Previewing upcoming art exhibitions from coast to coast, American Art Collector is a unique monthly magazine specially designed to bring living representational artists, galleries and active art collectors together in one place.
Welcome to American Art Collector’s August issue, dedicated to the Art of the Portrait. In the context of art, provenance means “the place of origin.” When you purchase a portrait directly from an artist, you are directly connected to the piece’s provenance. It is amazing to think that portrait art has been in demand for well over 5,000 years, dating back to ancient Egypt, where portrait artists were commissioned to paint aristocrats, pharaohs and government officials in all of their splendor. Portrait art is as important now for your own collection as it has been through the ages and we have put together a star lineup of nearly 40 portrait artists in this issue to help you find your next original masterpiece. Our annual Portrait Artist Directory starts on Page…
The healing power of art is not a secret, and there is plenty of scientific evidence to support it. Just like being in nature, making (and looking at) art has positive effects on our emotional, psychological and physical wellbeing, from alleviating stress to combatting depression. Today, a whole field of therapy utilizes creativity as a tool of transformation. As I mentally flipped through the content of the August issue, it struck me how many stories about art’s capacity to heal are inside these pages and in the magazine in general. It made me realize how privileged I am to have such deeply personal conversations with so many artists each month, during which I often end up stepping out of interviewer mode and sharing quite a bit about myself as well.…
July 30-August 3 Intersect Aspen Art and Design Aspen Ice Garden Aspen, CO www.intersectaspen.com Through August 1 American Artists Professional League: Spring Members Online Virtual admin@aaplinc.org www.aaplinc.org August 1-September 2 To be Seen and Heard: Small Stories of Children in Art RJD Gallery Romeo, MI • (586) 281-3613 www.rjdgallery.com August 1-September 31 MICRO 33PA/Virtual Chicago, IL www.poetsandartists.com www.artsy.net/show/33-contemporary-m-i-c-r-o August 2-31 Around the World Principle Gallery Charleston, SC • (843) 727-4500 www.principlegallery.com August 2-September 16 Z.Z. Wei: Whispers of The Heartland Blue Rain Gallery Durango, CO • (970) 232-2033 www.blueraingallery.com Through August 6 Adrienne Stein: The Enchanted Eye Gallery 1261 Denver, CO • (303) 571-1261 www.gallery1261.com August 8-September 6 Joseph Keiffer Courthouse Gallery Fine Art Ellsworth, ME 04605 • (207) 667-6611 www.courthousegallery.com August 9-11 Sculpture in the Park Show & Sale…
Over the past several years, Georgia-based artist Chris diDomizio has completed a series of drawings and paintings of former president Jimmy Carter. Recently, one of his paintings from the series was acquired for the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. According to diDomizio, his journey to painting President Carter happened by chance—and brought new inspiration to his creative process. “After taking nearly 20 years off from commissioned portrait painting, I decided to test the waters again with a new beginning,” diDomizio explains. “After this decision, I was approached about doing a legacy series of drawings and paintings of President Carter. I was given some images from the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park and archive in Plains, Georgia—Carter’s birthplace—and decided to make a trip to view…
The Colombian artist César Biojo paints portraits and then destroys them. Contemplating his paintings before encountering the benefit of his eloquent commentaries, I thought of change, essence, the gaze. It was obvious that he had created a fully realized portrait of his subject created over many hours. When the paint was still wet he ran a spatula over it, destroying its verisimilitude but leaving its substance—paint, and the memory of its subject. All the material of the sitter’s painted essence remains but is changed forever. The painting seems to be the opposite of a portrait—its perfection, and that of the sitter, is destroyed, and the accidental redistribution of the paint through the action of the spatula, reflects the contradictions or opposites that exist in all of us. Biojo explains his…
Connoisseurs of fine representational art will doubtlessly see German-born Canadian artist Jeanine Brito’s paintings hanging within the realms of stereotype, and note that as an avant-gardist primitive casting herself as a deskilled outsider of the American tradition she is far from possessing the technical mastery that would trump the clichés. Her theatrical painting Some Vivid Dream uses many of the repetitive conventions of her didactic genre—the mask of makeup, the meat and marketing of the commercialized and exploited body, the innocent wings of virtue emerging from a wicked and corseted model dressed in the pale skin of an aughties angel Victoria’s Secret model, wearing the red-cheeked pancake and paint of masquerading Pierrot. Dorothy’s red shoes are well-worn pop culture icons, at least as tired and tiresome as blond and brash-boobed…
