EILEEN S. KAMINSKY FAMILY FOUNDATION
Loren Abbate
Loren is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts and attended Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy. She has had a lengthy career teaching visual arts and creative inspiration in schools and organizations across the globe. Loren has been the recipient of numerous grants and residencies including the Art Center/South Florida (Miami), Anderson Ranch Art Center (Aspen) and this will be her second term with ESKFF at Mana Contemporary (Jersey City). She has also been an artist-in-residence at Art Print International (Spain) and DEDALO Art Center (Italy). Her work has been exhibited in numerous commercial galleries, institutions, collections and art fairs including Christie's (NYC), Dairy Art Center (Colorado), Museo Afroamericano (Venezuela) & Art Basel (Miami Beach).
Loren has a wild and beautiful imagination that she intends to capture in this next series of paintings entitled 'Metamorphic'. This series will be researching gems, minerals and crystals to propose sacred, mystical and architectural dwelling spaces. Loren will be using wide color spectrum and visionary inspirations that invite viewers to consider new ways of congregating in places like temples, churches, synagogues, museums, schools and homes. Loren is hopeful to develop the visual and verbal language for a cultural transformation toward equity, beauty and collective appreciation for everybody.
Suzanne Unrein
Suzanne Unrein grew up among swamps, alligators, mossy oaks and hundreds of varieties of birds in the coastal towns of Florida. Her travels and encounters with animals in Mexico, South Africa, Borneo and Bali have contributed to her vibrant worlds where the animality of humans plays within a world of beasts. A California native and a current New Yorker, her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the U.S, with solo shows at Rare Gallery in NYC, and Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, and the Hamptons. Her work was recently spotlighted in The Oxford Handbook of Perceptual Organization (Oxford University Press) and the focus of the short film, Hands & Eyes, that premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival. She’s the art editor for Figure/Ground magazine and a contributing writer to Delicious Line. Her first curatorial project, Afflatus, was exhibited in May at the 5-50 Gallery in Long Island City, with co-curator Amy Hill. Unrein has had past residencies at the Studio Program at P.S. 122 in the East Village, the Jentel Foundation in Banner, WY, and the Can Serrat residency in Le Bruc, Barcelona, Spain.
Leandro Comrie
I have always been interested in people and their stories. As a kid, I would sit in my aunt’s and godmother’s kitchen, respectively, and listen to their stories. The stories were about them and other people, but far from being gossip oriented; they were focused on life experiences and lessons on how to approach life from a kinder perspective.
Those conversations left a seed in me, and I watched it grew through the years and realized how easy it was for me to connect to people emotionally. I had learned to welcome people and their stories. At some point, I considered studying psychology, convinced it was the best way to put this trait to good use, but I turned to painting instead.
Through painting, I am able to connect not only with other people’s stories but also with my own. No painting reveals a specific story, but instead, they are the sum of many stories. My subject matter tends to be broad, and inclusive for this reason. I don’t wish to paint solely about one story or focus on one sentiment. The human experience is a combination of emotions that rise and subside. Therefore, my work can be a mix of heartbreak, love, death, friendship, lust, kindness, sexuality, spirituality among other things, things that as human beings we can relate to.
As an artist, I am intrigued by how we negotiate these aspects of our lives and how we navigate life itself in different times and spaces, always striving to make the best of our lives.
Bryant Small
Bryant Small is an Award Winning artist who lives in Jersey City, NJ and balances a social marketing and media career in New York City. Bryant has a love of culture, color and all things sparkling. In his art, he loves to toe the line of free abstraction with vibrant color blending and pushing beyond pretty. His Alcohol Ink pieces are free flowing, unpredictable and levitate from the page. Recognized as a Conception Arts, Global Art Collective 2017 Award For Excellence Winner, and selected as one of International Art Market Magazine’s Gold List of Top Emerging Contemporary Artists, Bryant has shown his work in several collective and individual shows throughout the United States and has pieces that are part of Private Collections around the Globe. He lives by the words: “Broken Crayons Still Color... and a little glitter and sparkle NEVER hurt anybody!” Bryant is constantly creating and being inspired and sharing his work daily.
Santiago Andrade León
My Art speaks of the devotion of our ancestors towards the four spirits of our life, honoring the memory of our water, the story of the wind, the sacred land that gave us the body we have, the origin of our nature and the sacred duality of existence. It speaks about sacred moments of ceremonies, about offerings to our ancestors, it speaks to the most ancient spirit that paints everything with light, to the sacred fire of all generations.
My painting expresses the nature of our origin, the cosmos of the Amerindian cultures, the myths and sacred ceremonials from the kichwa tribes in Ecuador, the legacy of the sacred analogical language, the invisible worlds printed in all of our experiences and visions with our master plants.
Feathers and other elaborated ornaments are incorporated in some of the Medicinal Art, contrasting with acrylic techniques and deepening in the Ritual and Sacred intimate relation of the family who asked for the painting. Ceremonial songs are also vital part of each vision, of each story of creation, and they are shared with the community as part of the healings within the artwork.
I live and paint guided by the indigenous cosmology "Suinak Kawsay", which means Live Well" or 'live in Plenitude" This is the Art of living that my ancestors inherited, the knowledge of understanding the balance of our nature, to first learn how to live to then create community; to cultivate our spirit and visions to then express our heart with knowledge and truth to our families and relations.
Gregg Rosen
Gregg Rosen is an artist who grew up in Hauppauge, NY. He attended the S.U.N.Y Farmindale and the School of Visual Arts. Mr. Rosen is an artist who works in both the abstract and realist/expressionistic styles. He currently has two series that he works on: an abstract one entitled, "Structural Landscape" and "The Diner of Lost Souls."
Mr. Rosen had a solo show at ShuaSpace in Jersey City and most recently won the People's Choice Award from the 440 Gallery in Brooklyn,NY for their 15th annual small works exhibit.