Zhang renders these scenes with a master’s craftsmanship. Hair, flesh, fabric, objects are constructed as self-contained elements, their individual treatment creating a sense of isolation and disunity in the collage effect. His super-pop sheen is exaggerated through painterly veracity: camera blurs, print bleeds, and flash bulb glares are faithfully replicated by brushwork which borders on abstraction. In Series 005 the night vision video effect is perfectly replicated by impassioned smears and smudges, simulating photo realism with intuitive spontaneity.

Behind each of these paintings is a complex story: of destitution, desperation, abuse and entrapment, side effects of economics, migration, and progress; the human costs of commodity culture. By recontextualising the way prostitution is represented and perceived, Zhang’s paintings strive to convey the human condition, with all its indignities and weaknesses, as a duplicitous victimisation of both the oppressed and oppressors.

Zhang Haiying was born 1972 in Shandong, China. Now lives and works in Beijing.

Kris Lewis began dreaming and flailing atop this lovely carnival ride in 1978, in the great surround of the Jersey shore. After studying Illustration at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Kris eventually found himself living and working in Los Angeles, where he still resides and has yet to fully explore.

Rodgers began drawing as a young child. He seriously began experimenting with color when his mother gave him her set of old paints.

As a precocious artist, he was seducing unsuspecting friends to model for him in increasingly compromising attire. Imagine his delight, when at drawing classes at the Corcoran School of Art, he had the good fortune to be confronted with an enormous, loosely fat, woman considerably his elder.

In 2005, three of his monumental figurative canvases were presented at the Valencia Biennial. Abroad he has had solo exhibitions in galleries in Amsterdam, Zurich and Milan, and participated in group shows around the world. In the United States, he has had solo gallery exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Chicago.

Scott G Brooks is originally from Flint, Michigan, and currently lives and works in Washington, DC. His subject matter ranges from simple portraiture to intricate narratives. In his paintings, he takes social, psychological, and political issues and injects them with a dark sense of humor. Anatomical distortions separate the figures from the photographic ideal, which gives him the freedom to create his own distorted reality. His work is described as twisted and offbeat, sentimental, and disturbing.

Through my work I strive to understand and create a dialog with the world around me. I present to the viewer my interpretations of what I see and understand as truthful.

Scott G. Brooks

Michaël Hiep’s (b. Amsterdam, 1959) paintings are elaborate, richly detailed depictions of nature and symbolism. In his work Michaël has always kept faith with realism, even though during his student days abstraction was sometimes obligatory.
He now lives in Hilversum and paints and paints and paints… as he was practically born with drawing in his blood.

Guy Denning (born 1965) is an English contemporary artist and painter based in France. He is the founder of the Neomodern group, a member of Stuckism International, and part of the urban art scene in Bristol. He works from observation.
Denning’s early work included an interest in the work of Franz Kline and was characterised by powerful, expressive brushstrokes. More recently he has combined earlier influences with an increasingly figurative style of painting. The human figure features strongly in his latest work and he uses this subject matter to convey powerful emotions, often with political overtones.
Denning is having his “Celebrity Will Eat Itself” solo show from August 6 to August 27, 2009 at Carmichael Gallery, Los Angeles, California.