Art | Wine | Lisa Wellman for WA State Senate

What goes better with a heated election than a little Art & Wine? This past Thursday, the SZ Gallery hosted a campaign fundraiser for Lisa Wellman, Democratic Candidate for WA State Senate. This truly unique evening was filled with good wine, heartfelt social & political banter, an opportunity to learn more about Lisa's inspiring call to action, and, of course, dragons.

Kosta Kulundzic, French-Serbian Artist, returned to Mercer Island in support of this event. In addition to his current exhibit, 'Bloody Icons!', serving as the evocative backdrop, Kosta was kind enough to perform live. Within a short two hours, he painted a large canvas right before our eyes.

Kosta teamed up with Synne Cellars to offer 18 bottles of Artist Edition 2014 Chenin Blanc wine for the Fundraiser.  Each label has an original ink drawing is signed by the artist.

Thank you to Jennifer Mechem for organizing the event, to L+B Design for contributing the design of the invitations & to Friends of Lisa Wellman.

Unitl November 2, SZ will donate 20% of Art Sales + 40% of Wine Sales to Lisa Wellman's campaign

Catch Kosta Kulundzic's Bloody Icons! exhibit while you can!

Live Performance: Kosta Kulundizic [10.08.16]

Exhibiting at the SZ Gallery until Tuesday, November 2, the Kosta Kulundzic is a French artist of Serbian ancestry, born in Paris in 1972. The grandson of an orthodox pope, he was nurtured by the specters of religious warfare, Christian dogma, and the burdens of martyrdom. Immersed in the narratives of the gospels, he populates them with his own heroes: Judith and Saint George are updated for Michael Bay's explosive set pieces, slaying dragons and falling to blades and assassins under a blazing Waikiki sun...tourists get caught in the crossfire. With a fastidious attention to detail ("when I paint, I love to stick my nose to the canvas," he says) he renders light, flesh, and spiritual struggle with intensity and passion. In each of his canvasses he invites us to consider the battle between forgiveness and guilt, sin and grace, linking these ancient stories to the exaggerated and stylized violence of modern cinema and graphic novels.

Starting with a blank white sheet, Kosta Kulundzic put ink to paper...

First Thursday: Art & Wine [10.06.16] w/ KOSTA KULUNDZIC

Suzanne Zahr and L+B Design Presents Kosta Kulundzic’s
“Bloody Icons!” new Exhibit in the Pacific Northwest
French-Serbian Artist Returns to the United States

Three Tech Moguls cringe and cower in the frightful shadow of a furious dragon! Kim Kardashian hobnobs with St. Sebastian and an apocalyptic abomination as a bound and perplexed Kanye West looks on! Judith stands ready to behead the hell out of Holofernes, Tarantino-style, Grand Guignol, without the slightest remorse (and more than a little Grindhouse flair)! Buckle-up, because you’ve entered the world of Kosta Kulundzic - a deeply spiritual yet profanely B-movie realm where angelic figures coexist with bare-knuckled brawlers, hulking monstrosities stalk the same earth as tattooed, scantily-clad muses, and pas-sion and attitude are always the order of the day! Part and parcel of the lowbrow art school and deeply pious Christian imagery, Kulundzic somehow manages to enter a new level of the soulfully obscene, the salaciously reverent!

Kulundzic has had shows in Paris, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Brussels, and Honolulu, and his new show, “Bloody Icons!”, opened at the SZ Gallery on October 6th, where he debuted the piece “The Desperate Plea of Modern Technology Fac-ing St George’s Dragon”, featuring Seattle’s very own Bill Gates, Paul Allen & Jeff Bezos.

LIVE PAINTING PERFORMANCE will take place at the SZ Gallery at 2PM on Saturday, October 8th. All are welcomed.

Suzanne Zahr and L+B Design, both Mercer Island-based creative studios have teamed up to bring the work of internationally renowned artist, Kosta Kulundzic to the Pacific Northwest. Kulundzic is also an adjunct art professor at the School of Architecture of Paris Val de Seine and will lecture at the University of Hawaii in 2017.

SZ Gallery is dedicated to sourcing and featuring global artists to new audiences in the Pacific Northwest. Located at the confluences of Seattle and The East Side, SZ Gallery features up and coming talents on a monthly basis and serves as an art outpost for Lake Washington and its surrounding areas, bringing a new twist to the local market. 

L+B Design is a multi-disciplinary branding studio helping organizations of all sizes create memorable visual ex-periences delivered beautifully. With 20 years of experience in Branding and Marketing, L+B design is constantly searching for new ways to tell a compelling brand story. 

WINE:
The Islander"s Sommelier, Isaac Schmid, will be introducing Synne Cellars, offering pre-sales to his Reserved 2014 Syrah & Chenin Blanc along side other wonderful reds & whites.