
Spotlight Artist: TABAIMO
Tabaimo Japanese Commuter Train (2001) video installation Synopsis Tabaimo was born in Hyogo, Japan in 1975. Tabaimo’s drawings and video installations probe the unsettling themes of isolation, contagion, and instability that seem to lurk beneath daily existence in contemporary Japan. She draws aesthetic inspiration for her animated videos from a combination of Japanese art forms—ukiyoe woodcuts, manga, and anime—while she often sets her layered, surrealistic narratives in do


Spotlight Artist: #5 Chuck Close (b. 1940) Photorealism
Chuck Close Big Self Portrait 1967 - 1968 Acrylic on canvas 8’ 11” x 6’ 2” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Summary Adapted from http://www.theartstory.org/artist-close-chuck.htm: "...Big Self-Portrait, a watershed painting that virtually showcases Close's unique method. Abandoning the full-body view, Close turned to one of the oldest traditions anywhere in art history, the self-portrait. Close had partially set out to refute the critic Clement Greenberg's claim that it was i


Spotlight Artist: Ryan McGinness
Synopsis Ryan McGinness(born January 9th, 1972[1]) is an American artist, living and working in Manhattan, New York. Known for his original extensive vocabulary of graphic drawings which use the visual language of public signage, corporate logos, and contemporary iconography, McGinness creates paintings, sculptures, and environments. McGinness is interested in assuming the power of this anonymous aesthetic in order to share personal expressions. His work is in the permanent p


Spotlight Artist: Ai Weiwei
Art Code: Art take Courage Political Art Topic: Censorship Synopsis Ai Weiwei (Chinese: 艾未未; pinyin: Ài Wèiwèi, English pronunciation (help·info); born 28 August 1957 in Beijing) is a Chinese contemporary artistand activist. His father's (Ai Qing) original surname was written Jiang (蔣).[1][2][3] Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics.[4] As a political activist, he has b