"Radiate" by Sunny Ra, 32x48in, oil on canvas (2016), $1300 | BUY NOW — *"Radiate" by Sunny Ra, 32x48in, oil on canvas (2016), $1300 | BUY NOW*

Artist, Sunny Ra. Photo by Dan Lubbers. — *Artist, Sunny Ra. Photo by Dan Lubbers.*

In striking abstract compositions, painter Sunny Ra uses the landscape form to investigate questions of identity in both a social and highly personal context.

“The foundation of my work originates from my experience of growing up Korean in Louisville, Kentucky. I did not have any Korean friends and since I spoke little Korean and could not read or write Hangul, I was an outsider in the Korean community. Similarly, I never quite identified myself as American since I was not white, and was living among majority white Americans. I remember people would ask me where I was from or comment on how well I spoke English. I grew up feeling and eventually believing that I did not belong anywhere - perhaps nowhere. It is from this limbo that my night landscapes emerge and my journey into the obscure and the unknown began.”

*"Untitled #3" by Sunny Ra, 9x12in, pastel on paper (2016)*

It is a common, and let’s be honest, lazy assumption to confuse an individual artist’s racial and cultural identity. Ra makes paintings with no overt ties to traditional Korean pictorial forms, and her formative culture was Middle American, so it is fascinating to hear how she connects the luxurious darkness of her imagery with an evolving personal journey.

“In these night landscapes, I revisit my childhood memories - what has been lost and what remains. Through the application of layers of paint, the images at first recognizable, slowly evolve and merge into the abyss of the dark palette. But through the darkness emerges light and color, a new image surfaces, perhaps this is where I belong.”

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Age: 35
Education: MFA, Hunter College, CUNY, 2011; BFA, University of Pennsylvania, 2005; Painting Certificate, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2005
Website: http://www.sunny-ra.com

"Harvest" by Sunny Ra, 11x14in, oil on paper (2016), $450 | BUY NOW — *"Harvest" by Sunny Ra, 11x14in, oil on paper (2016), $450 | BUY NOW*

*"Untitled #2" by Sunny Ra, 9x12in, pastel on paper (2016)*

"Kinetic" by Sunny Ra, 14x11in, oil on paper (2016), $450 | BUY NOW — *"Kinetic" by Sunny Ra, 14x11in, oil on paper (2016), $450 | BUY NOW*

*"Untitled #1" by Sunny Ra, 9x12in, pastel on paper (2016)*

"Might" by Sunny Ra, 11x14in, oil on paper (2016), $450 | BUY NOW — *"Might" by Sunny Ra, 11x14in, oil on paper (2016), $450 | BUY NOW*

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Drawing, Painting

Q&A: Dorothy Kavka

Josh Jenkins · January 31, 2017

“I believe in a primordial sisterhood of women that links them beyond social and territorial boundaries." — Dorothy Kavka

Dorothy Kavka sees herself as an artist who is a chronicler of women: “…both in the roles they are made to assume within their societies and their historical reality. I believe in a primordial sisterhood of women that links them beyond social and territorial boundaries. The ‘other,’ or cultural diversity becomes the guise they assume that is demanded by their fathers, husbands, religious leaders, and lawmakers. My work explores the tension created by the existence of these forces on every woman.”

Kavka was accepted into a prestigious Women's Gallery Show in Chicago and in exhibits at the Kaviar Gallery and the Gallery Janjobe in Louisville. Recently, she won first place at the Jewish Community Center's 12th Annual Mazin Art Exhibition, juried by Joey Yates from the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.

When did you first think you would be an artist?

I always knew I would be an artist. Even as a young child, I was always drawing, I took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago (giving up ballet because my parents could not afford both classes), and saved a few of the drawings from those classes; it still amazes me that I could do such detailed work at that age.

Who or what inspires you now?

Knowing that people like what I do inspires me. I just won first place at the Mazin Juried Art Exhibit, and that was a real thrill.

You describe yourself as a “chronicler of women” as regards how they are viewed by society. How do you feel your representation of the human figure captures that?

I find that although I have a number of studies of men, my focus has always been on women. That may be because in the workshops I took, we usually had women models. Then again, I guess I just find women more interesting.

Among the images here are nude studies of women. How does your work avoid some of the objectification of the female form that is still so common?

I don't know. I just draw and paint what I feel at the time I do the work.

What are you reading right now?

I am reading a book about George Washington and about to read “The Bone Clocks” by David Mitchell, who also wrote “Cloud Atlas”. I was an English teacher, and I do enjoy a good book.

Tell us about an important moment of transition for you as an artist?

I think that it happened as an adult, when I was able to start taking workshops with well-known Chicago artists, such as Ed Paschke and Lillian Desow Fishbein. They never tried to "fix" my work by drawing or painting over them, but would offer suggestions that allowed me to discover for myself what I need to do.

If you could do anything else but make art, what would it be?

I need to do art; it is a calling that I cannot ignore.

Has your style changed or evolved over the years? If so what do you think
influenced this?

Yes, my art has changed over the years. Remember that I started art classes when I was a teenager. However, I did not begin to really take my art seriously until I started workshops with Chicago artists. At first I was doing realistic drawings and paintings - which were good, but somehow not fulfilling. Then, I began to work into them, changing the focus, and suddenly I found my stride.

Does art have a purpose? If so what is it?

This may sound trite, but I feel that art is the one thing that makes life enjoyable.

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Age: 76
Education: BA in English Language & Literature, University of Chicago; MA in English; University of Wisconsin; studied at Art Institute of Chicago and in private workshops with Ed Paschke and Lillian Desow Fishbein

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Painting

Vignette: John Brooks

Josh Jenkins · October 20, 2016

*A photograph of John Brooks in his studio.*

"All Of A Sudden You Made Him Laugh" by John Brooks, 20x24in, oil on board (2016), $800 | BUY NOW — *"All Of A Sudden You Made Him Laugh" by John Brooks, 20x24in, oil on board (2016), $800* *| BUY NOW*

If you approach John Brooks’ with no foreknowledge of him or his work, his paintings may strike you as primitive, or an example of ‘folk art’. We might begin by acknowledging the limitations of visual art nomenclature, which often seems designed to pigeonhole an artist; semantics aside, that reading becomes fascinating when one hears Brooks speak about his work in such thoughtful and intellectual terms. In his artist’s statement he tells us: “Regardless of subject matter or media, within each work is contained its own emotionally charged atmosphere and each work seems to have both specific and nebulous meaning.”

Earlier this year, Brooks moved into a new studio space in the Portland Neighborhood, and he thought he would use the change of space to move his work in a slightly different direction. “I've been collecting overheard phrases for years and have used them in my writing but have never previously used them in my visual work. This work is a real departure for me - it's abstract but also features the concreteness of text. But what I like about the phrases is the ambiguity they take on because they have no context. Some harmless phrases, like "Mommy Has It," even take on an air of the sinister.”

"Untitled #1" by John Brooks, 30x40in, oil on board (2016), $1800 | BUY NOW — *"Untitled #1" by John Brooks, 30x40in, oil on board (2016), $1800 | BUY NOW*

Yet Brooks found himself turning back to more familiar ground. “Thinking about the sinister and multi-dimensional meaning in that series of text-based paintings led me to return to my previous subject matter - faces - but with an eye on the mood of uncertainty that's seemingly overtaken the world, at least here in the US. This is a series still very much in progress, but they are about the zeitgeist, all that's happening in 2016: the fear of terror, the fear of unknown, the fear of ‘the other’.” Brooks certainly does see the new work as undeniably political, but he also believes they have an individual identity of their own; both personal and universal.

Brooks is a Kentucky native. He studied Political Science and English literature at the College of Charleston, in South Carolina, and art at Central St. Martins and the Hampstead School of Art in London, England. His work is held in private collections in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Germany, and India. Brooks has exhibited extensively in the United Kingdom and Europe, as well as Art Chicago. He moved back to Louisville, KY after several years in Chicago, Illinois. His last solo exhibition in Louisville, It Is So Beautiful Here, was at Swanson Contemporary in May 2015.

Hometown: Frankfort, KY
Age: 38
Education: BA in Political Science, College of Charleston; Studied art in England at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, the Hampstead School of Art and the Camden Art Centre
Website: http://www.johnedwardbrooks.com

"Untitled #2" by John Brooks, 24x36in, oil on board (2016), CFP | BUY NOW — *"Untitled #2" by John Brooks, 24x36in, oil on board (2016), CFP | BUY NOW*

"Untitled #3" by John Brooks, 30x40in, oil on board (2016), $1800 | BUY NOW — *"Untitled #3" by John Brooks, 30x40in, oil on board (2016), $1800 | BUY NOW*

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english

Vignette: Sunny Ra