As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
“Thanks to our many sponsors, donors, and supporters for sponsoring this year’s National Exhibition,” said the organizers of the 32nd Oil Painters of America National Exhibition. “We also thank Juror of Awards Daud Akhriev OPAM for lending his time and expertise.”
See the full list of winners at oilpaintersofamerica.com.
How did you get started and then develop your career?
Nik Anikis: As a highly skilled and passionate painter, I have dedicated my life to exploring the beauty of the human body in relation to nature, harmony, and disharmony, light and darkness, and the poetry of emotion and truth. From a young age of five I knew that art was my calling and I have spent my whole life honing my craft.
My name is Nik Anikis, and I was born in 1990 in Celje, Slovenia. Today I live in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where I continue to create stunning artworks that move and inspire people around the world. With a Master’s degree in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and a degree from the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, under the mentorship of Maestro Michael John Angel, I have taken my skills to a level of technical perfection that is truly impressive.
Throughout my career, I have participated in over 47 group exhibitions and 17 solo exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States. My paintings have touched the hearts of many people and brought hope and inspiration into their lives. I strive to reflect the relationships, struggles and contradictions that exist in the human experience and capture the intimate depths of the human soul through my use of classical painting techniques with oil paints.
To read and see more of Nik’s work, visit:
www.anikis.com
The Trustees and Staff of the Whitney Museum of American Art grieve the passing of one of the institution’s longest-serving and most treasured Board members.
More from Legacy.com and the New York Times:
Emily Fisher Landau‘s long association with the Whitney began in the late 1960s and was strengthened in 1985 when she joined the Painting and Sculpture Committee – a group that she would later Co-Chair.
Two years later, she was elected to the Whitney’s Board of Trustees, and upon her retirement from the Board, was recognized for her tremendous contributions through the designation of Honorary Trusteeship in 2016. During her 36 years of service, she had a transformational impact on the institution, supporting numerous exhibitions, establishing a Biennial endowment, naming the fourth-floor galleries in the Whitney’s Marcel Breuer building, and serving for a decade as the Vice President and then as Vice Chairman of the Board.
In 2010, Emily made a historic pledge of nearly 400 works by almost 100 artists to the museum, one of the largest donations in the institution’s history, which transformed the collection with seminal works by artists like Carl Andre, Willem de Kooning, William Eggleston, Peter Hujar, Jasper Johns, Glenn Ligon, Agnes Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Susan Rothenberg, Ed Ruscha, Kiki Smith, and Andy Warhol.
In 2011, a selection of these works went on view at the Whitney in the exhibition, “Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection,” which toured across the United States through 2015, dramatically expanding the scope of this gift’s impact and audience.
When asked why she was so passionate about the Whitney, she said it “wasn’t afraid to show the work of young artists before they were accepted” – words that echoed the ideas of founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.
Emily’s devotion to emerging artists was further evidenced through her particular and profound support of the Whitney Biennial, our signature exhibition that focuses primarily on new and undiscovered talents.
As one of the preeminent collectors of postwar art in the United States, Emily will be remembered as a champion of contemporary art, with her support extending well beyond the Whitney through her founding of the Fisher Landau Center for Art, which welcomed visitors from 1991 to 2017, and through her service on the Board of Directors for SITE Santa Fe and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, as well as the Museum of Modern Art’s Committees on Painting & Sculpture Committee and Prints & Illustrated Books.
Following a robust sold-out opening celebration, the Briscoe Western Art Museum 2023 Night of Artists Exhibition and Sale is off to a fantastic start, with more than $1.8 million in total art sales thus far.
More from the organizers:
The sold-out crowd of artists, collectors, and art enthusiasts enjoyed two days of festivities. The event’s live auction set the tone for brisk sales, with a record number of participating telephone and absentee bidders. The event’s fixed-price sale continues through May 7. Based on the kick-off, the museum anticipates another record sales year.
The 2023 Live Auction drew art sales of more than $630,000. Notable sales included artist Don Oelze’s “Distant Smoke,” as well as Bruce Lawes’ “Double Take,” George Hallmark’s “Sombras de San Miguel” and Nicholas Coleman’s “Toilers of the Trails Buffalo Days.”
The 2023 Night of Artists Exhibition and Sale features more than 290 works of painting, sculpture, and mixed media by 81 of the country’s leading Western artists. Internationally recognized artists participating in the show include Billy Schenck, Don Oelze, Z.S. Liang, C. Michael Dudash, George Hallmark, Kim Wiggins, Bonnie Marris, Michael Ome Untiedt, Teresa Elliot, and Jan Mapes.
Notable new artists participating this year include Jeremy Lipking, Eric Bowman, Glenn Dean, Dustin Van Wechel, and Kevin Red Star. Twenty-five percent of the artists included in the exhibition are female, spotlighting the growing diversity in the genre.
“Western art continues to flourish thanks to the talent showcased by our participating artists and the number of new collectors and enthusiasts attending the event illustrates the strength of both the market overall and the genre itself,” said Michael Duchemin, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Briscoe Western Art Museum. “We are grateful to the artists and the art collectors and enthusiasts for sharing our dedication to preserving the unique history of the American West. The passionate support of art enthusiasts and collectors ensures that the future of Western art, and institutions like the Briscoe, is bright.”
Tipping its hat to the best in show, the Briscoe announced its 2023 Night of Artists awards during a luncheon honoring this year’s participating artists.
Sam Houston Award for Painting
Alfredo Rodriguez, “To the Diggings, Gold Rush 1849,” 2022, Oil on linen, 30 x 48 in.
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James Bowie Award for Sculpture
Jason Scull, “Out Where the Wild Ones Run,” 2022, Bronze, 24.5 x 27 x 16 in.
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David Crockett Award for Artists’ Choice
Jeremy Lipking, “Valley Shadows 20,” 2022, Oil on linen, 30 x 40 in.
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William B. Travis Award for Patrons’ Choice Sponsored by Western Art Collector
Mary Ross Buchholz, “Likin’ His Job,” 2022, Charcoal and graphite on gessoed ACM panel, 20 x 16 in.
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The Briscoe Museum Purchase Award
Todd Connor, “The Widow and the Widower,” 2022, Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 in.
The Briscoe Museum Purchase Award recognizes a work chosen to be added to the Briscoe’s permanent collection. At the conclusion of the Night of Artists exhibition, Todd Connor’s “The Widow and the Widower” will be added to the Briscoe’s permanent collection. “I have never been so honored as to have my work included in the Briscoe Museum Collection,” said Connor upon learning of the award.
The Sam Houston and James Bowie Awards represent “Best in Show” recognition, chosen by the Night of Artists Art Selection Committee, an anonymous panel of Western art collectors who are deeply involved with the museum. The David Crockett and William B. Travis awards are selected by fellow artists and show patrons respectively. This year’s award winners, as well as past winners, are highlighted online.
The event’s opening weekend also featured the annual Briscoe Bison Society Collectors Summit, where artists, collectors and gallery owners gather to share their insights during panel discussions and conversations exploring the Western art market and trends. Panelists included artists Don Oelze and Mary Ross Buchholz; collectors Abigail Kampmann and Robert Oliver; Beau Alexander, gallery owner and director of Maxwell-Alexander Gallery and Tim Newton, former executive director of the prestigious Salmugundi Club in New York and current publisher of Western Art & Architecture. Panels were moderated by Michael Clawson, Editor, Western Art Collector.
The Night of Artists exhibition and sale continues through May 7 at the Briscoe, with works featured in the fixed-price sale available for purchase in-person or online. The exhibition is open to the public with museum admission. Everyone can also view the full catalog and online gallery and purchase any work online.
“Pastel Portraits: Drawn from Life?” exhibition at the Getty studies traditional depictions of men and women. Primarily featuring works from the Getty Museum collection, the display is on view at the Getty Center through September 17, 2023.
Across 18th-century Europe, artists relished the convenience and versatility of pastels to make portraits, which ranged from straightforward likenesses to imaginary renderings. Yet the social conventions of the period meant that men were more often in the privileged position to commission portraits of themselves for public display, whereas depictions of women tended to represent muses or allegorical figures. The exhibition asks visitors to consider: who gets a portrait and who decides what it looks like?
“Drawn from Life?” presents two standout works that depict real women in conventional settings. The first, Jean Étienne Liotard’s “Portrait of Mademoiselle Louise Jacquet” presents a professional opera singer seated at her desk, gazing confidently at the viewer. The second, “Portrait of Christine Mitoire with Her Children” by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, recently acquired by the Getty Museum, shows a fashionably dressed mother breastfeeding her infant while smiling at her older son.
Labille-Guiard exhibited the portrait of Madame Mitoire during her 1783 debut at the Paris Salon, where it caused quite a stir, as it was uncommon for artists to depict scenes of women nursing.
“It was commonplace for women to use wet nurses as opposed to breastfeeding at the time, so Labille-Guiard’s groundbreaking portrait of Mitoire was part of a wider movement that normalized breastfeeding, a trend that simultaneously led to more women staying at home,” explains Ellie Bernick, former graduate intern at the Getty Museum and co-curator of the exhibition. “This pastel exemplifies the complex nature of this history.”
The exhibition highlights other works from the Getty Museum collection by Rosalba Carriera, Thomas Gainsborough, Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, and Robert Nanteuil, among others.
“Including some of the finest pastels from the Getty collection, this exhibition explores a moment when more realistic portrayals of women became increasingly common, superseding habitually idealized images,” said Julian Brooks, senior curator of Drawings at the Getty Museum. “The portraits by Labille-Guiard and Liotard are compelling examples of this shift.”
“Pastel Portraits: Drawn from Life?” is curated by Ellie Bernick, former graduate intern at the Getty Museum, with the assistance of Julian Brooks, senior curator of Drawings.
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
What is the most interesting thing you have painted and why?
A couple of years ago I have started a collection of large-scale paintings depicting feminine clichés. The project involved professional Drag Queens well known in the Netherlands, where I live, that gracefully cooperated in this series. The character each one of them depicts is the result of a one-on-one creative session between me and each specific Queen. The whole process, from the photoshoot to the technical execution of the painting, was not only fun and challenging, but also a peek into a flamboyant and exclusive world filled with energy and creativity with which I have in common the wish to set ourselves free and express our inner alter-ego.
What is the best thing about being an artist?
For me it’s the materialization of an intimate concept taking form on canvas, but even more intriguing is seeing how it conquers its own meaning through the eyes of who looks at it.
To see more of Lorena’s work, visit:
https://www.artsy.net/artist/lorena-lepori
On View > Juliette Aristides and Dominique Medici: Embodied
Figure Ground Art Gallery
Seattle, Washington
April 6 – 27, 2023
(Collector Preview: Tuesday, April 4)
figuregroundgallery.com
From the gallery:
“Embodied” is a must-see exhibition of new works by two local and nationally celebrated figurative painters, Juliette Aristides and Dominique Medici.
These works emerged during the transformative time of the pandemic, in which we all navigated degrees of isolation and virtual experience. They seek to capture the “fully embodied life,” a celebration of the human form and spirit, and an ode to the power of art in the world beyond the screen.
Aristide’s works include figures, florals, and interior scenes. Medici’s works present moments from the Hindu festival of colors, love, and spring, known as “Holi.”
Of special note: Juliette received the Fine Art Connoisseur Lifetime Achievement Award at Realism Live in 2022.
As part of Women’s History Month, NBC’s Sheinelle Jones recently did a segment with contemporary artist Sharon Sprung.
“I had a wonderful time speaking with her about my portraits of trailblazing women leaders in American history,” Sprung said.
Watch “Artist Sharon Sprung on sharing life lessons through her paintings” here. “Artist Sharon Sprung paints portraits of important women in American history, including former first lady Michelle Obama. She sits down with TODAY’s Sheinelle Jones about using her craft to share stories of life lessons.”
In September ’22, we featured Sprung when her portrait painting of Michelle Obama was unveiled at the White House along with Robert McCurdy’s portrait of President Barack Obama. Read the story and watch the CBS footage of the unveiling here.
