Profiles of Contemporary Art and - ARTisSpectrum

Susannah Virginia
Griffin
Competing forces characterize the bright,
beautiful, rich paintings of Houston-based artist
Susannah Virginia Griffin. In her representational
works two figures often embody opposing ideals of
light and darkness or excitement and serenity, while
her abstract expressionist compositions feature
layers of acrylic paints applied in generous swaths
with sharp contrasts of form and tone. Yet regardless
of the genre she chooses, there is a sustained and
intriguing tension playing out in every piece, one
often signaled by confrontations between areas
of brightness and shadow. Her ability to move
between styles of application and expression signals
the influences not only of her father, a renowned
and meticulous surrealist, but also what she calls
“the school of life,” that unruly, painful yet beautiful
collection of events that makes us who we are.
The Marriage Acrylic on Canvas 18” x 24”
Griffin mines this wealth of varying emotional textures from several distinct visual approaches. In places she creates figurative
paintings whose clean lines and careful proportions approach a kind of hyperrealism. Elsewhere she portrays more impressionistic
scenes wherein characters occupy indeterminate spaces and roles. Her abstract compositions, meanwhile, are bursting with
colors and textures, generally dominated by a pair of tones that face off across a border region. In each case she emerges
triumphant, creating an unmistakable sense of balance and spectacular luminosity in each hotly contested canvas. At encounters
between extremes, Susannah Virginia Griffin finds glowing harmony.
www.susannahvirginiagriffin.30art.com
www.Agora-Gallery.com/ArtistPage/Susannah_Virginia_Griffin.aspx
María Eugenia Akel
Fusion Florencia Digital Media, Oil & Acrylic on Canvas 25” x 43.3
There is a painterly mastery to the transparency
of María Eugenia Akel’s fractured images, as
well as a strong sense of place. Akel’s ethereal
monochromatic creations are at once transitory
and timeless, overlapping fleeting moments and
spaces in layers of reality. Authorship is vital to
Akel’s art. As she creates her digital composites,
she draws upon her works for subject matter, using
her own paintings of fishermen, Renaissance
inspired drawings on sheer silk, collages of
newsprint, and photos from the port of Valparaíso
and buildings of Santiago.
Akel’s large scale digital mixed media works are
printed on canvas before being reworked further
through acrylic paints and drawing, each becoming more uniquely multifaceted. As she strengthens certain features while
obscuring others, the artist seals her works under a protective sheen of multiple layers of varnishes and mediums.
She began her education studying architecture at the University of Chile, a field in which she found great success and fulfillment
for many years. Yet she always kept a passion for art in her heart, hoping to return to it someday. Now a rising star throughout
the art world with exhibits in Europe, South America and the United States; Akel has found inspiration and direction under the
tutelage of Japanese Fluxus artist Takako Saito and Chilean artist Eugenio Dittborn at private art academies in both Chile and
Europe.
www.mariaeugeniaakel.cl
www.Agora-Gallery.com/ArtistPage/Maria_Eugenia_Akel.aspx
39 ARTisSpectrum