Amsterdam Boogie
Rich Wagner grew up with art – his mother was a professional artist and his father was an amateur artist. Thus, his initial artistic training was in their atelier. With more than hundreds of credit hours of formal study, Rich is an elected member of the Art Students League. He has also studied painting and drawing at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. In addition, he has studied art history, most recently at the Courtauld Institute, the University of Oxford, and the National Gallery of Ireland.
Examples of his work are included in private collections and in the Law Library at Pace University. He often participates in exhibitions both in galleries and online.
I was exposed to abstract art at an early age. My mother’s advisor for her MFA was William S. Rubin, who was instrumental in building the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Not surprisingly, I saw a wide variety of abstract works in my formative years.
My painting “Amsterdam Boogie” develops from hard-edge geometric abstraction. The forms juxtapose areas of pure color that interact with each other.
An Emotional Orange
My name is Chenyu Zhang, and I was born and raised in China, where the seeds of my artistic journey were first sown. In 2016, I relocated to the United States, a move that brought new horizons and influences into my creative world. Currently unfolding the final chapter of my senior year at the University of Michigan, I am delving into a major in Fine Arts at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design and supplementing it with a minor in Entrepreneurship, weaving together my passion for art and acumen for business. My creations are a blend of my rich, eastern heritage and the innovative, western perspectives I’ve encountered, forming a unique tapestry that embodies my diverse experiences and explorations in the realm of art.
Navigating the crossroads of meticulous planning and potent emotion, my artistic practice embarks on a journey to showcase their harmonious coexistence on a single canvas. My creations, deeply rooted in painting yet explorative across varied mediums, delve into the nuanced interplay between humanity and nature, weaving a narrative where emotion subtly permeates through every precise, deliberate stroke. Inviting viewers into a world where restrained visual narratives conceal rich, emotive undertones, my work seeks to become a conduit for exploring and appreciating the symbiosis between the logically planned and the emotionally profound.
An Ending A Beginning
Fabrizio Sclocco (b. 1989, Pescara, Italy) is a contemporary figurative artist whose work explores the intersections of identity, movement, and transformation. Since relocating to Toronto in 2012, he has built a dynamic career as both a visual artist and a set designer in the film industry, seamlessly blending his expertise in architecture, design, and storytelling.
Fabrizio’s work has garnered recognition through a collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario and an exhibition at the Four Seasons Hotel in Mexico City. Rooted in his Italian heritage and shaped by his multidisciplinary experiences, his practice challenges conventional representations of the human form, pushing the boundaries of figurative art.
Education
School of Art, Misticoni, Pescara, Italy
University of Architecture, D’Annunzio, Pescara, Italy
My work explores the fluidity of identity and the complexities of selfhood. Through painting, I depict figures that resist conventional categorization, existing in a space between vulnerability and strength. These forms remain in flux, embracing transformation and ambiguity rather than adhering to traditional binaries.
With a background in architecture and design, I balance compositional precision with a deep sensitivity to material and form. My approach reflects a meticulous understanding of spatial relationships, resulting in works that are both structurally refined and conceptually layered.
Informed by my Italian heritage and interdisciplinary experiences, I investigate the intersection of personal and collective narratives. Through themes of transformation and authenticity, my paintings challenge entrenched notions of identity, inviting a reconsideration of belonging and self-perception.
An Evening At Zion
I am an avid traveler and therefore have the opportunity to capture lots of different places and scenery through my various mediums of art including the most prevalent photography. These photos allow me to document and preserve my experiences and to share and communicate with others my emotional response to the places I travel.
Nature has always been a primary focus when it comes to my photography. I strive to capture nature for the beauty it is without extreme editing or filters. I hope that through my photography people will start to slow down and recognize the small moments that would otherwise go unnoticed. Additionally, I hope that my images become a way to capture fleeting moments in an attempt to preserve the magnificence of nature.
An Old Friend Mr James
G.M. Owen is from the middle Tennessee area; he is a self-taught painter with no formal training other than art classes in middle school. He started painting around the age of twelve years old, placing art in the annual juried art competition at the State Fair Art Show, and later joining a local art guild in his late teens. After high school, he was hired as a staff sign artist for the Coca-Cola Bottling company in Nashville, Tennessee, and later worked as a sign artist for trade show/expo companies working in the southeastern states. By the mid-eighties, the art of free-hand lettering was replaced by computers and wide-format printing. He re-entered tech school to study desktop publishing, and he has worked for the last 30 years as a graphic designer in the wine & spirits industry. He has always painted and placed art in venues, restaurants, and juried art shows along the way. His style of art ranges from portraits to still life fruit. He uses non-traditional oil paint which is an oil-based enamel and reflects back to paint he used as a sign artist painting billboards and walls for Coca-Cola company when he was younger.
I think about paintings and I see pictures of different images and I try to convey that or what I see in a magazine or online into a painting. A lot of times I will first make a mockup of what I want to create using Photoshop and then I will paint that image on canvas. At times the painting takes a different path from what I started out thinking about painting.
Anatomy Of Panic
Gerrit van Ommering is a fine art photographer based in Gold River, California. Originally from the Netherlands, he relocated to the United States at the age of 19 to pursue a dynamic career in the aerospace industry, specializing in the invention, design, development, and deployment of space systems. Following retirement, he transitioned to photography – channeling his technical expertise and creative drive into a new artistic medium. His photography work, much of which is creative and abstract, explores the tension between realism and imagination.
Gerrit is actively involved in Northern California’s photography and arts communities. He is active in the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center and Gallery, the Sierra Camera Club, Sacramento Fine Arts, Rancho Cordova Arts, and many others. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and competitions, earning regional awards and entering several private collections.
In July 2024, he co-presented the successful duo exhibition “REALISMFantasy” with his wife Lucille at the Mills Station Arts & Culture Center, where he contributed the 31-print “Fantasy” segment. He had a very successful 24-print solo exhibition, “Embellished Emblems”, at Gallery 1075 in West Sacramento during June 2025. In 2025 and so far in 2026, he has had 190 images accepted in 34 physical and 64 online/magazine exhibits.
I have always been drawn to images that surprise – ones that feel a little offbeat, mysterious, or just plain strange. While I do plenty of straight or lightly enhanced photography, what I really enjoy is taking an image and pushing it into new territory: twisting, layering, and abstracting until it feels like something unexpected has emerged.
My eye tends to land on unusual shapes, odd juxtapositions, or scenes that others might overlook. I collect these visual ingredients and let instinct take over in the editing process. Sometimes I know where I’m going; often I don’t. I just keep experimenting until something clicks – when the image feels done.
In our smartphone era, billions of photos are taken each year. To even barely stand out, I feel the need to create something different, often strange, abstract, or slightly weird. If my work can get someone to stop for even a few seconds and think, “What am I looking at?” or “How did he do that?” then I have succeeded.
The pieces I am submitting for “Abstracted” follow that notion. They try to isolate, reimagine, and reinterpret the mundane subject to add interest and a bit of surprise, reflecting the fun I had in making them.
Ancient Hunter
Dr. Harpal Sodhi is an accomplished artist and author. She currently holds the title of an artist at “Artwork On-Wheels” in Niagara Falls, which is a business established in 2024 with, Gunwant Sodhi. “Artwork On-Wheels” reflects their intention to travel across the United States for painting exhibition participation. They also aim to exhibit paintings in other countries worldwide.
Dr. Harpal Sodhi pursued higher education, earning a PhD in fine art with a focus on Pablo Picasso’s drawings and paintings. In addition to other certificates, she obtained certification in art appreciation from the National Museum, New Delhi, India. Her experiences have profoundly influenced her current career trajectory.
Dr. Sodhi is also a prolific author, having published around 40 ebooks & paperback books, on Amazon, Google, and other platforms. She has received numerous awards in sitar competitions and art exhibitions. Her detailed biography is online by Marquis in, “ Who’s Who in America”. Amongst her many accomplishments, she is proud of exhibiting her paintings in the US, Canada, and India.
Art in any form becomes a record of an age and a celebration of various cultures. Our global human society is divided by languages, customs, religions, economic developments, and geographical location but the visual art language has united the global society.
Paintings are a silent global language. All my paintings project a silent language of colors and forms. I have been inspired by the fabulous modes of nature that speak about the natural beauty around us. I also work on abstract art which depicts the subconscious observation of sight giving birth to unusual forms. My experience of 50 years as an artist and PhD art research-work experience, contributed to my Mystical Art, a technique & style that I pioneered.
The creativity in any good work of art continues to provide pleasure and information to the observers of the present day.
Ancient Traveler
Katy Bishop is a contemporary abstract painter based in California. Her work is characterized by bold, expressive strokes and vibrant use of color. Some of her paintings feature abstract landscapes, with swirling shapes and patterns that evoke the movement and energy of the natural world. Others are truly abstracts.
Katy is represented by TAG Gallery, in Los Angeles, and MEGA ART Gallery in Rome.
Katy’s early art education at the Art Institute of Chicago on a high school scholarship began her pathway to use the arts to enhance others’ lives and her own. After college graduation, she became part of creative teams, producing national TV commercials and independent films for many years. She had been working with acrylics and encaustics when a friend introduced her to alcohol inks. Katy found her expressive medium.
In 2021, Katy finally began showing her artwork publicly. Since then, The Los Angeles Art Association, the California Art League, and the International Association of Art – USA have included her as a member.
In 2022, her work was honored with 43 juried online gallery exhibitions. She also had 5 in-person gallery exhibitions in Southern California, all in her first 2 public years.
So far, in 2023, Katy has a solo exhibition, VIVID INK, at TAG Gallery, Los Angeles. Her alcohol ink reverse painting on plexiglass, TERRA FIRMA VII, is part of the USA Exhibition at The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, in June 2023. Global Painting Conclave awarded the Bronze Award in the competition Abstract Painting January 2023, for BEYOND. SPRING ROSE Is part of the in-person exhibition COLORS OF THE WORLD in Rome.
Katy’s artworks are in private collections in New York, Pennsylvania, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Beverly Hills.
I create my artwork to communicate feelings and ideas that cannot easily be expressed well in words. As I explore the use of light and shade through color and movement, I recognize that the control we all want to exert in our lives is often paired with uncontrollable growth and change, usually with emotional responses. I also find beauty in abstract landscapes.
Much of my artwork is painted reverse on glass. Other artworks are on synthetic paper. Most often I use alcohol inks because they can be deep or transparent. They can be controlled and sometimes, totally uncontrolled. A challenge that I enjoy.
And God Created The Man
She was born in a small town in Turkey. She attended elementary school, secondary school, and high school in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. She could not go to college and started working. At the age of 20, she moved to a seaside town, and that’s when she realized she loved painting. She gave birth to her first child, but the baby only lived for three days. She tried to get through this pain by painting. Most of the time, she conveyed her pain to her paintings and comforted them. When she opened a café and started running it, she exhibited her paintings in her workplace for the first time she did it as an amateur. She was painting without training. Years later, she took three years of lessons from an Art teacher in town. She learned to be original and use her imagination to paint, light, and shadow.
After living in that town for many years, she immigrated to the big city of Istanbul. She was attending exhibitions in Istanbul, making friends, and learning new techniques from them. She has organized many exhibitions. She started painting in a workshop with some friends. The texture experiments were doing their paintings in 3D. When she started a picture, she did texture and then reminiscent. They started selling these paintings through a company in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Cyprus. She painted over 5,000 paintings in three years. She was awarded a certificate from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism indicating that her paintings were worth a work of art. In 2018, she moved to New Jersey, USA with her husband and daughter. Now she is in the city where she loves to paint. Songul Terlemez has two 1st prizes, one 2nd prize, and one 3rd prize in various competitions held in Canada, an online exhibition catalog.
Painting is my language, it is more effective than words. I can express myself better by painting more than the words.
My style is surreal and figurative abstract. I prefer to use female figures in my artwork.
After the first figure appears on canvas all happens spontaneously, sometimes painting becomes different than I plan. I love to feel myself in the changing.
The rendezvous of brush and canvas is full of surprises for me. The colors change according to the subject. Sometimes I can describe myself only blue and tones, sometimes riot of colors. I employ oil, acrylic, acrylic ink, and texture techniques on canvas. I feel more comfortable practicing on large sizes like walls.
When I start work, first look at the canvas and imagine the painting. Sometimes it takes a whole day across the empty canvas. Then everything appeared in my head and ready to paint. Mostly I create more than one canvas. Works change many times till they finish. I prefer to use female figurative because women are threatened by violence, injustice, and sexism in most cultures.
I intend to show the strength of a woman even when she is broken, the sacrifice of a mother for her children and human beings, and her colorful character to the audience.
“I want to leave a sign of life with my art!”