Bernard Aptekar

For the Megaliths to the Megalopolis - Figurative Political Painting

2009

Aptekar's paintings are often a political and social commentary of the contradictions inherent to the human mankind. The surrealistic and expressionistic language used to covey the message, as well as the use of a palette with low contrast colors like light blue, green and pink, has it's roots in the work of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, who Apterkar met at age of 11. The outcome is an imagery of an extraordinary visual impact and absolutely unique to Aptekar's own creative process. The title of this artwork "Joseph Heller...

Parris Jaru's A Place to Hide is a 9 x 12 inches oil painting representing surrealist animals. The primary color is a bright yellow and blue. A glittering paint defines the surface of the canvas. Jaru creates colors from plant-based pigments that Jaru collects during his long exploratory trips through India. The imagery is very playful, presenting surrealist animals drawn with the simplification of forms of some faux-naive art and some graffiti and street artworks. NY-born Parris Jaru comes from a Jamaican, Blackfoot Nation, and Arawak Nation background from both his parents. His work is informed by the vivid colors and imagery experienced in his childhood years spent in the coastal town of St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. His exploratory journeys in India enriched his work with a sensibility to natural plant-based pigments that he grinds with oils for his paintings. In his Brooklyn studio, Jaru brings all these cultural inspirations together. His entire body of work is informed by an intentional childlike, faux-naïve style, constantly shifting between figurative and abstraction. Even though at times, Jaru has been working on somber and entirely figure-free paintings, most of his work is defined by poignantly colored and playful surrealistic figures. Jaru often draws his figures with a continuous line emerging from a thick impasto of paint made with powders of Sea Algae, Hibiscus, Gymnema Sylvestre, and Turmeric. Related keywords: Caribbean Artist...

Parris Jaru's The Last Time I Saw It is a 16 x 11-inch surrealist oil painting. The primary colors are black and red. The canvas surface has a thick impasto of paint, made with plant-based pigments that Jaru collects during his long exploratory trips through India. The imagery brings a surrealist human figure, with all the body features exaggerated as if in a caricature. NY-born Parris Jaru comes from a Jamaican, Blackfoot Nation, and Arawak Nation background from both his parents. His work is informed by the vivid colors and imagery experienced in his childhood years spent in the coastal town of St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. His exploratory journeys in India enriched his work with a sensibility to natural plant-based pigments that he grinds with oils for his paintings. In his Brooklyn studio, Jaru brings all these cultural inspirations together. His entire body of work is informed by an intentional childlike, faux-naïve style, constantly shifting between figurative and abstraction. Even though at times, Jaru has been working on somber and entirely figure-free paintings, most of his work is defined by poignantly colored and playful surrealistic figures. Jaru often draws his figures with a continuous line emerging from a thick impasto of paint made with powders of Sea Algae, Hibiscus, Gymnema Sylvestre, and Turmeric. Related keywords: Caribbean Artist...

As art historian and writer Suzanne Ramljak wrote "the ambivalent relationship between humanity and machinery has informed Aptekar's art from the start and remains a central theme in...

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