The days start to get shorter and the temperature starts to drop. We start looking inward to reflect on all the things that have happened this year. One of my favorite ways to escape and help reflect/inspire is through other people’s art. Here are five of my favorite artist at the moment (in no particular order:
Able Macias
Abel Macias is a painter, illustrator, builder, object maker, art director, and visual problem solver. After 15 years of living and working in New York City, Abel Macias’ studio is now based in sunny Los Angeles. He enjoys collaborating on all types of projects with commercial and private clients. The relationship with nature is what really creates a sense of ease for me, especially now as we aren’t able to be around people due to the pandemic.
Brett Allen Johnson
Brett Allen Johnson is an American artist living in Utah, where he can be found wandering the vacant corners of the state in search of the particular sense of place seen in his paintings. Working both outdoors and in his studio, he explores design, concept, and formal elements, calling on the western landscape to clarify his composition and technique. If you checked out Able’s work you can see that he draws the same inspiration from nature as Brett. The American West was loved by Georgia O’keeffe another all time favorite artist of mine.
Alexis Kurtzman
Alexis Kurtzman‘s work centers around free association action mark making, process art, drawing and printmaking. Kurtzman’s work has been exhibited in galleries across the US and abroad. She has most recently been a 2018 artist in residence at the Open Wabi artist residency in Fredericktown, Ohio and a 2017 artist in residence at the Scoula Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy. The gestural erratic nature and abstract expressiveness of Alexis’ work creates a sense of adventure and unknowing. Pairing that with the almost architectural vibe rounds out most of her work giving way for a sense of grounding.
Dustin Williams
Dustin is a visual artist & designer with a focus on souvenirs, screen printing, and lettering. He recently helped open Wonder Fair’s Haunted Bathroom, a new tourist attraction in Lawrence, KS, that has ranked itself “America’s Smallest Haunted Restroom”. The sheer nostalgia of his work is what you fall in love with. No pun intended. Take a look at this compiled book of logos and typography from both current and long-gone roadside attractions, theme parks, and tourist traps.
Hsiao Chin
Hsiao Chin is a Chinese painter known for his lyrical abstractions, which employ both the vocabulary of traditional Chinese brush painting and the conceptual framework of European and American Modernism. Born on January 30, 1935, in Shanghai, China, the artist began studying painting at the age of 15 and was exposed to the work of Western artists like Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse. From 1956 onward, Hsiao has lived and traveled throughout Europe and the United States, where he met many prominent artists, including Paul Klee, Mark Rothko, Yves Klein, and Lucio Fontana.