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Thomas Santhori

Santhori loves to visit other countries and get to know the local people and their culture.

 

Thomas Santhori

(*1949) – homo ludens (the playing man) by Roy Oppenheim

Schiller's phrase about the playing man fits Zurich's Thomas Riederer with the exotic-sounding artist's name Santhori perfectly. He was a picture maker until 1971. In 1990, the "Santhori" era began with its unmistakable colour concept "United Colours of Santhori". From now on, he uses the four colours red, blue, yellow and green (plus black and white) for all his artworks without exception.

Santhori loves to visit other countries and get to know the local people and their culture. So he lived with his wife Ursula and children for two years in the south of France on a ship. Since 1991 he has lived with his family in Bad Zurzach and opened his first studio in a former kindergarten. The patches of red, blue, yellow and green merge into surfaces and finally into the fake tin policeman with which Santhori covered the flashing light box on Zurich's Walcheplatz some time ago, putting it out of action for a short time.

About his art, Santhori once said: "various art forms play a role in my work. I move between figuration and fantastic worlds. In my sculptures, I want to express myself playfully with colours, shapes and figures." Santhori is a "homo ludens" in the best sense of the word, having retained his naïve childlike joy of play. He paints intuitively and out of inner joy. In conversations, he repeatedly emphasises that art should be experienced and felt like good food and drink. Santhori discovers his individual qualities in play and, through the experiences he makes, becomes the dazzling personality that is inherent in him.

Play makes it possible to experience and at the same time transcend the constraints of the external world. Even in early childhood, imaginative play serves to represent inner experience. In narrative "play", human beings supplement their pragmatic experiences with the dimension of an imaginative search for meaning.

Santhori loves and practices transgressing boundaries. For example, through his colourful skulls in the park: in his baroque work, sinister death symbolism repeatedly appears alongside the play with traditional symbols and forms, even if the playful handling of the material softens the brutal effect of the naturalistically used skulls. Santhori's works often oscillate between demons, fright monsters, puffed-up popanze and ironic figurations, between the satanic and the clownish. And what's more: the oppressive fears can often only be endured and banished thanks to the means of humour and the grotesque-comical.

 

 

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Gudrun Schmälzle

Born in Freiburg, Germany, has lived with her family in Northern Alsace for 30 years after several stays abroad in the USA and Mexico.

Her interest in people and countries is also expressed in her works. She focuses on watercolour painting.

Gudrun Schmälzle1
Gudrun Schmälzle

Her interest in people and countries is also expressed in her works.

 

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Florian Leberbauer

He loves to find art in the streets and meet different street artists.

 

Florian Leberbauer

Born in Salzburg, Austria, has lived with his family in Vienna for a decade. He loves to find art in the streets and meet different street artists. His works deal with the mood in society and the possibilities of coming back to a solidary, respectful interaction with each other.

Alexandra Zarah Karakashian
ALEXANDRA KARAKASHIAN
was born in 1988 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa

 

ALEXANDRA KARAKASHIAN

Alexandra Karakashian was born in 1988 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. Karakashian obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 2011, where she was awarded both the Judy Steinberg Painting Prize and the Simon Gerson Distinction Award. She went on to graduate with a Masters degree in Fine Art from the same institution in 2015. Karakashian was an artist in residence at Capo d’Arte in Gagliano del Capo, Italy in 2016. The residency culminated in a solo presentation, self-titled Alexandra Karakashian, at the Villa Medici in Gagliano del Capo. In 2021 Karakashian presented her latest solo exhibition titled Consolations at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa. Further solo exhibitions include: A rhythm for falling, at Sabrina Amrani Gallery in Madrid, Spain in 2019; here they passed at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town and In on itself, at Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in Seattle, USA, in 2018; unbecoming, at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg to coincide with the release of her self-titled publication in 2017; Passage, a special project at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London, UK, and GROUND at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, both in 2016. Notable group exhibitions include: Matereality, a group exhibition at Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, as well as A Show of Solidarity at SMAC in Cape Town, in support of the South African Solidarity Fund during a nationwide enforced lockdown, both in 2020; Inner Landscapes at Galleria Anna Marra in Rome, Italy; Material Insanity, at MACAAL in Marrakech, Morocco; and Filling in the Gaps, at Iziko South African National Museum in Cape Town, South Africa, all in 2019; Ravelled Threads, at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York City, USA; A Letter to My 22-year-old Self at BKhz Studio & Gallery in Johannesburg, both in 2018. Karakashian’s works have been included in group presentations at, among others: Art Basel Hong Kong and the Tapei Dangdai in Taiwan in 2020, ACROlisboa in Portugal; ACROmadrid in Spain, Artissima in Turin, Italy, and Art Dubai, UAE, all in 2019.
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LIONEL MBAYIWA
He did not attend any formal art school but was taught and influenced by his elder brother

 

LIONEL MBAYIWA

Lionel Tazvitya Mbayiwa was born, bred and educated in rural Mhondoro, Mubaira under Chegutu District in Zimbabwe in 1982. Born in a family seven, he attended Nyangwene Primary Shool and Rio Tinto Mhondoro High School before moving to the capital, Harare in 1999 after completing his High school. He did not attend any formal art school but was taught and influenced by his elder brother, Hugh Hatitye Mbayiwa who was an art teacher then and got help from his brother's friends who were already in the art industry, James Jali and Nhavira Tendai around the year 2003. In 2005 he participated in a group show for the first time at Gallery Delta in Harare as a young artist, he exhibited with them until 2009. During those years he was also exhibiting at the Zimbabwe National Gallery.

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