


| PASSION OF ART |

GALLERIES Listings * Anderson Scott 409 N Wolcott Ave (312) 492-7130 Chicago, IL 60622-6253 * Art & Design 329 W 18th St (312) 491-1400 Chicago, IL 60616-1120 * Art In Motion 222 Merchandise Mart Plz (312) 467-9313 Chicago, IL 60654-1103 * Artworks Chicago Evanston (312) 642-4907 * Aungkhmageddon Enterprises 721 E 88th (773) 873-1818 Chicago * Eidolon Art Studio 7001 N Glenwood Ave (773) 381-5462 Chicago, IL 60626-2812 * Jannes Fine Arts LLC 4850 W Belmont Ave (773) 282-2247 Chicago, IL 60641-4329 * Kai Koto 161 E Erie St (312) 280-1661 Chicago, IL 60611-2817 * Lucky Art 3209 E 92nd St (773) 978-1085 Chicago, IL 60617-4613 * Mineral Arts Inc 520 N Michigan Ave (312) 464-0655 Chicago, IL 60611-6982 * ProForma 3065 N Rockwell St (773) 463-0026 Chicago, IL 60618-7934 * Prop Art 1535 N Western Ave (773) 227-6755 Chicago, IL 60622-1749 * Sacred Art 2040 W Roscoe St (773) 404-8790 Chicago, IL 60618-6226 * Thompson Art Co 319 N Albany Ave (773) 533-0506 Chicago, IL 60612-1751 |
GALLERIES NEW YORK LISTINGS Adirondack Lakes Center For The Arts Route 28, Blue Mounutain Lake, Ny 12812 Telephone No. 518 352-7715 Albany Center Galleries 23 Monroe St., Albany , Ny 12210 Telephone No. 518 462-4775 Anderson Gallery Martha Jackson Place, Buffalo, Ny 14214 Telephone No. 716 834-2579 Art Dialogue Gallery One Lindwood Ave, Buffalo, Ny 14209-2203 Telephone No. 716 885-2251 Artforms 5, New Karner Road, Guilderland, Ny 12084 Telephone No. 518 464-3355 Burchfield Penney Art Center Bufalo State College Museum, 1300 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo, Ny Telephone No. 716 878-6012 Cepa Center For Exploratory And Perceptual Art 617 Main St. No.201, Buffalo Ny 14203 Chapman Art Center Gallery Cazenovia College, Cazenovia, Ny 13035 James Cox Gallery At Woodstock 4666 Rt. 212, Willow, Ny 12495 Telephone No. 914 679-7608 Guild Hall Museum 158 Main Street, East Hampton Ny 11937 Telephone No.516 324-0806 Kirkland Art Center East Park Row, P.O. Box 213 Clinton Ny 13323-0213 Telephone No.315 853-8871 Leatherstocking Gallery 52 Pioneer Street, Po Box 446, Cooperstown Ny 13326 Telephone No. 607 547-5942 Oxford Gallery 267 Oxford Street, Rochester Ny 14607 Telephone No.716 271-5885 Prakapas Gallery 1 Northgate 6b, Bronxville, Ny 10708 Telephone No.914 961-5091 Print Club Of Albany 140 N. Pearl St., P.O. Box 6578, Albany, Ny Telephone No. 518 432-9514 Pyramid Arts Center 302 N. Goodman Street, Rochester Ny 14607 Telephone No.716 461-2222 Rockland Center For The Arts 27 S. Greenbush Road, West Nyack, Ny 10994 Telephone No.914 3580877 Soundview Art Gallery 35 Chandler Square, Port Jefferson, Ny 11777 Telephone No.5164739544 Spoke Gallery 299 Main St, Huntington Ny 11743 Telephone No.516 549-5106 The Schoolhouse Galleries Owens Road. Croton Falls, Ny 10519 Telephone No. 914 277-3461 The Graphic Eye Galelry Of Long Island 301 Main Street, Port Washington, Ny 11050 Telephone No. 516 883-9668 |
| MEXICAN ARTIST IGNACIO FARIAS The new discovery of "Passion of Art" artistic society, Mexican artist IGNACIO FARIAS creates an impressive collection of art-works in a very individual harmony and blending. Any media is good; any tool too. From pencil and paper to brushes and canvas or spatulas or syringes or combs or icepicks, cameras, darkroom and obviously nowadays all digital resources. IGNACIO FARIAS sustains "The only real rule in Art is that there are not rules". So he dares with media and tools and with images and ideas as well. The results are amazing, astonishing. Colors, compositions, subjects, perspective, depth. He keeps producing. And this is the essence of his biography and his philosophy: an efflorescence of images and ideas. Some of the most beautiful words I heard in a couple of years coming from an artist heart belongs to IGNACIO FARIAS; he said: " I believe in dreams, so much; that I even want to paint them." His dreams becomes real in his passion of art, a passion for a unique expression of beauty without borders, without old theories about how art it suppose to be. IGNACIO FARIAS is a new vision and perspective in art; he is one of a kind. |












| ROMANIAN ARTIST DAN COLCER Artist Dan Colcer traveled around the world exposing his amazing art in European and American galleries. His passion of art is an explosion of colors and unique ideas pointing out a talent without borders between reality and imagination, creating a union between canvas, brushes, dreams and a visionary eye who can see the world in a such a different way. Dan Colcer creates for art lovers a new horizon of introspective life which gives in the same time a feeling of happiness and tragedy, a feeling of love and betrayal, an unique feeling of irony regarding world and society. In his art you can find a controversy of life and human condition associated with a comico-tragedy-reality in a trio which screams the hazard of a modernity wrong understood by ignorant consciousness. |
| DAN COLCER |
| DAN COLCER |
| Monika K. Adler Monika K. Adler was born in Poland. She graduated from the School of Fine Arts and the European Academy of Photography in Warsaw, Poland. Her works have been shown in scores of exhibitions in Eastern Europe and published in trade magazines but Monika wanted to reach Western Europe and it seems in that world, to make it as an artist, you must be willing to not only sell your pictures but also your soul. It was in a Paris café that I first bumped into Miss Monika K. Adler. She was sitting in the window of Starbucks following her daily routine of a large cup of tea before venturing down to the Galerie La Tour in Louvre-Rivoli where her pictures were on show (no easy task) . On first glimpse of her work, I was immediately blown away by the poignancy in this picture - saturated with signification. Having just come from London and a political climate of War and pro-human rights, these pictures spoke volumes. In the UK recently, there seems to have been an increasing awareness of the subordination of women in many countries and the many forms it takes; from the killing of baby girls in China to female castration in Africa and the Taliban’s regime of the degradation of women. Monika’s pictures seem to give a voice to these women. Many artists portray the naked female body with a submissive quality; laid back poses, paintings of women naked with their babies and women relaxing in the nude are all common. The talent in Monika’s pictures lies in her ability to retain the femininity of the female and at the same time, show the innate power that lies within it. Her model’s poses are far from submissive. The power of the naked female body - far from subordinate - is a strong dichotomy in the masked girl. The defiant stance and pride in the nakedness of her genitalia along with the expression in the eyes and the stiletto shoes fights against the masking of the face and the hands tied behind the back. Her ‘gaze’ taunts the voyeur to look her in the eye, to look away from her nakedness and into her soul. To look at her and regard the authoritarian, totalitarian male – war, rape and the brutalisation of the people. This image gives a voice to those women who cannot speak for themselves. It speaks against those forces that cover the female body and put it under wraps for exactly the reason displayed in this picture; the female body has a dangerous power. It can reduce men to a quivering, helpless state, physically and emotionally inferior in that moment to the woman hence ‘feminine’ denotes in this picture, the very opposite of the dictionary definition. The religious and cultural connotations are expressed in the stark ironies of the Burkhart style face mask in contrast with the naked genitalia and the world wide symbol of aid seen commonly in War situations - the Red Cross – which in this picture, is not helping the woman from her binds. It’s criminal for the world to be deprived of Monika’s talent; for the millions of women who could be motivated and empowered by these pictures to be deprived the opportunity to see them. Long live matriarchy. Article by Nicola Carley /London |
| Monika K. Adler |
| Monika K. Adler |
| Escha van den Bogerd For anyone who appreciates the study of the nude figure, Escha's work is a treat. Combining striking compositions against an abstract background in complete harmony, she creates paintings that are strong in their content, yet delivered with underlying femininity and sensitivity. She learned her skills from art schools all around Europe, including ones in Florence and Salzburg, as well as in her native Holland, where she first studied at the Rudolf Steiner school. Favouring mainly to work in acrylic, she adds to this dripping, pouring and glazing techniques so that her work always demonstrates a certain vibrancy. The static nature of the nude gains an enlightening insight into the energy of the character beneath, with dashes of paint layered around the figure to create a buzzing backdrop. Sometimes her scenes are not so abstract, as the influence of her many years spent travelling is brought in. Some show figures in hamams, the middle-eastern public baths, or geisha type girls inspired by her time spent in Japan. Escha is particularly interested in this cross-section, of harnessing the spirituality of the orient and using her own painterly style that developed under the contemporary European school. The refreshing thing about her work is this combination of the traditional figure painting with her contemporary style and influence of the many countries she has visited. There is nothing staid or fussy in her work, instead there is a sense of the exotic and dream-like, evoked through her subtle palette and dynamic brushstrokes. There is no feeling that the figure is formally arranged, rather we get the feeling we have caught a glimpse of a natural moment. Her longest time spent abroad was in New Zealand where she lived for four years and was where she first started exhibiting, she soon afterwards had exhibitions in Japan, Europe and the US. She is available via Londonart to undertake portrait commissions, and her prices start from around £340, preferring to work form photographs rather than several sittings. Apart from portraits she has produces murals for adults and children and has worked for art publishers in Europe on her travel themes. Escha is currently living back in Holland, and continues to paint prolifically. Many of her works can be viewed on the Londonart site, where her style has proved constantly popular. Article by London Art Magazine |

| FLAT IRON BUILDING - COYOTE ART CENTER - For Wicker Park artists, the Flat Iron Art Building, where a small room without a sink or a toilet is affordable at about 600 bucks a month, is considered their sanctuary. A bold presence at Milwaukee, North and Damen, the triangle-shaped, three story wrapped in terra cotta was built in 1913 by Holabird & Roche -- the guys who designed the Chicago Board of Trade and the Palmolive (Playboy) Building. And until they're replaced by a bank branch later this year, you'll find a hipster coffeehouse and hot dog stand on the first floor. Down the street there's posh supper clubs, rock music halls, flashy boutiques and a place where ladies can buy flashy high heels. Go ahead, walk inside. Up the wide staircase, a labyrinth of dim hallways leads to bohemia that once was dentist offices. Romantics like to say the Flat Iron culture is like Paris in the '20s or Andy Warhol's "Factory" in midtown Manhattan during the '60s. The place produces lots of great artwork, and there have been some spectacular impromptu parties in the hallway. Bartender Joe Sikora paints and lives on the third floor. As you enter his studio there's a scent of drying oils, and a table overflowing with used paint tubes. Giant, bold, spectacular canvasses on the wall grab you. There's a dropcloth on the wood floors around an easel, a bottle of wine and a corkscrew in arm's reach. He's been flirting with Wicker Park since high school when he'd take the South Shore Line from Northwest Indiana to check out record stores and art galleries. Like the neighborhood, Sikora's changed a lot since then. He's been to college. Painted in Paris. Lived on ramen noodles. Stuff that makes you hungry for success. And the powerful clash of bohemia and affluence on his corner inspires him and his Flat Iron pals. "There's all these crazy people and always stuff happening. The people here inspire each other ... Hopefully, nobody is ripping each other off blatantly," he says, referring to his artist neighbors, not those guys we used to call bums. The panhandlers are part of the creative stew. There was the time a Flat Iron artist undertook a rather cruel social experiment aimed at answering the question: What will a beggar do for 20 bucks? Here's how it worked: A guy baited hooks with $20 bills. He cast his line from a third-floor window like a Bassmaster, dangling the cash near a neighborhood spare-change collector, who would run and leap and stumble as the guy kept the cash just out of reach. If you toss 20 bucks out a window, the experiment proved, some of those guys can really move. The fisherman, who has since moved out of the Flat Iron, lost about $200 in bait. When he was done, one enterprising fellow climbed the stairs, banged on his door, said he sprained his ankle running after a 20-spot and was gonna sue. The matter was settled out of court. That was the last of fishing for people. Still, the Flat Iron is a serious artist colony. Knock on any door, and you'll find an old master like Adam Siegel, or suburban pastel painter Kevin Moeller, or bearded troubadour Jaik Willis or eccentric artist Karen Gagich, who paints tiles. ''There's all kinds here and everybody is free. There's no hangups,'' Moeller says. ''You have sexual freedom, artistic freedom.'' Which makes for pretty interesting gatherings. Bawdy, wine-soaked nights spent playing music, dancing and talking nonstop in a fog of cigarette smoke and sexual tension that lasts till late morning. The soirees don't happen so much anymore. And the demure refuse to provide details. Just say everyone has a good time, Moeller says. The Flat Iron is busiest the first Friday of every month, when the artists open their studios to strangers. That's when you can catch Moeller drinking cold ones and selling paintings with Sikora, check out just about every gallery or entice Willis to break out his guitar and sing (take a listen). But you have to see the Flat Iron for yourself. It's what's left of what Wicker Park used to be. Stop by any time. Most artists welcome a rap on the door. And if you go, make sure you buy something. |
| ARTIST KAREN GAGICH |

