Meet two of the Benefit v.13 artists being featured this week: Wendee Yudis Koren and Anna Tas.
Find new featured artists every week leading up to the Benefit on the InLiquid Facebook page.
Wendee Yudis Koren
Can you tell me a bit about yourself?
My background is in fine art; I have my BFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and my MFA from Pratt Institute where I majored in printmaking and minored in painting and photography. I have exhibited in Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia since the mid 1990s. Some of the venues that I have exhibited at include: Ceres Gallery, NYC; The Albright/Knox Museum, NY; Philadelphia Art Alliance; and Highwire Gallery.
I enjoy using symbolism, juxtaposition, and irony to create a narrative in my art. By comparing and contrasting the various identities of women, the females in my work become icons or characters that reoccur in different “stories” that I tell in each piece. My images of women and girls create a visual vocabulary that appears throughout several pieces and are juxtaposed with other images creating new contexts and connotations. In my work, I combine the photo-silkscreen process with painting and mixed media. The silkscreen process enables me visually to play on the transparency and translucency of these characters or icons as well as creating a coexistence of several very separate identities. My approach to printmaking is more like painting: I do not print in edition, I print images in combinations with other images and on different mediums such as found objects, wood, canvas and paper.
Can you tell me a bit about the piece you’ve donated to the Benefit?
This piece was created on a shooting target that I acquired years ago. I juxtaposed some of my usual cast of characters onto the target to create another layer of meaning as well as another context. The female roles such as hero, sex symbol and vulnerable girl are presented for the viewer to make their own connections. I am interested in the dialogue and relationships between my various women, seen and unseen. I created a series of these target pieces, all with variations in 2011.
Do you think it’s important for young professionals to show an interest in art collecting?
Yes! Art is integral and I would hope that future generations learn the value of it and its role in our lives on every level.
Anna Tas
Can you give me a bit of background information about your work as an artist?
I started my career working in advertising in London, and then transferred to Amsterdam to focus on marketing books and journals for one of the largest scientific, technical and medical publishers in the world.
My artistic career really began when I decided to take the plunge and go back to school in 2003. I graduated with a BFA honours in Photography from the University of the Arts in 2008, and have since been signed by a gallery in Europe, where my work is exhibited on an on-going basis, as well as shown at major art fairs around the world. My work has been described as subtle with an ambiguity of meaning – working on different levels for different people. I believe that how we interpret what we see and how we learn to decode images is just as much a reflection on ourselves as the work itself, and see my work really as a starting point for discussion: not passing judgement, but allowing us space to consider.
Can you tell me about the piece up for auction?
Building on ideas on the representation of gender, assumptions on character based on appearance and the complexities surrounding consumption, The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a series that asks us how and why we are the way we are, and where is this natural progression leading us?
This work is an artist proof, and archival pigment print made up of a combination of three different images that are inter-laced, and then overlaid with a lenticular lens. This lenticular presentation allows the image to change – the “character” appearing and disappearing – as the viewer moves past.
Have you ever participated in the Benefit before? What were your impressions?
Yes, I have participated in the benefit before, and the event itself is a lot of fun – a great atmosphere in an ideal space for a big event such as this. I like the fact that a whole plethora of different people come together, from artists to young professionals to collectors and art lovers alike, young and old, new and experienced.
Do you feel your work might do well with young professionals at our Young Professional Preview party? It’s hard to say, as art is so subjective. My work has been generally well received, as people enjoy the way that the subject is often serious but is presented in a more subtle, humorous way (with some work, it is certainly veering towards a more macabre humour, but still playful and intelligent – at least that is my intention!)
.jpg)
