CHELSEA ART: The New Thirty-Something Block ... - ARTisSpectrum

Norma RGFMonument Valley Macho Acrylic on Canvas 22”x 28”Norma RGF paints the mystical wildness of the Americandesert with a fresh, modern, wholly unique perspective.Norma RGF has been painting most of her life, and underthree different names: her father’s, her first husband’s and hersecond husband’s. She has combined the initials to create thelast name she is known by as an artist. Originally from NewYork, Norma attended Cooper Union, where she studied FineArt and Graphics. Influenced by Photorealism, Pop Art andAlbers Optical Color Theory, Norma’s work is bold, almostbrazen, in its hyper-real figures and otherworldly colors.When Norma moved to Arizona, her art became influencedby the profound landscape of the Sonoran Desert andthe lively, soulful “living history events,” which includedNative Americans. Norma earned the name “soulcatcher” forthe startlingly accurate and sensitive portraits of these nativepeoples. Norma’s use of acrylic paint creates flat colorshapes and emphasizes patterns: both of the landscape and ofthe native tribes. Though Norma’s work is highly realistic inform, her colors and perspective offer an almost supernaturalglimpse into another culture and a forbidding, yet beautiful,landscape.Norma RGF lives in the San Tan Mountains in the SonoranDesert, where she works out of a studio that is entirelysolar-powered. She has exhibited her work widely throughoutthe U.S.Website: http://www.desertdrawings.comPatricia ValenciaCarstensPatricia Valencia Carstens is a talented painter who is fullyaware of the implications of living and its influence on thecreative process. Her paintings are characterized by a sense ofmood and drama infused through the use of a limited palette andswaths of dark, empty shadows surrounding her figures. Carstens’paintings often focus on a female protagonist punctuated by individualityand introspection, however, her creamy brushwork andtreatment of paint remains playful and rich. With an almost sculpturalapproach she models her figures with tactile brushstrokes,allowing the paint to drip where it may, her figures rise out of thedarkness to boldly peer back at the abyss. Carstens enjoys landscapepainting as well, particularly with reference to how peoplehave developed a sense of home within the natural surroundings.Her artwork is concerned with this harmony between humanityand nature, and it is from this perspective that life itself becomesher muse. “I go always on the lookout for something to change,or to understand. As to live, more intensely.” Born in BuenosAires, Carstens studied at the National School of Fine Arts beforemoving to Germany in 1986. Her work has been collected and exhibitedin Germany, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland and the UnitedStates. Patricia Valencia Carstens lives and works in Germany.Website: http://www.valencia-art.de The Waiting Lady 2 Acrylic on Canvas 48”x 24”21 ArtisSpectrum