Sokichi Suga

"Untitled" Abstract, Mixed Media on Panel, Earth Tones, Japanese

1970s

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Animal Spirit I" is a dynamic expression of McGee's mythical animal spirits. Hand signed and dated lower right front and on the verso signed and titled. Painting and mixed media present a complex scene that incorporates use of graphite and acrylic paint on thick handmade paper. Michelle Oka Doner was invited to participate in McGee's studio in the early 1980s and brought her handmade paper skills to share engaging McGee in this creative pursuit. McGee continued to develop these spiritual creatures throughout his career as can be seen in a piece from 1984, "Noah's Ark: Genesis, 1984," on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts, his brilliant 2005 "Progression" a 45-foot wide aluminum sculpture at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, and his stunning 2016 "United We Stand" sculpture at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History . His genius can be seen in sculpture installments throughout the city of Detroit. "Animal Spirit I" is signed and dated lower right. Charles McGee was born into a family of sharecroppers. While helping his grandfather tend the land, "he observed firsthand the order and harmony that exists within nature." He had no formal schooling until moving to Detroit at age 10, where he found that "everything was on the move and it hasn’t slowed down yet." in 2017 he observed, "I learned something not being in school — because life is school . . .I learn something every time I move. Every time I go around a corner, something new is revealed to me.” McGee took advantage of the GI Bill to attend classes at the Society of Arts and Crafts, now the College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI. Other College for Creative Studies faculty and graduates include Richard Jerzy, Harry Bertoia, Doug Chaing (currently director of Lucas Film), Stephen Dinehart (game maker, writer, designer connected with The David Lynch Foundation), Tyree Guyton (international artist), Herb Babcock , Jerome Feretti, Kevin Siembieda (writer, designer and publisher of role-playing games), Renee Radell (American Expressionist formerly from Detroit and New York), Philip Pearlstein, Charles McGee (nationally recognized African American sculptor of animal and dancing spirits), Philip Pearlstein (2000 Honorary Doctorate, Modern Realism style), John Louis Krieger (American Modern) and William Girard (American Modern.) After retiring from the Corps of Engineers, McGee spent 1968 studying art in Barcelona. Despite not knowing the language at the outset, he immersed himself in the culture and opened himself to a whole new range of experience that would play out in his artwork. "If you free yourself, you have this kind of opportunity to have those experiences, horizons, and new vistas." (per interview with Nick Sousanis. He returned to Detroit and curated "Seven Black Artists" at the Detroit Artists Market in 1969, which along with McGee himself, included Lester Johnson, Henri Umbaji King, Robert Murray, James Lee, Allie McGhee...

“Icarus Suspended” is an extraordinary painting of Ayrton's obsession with flight, myths, mirrors and mazes. This complex piece shows a figure in flight, frozen in action, either swooping down or, perhaps, falling to earth. Named after the Greek mythological figure, Icarus, who along with his father attempted to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Flying too close to the sun the wax melted and both fell to earth. The positioning of Ayrton's figure is reminiscent of "The Fall of Icarus" by Jacob Peter Gowy, Museo Nacional del Prado. This is part of a series of artworks on Icarus some sculptural and some three-dimensional paintings on canvas. Verso contains gallery label Matthiesen Gallery, 142 Bond St., London, England, with a signature and text in upper right corner: "To Morton Schotnick. Bought on the occasion of The Archives of American Arts Tour to London, England. October 10, 1961. Michael Ayrton...

This untitled abstract work by Constance Powell-Teeples is a stark contrast to her usual work, prints of the Detroit skyline and local monuments and buildings. The work is flushed with colors that are reminiscent of the Detroit Tigers...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Green Frosting" is a luscious smear of green swirls and circles giving hint to Pohlman's future direction of becoming a Pastry Chef cake designer extraordinaire. This piece was painted during Cory's final year at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Cory is a cake decorator, artist, and designer working out of Los Angeles, California. Growing up in Southern California, she dreamt of being an artist and took advantage of every opportunity to learn about art techniques and history. She moved to Paris as a teenager and there found her second love in the Culinary Arts. The art of cake decorating connects our senses in new and meaningful ways. Playing with our food is one of the first forms of creative expression, creating bridges between our senses, as we attempt to master our surroundings. As adults, cake decorating encourages mindfulness. Through practice, like a calligrapher, you learn to master the sweet sticky medium. By taking the time to consider how to create beauty, we feed both our inner and outer selves. It requires breath and concentration and a healthy dose of humor. Here we can literally eat our mistakes! Her formal training began at Parsons School of Design in New York City, followed by an MFA in Painting from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The Cranbrook Academy of Art was designed by architect and faculty member, Eliel Saarinen who collaborated with Charles and Ray Eames on chair and furniture design. Numerous creative artists who are alumni of Cranbrook include: Harry Bertoia, Florence Knoll, Jack Lenor Larsen, Donald Lipski, Duane Hanson, Nick Cave, Hani Rashid, George Nelson, Urban Jupena (Nationally recognized fiber artist), and Artis Lane (the first African-American artist to have her sculpture, "Sojourner Truth," commissioned for the Emancipation Hall in the Capital Visitor Center in Washington DC.) Cory Pohlman continued her education in the culinary field at Le Cordon Bleu...

"Untitled" by Beverly Fishman is a silkscreen on polished stainless metal filled with bright primary colors and repetitive designs and swirls. Fishman draws on a range of artistic and conceptual influences in crafting her unique canvases, from the industrial-inspired Minimalism of artists like Donald Judd or Frank Stella to techniques taken from the fields of science and medicine. The piece is signed and dated on verso by the artist along with the provenance via a label from the Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, Missouri stating artist's name, title, date, size and medium and date of 2/2009 when it was in the possession of the gallery. Beverly Fishman’s neon-hued geometric works utilize both shaped canvases and eye-popping forms within the picture plane. Her subjects range from stars and boxes to depictions of human heads and skulls and crossbones and include cameos by pop culturalicons like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Untitled" by Nicholas Bodde depicts vibrant layers of color on narrow aluminum strips. These pieces are interchangeable and can be hung in various ways. Each is signed on the verso and was created in 2013. All three are sold as a set. Each aluminum panel measures 39 " h x 2.5" w. Bodde was born in New York he lives and works in Germany. He considers himself a German painter, who uses lacquered aluminum to create works that are beautiful in their simplicity and in their joyful exploration of color. The artist drives upon the tradition of European constructivism as well as Colour Field Painting, noting influences by Mark Rothko and Barnett Newmann. Bodde claims that his paintings “reveal themselves differently from close up and from a distance. When viewed from a distance they clearly appear related to constructivist geometric tendencies. But from close proximity, one notices that my main objective is painting and not construction.” The artist has reduced his subject to parallel vertical or horizontal lines and fields that race across the hard surface in a controlled riot – as if the viewer were looking out of a fast moving car while driving by fields of colorful flowers. Bodde constantly questions the colors, focusing on creating a construction through using different colors. He sees his creations as a mode of communication with the world. He paints on aluminum plates by successive coats of painting that he applies with different utensils to finally obtain a result that imprints itself into the eye’s retina. The game of colorful stripes, more or less large, sometimes with the feeling of the brush, sometimes flat, reflects the light differently on each lap. The brightness of his palette, a willful choice, accentuates the vitality that emanates from this painting. His works hesitate between the vibrating and nearly irritating colors and the calm of a monastic construction.   Bodde received his formal education from the University of Arts in Bremen (1989) and has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows across the world, including venues such as the Yeh Gallery in Seoul, Planet Art...

Framed Dimensions: 40 (W) x 60” (H) Oil on collaged canvas ABOUT THIS ARTIST: Colt Seager is an abstract painter and multidisciplinary artist who grew up in the suburbs of Chic...

Framed Dimensions: 40 (W) x 60” (H) Oil on collaged canvas ABOUT THIS ARTIST: Colt Seager is an abstract painter and multidisciplinary artist who grew up in the suburbs of Chic...

Born in Ottawa in 1976, Jean-François Provost holds a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts from the Université du Québec en Outaouais. He has received several awards and honours for his ...

Vertical composition on paper with a saturated wine red ground over which bristle brushed lines are cross hatched in black and royal blue. Layered over these central marks is a structure of stacked, collaged geometric strips of paper painted with intersecting lines and shapes of marine blue, red and white. This work is unframed. Please ask us about framing options. Titled "listening to Scarlati" the piece may certainly be a response to the structured sonatas for harpsicord and pianoforte of Domenico Scarlatti, an Italian composer and contemporary of Bach and Handel. Scarlati spent much of his life at the service of the Portugese and Spanish royalty...

Vertical composition on paper with a canary yellow acrylic ground over which bristle brushed lines are cross hatched in black. Layered over these central marks is a central collaged strip of paper highlighted in ultra marine blue and grey topped by a tache of white paint. This is balanced by a horizontal strip in white and grey at the foot of the composition held down by another white swipe of white acrylic. A small horizontal collaged rectangle at the upper left keeps the eye moving upwards in the picture plane. This work is unframed. Please ask us about framing options. Titled "listening to Scarlatti", or en ecoutant Scarlatti in French, the piece may certainly be a response to the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, an Italian composer and contemporary of Bach and Handel. Scarlatti spent much of his life at the service of the Portugese and Spanish royalty...

Ana Hernandez Ana Hernandez is a visual artist currently living and working in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is a founding member of Level Artist Collective and was nominated for and...