ARCHIVES: FEATURED ARTISTS 2019
Click on the photo to view the artist's page.
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November 2019 FEATURED ARTIST: Irina Klyuev (a.k.a. Irina Ideas) is a renowned pianist and multidisciplinary artist who was born in Montenegro. She built an international career at an early age as a classical pianist, participating in and winning many international competitions. Irina has also been creating works of art in painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation art. She participates in international residencies, exhibiting her work both in physical localities and online. She is a member of the Past Preservers organization, which brings together experts, historians, artists and archaeologists who use modern technology to promote historically significant localities. She runs the website www.musebuz.com, which promotes and deepens the awareness of 20th-century and contemporary artists.
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October 2019 FEATURED ARTIST: Brianna Mercado is a professional dance artist, teacher, choreographer, and speaker based in New York City. Her journey is a study in contrasts – having experienced the deepest challenges and the greatest rewards. Brianna survived life-threatening bone cancer at the age of 15, then went on to receive a full-ride scholarship to UC Berkeley. After graduation, she pulled up California roots for a move to the Big Apple and ignited a career as a professional dancer, only to find out shortly afterward that a second aggressive cancer had invaded her body at the age of 22. Brianna’s performance credits include: TEDx, Isn’t It Romantic, MUNY’s Jesus Christ Superstar, MUNY’s Aida, Fuerza Bruta: Wayra, & a PHISH concert performance. She is represented by McDonald/Selznick Associates Talent Agency and teaches weekly dance classes at Peridance Capezio Center in Manhattan.
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September 2019 FEATURED ARTIST: Alexis P. Suter is a three-time Blues Music Awards nominee. Her dance song “Slam Me Baby” put her on the map, and she became the first African American woman to sign with Epic/Sony Japan. In addition to being a featured artist in over 50 blues and roots festivals nationwide, Alexis and her band have been the opening act for the following artists: B.B. King, Etta James, Bo Diddley, Trombone Shorty, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Dickey Betts, Coco Montoya, Buddy Guy, Allen Touissaint, Emmylou Harris, Johnny Winter, Elvis Costello and for the 20 year reunion of the Muddy Waters Band. Television appearances include Legends, Imus in the Morning and The Artie Lange Show. The latest album, Be Love, hit the streets on May 18, 2019.
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July 2019 FEATURED ARTIST: Marlene Wiedenbaum, PSA-MP, is an award-winning pastel artist from New York. She considers herself “a passionate realist, working with a palette of soft pastels, sanded paper, and a kneaded eraser.” Her award-winning paintings have been exhibited internationally, including the International Pastel Artists Invitational in Taipei, Taiwan and the Xian Art Museum in China. Her work is among six International Master Pastelists featured in two text books commissioned by the Taiwanese government. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, and, in 2012, Marlene was selected out of 1500 artists as one of 10 semi-finalists for the prestigious Basil H. Alkazzi Excellence in Painting Awards. As an Award-Winning Signature Member and MASTER Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America (PSA), Marlene is also an elected board member of the PSA Board of Governors, and she is a member of several other prestigious arts organizations.
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May 2019 FEATURED ARTIST: Sandra Bertrand has been immersed in the arts all of her life, as a theater actress, playwright, painter, photographer, book reviewer, editor and art critic. In theater, her accomplishments are numerous. Her plays include Manikin, The Transformation of Aura Ruanes, Days and Nights of an Ice Cream Princess, The Sentry and the Laughing Ladies and many others. Her plays for television include Chameleon and Coming Attraction. She has been an O’Neill Playwright Conference finalist and her plays have been performed Off-Off Broadway at the Courtyard Playhouse, The Viridian and elsewhere. Sandra’s artwork has been selected for solo and group exhibitions in Connecticut and New York. She is a member and Public Relations Co-coordinator of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) . Sandra is Chief Art Critic for Highbrow Magazine and a contributing writer for GALO Magazine.
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April 2019 FEATURED ARTIST: Kimberly Gerry-Tucker is an author, artist and vice president of The Art of Autism, a nonprofit organization supporting autistic creatives. She is in charge of the P.O.D.S. (People of Diversity, Speaking) Project, one of the many programs sponsored by this nonprofit.
After receiving an Asperger’s/Selective Mutism diagnosis in 1999, Kimberly stopped seeing herself as ‘less-than’ and felt empowered to write candidly about herself as a spectrum woman. Her memoir Under The Banana Moon was published in 2012. Her artwork has appeared in many books and on the cover of three. |
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March 2019 FEATURED ARTIST: Katherine Kean is an award-winning painter from Los Angeles and a former visual effects producer, designer and animator whose film credits include The Fly, Ghost, Stargate, and Willow. Her paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the U.S. and have been acquired by many private and corporate collections. Her work has been presented in many publications and collections, including Bloomingdales in Santa Monica, CA, Schiffer’s 100 Artists of the West Coast II, and the National Weather Center 2015 Biennale.
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February 2019 FEATURED ARTIST: Carol Roullard is a Southern California artist who has been an avid photographer since high school. Using a high-powered microscope, she captures an extraordinary, intricate world of dazzling, tiny crystals. Since retiring from the corporate world in 2010, Carol has sold her unique art locally, nationally and internationally, and her work has received numerous awards, including a first place finish in Clemson University’s “HOOKEd on Microscopy” competition. Her images have been featured in video, print and online publications. Carol has released a clothing and accessory line called Crystal Art Outfitters which features her colorful work. She has co-authored nine camera-related books with her husband, Brian Matsumoto.
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Photo Credit: Carolyn Fong
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January 2019 FEATURED ARTIST: Molly Smith Metzler is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Molly’s plays include Cry it Out (2017 Humana Festival/Actors Theatre of Louisville, 2018 Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award Citation), Elemeno Pea (2011 Humana Festival/Actors Theatre of Louisville), The May Queen (Chautauqua Theatre Company), Carve (The Juilliard School), Close Up Space (Manhattan Theatre Club, Susan Smith Blackburn finalist) and Training Wisteria (Cherry Lane Mentor Project, winner of three KCACTF Awards from The Kennedy Center). In television, Molly’s credits include Casual (Hulu), Orange Is the New Black (Netflix), Codes of Conduct (HBO), and Shameless (Showtime), where she is currently a writer & producer. In film, she recently adapted Ali Benjamin’s novel The Thing About Jellyfish for Reese Witherspoon/MWM/Made Up Stories/Universal, and she is now at work on films for Disney and Fox 2000.
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