Kris Kuksi, 1973 | Rococo Style / Surrealist sculptor

Born in Springfield Missouri and growing up in neighboring Kansas, Kris spent his youth in rural seclusion and isolation along with a blue-collar, working mother, two significantly older brothers, and an absent father.

Open country, sparse trees, and alcoholic stepfather, all paving the way for an individual saturated in imagination and introversion.

His propensity for the unusual has been a constant since childhood, a lifelong fascination that lent itself to his macabre art later in life. The grotesque to him, as it seemed, was beautiful.

Kris Kuksi garners recognition and acclaim for the intricate sculptures that result from his unique and meticulous technique.

A process that requires countless hours to assemble, collect, manipulate, cut, and re-shape thousands of individual parts, finally uniting them into an orchestral-like seamless cohesion that defines the historical rise and fall of civilization and envisions the possible future(s) of humanity.

Anna Vinogradova, 1975

Анна Виноградова was born in Krasnodar. In 1994 she entered the Yaroslavl Art School, which she left one year later and entered the preparatory course of Graphic faculty of Repin Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

Already in the year 1996 she became a student of Graphic faculty of Repin Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where she was taught from 1996-1999 in studios of V.Starov, I. Razdrogin and V. Vetrogonskij.

After the third course, Anna Vinogradova decided to withdraw from the Graphics department and moved to the third course of the faculty of Painting in the studio under the direction of V.Pimenov, where she continued her studies, guide by such masters as N.Blokhin, N. Lysak.

Martin Johnson Heade | Still Life

From: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Martin Johnson Heade (originally Heed) was born in Lumberville, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on August 11, 1819.

He received his earliest artistic training from the painter Edward Hicks (1780-1849) and perhaps had additional instruction from Hicks' younger cousin Thomas, a portrait painter.

The influence of these two artists is evident in Heade's earliest works, which were most often portraits painted in a rather stiff and unsophisticated manner.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau | Academic painter

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, (1825-1905), French painter, a dominant figure in his nation’s Academic painting during the second half of the 19th century.

Bouguereau entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1846 and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1850. Upon his return to France from four years’ study in Italy, he attracted a wide following with his mythological and allegorical paintings, although his portrait paintings are perhaps held in higher esteem today.

Thomas Reis | Figurative painter

American Award winningv painter Thomas Reis began work as senior art director for JP Morgan Chase in New York City, shortly after receiving his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1993.

Two years later, he was illustrating for nationally-known publications, including Time magazine, Rolling Stone, the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, Business Week, TV Guide, Barron's, Forbes and Smart Money.

Corporate clients have included MGM, Dupont and Colgate. Throughout his career, Reis has also worked as a fine artist, producing work with all the refinement that one would expect from a classically trained painter.

His paintings are represented in numerous permanent and private collections throughout the United States. Tom currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia. (Text provided courtesy the Museum of Arts and Sciences.)

John Keats | La dolcezza di quel viso

Lo sfavillio del suo sguardo splendente

E quel seno, terrestre paradiso.

Mai più felice sarà la vista mia,

Ché ha perso il visibile ogni sapore:

Perduto è il piacere della poesia,

L'ammirazione per il classico nitore.

Michael Wilkinson - British sculptor

Mostafa Keyhani, 1954 | Cityscape painter

Mostafa Keyhani🎨 is an Iranian-born Canadian painter, known for work in the Impressionist style🎨. Born in Iran, Keyhani now lives in Toronto with his family.

For biographical notes and other works by Mr. Keyhani see:

• Mostafa Keyhani, 1954 | Impressionist | Plein air painter.

Frédéric Soulacroix | Academic painter

The son of the well known painter and sculptor Charles (Montpellier, 1825-Firenze, 1899) and of Giacinta Diofebo, Charles Joseph Frédéric Soulacroix (1858-1933) lived until spring 1863 in Rome and later in Boulogne-sur-Mer (where his father Charles was painting the frescoes of the local cathedral), in Paris and, since 1870, in Italy in Firenze.

In 1873, at 15, Frédéric enters the “Accademia di Belle Arti” of Firenze and in Octobre 1876 is admitted to the “Scuola di Pittura”.

1890: June the 6th, he marries in Florence Julie Fernande Blanc. They live in Piazza Donatello, 21 in a charming house with rear garden they acquire. Firenze sees the birth of four boys: Olivier, George, Gabriel and a girl, Amélie Florence.