Michael Bowen

Looking Within, Large Mystical San Francisco Oil Painting Beat Visionary Artist

Taro Yamamoto, (American, 1919-1994) "La Gatta Miso" Oil or Acrylic/Canvas 32" x 50" Hand signed lower right, dated 1990, Titled on the stretcher verso, unframed. Taro Yamamoto (1919 – 1994) belonged to the New York School Abstract...

"Yellow/Green" 2004. Oil/Acrylic on Canvas. Signed lower right Image: 34.5" x 47". Framed: 49" x 37". Rigoberto Mena Santana (Cuban, born 1961) was born in Artemisia, Havana in 1961, where he currently lives and works. He attended the Instituto Politecnico de Diseno Industrial, La Habana, and continued his studies at San Alejandro Fine Art Academy, Havana. He traveled extensively throughout Europe to study the great masters. Mena has had Solo Exhibitions in China, Germany, Netherlands, Mexico, Cuba, Spain, France, and Holland, and in the U.S. in Miami, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C, and California. Following the inauguration of his exhibition “Hablando en Lenguas”. In 2011, Rigoberto’s work was chosen to be a part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of Fine Art in Havana, Cuba. Through the eyes of an abstract expressionist, he draws inspiration from his home’s urban landscapes and the spirit of the people and the city. The start of the Cuban Abstract movement was through a group called Los Once or The eleven. Though Mena was not an original member the influence by this new outlet began to spread ideals that put his own practice into fashion. Rigoberto is considered an important painter of his generation. He is one of the few artists in Cuba who has to have a private art gallery. Mena's private gallery at the Plaza de Armas is adjacent to the neighboring government art gallery. His work has been exhibited in Mexico, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, and Holland. Contemporaneous with the controversial, "La Generacion de los 80s" - The 80s Generation of Contemporary Cuban Art also referred to as New Cuban Art. This new Cuban plastic arts movement, with an expression of conceptual and non specific conscience manifestation, addressed many burning issues of the time and unveiled what these artists felt was the true reality of Cuba. It was more than a moment of artistic inspiration; it was a reflection of critical self-awareness and the new social role of art - the fundamental essence of the movement. They included Rubén Torres Llorca, Jose Bedia Valdes, Ricardo Rodriguez Brey, Juan Francisco Elso, Rogelio López Marín (Gory), Gustavo Pérez Monzón, José Manuel Fors, Leandro Soto Ortiz, Israel León, Tomás Sánchez and Carlos Alfonzo. In the second half of the decade, other artistic groups were formed, including 4 x 4, Grupo Hexágono, Arte Calle, Grupo Provisional, the duet René Francisco Rodríguez and Eduardo Ponjuán González and ABTV. Grupo Puré, another new wave of young artists, graduates of the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) included Ana Albertina Delgado Álvarez, Adriano Buergo, Ciro Quintana, Ermi Taño and Lázaro Saavedra, all greatly influenced by the German Kitsch art movement. Additionally, a large number of talented creators excelled independently, such as Florencio Gelabert (sculptor), Arturo Cuenca Sigarreta, Rigoberto Mena, Humberto Castro, Gustavo Acosta, Kcho, Antonio Eligio Fernandez (Tonel), Adriano Buergo, Flavio Garciandía, Tania Bruguera, Juan Francisco Elso, Carlos Rodríguez Cárdenas, Quisqueya Henríquez, Glexis Novoa, José Toirac, Carlos García, Heriberto Mora, Segundo Planes and Pedro Vizcaíno, among others. Select Personal Exhibitions 2015 RBK 4200 ,La Cabaña,fortress. Bienal de La Habana, 2014 The shape without shape. Visual Arts Development Center, Bayamo, Cuba 2013 Allegro Ma Non Troppo. Lloyd’s Register, Havana. 2012 Spirit. Dennis Rosenthal Gallery, Chicago, U.S.A. 2011 Speaking in languages. Fine Arts National Museum, Havana. 2010 The places of time (with Alan Kleinmann). Orígenes Gallery, Havana’s Great Theater. 2009 The writing and the limit. 23 y 12 Gallery, Havana. 2007 The pleasure of absorb yourself. RAC Gallery, Veracruzan University, Xalapa, México. 2006 Coexistence. Public space, during the Ninth Havana’s Biennale. 2005 Ball change. La Casona Gallery, Havana, Cuba Das Unbestimmbare Selbst. Refugium Gallery, Berlin. 2004 From the nothing to the infinite. La Casona Gallery, Havana, Cuba 2003 The visual poetry of life. Refugium Gallery, Berlin. Rigoberto Mena. Recent Work. Habana Gallery, México DF. Recent graphic work (with Jo Ann Rothschild). Graphic workshop, Havana. Rigoberto Mena. Recent Work, Boston Art Institute, Lesley Boston University, 2001 Two plus one doesn’t make three (with Julio Girona and Angel Rivero), L Gallery, 2000 Cuba I, Space 12 Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Three abstract painters (with Jo Ann Rothschild and Julia Valdes...

Harry Koursaros (1928-1986) Peaceable Kingdom, the Ram, 1983 Framed 34 X 45. sheet 25.5 X 37 Hand Signed Provenance: Bank of Boston corporate collection. bears label verso. Harry Koursaros, Artist, painter, printmaker and filmmaker Student at Albright College class of 1950. In 1964 he came to Albright College as professor to establish an Art Department, and gained national recognition. He started as a modernist realist, later moving to Abstract Expressionism and eventually into Pattern & Decoration. He painted with metallic and iridescent pigments. In the late 1960s he began a program of "underground" films at the college. Many of these were avant-garde works from New York that included works by Andy Warhol. One of Koursaros students, Jerry Tartaglia, founded in 1974 the Berks Filmmakers, a group of cutting-edge movie makers who acquired an international reputation. He was included in numerous shows: "Discovering Color": Two Decades of Abstraction, paintings, works on paper, and prints from three pivotal art movements in America during the sixties and seventies: Abstract Expressionism, Color Field Painting, and Minimalism. Artists include Edward Avedisian, Walter Darby Bannard, Dan Christensen, John Grillo, Lee Krasner, and more. “Drawn From the Collection” paintings, limited edition prints and photos by such notables, among others, as Mark Tobey, Alice Baber, Rufino Tamayo and a photograph by Gordon Parks. "20/20": The Visionary Legacy of Doris Chanin Freedman. Works by Nicholas Africano, Ida Applebroog, William Baziotes, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joseph Beuys, Jime Dine, Gunther Forg, Leon Golub, April Gornik, Hans Haacke, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Komar and Melamid, Harry Koursaros, Lee Krasner, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ana...

Wang Ming "Enter the World of Infinity" Acrylic paint on Japon paper mounted on canvas Dimensions: H: 39 inches: W: 25 inches WANG MING WANG Artist Ming Wang, born November 4, 1921, died peacefully on Sunday, June 26, 2016 in Bethesda. Ming Wang was born in Tianjin, China and was a pilot in Chinese Nationalist Air Force during WWII. Artist Wang Ming's journey began in the 1940s. As he worked as an air traffic controller in Taiwan, he became interested in the beauty of the sky. He was a young man then, having fled from Japanese-occupied China in 1939 at age 18. He came to the US for further military training where he met his first wife, the late Suen Chin. In 1949, Wang went Taiwan to escape the Communist takeover of China. He rejoined his wife and young son in Washington DC in 1951. To support a growing family, Wang founded the National Art and Frame shop in Washington DC. He studied art independently and developed his unique artistic style melding modern art with traditional Chinese calligraphy. His paintings, done with a mixture of inks and acrylics on fine paper, are a happy marriage of traditional Chinese disciplines with Western art as it has been handled by Joan Miro and Paul Klee. His works are minimalist and abstract, marked with good design and extremely sensitive use of color. The influence of 1950s American art and abstract expressionism is also clear in his work, and he exhibited with such Washington Color School luminaries as Kenneth Noland and Gene Davis in the 1960s. He later taught calligraphy at George Washington University. Years before the Hubble Telescope began broadcasting images of rainbow clouds and blood red stars, Ming used art to convey what he imagined space to be. His work captured the attention of James Dean, the National Air and Space Museum's first art collector, who purchased two of his pieces. In the 1960's and 1970's, Wang was represented by the Franz Bader Gallery in Washington DC. 1980: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York American Drawing in Black & White: 1970-1980, by curator Gene Baro. “The visitors are invited to enjoy the rich variety of marks and means used in attacking subjects that range from meticulous representational rendering to extemporaneous gesture.” Included among many other artists, were Anni Albers, Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Jack Tworkov, Robert Motherwell and Andy Warhol. 1982: The Washington Post, by Jo Ann Lewis “His show at the Marvin Center at George Washington University, where he teaches calligraphy, should help clarify the unique nature of his art . ... ‘Independent Reality,’ in which dramatic curves dance across an opened scroll, taking on a life of their own-in any language. The show is filled with the artist’s very special of visual poetry.” He was included in the exhibition American Drawing in Black & White: 1970-1980, by curator Gene Baro at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York. Included among many other artists, were Anni Albers, Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Jack Tworkov, Robert Motherwell and Andy Warhol. Wang Ming was also included in the show Asian Traditions/Modern Expressions Asian American Artists and Abstraction, 1945 – 1970 at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey New Brunswick. The senior curator Jeffrey Wechsler reviewed each artist for this traveling group exhibition, including C. C. Wang, Chen chi, Kenzo Okada...

"Nothing But Trouble" is a perfect example of Hunter's highly fluid, expressionistic style -- which so often results in arresting images with a sense of depth and sculptural form. Bl...

As an eclectic artist with wide-ranging interests, approaches, techniques and tools, Hunter's work can be a challenge to classify. "Thinking Out Loud" Diptych comes together in an i...

The painting "Summer storm over the beautiful Danube" is a combination of the author's photograph of the statue of Johan Strauss' son, taken in Vienna, c...

A very sophisticated contemporary abstract work by this well known California artist is a good example of emotive abstract painting. Divided by white and black, this painting swirls...