Michelle Hinebrook

In her works, Michelle Hinebrook explores objects' figures much closer than a traditional painter or sculptor might do, at skin level. Intrigued by the way the skin surface reacts when pressed against or restrained by another surface or material, Michelle explores her own figure in both physical fashion - by wrapping her body in a hammock, as well as virtual one - by using an MRI scan, and then uses the grid representations as a theme to create her work. But this is only where her journey begins.

She starts by creating broad chalk strokes on painted wood, where the intersecting lines will guide the placement of nails - anchor points for the netted mask that comes next.

The mask, essentially any netted material, is then manipulated in between the nails, creating areas of tension and suspense.


She warps the fabric as she explores the resulting effect, and lets the material guide her as it twists and relaxes.


Then, it's the spray paint, delivered with either a commercial spray gun, for wider areas, or an airbrush for finer lines.


The spray flow vibrates the fabric threads, creating a fuzzy expression as the paint settles. Layer upon layer of paint is added, and although they don't accumulate, as oils would, her enamels mass up and create colorful presence that is emphasized by the almost mathematical organization of the cells.

Removing the netting, Michelle continues to add brush strokes that seem, at first glance, in total contradiction to the fine cellular expressions below; black, bold and wide, like coarse material rubbing against delicate skin. The intersection between the two spaces, internal and external, is what tends to be the first thing to catch the eye.

You can see more of Michelle's work on her site, at http://www.michellehinebrook.com.

Serge Levy

Serge Levy's work, Headshots, is a direct evolution of his core interest, street photography. Serge, a photojournalism teacher at ICP in Manhattan, embarked on street photography, among other reasons, in order to bring out the emotions he discovered in himself - without risking too much exposure. His current work is more daring, with him being the model.

We perceive an image to be an accurate and complete representation of reality, but doing so is an oversimplification, according to Serge. A single image can depict a fleeing emotion or a few facets of our personality - but it can't truly and wholly represent us as the complex, imperfect beings that we are.



In his process, Serge is dancing around self-search, one step forward, one step backwards. His multi-stage process is geared to create distance from the person being portrayed - himself. The initial shot creates the first degree of that "removal". The Polaroid transfer that follows creates the 2nd and 3rd degrees (a Polaroid is made of both a negative and a positive). The Polaroid is Xerox, creating the 4th degree, and then transferred to paper - and the 5th and final degree of separation is achieved. Distancing himself from the end result, he feels a little less exposed.



But then, Serge jumps into the Xerox transfer, painting back those missing emotions, the facets of personality that are hidden in the original shot.



Working very close to the images, Serge describes the process as eerie at times, much too close for comfort. He covers his own likeness on the print he's working on, to create a new surface on which he is then building the emotions and feeling that lie beneath the surface.

Even taking his self-portraits turned out to be a complex process for the professional photographer in him; trained to identify and capture the "decisive moment", acting as both the model and the photographer can be often confusing.

You can check out Serge's work here: http://www.myartspace.com/artistInfo.do?populatinglist=home&subscriberid=g298icyne9qdfbo1

Rebecca Schweiger

In a small Manhattan apartment, Rebecca Schweiger is painting sometimes on six different canvases at a time. One canvas is seldom enough to capture the emotions and feelings she is out to expose. Some emotions can't share the same canvas - so they find their expressions on multiple ones. Others may belong on a specific canvas because they were part of a specific time or event in her life; she may return to that older canvas later to add or enhance the expressions, or give it a different perspective. At any given time, there may be 5 or 6 very different canvases against her walls, like snapshots of different moods. Some overlap, some remain unique.


Rebecca's process reflects that of her soul searching. Starting with a blank canvas, she soaks it in washed down acrylic paint, creating a very delicate coating, almost subliminal, ready for the more agressive search - and substances to follow. She drips ink on the wet canvas, letting it smear and expand, almost without control. When the canvas is dry, she applies additional layers, in different mediums, from Sharpie marker to oil. The canvas becomes her mirror, and as quickly as she is able to peel off a mental layer through her inner search, she is adding that layer to her work.


You can see more of Rebecca's work on her website, at: http://www.rebeccarts.com/

Aaron Johnson presents new Reverse-Painted, Acrylic Polymer Peel Paintings - on the American flag

Aaron Johnson's reverse-painted process uses two main surfaces. One is the base, on which the acrylic polymer paint - distributed over the second surface - is later imposed. In his upcoming show, Star-Crossed, the base surface is no other than the American flag.

The work process starts by preparing the base surface. Aaron stretches the polyester-made American flag over a frame. Then, using a make-shift tool, basically a hammer fitted with long nails, Aaron perforates the surface of the flag, to allow the polymer from the second layer to later penetrate and immerse in the flag's surface.


Behind Aaron, in the middle of the image, you can see the "harlequin juggler". This painting, that currently exists on the back side of a stretched plastic sheet, will become the second layer - which will be later affixed to the base layer, the flag, in a pour of polymers.



In the next step, the "harlequin Juggler" layer is laid face down on the floor, and the polymer mix is poured on the painted plastic sheet.


The polymer is poured across the plastic. Aaron dips his hands into the polymer to assure even distribution of the polymer.



After the polymer-saturated flag has dried, the paint that resided on the plastic surface is now congealed to the flag, and it's time to cut away the excess plastic around the stretcher - leaving, for now, the plastic layer on the face of the flag.



When the polymer has completely dried, the plastic is ready to be peeled away from the painting, leaving all the acrylic polymer paint permanently on the flag.



Peeling the plastic layer off his piece: "Rushmore Hell Beast".


"Star-Crossed" opens Thursday September 4th at the Stux gallery in Chelsea, NY.

To see more of Aaron's work, check out his site.

Leonardo Drew - from found objects to city scapes

Small and large pieces of wood take up almost every piece of space in Leonardo's large studio in Brooklyn. From 2 by 4's to tree stumps and unidentified objects meshed together - they will all end up on the wall as part of his next large scale art installation.

Laying down the objects neatly on black, numbered squares, Leonardo towers over the pieces like a city planner over his model, eye-balling each object carefully before he lays it down next to similar or different ones on the black square.

"My neighborhood is a God send when it comes to found objects", he says. "Almost every step I take I see an item I must incorporate in my piece. I typically wear gloves as I go through the 'stuff' out there, but once I bring it into the studio I take off the gloves. The 'stuff' becomes mine, I feel 'connected' to it - I feel the need to work with it directly, no barriers".

Check out Leonardo's work on his site at: http://www.leonardodrew.com.

Mural artists

Aaron Lazansky's work is not only exhibited in murals - but also in painting books for kids, showcasing his graffiti creations. Check out his work and bio at www.sohnup.com



I found Alvin Perez (aka Write-Nozer), a young graffiti artist, in a 4'x4' cubicle, deep inside the 5 pointz complex in Brooklyn. Squeezed among paint-ladened ladders and other graffiti-creating pieces of equipment, going through one spray paint can after another, this artist demonstrates that any bare piece of wall, hidden and remote as it may be, can be a mural artist's canvas.

Dana - Constructive Destructive

With the main theme of her work being human aggression (against human and nature), Dana's process of work is anything but subtle. Working in layers, reflecting the constant regenerations of buildings, cities and cultures, Dana attacks the medium with razors and a blow torch, searing and melting the pieces, creating a distressed urban landscape. Experimenting with different materials, such as printing waste, transparency film, glue, resin, mesh, canvas, paper and wood, Dana is looking for reactions and interactions. Fusion, integration and disintegration, solidification and deterioration - all become expressive tools in her work.



Dana works in NJ. Her works are currently exhibited in the National Academy museum in Manhattan and the Neuberger museum in Purchase, NY.