Waller-Yoblonsky Fine Art

One of Nigeria’s most noted contemporary artists, Mr. Emmanuel Ekefrey is part of the popular Lagos exhibition circuit, he is also part of the global art world, especially in England and France. His busy and colorful paintings are his unique trademark. What is particularly fascinating about Ekefrey's work is his ability to combine a strong graphic style with a great deal of imagination. The monumental and thematically complex painting below features three central figures, surrounded by a few larger ancestral faces watching over them. In the background, hundreds of miniature ancestral faces emerge and recede, representing previous Ibibio African ceremonies. The Ibibio coastal people, primarily located in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, and eastern Abia State in southern Nigeria, are connected to these ancestral traditions through the artwork. Ekefrey’s graffiti covers the canvas with a plethora of tiny faces that give the artwork a multi-perspective depth to the primary figures and the a...

In 1980, as a senior in college, I interned at the Kennedy Center in Arts Administration. The concept of studying at the Kennedy Center (KC) under some of the finest arts administrators seemed almost foreign to a young man who went to high school in Wolf Point, MT, on the Sioux and Assiniboine - Fort Peck Reservation. After my internship, I landed another job that fall in Washington, DC. In the early spring of 1982, Kool Cigarettes (part of the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company) was sponsoring a one-day jazz festival at the Kennedy Center. I was asked to assist with the festival participants because I knew the entire building, including the intricate back hallways not known by the public and some of the staff. I had also served as an assistant backstage manager for the American College Theatre Festival, which held several performances at the KC yearly. Kool Jazz Festival Backstage Pass and Working Credentials I arrived early on the day of the Jazz Festival and received my backstage ...

Garden Journal X: On the Beach White Line Woodcut, 1996 Assateague Ponies, Carousel Rides, Sugarloaf Mountain with Wooly Sheep, a Kauai Rooster, Goldfish and Koi Ponds, sea bearing vessels, vintage cars, beaches and landscapes, table scenes and garden scenes, portraits of old friends and neighbors, nude sketches and monkeys at the zoo.  Zahn wrote numerous Artist Statements over her artistic career, but she never described herself as working in the figurativism style. A review of her work from her early art days to her death shows that the figure played an important role in her subject matter, whether in sculptural terra-cotta nudes displayed in her garden or in her prints. She used modern techniques and ideas to depict real-world subjects, including very recognizable human and animal figures. Sometimes, she would include landscapes to house her figures. Frequently, her garden scenes might take on more abstract elements, but she always included enough realism and imagination to all...

Jorge Blanco Delbugio is a Modern Latin Minimalist from Uruguay. He has exhibited in the United States, but frequently signs his work “Blanco” which then becomes confused with the other Latin American artist Jorge Blanco, who is known as a sculptor with a great internet presence. Blanco Delbugio is highly influenced by Universal Constructivism that was introduced by the Uruguayan artist Joaquin Torres-Garcia. Torres-Garcia developed an artistic style that combined geometric shapes with pictographs that created meaning to the viewer. Torres-Garcia brought this style back to his home country in the 1930s from time spent in Spain, France and Italy, as well as New York City. After World War II Latin artists were beginning to be influenced by modern geometric abstraction concepts in design and artistry. In 2007, North America celebrated Latin America’s love for these artistic concepts with a traveling exhibit that featured artists and designers from all the major South American cities inclu...