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Nelson Artist, Rob Knowles
November 16, 2005 |
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It's been a while since the last
ArikiArt Newsletter,
but it's not been a matter of slacking. Actually, since the last
newsletter a lot of new artwork has
been added to our galleries. Additionally, we have welcomed aboard a
new artist, Rob Knowles, who
hails from
Nelson, New Zealand. Rob is in fact the 4th New Zealand artist to
join the ArikiArt stable.
 Rob
was born in England, and after extensive travel and some interesting careers
on the way, his path lead him to Nelson, which is situated in the
north-western tip of New Zealand's South Island. The region boasts a
sunny climate, spectacular coastline, and a vibrant artist community.
Rob's work is typically abstract multimedia work, characterized by vibrant
color, with influences from his earlier career as a draughtsman. The
amazing thing to note is that Rob chose three pieces with which to launch
his online gallery at ArikiArt, and in the time I was preparing his gallery
all three of them sold! That's what we like to hear from our artists!
Rob promises more work soon that hopefully will have some time to "hang" on
our gallery walls to give ArikiArt customers a chance to collect some of his
artwork before it sells. Please take the time to
read a little about Rob Knowles,
and to visit his online gallery
to get an idea of his striking style and talent. Welcome to
ArikiArt Online Galleries, Rob! |
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"Cave" Multimedia Art
by Nelson New Zealand Artist Rob Knowles
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We initially launched
Max Emadi with his
"Calendar Girls" series of veiled Islamic women, followed by his
"Beautiful
Monsters" series of small ceramic busts. Since our last
newsletter, we have added a lot more of Max's paintings, including several
of his abstract works.
Currently Max is working on two extensive series of portraits, one known as
"Hero Worship", which
Max describes as "a series of paintings juxtaposing our obsession with
celebrity against the cultural tendency to idolize religious icons", and the
other known as "Terrorists
and Freedom Fighters" which includes notables such as
George W. Bush in the pose of John F. Kennedy in the
famous 1969 portrait of JFK by Aaron Shikler, and
Osama bin Laden striking up
Napoleon's pose in the neoclassical portrait by Jacque-Louis David.
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Veiled Threats
Speaking of Max Emadi's "Calendar Girl" series, this past
September 29th, we received two contact messages from Bangalore, India
making some veiled threats relating to these artworks. In the first
message, the sender wrote:
"You will loose your business soon, hope that it will
happen definately. and also you will lost ur life. Please i request you to
share the magic time with your family. thanks."
And in the second message that followed minutes later:
"Save ur self if u can,...but u can if u remove the nude
art of islamic pic from the url other wise god will c u.."
From the style of writing and abbreviations used, the
sender appears to be someone who spends a lot of time "instant messaging".
Perhaps they work at one of the "offshore service centers" in Bangalore.
Anyhow, Max Emadi's series aims to comment on the sexuality of Islamic women
hidden under their veils, and how that sexuality is in fact ironically given
greater power by the fact that it is so heavily disguised. Eroticism
comes from suggestion; pornography comes from in-your-face "exposure".
By "lifting the veil" on these Islamic women and showing a little flesh,
Emadi aims to show just how powerful and provocative even just a little
exposure can be. These messages from India prove it worked!
By the way, because of the implied threats to us in the
messages, we did contact the FBI and forward to them the details of the
origin of the messages. We have to commend the FBI for the promptness of
their response to us. You can see the
Calendar Girls for yourself.
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Not only is Christmas coming, but tax season in the U.S.
too! If you're a U.S. taxpayer, did you know that
donations of
art to charities are tax deductible? |
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Ariki Art
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