Grey Cube Gallery proudly presents the first Patterns online art show for the month of October 2020. The show encompassed a range of artistic styles and mediums (photography, digital, mixed media, collage, oil on canvas, acrylics, ink, watercolor, pastel, colored pencil, white alabaster, woven microfilm and forged iron). Each submission has been judged based on the following elements of artistic expression: orginality and quality of art, overall design, creativity, interpretation of the theme, demonstration of artistic ability and usage of medium. Out of all entries, 100 artworks were shortlisted for inclusion in the show. The competition attracted entries from many countries accros the world: Croatia, Australia, Germany, Canada, USA, UK, Hungary, Russia, Taiwan, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, New Zealand, China, Guatemala, Finland and Austria. Enjoy the show and thank you for expressing an interest in our competition.

My practice uses textiles, natural materials, and text to explore relationships between human and animal bodies, boundaries of empathy, and ecological anxiety. I am interested in the ways in which animal bodies are commodified- used for luxury, for beauty, and for consumption. My work Cleaving/Enfolding uses calico, a fabric traditionally used for pattern making, to envision a new animal skin, comprised of different elements, of different animals, that has begun to grow into itself, sag with its own weight. In A Frightful Nest..., I hand embossed hundreds of individual copper leaves and fixed them to a large found tree branch, imagining what the aftermath of either a disaster or a miracle might look like, if someone happened upon it alone.

I have always worked almost exclusively with acrylic on canvas. I have always worked using unconventional methods, as well. This has not been for purposes of being different for different's sake, but in order to express what I want (need?) to express. Consequently, I have made it a habit over the years to play with paint in order to learn more about what it is capable (and not capable) of doing. This has led me to paint on glass, then transfer that paint into "paint assemblages", extrude paint from modified syringes creating webbed paintings that resemble bent, colored wire, and most recently, to sling paint from ultra-fine straight pins, at very high speed, onto canvas. This mark’s defining characteristic is electric energy, but the incredibly fine nature of the mark is also striking. Beginning around 2006, I used this mark to create images of "the universe of mind and spirit" as I envisioned it, inspired by images of the physical universe produced by the Hubble space telescope. Three series resulted from that effort. All through this period, I wondered about mixing color optically by overlapping the fine skeins produced by this mark and eventually began a series to explore the matter. The “Poles” series of seventeen paintings resulted from that first exploration of optical color mixing. I am now seventeen paintings into a new “IMP” series that also explores the optical mixing of color, although these paintings suggest energy condensing into matter to me (or matter exploding into energy), as well. For me, the magic of a painting is the fact that it’s just a piece of fabric with paint on it, yet it can create such magic. I want that to be more evident in these new pieces, right down to the raw, torn fabric around the outer edges.

Shane Taremi is a Boston-based photographer and digital artist. His scientific training, as a former Ph.D. scientist has brought him discipline to the way he approaches photography and has enabled him to develop his own technique and unique voice, as showcased in his Fibonacci-based cityscape series titled Unreal Reality. In this series, an original photograph, shot on location in various international cities, is digitally blended with the elements taken from the edges of the frame to create an expanded cityscape surrounding the subject. The outward growth of frame is accomplished by utilizing the Fibonacci based sequence of numbers to produce aesthetically pleasing patterns, all originating from the edges of the frame. The project is a subjective approach to photography favoring perception over seeing. It is meant to re-invent viewer’s relationship with the reality of the outside world around him/her. This deviation from the norm of realism are emphasized by these large-scale artworks, depicting urban landscapes containing spaces with vast perspectives where buildings soar above the human scale and architectural elements unique to each city produce one of a kind geometric pattern.

The primary inspiration for my art is creating a visual expression of the elements of life that connect us as human beings and illuminate the true self. I am most drawn to themes addressing cultural integration, how we define ourselves in relation to others, and how we reconcile our individuality with social and cultural norms and expectations. In addressing those themes I use cultural motifs, symbols, patterns, text and related representations of ethnic, racial and religious identity. I layer materials both literally and figuratively with color and often with metallic elements, to provide and depth, dimension and energy, and to reflect the light that is inherent in our lives. This approach allows me to construct a visual interpretation of the richness of the fabric of life.