Suly Bornstein Wolff is a multi-faceted artist who works in a variety of media, from oils to acrylic, drawing to watercolor. She is a virtuoso artist who has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally in venues as diverse as Florence, Tel Aviv and New Delhi, India, and of course New York. Reminiscent of styles as diverse as the quasi-abstracted paintings of Cecily Brown, the metaphysical installation and wall sculpture of Eva Hesse, as well as the paintings symbolist landscapes of Gustav Klimt, Suly’s works are simultaneously lyrical and mysterious, jubilant yet pensive. Employing these paradoxes, she skillfully applies a multi-hued palette of soft violets, ochres, and browns to engender a sense of memory and longing for far away people and places.

Suly’s work highlights elemental images, using dramatic ploys such as contrasts in scale, shifts in focus, mirrored reflections, staccato images, and multiple or layered surfaces. Sensory perception for Suly is a spiritual activity, one that leads to a heightened awareness of both nature and culture—this thought process points to a new kind of realism—one that is engaged with the actual processes of life. Yet, it also references the theoretical avant-garde conceptions of deconstruction emerging during Modernism. Her work is intense, yet moving, powerful yet sensitive. Gathering her subjects in her field of vision, she draws on her inner world, inviting us to join her on a journey of discovery of the essence of being, depicting new truths of the meaning of existence. Drawing us into an enigmatic and luxurious world of imagination, seduction, and spirit, she creates organic shape and flowing shapely contours. Her luscious approach is inspired.

Born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, she was exposed to art from a very young age. Before turning 20 the artist has immigrated to Israel and studied at Seminar Ha’kibbutzim to become a teacher. For many years Suly’s interest focused on design and all its forms. 13 years ago the multi-disciplinary artist decided to devote herself to art. She quickly created an overture that represents a crossroads of East and West. Drawing upon sources as varied as Orientalism, Byzantine art, and even Mycenaean metalwork, the artist also exhibits more contemporary references, including Art Nouveau symbolism, and modernist Abstraction. Executed in a strongly stylized painting method, the work is distinguished by layered shapes and elegant color. Traipsing across a broad oeuvre that shifts and morphs throughout time and space, Suly is an artist like no other. Not constrained by the rhetoric and dogmas of style, she marches to the beat of her own drum, moving among several approaches to creation, to best enable her own freedom of expression. Even so, the energy and vigor of her explosive impressionistic still landscapes, the lush and sumptuous qualities of her still life’s, and the playful, yet eerie implications of her realist works—all work together in concert, evincing a solid body of unity and contiguity between individual works that represent a totalizing perspective that demonstrates the artist’s joie-de-vivre and reverence for life’s mysteries.

Closely in touch with the natural and organic forms, shapes, and colors of nature, Suly’s work vibrates with a special power unique in the contemporary art scene. In Landscapes, a series of post-impressionist/neo-expressionist paintings, the viewer is presented with works that are bold, animated, and visionary. In one oil-on-canvas work, a stunning landscape and seascape are combined in an effortless fusion which, at the core brings to mind a gushing fountain-like blossom of fireworks rendered in agitated multihued Technicolor strokes, all radiating against a shimmering-black ground. Reminiscent of the Futurist artist, Giacomo Balla’s iconic image Street Light, Suly takes Balla’s innovations one step further: she breaks beyond the conventions of representation fully enfolding the sparks of energy into a realm of pure experience.

Another groundbreaking work, Thicket, also pushes boundaries in new and exciting ways. An oil-on-canvas work, Thicket’s composition consists of a ground of almost snakeskin-like texture in a rich cerulean blue, upon which free-floating geometric shapes of earth-toned geometric shapes. Like Paul Klee’s modernist ruminations on the deconstructed grid, Suly orchestrates abstract rhythms of tranquility and eccentricity in all its geometric potentialities. Trees, carries references that go back in time to a much more distant past. Bringing to mind the ancient tribal works of the prehistoric ages, the image references an abstraction and pattern that recalls a sun-like god of fire, burning in her own effigy of flames and solar passion. Reveling in her own primitive and primal urges, Suly has accessed a range of influences through art history to best express her inner passions and artistic instincts.

It is also obvious that works like these take nature as their point of departure—its natural ebbs and flows, exponential growth patterns, and the vitality of mother earth’s spiritual energy all merge and flow on the surface of her canvas. Another series that chooses to carefully observe nature, yet in a totally new perspective, is her series of voluptuous, yet surreal installations and wall sculptures. Drawing to mind the contemplative quality of Gerhard Richter, these crawling objects and environments are placed in abstract locales of luminous pinks, topaz and sapphire.
In each of her works, regardless of the medium or subject, the rhythms and patterns Suly creates are compelling and distinctive. Her rich application of paint, the balance and flows created on the canvas surface, all represent a zealous vision of an ardent enthusiast. Relying equally on her unconscious, and the world around her for inspiration, she employs a philosophy and approach embraced by many poets… Personal experimentation and an openness to forms enable Suly to reach into a deep inside the soul, and allow her to recreate these images with fervor on the surface, gorgeously applying the medium of paint with beauty and sensitivity, capturing an otherworldly spirit in their magical reminiscences of memory and hope.

Ultimately, Suly’s work is a meditation on natural life force energies, universal and speaking a truth to those from all walks of life. At its core, her work straddles the line between representation and abstraction, revealing how ordinary objects often serve as a point of departure for an artist’s vision, or, alternatively, how an artist’s abstracted forms may subtly suggest recognizable elements. Such work addresses three significant preoccupations in contemporary art: shifting perceptions of identity; explorations of the political landscape; and the notion of the sublime and the dematerialization of the art object. The artist’s strength lies within this fluid movement between genres and categories. Caught between description and dreamlike states, and the observed and the imagined, Suly’s work transforms the natural world into poetic visions and fantasy, while still utilizing symbolic elements to convey psychological ideas and emphasize the “freedom” of art from traditional culture.

From August 20 through 24, the 17th edition of Art Taipei, an international art fair, takes place at the Taipei World Trade Center in Taiwan. Art Taipei has been the most long-standing art fair in Asia. Art Taipei 2010 will be presenting 110 exhibitors from the Americas, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Asia including China (Beijing, Shanghai, Macau, Hong Kong), Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and India. Art Taipei 2010 will include many mediums, including painting, sculptures, video, photography, mixed media, and installations for visitors.

The six sub-sections of Art Taipei 2010 are organized to meet the increasingly multidimensional and specialized demands and trends of Taiwanese art collectors. Art Galleries and Mega Contemporary, the main section of the show, has picked more than 110 galleries for this year’s show. Roughly half of the exhibitors are from abroad.

Made in Taiwan – Young Artist Discovery focused on special solo show by young and emerging artists.

In the Ela-Video category, Encoded, a special exhibition curated by Antoanetta Ivanova from Novamedia, Australia, will be taking place. Presenting digital and moving image artworks created by Australian artists, the Encoded exhibition draws inspiration from the systems of communications and encoding, be they virtual, social or natural, that are rapidly influencing the ways in which we interpret and engage with the world today.

Other special programs include Affordable Art, which provides art works’ price range under $2,000. The artworks by local and foreign emerging talents, as well as established artists, will be displayed at individual galleries within the exhibition hall, which provide beginner collectors an artistic tour and everyone a chance to discover artworks with reasonable price tags.

Some other events not to miss are Art Lecture and Art Perform during the period of Art Taipei 2010. These events are expected to inspire every attendee by taking a special preview on cutting edge viewpoints in art field. The audiences can relax and feel the artistic atmosphere and discover the new vision of artistic perception in Taiwan through this program.

www.youngarttaipei.com

The 18th Curtas Vila do Conde – International Film Festival presents a program that once again will turn Vila do Conde, a Portuguese coastal town north of Oporto, into the epicenter of film and audiovisual art. The festival, which takes place from July 3 to July 11, will present a range of events that include film sessions, performances, exhibitions, workshops, and conferences.

The International Competition brings together a wide range of genres and expressions offering the festival’s devoted audience a selection of fiction, animation, and documentaries that always stand out for their quality and innovative approaches. The Portuguese Competition, which follows the same selection criteria and includes mostly premieres, has become the leading showcase of Portuguese short films.

Take One! provides an opportunity for apprentice filmmakers to present their short films in a competition dedicated to works from Portuguese film schools. It is a complement to the two main competitions as are the Experimental and Music Video Competitions. The competitive section also includes Curtinhas, a segment dedicated to films for children up to 10 years of age.

As well as the competitions, the festival has a series of parallel shows and events such as Da Curta à Longa (From Short to Feature), with Portuguese premieres of features from directors who are in one way or another connected to the festival’s past; Take One! which in addition to the competition also includes workshops and master classes; Remixed, our most daring section which highlights the interaction between different artistic approaches to performance and visual arts, audiovisual, and music creation; In Focus, which hosts the festival’s retrospectives. The filmmakers in this program include Ken Jacobs and the Larrieu brothers. One of the major features in this year’s edition of the festival will be on exploring perception issues.

Curtas Vila do Conde is also a hub where film professionals can update their list of what’s new in short film either through the Short Film Market which makes available all the festival’s entries, or through the social opportunities it provides. The fact that Portuguese films have here a major opportunity to reach a wider audience is leveraged by the festival’s efforts in promoting distribution and heighten media relations and coverage.

www.curtasmetragens.pt

ART San Diego

ART San Diego 2010 (formerly Beyond the Border International Contemporary Art Fair), sponsored by UBS Financial Services in San Diego, will be held September 2–5, 2010, at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel. More than 50 galleries will showcase paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, videos, and cutting-edge multimedia artworks. The Fair includes a VIP Opening Night, distinguished guest speakers, luxury brand displays, citywide cultural programs, and exclusive wine and food events.

In an effort to further strengthen the curatorial vision of the fair, ART San Diego has appointed a new curatorial director, Marcela Quiroz Luna, and a strong Curatorial Advisory Committee, comprised of collectors, curators, appraisers, and conservators. 2010 Spotlight Artists include: Larry Bell represented by Beyond the Border Gallery and Scott White Contemporary, Amy Casey represented by Michael Resenthal Gallery, Manuel Cerda represented by Galeria Enrique Guerrero, Hugo Lugo represented by Ginocchio Galeria, Sebastiao Salgado represented by Peter Fetterman Gallery, Keiko Sugiyama represented by Fine Art Consultancy LTD, Mark Licari represented by Honor Fraser Gallery, Hernan Cedola represented by KBJ Arte Contemporaneo and the 2010 San Diego Art Prize Recipients: David Adey, Gail Roberts and the de la Torre Brothers.

“The experience last year proved that there is a strong appetite for this type of event in San Diego,” states Ann Berchtold, Founder and Executive Director. “Our move downtown allows a closer relationship with Mexico and opens up unlimited collaborative program opportunities with downtown art organizations and institutions.” Last year the fair drew audiences from North County San Diego, Orange County, Palm Springs, and Mexico. More than 2,500 collectors attended the fair’s debut in 2009 and over 70 percent of the galleries who attended reported strong sales. Consequently the fair has swelled from 30-some dealers in 2009 to an anticipated 53 galleries in 2010. San Diego is one of the wealthiest cities in the country with Rancho Santa Fe ranked by Census as the richest community in the nation. Labor Day weekend draws record crowds to San Diego. We anticipate over 5,000 collectors in 2010.

www.artsandiego-fair.com

ArtHamptons

Now entering its third successful year, ArtHamptons has already established itself as one of the top new fine art fairs in America. In 2009, over 5,000 art enthusiasts streamed through.

In addition to paintings, works on paper, photography and prints, the art fair will offer world-class glass art, ceramics, video, and art objects. ArtHamptons will feature 85 highly respected U.S. and international galleries, including for the first time a gallery from the Ukraine and Russia. More than 500 artists ranging from the great masters of 19th-century art to the latest generation of stars will be represented in the show. The exhibition will include a vetted selection of 6,000 artworks valued at $300 million.

Last year, with post-show sales remaining vibrant for many galleries, a stunning $10 million in art sales was generated as a result of ArtHamptons. Notes Rick Friedman, ArtHamptons founder, “We see the vibrant ArtHamptons sales last year and the most recent New York and London auctions with a sell-through rate over 90 percent of the lots offered, are auspicious signs for the art world.”

The art fair exhibitors will include such notable galleries as DC Moore, Waterhouse and Dodd, Forum Gallery, Mary Ryan Gallery, June Kelley Gallery, and Throckmorton Fine Art that will be exhibiting investment-level artwork from an international array of modern and contemporary artists.

Now held at Bridgehampton’s Sayre Park’s five acres, the new location will enable the construction of a spectacular 50,000-square-foot modular building (the largest ever in the Hamptons), a magnificent 30,000-square-foot Sculpture Garden/Hospitality Park and convenient and free on-site parking.

The Lifetime Achievement Award once again will honor excellence in the visual arts. Awards will go to internationally recognized artists who shaped the art scene in New York City and beyond. There will also be public sessions by the world’s leading art experts designed for both advanced and new buyers.

www.arthamptons.com

SOFA WEST

Mark Lyman, Founder and Director of SOFA and President of The Art Fair Company, producer of the SOFA Fairs in Chicago, New York, and Santa Fe, announced that the second annual SOFA WEST will move from its former June dates to July 8–11, 2010 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. SOFA fairs are renowned for presenting cutting-edge modern and contemporary design, decorative arts, and jewelry. Lyman said, “These new July dates will better position SOFA WEST in the international art fair calendar. And we are very excited to be joining Santa’s Fe high summer season of art.” Lyman believes that SOFA WEST will compliment and augment Santa Fe’s exceptional art offerings in July, such as the acclaimed Santa Fe Opera, and the Folk Art Market on Museum Hill being held the same weekend as SOFA WEST, attracting even more national and international art lovers and collectors to the city.

Lyman continued, “We are delighted to partner on this year’s Opening Night with the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, which will invite its upper-level donors to an early Special Member Preview, offering them first opportunity to purchase.” Over 2,000 guests attended SOFA WEST’s inaugural Opening Night last year, with an estimated 10,000 visitors attending the fair during its four day run, exceeding Lyman’s projections by over fifty percent. “We had to expand our ticket sales areas to handle the volume! In short, we were blown away by the incredible response.”

Thirty-five international galleries and dealers will participate in SOFA WEST, with galleries to date including Holsten Galleries, Clark + Del Vecchio, Linda Durham Fine Art, Charon Kransen Arts, Tai Gallery, and Scott Jacobson Gallery.

A Lecture Series will take place on Friday and Saturday, featuring collectors, curators, artists, and gallerists. These events are free with SOFA WEST paid admission or valid pass.

Held in conjunction with SOFA WEST is a new, pre-fair, three-day symposium entitled Historic Bond/Contemporary Spirit: Collecting New Southwest Native Pottery, featuring presentations and tours of historic sites, museums, and private collections. Lyman said, “The symposium was organized in response to the many SOFA collectors who expressed keen interest in learning about the extraordinary cultural and artistic heritage of Santa Fe and its surrounding Native American Pueblos.” Tailored for the art collector and connoisseur, Historic Bond/ Contemporary Spirit symposium presenters to-date include Garth Clark, author and specialist in modern and contemporary ceramics, curator, critic, and dealer; Bruce Bernstein, PhD, executive director, Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA); and Ellen Bradbury, former director of Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe (now New Mexico Museum of Art).

www.sofaexpo.com/santa-fe

Shadow Art Fair

The Shadow Art Fair takes place twice a year in Ypsilanti, Michigan, once in July and then again in December. Its biggest supporter, and venue for the event, is the Corner Brewery. This community event is a chance for native artists to show and sell their work, make it be known and hopefully earn a profit from the display. The Shadow Art Fair is a juried event. It provides a chance for local artists to exhibit and put their works on the market. The Shadow Art Fair offers a comfortable, friendly, and supportive setting for Ypsilanti’s artistic center. Local music, featured brews, and other special activities add a distinct flavor and sense of community to this creative showcase. The fair will be held on Saturday, July 10, from noon to midnight. The Shadow Art Fair is created and organized by the Michigan Design Militia and is sponsored by the Corner Brewery and VGKids.

www.shadowartfair.com

Edinburgh Art Festival

Now in its 7th year, Edinburgh Art Festival offers a huge choice of visual arts exhibitions and events each summer. Created as a platform to showcase Edinburgh¹s many galleries and artists the Festival has grown to become one of the major summer attractions in Scotland’s capital city.

Amongst the many treats on offer are exhibitions ranging from Impressionist Gardens at the National Gallery of Scotland, a major international exhibition of around 90 works including loans from collections around the world, which is the first ever to be devoted to this subject, to showcases of work by leading living artists including 2001 Turner Prize winner, Martin Creed, at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Julie Roberts at the Talbot Rice Gallery, Barbara Rae at Open Eye Gallery, and, making his first UK show, Iran do Espirito Santo at Ingleby Gallery. The Talbot Rice will also present a survey of the work of the leading Scottish painter Craigie Aitchison, who died last year, and Inverleith House offers the first U.K. solo museum exhibition by the great American abstract expressionist painter Joan Mitchell.

2010 also sees the unveiling of new works specially commissioned by the Edinburgh Art Festival with support from the Scottish Government¹s Expo Fund. 2009 Turner Prize winner, Richard Wright, will make a painting in the towers of the Dean Gallery (Scottish Gallery of Modern Art). While two of the rising stars of British contemporary art, Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth, will create a multi-channel video installation that transforms the Edinburgh Festival into a set and the visitors, tourists, and locals into players.

As ever there will be exhibitions staged in a range in unusual, found, and temporary spaces, as well as in established galleries such as Atticsalt, Bourne Fine Art, Collective, Cornhill, Dovecot, ECA, Printmakers, Stills, and more. The City Art Centre will also re-open its doors this summer after a major renovation project.

Complementing the exhibitions will be a wide-ranging program of artist talks, events for children and young people, animated tours of the Art Festival, and the ever-popular ART LATE, which includes a vast selection of events, walks, talks, and tours in and of itself.

edinburghartfestival.com

Art Moscow

Art Moscow is one of the most effective market institutions of contemporary art in Russia. Annually it gathers national and international experts and connoisseurs of actual art at the Central House of Artists. Art Moscow is a unique ground for exposing and purchasing the works of contemporary art classics and the works of the most successful world-famous artists. Traditionally the Fair presents a wide expositional and educational program, thus enabling to fulfill commercial and cultural ideas.

Organizers and Expert Council of the International Art Fair Art Moscow, traditionally assembled in May in Russian capital, made a decision to change the date of the event and to put it off till September, concurrently with the Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. Two key events of Russian contemporary art will consolidate efforts in presenting their best specimens to the public.

In 2009 the expert council, true to the strict selection rules, accepted 40 applications of the galleries from 13 countries (42 percent of the participants are foreign galleries) (Austria, England, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Cuba, Latvia, Russia, Serbia, the Ukraine, Finland, France, and the Czech Republic), 23 participants from Russia and 17 participants from international galleries. The Art Books Section presents publishers, specializing in art, design, and architecture.

Members of the Expert Council are the leading Russian and Western gallerists, theorists and historians of art: Aidan Salakhova (Aidan Gallery, Moscow), Yelena Selina (XL-gallery, Moscow), Marat Gelman (Gallery М.& Yu. Gelman), Hans Knoll (Knoll Galleries, Vienna-Budapest), Volker Diehl (Diehl + Gallery One (Berlin – Moscow).

www.art-moscow.ru

Liverpool Biennial International Festival of Contemporary Art

Liverpool Biennial International Festival of Contemporary Art was conceived and founded by James Moores in 1998, and is presented free to the public every two years over a ten-week period. Alongside the International exhibition, the Festival includes the John Moores Painting Competition and Bloomberg New Contemporaries (both U.K.-based, with more than 50 years of history behind them). Liverpool Biennial is the largest and one of the most exciting contemporary visual arts events in the U.K., and, with 975,000 visits in 2008, one of the best attended anywhere.

Since its inception in 1999, the International exhibition, at the heart of the biennial, has always been shown in multiple gallery and non-gallery spaces across the city. In 2000, Lewis Biggs initiated both collaborative curatorial responsibility and the principle of the exhibition being composed primarily of commissioned new work. This combined approach ensures the exhibition is embedded in the city, and remains unique among biennials globally.

The sixth Liverpool Biennial is dated for September 18 through November 28 and will take place in venues and sites around Liverpool City Centre, including the Walker Art Gallery, FACT, the Bluecoat, Open Eye Gallery, Tate Liverpool, A Foundation Liverpool, and many non-gallery sites.

www.biennial.com