Exhibitions
ISZAF First Show
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May 20 - June 10/2017 Where: Jardin Orange - Second floor
The ‘ISZAF First Show” is a collection of work from a few of our groups members. This showcases 12 artists who represent over 8 nationalities and different styles of visual art. It is ISZAF’s goal and desire to connect visual artists of all backgrounds, styles and disciplines into one network and community in hopes to strengthen creative development in Southern China. This show is the beginning of what ISZAF hopes as an organised body will be the first of many collaborative shows to come.”
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   Nichalia Schwartz (United States) Nichalia makes art to please herself, not to please anyone else, or to make money.She is an illustrator and like to try on different styles and media. Typically, she works either traditionally with pencils and inks or gouache, or digitally on a tablet. Everything she makes has a back story; the characters come from somewhere, and each individual illustration is a tiny snapshot from a much larger tale. Her favorite things to draw are living creatures, human or otherwise. Nichalia is currently working on an original comic book. Monique Smith (United States) Monique Smith is an art teacher from New York. She graduated Cum Laude with a BA in art and education from the State University of New York at Potsdam and Cum Laude with a Master’s in Education from St. Lawrence University. She has participated in several art shows during her undergraduate career including the Annual Student Juried Show and the Senior Honors Art Show. Since college Monique has taught in New York and Internationally. Monique has always been a very creative person with a strong love for art and in particularly drawing since a very young age. All of her art work is brightly colored, expressing her lively spirit and kind nature. These are her first pastel drawings. May Wang (China) May Wang is a 40-year-old Chinese artist, born in Gui Yang, Gui Zhou Province, who lives and works in She Kou, Shen Zhen. Having no background in art, she has worked as a middle school English teacher, an English translator for companies, insurance sales representative, and more. At the age of 34, she began worked as an art assistant in the high school of Shen Zhen QSI Inter- national School. This became the start of her art journey.She feels that the way she would like to communicate with others is better through art, through recording her daily life and her emotions into her artworks. No matter if they are happy or sad feelings, the artist wants to express them all as clearly as she can because they are meaning and precious in her life. Directions:  |
Brittan Aebischer (United States)
Brittan is an American born artist and designer who has currently been living and working in ShenZhen, China for over five years and is the founder of the International ShenZhen Artist Forum (ISZAF). Working predominantly as a conceptual artist, Brittan weavesmetaphysics, philosophy and cultural rhetoric into an assemblage of varied mixed media works. Brittan’s work incorporates layers upon layers of processed and regurgitated thought, often physically translated into work that is purely abstract, borderline surreal, or psychological. Working over ten years both in China and the United States as a trained musician, graphic designer, art teacher and fine artist, Brittan views the aesthetic world without limits in how art is both created and consumed. The integration of the concept driving the visual message is paramount when creating work; the concept must always drive the visual message. Catarina Braga (Portugal) This current work, “Dis-placement”, is an on-going series of photographs taken in Portugal, Hong Kong and Mainland China. I always reflect about the question of what is our relationship with reality and how we perceive what is believed to be true or to be false. So, in this sense, the displacement of these images is on reconsidering places and question their visual nature. The photos presented here, along with the rest of the series, all relate to their ambiance and to a construction to a place that, ultimately, cannot be completed. Gloria Carnevale (Italy / Canada) Gloria Carnevale currently works as the Head of the Arts and Design department at the International School of Nanshan Shenzhen (ISNS). She holds multiple degrees in the Visuals Arts, Design and Education fields, and has worked as educational and design industry professional for many years. Gloria work explores the themes surrounding the concept of identity, such as how relationships and surrounding collaborate to identify a person. She enjoys to incorporate both serious and satirical elements into her work, as well as manipulating repetition, bold colors and textures. Gloria started the “Bikes” series as a response to the overpopulation of bikes in ShenZhen. “They fascinate me in numerous ways, from their accessibility, style, and solutionary nature, to their overall intrusiveness and sometime awkwardness. We are confronted with the repetitive image of these bikes every day.” Lin Green (United States) Lin was born in Penang, Malaysia and raised in California. She is biracial, having strong tiesto two very different cultures. She is also very passionate about the arts, exploring the worldand educating those who love art too. Last year she was able to participate in the founding of ISZAF (International ShenZhen Artists Forum) as a means to connect and collaborate with the local and international art communities while living abroad. Lin states, “My work explores and responds to culture and identity as an ever-changing process rather than fixed structure. I believe that the human drive to move, communicate, and change allows for engagement and that our nomadic tendencies push against boundaries and norms. History has a way of monumentalizing past ideals and erasing that complexity. Through time-based performances, process driven projects and participatory installations I try and uncover the ways in which identity exists in flux.” Erin Kenealy (United States) Erin Kenealy’s work explores the decorative elements of visual narrative, often featuring surrealistic figures and scenery. Inspired by the illustrations of Harry Clarke and prints of Albrecht Durer, she works predominantly in pen & ink, but includes mixed media in several of her works to create a juxtaposition of meticulous line work against textural, layered planes. Erin gained her Associates at the Delaware College of Art & Design, and then received her Bachelors of Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She has lived in ShenZhen for the past seven years, working as the Secondary Art Instructor for QSI International School of ShenZhen. Erin is also a founding member of International ShenZhen Artist Forum (ISZAF), aimed at con- necting and collaborating with the international art communities of the Pearl River Delta region. Erin has exhibited work in collaborative shows at the Vermont State House and the SVA Gramercy Gallery, NYC. This is her first international exhibition. Rodny Mella (Philippines) “Designer for life” is what Rodny is. A person with extraordinary vision and plethora of imag- ination. He uses this innate ability to create products, paint new things and give life to visions that are intangible and make it desirable. Very meticulous even at the smallest thing and with a great eye for bigger picture. He is a two time CES Design and Innovation awards 2016 and 2017 recipient. Currently heading a creative team that had brought to life elegance and simplicity of home automation technology. Rodny was educated in University of Santo Tomas, Manila. He took up Fine Arts major in advertising. Prior to higher education he has been painting since he was 9 years old using: Oil Paint, Water Color, Charcoal, Pastels, Pen and Ink, Pencils. Kumi Onari (Japan / Venezuela) Kumi draws her inspiration from her cultural diversity. Kumi, the daughter of Japanese parents, was born and raised in Venezuela. Influenced by the art of her mother and grandfather, Kumi has experimented with visual art throughout her life. Kumi entered the Universidad del Zulia, in Maracaibo, Venezuela to study Design and Architecture and was selected to serve the university as an Associate Professor of Architecture. Kumi has since moved from Venezuela and developed her career as an international school Visual Arts teacher and has lived in Nagoya (Japan), Seoul, Shanghai and currently in ShenZhen. Andrea Rodriguez (Mexico) Andrea Rodriguez is an art teacher and freelance artist currently living in ShenZhen, China. She has been teaching Visual Arts to primary students at an international school for the last 4 years. In 2011, Andrea graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design with a Bachelor degreein Illustration. While in college, Andrea participated in various student shows such as Illest of Illustration and Best of Ringling shows as well as competitions like Judaica show and Frida Kah- lo: Neomexicanism work. Within her community in China, Andrea has attended several figure drawing sessions part of the International ShenZhen Artist Forum. Jen Rogan (Canada) Jen Rogan is a Canadian artist interested in the construction and breakdown of pictorial space. She uses mark-making that flattens the surface of her drawings alongside techniques that imply 3-dimentional space and form. The drawings that she is exhibiting in ISZAF First Show are renderings of three peculiar junk creatures that she has sculpted out of discarded things. These drawings toy with the construct of status; ‘Nothing’ becomes ‘Something’ after sitting for a portrait. Jen has been a practicing artist for 17 years. She has lived and worked as an artist and art teacher in Canada, South Korea, The United Arab Emirates, and now China. Since moving to ShenZhen in August 2016, Jen has become an active member of the International ShenZhen Artist Forum (ISZAF).
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