Vanessa Stafford

'Minotaur Descending', California woman artist

1991

Signed lower right "Moesle" and painted circa 1975. Gouache and watercolor figurative showing numerous figures in dynamic interaction. Born in 1932, Robert Moesle studied painting ...

A large study of several people in action contrasted against a background of saffron yellow and cerulean blue. Signed lower right 'Moesle', painted circa 1975 and titled verso 'On ...

By Virginia Conroy Dedini (American, 1922-2006). Titled on exhibition label, 'Sheila' and created circa 1965. Exhibited: Pacific Grove Museum of Natu...

Signed lower right, 'Z. Kavin' for Zena Kavin (American, 1912-2003) and dated 1966. Born in Berkeley, California, Zena Kavin studied at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and, privately, with Kravchenko in Moscow. She lived in Berkeley and in Oakland her entire life, except for four years spent in New Mexico in the late 1930s. In 1949, she married artist Jon Cornin and settled with him in Oakland. Under the peudonym Corka, the Cornins produced cartoons for the Saturday Evening Post and the New Yorker. Kavin worked in various media, including wood engraving, lithography and sculpture. She was a member of the San Francisco Artists Association and exhibited with them as well as at the San Francisco Museum of Art Inaugural (1935), the California–Pacific International Exposition, San Diego (1935), the Golden Gate International Exposition (1939). Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Davis Art Center, the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Oakland Museum of California. Reference: Artists in California 1786-1940, Third Edition, Edan Milton Hughes: Crocker Art Museum, Sheridan Books 2002, Vol. 1, page 610; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 2, page 1801; Mallett’s Index of Artists, Supplement, Daniel Trowbridge Mallett, Peter Smith...

-ARTIST STATEMENT- I depict my person in multiplicity with different selves representing dramatis personae. My likeness is both implicit and symbolic in the portrayal of my narrative; the drama involved in creating art and the artist’s role in society. I use realism to invite the viewer into mysterious inner worlds that are layered reflections of the outer. Dehumanizing environments are imbued with art historical references as a critique of power structures. The artist is an Everyman who is at odds with society and his self. Visually my work is a celebration of society’s dark undercurrents and its overlooked absurdities. I use charcoal and printmaking media as their tenebrous values add a fitting metaphor. The nuances of light and shadow seduce viewers into a world their better judgment would have them avoid. This provokes a sense of disquietude that causes viewers to assess our world through the austerity of a colorless, yet not humorless, light. -BIO- Christopher Ganz grew up in Northeast Ohio and from early on had a fertile imagination and an interest in art. Christopher's artistic education truly began at the University of Missouri, where his love of the human form led to many figure drawing classes and his exposure to the wonders of printmaking. Christopher's then went onto graduate school at Indiana University and a summer abroad program in Italy was a dream realized. Christopher then grasped charcoal with a renewed vigor and large, sfumato-laden drawings ensued. Christopher's artistic influences are many; from a seminal exposure to Dore's engravings of the Divine Comedy, to Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Goya, and up to Lucian Freud, Mark Tansey...

Monotype on paper Federica Frati is an Italian artist born in 1977 who lives lives and works in Brecia, Italy. She is graduated from art school Foppa where she learned the main arti...

"You and Me and The Devil Makes Three" Psyche's Abduction was constructed on heavy acid-free paper that has been professionally mounted and sewn on to cleats (unframed) ABOUT THE ARTIST - Aaron Sheppard’s work speaks eloquently about constructing and projecting identity, religiosity, sexuality, and counterfactual historicism. His filter is the culture’s love of fame and/or pornography, mixed with the romance and perversion of classical allegorical portraiture. His lavish materiality finds a narrative function for neon light tubes...

Oil on canvas.