Past Week's Artists

Patrick Kelly is an African-American fashion designer known for his whimsical and colorful style. Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, he studied art history at Jackson State University before moving to New York in 1976 to study at Parsons School of Design. In 1979, he went to Paris and began his career in the fashion business by designing and selling cut-out cotton tube dresses, on the pavements of the city. He soon had a large following for his clothing and were noted for their exuberance, humor and references to pop culture and Black folklore.

Kelly made history as the first American ever accepted into the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-porter in Paris in 1988, the prestigious French ready-to-wear association. Not only was this a huge feat for an American in general, but for an African-American to be recognized in such a manner at a time when civil rights were a growing concept, it was an astounding accomplishment.

Kelly sought inclusiveness in the clothes he designed, telling People Magazine in 1987, "I design for fat women, skinny women, all kinds of women. My message is, you're beautiful just the way you are." At his March, 1987 show, one of his models was eight months pregnant.

Occupation: Fashion Designer

Born: September 24, 1954 in Vicksburg, Mississippi – January 1, 1990 in Paris, France

Aurora Robson is a Canadian-American artist who works in sculpture, installation, painting and collage focusing on themes related to the environment. Robson's primary focus is creating works made with plastic collected by intercepting the waste stream, repurposing plastic into art before it is sent to recycling. While her initial work was with common household plastics like water bottles and caps, she is currently focused on large scale sculptures made with industrial plastic. She also paints and creates 3-dimensional collages made with junk mail and excess packaging.

In 2008, Robson founded Project Vortex, a not-for-profit organization consisting of artists, designers and architects from around the world that also work with environmental plastic projects.

Art forms: Sculpture, Installation, Painting, Collage

Born: May 9, 1972, Toronto, Canada (Robson grew up in Hawaii and now resides in New York)

Marla Olmstead is considered by many to be a child prodigy abstract painter and she created quite the buzz in the art world at a very young age. Displayed at a local cafe, her first painting sold when she was 2 years old for $250. By the time Marla was 4 years old she was known internationally and her paintings were selling for thousands of dollars a piece! Her use of color, expressive brush strokes, along with large scale of her paintings (usually around 5 feet tall) and very young age resulted in her getting quite a bit of attention. Her style was similar to famous abstract artists Jackson Pollock and Wassily Kandinsky.

As a teenager, she wished to live a more normal life and stay out of the spotlight. Now about 20 years old, Marla no longer sells her work, but does continue to paint and is focusing on more realistic styles and techniques.

Art forms: Painter

Born: 2000 in Binghamton, New York

Jim Lee is a Korean American comic book artist, writer, creator, and publisher. He is known for his stylized, detailed and dynamic style and is one of the more popular artists in American comics. Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, but grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Lee's high School classmates predicted in his senior yearbook that he would found his own comic book company. But, initially, Lee seemed resigned to following his father's career in medicine. Lee attended Princeton University and majored in psychology with the intention of becoming a medical doctor. An elective course in Fine Arts reawakened his love for drawing; he graduated in 1986, putting medical school on hold to attempt a career in comic book illustration.

Art forms: Illustrative Art

Occupation: Comic-book artist, writer, editor, and publisher

Born: August 11, 1964 in Seoul, South Korea as I Yong-cheol

Ptolemy Elrington is an artist and sculptor who was born in the south of England but grew up in the north. He studied art and design to degree level at Bradford and Illkley Community College in the mid eighties. Within his work he concentrates on creating sculpture of natural forms from found and re-cycled materials. At the moment he is working with a variety of materials including shopping trolleys, scrap metal and car wheel trims which he re-shapes into a variety of life forms. For something that’s comes from trash, his pieces are relatively expensive – his sculptures can fetch anywhere from $200 to $10,000!

Art forms: Automotive Artist, Recycled Artist

Born: Brighton, England, 1965

Rinko Kawauchi is a Japanese photographer known for capturing poetic and beautiful moments in nature and everyday life around her. Her photographs often have a bright and radiant brightness that gives them an almost dreamlike quality. Kawauchi's ability to see beauty in even ordinary moments and things is largely because her art is rooted in Shinto, the ethnic religion of the people of Japan. According to Shinto, all things on earth have a spirit, so no subject is too small or insignificant for Kawauchi's work.

As is customary with Japanese photographers she began her career as an artist by publishing her work in her own photography books. To date Rinko Kawauchi has published 17 photography books.

Art forms: Photography

Born: April 6, 1972, Shiga, Japan

German artist Nils-Udo celebrates the beauty of nature by working with found materials—such as leaves and branches—to create stunning, site-specific works. He’s known for creating “utopias” that transform the land into mysterious, dreamlike realms. From delicately arranged petals scattered on the surface of a pond, to spectacular nests formed from twigs, leaves, and wildflowers, his works look as though they were created by busy woodland fairies or creatures of the forest.

His artist statement reads: “By installing plantings or by integrating them into more complex installations, the work is literally implanted into nature. As a part of nature, the work lives and passes away in the rhythm of the seasons.”

Art forms: Sculpture, Photography

Born: 1937, Bavaria, Germany

Movement: Environmental Art, Land Art

Wendy Klemperer is known for her large metal animal sculptures, many of which have been permanently installed throughout the country. Wendy welds together found scrap metal to "sketch in air" her animal sculptures, though she also enjoys drawing and painting.

Raised in Cambridge and Watertown, she was most able to explore her passion for animals and nature during summers spent at her grandmother's country house in New Hampshire. She earned a bachelor's in biochemistry at Harvard before moving to New York City to pursue art full time, earning a B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts)

Art forms: Sculpture, Painting, Drawing

Born: 1958, Boston, Massachusetts

Profession: Artist, Biochemist

Paul Smith was an American typewriter artist. Smith was born in 1921 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He suffered from severe spastic cerebral palsy from an early age. It took Smith 16 years to learn how to talk. The loss of fine motor control of his face and hands made it impossible for him to attend school—or even eat, clothe, or bathe himself—and also made it difficult for him to express himself.

Early in life Paul discovered the typewriter and a technique for using it to create pictures. He was able to use one hand to steady the other and thus press the desired key. He was creating typewriter art by the age of 15 and steadily refined his technique.

Art forms: Typewriter art

Born: September 21, 1921 – June 25, 2007, Philadelphia, PA

Profession: Artist

Jeff Hanson is an award-winning, self-taught artist who is on a mission to change the world through art. Visually impaired since childhood, Jeff creates acrylic-on-canvas artwork using bold color and heavily sculptured texture and calls his unique signature style – ‘a sight for sore eyes.” While Jeff enjoys a very successful career as an artist, his philanthropic spirit has resulted in more than 200 nonprofit organizations benefiting from his auctioned works. Jeff has been awarded both Young Philanthropist of the Year and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for his efforts.

Art forms: Painting

Born: 1993, Kansas City, Missouri

Profession: Artist

Stephen Wiltshire is an artist who draws and paints detailed cityscapes. He has a " particular talent for drawing lifelike, accurate representations of cities, sometimes after having only observed them briefly. Wiltshire, a man with autism, is able to accurately draw amazingly detailed pen & ink drawings of a city (from memory) after having viewed it aerially for an hour. He was awarded an MBE for services to the art world in 2006.

Art forms: Drawing

Born: 24th April, 1974, London

Profession: Artist

Works written: Floating Cities, American Dream