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Stephanie was born and raised in Bern, Switzerland, and moved to the United States about 3 years ago. She lives and works in the New York metropolitan area.“I am fascinated by the idea that things are not always what they seem at first glance. When I approach a new painting, I go intuitively very deep, subconsciously combining feelings, reality and fantasy which spawns its own surreal world. On the other side, photography gives me the opportunity through reflections, layers and dimensions to find and open a portal to an intermediate, and again, surreal world. “

Ryan Warner started taking photographs when he was around ten years old when he received his first camera for Christmas from his Grandmother. After doing a lot of growing he went on to study photography and to work in the dark room at the University of Toledo. A few years, and some serious soul searching later, he received his B.A in Visual Communications from American InterContinental University. Ryan works with many different cameras; both in film and digital, and in many different styles from abstract and surreal to pop art and classic photography. He tends to shoot whatever he finds interesting  that is around him; from live music, bicycles and warehouses, to nature, as well as commercial work and weddings. Ryan's work has been represented by the MacWorthington Gallery in Columbus, Ohio and shown in various locations around Northwest Ohio. Besides photography work, he is also a painter, a musician, a singer/songwriter, and a writer. All of these influences can be seen in the photography and art work that he creates. Currently he is working on a photography book of his latest work that will be out by the middle of July and a photography/poetry book with his friend and poet Mike Kocinski that will be out sometime in the next year.

David de Lara is an artist based in Austin, Texas. He was born in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1979 and was raised in the rural countryside of South Texas. In 2003 he received a BFA in Fine Arts from Texas A&M University-Kingsville and relocated to Austin shortly thereafter. His work has been exhibited throughout Texas in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Corpus Christi and also nationally in Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle.

David works in variety of media including painting, drawing, mixed media, digital media, and photography. Since 2000 his artwork has focused on portraits and figurative work of women. His work often has a dark, surreal, and whimsical look that comes from a variety of influences. His style is something that has been developed over time and one that many people have come to recognize almost immediately.

The women in David’s paintings and drawings are usually not based on anyone in particular and they’re like dolls used to represent the human condition. When he was younger much of his artwork was created out of the desire to direct thoughts, emotions, and experiences outward. As time has passed, the work has grown and changed as he’s matured and lived through more experiences. The original desire has always been there, but it has also become more encompassing to represent a few of his philosophies about humanity’s existence. Although what he creates is presented from his point of view, what people interpret and connect with from his work is very telling about the common ground everyone has.

Photography began as an extension of David’s artwork since women are the subject matter for both. Much of his photography can be categorized as artistic, alternative glamour. In recent years it has become more integrated with his core work. The images of the women he photographs are sometimes manipulated by hand and/or digitally to blur the line between the reality and surrealism of life. There is an interaction of what is real and what isn’t that goes beyond the captured image to create something with a new meaning.

A 1980 Olympia steal body camera that belonged to Matthew’s mother was one of his first memories of curiosity. “I was so interested in how this small metal machine worked and the idea that I could capture the world with its use. “This started my life long obsession.” At the age of 16, Matthew was given his first SLR camera from his mother. He had just enrolled in a photography course at his high school, which required an SLR camera. This was his introduction to the world of photography and the knowledge to use light manipulation.  The digital revolution moved Matthew from the darkroom with black and white images, to the computer where he could push his images with rich colors. Matthew’s concentration is in scenes that are “caught in the moment”. Flash lighting allows him to manipulate ambient lighting to achieve the rich color schemes. This is his expressionist mind-set at work. “The people we love has an impact on every moment in our lives. I capture these moments and share them with the world.”

Throughout Kenan’s life he has been fascinated by the mental transmutation that occurs when an inanimate object becomes an animate being. Through his sculptures he almost seems to breath life into the lifeless elements aiming for assemblages that are greater than the sum of their parts.The souls of his sculptures seem to be trapped within the objects he collects. Kenan reveals the soul bit by bit, refashioning elements with purpose, binding them together, each element dictating the next and the sculpture’s soul dictating the whole.For him art is magic, it is fetishism, it is illuminating the life that seems to exist within all objects. It mimics life itself as a cycle of nothingness and being, nihilism and meaning.

There is a story behind each painting which stems from the idea that a piece of the artist is revealed in some way. Whether it turns out to be a mood, a feeling, or personality, it’s still a part of the artist that the viewer takes with them. Therefore, the viewer creates a visual relationship with the painting, which allows development and assessment of their own opinions about my art. This is why I want to share my paintings outside the studio…I usually paint intuitively, learning as I go, just feeling my way along the canvas. This way I am focusing mainly on process and taking what I learned from one painting and applying it to the next. …I can take a person and paint them several times, but each painting captures a different moment or personalit…I found that the figure is also the most challenging for me, and this challenge intrigues me and encourages me to repaint it over and over again. …Each time I finish a painting, there is a little piece of me captured and placed in front of an audience so they can judge me not only as an artist but who I am personally. These are my paintings; painted pieces of self; moments of my life made into a piece of art.

Initially art came natural to Jonathan, “later in high school I was introduced to graffiti from a kid in my advisory class and stuck with it because I liked the reaction that I was getting from people.” Further compelled by positive commentary he started “using different methods to have my viewers wondering what I was going to create next.” He has grown so much with this urban art style that it keeps evolving with new colors, concepts, and imagination. Check out his work and stand by to see what he’s going to create next.

Matt is a mixed media artist who creates phenomenally inspiring works of art using light, sound, and urban art with beautiful cityscapes as backdrops. In his most recent project, Texas by Light, Texas became the backdrop for an international collective of artists, documentary filmmakers and new media explorers. Texas by Light is part documentary, part cinema, part experimental and all about dynamically documenting light, human motion, and digital interaction. Check out his work and his work with others, it will illuminate you.

Christopher Sabbatini is an emerging Milanese Artist with a degree in Italian Literature and Studio Art, with concentrations in Photography and Digital Art from the University of Virginia. While at the University working as a photojournalist, he covered life, using his camera as an eye in which to explore and discover the world. Personifying himself as an “omnivorous” artist, he does not have a single technique or subject to develop and insatiably searches for new life experiences.

Nicole graduated with a degree in Fine Arts at Sonoma State University with an emphasis in sculpture. While in college she sought to pursue as many different techniques as possible and was given the opportunity to learn bronze foundry, wood shop, welding, ceramics and painting. Now working on different commissions for individuals and businesses, she has become a multitalented artisan that continually experiments with a variety of mediums with great success.