Dan at Work in his Studio Utilizing a unique method of digital imaging, Japanese artist Dan OBANA creates a contemporary imagination of the traditional method of hanga block printing.  His works, to which he refers as digital hanga, are complex, multilayered photographs of analog materials.  OBANA’s synthesis of the digital and analog realms provides not only a thoughtful introspection into the development and role of technology in our contemporary lives, it references the age-old tradition of the multi-layered techniques used to produce original hanga prints.  Over time, OBANA believes that the continued refinement of his methods will ,in fact, lead to limitless artistic possibilities, echoing the deep visual effect created by his complexly constructed works.

Aktrice at Work in her Studio Aktrice is a painter of enormous discipline and vision, intriguing in her talent and in her contradictions. Her work exists at the crossroads of disciplines, both modern and classic. Her skills are immediately apparent, yet her subject and approach resist simple definition. For instance, Egger displays a great skill for fine gradations of light and shadow, meanwhile crafting untamed textures more familiar in Abstract Expressionists. She composes sensual figures in breathtaking poses, yet probes deeply into the soul through sensitive portraiture and still-life. These types of dichotomies exist freely together, like love and loss of freedom, a familiar thematic element in Egger’s oeuvre. With the same qualities of drama and dynamism, Egger explores symbolic meaning through particular items devoid of contextual information. The rose, like her figures, presents an emotion like excitement, worry, or acceptance. The outer edges of her works crackle with texture and open up a central void where the singular rose wrapped in chain or tapestry darts across the canvas. With an amazing talent for rendering texture, whether smooth flesh, delicate petals, or cold steel, Egger paints the world with an ambitious realism. In oils or mixed media on linen, she infuses her works with a distinctive air of drama through subtle shading, theatrical lighting, and tight cropping.