#alphaaio | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

geracaoalpha · 1 year

Text

Artist Spotlight: Ryan Frame

Alphaa.io is pleased to welcome visual artist Ryan Frame to our network of creatives!

Frame was born in South Africa and is based in Los Angeles. He incorporates body paint, human subjects, water, and photography to create surreal yet intimate portraits. Learn more about Frame in our interview below and check out his works on Alphaa.io.

Where are you from?

Ryan Frame: I was born and Raised in Johannesburg South Africa, then lived in Cape Town from 18-24 and then moved to LA where I have lived since 24. I am 30 now.

What is your background?

RF: I have been working in the motion picture industry throughout my entire professional career, which led me to move to Los Angeles. There, I studied for my MFA at UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television.

How did you get started in your artist career?

RF: As I became more involved in the motion picture business I begun feeling frustrated at how long things take for a creative vision to materialize. It was through this creative frustration that I searched for more immediate ways to express myself. I gravitated towards body painting because I have always been fascinated by the originality of how this medium combines naked skin, paint and photography. The immediacy of this art form gave me an emancipation from the long drawn our process of making films.

Any exciting upcoming projects in 2023?

RF: I’ve been experimenting with underwater photography and testing paints and powders that will enable me to achieve it.

What excites you the most about technology (NFTs, Web3 blockchain etc) right now?

RF: I think the promise of NFT technology is well suited for fine art for three reasons. First is that it provides provenance for these works as a certificate of authenticity that cannot be manipulated. Second is the ability for the creator to participate in secondary sales in perpetuity which I find most exciting. Third, I believe NFTs should ideally be accompanied by the original works. Although some can exist on their own, the value of art is the ability to appreciate it in person.

What inspires you?

I get inspired when I observe life's contrast through witnessing my hopes and dreams against another person's pain and suffering, or my own pain and suffering against another's hopes and dreams. Seeing creation and destruction both in a natural context is another source of inspiration. I like to choose locations for my photoshoots in places that highlight the beauty of natural landscapes or places that carry a heaviness to them through political or religious affiliation.

How did you get in touch with Alphaa.io and how would you see the relationship growing this year?

RF: I met Manu at an event several months ago where she saw my work and invited me to apply. I would like to see our relationship become one where Alphaa.io represents my work to its clientele for sale.

What are you currently working on?

RF: I’m currently in Cape Town until the end of February. It’s summer here so I’m using the opportunity to create a series featuring local muses and landscapes. We’ll see how it comes together.

Anything else you want to add?

RF: Just that I recently started becoming more public with my work in the past year. It took some courage to come out because I wanted to build up enough works before I shared with whoever might find them pleasing.

#alphaaio #nft #nfts #visual art #photography #bodypaint #blockchain #digitalart #surreal photography #ryan frame #ryan frame artist

5 notes · View notes

peterruprecht · 2 years

Photo

#nft that @tasyateles @shannonshiang and I made to raise money and awareness for #ukraine at the @alphaaio show (at Beverly Hills, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeVKQTELqpw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#nft #ukraine

3 notes · View notes

geracaoalpha · 2 years

Text

Alpha’a X Moletni&C: A Love Letter to Design in NYC

Alpha’a recently wrapped up an inspiring project curating a collection for Molteni&C’s new New York flagship store.

Molteni&C has been at the forefront of the Italian design industry for decades. All of the modern design firm’s furniture is made in Italy but it has an international presence with hundreds of retail spaces in over 80 countries.

Our in-house curator Iman Mazhar worked closely with the leading Italian furniture and design firm to highlight local NYC and East Coast artists alongside world renowned artists. The result is a vibrant collection that complements the space and creates an inspiring dialogue about design.

As a nod to Moldenti&C’s forward thinking approach to design, we sourced works that experiment with form: textured and layered paintings, minimal pieces, works with geometric patterns, as well as some sculptural and 3D works. We selected warm vibrant colors and hues of blue to add vibrancy to the showroom’s interior and included monochrome works to add moments of calmness.

Mazhar worked with Alpha’a artists, independent artists and gallery represented artists to create a dynamic roster of artists for the final selection. Alpha’a artists David Stephen Johnson and Senem Oezdogan were highlighted as well as works from artists from Praxis Gallery, Opera Gallery, Nohra Haime Gallery, and Hemingway African Gallery.

Molteni&C’s New York store is located on Madison Avenue in the heart of Manhattan. The building was designed by Vincent Van Duysen and combines Italian style and elegance with classic New York design.The spacious two story storefront is over 12,500 square feet with four large shop windows that offer passersby a peek into Molteni&’s stunning display.

Shoppable designs by the Group’s three brands: Molteni&C, Dada and UniFor fill the New York space alongside prints installed by Alpha’a. Moletni&C’s open layout imagines a range of settings for the brands’ furniture to shine, from an intimate home setting to a contemporary office environment. All artworks displayed at the store are available for purchase on site.

Meet the artists in the Molteni&C X Alpha’a collection and purchase their works on alphaa.io:

David Stephen Johnson , Alpha’a

David Stephen Johnson is an abstract painter based in Westport, Connecticut who often works with large scale canvases, exploring color and shape. He is self taught and is influenced by post-war abstract expressionists and great action painters.

Senem Oezdogan, Alpha’a

Senem Oezdogan is a Brooklyn-based mixed-media artist who uses color and form to create optical illusions. Smooth gradients give a sense of volume to the bold shapes that are subsequently flattened by her illusionistic use of spatial composition.

Claudia Vieira, PRAXIS

Claudia Vieria lives and works in Porto Alegre, Brazil and New York City. She recreates spaces by drawing and painting on the walls. She often creates site-specific installations and immersive drawn environments in which the action of drawing the line is as important as the final appearance of the work.

Julie Hedrick, NOHRA HAIME GALLERY

Julie Hedrick is a Canadian-American artist known for her abstract and vibrant oil paintings. Hedrick’s art displays a characteristic peeling texture, tactile complex surfaces and an elemental human quality.

Francisca Sutil, NOHRA HAIME GALLERY

Francisca Sutil is a Chilean painter known for her research of the chromatic surface and the relationship between color and light. She uses her work to encourage reflection and meditation. She creates prints and drawings on textured handmade paper, pigmented gesso surfaces, and vertical oil bands she calls Spaces.

Sophia Vari, NOHRA HAIME GALLERY

Sophia Vari is a world-renowned Greek visual artist. She specializes in bronze sculpture and is also known for collages, oils, and watercolors and her use of patina along with contrasting colors. Her work is an investigation of form and balance.

Hemingway African Gallery

Alpha’a selected sculptures from Hemingway African Gallery. The NYC gallery’s collection is ethically-sourced, often directly from artisans across the continent, and ranges from antique to decorative.

Alfred Haberpointner, OPERA GALLERY

Alfred Haberpointner is an Austrian sculptor who uses wood as his primary medium. He is best known for his wooden plates that he cuts, burns, saws and then bleaches and re-pigments creating a texture, rhythm, intensity and movement.

2 notes · View notes

geracaoalpha · 2 years

Text

Alphaa.io Speaks with Artist Laura Kimpton About Mental Health, Mindfulness, and Creativity

Laura Kimpton is a California-based mixed media artist and activist with a lifelong dedication to supporting mental health initiatives. Kimpton uses her background in psychology and art education to create uplifting messages that directly engage her viewers. She is inspired by her personal experience overcoming trauma and growing up with dyslexia. “Being a dyslexic person, you’re very aware of how important words are to people, so I do these very large monumental words,” she says.

Laura recently partnered with Alphaa.io for Mental Health Awareness Month to create an NFT to raise money for Blue Fever, a mental health platform for Gen Z, as well as for the nonprofit Mental Health America.

Believe: Burning Man 2014, Laura Kimpton

She comes up with her creative ideas through daydreaming and is a process oriented artist who is continually exploring new mediums. She is one of the most well-known artists at Burning Man and is a six-time recipient of Burning Man’s Honorarium Grant. She is best known for her Monumental Word Series that features large scale word sculptures such as Believe, Dream, Love, and Ego.

Kimpton has a Masters in Psychology and worked as an art teacher for over 15 years. Her work explores psychology and her personal experience with PTSD and shares a universal message of love and acceptance.

Laura Kimpton's immersive art installation Dream with Me will be installed at Burning Man 2022. Alphaa.io has partnered with Kimpton to create NFTs related to the physical piece to raise funds for the interactive structure.

We joined Laura Kimpton to talk about the impact of mental health on her art and why it is so important to create from the heart.

How has your relationship with mental health evolved over time and what is the most important message? Have there been things you have learned that have changed the way you think about mental health?

Laura Kimpton: Everyone is suffering with some type of mental health issues, so I want people to know they are not alone and that everyone is affected by mental health and now it is safe to talk about it. In the past it was more looked down upon, but now in 2022 we can talk about mental health more easily. Covid brought up trauma for a lot of people so almost everybody’s mental health was affected in one way or another.

Do you think that artists help open that door by creating works that might be minimal or abstract but still touch on mental health and offer an entry point to concepts that might be darker?

Laura: One hundred percent. Especially for creative people because we are right brainers. When I was growing up I was told that something was wrong with me because I was dyslexic. Now I know that my dyslexia is my genius. Art is a way for people to express themselves. I was an art teacher for at risk kids and creativity is how I helped them get their emotions out.

How can art help youth express feelings that are maybe too complicated or taboo for them to say outright?

One thing is that kids spend eight hours a day in a linguistic world and a mathematical world framed around learning about other things rather than self expression. Art does not have to be factually exact to what you are expressing. A lot of my art is very emotion-based, I’m not saying exactly what happened to me. Art can be a healing way to express childhood traumas. I’ve learned that talking about it outright can be way more difficult than creating art.

The year I created “Believe” was the year my daughter turned 16 and became more independent, getting in cars with 16 year old boys. And when you suffer from PTSD one thing is sometimes it’s very hard to deal with fear of the unknown or loss of control. So I kept repeating the mantra to myself “believe, believe, believe.” You just have to believe. Worry doesn’t help, positivity helps. Art is the way I have survived in a very linguistic world and how I have processed my family trauma.

Can you explain why it is so important for youth to use art as a creative outlet that is attached to a deeper meaning?

My favorite saying I tell myself all the time is that it’s about the process not the product. When I make my digital collages it can take 72 hours and when I’m working, I’m not worrying or doing anything else. It is a meditative state. When I worked with kids it was very much about making them feel safe and empowered to create. I encouraged them to not make art for others but to instead make art that stems from the meditative process. Also teens need to know that every teen is going through something. There is so much emphasis now about getting acceptance online instead of just expressing yourself.

Especially now with our attention going in so many directions it is so important just to be mindful. How do you incorporate mindfulness into your art and your teaching?

When kids who are making art start to doubt themselves, I remind them of my mantra: ‘It’s about the process not the product.’ And I say that a thousand times over in my head when I’m making art and I’ve been making art for over thirty years. Affirmations are very helpful for my personal practice, like ‘be kind’ or ‘be art.’

#public art #burning man #burning man art #burning man artist #sculpture #laura kimpton #burning man sculpture #alphaaio #alphaa #geracaoalpha #art

0 notes