modern art

Sean Kush has been creating sociopolitical paintings and illustrations since 2015, touching on a wide range of modern topics and often featuring God and Jesus reacting. Sober since 2007, Sean used to be a homeless drug addict. After cleaning up, he began working in the rehabilitation field, helping drug addicts and mental patients professionally. Much of his crude and trippy subject matter comes from personal experience during and after his drug addiction, and his own sense of social consciousness. 

Art Basel/Miami art fairs are global platforms for people’s imaginations. It’s astonishing how many hundreds of galleries show up every year to exhibit artworks that they think will catch the attention of collectors who will pay their asking prices. It’s like walking into a fantasyland where there are no rules and regulations. Just roll the dice and maybe you will get lucky to buy or sell. Either way, Art Basel is an extraordinary experience.According to the Art Basel website, more than 200 of the world's leading international modern and contemporary art galleries feature their artworks.

Paul Luikart is a writer and artist living in Chattanooga. He is fascinated by the role that paint plays and what it can do in the process of making a painting. Characteristic of Luikart’s work is the thick application of paint, sometimes applied with palette knives and brushes, and sometimes with old baseball cards and scrap mat board. Bold colors, long drips down the canvas, and layers upon layers give the paint its own say, so to speak, in his creations.

Jennifer R. A. Campbell's compositions call attention to the chaotic world of humanity, while conversely investigating the various elements that inform the ways we interact. She presents her characters in fictitious landscapes, amid a frenzied environment that invites the spectator into a visual feast of symbols. In the absence of words, the viewer is able to arrive at multiple interpretations as to what is occurring in the scene presented as the artist furthermore highlights the absurdity of human existence.

After completing her architectural studies at UC Berkeley, Mojdeh’s involvement in art and design has taken her to San Francisco, New York, Rome, Tokyo, and Berlin, where she spent the summer of 2018 on an arts fellowship awarded by The Studio Visit. Her exhibitions locally and internationally have been featured in publications such as The Rib, DIRT, So To Speak, and The Washington Post. Her stories have aired on The Moth Radio Hour on NPR and she also served as The Moth’s Washington DC StorySlam Producer from 2015-2018. 

Blayne Beacham Macauley is a painter based in Atlanta, Georgia. She studied Plein Air oil painting in Venice Italy at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica and Studio Art at Boston University. She uses symbols to create abstract paintings, which represent exact moments in her life.  Her work has been featured in Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, Southern Living and Southern Seasons Magazine. Macauley’s art explores the idea of the human soul.  As a soul travels through life, it changes.  It grows, learns, and is damaged by life events.  Certain moments in time can permanently impact a soul. 

Philadelphia-based painter Richard Gabriele has emerged in the New York City art scene as a symbolic figurehead, reminding us that Romance does exist, even in our generation. Art has always been a part of Gabriele's life. He began drawing at an early age and kept sketchbooks throughout childhood and high school, traveling extensively to gain the experiences and stylistic influences depicted later in his paintings. By the time Gabriele realized his dream of becoming an artist in college, his techniques were nearly perfected.

The approach of Seymour Boardman (1921-2005) to visual structure evolved from his earlier works which evidenced a concern with expressive painted surfaces. After losing the use of his left hand during World War II, Boardman resumed his art studies in France from 1946-1949. “Visual structure” played a major role in his approach. Boardman moved from the use of gestural paint strokes to formally composed canvases that are specific in the use of color, shape placement, and line.