Gray Foy - Surrealism

"Gray Foy (1922–2012) was a mid twentieth-century American artist who created a visionary body of drawings from 1941 to 1975. His drawings are generally divided into two phases. First, from 1941–48, the artist drew figurative Surrealist landscapes and interiors. Then beginning in the late 1940s, he concentrated on botanical subject matter, both naturalistic and imagined
At his second one-person exhibition at Durlacher's in 1957, his observations of nature had matured, as evidenced by the intricate biological invention in such works as Uprooted Plants (1955, Whitney Museum of American Art). As his work evolved through the 1950s, the artist developed an understanding of constant change in nature and honed his ability to depict such metamorphosis.In the three decades Foy was active, he found a way to convey his fertile awareness of nature's disorder as well as its order by refining his technical prowess. Achieved by a delicate feathering technique, the edges of the depicted organic matter gradually disappear as lighter and lighter pencil pressure traverses the sheet.About 1957 Foy began a series of related still lifes that involve leaves or branches wrapped by human hands into clusters or sheaves, or assembled by birds into nests. With its inner pinkish radiance and veined leaf surfaces, Cluster of Leaves (ca. 1957), for example, quivers with the power of an incubating egg. These drawings are metaphors for efforts to control the untamed sprawl of natural vegetation.In one group of works, Foy developed an additional illustrative mechanism, preparing the drawing paper with a teeming texture, introducing earthy tones and chlorophyll-like colorations. The activated surfaces simulate organic matter such as soil incrustation, moldy walls, lichen-covered rocks, or pond scum. In his book The Language of Ornament, art historian James Trilling described the effect: "Gray Foy’s drawing evokes the richness of a living coral reef, or the cheerfully haunted rocks that provide a background to some of the finest Persian miniatures."Wikipedia

Otto Rogers

Otto Rogers (born 19 December 1935, died 27 April, 2019) was a Canadian painter and sculptor from rural Saskatchewan whose abstract works reflects his belief as a member of the Bahá'í Faith in unity in diversity. His work has been widely exhibited. It is held in many private and public collections in Canada and other countries.
Rogers follows the Cubist-Constructivist tradition started by Pablo Picasso, Julio González and David Smith. His early work included portraits, still lifes, landscapes and cityscapes. Later his work became increasingly abstract. He has worked in different media that range from color-field painting to assembled steel sculpture.His paintings show the influence of the prairie spaces and of his Baha'i beliefs. Both his faith and his art reflect the central belief of unity in diversity.Wikipedia

Wang Wusheng - Black-And-White photographs of Mount Huangshan

Wang Wusheng (1945 – 2018) was a Chinese photographer known for his black-and-white photographs of Mount Huangshan.
Wang Wusheng was born 1945 in Wuhu. Anhui, China and graduated from the Department of Physics of Anhui University.Beginning in 1973, Wang worked as a photographer for a news magazine in Anhui Province, Anhui Newsphoto and Pictorial. In 1974, he started shooting Mounts Huangshan in Anhui.In 1981 he moved to Japan. He became a research member at the Japan Foundation in 1983. He studied at the Art Institute of Nihon University in Japan as he won grant from the Japan Foundation’s endowment for Japanese art studies. Beginning in 1986, he studied for three years at the Tokyo Arts University.
In 1990, he moved to the U.S, spent a year in New York City and in the 90s his career blossomed at last. In 1998, Wang Wusheng held a solo exhibition titled "Himmelsberge" at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It was the first exhibition of photography and the first solo exhibition for a living artist at the museum. Then in 2005, the Permanent Missions of China and Japan to the United Nations presented Spirit of the East a two-person exhibition of Wang Wusheng’s photographs along with paintings by the late Japanese master artist Kaii Higashiyama, in the United Nations General Assembly’s Visitor’s Lobby. This exhibition was held in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations. Wikipedia

Ger van Elk - Conceptual Art

Ger van Elk (March 9, 1941 - August 17, 2014) was a Dutch artist who created sculptures, painted photographs, installations and film. His work has been described as being both conceptual art and arte povera. Between 1959 and 1988 he lived and worked in Los Angeles, New York City, and Amsterdam, except for a period of study in Groningen in the 1960s.In 1996 he won the J. C. van Lanschot Prize for Sculpture.Ger van Elk had several solo exhibitions at Art & Project from 1970 to 1987. This was his second serious gallery showing in Amsterdam.Together with Marinus Boezem, Wim T. Schippers and Jan Dibbets, he is seen as one of the main representatives of these movements in the Netherlands. Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and the Tate Gallery in London have work of Van Elk in their collection. Reflections on art history are an important part of his work.Wikipedia

Toyo Tsuchiya - Digital Photograph - Rivington School art movement

Toyo Tsuchiya (1948 – 23 November 2017) was a Japanese born artist and photographer and one of the early artists involved in the Rivington School art movement of the East Village art scene of New York City of the 1980s.Toyo Tsuchiya moved from Japan to New York City in 1980.He was a director of many of the performances and exhibitions at the club No Se No, which was the club that many of the Rivington School artists would meet and perform and show their art work. As a photographer, Tsuchiya was able to document much of the early history of the Rivington School. He was a member of the NO!Art movement.Wikipedia

 

 Rivington School was a movement that emerged from the East Village art scene in the 1980s in New York City. Most of the artists of the Rivington School were either involved in welding, forging, performance or street painting.The group started in 1983 and named themselves after an abandoned public school house building located on Rivington Street. The school was located across from a club No Se No where many artists would meet and performances were held. The group is most noted for "massive junk sculpture installations on the Lower East Side," and other forms of metal public sculpture.