AMY BEAGER PAYS HOMAGE TO LATE DANCER ISADORA DUNCAN
One of the first artists I talked to was Amy Beager, who started her career as a fashion designer rather than an artist. Even though she studied art in college, she told me that she eventually made the switch to fashion design and would go on to work for that industry for seven years. While this was a steady job for her, she decided to follow her passion for art. She left her career and started freelancing while she was setting up her art company, and her hard work paid off as she has been displaying her artwork throughout a number of different galleries for the past year. As the saying goes, fortune favors the brave and although Beager was taking a risk it worked out for her in the end.
The art series she displayed was entitled “Mother” which features a number of acrylic and ink paintings that depict major life events from Isadora Duncan’s life. Duncan was a pioneering dancer from the early 20th century who is widely recognized as the “Mother of Modern Dance” and despite enduring many tragic events in her life, she was determined to live her life to the fullest and follow her passions. Beager told me that she finds a lot of inspiration from Duncan’s life and performances, which is why she dedicated an entire art collection to her. Some of the paintings she had on display included Celestial and Dancing Girl. Beager’s work will also be on display at the Roy’s Art Gallery which will be held at the Oxo Tower Wharf in London from 2-5 April.
ESAM HAMZEH USES ART TO OVERCOME TIMES OF TROUBLE
Esam Hamzeh is an artist from Homs, Syria. Her talent in art started from a young age as she studied it during her primary school years. However, she abandoned art to work as a hematologist. She would eventually move to London where she was doing a Ph.D. course. Things seemed to be going well for Hamzeh, but unfortunately, tragedy would strike her life in 2000 when kidney failure caused her to lose two of her kidneys, which meant she had to rely on kidney dialyzes to survive. Her health problems caused her to stop her Ph.D. studies, so in the face of such adversity, she turned to her old passion for art to ease her anguish. Most of her paintings are of nature, buildings and she also has some abstract work in her portfolio. In 2007, she participated in her first art exhibition at St. George’s Hospital in London, and she donated her proceedings to kidney disease research. This year, her work will also be featured in the Chelsea Art Society Exhibition.
IBRAHIM YASSIN BRINGS INK TO LIFE
Yassin is a Kurdish artist originally from South Kurdistan but is currently based in Denmark. Like most artists I spoke to, art wasn’t his initial career path, he was in fact a chemistry instructor working at the University of Mosul. However, during those years he pursued art as a hobby and in 1990 displayed some of his work at an exhibition at Mosul University. He moved to Denmark in 1996 and would stop his pastime two years later.
In 2013, he would pick up art once again and his determination is strong as he has been continuing painting beautiful portraits for the past seven years. Most of his artwork consists of ink paintings, although he has some watercolor works in his portfolio. He also exhibits his Kurdish identity in some of his work, as he incorporates characters and poetry from the Kurdish language into his paintings. This is his first-ever art exhibit in London, and his work will be on display in three other art shows in Denmark, 2 of which will be in Copenhagen and one in Horsens.
MARIANA GUMENIUC’S ETERNAL FLAME OF PASSION
Hailing from the Republic of Moldova, Mariana Gumeniuc’s artistic journey started when she was 12 years old when she showed exceptional talent in painting and even started her own painting school at that age. Circumstances forced her to stop pursuing art at the age of 14, but that passion never really went away. When she moved to London, her passion came back with the ferocity of a typhoon as she amazingly painted 75 paintings in the span of fewer than three years.
She eloquently portrayed this everlasting passion in her painting “Eternal Flame” which is a metaphor the flame that remained in her mind even after all those years of not doing any artwork. Some of the art she had on display had some social commentary, for instance in her painting “Behind” she shows a man’s face in front of that of a woman’s to show that even in societies where a man is always at the forefront there is always a woman behind him. Moreover, even though the woman in the painting is behind the man, there is a clear 50/50 split in the space both faces take up, showing her belief in equal rights for both genders. Other paintings are more personal, for instance, “Don’t Let Me Down” symbolizes a time in her life when she was feeling great anguish and stress from the pressures of balancing her work and raising a new child. However, as this painting is made with warm colors, she shows that even in times of great strife there is always hope that things will get better soon.
JORGEN HANSSON: NOT AFRAID OF CONTROVERSY
The artist from Sweden had one of the most controversial art collections on display: “Tipping Points”, and many of his pieces can be considered offensive to some onlookers. The main idea behind “Tipping Points” was to portray events and phenomena that in his view changed global sociopolitical landscapes. His most bewildering piece in the collection is an abstract painting that portrays Islamist terrorism, arguably most eye-catching part of the painting is the World Trade Center being hit by airplanes, the painting also shows Qasem Soleimani’s face with a US flag target painted over him. Further inspection of the painting reveals other examples of Islamist terror, such as convoys carrying the flags of IS. Other paintings include one called “Plastic Ocean” which shows a small portrait of Greta Thunberg and one on the #MeToo Movement. Hansson told me that he felt that he had to choose controversial art pieces so that he could leave a mark on people participating in the exhibition. His other hobbies include novel writing, but he had to abandon the activity in favor of painting two years due to his vertigo making it difficult for him to write. The art show proved to be a great success for Hansson as two other exhibitions showed interest in displaying his art pieces.
EVAN WU SIU PING APPRECIATES SHORT-LIVED BEAUTY
One of my favorite art display’s was Evan Wu Siu Ping’s “Revivification”. At first glance, the art pieces seem to show colored paper cut and folded to show butterflies, but upon closer inspection, you can that the paper Evan used actually came from magazines. She did this to make a metaphor comparing the short-lived beauty that is found in both the natural and commercial spheres. Butterflies are colorful, beautiful creatures that have short life spans, similarly magazines are beautifully designed colorful pieces of media that can bring great enjoyment to readers. But like butterflies, magazines have short shelf-lives and are discarded by humans.
