Dawn Akemi Saito is an actress, performance artist, writer and butoh dancer. She has collaborated with major innovative performance groups in the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America. Her multi-disciplinary works include: Blood Cherries, directed by Jonathan Rosenberg and Sabrina Peck at Dance Theater Workshop; A Face of Our Own, in collaboration with composer Myra Melford presented at the Orpheum Theatre in Graz, Austria; Leaves, Water, Sun presented at the Berkshire Theatre Festival; HALO presented at the Asian American Theatre Workshop at MarkTaper and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica; HA, a solo dance-theatre piece directed by Maria Mileaf and presented at Dance Theatre Workshop, New York Theatre Workshop and the Electric Lodge; and My House was Collapsing Toward One Side, written and directed by Charles Mee Jr. with music by Myra Melford and presented at Dance Theater Workshop. Dawn has taught workshops throughout the U.S. and Europe and has served on the theater faculty at Cal Arts.
Susanna “SU-EN” Akerlund
SU-EN (Susanna Akerlund) is a dancer and choreographer from Sweden, and artistic director of the SU-EN Butoh Company. Her work is based on the Hijikata/Ashikawa method that was developed in the Tomoe Shizune & Hakutobo group. For five years, SU-EN was a member of the student group GNOME for which Yoko Ashikawa choreographed. SU-EN also holds a nattori license in Jiuta-mai Japanese dance. Since 1994 SU-EN has developed her work in a more contemporary direction: incorporating a variety of influences – from Nordic culture and landscape to conceptual and performance art. SU-EN teaches and performs extensively in Sweden and internationally. The home base for the SU-EN Butoh Company is Haglund Skola, an old village school located in the forest north of Stockholm.
Tags: SU-EN Butoh Company
Joan Laage
Joan Laage, Artistic Director of Dappin’ Butoh since 1991, moved to Seattle after studying under butoh masters Kazuo Ohno and Yoko Ashikawa in Japan, and performing in Ashikawa’s group, Gnome. She has taught butoh workshops in the Seattle area for over 10 years and has been a guest artist at Ohio State University, the University of Georgia, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and UNITEC in New Zealand.
Ethel Kambourian
Photography exhibitions at NYBF 2003
Drew Ford
DREW FORD was born on a farm in Western New York, south of Buffalo. He has since left the farm to pursue his creative endeavors. In the past, Ford has been known to create works which involve ceramics, video, installation and illustration. In the current greenman world work, Ford investigates issues of balance between individuality and social connectivity.
He was a published comic book artist and writer before turning his attention to fine art. Ford began showing his work in galleries around 2002. He has created works using everything from new media and ceramics to drawings and performance.
Kristin Narcowich
Before receiving an M.A. in Religion, she received a BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts, taught dance at UPenn, and danced with Dappin Butoh, Degenerate Art Ensemble, PAN and low crawlers high flying in Seattle. She danced with Ausdruckstanz in Philly, sang with the Philadelphia Chamber Chorus, and risked her life via bicycle on the streets of Philadelphia.
YOYOYOGASMANA
Yoyoyogasmana was born in Bandung, Indonesia. In 1996, he graduated from IKIP Bandung/Fine Art Department. His performance work has been presented in numerous galleries and festivals in countries, such as: Taiwan, Poland, Finland and Japan. He is also an art organizer working with Indonesian organizations such as the TMIB [Student Theater Group of IKIP BANDUNG] B+PAC [Bandung Performance Art Community], IAPAO [ International Association of Performance Art Organizers] and LINKART [ Forum Apresiasi Budaya ]. Yoyoyogasmana has been selected to be an artist-in-residence at CAVE for three months, his residency will finished in December 2005.
People seem always be interested in viewing the bad sides of other people, and they are not interested in their positive sides instead. It is also my firm belief that people have the ability to cheat, exploit and even hurt other people. On the other hand, people have a conscience that leads them to goodness. Our consciences categorize our behavior of hurting and exploiting others as bad inappropriate behavior, as evil one. This kind of bargaining between these two sides (the polar opposites of good and bad) has been a basic foundation of relationships among people. History has pointed out that there have been many moments when people proved to be releasing their evil side, their dark side. It is war. War is the organization of the human capacity to hurt and destroy others. These facts imply that collectively people can create evil deeds and actually, at the same time, they can also create the opposite.
Shiho Kondo
Shiho was born in Japan in 1981 and moved to Canada when she was 15 years old. She received her BA in Arts and Theater from The City College of New York in 2004 and has been an artist in residence at CAVE for the past year. Currently she is part of CAVE staff.
Eva Ullrich
After studying the traditional rules of painting, such as color, composition and proportion for many years, German born artist Eva Ullrich decided to work against those rules to demonstrate their limitations. She is greatly inspired and finds encouragement by working together with well known painter Larry Poons. He stresses the importance of being absolutely non-judgmental about the work the artist produces and the essence of having no expectations.
“The moment you start thinking about art, you stop making art.” -Larry Poons
Eva Ullrich’s purpose as an artist is not to please, rather to confuse the viewer with her somewhat disturbing and awkward images. She shows provocation and crudeness by intertwining references from her ideas, emotions and life experience. She adds images of industrial pipes in each piece as a symbol of connection. They emphasize her idea that everything and everybody in this universe is inevitably connected. She sees no need in holding on to one particular manner of painting, and does not believe in terms such as “realistic” or “abstract” to describe her work. The primitive drawn icons in her work reveal the influence of working together with small children in the arts. To the observer, it may seem odd that some areas are completely untouched, whereas others are obviously “overdone”. She abruptly stops when she feels the painting is complete and not necessarily when it looks finished. The psychological impact of experiencing her work shows the strength of her rebellious nature. The unusual idea of the Pipe Painting series is amusing and contains a good amount of satire.
Yeon Jin Cho
Yeon Jin Cho was Born in Seoul, Korea. She was an art director in the film and advertising world before turning her attention to fine art. Her installations includes everything from drawings and projections to found objects and time based elements. Cho’s work desires to explore the innocent, beautiful time before adulthood.
Watanabe Tadashi
Watanabe Tadashi is an artist based in Japan. He often does performance, making conceptual paintings, so that viewers can observe the passage of action within his installations. Recent solo exhibitions of his work have been presented in the Sharjah International Biennial 6, ‘United Arab Emirates and TRIBES Gallery and GALAPAGOS in New York.
Short Description
Therefore space influences who we think we are, our very spirit.
So I began by questioning: Is there anyone who understands the real nature of space?
The question ‘what is the power of space?’ started to intrigue me. I have used my work to express and explore my curiosity with space and emptiness.
Using ordinary spaces, I fill them with a material (such as concrete or
plaster) and once it hardens, I remove it having captured in some way the
essence of the space. I would like to express ‘space = emptiness’ by using
different material with the same spaces, to show some common concepts of emptiness.
However, I have discovered that only using one material, the nature of the
object is stronger than the space. Thus, I use many different materials to
fill the space, and when they harden it compares to the space. It conveys an image of the nature of the space.
Ted Stanke
Ted Stanke was born and raised in Wisconsin and from an early age he was encourage to focus his time on making art. At the age of 23 he dropped out of college and started his own gallery in downtown Lacrosse, a small town on the Mississippi River. A few years later, he was offered a position in the MFA program at the University of Delaware where where he spent 2 years focusing on large-scale sculpture. After graduation, he moved to Brooklyn and have constantly sought fresh avenues for his work. Most recently, he have functioned as the coordinator of an artist-in-residence program sponsored by One Arm Red in DUMBO.
Vanya Polunin
Vanya Polunin was born into a family of performers in 1986 in Russia.
Vanya has always been on the road with his family performing and participating in his fathers shows and projects in over 30 theaters around the world. Ever since he first started doodling as a child he had a dream of becoming a painter. Never having a permanent place of living it was hard for him to fulfill his dream. But now, he spent a year in New York not traveling. He started taking art courses, was performing in an off-Broadway show “Slava’s Snow Show” that he was part of for the last 11 years, was chosen to be an artist-in-residency for three months at CAVE, Brooklyn New York and was accepted into London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art And Design.
Kaname Moriya
Kaname Moriya was born in 1936, Kyoto Japan. He graduated with honors in 1962 from the Kyoto University of Fine Arts. Since 1963 his work has been exhibited in numerous galleries in Japan, USA and in Europe. His work has received various honors such us the 1974 Competition Winner from the Kyoto Design, 1978 from the Tokyo Nichido Garou and to 1983 from the Chiba Fine Art Museum in Tokyo. Moriya’s work is inspired by the Japanese kimono. Moriya, is one of the most distinguished kimono designers in Japan, pushing kimono design into the realms of geometric minimalism.
Kaname Moriya lives and works today in Kyoto (Japan). He creates work to manifest understanding, the spirit under the feeling, the worlds agreement in a painting. Abstraction and Figuration unite. Its colors are strongly and tenderly at the same time. Longings, feelings of the joy and satisfaction, magic with all its nostalgia, with all its humility, these are only some associations one feels when observing how works.
“the picture surfaces created by Kaname Moriya push and pull at the same time, reveal, reveal deep layers, as if on them finger marks of a magnificent spirit would stay.” – Jeff Wright, ‘Cover magazine’ – New York
Christine Coleman
Christine Coleman in a nut shell: Began studying butoh in 2001, performs with Tanya Calamoneri – SO.GO.NO Anemone Dance Theater,Corinna Brown (Hiller)-Dean Street FOO Dance, Chris Ferris and Dancers, and Celeste Hastings – Butoh Rockettes. Christine’s choreography was shown at CRS in June 2008.
Helen Mitchell
Throughout her painting career, HELEN MITCHELL has most consistently been inspired by the changing landscape of her surroundings and the subsequent exposure to varied and diverse cultures. Spending her formative years in England, she established a penchant for dark colors and monochromatic tones, but extended periods of time spent in Africa, Los Angeles and New York as well as frequent trips across the globe has had varying influences on her palette. The most prominent theme in Helen’s work is the concept of cycles, expressed primarily through her use of decaying texture; two dimensional with flat paint and plastic; three dimensional forming a sculptural ebb and flow; and multi-dimensional by directly using the largest influence in first world culture today news media. Helen has a BA Honors in Fashion and Fine Art from Trent University, England, and has spent considerable time in the media and entertainment industries, her biggest influences to date. She has exhibited as a painter in both England and Los Angeles.
Shiho
Tags: Shiho Kondo
Nguyen Thi Chau Giang
Nguyen Thi Chau Giang is one of Vietnam’s most interesting young artists. She produces paintings and installations, which often have self-portraiture as a core element. She is fascinated by the idea of a “woman’s beauty,” and wishes to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of a woman’s spirit through her artistic exploration. Already blossoming in her young career, Chau Giang has held numerous exhibitions in Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam, including a show in the prestigious Blue Space Gallery in Ho Chi Minh City and in the Asian Contemporary Art Show held in London. Chau Giang is the 2nd artist to participate in CAVE’s Vietnamese Artist-in-Residence Program; from, October 11th, 2004 – December 28th, 2004.
Kent Anderson Butler
Kent Anderson Butler is a Los Angeles based artist working in a variety of mediums including video installation, performance and photography. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions throughout the country including work in Florence Italy, and Post Gallery in Los Angeles. His video work is also in the video art library at Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn, NY.
Thomas Billings
Artist’s Statement
What’s the difference between Thomas Wolski and God?
God doesn’t tell anyone he’s an artist.
These are self portraits of Thomas Wolski. I have become Thomas Wolski as identities are being stolen today in this world. I see Mr. Wolski; I paint Mr. Wolski; I have become Thomas Wolski. As soon as I get bored, I might become Thomas Krynski or Thomas Dickson.
–Thomas Billings
Afruz Amighi
Afruz Amighi was born in Teheran, Iran in 1974 and immigrated to the United States in 1979. Her family arrived in the midst of the hostage crisis when many Iranians were pretending to be Italian, French or Pakistani. Discouraged from applying to art school, she studied political science at Barnard College and immersed herself in the history of the Middle East.
A few years after graduating, Amighi gravitated back towards the arts and taught herself how to make mosaics. She enrolled in the summer painting program at the School of Visual Arts and went on to study sculpture with Lorrie Goulet at the Art Students League for two years. Currently, she resides in Astoria and has a studio in the Crane Street Building in Long Island City. The exhibition “Sleep” is Amighi’s first solo show.
Yukinobu Mogaki
Tags: Yuki, Yuki Mogaki
Mar Aige
Mar Aige was born in Tarragona, Spain in 1974. In 1997 she concluded studies in Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona. In 2000 she finished a Masters in Humanities at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. She has held 6 solo exhibitions across different cities in Spain. She has also participated in over 30 shows across Europe. In addition, Mar has received art grants in Spain and France. Currently she resides in New York City where she pursues a career as a painter and in Art Education.
Fumihiro Matsuzaki
FUMIHIRO MATSUZAKI was born in 1971 in Kanagawa, Japan. In 1995, MATSUZAKI moved to New York City and currently resides in Brooklyn. After attending the Art Student’s League, MATSUZAKI worked for Matthew Barney for the “Cremaster 2” and “Cremaster 5” projects as an assistant. Currently, MATSUZAKI works out of his Brooklyn studio in Brooklyn and exhibits mainly in NYC and Japan.
Robert Ladislas Derr
Exhibited in Solo and group exhibitions at museums, galleries, and festivals throughout the United States and abroad including the Irish Film Institute. DIVA Festival, 2002 Blur Conference at Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Huntington Museum of Art, Rhode Island Foundation, Virginia Beach Center for the Arts, and New York University. His artwork has been reviewed by such publications as The New York Times, trace Online Writing Centre, and Block Magazine. He has lectured about his artwork at such institutions as the Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival and Pre/amble; Festival of Art and Psychogeography. Derr has been a recipient of a number of grants, fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council and stipend from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Using a variety of artistic vernacular in his work, Derr employs photographs, video, new media, and performance. It can be said that he often times puts himself literally in the center of a barrage of questions about life and making art. Derr is an assistant professor in the Ohio State University’s Department of Art photography program.
Artist Statement ; I question the role of my masculinity by empowering the feminine aspects of my personality. The duality between my wife as the thrower and me as the sitter demonstrates my psychological battle questioning social roles of gender and sexuality, which have become blurred in contemporary society.
Claiming ancestral heritage and taking responsibility for ones history has become a heated debate. By claiming my Dutch heritage, I engage the subjectivity of the images in The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus created by Peter Paul Rubens. The image projected on my body portrays a contextual marker. My questioning and rejection assault my ancestry as well as masculinity.
Lynn Marie
Lynne Marie is an outsider artist with a visceral, process-driven visual language. Although Marie is just emerging in NYC, she began her work in PA in the late 1970’s and was expressing powerful cathartic works by the 1980’s. She made a move in 1991 to MA and established herself for a dozen years at The (X) Gallery of Nantuket Island.
Lynne Marie is an accomplished outsider artist with a distinctive, innovative visual voice emerging in NYC. Her studio is on the Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn. Recent solo exhibitions include CAVE Gallery, (*) Artspace and CVB Gallery. An advocate of art in women’s prisons, her work in prison ministry grew over 5 years, producing and facilitating art programs to revive the creative spirit was at MCI Framingham. She is currently seeking grants and funding to continue this work in the boroughs of NYC.
Tags: lynne marie
Jean-Paul Marin
Artist Statement
Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior. After I saw the documentary The Yes Men, I got interested in “identity correction”, telling the truth through comical parody. Identity Correction is funny enough that no one believes you 100% and it reveals enough that you can’t get in trouble (liable, slander & the like) because the object of critique doesn’t want to draw attention to itself. Identity Correction oddly resembles “free speech.” How would you identity correct the ol’ Stars ‘N’ Stripes? Tetris, of course. I like Nintendo (N.E.S., mind you) and economics, especially game theory–remember John Nash from that annoying movie “A Beautiful Mind”? A Nash Equilibrium describes volatile high volume economies where changing your strategy or energy expenditure (as in a typical game) doesn’t matter: all outcomes + or ? amount to the same thing, like Tetris after about Level 13. I was playing Tetris, reading Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior (by John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern) & thinking about jumping out of airplanes. The familiar backwards or inverted American flag does not represent the current situation. If we were backwards or wrong we could turn ourselves around because wrongs and solutions would be apparent. But if this is a game (or what amounts to a game, & maybe for good reason), if things are mixed up, maybe we can’t figure out how to put Humpty Dumpty, who somehow manages to keep jumping off the wall, back together. Some stars in the middle, a lot of white on top, red mixed throughout… A guess amounts to a joke.
Tags: John Marin