Abstract

Our second Art competition “Abstract” started in April 2019 and concluded on May 16, 2019. Art Room Gallery received entries from many countries around the world: Serbia, USA, Mexico, United Kingdom, Romania, Bulgaria, Taiwan, Australia, Czech Republic, Canada, France, Guatemala, Lithuania, Italy, Getmany, Singapore, Poland, Denmark and Spain. The Abstract theme in this competition included a diversity in types, styles and mediums (oil on canvas, acrylic, white translucent alabaster, carbon on paper, pastel, pencil, photography, digital sculpture, mixed media, digital, cement on board, gold foil on canvas, wool, yarn, print on aluminum, watercolor. The following evaluation criteria has been used for judging the artwork: creativity, interpretation of the theme, originality and quality of art, overall design, demonstration of artistic ability, and usage of medium. Jury decided to select 88 artworks for inclusion in the exhibition. Aside from First, Second, and Third place Jury also presented Merit awards and Honorable Mention awards.

Thank you, and enjoy the exhibition!

First place

Statement:

Basha Maryanska is an internationally recognized artist and has been exhibiting her art around the world since obtaining her MFA at Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland in 1979. She has received awards for her numerous groups and solo shows in media ranging from painting, sculpture, installation fiber art, assemblage, performance, photography and graphics.
She is holding MFA (Painting, Sculpture, History of Art and Culture, Design) from the Academy of Fine Arts, Gdansk, Poland, she studied at the Ecole du Louvre, Paris and received a Fellowship in 1986 from the Kosciusko Foundation, NYC. Basha Maryanska’s artworks are found in the permanent collection of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; National Museum of Gdansk, Poland; and Museum of Casimir Pulaski (near Warsaw, Poland), and many private collections in:Poland - Warsaw, Krakow and Gdansk; France - Paris, Grenoble, Aix-en- Provence, Limoges, Montpelier and Metz; Germany - Munich, Berlin; Holland - Amsterdam, Hilversum; Czech Republic – Prague; Canada – Montreal. Quebec; UK – London; Sweden – Stockholm, Umea; Lithuania – Vilnius; Japan – Tokyo, Osaka; Mexico – Mexico City, New York – NYC, Queens, Brooklyn, and many places in Upstate NY; Washington DC; Chicago, IL; Bloomington, IN; Boston, MA; and all over the U.S.
Most recently, she received the distinction of the Statuette of Golden Owl from Vienna, Austria for her artistic achievement and international artists promotion in Europe and the US. She is a Finalist in National Biennale North Carolina 2015, Hilton Head, and Award Winner in IEWAAC International Show 2015, London, UK.

Statement:

Diana Fernandez is a recognized Guatemalan sculptor with 290 national and international exhibitions and 20 solo shows. The International Sculpture Center said she revitalizes alabaster with a contemporary language. She received the National School of Arts Unique Sculptor Award and the Guatemala Biennial Honorable Mention also the Tribute to her Sculptural Work by FUNSILEC, 2016. Also awarded with the Goya Award at the Barcelona Biennial in Spain and the Caravaggio International Award Experience in Rome, Italy. Additionally her sculptures appeared in the Euroairport Mega Screen in Basel, Switzerland. Curator Vittorio Sgarbi recognized her with the Milan International Art Award. In 2018 she participated in ARTROOMS London successfully and in Art projects New York 0.1. Also in MIRADAS INICIALES in Jorge Jurado Art Studio, Bogotá, Colombia.
It is for me to recognize what can be unearthed: to reveal what magnificence of light and colors of form discover the sensuality that lies within. With a courage gained through experience, I can break into these alabaster stones, revealing their secrets subdued, cloaked in the dusts of our Planet evolution, which is why I love stone sculpture.

Statement:

Robert Gilbert is a graphic designer, digital artist and educator. He grew up in Santa Barbara, California, raised in a house that his father build in the hills above the city, where rows of olive trees from Spanish plantations still grow. The Spanish colonial nature of the town, its colors and rustic surfaces were a strong influence to his early work as a painter. He graduated from the Otis Parson’s Art Institute in Los Angeles and received a masters degree from California State University in Los Angeles. Robert has worked in varied design environments such as the entertainment, health, and garment industries. His experience ranges from advertising to publication and he works to refine a visual approach that combines the surprise of commercialism within fine art design. His personal work uses the digital image, employing the concept of a personal mythology. He has shown his work nationally and internationally. Robert has taught and worked as a designer in Greece, and he is an Honorary Professor at Hangyang Normal University in China. He is an Associate Professor at University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, working in the boarder region of south Texas.
In my graphic design work I attempt to celebrate the uniqueness of the client. I look for an innovative solution that artfully fuses media with intent and leads the viewer into a memorable experience. In my personal work, I create images that employ the concept of a personal mythology, a working visual language to tell one’s story. I often use a common, everyday object as an icon. A personal icon is like a button, hard and shiny on the mythological clothing that keeps us from the elements, the raw flux and flow of life. Because of the nuances of meaning in iconographic images, they become single plane picture books, whose face creates additional dialogue and images within the viewer’s imagination.
I’m interested in the classical world view, which did not see the same split between body and mind, dark and light as our present time. Divinity was thought to be immersed in all matter, so the substance of the world itself was divine. All phases of existence and all expressions had a place in daily life.