Marcos Raya

The Wedding - Antique Painted Photograph, Original Frame

2013

Marcos Raya's work is heavily influenced by Mexican Folk Art, Surrealism, and Symbolism. His work also has ties to DADA Art and artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. And, of co...

Victor Wang's subject is a female seemingly caught in a contemplative moment yet a war rages behind her. She dons a hat shaped as a boat and carries and oar as if to "Dream Away" these other thoughts. Wang uses a blend of luminous colors and buttery textures to evoke these enigmatic moments of meditation. Influence by the Renaissance Masters Titian and Rembrandt for their glazing and layering techniques respectively, the artist builds the surface using heavy paint, swirling and mixing the color on the canvas. The end result is a poetic and emotionally powerful representation of the human form. Victor Wang Dreaming Away, 2017 oil on canvas 42h x 56w in 106.68h x 142.24w cm VWG009 My path through life has been adventurous, exciting, and dream-like. My experience of settling into America in search of better opportunities has been both challenging and inspiring. I use the human face as a vehicle to paint human experiences - worry and wonder, sadness and pleasure - which reflect the emotional stage directly tied to my immigration experiences. I grew up amongst the sunflower fields in northern China. In my childhood years, I played under the bright, yellow sunflowers with my brothers everyday. China’s Cultural Revolution played an important part in my life. During that time, sunflowers were used as political allegories to depict how citizens of China should follow Mao who represented the sun, since sunflowers follow the sun’s movements. People eventually inferred the deception that this symbol masked. After graduating from high school, I was sent to a labor camp in the country for ‘reeducation’ during China’s Cultural Revolution. There, I was subject to grueling farm work. Often, I worked in corn and sunflower fields from sunrise to sunset. Thus, for me, sunflowers evoke both personal joy and sadness. Therefore, to deliver my complex feelings, I use sunflowers as a metaphor to connote my background and emotional stage. My incorporation of collages of figures from China’s Tang Dynasty represents my Chinese heritage and is a constant reminder of where I came from. The texture and earthiness on the canvas’s surface are inspired by the texture of the soil on the farm where I worked in China. Although I often gain great pleasure from the process of painting, it is most important to unfold expressively those feelings within myself. Wang belongs to a generation of immigrant painters from China, whose artistic background was defined by socialist realism but took advantage of their skills and broke away from that tradition to create new subjects in the U.S. “When I was a student during Cultural Revolution, Soviet realism art was among the dominant source of influence and it grabbed us like lightening rod...

This piece is exploring the dominating and overshadowing presence that many parental figures can have upon their children. The boxer, Marcus, often brought his young son with him whe...

Artist Rick Beerhorst is inspired by early American portrait painters for the way they used abstraction to simplify their forms and intuitively created ...

A muscular male casts his gaze downward towards an unseen object. Over one shoulder a red cape is draped. Set upon an intricate backdrop of ornate floral designs set in gold tones,...

Based on a discovery in 1901 by archeologist Sir Arthur Evans, this "Priest King of Knossos" by artist Richard Gibbons, takes a more modern tone. The muscular male, his arms outstre...

With the distinctive medium of post-it notes, Özmenoğlu re-contextualizes everyday objects from something ordinary to a beautiful work of art. The individualized behavior of each pos...

CUSTOM Contemporary Art, Gold Leaf Portrait, Modern Art-Harmony ABOUT THIS PIECE: “Harmony, (Behtyie-A13)” is mixed media portrait art by Addison Jones featuring her own portrait ph...

With the distinctive medium of post-it notes, Özmenoğlu re-contextualizes everyday objects from something ordinary to a beautiful work of art. The individualized behavior of each pos...

The man in the artwork is Bob Ross, a famous painter from American television. With the distinctive medium of post-it notes, Özmenoğlu re-contextualizes every...

With the distinctive medium of post-it notes, Özmenoğlu re-contextualizes everyday objects from something ordinary to a beautiful work of art. The individualized behavior of each pos...

With the distinctive medium of post-it notes, Özmenoğlu re-contextualizes everyday objects from something ordinary to a beautiful work of art. The individualized behavior of each pos...