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Manifest – Giclée Print

I am pleased to announce my first giclée print, or my original artwork “Manifest“.

The print is printed with durable inks on acid free paper of museum archival standards. Which means it will be around for a long time.

It is signed and a limited edition of 500.
Print size: 25.5 x 34 cm
Paper size: 29.5 x 42 cm 270 gsm acid free paper (Hahnemühle Lumijet).

“Manifest” is available to purchase from the beinart.org shop.

$160.00USD shipping included.

The print is of the same painting I exhibited in Japan last year. “Manifest” has been reproduced in a number of publication projects. The original will be exhibited in the Sacred Art Exhibition at the Lofthouse Gallery, Wessobrunn, Germany, 4th April to 7th June 2009.

Chet Zar at Strychnin Gallery, London.

I seem to recall attending another Strychnin Gallery opening previously on Friday the 13th. However on this occassion I was there to see Chet Zar‘s exhibition “Ugly American”. Arriving early I had a chance to take in all of the exhibition and meet a few people, including the artist himself.

I found Chet to be a very warm, open and friendly soul. He’s nothing like his paintings. As he puts it, his intent with his paintings is to reflect back the ugliness he sees around himself in Los Angeles. He’s worked extensively in the movie industry. He had found it rewarding, but now is very happy to progressing to a life as a full time painter, as he did not enjoy the ugly side of Hollywood. This I surmize has given him endless inspiration for his artwork.

I whipped out a copy of Metamorphosis for him to sign for Jon Beinart and myself. My bag went home a little heavier as I also purchased a catalogue of Chet’s artwork. There was also a hard bound limited edition, but this was a little beyond my budget for the moment.

Laurie Lipton who will also be exhibiting with Strychnin Gallery again in Berlin, also attended the opening. So it was a very social evening talking to the artists, other guests, Yasha Young (the gallery owner) and her lovely staff.

Some of Chet's paintings at the Strychnin exhibition.

Chet’s artwork glowed, although the themes were monsters. He indicated that the colour theme was different to what he usually works with. He went on to explain that he was inspired by a dream with incredibly luminescent colours. It is always interesting seeing the real personality of a painting. The layering, brush strokes, technique, all of the things that are lost in four colour process printing or a digital image on a website. The image is always flattened. It was therefore a real joy to see the detail and masterful layering of Chet’s original artwork.

The night lengthened with the conversations, and eventually closing time arrived. Having already been engaged in a number of stimulating conversations, Chet, his friends, myself and mine, all trooped off to a local bar in the Truman Brewery around the corner. This lasted for one drink, until a bright spark pointed out that there were lonely beers waiting for us back at the gallery.

With a less distracting atmosphere, we settled on the gallery floor until the early hours of the morning for further existential and philosophical discussions.

We all eventually parted ways, leaving Chet to bed down in the guest room at the gallery, and ourselves to seek our repose. Did we all dream of monsters that night, or of the comrade in paint?

You can see Chet’s works for yourself at Strychnin Gallery London, 65 Hanbury Street, London E1 5J, UK.

Photos by Iris Bitter of Strychnin Gallery.

“Fall in die Hoffnung” Shinji Himeno, Mische Technique / wood panel, 75 x 49 cm, 1997 -1999

I recently visited Japanese artist Shinji Himeno in Berlin. It was a great surprise to discover him there after I had lived there for three years, never knowing he existed. I wonder who else is hidden there.

Myself, my girlfriend Anja (http://anja-brinkmann.net) and Micha Krebs (colory.de) all went to visit him and were amazed by his superb work!

His works often have figures whose heads are covered with a cloth, and many then have hovering masks. When we asked him if there was a meaning to this, he simply replied yes, but never elaborated further.

What I like about his work is that while he is obviously trained in classical Western painting technique, the influence of his homeland is evident in his work. This immediately sets him apart from others that have trained the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism.

He started his studies at the same university that Peter Gric and Luigi La Speranza were finishing at and it is through them that I’ve come into contact with him. He studied from 1993 – 1997 under Arik Brauer at the Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna. While Fuchs is certainly famous, Brauer has trained many of the outstanding artists of the current generation of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism.

Shinji most certainly falls into the category of outstanding artist, with his fine technique and orgiginal themes and content. His works are usually rather large, which I find a pleasure because it allows the artist to indulge in more detail. But this does make for slightly crowded conditions in his home studio.

We spent several hours talking, drinking tee and eating freshly backed cake. I of course brought his attention to beinart.org, and I am very pleased to say that he agreed to have a profile and gallery on the website. We naturally also spoke about Shoji Tanka the forthcoming IFAA exhibition in Kyoto.

After having a very enjoyable time, we all had to part ways because of other commitments that day. I certainly look forward to staying in contact with Shinji and seeing his new creations.

His website: shinjihimeno.com

My good friend Jon Beinart and I have been working away in the background of beinArt.org to bring about it's next feature, that being a blog. The blog uses WordPress because of its flexibility and extensibility thanks to the myriad of plugins available for it.

The blog is the step in many more features to be added to the site. The blog represents our news pages, where we can present the latest tip bits of information or new discoveries we've made on the internet.

We have invited a select few to contribute to the blog to bring some variety to the blog, and also hopefully foster some sense of community.

Jon has already been very diligent in the past few days since the site has gone live, and published many posts. We look forward to bringing many more news items to our growing band of visitors.

The day has arrived that I finally received my copy of Metamorphosis! I’m so happy I have my copy.

To have the so many Fantastic and Visionary artists in one book is stunning. Metamorphosis shows us how wide and varied the visions are of the artists working in this vein of art. It is truely inspirational to see so many wonderful artists creating works of such quality and power.

Jon Beinart has done a superb job on the book. It looks every bit professional. I’ve spoken to a number of the other artists included in the book and they are all just as equally excited.

More  detailed information about the book can be found on the website I built, beinArt.org.

Metamorphosis has emerged from its chrysalis in the form of a Hard Cover Art Book with a Dust Jacket, 112 A4 gloss pages, with 122 High res plates. The book features a number of well known artists such as Alex Grey, Chet Zar, Andrew Gonzalez, and Ernst Fuchs.

The best part is, I’m among them! The image to the right shows my pages in the book.

“Metamophosis” is now on sale from beinArt.org.