Zhang Dawo was born in Chengu Shanxi province, not far from Beijing in 1942. Dawo received systematic calligraphy training in his profoundly cultural family during his early years. His grandfather was one of the Beijing University’s key staff members, head of the Chinese Literature Department under Cai Yuan-Pei, the principal. Another grandfather was the first president of the National Palace Museum Beijing and a famous archeologist. Dawo’s father, Zhang Wanli, was a linguist, translator and calligrapher.
Chen Zhiguang was born in 1963 in Xiamen, Fujian Province. He graduated from Fujion University’s Fine Arts Institute in 1988 and is currently a member of the Standing Committee of the China Sculpture Association, the Central Academy of Fine Arts of City Design School in China, and a visiting professor of the Modern Art School of the Tioniin Academy of Fine Arts.
From scripture and speech we are familiar with thinking eyes as the gate of the soul. From movies, we know that watching eyes speak a lot. Adam Gabriel’s paintings remind us of the truth of these observations. Who is staring back at us from his canvases? The nameless people whose gaze inevitably catch ours say a lot in their silent manner.
From 1949 to 1954 Richard Hoffmann studied painting at the Saarbrücken State School for Arts and Crafts with Boris Kleint and Frans Masereel and sculpture with Theo Siegle. After passing his diploma, Hoffmann received a scholarship in 1954/55 from the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière in Paris and from 1957 to 1962 he received a scholarship from the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, where he studied art history with Will Grohmann and was a master student at the university. He made friends with Georg Baselitz, Eugen Schönebeck, Matthias Koeppel and Arwed Gorella from this period. Numerous study trips took him through Europe, to Asia Minor, the Near East and Africa. From 1969 to 1989 he worked as an art teacher.
Born in Tianjin, China in 1959.Graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1982. Currently teaching at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, he is the professor and doctoral tutor of art. He was the former deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He is also a member of the National Urban Sculpture Committee, Expert in the evaluation of artworks collected by the National Art Museum of China, member of the Exhibition Qualification Evaluation Committee of the National Art Museum of China, China sculpture institute’s executive director, the member of the Sculpture Art Committee of the Beijing Artists Association.
Natalja Nouri is a freelance artist born in Latvia’s capital, Riga. She lives and works in Hamburg.
Her art is defined by the concept of “Nature Mysticism and Symbols – Alchemy of Cultures”. In her work, cultures, beliefs, symbol languages and religions of the East and the West meet. They collide, mingle and show how everything is related to each other and inspires each other. Microcosm and macrocosm are inextricably linked in her art. Many of her symbolic works are characterized by overt or covert symmetric structures. The artist uses the motif of the genetic chain repeatedly to show how the origins of man are connected with nature and cosmos in an indissoluble bond.
Saša Makarová is an Austrian-Slovak painter. Saša Makarová was born in Košice, Slovakia. She studied painting from 1987 to 1991 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, she moved to Austria in 1991 and studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, under the supervision of Prof. Adolf Frohner, who had influenced Viennese Actionism. From 1996 her works have been shown in numerous exhibitions, such as the Museum Morsbroich, Künstlerhaus Wien, Art Karlsruhe, the Viennafair and the ARCO Madrid.
Born in Sendai (Japan) in 1972, the glass artist Masumi Igarashi attended Gaskushüin University from 1990 to 1994 and later the Tokyo Glass Art Institute. From 1997 to 1999 she had her own studio in Yokohama. Since 1999 she has been living and working in Marne (Germany). She has already taken part in numerous glass and sculpture exhibitions in Germany and the Netherlands.
Māris Čačka uses the abstract dimension of visual art to record his dialogues with friends, acquaintances and strangers alike. These conversations have been brewing for some time and are now the artist’s principal narrative. Māris Čačka’s paintings have an unusual semblance to text – the structure of color fields and the graphic rhythm are uncannily reminiscent of assorted words and letters in a book.
It is an ostensibly plain, harmonious and beautifully arranged world, which conveys unrest, insight and passion much like words convey meaning once their sense has been grasped.
Dao Zi is a poet, art critic, and painter. He was born in Qingdao on November 26th, 1956. Dao Zi graduated from Northwestern University and from Beijing Normal University. He was deputy editor-in-chief of Changan, a monthly journal organized by the Xi’an Association of Literature and Arts, as well as professor at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. Dao Zi is now a professor and supervisor of Ph.D. students at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University. He is a member of the International Aesthetics Association.
Marita G. Weiden is a German painter who was born in Hückeswagen in 1955. She studied painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Gerhard Richter, Gotthard Graubner, and Gerhard Merz. Her relationship with color and color fields was deeply influenced by her teachers. She has exhibited her work extensively in solo and group exhibitions, and her paintings can be found in both private and public collections. In 2000, she was awarded the 20th Kunstpreis by the Kreissparkasse Esslingen. She currently lives and works in Wuppertal.
BLONDEMONKEY is an artist whose unique name serves as a pseudonym, inviting curiosity and fascination. Despite his young age of 32, BLONDEMONKEY demonstrates remarkable mastery of various artistic techniques. As a self-taught artist without formal training, his works display elements of genius.
