Kina Bagovska was born in a small town in Bulgaria. She graduated in 1980 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poland with a Master of Arts Degree. Bagovska lives and works in Chicago. Since 2003 she has been a member of ARC Gallery. She has been exhibited in the US and abroad including cities such as Chicago, New York, Washington DC, New Orleans, Miami, Edinburgh, Wroclaw, Sofia and Paris. Bagovska’s public art is on permanent display at the Ridgewood High School in Norridge, Illinois.

The ideas that engage me, and have remained an underlying theme in all of my artwork is a study of behavior and connections which extend beyond words.

In observation, there are certain moments when the connection is made – when ‘something exciting’ happens and people connect with others, or that which is outside us.” The “others” can be human, animals, objects, or even unexplainable situations or feelings. This work conveys that very point in time where the connection and energy exchange radiates.

To act – interact – react is the sequence of life and experiencing the moment. In my photography, as in my videos, in the art I make – the moments in time are captured, compressed and reinvented for the emotional impact. In editing and adding the special effects, emphasis is placed on the viewer to observe a new way of thinking about the issues.

As an artist, I believe it necessary to be ready – Be ready - “you are now ready – for the experience outside your current frame of reference.” 1/08

My working process is grounded in Drawing. I develop a personal language through the use of abstract mark-making and descriptive contour lines. Source materials collected from my walks and travels both consciously and subconsciously inform my drawing process. Drawing, for me, becomes a new language as well as documentation. My current body of work explores the careful delineation of natural forms and the discovery of hidden qualities inherent in nature.

Monica J. Brown is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the intersections between visual art, sound, movement, poetry, prose and performance. Her work is concerned with the stories that we choose to tell ourselves about our origins. Our identity can be shaped by the mythology upon which we base our existence, and the subsequent labels we choose or are given. The stories of our personal history which live in our bodies and the stories of our ancestry which we carry in our DNA can also shape the way in which we view the world and our place within it. Her work is also an investigation of genetic memory and generational healing: gathering the stories from the past, knowing them, and sharing them as a means to healing learned dysfunctional patterns as well as embracing inherited strengths and gifts.

While in college I discovered the writings of American geographer John Wright who coined the term “geopiety:” geo from the Greek for earth and piety from the Latin pietas meaning sense of duty of filial love. This word so perfectly expresses my love and sense of devotion to the places that have filled my life. The landscapes of Georgia, New England, Florida, and the Midwest; the waters of the Great Lakes, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico all figure prominently in my work. Although my work edges mostly on abstraction, I have always thought of myself as a landscape painter. Artists like Helen Frankenthaler, Anselm Keifer, and Cy Twombly inspire me greatly. Through line, color, material and gesture I attempt to honor the landscapes that I am deeply attached to. These landscape explorations are filtered through both experience and memory. Imagination plays an important role as well.

Esther Charbit is a muralist, mixed media artist and teacher. She has taught art for over 40 years in both secondary schools and universities. She has exhibited widely in and around Chicago as well as in Phoenix, Santa Fe, Paris, NYC, and the Edinburgh Festival. She is a member of ARC Gallery in Chicago. Her painted and mosaic public murals can be seen in Chicago and in the following publications, “A Guide to Chicago Murals”, and “Urban Art Chicago”.

Starting with autobiographical fragments of her life, Michele Corazzo carefully transforms these details into universal statements that resonate with everyone. Her trail series, for example, uses the lines of the paths she hikes with her family. She draws around the paths, which are removed from their normal context to become ambiguous and suggestive. Her ticket punch series began with the hole left by a conductor’s punch in her commuter train ticket. The shapes are curious in themselves but also offer a portal into an inner world. As she used this device, she became more and more confident in revealing her unconscious, which is what her latest work is about. Corazzo also does sculptures in many materials including clay. The recent pieces have qualities that reflect her drawings.

The primary focus of my work is abstract, stemming from an interest in technology, geometry, machine aesthetics, architecture and nature. Over the past decade, my work has been concentrated in the areas of painting, printmaking, digital printmaking, and drawing. My works explore the combination of inkjet print with traditional fine art media to reveal process and create a dialogue between the hand and machine. The intermingling of new and old approaches play against each other and promote a collision between the intuitive hand derived images vs. mechanically mediated ones. On the picture plane a war is being waged between the neutrality of the computer and the fallibility of the human hand.

Kristina Gosh is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Chicago and Vermont. Her art practice combines social performance, installation, sculptural painting, collage, writing and yoga asana & philosophy to ponder the organic dichotomies of life ~ the natural and the synthetic — the urban and the rural — the modern and the antiquated — the balanced and the unstable — the diseased and the well. Kristina is deeply inspired by the Fluxus art movement and navigates the world through the idea that art and life are one and the same. Chance, experimentation, and slowness are at the crux of her process. The lyrical worlds of musician Neko Case also provide great artistic inspiration ~ Case’s gritty, ethereal fables resonate profoundly with the internal dreamscapes that inform Kristina’s work.

Carolyne King is a native of Chicago, Illinois.  She holds a BFA degree from the Rhode Island School of Design, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate at the Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy and a MFA from the George Washington University.  Carolyne is a former President of the ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation.  She has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally in cities such as Edinburgh, Bremen, Hamburg, Florence, Toronto, New York, Phoenix, Washington, DC, and Chicago.

Pauline Kochanski received a BA from Columbia College Chicago (with a focus on photography) and an MA from De Paul University and continued her art studies at the School of the Art Institute Chicago in drawing and painting (non-degree) and at other educational institutions. For over 30 years she focused her artistic practice on black and white photography; though continuing to draw. She is a board member of ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation as well as a member of the Chicago Women’s Caucus for Art, a member of the National Association of Women Artists and the American Jewish Artists Club.