COVID MASTERPIECES 3
Artists:
Annie Tong Zhou Lafrance
Doris Schamp
Judith De Simone
Nadja Shkirat
Alex Spragens
Carol Loeffler
Carolyn Brann
Discover Artists:
ANNIE TONG ZHOU LAFRANCE, CANADA
Annie Tong Zhou Lafrance is a Chinese-born multidisciplinary artist. She was adopted from Anhui, China in 1999 and is currently based between Tiohtià:ke/Montreal and Quebec City, Canada. In spring 2021, she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Concordia University with a major in Studio Art and a minor in Chinese Language and Culture. Her current visual research focuses on the different methods of display enabling the transportability of intimate belongings from one location to another. Since 2017, her work has been exhibited on several occasions all over Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, namely at Visual Arts Visuels Gallery, Eastern Block, Rad Hourani Foundation and many alternated spaces. As of 2019, she has begun sharing her narrative in relation to her transnational adoption to raise awareness about transcultural identity and the Chinese Adoptee diaspora in Western territories. Her writings have been published by L’Organe, the Fine Arts Reading Room, and soon by the Concordia Undergraduate Journal of Art History. In the near future, she will be moving to China to bridge the language barrier and pursue graduate studies in Fiber Art.
CAROLYN BRANN, GERMANY/USA
Is an abstract artist living and working in Berlin, Germany - WITHOUT an assistant. She has been there since August 2020, prior to that she was in San Diego, California. She has been painting regularly since about 2013 and is mostly self-taught, however, she worked individually for several years with Masters level instructor, Nasser Pirasteh. She meditates daily and practices kundalini yoga regularly and these spiritual modalities influence her work - She gets visions of colors, patterns, or other imagery which show up in many of her paintings. Some of her favorite women painters are Yayoi Kusama and Helen Frankenthaler. Both of their styles influence her work - Kusama with repetitive dot patterning and Frankenthaler with soak staining/layering. In December 2020, she challenged herself to create 100 pieces of work by 31 March 2021 by using the soak staining technique Frankentahaler championed.
CAROLE LOEFFLER, USA
is an artist, mother, and educator based in Philadelphia, PA, USA. She imbues vintage textiles with the spirit of nameless foremothers to create a variety of narratives that reflect her lived experience. She holds a BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and an MFA from the University of South Florida. Carole has exhibited her work in over 100 group and solo exhibitions across the US.
ALEX SPRAGENS, USA
(b. 1997) Alex Spragens was born and raised in rural Southeastern Kentucky, USA. He is a
classically-trained oil painter with an emphasis on portraits and figures. He received his BA in
Studio Art from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky in May 2020. He is currently living in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he balances his time between painting and working as a
teaching artist with 6th – 8th grade students.
He strives to explore and express the value of “the simple things” through his art. Natural
observations, momentary bliss, meditations, memories... all of these and more fall under the
umbrella of the simple things. His paintings often combine life studies with imaginations –
striking a balance between the objective and the subjective, the observable and the unseen – to
capture moments holistically. His art has the ability to catch an impatient eye while still
rewarding long-looking with the play between layers and brushstrokes, precision and
spontaneity, and seriousness and silliness.