Carlos Barela

Carlos Barela was born in Taos, New Mexico. He is the eldest grandson of one of New Mexico's most famous woodcarvers, Patrocinio Barela. Carlos carries on the tradition of carving bultos and santos from rare, aged cedar wood. The rich colors and curved branches of the cedar are the beginning of beautiful sculptures.

All of Carlos' carvings are created with handtools., Carlos has received numerous awards from the Spanish Colonial Arts Society. In his four years of exhibiting in the Spanish Market, he has been awarded two ribbons, the latest one given for "most innovative design" judged against all art forms in the show. Currently his work is traveling to museums throughout the United States.

Artist Statement

As a woodcarver, I form a partnership with nature. The wood speaks to me through its form, shape and grain. I release what's in the piece of wood. I don't dictate, but rather manipulate its nature to achieve the spirit within.

[http://laplaza.org/~santero/artists_CarlosBio.html]

"Adam and Eve"
wood sculpture

"Michael Archangel Slayan Satan"
Hand carved juniper, 18.5" high

"Saint Francis"

Hand carved juniper, 27" high

Andy Goldsworthy

Incredible serpentine tree roots

Iris Leaves with Rowan Berries

Autumn Cherry Leaves


Andy Goldsworthy is a brilliant British artist who collaborates with nature to make his creations. Besides England and Scotland, his work has been created at the North Pole, in Japan, the Australian Outback, in the U.S. and many others

Goldsworthy regards his creations as transient, or ephemeral. He photographs each piece once right after he makes it. His goal is to understand nature by directly participating in nature as intimately as he can. He generally works with whatever comes to hand: twigs, leaves, stones, snow and ice, reeds and thorns.

"I want to get under the surface. When I work with a leaf, rock, stick, it is not just that material in itself, it is an opening into the processes of life within and around it. When I leave it, these processes continue."

"Movement, change, light, growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I I try to tap through my work. I need the shock of touch, the resistance of place, materials and weather, the earth as my source. Nature is in a state of change and that change is the key to understanding. I want my art to be sensitive and alert to changes in material, season and weather. Each work grows, stays, decays. Process and decay are implicit. Transience in my work reflects what I find in nature."

"The underlying tension of a lot of my art is to try and look through the surface appearance of things. Inevitably, one way of getting beneath the surface is to introduce a hole, a window into what lies below."
http://www.morning-earth.org/artistnaturalists/an_goldsworthy.html

Conrad Freiburg

Conrad Freiburg was born Champaign, IL in1978 but was raised in Quincy, IL along the Mississippi River. Freiburg has a fairly extensive education. In 1995, he attended the Kansas City Art Institute as a part of the studio program there. Freiburg also went to the Glasgow School of Art in 1999 for their Exchange Program, where he was a part of the Sculpture Department. On top of all that, he attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

Conrad Freiburg's clever contraptions require audience participation, but viewers' actions can sometimes lead to destruction. The artist's exquisite handiwork doesn't exist for its own sake — it always serves a set of ideas. For his second exhibition at Linda Warren Gallery, Freiburg reflects on the Declaration of Independence and the fate of our freedoms, with 13 antiquated-looking gadgets translating the document's clauses into sculpture. Meanwhile, an installation featuring small wood forms (representing individuals and the masses) and a hand-cranked "voting machine" gives visitors the choice to raise or lower concrete blocks — thereby demolishing or preserving Freiburg's creations.

(http://flavorpill.com/chicago/events/2008/9/5/conrad-freiburg-a-great-daydream%20 and

http://walnutinkgallery.com/freiburgcv.html)

The Slipping Glimpser, 2006

ash wood, wire, metal and rope kinetic sculptural installation

140 h. x 280 x 672 inches

..than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed, 2008

oak, poplar, concrete, hammer, wire, rope

24" x 14" x 8"

Treehouse 1, 2002

dracina marginata plant, wood, string

6’ h. x 3’ w. x 3 d.

Photos/Information: http://www.lindawarrengallery.com/artists/freiburg/index.shtml

Gilbert and George

Gilbert Proesch was born in San Martin de Tor in Italy, his mother tongue being Ladin rather than Italian. He studied art at the Wolkenstein School of Art and Hallein School of Art in Austria and the Akademie der Kunst, Munich, before moving to England. George Passmore was born in Plymouth in the United Kingdom, to a single mother in a poor household. He studied art at the Dartington College of Arts and the Oxford School of Art, then part of the Oxford College of Technology, which eventually became Oxford Brookes University.

The two first met on 25 September 1967 while studying sculpture at St Martins School of Art, now Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, one of six colleges in the University of the Arts, London. The two claim they came together because George was the only person who could understand Gilbert's rather poorly spoken English. In a 2002 interview with Daily Telegraph they said of their meeting: "it was love at first sight". They have claimed that they married in 2008.

For many years, Gilbert & George have been residents of Fournier Street, Spitalfields, East London. Their entire body of work has been created in, and focused on, London's East End, which they see as a microcosm. According to George, "Nothing happens in the world that doesn't happen in the East End."

Whilst still students Gilbert & George made The Singing Sculpture, which was first performed at Nigel Greenwood Gallery in 1970. For this performance they covered their heads and hands in multi-coloured metalised powders, stood on a table, and sang along and moved to a recording of Flanagan and Allen's song "Underneath the Arches", sometimes for a day at a time. The suits they wore for this became a sort of uniform for them. They rarely appear in public without wearing them. It is also unusual for one of the pair to be seen without the other. The pair regard themselves as "living sculptures". They refuse to disassociate their art from their everyday lives, insisting that everything they do is art.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_and_George)

The Red Sculpture, 1975

Thumbing, 1991

Mixed Media 169 x 142cm

The Singing Sculpture, 1969

Ivan Limas

"Limas, who lives and works in the Santa Fe Art Colony, is a life-long Angeleno. He spent his childhood growing up in various parts of LA like Compton (and later La Merada) and says it had a big impact on his life. while some of the kids he grew up with were into the gang culture or graffiti art, he stuck to drawing comics, but his drawings eventually moved him to explore ideas in culture, and experience.

'A lot of my work is about defiance, exploration and self-perception.. cultural perception.'

He talks about visual signifiers, like those communicated through items like a common bandanna. the bandanna having many meanings in different cultures, and he thinks about where the bandanna originated from, whether it’s from Mexico,Spain or somewhere else. his hope is to “contextualize it into contemporary dialogue.”. He has created a series of 3 bandannas with ironed transfers that might hint different places to different people. Discussion of the pieces range from the language expressed in the wearing of bandannas, the color significance in gang culture, or any number of things.

He wants his work to be available to everyone, not restricted to any one group. Bringing the idea of an item that’s not necessarily considered art and having people think about it in a new way, or bring their own experience to the interpretation. whether it’s a synthetic ostrich skin-encased vacuum cleaner or a video installation of Ivan cutting off his own tongue."

(http://colalexgallery.com/2010/10/meeko-on-main-art-shows-closing-at-5th-and-main/)

Fighting Cattle 2007
Wood, wire, paper, and poster clippings.

Untitled (Elephant) 2010
Wood, wire, paper, paint, and sage.

Untitled 2007
Bandanas

First and second photos: http://durdenandray.com/artists/artist10_ivan/index.html

Gerardo Latino

Gerardo Latino was born and raised in Managua, Nicaragua. He is renowned for his intensely detailed paper sculptures, an art form that dates back to 1769 in England, from where it spread to Spain and the rest of Europe. A Fort Lee, NJ resident, Latino designed Pablo Picasso's daughter Paloma’s handbag catalogs. This year, he had his first group exhibition in Hackensack, NJ, directed by Sara Colombino, President of ICAL (Institute of Culture and Art of Latin America).

Latino also recently exhibited his paper sculptures and paintings at Bergen Community College and at Hackensack’s Johnson Public Library. He is working on a paper sculpture mural of Picasso’s “Guernica”, which will premiere at ArtsEcho Galleria in September 2009, before being exhibited in Barcelona, Spain later that fall.

(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gerardo-Latino/102357441805)

The Old Grasshopper

Scorpion

Einstein

Guerra De La Paz

"Sunt" 2008

"Dueling Snakes" 2006

"Eden" 2003
"Guerra La Paz" is a duo of Alain Guerra and Nolando La Paz, two cuban born Miami based artists. They create sculptures out of recycled clothing, using "textile layering." They like to experiment with dimension and unconventional materials. They are inspired by, "an essential familiarity with the ready-made and archeological qualities that found objects possess- and depicts the significance of mass-produced refuse in our society." They like to create work with a universal message and "find ways to reinvent historic and classic icons while still commenting on contemporary culture."

They are also very inspired by the small businesses that used to thrive in Haiti. They got access to a lot of discarded clothing and now use that clothing to create stories that speak of "enviornmental issues, mass consumption, and disposability." They see themselves as vehicles guided by the garments "essence and silent histories."

http://www.guerradelapaz.com/bio/bio.html