlicpowda
The pieces in this selection explore 'aloneness' and 'togetherness' as idealized states, rather than exclusive concepts. "slow, warm, ticking apart" offers a vision of finding contentedness in one's own company. In my self-portrait, I work with pinkish tones to create a romantic image of the self. "evening in hoboken" displays a scene of comfortability in a domestic setting. "i hate to see the evening sun go down" claims playfulness as an emotion shared with others, made equivalent to the feeling of wonder in isolation, thought of as a 'playfulness' with one's surroundings. Lastly, "lake spirits" showcases a tender moment of togetherness far removed from human civilization.
Instagram: @lilwaynedyer
Opposedtonothing.com
My works are products from intense emotion/thought in the midst of my recovery process. Aimed towards gaining insight and acceptance. To create beauty from pain. To urge others to hope, connect, and persist. Indirectly. Living with gratitude.
Instagram: @sonikart13
Sonika focuses on oil and acrylic paintings to explore a range of expression that forms her journey to wellness. Her mode of communicating with the viewer involves form, color, movement, and emotion. Sonika’s inspirations include places she has visited, people she has seen or interacted with, and renowned works she has studied. She finds that the creative process of art and the act of
viewing it have healing power for both the creator and the viewer. Through
experimentation and exploration, Sonika believes her artistic journey will be rewarding in terms of self-discovery. She hopes you’ll join her on this journey and enjoy her work!
I present paintings of wild animals and domestic animals, focused on a sense of life. One painting is about the Salta jaguar, from the northwestern area of our country, which is an endangered species. It is perched on a fallen log, with a serene gaze. An adult giraffe with its calf, expressing some kind of feeling between them. A puppy dog learning to climb the stairs, defying every obstacle present, for him. The deep gaze of an owl, allowing us to imagine intimidating or challenging circumstances. And finally, I present a child next to a baby elephant, looking out of a window, a work that invites the viewer to think, what would the characters be admiring?
Instagram: @annaleah.moon.studios
There is a powerful pull toward the strange. I find beauty in looking at the remnants of transformation – what is present yet invisible, what rots and how it transitions over time, and what evokes a visceral reaction. I seek to destabilize traditional beauty standards by exposing vulnerable and sometimes disturbing aspects of my body. By peeling back layers of flesh and bone, I am able to investigate the dualities of the interior and exterior worlds as well as the duelling concepts of grotesque and beautiful. My work sits between the real and fantastic in order to highlight moments where beauty and the grotesque merge. By confronting these dualities, I’m able to reconstruct my own idea of what beauty is. By exposing spots of trauma layer by layer, my work illuminates the uncomfortable and honest pain of healing.
Instagram: @artworkbytracifindley
My “Around the World” collection began last year when the shutdown with Covid began. I decided to create portraits of children from around the world in prayer. For me, it was my way of coping with the pandemic. I would anxiously watch the media for news updates. It was scary to see how little was known then about this new threat called Covid. Each portrait was inspired by photographs I would see on social media outlets. These photos of children began appearing to me randomly, seeing them over and over. I took this as a sign, so I began to paint. I painted them in different sizes. I wanted to create the effect of a collage; All being in one group. When put together collectively, the message I intended, is there. No matter race, religion, or creed, the world had once
again been affected by a pandemic. We were all in this together. The range of emotions on these children’s faces are all the feelings I have experienced in the last year. Fear, anxiety, courage, and even the happy smiles, I have felt. I think we can all say we appreciate certain things on a higher level than before.
Instagram: @masondoesart
The pieces here are an example of the flare and impact that I incorporate with color, light, and drama for unique piece of artwork. To try and create something that is tangible, a piece of a bigger story. Quality driven, a sense of craftsmanship and invested time is very important.
Instagram: @carlmitchellart
Tiktok: @carl2art
I find painting, oils more specifically, a way of storytelling and perspective. Taking the viewer to another world, to see another side. Currently I am focusing on revamping the Renaissance of the old masters to introduce the beauty that was taken from the world so long ago. My goal as an artist is to give a voice to the ever silenced minority.
Instagram: @jibsart_
I create so that a look into my art can answer questions for yourself about yourself. I believe we all share similar experiences and this reality of humanness, where our biggest question is who am I? What makes you, you, is your reality and your experiences and my art tells a story for many, including myself. My art can become many peoples stories.
Instagram: @artbyoscargarcia
My current work explores the isolation we find ourselves in during a pandemic. I find we are now living very much in our heads on a daily basis. Using the archetype of these androgynous heads speaks of the distractions we create during extreme events we are exposed to in a media driven world.again been affected by a pandemic. We were all in this together. The range of emotions on these children’s faces are all the feelings I have experienced in the last year. Fear, anxiety, courage, and even the happy smiles, I have felt. I think we can all say we appreciate certain things on a higher level than before.
Instagram: @cmc.international
www.artsincolorcuratorial.com/new-page-18
The pieces I have submitted are some of my personal favorites I have produced. They are particularly salient for both personal reasons as well as due to the state of the world and the effects the pandemic is having on individuals. We have all come closer to our inner complexities and inner lives during these unprecedented times. Through art, it is possible to imagine that while we may be challenged by our current environment, our lives are going on in mysterious and fascinating ways within us, beyond what we can currently comprehend. I enjoy the prospect of sharing my art at this time with Culturally as I believe we are entering an exciting time of art, culture and renewed internal and external life.
Instagram @austenbrantley
Facebook @austenbrantleysculpture
www.austenbrantleysculpture.com
My work is an examination of the emotional content of the black body and the harmony and balance of the structural form of clay. The ceramic medium for me can easily be initiated as a sculptural language in using this perspective. A desire of mine is to approach creation with a dark, seemingly haunting and a conflicted sense of rawness and detail. A favorite metaphor I’ve found is that clay is much like people as both are fragile while also durable, moldable, require support in their structure, and have to be treated with an intense care and thoughtfulness throughout their development. This becomes the reason I use the human form to convey narratives in clay.
Instagram: @_briaerby
I don't rely on themes while I'm creating. However, I do tend to notice them once I'm finished with a piece. From colors to patterns to subjects, my goal is to make black people visible. I'm inspired by the people I meet every day. I make sure to constantly look at art (social media, galleries, museums) for motivation to keep going. I'm into colors and fashion so I try to incorporate that while also depicting an individuals mannerisms. The integral part of my work is black portraiture. No matter the particular subject--a black person will be visible.
Instagram: @lillithdu
I’m creating work that uses interactions between simplified forms of objects and birds to explain the experience of living with mental illness. The objects are rational, and often reference childhood and joy, while the birds intimate irrationality,
interacting with each other in a blend of reality and imagination.
Instagram: @johnboudreauartist
I am an artist and art instructor at a mental health wellness center in Los Angeles. I have a B.F.A. in painting from Pratt Institute in New York. My inspirations include the late artists Chu The-Chun, Hilma af Klint and Roberto Matta. Currently I am working on a metal leaf series and the other series I am working on includes intuitive paintings both which have symbolic components. My favorite medium is working with acrylics and I find inspiration from nature. Previous series of art include fumage. My artwork has been in exhibits to raise awareness for global issues and charities. One of my artistic goals is to inspire others.
Instagram: @Lilwicked01_1014,
@iam_artista (where i sell my art work)
Facebook: www.facebook.com/irisa.morales.79
This series is dedicated to my late father Richard Irizarry Jr. I was listening to Jose Jose “El Triste” one of my father’s favorite artists. My father passed away August 2019 from a heart attack due to his drug addiction. My father was a multifaceted artist. He was a painter, sculptor, carpenter, blacksmith and chef. The different colors on my body represents who he was and who I am because of him. HE WAS ART. I AM ART. Our bodies are our canvases, where we tell our stories. The mirror are the moments he looked himself in the mirror searching for himself. The artist, the magician, the father, husband, son, man...soul. The paint tubes represent the tools provided to him to express himself, as I do when words fails me. Even through his shadows he always reached for his colors the best way he could.
Instagram: @layajosephart
Shop:www.madebyher.com/pages/laya-joseph-art
For prints and other products:www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/laya-joseph
The paintings in this exhibition are part of my latest collection of small works on paper called
Imagined Landscapes. The desire for untouched, rugged landscapes, not polluted by human
activities showing the seasonal changes and moody atmosphere was the influence behind these
paintings. The everchanging skies and colors are like the continuous change and growth we go
through in our lives. I have used acrylics and oil pastels as my medium and the use of palette
knife to create broad loose strokes helped to bring out the raw, energetic movement and the
dramatic mood in each of these pieces. Landscapes for me has been an extension of my
thoughts and understanding of life.
Instagram: @needsartsupplies
www.needsartsupplies.threadless.com
I love the feeling of being in between the confusing and the understood. Definitely not off-putting, but just a bit odd. The feeling of falling into the everyday rabbit holes of life. This is the consistent point, be the subject matter emotionally pleasant or painful, that I attempt to achieve in my work. I use acrylic paint and I like to experiment with building my own custom canvas and exploring how the shape shifts the interpretation slider between normal and strange. I love using vibrant colors and bold, yet intricate line work influenced by West-African patterns. I put a conscious emphasis on ProBlack beauty, pride, and representation throughout my pieces. In all honesty, there is a level of satisfaction in adding to the expression and representation of Blackness in art. I paint because the act of dipping the brush into the paint and laying it onto the canvas is one that I am in control of, and the finished piece is always so fascinating.
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www.linkedin.com/in/jean-mirre-8513499b/
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1166636218
www.singulart.com/my-singulart/account
www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/168380
These pieces are all very new, I just painted them.Oil on paper, either 65 x 50 cm or 30 x 21 cm .They are fairly small but I aim to paint large canvases soon.
Instagram: @maeflwur
There are times in life when we feel trapped. Eventually when you discover your allowed limitations, suddenly the walls will feel as though they’re caving in even when they are standing still. When the day comes that the reality of your enclosure wraps around your mind, there will be no alternative other than escape, it will drive you mad but how liberating that feels. Open, barren nothingness blanketing the chaos. This is the headspace I was in when creating these pieces. Upon Discovery of your confinement, how betrayed that must feel.
Instagram: @organicayla
Website:www.organicayla.wixsite.com/0000
Twitter: www.twitter.com/organicayla
Tumblr: www.organicayla.tumblr.com/
Vimeo: www.vimeo.com/organicayla
YouTube:www.www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmFySvocS1axsZ5i_0pxcw?view_as=subscriber
It is possible to observe humanity in most anything, from trash to trees. We have shaped the world around us in many ways. I find the discrepancies from one person, place, or thing to the next are intricate and intriguing. We all romanticize memories from time to time; the places we have gone, the people we’ve encountered, and even just specific times in our lives. I find myself becoming nostalgic for even the painful pieces of my life. It’s all character-building, after all, and my mom would always tell me life was better with challenges. Collecting, preserving, and remembering the marks of these moments is integral in my art.
Instagram: @cj_norrisart
Norris’s work is an introspective look into the life of the artist. He aims to raise questions about race, gender, religion, and the politics of representation by portraying contemporary African American men and women using symbolic and figurative paintings. Here Norris draws on his memory, life events, and stories to examine the cultural narrative of the representation of African American men and women. Norris, the artist, has washed his large-scale and bold paintings with a depth of color with the intentionality and creativity of obscuring and fragmenting the figures into space, boldly bringing forth visions that refuse to be erased. The final image retains a combative but peaceful visual connection, yet capturing an allusion to a moment in time. There are traces of specific paintings of The Old Masters, replaced with contemporary images of black subjects, drawing attention to the absence of African Americans from historical and cultural narratives.
Instagram: @xiaochineseart
Twitter: @xiaochineseart
My artwork explores human’s most natural essences —mankind’s relationship with the world, the universe, each other, and ourselves; our diverse emotions; the difficulties we face and overcome; the growth we gain after suffering. She often refers to Buddhist symbols, Asian mythologies, and other cultural heritages. My style is a combination of traditional Chinese ink illustration and Western master’s painting styles, yet my work all conveys a consistent subject: to acknowledge the many beings and happenings in life, yet letting go at the same time so each can focus on his or her own goal in life. It is my goal to use my artistic skills to share the lessons I’ve learned from my culture and my journey of life with others. To explain the unexplainable, and to touch the untouchable subjects so there could be a little more light, joy, clarity, and peace in my audience’s world.