Nathan Apffel’s work uses paint to explore organic forms that are achieved through action with a liquid medium. Concentration is given to chemical reactions between multiple paint mixtures to achieve random biological forms and to mixing colors through layering of transparent pigments.

These paintings explore the idea of the subconscious vs. the conscious in an attempt to illustrate the randomness of life. I set up a dichotomy or maybe a false dichotomy, where paint, color, and line represent conflicting ideas--fate vs. free will, or destiny vs. chance or science vs. religion. I use chance and random elements along with designed and planned elements to create compositions that have a disjointedness about them where both subject and meaning are partially concealed.

The work that engages me and drives me forward is powered by Black. In applying my research and interest for the history and traditions of Color Theory, Physics, Alchemy, Heavy Metal, Religion and Mythology I am working toward a comprehensive understanding of the interrelation of Black, Darkness, and Matter. Black is the pure and unrepentant mark of information; both the origin of recording thoughts, and the fully saturated realization of all pigment as one. Darkness is the event, or phenomena of Blackness; the threshold over which light can no longer affect a receptor (eye, camera, etc.). Matter is the physical manifestation of Black-made-flesh; the Ka’abah or Black Stone of Mecca, Dark Matter and Black Holes, the Nigredo stage of alchemical transformation. Through these investigations, and together with the history of western painting as defined by Malevich and Reinhardt, the goal of my work is to expand and cross the boundaries which define and divide Black, Darkness and Matter into a unified concept. A Black Singularity.

Ike Designs Jewelry by Dori Eisenhauer was born in Seattle in 1999 and has been going strong since then, participating in trade and craft shows around the country, wholesaling to boutiques and art galleries nationwide and taking on custom commissioned work in New York City. In addition, since arriving back on the east coast, Dori is a co-founding member of the Cockeyed Optimists Theatre Company. Ike Designs Jewelry is comprised of tiny gem beads ranging from garnet to jade to diamond and accented by silver, yellow gold and rose gold. A sense of whimsy and wearability are important in all the designs by Ike, and allow the option to wear one piece alone or layer them for a more luxurious feel. Dori studied at Franklin and Marshall College, BA in Drama, Pratt Fine Arts Center and the 92nd Street Y.

Jared Friedman runs Econo Graphics, a full-service design studio and screen printing shoppe. He designs and prints clothing and posters for himself and others. If you’d like to check out his work, you can go to econographics.etsy.com or to the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene most Saturdays. He is a Libra.

Kevin currently works at Pace Wildenstein Galleries. He just had twins.

A graduate of the Yale School of Art, Paula Heisen has exhibited her work throughout the United States, with solo exhibitions in New York City and Houston. Among the grants and awards she received are an Elizabeth Foundation Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts grant and an Ingram Merrill Foundation Grant, scholarships to Yale, the Skowhegan School and the New York Studio School. She has taught at Oxbow Summer Program, Yale University’s Summer Program and at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and has been a visiting artist at the Art Insitute of Chicago, Cooper Union and Hampton University. She lives and works in New York City.

She is a perceptual painter, and works from still life set-ups that have combinations of unusual objects. Her goal is to create images that are both sensual and psychologically provocative.

Steve Keister is a sculptor and ceramicist. He has exhibited extensively since the 1970’s, including the 1981 Whitney Biennial, and solo exhibitions at the Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, BlumHelman Gallery, New York, and Feature Inc., New York. He has received numerous grants including a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2000. His work is included in many museum collections including The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Anastasiya Konopitskaya is a New York based artist with a background in architecture and interactive installations. Her interest lies in the everyday experience, which is expressed through her current work titled ‘Beauty Shop’, a series of caricatures.

Barbie was immensely important in fueling the creative life of artist Margaux Lange as a child, and ironically continues to be such for her as an adult. Lange’s Plastic Body Series Art jewelry utilizes salvaged Barbie doll parts in combination with hand-fabricated sterling silver and pigmented resins. It is an examination and celebration of her life-long fascination with the icon and the result of her desire to re-purpose mass produced materials into handmade wearable art.

Margaux has exhibited extensively in Art Jewelry galleries across the US and abroad since receiving her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. The Plastic Body Series has received international press coverage in the world’s top craft, fashion and design magazines and has been published in books such as: 500 Bracelets, 500 Necklaces, 500 Plastic Jewelry Designs, Cool Green Stuff and Love Design. She is currently working on a collection of new work for a solo exhibition of her Art jewelry this December at Luke & Elloy Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA.

Daniel Maidman attended Claude Watson School for the Arts in Toronto, Canada and completed an undergraduate degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. He lived in Los Angeles for eight years, during which time he pursued life drawing and anatomical dissection studies. Drawings from his anatomical atlas are in use in the U.S. Army’s forensics field manual. He has shown with Lana Santorelli Gallery in Chelsea. His painting Day was selected as a finalist in the Portrait/Figure category of The Artist’s Magazine’s 26th Annual Art Competition (juror Nelson Shanks).

He has been painting figurative oils for several years now.

Robert Christian Malmberg was bred in Florida and broken in Kentucky. After a seven year love affair with California the boy birthed a passion for studio art and photography. His Collodian-Alternative process studio hosts his unique inclinations, and here you can find him constructing gallery projects, preparing glass plates with exotic chemistry, and taking commissioned portraits with an 8x10’ wet-plate era camera he calls “Brenda”. Both are currently working in Greenpoint, Brooklyn..

Although essentially a self-taught artist, Mr. May holds degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Pennsylvania where he studied painting with George Rickey, and Neil Welliver. He is a fellow of the American Academy in Rome where he presented a one-man show of paintings and drawings at the completion of his fellowship. In the spring of 2009 he had a solo show at Art 101 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Shane McAdams is a writer, curator and artist living in Brooklyn, New York. He has been a contributing writer for the Brooklyn Rail since 2003 and has also contributed to New York Arts, Art Papers, and several other publications. In 2007 he curated and wrote the catalogue essay for Head Over Hand, an exhibition exploring process-based abstraction, and his most recent curatorial project, Tension/Release, was held at Caren Golden Fine Art in New York City.

Growing up in suburban Long Island, I was always interested in the architecture associated with suburban sprawl and development. My work is a collection of images collaged, drawn, cut, reassembled, and altered in many ways to make new invented spaces.

I have a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Pratt Institute. The work has been shown at Platform Gallery, Carren Golden Fine Art, GE Corporate Headquarters, McCaig-Wells Gallery. Work is currently on exhibit at POTS gallery and Soapbox in Seattle.

Rachel Ouillette is a painter, printer, and photographer living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Through a series of slow processes, her work
embodies a living thing stamped with time; referencing evolution and organic form, she creates a union between the thing and the thing.

“Interesting ideas, concepts, and combinations are often not found. As these ideas are frequently buried in conceptual ground that is perceived as worthless because of the high absurdity content in the soil. If an artist has the right riffle, and some patience, these ridiculous regions can be made to yield fruitful and interesting ideas.”