Fine Art

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@lukaswerneck

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Black Lives Matter by Liam Booysen

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Artist: sujaedd

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Felix Virtanen

Felix is a Finnish fine art student, aspiring to be a professional artist. This aspiration is made easier for her, considering her father is the co-owner of an art gallery in Helsinki. Currently, the 22-year-old is studying Fine Art at the University of the Arts, Helsinki.

Virtanen has been interested in since she was a young child, always opting for paintbrushes and sketchbooks over toys and dolls. In an exclusive interview with Apollo, Felix said that her father, Timo Virtanen, has always been her inspiration.

“...his childhood wasn't very privileged so he has had to work even harder to get where he is now.” she explained, “I love [his] determination in everything he does and, because of his ties in the art world, I have been exposed to such amazing people and art work”. When asked who her favourite artist was, Felix revealed that she loved “lots of art styles” so couldn't choose just one. However, she said that, because of her current theme, Finnish artist Jirka Vaatainen, has been a huge inspiration for her. His ‘Real-Life Disney’ series has brought her attention to the “unnaturally slim shape” of cartoon Disney princesses, which has influenced her latest series (which had a small feature in her father’s gallery!) “Clonely Beauty”.

“(Gl)itching To Be Perfect”

This piece features four images of a Japanese model, as she gradually gets taken over by the glitch. The aim of the art is to bring attention to the fact that perfection isn’t the same in the eyes of every single person and, if you try to become a carbon copy of ‘perfection’, it may cause physical/ mental changes.

“Cut Along This Line”

This piece refers to the plastic surgery craze in South Korea (which is considered to be the ‘plastic surgery capital’ of the world’). It is well-known in South Korea that perfection and beauty are very important (you can see this through the celebrities) and a large percentage go “under the knife” to achieve this goal.

“Beauty Fades”  

“Beauty Fades” tries to acknowledge the idea of lost identity. By obsessing over the idea of being “perfect”, many people may lose a depth to their personality, and become a shallow person (as represented by the 2D triangles). The irregular circle shape intends to show the true beauty of this person, which has been concealed by the dark background and triangular disfiguration. 

“Delicate Beauty”

This time, the model is over a plain white background, which was chosen because white is associated with innocence, purity and perfection. However, the model has become cracked; flawed. “Delicate Beauty” indirectly comments on the fact that being a “perfect” person doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a moral person, or even a happy person.

“Stay In Your Lane”

This two-part piece features two female Korean celebrities, who are considered to have a “perfect” face, in the eyes of Korean citizens. The overlay of squares comments on the idea of being forced into a box, or “boxed in” by society’s conventions of beauty and perfection. 

“How Do You Fit?”

This silhouette is of K-Pop star, Nana, who is considered to have the perfect body. Her true form has been filled with a black darkness, which covers an honestly brutal poem in the background. The poem in the background, titled “Welcome To Society”, is by Erin Hanson and it makes sharp comments about the way people are expected to be. However, this honesty has been concealed by this “perfect” body, in an attempt to hide our flawed society.

Here is the full poem:

Welcome to society, We hope you enjoy your stay, And please feel free to be yourself, As long as it’s in the right way, Make sure you love your body, Not too much or we’ll tear you down, We’ll bully you for smiling, And then wonder why you frown, We’ll tell you that you’re worthless, That you shouldn’t make a sound, And then cry with all the others, As you’re buried in the ground, You can fall in love with anyone, As long as it’s who we choose, And we’ll let you have your opinions, But please shape them to our views, Welcome to society, We promise that we won’t deceive, And one more rule now that you’re here, There’s no way you can leave.

Erin Hanson

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Yang Shoujing

                                       ─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

Lai Sut Weng

                                      ─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

Louise Soloway Chan

                                      ─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

Robert Tan (Sketcherman)

                                      ─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

Huang Yuanqing

                                      ─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

Tan Ping

                                      ─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

Zhang Jianjun

                                     ─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

Kenny Wong

                                     ─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

Ochir Tsevegjav

                                    ─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

Urjingiin Yadamsuren 

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Fine Art A-Level: Component 1

The task is to find and write about two non-artist links and an artist not used previously. (3 research tasks in total)

My chosen theme:

Eastern Asia Culture                                                                                             ⌎⊱ focusing on Japan and South Korea

                                               ˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚

Non-Artist Research:

1) Japan                                                                                                                     - Tokyo                     

2) South Korea                                                                                                           - Seoul                  

                                              ˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚

Artist Research:

For this component, I plan to research traditional art, so an artist that uses traditional art mediums. In order to keep within my theme, I will explore the work of an Eastern Asian artist.                                                                                                   

Here are 10 artists I have considered:

Chinese calligrapher, Yang Shoujing

Chinese calligrapher, Zheng Tie

Hong Kong artist, Louise Soloway Chan

Hong Kong artist, Robert Tan (pen name Sketcherman)

Chinese artist, Huang Yuanqing

Chinese "narrative” painter, Tan Ping

Chinese artist, Zhang Jianjun

Hong Kong artist, Kenny Wong

Mongolian painter, Ochir Tsevegjav

Mongolian artist, Ürjingiin Yadamsüren

                                             ˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚˙༓࿇༓˙˚

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Edward Honaker

Edward Honaker is a 23 year-old photographer, who documents his depression through his artwork. He was diagnosed with depression when he was 19 and says that he “became bad at the things [he] used to be good at, and didn’t know why. Your mind is who you are and when it doesn’t work properly, it’s scary”. I strongly relate to this because depression does seem to strip away your identity. This quote is particularly difficult for me because I also suffer from Depersonalisation and struggle with identity.

Honaker’s photo series, simply titled II, is “A series which illustrates [his] experiences with depression and anxiety”.

this photo is probably my favourite because I feel like this a lot of the time. When things are bad, you feel like your are falling. Then you hit rock bottom and the heaviness seems to take over. Having depression makes simple things, like getting out of bed, extremely difficult. 

these photos appear to show identity loss, which often comes with having depression and anxiety. You are often unable to enjoy things that you used to love. Depression can also make family life harder because people without depression will never understand the illness.

Something that I particularly like about this series is that it is in black and white. For me, depression takes the colour out of the world and everything feels dull and flat. You can see this clearly with Edward’s pictures. 

This series has inspired me to create my own black-and-white photo series.

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Shin Kwang Ho

Shin Kwang Ho (신광호) is a South Korean painter, whose work reflects inner feelings and emotions.

His work is categorised under Abstract Expressionism because of his distorted portraits. Shin uses oil and acrylic paint, as well as charcoal. The paint is applied in bold strokes and a thick impasto. This gives the paintings more texture and adds depth to the meaning. To me, it is though the “real” person is being revealed by removing the outer layer. This fits in with my research on depression because it is often a hidden illness. People with depression often put on the pretence of being okay when, in reality, they are in a lot of pain.

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Face Me exhibition (2014)

These pieces are part of Shin Kwang Ho’s first solo exhibition (also the first solo exhibition in South-East Asia). 

As you can see, Shin uses (mainly) primary colours vividly, with bold, swirling lines. Although the facial features in his portraits are generally accurate, he seems to deliberately disregard all of the features, sometimes completely leaving some out (e.g. the lack of lips in the picture above).

Shin believes that Realism only shows the outside view of the model, rather than who they actually are. His use of colour and pattern are his way of trying to show their emotions, which is more closely related to their personality. Kwang Ho uses distortion and exaggeration in order to express the inner lives if his models, as opposed to the face that they put on.

Overall, I really like his work and feel that it fits well with my research. I particularly like the portrait of the mainly blue face. Blue is often associated with sadness, so I feel that the model could be someone with depression. I also love the face that appears to be scratched (number 2) because, to me, it shows a huge amount of inner pain.

I hope to use Shin Kwang Ho’s work as inspiration for future art pieces expressing depression.

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This account is only for art work that I have completed in my Fine Art Course