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Figurative artist Andrew Barton explores ideas of internal awareness and external action in the human form. Each sculpture offers a distinct visual difference for the male and female forms, expressing the fundamental balance of gender. Barton's work also investigates the body as a fragment and the interaction of mechanical instruments for the purpose of bodily change. The artist studied at the National College of Art and Design (1996) and the Kunst Design Fagskolen, Folkenuniversitetet (1991), both in Olso, Norway. Recently Barton has exhibited with the Blomqvist Auction House, Norway, and presented at exhibition titled "Draumkvedet" at the Cultural Center 'De Scharpoord", Belgium.

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"True Fiction Two" is a new photographic series by artist Sandy Skoglund. The original series" True Fiction" was created in 1986 but the edition was never officially finished due to discontinued photo chemicals needed for production. Now updated digitally the artist has created a new series, maintaining the emotion of her once elaborate room-sized installations depicting absurd domestic scenarios. Skoglund received her MFA from the University of Iowa and has worked in NYC for the past 30 years. In 2005 the artist exhibited with the Galerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris, France, the Guy Bartschi Gallery Geneva, Switzerland, and the Fay Gold Gallery in Atlanta. This past October the artist discussed her process of creating large-scale sculptural installations at a visiting artist lecture at Boston University.

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English painter Richard Patterson takes miniature toys and covers them with voluminous paint, photographs the object and then recreates it in oil on canvas. The artist largely focuses on formal issues in his work literally reducing representation and figuration by covering the figurines in globs of visceral paint. Patterson also draws a connection to art history by referencing color field painters of the modernist period. Richard Patterson is a graduate of Goldsmiths College (1986), and recently exhibited with Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. The artist has also exhibited with the Dallas Museum of Art (2000) and with the James Cohan Gallery, NYC (1999). In 2007 Patterson will have three paintings exhibited in the Rowan Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, and will be the first artist commissioned by Wallpaper* Magazine to collaborate on a feature and have work on the cover (March 2007).

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For most kids the art of Tom Sachs is a dream come true. This New York based artist creates a multitude of sculptures and installations that include intensely worked scaled models, race tracks and even an room titled "Delinquency Chamber" complete with the video game "Grand Theft Auto", a bong and a door with a lock to keep the "adults" out. The artist states "Part of what I do is accelerate the indulgence of adolescence to a profession." As Sachs investigates adolescence and consumerism by creating indulgent environments, deeper conceptual issues of violence, apathy and capitalism emerge. The artist has recently exhibited at the Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Austria. Additional exhibitions include "Dedicated to the Memory of Ben Plummer 1968-2004," Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, which had a review by the Aspen Times (2004). In the spring of this year Sachs exhibited with Fondazione Prada in Milan creating two large installations within a 1,500 square meter space.

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Over the past decade digital media artist Vibeke Jensen has continued to investigate elements of urban spaces usually by creating an intervention between the art and the individuals who occupy a particular space. Before working in digital media, the artist studied and graduated from University of Trondheim, Norway with a Master of Architecture (1987) and Architectural Association School of Architecture, London (1992). With a key understanding of space, and the ability to work in a team, Jensen has been able to execute several large collaborative projects throughout the world. Recent museum exhibitions include works at Rogaland Kunstmuseum, Stavanger, Norway, and Salzburger Museum Carolino Augusteum, Austria. The artist has funded public projects through the support of Norwegian Visual Artist's Fond and the Arts Council Norway. Jensen has also participated in Artist Residency programs at the Bronx Museum, and Nordic Artists' Centre in Dale, Norway.

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Chicago based artist Leslie Baum is currently exhibiting new oil paintings and watercolors in a solo show titled "The Space Between". This is the second solo exhibition for Baum with the Bodybuilder and Sportsman Gallery in Chicago. Baum's work references modernist artists like Helen Frankenthaler with thin oil washes while exploring ideas of the confinement of nature through zoos. The artist received her BA from the University of Vermont (1993) and studied at the Glasgow School of Art (1992). Baum also exhibited with the Jan Cicero Gallery, Chicago and the exhibition had a review in Art in America (Jan 2003).

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Hatred is the subject of investigation for Australian artist Fiona Foley. Through several bodies of work, Foley has diligently explored the idea of hate as it penetrates race through politics, science and culture. Through dark humor the artist has created a series of photos title "HHH (Hedonistic Honky Haters)." These faux anthropological photos have an obvious reference to the Klu Klux Klan, and this connection only strengthens the images' relation to reality. This year Foley had a solo exhibition titled "Red Ochre Me" at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney. Other recent exhibitions include "No Shades of White" at Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane, and "Bring it on a.k.a.HHH," International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), NYC.

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Zhu Ming is a performance and conceptual artist whose work is time based and usually involves physical extremities. Often performing inside of a custom made balloon, the artist will undergo certain actions that reference both his Chinese heritage and the futility of communication. In the 1990s Ming joined other artists to form Beijing East Village; this area was often considered the most experimental of the artist villages of that time. Many of his contemporaries from that area, including Zhang Huan, have become internationally renowned artists. Although Ming has not presented any major solo exhibitions as of recent, he has participated in several pivotal group exhibitions. Group exhibitions and performances this century include "Liquid Sea" performance at the Contemporary Museum of Sydney, Art2003, Chinese Contemporary, London, and "Cut In-Photos and Videos" China Artscene Warehouse, Beijing.

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Photographer, sculptor and video artist Anthony Goicolea acts as the main character in the fictitious settings of his work. In his early "Fairy Tales" series, the artist posed as 26 different characters each from a different fable. The artist states "I investigate social constructions of age and gender and I allude to taboos of gender role play, adult and childhood fantasies and conventional ideas of beauty..." Goicolea studied art history, drawing and painting at the University of Georgia, and completed his MFA in sculpture from Pratt Institute in NYC. In 2005 Goicolea exhibited recent photographs at the Arizona State University Museum of Art. Other solo exhibitions include works at the Postmasters Gallery in NYC, ArtSpace Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam, and Galerie Aurel Scheibler, Cologne, Germany. The artist was also a recipient of the 2005 BMW Photo Paris Award, and previously received grant support from the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

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The photographs of Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky lead the viewer through the extremities of commercialism from a behind the scenes point of view. Desolate oil sites, packed and impersonal factories in China, abandoned boat sites, and mines and quarries are just a few scenes that the artist has captured in counties across the world. Burtynsky's photos depict the product of extreme industrial development and its affect on nature and humankind. In 1985 the artist founded the Toronto Image Works, a darkroom, custom image lab and new media training center. Upcoming exhibitions include a touring exhibit titled "The China Series" which will show at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and the Presentation House in Vancouver amongst others. In 2008 the artist will have a major survey of 65-70 works at the Gemeente Museum Helmond in the Netherlands. Some of Burtynsky's awards include the Officer of the Order of Canada (2006) and the Flying Elephants Foundation Fellowship (2004).

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Digital artist and painter Yoon Lee creates work that is a metaphor for the exponential growth of technology and information. The scale of these works are often 8 feet tall and 12 feet long and seem to reference the visual dynamism found in the modernist work of artist Jackson Pollock. The digital element employed allows the artist to achieve highly slick surfaces and a mechanical line quality which aids formally to her concept of technological growth. This is echoed by the shear visual magnitude which is forced onto the viewer by the scale and movement inherent in each piece. Lee received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute (2005), and she was a featured artist in New American Paintings (2006). This year the artist had a solo exhibition with the Luggage Store Gallery in SF, and participated with Pulse Miami through DCKT Contemporary. Next year the artist will be featured in a group exhibition titled "Euphorion: Art from San Francisco" at Pierogi Gallery, Leipzig, Germany. Lee has also participated in residency programs at 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, and at the Headlands Center for the Arts, Saulsalito, CA.

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The figures that occupy Carol K. Brown's paintings appear in isolation, removed from the surrounding environment. These individuals are shown in an ordinary moment and multiplied throughout the pictorial space. Brown begins these works by photographing the subjects and using them as source material. The images are digitally manipulated and then recreated in paint. Often the works are then rescanned and presented in their final state as a digital print. Last month the artist exhibited with the Nohra Haime Gallery NYC, and she has had past exhibits with the Ambrosino Gallery in Miami. In 2004 Brown had an exhibition review in Art in America.

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The sculptures and installations of artist Diana Al-Hadid are "propositions for an imaginary world." These ambiguous works often reference the general themes of self, place, and history. As of recent the artist has drawn upon imagery from her birth city of Syria, recreating the Aleppo citadel, a 10th century fortress and eventual Muslim holy site. Her new sculptures combine the materials of fiberglass and polystyrene to create ambitious structures that seem to be unearthed from some unfamiliar place. The artist was awarded a Sculpture Department Graduate Fellowship to attend Virginia Commonwealth University, where she received her MFA in Sculpture. This month the artist is exhibiting with Priska Juschka Gallery in Williamsburg, NY; she will exhibit their once again in 2007. In spring of this year the artist participated in the Bronx Museum's Aim 26 (Artist in the Marketplace) program and exhibition. Her participation was noted in an article in the Art in Review section of the NY Times (April 9, 2006).

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Painter Adam Cvijanovic renders nature with peak force. The suburban landscape at chaos in the absence of gravity and hyper real images of glaciers and frozen waterfalls are frequent subject matter. The artist also references Renaissance fresco painting updating the process with contemporary materials such as latex applied directly to Tyvek (home construction materials). These panels are then fixed directly to the wall and ceiling surface engulfing the viewer a full panoramic view of the work. Cvijanovic recently exhibited a work titled "Glacier" with the UCLA Hammer Museum and the University of Buffalo Art Gallery. 2007 solo exhibitions will be held with Bellwether Gallery, NYC, and Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea. In 2005, the artist was featured at The Armory Show and with the Saatchi Gallery, London.

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This fall artist Doze Green presented a series of new paintings titled "Left Hand Path" at Jonathan Levine Gallery in NYC. Doze was a pioneer of Hip-hop growing up in Manhattan in the late 70's along side the Rock Steady Crew and fellow artists Lady Pink, Daze, and Mr. Wiggles. He appeared in classic movies such as Style Wars and Wild Style, and has remained an active force in street art through today. Doze Green's current paintings explore physics and metaphysical concepts, often using fragmented elements to referece a non-fixed reality. Doze' work has been featured in magazines such as Tokion, Juxtapoz, and Anthem, and he was also included in the new Upper PlayGround video "The Run Up".

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Photographer Bill Henson often portrays young figures shrouded in an ambiguous nightscape. The landscapes are usually non-descript, but seem to reference the abandonment that exists outside of most urban areas. The figures found in Henson's photos are equally ambiguous often consisting of androgynous adolescent girls.
Henson is one of Australia's most distinguished photographers and his career spans over three decades. In 2005 his career was celebrated in a retrospective exhibition with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. This year the artist has exhibited with the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, the Robert Miller Gallery in NYC, and the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, along side artist Patricia Piccinini. The artist's work was also reviewed by Pavement Magazine (2003), and Artforum in (2002).

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New York based Ethan Murrow creates work in a variety of self informing media such as drawing, video, sculpture and performance. The artist recreates scenes where subjects engage in a variety of experimental scientific endeavors as they attempt to discover something about nature. These scenes are actually performed by the artist, videotaped and used as source material for future works, or sometimes as work themselves. This month Ethan Murrow is exhibiting with Bucheon Gallery in San Francisco, and is featured on the SF based website fecalface.com. In April of 2007, the artist will exhibit with Winston Wachter Fine Art in Seattle.

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"Sleepwalkers" is the first U.S. large-scale public project by renowned video artist Doug Aitkin. Creative Time and The Museum of Modern Art have commissioned the artist to create a multi-screen video installation that will be projected on seven facades of the MoMA on 53rd and 54th Streets. This project will premiere on January 16, and will continue through February 12, each evening from 5pm to 10pm. The video follows several individuals through their daily pedestrian activities as they interact within a vast urban landscape. The work was filmed and produced in NYC, and has a diverse cast including Seu Jorge, Chan Marshal (Cat Power), and Donald Sutherland. The nightly viewings are free and publicly open.

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Photographer, video and installation artist Sue de Beer creates work that references experiences related to high school and adolescents. de Beer's work centers on haunting narratives that resonate with the tragic emotional state of a post-Columbine youth, often focusing on the engagement of first time activities such as sexual experience and drug use. The artist is a graduate of both Parsons School of Design (1995), and Columbia University (1998). In January 2004, the artist appeared in a four page spread in Artfourm, and later that year she was featured in the Whitney Biennial. Recent solo exhibitions include Sandroni Rey Gallery, L.A. and Kunst Werke, Berlin. The artist's video work has been selected for screenings with the MOMA Gramercy Theatre, NYC, and The American Academy in Berlin.

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Dutch Artist Folkert De Jong creates life size plus figurative sculptures out of styro and polyurethane foams. These sculptures possess a deviant mentality offering the viewer both humor and horror. De Jong's narrative objects and scenes reference social boundaries and investigate elements of humanity in a modern world. The artist attended the Academy for Visual Arts and a two year residency Rijksacademy for Visual Arts, Amsterdam. In 2003 De Jong was a finalist for the Prix de Rome, and exhibited at the Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam (2005), as a result of his winning the KDR KunstRAI prize (2004). Recent exhibitions have included and Peres Projects and Roberts & Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles (2005), and the artists first UK exhibition with Chisenhale Gallery (2005).

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"Godspipes" is a new exhibition of sculptural works created over the last decade by L.A. based artist Peter Shelton. The exhibition opened earlier this year at L.A. Louver and contained one hundred and eighty-eight vessel type forms that reference both the human body and simple mechanical structures. Shelton is a graduate of UCLA (1979), and throughout his career the artist has continued to allude to the body in a non-overt way, willingly opposing his post-modern academic background that was often saturated in an anti-figurative attitude. In 2005 Shelton had a solo exhibition titled "waterworks" at Galleria Cardi, in Milan, and in 2003 he exhibited with John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco.

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The seductive paintings and photographs of Marilyn Minter border both photorealism and abstraction. Her work pieces together commercial depictions of femininity which juxtapose glamour and nausea. The enamel on metal paintings and large format c-prints include references from many major movements both artistically and socially, like early Surrealist photography, post-Warhol pop, advertising and pornography. Minter currently has a solo show at Salon 94 in New York. Her exhibitions include a solo exhibition at SF MOMA in 2005 (which was reviewed by SF Station), a large scale billboard installation in NYC. She was also featured this year in the 2006 Whitney Biennial.

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Patricia Piccinini works with a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, video, sound, installation and digital prints. Her major artworks often reflect issues such as bioethics, biotechnologies and the environment and have gained a huge international recognition after her participation in the 2003 Venice Biennale. Her sculpture often examines hybrids in technology and life; creating cross bred animals, humans and machinery. In October 2003, ArtForum reviewed her most recent exhibition in Melbourne. Her work can be found at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, in Sydney Australia, Conner Contemporary Art in Washington, D.C. and the Robert Miller Gallery in New York.

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English artist Simon Henwood has worked through a wide range of artistic media including painting, film, 3D animation, the production of two magazines, and a over a dozen children's publications. Through this experimentation his work has remained centered on adolescent childhood. Henwood recently created a music video for musician and fine artist Devendra Banhart, and is developing a new animated TV series titled 'Johnny Pumpkin'. The artist received a BA Honors Degree in Mixed Arts, Painting, Animation, and Illustration from Exeter College, Oxford University. Simon Henwood has also exhibited with The Hospital, London, The Hammer Museum UCLA, and PS1, NYC.

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Chinese artist Wei Dong continues the tradition of the Chinese landscape through oil painting, but interrupts the conventional imagery by using women draped in sexuality in the foreground. This imagery is a metaphor for how "sex, violence, and popular culture dominate traditional morals." After abandoning ink on paper as his primary medium, Wei Dong found oil painting to facilitate his imagery more clearly. Wei Dong graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, Capital Normal University, and is currently exhibiting with a group of Chinese artists this month at the Stux Gallery in NYC titled "Chinese Relativity: Part I. In 2005 Wei Dong had a solo exhibition titled "I Wanna Fly" at the Chinese Contemporary Art Gallery in Beijing, China. Other Exhibitions include Plum Blossoms Gallery, Hong Kong, and The Armory Show, NYC (2005).

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This month at James Harris Gallery in Seattle, artist Roy McMakin is exhibiting new photographs titled "Actual". This is an appropriate title considering that each object in the exhibition has been photographed, sometimes over 100 times, and then digitally collaged together to offer a true to life scale and perspective. This show is an extension of a body of work that deals with the domestic object. McMakin is an accomplished designer and conceptual artist who often employs a sense of humor in his work. The artist received his MFA from the University of California at San Diego, and has exhibited with the Matthew Marks Gallery, NYC, and with Mark Selwyn Fine Art in L.A. The artist is also currently on view in a new series title "Apex" with the Portland Art Museum.

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Ron Mueck had an early career as a model maker and puppeteer for children's television and films, notably the film Labyrinth for which he also contributed the voice of Ludo. Now his sculptures play heavily with scale, continuing to reference his experience with set design. He became instantly popular after being picked up by collector Charles Saatchi and included in the Sensation show in New York. This is where his sculpture Dead Dad, an astonishingly lifelike 3/4 scale sculpture of his father as a corpse lying on the floor, drew considerable attention and launched his career in fine art. His five meter high sculpture Boy 1999 was a feature in the Millennium Dome and later exhibited in the Venice Biennale. His new work is currently being exhibited with the Brooklyn Museum and was recently noted with the Washington Post.

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Roxy Paine's inventions range from elaborate contraptions to deceptively simple forms. Often employing technical proficiency, trompe l'oeil, and ambiguity, Paine investigates the nature of reality and artificiality. The artist was born in 1966 in New York, where he currently lives and works. He attended the Pratt Institute and recently had solo shows at James Cohan Gallery, New York; Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin; and Musee d'Art Americain Giverny, France. The artist exhibited a public sculpture in Central Park titled "Bluff" for the Whitney Biennial (2002). Bluff was a fifty-foot high tree made of reflective stainless steel complete with a two-foot-wide trunk that supported more than 5000 pounds of cantilevered branches. The artist was also featured recently in Art in America (May 2006).

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Charlie White is a photographer who constructs images with complex sets and fabricated characters. White is part of the "post-photography" school of hyper constructed photos, where the viewer must ask if the scene is accurate or intentionally falsified. White graduated from the School of the Visual Art in NYC and the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA. He began his career creating photography steeped in special effects and images of pornography. The artist created a body of photos titled "Understanding Joshua" as a metaphor and poster boy for all men who've ever suffered rejection and low self-esteem. Joshua is a visual metaphor for male vulnerability. NPR and PBS featured the series, and in 2006 the artist presented a series titled "Everything is American" in Wohnmaschine, Berlin, f a Projects, London, and at Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York.

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German artist Florian Sussmayr began his artistic career by exclusively creating portraits. Sussmayr's new work depicts emotions often excluded from civilized daily life, such as ecstatic excitement, intoxication, and the lack of sexual boundaries. The subjects are taken from puck and rock social scenes, and act as an investigation of the personal attributes of that society. The artist is represented by Gallerie Rudiger Schottle, and the Johnen Galerie in Berlin. In 2007 the artist will be exhibiting with the Modern Institute, Glasgow, GB.

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