artist of the month
Featured Artist for Nov 2007: Fernando Ureña Rib
Fernando Ureña Rib was born in 1951 in La Romana, Dominican Republic
and has studied art since the ripe old age of 12. He graduated from
the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes of Santo Domingo and did
post-graduate work with Dominican painter Jaime Colson. In the
seventies, Ureña Rib traveled throughout Europe and North Africa
before being asked by the State Department of the United States to
acquaint himself with America’s museums, art schools and galleries. He
has held posts as the PR Director of the National Museum of Modern Art
(DR) and as the president of the Dominican Artist Association. All the
while, he has created numerous abstract paintings of sensual nudes and
organic forms featured in galleries worldwide, to include Madrid,
Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Munich, Montreal, Bogota,
Caracas, Santiago, New York, Chicago, Miami, and, of course, Santo
Domingo. He founded the Fundacion Ureña Rib / Latin Art Museum.
Examples of Fernando Urena Rib’s work: latinartmuseum.net
Featured Artist for October 2007
Elizabeth Larkin
“Do you smell what I hear? Do you hear what I touch? Do you touch what I taste? Do you taste what I see? Do you see the world? Through my eyes . . .”
– Elizabeth Larkin
Formatively, photography was my first love. To capture an interesting moment, a scene that possessed an atmosphere, or a person that knowingly or not had conveyed their emotion, epitomized the ultimate form of creative expression. From Atget, Walker Evans, Edward Curtis to Marian Post Wolcott, Barbara Morgan, and Ruth Bernard, these were the people who led the way.
While pursuing post undergraduate studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, two classes and creative experiences would change my path. A two-dimensional design class and a color class went straight for my heart and never left. Both classes and instructors, working artists themselves, introduced me to a new visual vocabulary by allowing me to solve creative questions in a non-representational manner, as well as put brush to paper in a 4-month quest to arrive at my ultimate color, respectfully. That first brushstroke through the use of automatism was both terrifying and ultimately liberating. It has impacted all painting since. The Reflection Series can be directly traced to it.
There is a lifetime of imagery to express. My painting takes two routes on my journey. The first is the “unique” artwork. It is a singular depiction of a person, event, thought or inspiration. Some of these images stand on their own merit singly. They often evolve during the course of the creation resulting in a far stronger piece.
The other paintings I produce may hold their own individually but possess so much information and possibility that they need to be expanded and explored. Thus commences “The Series”.
The MINERAL SERIES highlights the hues, earthly textures, and derivative metals found in both the original mined mineral and its home. The beauty and nuance of color and form are presented in a stage of melted, amorphic liquidity that has been visually sealed back into its hardened original state.
The REFLECTION SERIES is inspired by automatism in movement and color inherent in layers and tones. An ongoing discussion can be conducted by the energy used in viewing and that emitting from the work itself.
The SURFACE SERIES depicts the tactile nature of visual expression. Metaphors for apparently simple meanings found in life, viewed in the single color are deceptive. Reality is truly found in the multi-layered dimensions existing beneath the surface.
The TRINITY SERIES explores the interrelation of the number three to the universe.
The LOVE SERIES embraces that which seeks to explain the heart, the mind, the spirit . . . and our love for another.
The RED ROAD SERIES is inspired by the grace, strength, and dignity of the Native American.
With some of the great masters of painting and sculpture to use as a source of constant inspiration such as Michelangelo, Goya, Georgia O’Keefe, and Robert Rauschenberg, it is the exposure to quality in art that is my quest. Beauty is dark and light. The dark is not always evil and the light is often deceptive. But it is necessary for me to explore both.
Two years ago a serious illness entered my life, followed by the loss of an immediate family member. While the illness is ongoing and challenging, it has also provided me with multiple single and series ideas. Homage to the love of a parent and the fortitude I possess in times of diversity should and will be celebrated. The light and the dark – through my eyes.
Elizabeth Larkin
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