Activism and Performance: The Art Portfolio of Leenda Bonilla
Sofa-Seat detail #1 (from Atraversa)
Leenda Bonilla is an interdisciplinary artist who incorporates elements of activism and performance into each work. Born in New York City and raised between the Bronx and Puerto Rico, the artist’s activist work focuses on building relationships between immigrant communities, businesses, and officials through arts activities.
Leenda notes in her artist statement that her artistic…
Vitality and Decay: An Art Portfolio by Rachel Lambert
Aspen Rug, faux fur, embroidery, floss, wire
Rachel Lambert’s artistic practice encompasses a wide range of media and techniques, from land art and interventions in nature, to photography, to soft sculpture, to two-dimensional media. Much of the artist’s work deals with nature, embracing both vitality and decay; elements of beauty where one might not expect to find them.
Harvest Moon Eclipse, photograph
Looking through…
The Art Portfolio of Oil Painter Beverly Parson White
Fall Barn (triptych), oil on canvas
Beverly Parson White is an oil painter and artist based in Texas. In her practice, Beverly creates portrait and landscape paintings, as well as a variety of crocheted crafts.
2 Pot Holders and 1 Wash/Dish Cloth, crocheted cotton
I like the textured, painterly atmosphere of the artist’s canvases -- the artist is adept at varying her brush marks and using specific methods of mark-making to evoke…
Memory Formation and Recollection: Art by Jeannie Polisuk
Jeannie Polisuk is a painter and sculptor based in eastern Canada. In her artistic practice, Jeannie creates two and three-dimensional artworks that use a symbolic visual language to address themes of memory formation and recollection through sentimental objects.
Soap as a Yardstick of Civilization, stuffed toys, yardstick
As we saw in our previous feature of Jeannie’s darkly iconographic artwork, an image of…
Movement and Vibration: The Art Portfolio of Michael Lightsey
Michael Lightsey was born in Ohio and is currently based in California. The artist creates graphite sketches and drawings as well as photographs and abstract paintings, often focusing his artistic attention on a sense of rapid movement and vibration.
I really enjoy the artist’s recent sketches in his Dancer series and portraiture gallery. The way the artist draws hair is quite…
Life and Vitality: Painting and Portraiture by Katherine Bennett
Katherine Bennett is a painter and illustrator currently based in Ontario. In her artistic practice, Katherine paints and draws female figures engaged in everyday activities, or looking out at the viewer with a certain sense of life and vitality.
untitled (eight), pencil on tinted paper
I really like the way Katherine’s style varies according to medium. The artist’s Faces series comprises graphic…
The Watercolour and Pencil Crayon Portfolio of Geneviève Désy
Reproduction d'un dessin de couple de cardinaux / drawing of cardinal couple (print), Polychromos pencil crayons
Geneviève Désy is an artisan and illustrator based in Quebec who creates original drawings and prints, as well as handmade accessories. The artist is skilled at photo-realism in a range of media including watercolour and pencil crayon.
Chat Festif / Festive Cat, watercolour
Many of Geneviève’s drawings feature…
Gestural Sculptures: The Art Portfolio of Ario Mashayekhi
Shakti, tree root, wood, fabric, acrylics
Ario Mashayekhi is a creator involved in both visual and performing arts. In his visual art practice, Ario works in both two and three-dimensional media, producing paintings, sketches, and gestural sculptures that explore the human figure as a motif, often pushing the envelope in terms of how figures are rendered.
Katrina, after New Orleans Flood, acrylics
I like the stylistic variation in…
A Unique Impression: Painting by Meghan Sims
Midnight Moonlight, acrylic on canvas
Meghan Sims is a visual artist from Kitchener, Ontario. The artist’s practice is informed by her own visual perception -- born with achromatopsia, Meghan is colourblind and extremely light-sensitive, two conditions that lend to a unique impression of the world.
The works in Meghan’s portfolio are striking for their heavy use of dark pigment and silhouetted forms,…
Kenyon Motor Co: The Art Portfolio of Tom Kenyon
375VX, linoleum block print on newspaper
Tom Kenyon is a car and automotive racing enthusiast who is using a combination of collage, paint, sculpture, and other mixed media to weave a fictional narrative surrounding his grandfather’s car parts shop, Kenyon Motor Co. The artist’s body of work can be appreciated from an individual perspective, and as a complete narrative.
It’s really interesting to…
A Portfolio of Musical Composition by Paul J. Bolger
Philo in Action, acrylic on canvas
Paul J. Bolger is a musician and artist based in Ireland. The artist’s work spans musical composition, songwriting, filmmaking, illustration, and more. In his practice, Paul celebrates his own history and Irish culture as well as exploring a graphic, high-impact illustration style.
Swim (shot and edited by Colin Shanahan)
Several of the artist’s songs are available with video on Paul’s…
Deeper Meanings: The Art of Laura Munteanu
Message in a bottle, mixed media on wooden canvas
Laura Munteanu is a Romanian-born artist currently based in Switzerland. The artist works in finance by day, practicing art as a mode of self-expression, and a way of exploring ideas and imagery with deeper meanings.
New Day, mixed media on canvas paper
I like the relatively loose, gestural brush strokes and dreamy colour palettes that Laura employs in her paintings. Though the…
The Traditional and Digital Media Art Portfolio of Nancy Ungar
TOO LATE FOR THE PHOENIX, digital art
Nancy Ungar is an artist who works in traditional and digital media, producing dense abstractions that reflect on the macroscopic and microscopic forms of nature, as well as more esoteric concepts.
The Tentacles of Time, digital art
I really enjoy the way Nancy uses colour -- the artist’s works often feature a wide range of unique hues, unified by an overarching colour palette that suggests cool…
A Portfolio of Realistic Drawings by Shannon Ann Coyle
Shannon Ann Coyle is an artist based in Newfoundland and Labrador. The artist works primarily in graphite, creating detailed, realistic drawings of people, animals, and the seagulls inhabiting the local landscape.
The artist’s drawings are produced with a delicate hand, with pencil strokes lightly blended. The resulting images have a soft touch and feel almost nostalgic in a way, as though the artist…
The Art Portfolio of Sculptor and Painter Larry Scaturro
Larry Scaturro is a sculptor and painter currently based in Brooklyn, New York. In his practice, Larry creates sculptures that seem inspired by the shapes and aesthetics of mid-20th century contemporary art, as well as paintings that offer a thoroughly contemporary take on geometric abstraction.
Larry’s paintings remind me a bit of works by David Wightman, particularly in the…