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.

First Thursday: Art & Wine [09.01.16]

Since we launched this monthly tradition in May, each event has been special in its own way. This past gathering had a more intimate tone, rooted in a well-rounded appreciation of good wine, music, visual & wearable arts.

Victoria Johnson's artwork is both formal & lyrical. Free-flowing, organic forms drift in and out of her canvas' planes, creating enticing visual rhythm & movement. A perfect pairing with 12-year old harpist, Carla Mory's performance of 'Les Adieux du Menestrel au Pays Natal' by John Thomas, in our very first Living Room 'concert'.

Jennie King of J|King Styling introduced her Fall Collection of ASH + AMES Jewelry - simply stunning. Mary Herzog of The Paper Beadery presented her unique, handmade statement necklaces out of paperbeads - gorgeous. Both have generously offered to donate 10% of sales to Art with Heart.

Isaac, The Islander's Sommelier, once again introduced a wonderful selection of wines for tasting, all available for sale by the bottle or case at wine club prices.  

Seattle Art Fair 2016 - Favorite Picks

The SZ Family enjoyed a fun-filled field trip to the Seattle Art Fair, followed by a fab Italian dinner at Radici in Pioneer Square, where discussions were lively and inspired.

This year, there were 84 featured galleries, compared to the 62 in its opening year (2015). Among them, 18 were local galleries from the Pacific Northwest, while the others ranged from California to Japan. It’s great so see Seattle’s art community continue to thrive and grow. Even though the SAF has ended, many of the featured galleries will continue to make sales related to this fair throughout the rest of the year. 

Though we each gravitated towards a diverse range of expressions, I instantly fell in love with the work of Indian artist, Sohan Qadri.  He had three pieces exhibited by the Sundaram Tagore Gallery out of New York. Below-left is my favorite SAF pick (photo does not do it justice), Nitya, 2008 (Ink and dye on paper, 55"x39").  

SELECT WORKS: SOHAN QADRI

ARTIST BIO: SOHAN QADRI

Artist, poet and Tantric guru Sohan Qadri (1932-2011) is one of the only internationally acclaimed artists deeply engaged with spirituality. Qadri abandoned representation early on in his long career, incorporating Tantric symbolism and philosophy into his vibrantly colored minimalist works. Born in India, he was initiated into yogic practice at age seven. In 1965, he left India and began a series of travels that took him to East Africa, North America, Paris and Zurich. 

Settling in Copenhagen, Mr. Qadri participated in more than forty one-man shows, in Bombay, Vienna, Brussels, London, Oslo, Stockholm, Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York. He distilled Tantric symbolism into his own abstract, modernist language using broad areas of open color, capturing the northern landscape and sky of his Scandinavian surroundings. Although he began his career in the 1950s painting in oil on canvas, he worked on paper from the 1970s onward. He covered the surface of the paper with structural effects by soaking it in liquid and carving it in several stages while applying inks and dyes. In the process, the paper was transformed from a flat, two-dimensional surface into a three-dimensional medium. The repetition of careful incisions on the paper was an integral part of his meditation—and, in fact, his process evolved out of his desire for an effortless method of creation in tune with his yogic practice.