ART from HEART is excited to announce the Winners of the Artist of the Month - January 2021 4 Artists, 4 Mediums, 4 Countries:
Karina McKenzie - Digital Art - Norway
Anastasia Trahanas - Photography - UK
Jordina Ros & Pere Estadella, Ditada Group - Drone Video Performance - Spain
Laila Kujala - Painting on reclaimed wood - USA
The competition is open to multimedia artists worldwide and created to showcase and promote the work of emerging and mid-career artists. The winners are featured on our website and social media platforms and considered for any upcoming curatorial projects by ART from HEART. Artworks were selected based on creativity, originality, quality of work, and overall artistic ability.
Apply NOW to be featured in February 2021!
Karina McKenzie - Digital Art - Mandal, Norway
©Karina McKenzie. Ocean Garden Holograms / Back to Mother Earth I-V. All Rights Reserved.
Karina Kristoffersen McKenzie makes digital art, prints and textiles based on teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. She beliefs in the power and importance of compassion in today's world.
If we would develop our sense of interconnectedness with all beings and living things, and develop our compassionate hearts, perhaps our hearts would develop to include not just ourselves and our close ones, but also communities, countries, the planet and the whole.
Compassion could then be the thread weaving ourselves, each other and all life together. This interconnections with all things and the compassion weaving all interconnectedness together is the theme I want my artworks to reflect.
Karina has exhibited at the New Artist Fair in London, Clio Art Fair in New York City and Venice International Art Fair 2020. She has made the tapestry interiors of Spiregarden yogasenter in Kristiansand, Norway. In the summer of 2020, two of her images were included in the book 'Be Kind: The little book filled with love, hope and kindness to lift your spirits" from Tecassia Publishing in London.
She has completed a Masters in Psychology in Uppsala, Sweden and a degree as Art Therapist from the Art Therapy Institute in Denmark.
Read Karina's interview with Luca Curci during Venice International Art Fair 2020 at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space here.
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Anastasia Trahanas | Photography | London, UK
©Anastasia Trahanas, Naked Britain. All Rights Reserved.
From left to right: V&S | This is My Body | Alex & Alexandra | Pete | 50 Rabbits
Anastasia has been looking through a camera from a very young age to document her own life and the life of others around her. She has a deep interest in challenging boundaries, steering away from the so-called 'normal' that societies instil within us. Her questioning drives her to photograph the marginalised, stigmatised, and vulnerable and in the process turning her representations into a somewhat positive image of beauty.
Isn't vulnerability a pure, honest state of being? She questions. Aren't we our real/honest self when we are vulnerable?
The five images showcased here are from her ongoing project (started in 2005) Naked Britain. Anastasia has a great passion for meeting new people who share some very touching and courageous stories. Learning from one another drives her creativity and allows her to keep questioning everything. She uses her camera to document the naked body and mind. Her sitters are sometimes vulnerable. She allows the vulnerability to run free.
To be truly naked is, after all, to be truly free.
Anastasia is a photographer and an educator. She has exhibited her work in the UK and internationally. In 2020, she was a finalist in the Head On Photo Awards with her image 'Pete' (Naked Britain). Anastasia has qualifications in photography, social anthropology and a Master's degree in Visual Anthropology. She plans to commence a PhD in photography soon.
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Jordina Ros & Pere Estadella | Ditada Art | Catalonia, Spain
©Jordina Ros & Pere Estadella - Ditada Art. Drone video performance 'We can't get lost beyond the line'. All Rights Reserved.
We can't get lost beyond the line, our fears are imprinted in the comfort line. Getting lost or getting out can cause significant variations in our lives.
Jordina Ros & Pere Estadella are multidisciplinary visual artists, performers, teachers and cultural agitators working with the language of the body, space and time. They use audio-visual media for their multi-award performances that have taken them to different parts of the world: Japan, Mexico, the United States, Croatia, Italy, the United Kingdom, and more recently India. These different experiences enriched them as artists and humans thanks to the multiculturalism and exchange in connecting with people through the spirit of improvisation and audience participation in their performances.
For more than three years their projects have been gravitating to performance. The curiosity to work with their bodies and to be able to stir emotions, consciences in the spectator lies in an important field of work where their performances are currently fused with the environment where they live. Video is one of the creative tools where they can experiment with their ideas and make them visible on the screen.
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fb @jordina.ro | ig @jordinaros
Laila Kujala - Painting on Wood - Michigan, USA
©Laila Kujala. Paintings on salvaged live edge wood. All Rights Reserved.
From left to right: I gave you clean water | All my children need protection | Protector of Bees | Help us | Mother's anxiety when her children are endangered.
Laila paints on salvaged live edge wood. The bark, the knots, the grain of the wood and all the imperfections in the surface are seeds of inspiration for her. With some paintings she lets the wood tell her what is hidden in it and for other ideas she searches for a specific piece of wood. She uses mostly coloured pencils, acrylic inks and gold. She likes the inks because they let the wood grain show through, adding another dimension to her artworks. The gold in her art symbolizes universal love, the invisible world and the life force that unites all life. Many of her paintings depict this interconnectedness and also the need for us to be better caretakers of our beloved Mother Earth and its beings.
The most important lesson I learned growing up in Finland was the love of nature. I spend a lot of time playing in the forest with all the wonderful materials that nature provided. Even when I grew older, I loved the woods and often went on walks to commune with nature.
It was on one of my walks that I had my first spiritual experience; I felt very strongly that I was one with the whole universe. Since then I have believed in this oneness of all life and that we are all small parts of a larger energy. My paintings reflect my experiences and this interconnectedness.
Laila studied art at the Art Students’ League of New York, NYC.
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fb: @ailakujalaartstudio | ig: @lailakujala
Apply NOW to be featured in February 2021!