Spanish artist Gonzalo Puch is a native of Sevilla and currently lives and works in Madrid, Spain. The auto-photography, video and performance of the artist are rooted in academics such as math, science, music, biology, physics and environmental studies. Puch demands the environment to be valued in order to ensure the survival of art as a whole. The artist stages and develops a series of videos and photographs related to survival and the human life cycle. In what would seem an exaggerated way to approach photography and artmaking, Puch’s work comes in direct conflict with the landscape and with nature itself. Through this process, the artist is able to express the idea that man’s destruction of nature will lead to or cause the death of art, showing that art can’t exist without nature. The artist currently teaches at the University in Cuenca and is represented by Julie Saul Gallery in New York City. Puch has been reviewed in The New York Times and has more videos posted on youtube.com.

The large-scale photographs of Brian Ulrich embody a distanced awareness to usually familiar environments. Encouraged by the response to the Bush Administration’s call to citizens to strengthen the economy through shopping in 2001, Ulrich created the ongoing “Copia” series that offers an acute look at life in commercial settings. “Copia” not only explores the everyday activities of shopping, but also the economic, cultural, social and political implications of commercialism and the roles played in self-destruction and over-consumption, as well as those played by marketing and advertising. His imagery is made of personal moments in public spaces that are essentially enclosed virtual worlds, such as big-box retailers and thrift stores. The artist received a photography degree from the University of Akron and a photography Master’s from Columbia College in Chicago. He teaches photography, Web design and visual literacy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College. Ulrich is also a frequent contributor to Adbusters Magazine. The artist is represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco and Julie Saul Gallery in New York.

Los Angeles-based artist Amir H. Fallah will be exhibiting in this year’s Rogue Wave ‘07 exhibition at L.A. Louver Gallery, which opens with an artist reception this evening. This will be the third exhibition in the Rogue Wave series, which examines work currently being made by artists in Los Angeles through the media of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, installation and conceptual art. For the exhibition, Fallah will present three new large-scale paintings, six photographs and a large two-tiered Terrarium Fort in the gallery. The artist, who is also the founder and creative director of art and culture magazine Beautiful/Decay, will be offering limited-edition ‘zines at the opening that accompany his other work in the exhibition. Fallah will be exhibiting alongside other Los Angeles-based artists such as sculptor Joshua Callaghan and new media artist Osman Khan, who will present an interactive piece investigating identity and communication. Fallah has exhibited internationally, including a recent exhibition with the Third Line Gallery in Dubai. Later this year, the artist will present a solo exhibition with RHYS Gallery in Boston.

Boats in the night, capsized and drifting are typical scenes painted by Los Angeles-based artist Whitney Bedford. With the horizon being swallowed completely by the sea, Bedford’s paintings seem to act as a metaphor for the contemporary squall of the turbulently political and social world that we live in today. The artist is said to have stated that “it is the paint itself that sinks the images,” rather than the ocean or storm that occupies the work. These paintings can be seen as contemporary renditions of the romanticized works by nineteenth century painter J.M.W. Turner, offering a more aggressive view of the sublime. The turbulence contained in the work can also be seen as a struggle between abstraction and representation that dominates the picture plane in each of her paintings. Bedford has exhibited internationally with recent shows, including works with infamous Wrong Gallery in New York, the Fulbright-Kommission in Berlin, Germany, and Art:Concept in Paris, France. Notable group exhibitions for the artist include “Wunderkammer 2″ at Nina Menocal in Mexico City and “Rogue Wave” with L.A. Louver in Los Angeles.

Artist Jill Greenberg inspired much controversy for her body of work “End Times,” featuring stylized, hyper-real portraits of toddlers. The artist created a variety of joylessly contorted facial expressions by offering the children candy and suddenly taking it away from them. The pieces were constructed to reflect Greenberg’s frustration with the Bush administration and Christian fundamentalism in the United States (wikipedia.org). Greenberg was born in Montreal, Canada, and grew up in Detroit, Mich., before moving to New York City and, later, to Los Angeles. The artist has made memorable images of hundreds of the world’s most recognizable celebrities and has created a series of work titled “Animal Tales” and a book titled “Monkey Portraits.” Greenberg graduated in 1989 from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in photography. She’s represented by Paul Kopeikin Gallery and has been featured in Harper’s and The New Yorker. Greenberg also has a podcast on America Photo.

Cris Bruch is an artist who resists being categorized as a particular type of creator. Bruch moves effortlessly among the mediums of paper, steel, wood, glass, clay, sound and light, only maintaining the consistency of quality and craftsmanship. The artist’s work does not develop in a linear way, allowing him to leave a particular path, which can emerge in later works. Opening yesterday, the Lawrimore Projects in Seattle is currently celebrating 20 years of the artist’s work with the exhibition “How Did I Get Here.” Among newly constructed pieces such as “Sketchbook,” viewers will find a surprising mix of other prominent works within the exhibition. Bruch’s process-oriented pieces remain conceptual in nature, as the artist investigates the repetitive actions that consume our lives and help to identify us as individuals. The final presentation of each piece is a testimony to the laborious acts employed for creation. Bruch received his degree from the University of Kansas (1980) and his MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1986). The artist has been exhibited nationally, including recent exhibitions “Duty Cycle” at the Boise Art Museum in Idaho and “Dreaming, Doing, Craving” at the Salt Lake Art Center in Utah. The artist has been a design consultant for the Seattle Metro Monorail and has received awards and residencies from the Behnke Foundation in Seattle and the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, Calif.

The paintings and drawings of Stanford University graduate Shaun O’Dell are rooted in autobiographical and historical narratives. The artist employs a complex iconography to investigate ideas of imperialism and nationalism as well as racism and environmental blunders that are often associated with America’s governing parties and social elite. Some of the visual icons found in the work are buffalos, bald eagles, liberty bells and skulls, all contained within flat, abstractly rendered landscapes. In the artist’s current exhibition with the James Harris Gallery in Seattle, O’Dell has created several ink and gouache drawings that contain a similar symbolic language as found in previous works. However, in this recent body of work, the artist has further developed the fictional narratives that attempt to recreate a new American story, casting greater light on societal conditions and their inherent consequences. O’Dell’s work has recently been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and has been featured in “How to Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later,” a group show at the Watts Institute in San Francisco. In 2005, O’Dell became a recipient of the SECA Art Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and, in 2006, the artist exhibited with the Jack Hanley Gallery in Los Angeles.