Shinsuke Aso was born in Gunma, Japan in 1979. After graduating from Kitakanto School of Fine Arts in Gunma, Japan, he moved to New York and received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2004. He has exhibited nationally and internationally including P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, NURTUREart, Minus Space, The Center for Book Arts, Tobey Fine Arts in New York, RUSCHWOMAN in Chicago, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum and Maki Fine Arts in Tokyo, and Pera Museum in Istanbul. Aso lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Georges Spencer's depictions of boxers belong to an old tradition of painting fighters in action. However, the aesthetics in Greatboxers is the stillness of readiness or aftermath. In these frontal portraits, upward-facing gloves dominate the picture space, simultaneously shielding the body and occupying the most central and significant area of the canvas. Gloves, faces, body fill the paintings with an ambiguity that could indicate triumph or defeat. The lines of paint, dripping in long verticalities and downward trajectories, are reminiscent of traces of blood or sweat. The excess of paint and the volatility of brushstrokes reveal a superfluity of movement but also a stillness containing the fighter's readiness for combat or retreat. The frame confines these dialectical forces of life and beauty, death and form.
Hiroshi Shafer was born in Tokyo, Japan. He received a BFA from Tokyo Zoukei Art University in Tokyo in 1997, Japan, After I joined in-depend TV production in Tokyo as director of the documentary program till 2004. I moved to New York in 2004. I live and work in Harlem, NY. He has done solo shows nationally and internationally including Zito Studio, EnlishKills Art Gallery, Hakusen Gallery Tokyo, Parallel Performance Space, and Maishoku Gallery Japan. He also has done group shows at Flux Factory, Fountain Art Fair Miami, Exit Art Gallery NYC, The Other Art Fair Brooklyn, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and more.
Johnny D. Germano (New York, b.1988) is a visual artist instinctively rooted in abstraction. Johnny illuminates the artistic interplay of observation and reaction. Encapsulating the exploration of rhythmic and gestural mark-marking. His soulful approach resonates through each gestural sweep, some exploding with raw energy, while others delicately unfold through the lens of introspection. Together, they result in a symphony of expression.
