Profiles of Contemporary Art and - ARTisSpectrum

Umeko Okano
Japanese artist Umeko Okano believes that “life
is like a journey,” a theme reflected in her vivid
paintings of people wandering through urban settings.
Within vibrant images infused with light and color,
she captures the extraordinary in seemingly banal
moments of indistinct people going about their daily
lives. In exploring the unknown pasts and futures of
those passersby through color and form, she gives
us a glimpse of the twists and turns that compose this
journey called life.
The life philosophy of Buddhism is an ever-present
motif in her work, the feeling that everything in this
life is ever-changing and fleeting. “I have been
wishing to catch the beautiful but ephemeral, fluid
and momentary . . . people’s lives realized in this
world,” she explains. It is this subtext that renders her
images so powerful, inviting the viewer to take a hard
look at the transitory nature of our world.
Influenced by the Japanese style of painting that
Hope Oil on Canvas 24” x 29”
uses sandy pigments to give texture and form, Okano layers her granulous paints over and over, creating brilliant colors and
lending depth to her work. A master of color and composition, she uses hard angles and geometric forms to convey the underlying
tensions of city life, all while employing multilayered colors and thick brushstrokes to create dreamy tableaux.
www.Agora-Gallery.com/ArtistPage/Umeko_Okano.aspx
Mihai Bara
The Witch Acrylic, Latex & Paper on Canvas 39” x 39”
Deeply entrenched in the formal and thematic tenants of
Abstract Expressionism, Romanian painter Mihai Bara
seeks to translate the human condition and experience onto his
canvases. Brilliant, vibrant color splashes through Bara’s works,
invigorating our sense of the nature of reality and fantasy in
playful enchantment. Dynamically fluid yet alluringly geometric
shapes cascade throughout these paintings, speaking to the
sometimes messy and problematic, yet poignantly poetic
nature of human existence. Bara explores and exploits painterly
texture, yielding an exquisite richly tactile quality in his work that
engages the viewer. His materials are eclectic, with latex, paper
or string often mixing with traditional acrylic paints. Through this
assortment of material, Bara speaks to the opulent diversities
and differences alive and intermingled throughout the world.
He sites his childhood hometown, Brasov, a place flush in
varied languages, cultures and religions, as the source of his
deep appreciation for multiplicity. It is through the plasticity
of expressionism that the artist gives voice to the nuanced
multitudes of human emotion. “I would like my art to be accepted
as an interesting point of view based on a true emotion,” he
says. “My idea is to open a little bit the big labyrinth we have all inside.” Mihai Bara lives and works in Andorra, a small country
in Southwestern Europe. He exhibits his work widely throughout Europe and the United States.
www.Agora-Gallery.com/ArtistPage/Mihai_Bara.aspx
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