Brian Spies
(Unicorn: Portraits) “An exploration into and a celebration of the original, the avant garde and the elusive power of beauty. Like glitter, it gets into your system, changes you and never goes away. Inspired by the painted nudes of Saul Leiter and the cartoons and animation of Heavy Metal magazine. An explosion of color and bliss, these portraits seek to inspire and excite the viewer like a fever dream or an ice cream brain freeze.”
Dale Rio
“Humans living in contemporary western society have, by large, severed their connection with nature. With my current self-portrait series, *Reconciliation*, I seek to reconnect with the natural world and introduce a sense of magic and wonder into modern life, which is oftentimes bereft of
such simple pleasures.
The long exposures of pinhole photography allow me to create images in which I blend with – and can be overwhelmed by – my natural surroundings. This allows me to provide a visual commentary on man’s interconnectedness with nature and creates a symbiotic relationship between the two; the type of relationship that should exist not only in photographic imagery, but in the real world as well.”
Natasha Zeta
“*Nature Nurture *is a series of 35mm photographs that depict found natural objects in stark comparison with parts of the artist’s body with little digital manipulation. Instead of representing an isolated ideal, the body there is a part of a larger ecosystem; being human means growing, breathing and bettering our environment in society, in nature and within ourselves. Nature Nurture seeks to reclaim our bodies as both person and place, as textured, natural, and diverse as any landscape.”