Elle Hanley, United States
Venus
Photograph
24 H x 36 W x 0.1 in
The Birth of Venus. In Roman mythology, Venus was the goddess of love,
sex, beauty, and fertility. She was the Roman counterpart to the Greek
Aphrodite. However, Roman Venus had many abilities beyond the Greek Aphrodite;
she was a goddess of victory, fertility, and even prostitution. According to
Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite was born of the foam from the sea after Saturn
(Greek Cronus) castrated his father Uranus (Ouranus) and his blood fell to the
sea. This latter explanation appears to be more a popular theory due to the
countless artworks depicting Venus rising from the sea in a clam. More The Birth of Venus
Elle Hanley is an american fine art photographer currently living and working in Seattle. her work is creative and varied focusing mainly on capturing beauty and emotion in a still shot of time.
She began photography two years ago as an artistic outlet and it grew into a full fledged devotion. She was drawn in particular to self portraiture for the control it gave over the image outcome and has since grown into a self portrait artist. Elle enjoys the challenges in creating something vintage and timeless from a thoroughly modern process and the contradiction between the two is a strong theme throughout her work. More on Elle Hanley
Cy Twombly
Leda and the Swan, c. 1962
Oil, pencil, and crayon on canvas
6' 3" x 6' 6 3/4" (190.5 x 200 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art
Leda & the Swan, see below
Rome, Twombly's home since the 1950s, has nurtured his fascination with classical antiquity. In this work he refers to the Roman myth in which Jupiter, lord of the gods, takes the shape of a swan in order to ravish Leda, the beautiful mother of Helen (over whom the Trojan war would be fought). Twombly's version of this old art-historical theme supplies no contrast of feathers and flesh but a fusion of violent energies in furiously thrashing overlays of crayon, pencil, and ruddy paint. A few recognizable signs—hearts, a phallus—fly out from this explosion, in stark contrast to the sober windowlike rectangle near the top of the painting. More on this painting
Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly Jr. (April 25, 1928 – July 5, 2011) was an American painter, sculptor and photographer. He belonged to the generation of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns but chose to live in Italy after 1957.
His paintings are predominantly large-scale, freely-scribbled, calligraphic and graffiti-like works on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors. Many of his works are in the permanent collections of most of the museums of modern art around the world
Many of his later paintings and works on paper shifted toward "romantic symbolism", and their titles can be interpreted visually through shapes and forms and words. Twombly often quoted the poets as Stéphane Mallarmé, Rainer Maria Rilke and John Keats, as well as many classical myths and allegories in his works. Twombly is said to have influenced younger artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Francesco Clemente, and Julian Schnabel. More om Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly Jr.
Cathy Hegman
Preflight Icarus
Oil and wax on board
28 x 24 inches
Private collection
Icarus, see below
Cathy Hegman. "My art is my life both literally and physically. I am no longer sure where the paint ends and life begins or vice versa. I am for the most part a figurative painter. I particularly have a penchant for painting the unknown, the parts of life and painting that simply refuse to be defined. I paint figures that embody no particular persona, but are comprised of bits, pieces and facets of those who have in some way marked my journey for either good or bad. The amalgamated resulting figure is both familiar, strange, and often enigmatic. The figure for the most part in my work is a two dimensional shape that integrates into and out of the background shapes. It is a pigmented push and pull of visual weight that seems to give the painting life without giving either a portrait or caricature of anyone. I most often prefer my forms to remain faceless, diffused and dimly lit.. I choose to employ loose open ended narratives in my work, I want to leave options for the viewer." Cathy Hegman 2016
Marco Battaglini, Costa Rica
Sex Stop Global Warming
Airbrush, Acrylic and Digital on Canvas
Private collection
Marco Battaglini is an artist based in San Jose, Costa Rica. Through a subtle interplay of multiple realities overlapping in the chronotope, Battaglini evidences the contradictions in mental models about the temporal contrast (chronological), and the cultural and linguistic barriers.
Compositions which at first seem 'logical', immediately reveal temporal and spatial limitations that are disruptive in the interpretation of reality. More on this painting
Costa Rican artist Marco Battaglini uses his artwork to explore the evolution of culture and knowledge. In some works, he combines classical paintings with modern pop-art references and graffiti for a modern renaissance look. While the imagery appears almost collaged at first glance, looking at the paintings I find subtle details that really add to the ideas behind the pieces, like finding brand names tattooed on the cherubic figures that frequent these scenes. More on Marco Battaglini
Rafael Roa
The Icarus' s daughter in four pieces, c. 1966
4 pieces of Polaroid 50 × 60 cm
Private collection
Icarus. In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Often depicted in art, Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus' father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea's dampness would not clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father's instructions not to fly too close to the sun; when the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell into the sea where he drowned. More on Icarus
Rafael Roa is a self-taught photographer and experimental video artist; in the early 80s he co-founded in Madrid the Image Gallery, dedicated to photography.
Since 1988 he works as a photographer and video artist, exhibiting their creations in these disciplines since 2005. He has specialized in fashion, portrait, corporate photography and advertising campaigns and has worked for the best brands and published in media such as Vogue, Elle, El País Semanal, Cosmopolitan, among others.
He has extensive experience as a teacher of university courses and teacher’s training courses in the area of the image. He currently teaches at the school PIC.A. Rafael is an expert in history of photography and video creation, teaches numerous workshops of these subjects in public and private institutions and universities.
Rafael Roa’s work has been awarded with the First Prize Scholarship Workshops of Contemporary Art (Granada, 1986), the Second FotoPres Award in the category of “Sports” (1990) and the Prize of the First Biennial of Contemporary Art Chapingo (Mexico City , 2008). His work is in the permanent collections of the Valencian Institute of Modern Art, the Andalusian Center of Photography (Almería) and the National Center for Contemporary Arts in Moscow (Russia). More om Rafael Roa
Francesca Woodman
Leda and The Swan
Private collection
Leda, in Greek legend, usually believed to be the daughter of
Thestius, king of Aetolia, and wife of Tyndareus, king of Lacedaemon. She was
also believed to have been the mother (by Zeus, who had approached and seduced
her in the form of a swan) of the other twin, Pollux, and of Helen, both of
whom hatched from eggs. Variant legends gave divine parentage to both the twins
and possibly also to Clytemnestra, with all three of them having hatched from
the eggs of Leda, while yet other legends say that Leda bore the twins to her
mortal husband, Tyndareus. Still other variants say that Leda may have hatched
out Helen from an egg laid by the goddess Nemesis, who was similarly approached
by Zeus in the form of a swan.The divine swan’s encounter with Leda was a subject
depicted by both ancient Greek and Italian Renaissance artists; Leonardo da
Vinci undertook a painting (now lost) of the theme, and Correggio’s Leda (c.
1530s) is a well-known treatment of the subject. More Leda and The Swan
Francesca Stern Woodman (April 3, 1958 – January 19, 1981) was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring either herself or female models. Many of her photographs show young women who are nude, blurred (due to movement and long exposure times), merging with their surroundings, or whose faces are obscured. Her work continues to be the subject of much critical acclaim and attention, years after she died by suicide at the age of 22, in 1981. More Francesca Stern Woodman
Jan Saudek
Roman Charity
Photography
Private collection
Roman Charity is the exemplary story of a woman, Pero, who secretly breastfeeds her father, Cimon, after he is incarcerated and sentenced to death by starvation. She is found out by a jailer, but her act of selflessness impresses officials and wins her father's release.
The story is recorded by the ancient Roman historian Valerius Maximus, and was presented as a great act of filial piety and Roman honour. A painting in the Temple of Pietas depicted the scene. Among Romans, the theme had mythological echoes in Juno's breastfeeding of the adult Hercules, an Etruscan myth. More on Roman Charity
Jan Saudek (born 13 May 1935 in Prague,
Czechoslovakia) is a Czech art photographer and
painter. Saudek's was a Jew and his family to become a target of the
Nazis. Many of his family died in Theresienstadt concentration camp during
World War II.
According
to Saudeks's biography, he got his first camera, a Kodak Baby Brownie, in 1950.
He apprenticed to a photographer and in 1952 started working as a print shop
worker, where he worked until 1983. In 1959, he started painting and drawing.
After completing his military service, he was inspired in 1963 by the catalogue
for Edward Steichen's The Family of Man exhibition, to try to become a serious
art photographer. In 1969, he traveled to the United States and was encouraged
in his work by curator Hugh Edwards.
Returning to Prague, he was forced to work in a clandestine
manner in a cellar, to avoid the attentions of the secret police, as his work
turned to themes of personal erotic freedom, and used implicitly political
symbols of corruption and innocence. From the late 1970s, he became recognized
in the West as the leading Czech photographer. In 1983, the first book of his
work was published in the English-speaking world. The same year, he became a
freelance photographer as the Czech Communist authorities allowed him to cease
working in the print shop, and gave him permission to apply for a permit to
work as an artist. More Jan Saudek
Roberto Manetta, Italy
Dancing mermaid
Photography
39.4 H x 27.6 W x 11.8 in
A mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Africa and Asia. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same tradition), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans.
Some of the attributes of mermaids may have been influenced by the Sirens of Greek mythology. More on mermaids
Roberto Manetta is a traveling freelance photographer, Film and digital photography, since 1999. "No digital manipulation,only photography My passion comes from nature, adventure stories, fantasy films that have contributed phenomenally to my project ideas and the major part of my photographs. I am always very attentive, in all of my movements, in everything surrounding me. I often dream about adventures, fairy tales and mythological women. I look around at the objects surrounding me, with attention, searching for a link between a nude body more than a face. Geometric lines and original compositions are always at the centre of my attention when I launch upon a new project. I don’t really like the classic approach to nude photography. During the years I tried to maintain in all my productions a quality that re-conducted to classical photography, the one which is created without the need of much digital elaboration" More on Roberto Manetta
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