Masquerade & Media at Art Basel Miami Week

The digital artist SABINE ADAMEIT expresses emotions with the power of colors and forms. Her paintings, created handmade with her fingers, open an access to spirit and soul. Adameit’s Digital Arts mirror a visual description of the universal energy that holds our world together inspite of daily conflicts in life across the globe. The artist, who is living and working in the North of Germany near Hamburg has been educated and trained as an academic art teacher and journalist. Since her childhood she has a strong affinity for the arts, for painting, music, theater and literature. In addition to her success as a visual artist, Sabine Adameit creates also lyrics and short stories, published on her website Arts of Emotions.

TRACY L. BARWICK educated as an engineer, has created artworks that certainly evolved, more like matured, over time. About her artworks Tracy L. Barwick explains: "With hometown roots in Dayton, Ohio, I truly believe there is really no other place on planet earth with such an eclectic vibe of arts, museums, history, and culture, a constant source of nutrition that feeds my creativity. My artistic narrative is simple: personify emotions, beliefs and social concerns through ethnic patterns, shadings, mediums across the full spectrum of color. I've always had a creative side, but in the beginning I experimented with so many mediums until a few years ago I found joy with using beads". Being a part of exhibitions allows her to inwardly rejoice, because not in her wildest dreams she would I have ever believed that she get the opportunity to share her art with so many people at UNICEF and Maryland Arts Council.

SUZANNE BLAUSTEIN is creating fabric sculptures on painted canvas. The artist, who has been educated at Fashion Institute of Technology and Nassau County Museum of Art, has been living and working many years in New York, studying the Art Museums and Art Collections. About the creative process Suzanne Blaustein, who currently resides in Florida, mentions: "My fingers move the fabrics around the canvas arranging them side by side and layering them. I twist them and paint them. The fabrics are a celebration of colors, patterns and textures. I imagine something and go after it until I see it materialize.  In essence it is a dialogue between my thoughts the fabric and the painted canvas.  What appears to be a painting is in fact a deep study of texture and color. What makes this work unique  is the  space between illusion and figuration."

HYUNSOO KIM was born in 1975 born in Gu-Hang, Hongseong-Gun, South Korea. The artist who is living in Bonn, Germany, studied Architecture and Interior Design in Seoul (South Korea) and University of Technology Kaiserslautern (Germany). Hyunsoo Kim: "As an artist, I am concerned with human, social, and political issues. I try to present my point of view on those issues through color, texture, and construction – and in my recent works, adding collage in order to express different kinds of reality. By applying layers of paint that are then partially scraped off by a palette knife, the multi-layered surfaces are supposed to keep the viewer's eye in constant motion. More in the sense of an open space I would characterize my painting style as "visual music," and hope my paintings will create a resonance between my message and the viewers’ feelings."

AI-WEN WU KRATZ is naturalized U.S. Citizen, originally from Hong Kong, China.  She moved to the U.S. in the 1960’s. Her studio is currently in Chambersburg, PA, where she resides with her husband. The visual artist, philosopher and philantrop with academic degrees in Painting, Printmaking and Mathematics, has created a brand new work for the exhibition featuring the full moon, an important symbol in traditional Chinese painting. Ai-Wen Wu Kratz: "It is the spiritual and intellectual qualities that I am aiming at with colors, lines, shapes, forms and movements. The aim of my lines, colors, planes, forms, shapes and movements thereof, is to achieve such a magical conveyance to the viewer, let alone the association or representation. My works are largely influenced by classical music, stage design and choreographic lines in ballet and modern dance. Purity attracts me."

MARKUS MESMER is a visual airbrush artist, living and working in Switzerland, near Basel. His style stands for the use of airbrush or paint rollers which evokes a smooth final effect. Brush graffiti are devoid of unnecessary lines and petty details, but sometimes, brushes may be used for the execution of fine points, which creates a more painterly result. To illustrate this style, graffiti artist Markus Mesmer makes a reminiscence of Modern Abstract Art. Markus Mesmer: "Living in the Switzerland I´m surrounded by deep blue mountain lakes and rock formations, geological and meterological phenomena which are fascinating me to involve this magic light on my paintings. My work has a distinctive look and feel, no doubt owing to the consistency of my creative process. I start with a unifying theme, which is based on the reception of nature objects and the change of daylight.“

BARBARA IDA MOEHRLE is living and working in Hamburg, Germany. The visual artist is creating semi-abstract paintings and interior design solutions. Barbara Ida Moehrle studied Law at the University of Hamburg and holds a Master Degree in EC Law from King's College, London. Since 2009 she attended formal art training, exploring various mediums in art classes in Hamburg. From 2015 to 2016 Barbara Ida Moehrle studied 3D Design at Fresenius University of Applied Sciences Hamburg. Her artworks combine precision and spontaneous action that produces a stream of surprise. The artist who signs her artworks with Ida, carefully shows how elements merge and mingle, and gives us a greater understanding how the microcosms within and around us is working – out of control. Barbara Ida Moehrle: "I must avoid my pre-existing knowledge and constructs, and enter my personal terra incognita. I love, that my life is a laboratory.”

BARBARA RACHKO is an American contemporary artist and author who divides her time between residences in New York City and Alexandria, VA. She is best known for her pastel-on-sandpaper paintings, her eBook, “From Pilot to Painter,” and her blog, “Barbara Rachko’s Colored Dust.” Barbara has led an extraordinary, inspiring life. She learned to fly at the age of 25 and became a commercial pilot and Boeing-727 flight engineer before joining the Navy. As a Naval officer she spent many years working at the Pentagon and retired as a Commander. On 9/11 her husband, Dr. Bryan C. Jack, was tragically killed on the plane that hit the Pentagon. Barbara uses her large collection of Mexican and Guatemalan folk art – masks, carved wooden animals, papier mâché figures, and toys – to create one-of-a-kind pastel-on-sandpaper paintings that combine reality and fantasy and depict personal narratives. Her paintings are bold, vibrant, and extremely unusual.  Barbara Rachko exhibits nationally and internationally and has won many awards during her 30+ years as a professional artist.

RONDA RICHLEY is living and working in Orlando, Florida. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Studio Arts (California State University, Northridge) and graduated in Publication Design (Miami University) and Marketing (Write State University). The artist who has been invited to several juried exhibitions at Orlando Museum of Art, is also known in the art scene as the famous "Tree Lady". Ronda Richley: "I am "inside the art" during the process but once it is completed, the work becomes an extension of my inner thoughts and essence of my being. It is my lifelong process to expose not only what lies beneath the surface texture of my art but what lies buried deeply within myself. My trees display human attributes and include the human form within their branches. After experiencing my art, many have stated that they will never look at a tree the same again. I strive to offer the viewer a perspective on my unique vision of the world, as each of my works tells part of a story with the rest to be finished by you.“