FEMKE
HIEMSTRA
Femke
Hiemstra was born in 1974, in Zaandam, The
Netherlands. As a kid she wanted to be a veterinarian and
also loved to draw animals. When she found out one sometimes
had to operate on animals in order to heal them, her ambitions
as a vet quickly vanished and she stuck to drawing. Animals
and nature remain a great influence on her work to this
day. She also gets her inspiration from old packages with
fine (hand drawn) typography, firework wrappers, tattoo's,
vintage Disney stuff, animations, super hero movies, comic
books, Japanese woodprints, old encyclopedias, vintage Little
Golden Books, old (tin toy) collectables, the art of Max
Ernst and the beautiful skull drawings of J.G. Posada.
For the past nine years she has worked mainly as an illustrator,
making images on demand. Wanting to expand the range of
her work, and after participating in MF Gallery’s
2006 “GIRLS!” group show, she began showing
in galleries across the US and quickly gained popularity
as a rising star in the underground art world.
Along with a few older works, Femke will be presenting a
brand new series called “Heat Wave”. Seven high
quality very limited edition prints will be show alongside
the original drawings used to create them. The subjects
range from skinny-dipping to BBQ’s and serenades,
and they all feature her colorful and fantastical characters.
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CECILIA
GRANATA
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Cecilia
Granata is a recent graduate of SVA in Manhattan.
She was born in 1983 in Verona, Italy, and grew up in the
“shapeless environment” of Milan.
Music represented a dominant element in the definition of
her lifestyle. Her creative influences also include philosophy,
for the rational process in the development of narrative;
horror movies and romantic literature for the painful rendering
of beauty; expressionism for the violence of its statement;
comics and cartoons for the silly look that doesn't take
itself too seriously and vegan treats for the managing of
mental sanity through the day. Her work can be defined as
the “byproduct of an overexcited brain sitting uncomfortably
in a black skull”.
Along with several new paintings of cupcakes and monsters,
she will be showing her “Cat” series based on
a combination between the visual content derived from Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein, (Plus the cinematographic translations
of it.) and the popular “cheesy kittens” calendar
imagery.
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MARTINA
SECONDO
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Martina
Secondo is a painter and also the co-owner
of MF Gallery. She was born in Genoa, Italy in 1980, but
has lived in New York City for most of her life. After attending
CalArts in Los Angeles, she and her husband Frank returned
to New York City in 2003 with the desire to open a space
that showed Underground Pop Art, something the city was
lacking at the time.
Her work is influenced by horror movies, punk rock and heavy
metal iconography, tattoo art, toys, true crime tales, pinup
art, cartoons, and religious renaissance art.
For this show, she has created a new series based on old
tattoo photographs. She chooses images mostly from the 60’s
and 70’s because of the teased-out hairdo’s
and old style tattoos. Rendered with oils on wood, these
are portraits of strangers; mostly women with heavily tattooed
chests, depicted in bright vivid colors. These people’s
bodies, (Wherever they may be at this time.) are art, and
this is what inspired Martina to create these paintings
from their likeness.
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