On the cover:
Howard Fonda, ‘Untitled’, oil and colored pencil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
Below is the full list of finalists published in the Spring Edition, Issue 7 of ArtMaze Mag. Our list consists of two selections: curated and editorial.
CURATED SELECTION by Benjamin Sutton, independent curator, art critic and news editor at Hyperallergic.
The Allure of Excess
“Anyone who has spent time on the blog “Things Neatly Organized” knows that there’s a great deal of pleasure to be taken from order and neatness. An elegantly arrayed group of chemical receptors in our brains gets off on these visions of structure. Another daunting challenge, with just as much enjoyment at stake, is to neatly organize chaos, excess, and dysfunction. This idea didn’t directly inform my selection of artists for this issue of ArtMaze, but it seems to undergird my aesthetic sensibilities at all times. Though I am also prone to excess and didn’t strictly select artists who adeptly depict disarray and decadence (see: Katie Barrie’s exquisite geometric paintings), much of the work here could be said to cannily choreograph catastrophe. Xiutching Tsay’s paintings of grimacing figures and cascading, steaming, neon liquids, all rendered in a vaguely radioactive palette, are among my favorite examples of alluring excess, as are Liz Moore’s dazzling, dyed, and distended faux fur compositions, which resemble the pelts of hallucinatory beasts. This push-and-pull between chaos and control can take many forms, like the practically geological ceramic creations of Karina Yanes or the ornately ruined paper tapestries of Lina Puerta. In each instance, there’s something extremely gratifying in beholding unwieldy or unpleasant subjects and materials wrangled into seductive forms.”
— Benjamin Sutton
Annie Hémond Hotte
Bradley Biancardi
Brandon Lipchik
Catalina Viejo Lopez de Roda
Danni O’Brien
Erik Nieminen
Esteban Ocampo-Giraldo
Grace Fechner
Guimi You
Isaac Mann
Ivana de Vivanco
Jacqueline Surdell
Joeun Aatchim
Jon Duff
Karina Yanes
Katia Lyubavskaya
Katie Barrie
Kevin Solis
Lina Puerta
Liz Moore
Paloma Jimenez
Roger Allan Cleaves
Sedrick Chisom
Sessa Englund
Sierra Montoya Barela
Tim Magenta
Xiuching Tsay
EDITORIAL SELECTION BY ARTMAZE* (curated by the editorial team of ArtMaze Mag)
*Please note, Editorial and Curated selections are judged separately.