Skin is the medium for which artist Leon Lam-hien of Shitoujii has won the most acclaim and note. Catching our eye a few years ago, Leon’s been on our radar ever since, with his stunning organic mark-making technique that results in tattoos that stand up as modern art. Born and raised in Lyon, France, Leon presently lives in Hong Kong where he runs his own tattoo parlor, Shitoujii. Lam-hien generally works in a fairly limited palette, viewing each canvas as an experiment where line marries movement. Fortunately, he has acquired a legions of fans that are both devoted and open-minded, as these permanent markings are unpredictable from the get-go, “I’m pretty lucky they let me have their skin,” a remark that’s equally terrifying as it is exciting.
Kevin Van Aelst
The talented and innovative artist, illustrator and photographer Kevin Van Aelst creates extraordinary images out of everyday objects. It wasn’t until his B.A. studies in psychology at Cornell University when he began exploring his artistic side. Taking a gamble on his burgeoning love for photography, he went on to complete a M.F.A. in photography from the University of Hartford, where his work flourished.
Van Aelst is a 2008 recipient of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism fellowship grant, and has been commissioned to create art for such publications as Time, Men’s Health, GQ, Business Week, Fast Company, and Scientific American. His photo illustrations can be seen every week in the New York Times Magazine. He has taught photography courses at the Hartford Art School, Middlesex Community College, and currently at Quinnipiac University and the ACES/Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, Connecticut.
“My artwork is an attempt to reconcile my physical surroundings with the fears, fascinations, curiosities, and daydreams occupying my mind. The photographs and constructions consist of common artifacts, materials, and scenes from everyday life, which have been rearranged and reassembled into various forms, patterns, and illustrations. The images aim to examine the distance between where my mind wanders to and the material objects that inspire those fixations. Equally important to this work are the “big picture” and the “little things” — the mundane and relatable artifacts of our daily lives, and more mysterious notions of life and existence. This work is about creating order where we expect to find randomness, and also hints that the minutiae all around us is capable of communicating much larger ideas.”
Leslie Friedman
Leslie Friedman was born in Providence, and while she currently lives in Philly, she still considers RI her home. During the summer of 2002, Leslie learned how to silk-screen at the basement printmaking workshop of the lauded arts non-profit, AS220. She received a BA in Political Science from Brown University in 2005 where she concentrated her studies in political theory and civil liberties. From 2005 to 2007, Friedman lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and built a printmaking studio in the historic neighborhood of San Telmo. She describes these years as fundamental to her maturation from poster maker to print artist. In the Fall of 2009, she began an MFA program in printmaking at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.
Friedman’s alter-ego, LesliePVD, embodies the values embedded in Providence’s printmaking culture: the appreciation of industrial craft, the belief in DIY/punk ethos and the acknowledgment of the political and social historical significance of prints in promoting civil liberties. By blurring the line between rock n’ roll posters and fine art, LesliePVD aims to inspire spontaneous discussion and debate over complex contemporary environmental and social issues. Through humor, bold colors and collage, her serigraphs are funny, awkward, honest, expressive combinations of texture that awaken the democratic spirit.
Andy Smith
Born and raised in Norfolk, Andy Smith studied illustration at the University of Brighton and the Royal College of Art, London. Graduating in 1998 he quickly established a client list of advertising, publishing and editorial clients including Orange, Mercedes, McDonalds, The Guardian, Expedia, Sony, Vodafone, Random House and Penguin Books, directing Run London a commercial for Nike in 2000.
His work combines illustration and typography to create images that have humor, energy and optimism and all are executed with a handmade, hand-printed, tactile feel. Quirky characters find themselves in absurd situations, often with a large piece of lettering nearby. When not producing commercial work for clients Andy can be found in the studio screen printing books and posters about Fatty, the Target People and the Hot Dog. He has exhibited in the UK, USA, France and Australia. He lives and pretends to work by the sea in Hastings, East Sussex. His favorite color is blue.
Phil Dunne
Phillip Dunne is an artist from northside Dublin, Ireland. For the past five years, he’s been working as an artist on a variety of commercial, personal and published art projects. His distinctive style of colorful, intricate work is a combination of traditional and digital mediums such as pencil, pen, watercolor, ink and digital coloring and rendering using computer applications. He is a member of Depthcore, an international modern art collective.
Debbie Smyth
Debbie Smyth is textile artist most identifiable by her statement thread drawings; these playful yet sophisticated contemporary artworks are created by stretching a network of threads between accurately plotted pins. Her work beautifully blurs the boundaries between fine art drawings and textile art, flat and 3D work, illustration and embroidery, literally lifting the drawn line off the page in a series of “pin and thread” drawings. Debbie plays with scale well; creating both gallery installations and works for domestic interiors. Her unique style lends itself to suit corporate environments, public spaces, window display, set design, graphic design and illustration. By collaborating with interior designers, architects and other creative practitioners, Debbie pushes the expected scope of her work even further. Debbie has worked with companies both nationally and internationally including Ellesse, The New York Times, The Canadian Red Cross, Sony, and The Dorchester Hotel Group