Thursday, July 7, 2011

Member Spotlight: Silvana D'Mikos, visual artist, participates in the Show: CART, Baltimore, MD, USA - July 9 - Sept 4, 2011‏

International Women Artists' Salon is thrilled to announce visual artist member Silvana D'Mikos is participating in the exhibition C A R T at Current Gallery in Baltimore, MD, USA, July 9th through September 4th, 2011, with opening reception on July 9th.  

"Soap Series"


Silvana D’Mikos participates in 
C A R T  
July 9 - September 4, 2011
Opening Saturday July 9, 7-10pm
Current Gallery
421 N Howard, Baltimore, MD 21201
Opening coinciding with  30th Annual Artscape


"Soap Series"
  

C A R T
The average American makes two trips to buy groceries each week, making supermarkets, mini-marts, and corner stores essential and incredibly influential parts of our everyday lives. All items are bought and sold at these stores using money. Money is earned through labor, and labor comes in countless different packages, much like our food. Through our labor we are inspired and we are exploited. We progress and we are repressed. We survive.

Art is created through labor, but unlike some of the more negative forms labor takes, art stimulates our minds, challenges our imaginations, and expands our vision for the world. Art is at the center of humanity’s continuous evolution, but it remains extraordinarily undervalued by mainstream American society, which is almost solely focused on the seemingly endless cycle of labor and consumption. This limited view of life is slowly eliminating our ability to imagine, dream, and think freely.

Through C A R T, Current Gallery is positing that art is not optional, but essential. It affects all of us internally, whether we are aware of it or not, and it should therefore be considered as fundamental to our daily lives as the products we purchase at grocery stores every week. Therefore, Current Space will be transformed into a fully functional mini-supermarket, complete with aisles, window displays, shopping baskets, and cash registers in an attempt to explore the exchange of artists’ labor for profit in a familiar, everyday setting.

Curators: Michael Benevento, Monique Crabb and Andrew Liang

  
Silvana D’Mikos is an interdisciplinary installation artist from Uruguay. Her installations are characterized by a variety of aesthetic languages; sculptures, digital images, sound and animation, also through the use of different materials. D’Mikos’s work explores social conflicts derived from human feelings, emotions and relationships.

In 2004, she obtained a Bachelor in fine Arts degree from the Fine Arts School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There, she taught art history to high school student in deprived neighborhoods, worked in carnival as a sculptor, and participated in urban art, community and recycling art projects.

In 2005 she moved to Miami, Florida, where her work began to change direction by the incorporation of new media elements.   She also worked as a graphic designer, and, as an art teacher with at-risk high school students at the Young Men's Academy at MacArthur South. 

D’Mikos’s work has been exhibit internationally.  In 2007 she moved to France to participate in the international curatorial program of L’ecole du Magasin, Centre National d’Art Contemporain de Grenoble.  At the L’ecole, she researched and studied contemporary art collections, focusing on the Belgium collection of Annick and Anton Herbert.  Research that originated the exhibition “Hypothèse pour une Histoire”, a selection of documents from the collection archives, from 1989 and 1990 emphasizing the relationship between the collection and the socio-political events of that period. Also, the publication, “Access to documents/ Access through document”, magazine Hors d’Œuvre, on the access of documents in contemporary art practices and researches.

The following year, she has attended an international summer program in New Media at Transart Institute, Danube University, Berlin, Germany. There she participated in workshops and seminaries about Identity, Sensory perception and Newness. 


"Soap Series"


 
Artist Statement
My training as a sculptor began at the Universidad Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After graduation in 2004, I worked as an interdisciplinary artist, and produced a number of works reflecting my views on the controversial aspects of society. The Invisible Blood Sucker, my instillation that exposes the economic crisis of 2008 exemplifies this idea. 

I see art as an experimental process originating from daily human interactions, and use a variety of media; sculptures, sounds, digital images and motion to express it. My work, I Cannot Understand, which focuses on the problems of communication between people of diverse ethnicity, is a good example.

At present, I am working with a variety of materials and to uncover and hope to uncover a new meaning and potential to highlight life’s transformations and impermanence.  My recycled paper installation and soap sculpture project are based on this idea.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Member Spotlight: Marye Lobb, musician - announcing her fundraiser for her second album‏

International Women Artists' Salon is thrilled to announce singer/songwriter member Marye Lobb is working on her second album and is asking for your help in making it come to fruition.  Please join us in supporting her goal to share her creative gifts with the world.


"An artist has a responsibility.

to listen to the world around him or herself.

to take it in and comprehend the complexity to the best of his or her ability.

An artist has a responsibility.
to be honest.

art, in its truest form, has no hidden agenda - it is there to breathe, to speak, to merely exist.

An artist has a responsibility.

to create a positive message.

to propose a solution, radical or simple as it may be - to serve the greater good."

-Marye Lobb 2011



What this is all about:
I released my first album Finding Home (which you can find on itunes) in 2008 and now it is time to record album number 2.

The songs on my second album are intimate stories from the heart about living in New York City as an artist for the past three years.

I have selected the best professionals, studios and material so that you can enjoy this album in your living room with a glass of wine or cup of tea and hopefully it will make your life better.


The plan:
My good friend and colleague George Saenz will be producing the album. (Cumbiagra, Mic the Robot, Jarana Beat, Son Tostáo).  George has shared the stage with: Ruben Blades, Juan Luis Guerra, Eddie Palmieri, Maria Schneider, Gloria Estefan and has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Montreal Jazz Festival with McCoy Tyner as well as clubs and venues throughout New York City and North America.  George is hot!
 
We have selected the best studios, the best engineers and the most talented musicians to record with us.  We have photographers and designers on board to make the album not only sound good, but look good.


What the money will go towards:
Recording an album is a big project that requires a lot of love and a substantial amount of money.  We for sure have the love part down.  Just need to get that budget together!

The budget will pay the producers, engineers, studios and musicians.  It also covers the photographers, designers, manufactures and publicists. Hard working, talented professionals will be compensated for their excellent work.
You can be a part of this production as it's only possible with the participation of fans, friends and family.


How to Support Me:
My friends’ love and support greatly contributed to the success of my first album and I'm striving to make this one even better! Unfortunately, to do it well requires more resources then I currently have; therefore, I am using Kickstarter (a groundbreaking resource for independent artists) and am working to raise $6,000 by July 20th.  That money will go to studio time, mixing, duplication, registration fees, cover art, and a very talented producer. I'm sending you this message in hopes that you would be able to help me reach my goal.

Here is the link:


When you check out the site you will notice that there are different rewards for each denomination.  For example, if you contribute $10 you will get a digital download of the album before it is released.  If you contribute $25 you will get a copy of the album signed and sent to your home.  So, if you contribute you are essentially pre ordering the album - pretty cool, right?

The program is set up in a way that if I do not reach my goal I won't receive the money, and for that reason I have set my budget at the bare minimum amount I need to complete this project.

I totally understand if you can't pitch in right now, money is tight for everyone so please don't even give it a second thought if this isn't doable for you right now - I completely understand.

Either way, if you feel comfortable, it would mean the world to me if you can forward this information on to three people you know who might want to be a patron to the arts. I'm trying to get the word out however I can.

If you'd like to be a patron of the arts to an artist who you believe can go somewhere, now is your chance!  Every little bit helps, I promise.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU in advance for your consideration, time and generosity.

Thank you for believing in me.

Marye

Born in the Midwest and raised in Rochester, NY, Marye trotted the globe in search for inspiration and purpose. After listening to sounds and taking in the culture of Ireland, Norway, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, she found herself singing songs and playing guitar in New York City clubs. With her Quaker and Buddhist ideals at heart, she put herself through school at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Upon graduation, she released Finding Home in response to her travels. Now in New York City she teaches, writes and performs and is working on her second album.