COVID MASTERPIECES 4

Artists:

Tjaša Iris

Kateřina Kocourková

Tsai yu-chieh

Lauren Bickerdike

Tanya Momi

Discover artists:

TJAŠA IRIS, SLOVENIA/MALAYSIA

b. in Slovenia in 1968. She works with both photography and painting, depicting vibrant and saturated images of flowers, gardens and vegetation. Iris’ primary focus is investigating the expressive abilities and nuances of colour. The last 12 years she mostly spent living/creating/ traveling and exhibiting in South East Asia: Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia.

In 2020-2021 she got stranded in Koh Phangan Island in Thailand, due to Covid , where she created a series of artworks called: ANAN (which means peaceful in Sanskrit) SEA GARDENS. The series is very vibrant, but also peaceful at the same time.

KATERINA KOCURKOVA, CZECH REPUBLIC

"My beginnings in painting relate mainly to landscape painting and the open air in which I found balance. So the spaces were emptied at first. Later, my work began to resort more to the figure in nature. Where I deal with the fusion and conception of man by nature, as an inevitable element. Paintings, which focuses on the young generation we are surrounded by, carries with it a certain disorientation in time, space and especially in the present. The paintings point to the context of how we perceive the individual world in which we live. Perception is the primary element that I deal with in my work."

Kateřina Kocourková portrays men in various groups or poses as crumbling fragments of something that has long since passed away or been lost in this world. Her heroes are dressed in contemporary clothes, but their faces are no longer indistinguishable. He points out how easy it is to forget and lose the visual of a person when he is not near us and not to create him by remembering him until he becomes an indistinguishable portrait. My inspiration comes from the life around me. Inspiration could come from portraits of Andrew Wyeth and Adrian Ghenie.

TSAI YU-CHIEH, TAIWAN/BELGIUM

Tsai yu-chieh was born in Taiwan, living in Antwerp now.

She earned her Masters degree from Royal Academy for Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium.

She is a Textile Pattern designer, a painter, and a barista..

Trying to Find herself for many years.

She decided to return to basics.

Enjoys doing things that are with the heart.

Believing that people are worthy of a peaceful and beautiful life.

About the paintings - Life Stories

"One life, one story, is enough.

The way of life, stumbled.

I just want to tell a simplest and most important story.

simplest lines, simplest technique, and the most free colors,

I want to face myself honestly with a pure heart.

Each painting is a mirror that reflects who I am inside.

This is my process of returning to myself.

This is my life story."

LAUREN BICKERDIKE, IRELAND

Lauren Bickerdike is a sound based multimedia artist from Laois, Ireland. She is a graduate

of Limerick School of Art and Design where she focused on Sculpture and Combined Media

and received a BA Degree in Fine Art. Lauren has participated and collaborated in recent

shows including various Irish locations along with London, South Korea , Italy and France

among others.

Lauren’s practise explores societies and environments, through the context of location. 19: A

Data Melody is a sound piece composed of the daily Covid 19 case and death figures

released by the Irish Government from the first recorded, Covid 19 related, death on the

11th of March 2020 following its fluctuation over the course of 365 days. The figures are

translated into corresponding musical notes to portray an aural representation of the Covid

19 case and death curve in the Republic of Ireland. As the case and death rates rise, the

notes decrease in correspondence. This piece was created with the aid of Irish Arts Council

funding and has most recently displayed at the United Nations General Assembly 2020

under the Global Conversations 2020 international exhibition. Visual documentation was

taken throughout the Covid 19 Pandemic in Limerick city, Ireland, along with the layered

field recorded urban documentation.

"19: A Data Melody is a sound piece demonstrating the rate of Covid 19 cases and deaths, reported daily throughout the Republic of Ireland, over the course of a year, through sound.

The 11th of March saw the first Covid 19 related death in Ireland. On this day, the World Health Organisation announced an official global pandemic. Using case and death figures released by the Irish government daily, this piece allocates musical notes to corresponding numbers composing a melody consisting of 365 notes. An acoustic timeline of transmission in Ireland over a year develops. As the rate of transmission increases octaves change creating deeper notes. Through the use of musical notes as a representation of data, this piece documents the rate of growth of infection and the effects lockdowns in Ireland have had over the last year in order to ‘flatten the curve’ and reduce community transmission."

TANYA MOMI, INDIA/U.S.A.

Tanya has had the opportunity to meet people from many different walks of life through her salon. She has donated countless artworks to many charities and non-profit organizations. Tanya brings people together through her art. Tanya Momi is an inspirational artist whose work is diverse enough to fall into several categories including realism, cubism, abstract and social realism and spiritual art. Tanya’s medium is Oils and Acrylics and Sketch.

Her work is greatly influenced by her own life experiences. Tanya was born in India and graduated with Bachelors in Fine Arts from Chandigarh in 1982. She got married and moved to the United States. After 9 and half years of abuse in her marriage, she divorced him and never looked back. Busy raising her 2 kids and establishing her business in Silicon Valley since 1989, she didn't paint for 22 years. She was encouraged by close friends to start painting again. After she started her second career, she was able to find herself through her artwork. Her painful journey became her own inspiration.

first series she worked on was about the pain and suffering of a single, divorced woman. The paintings series include, “When Friends Turn Their Backs”, “Wounded”, “Beaten but not Broken”, “Stop the Pain”. Being that the suffering of women and people all around the world was her inspiration, Tanya paints to help people ease their suffering.

As someone that is very passionate about the message behind her art, Tanya has had the opportunity to connect with many people. She has spoken at the White house about women empowerment and leadership.Tanya’s Art is distinctive and controversial. Since she started her “second career”, she has shown her work in India, Beverly Hills, Toronto, London, Portola Valley, Los Altos as well as other local groups. Triton museum and MUNU museum. Composing the future exhibit Bankhead Theater Livermore Ca. Hong kong & London.