Artist Biographies

Lisa Blas (born 1967, Burbank, CA; lives New York, NY) works in painting, photography and installation, utilizing sources from art history and newspapers to comment on the fragility of the natural world and social relations. Blas has a BA in political science from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and an MFA in painting from Claremont Graduate University, CA. Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at venues including Gettysburg College, PA; Kai Matsumiya Gallery and The Emily Harvey Foundation, both New York; as well as at Rossicontemporary, Brussels, Belgium; and Musée Matisse, Cateau-Cambrésis, France. Her numerous group exhibitions include those at Marquee Projects, Bellport, NY; Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY; and Carriage Trade, Pierogi Gallery and Tanja Grunert Gallery, all New York. Since 2015, Blas has produced a weekly RSS feed titled “Monday’s image,” where she pairs the front page of a local newspaper with a work of art from a museum collection. In 2016, Blas created an artist project for the spring issue of Public Art Dialogue and in 2018, she contributed the article “Negative Space(s)” to Monumental Troubles: Rethinking What Monuments Mean Today (Midwest Art History Society and Snite Museum of Art: Notre Dame, IN). In March 2021, her paintings from “Dawn Studio” were published in Effects Journal

Jennifer Bolande (born 1957, Cleveland, OH; lives Southern California) works in photography, sculpture, film and installation. Her conceptually-rooted artwork extracts meaning from the planned and unplanned relationships between objects and images. Bolande has a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Halifax. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions including at MoMA P.S.1, Long Island City, NY; INOVA, Milwaukee, WI; Artists Space, Gallery Nature Morte, Magenta Plains, Metro Pictures and The Kitchen, all New York; and Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; as well as Kunstraum München, Germany and Fotohof, Salzburg, Austria. She also has shown in notable group exhibitions, including those at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Queens Museum, Flushing, NY; Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, CA; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; and Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; as well as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. Her billboard project Visible Distance/Second Sight was featured in the inaugural Desert-X Exhibition of Art, 2017. She is a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and has received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, among others. Bolande has three self-published books: The Times, Excavation Volumes and Short Story. A monograph of her work was published in 2012 by JRP Ringier. She is Professor of New Genres in the Department of Art, University of California, Los Angeles. 

Laura Fields (born 1959, Los Angeles, CA; lives New York, NY) is interested in seriality and media, addressing the space between words and art and extrapolating meanings from the front pages of The New York Times. She received a BA in art history from the University of California at Berkeley and an MFA in painting from Hunter College, City University of New York, NY. Fields has had a solo exhibition at the Fernando Alcolea Gallery, New York, NY and has shown in group exhibitions at numerous venues including The Flag Art Foundation, Home for Contemporary Theatre and Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art and Whitney Museum of American Art; all New York, NY. She has received grants from Artists Space and The New York Foundation for the Arts. Fields has self-published two monographs: Front Pages with Pictures of Women and Flowers, The New York Times, 2017, and Front Pages with Pictures of Women, The New York Times, 2014. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The Village Voice and Newsday, among others. 

Jef Geys (born 1934, Leopoldsburg, Belgium; died 2018, Genk, Belgium) was a prolific artist who melded photography, painting, sculpture, installation art, performance, publishing and art education in his work. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium. Teaching for more than 30 years at a middle school in Antwerp, Geys intertwined art with the everyday. His work became a place of shared authorship between student and teacher, artist and audience. Geys’ work has been featured in numerous exhibitions including those at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, MI; and International Center of Photography, New York, NY; as well as CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, France; Palais des Beaux-Arts and Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, both Brussels, Belgium; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands; SMAK, Ghent, Belgium; Cubitt, London, UK; Kunstverein Munich, Germany; and Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Geys’ publication Quadra Medicinale was shown in the Venice Biennale, 2009 and he was included in the Sao Paulo Biennale, 1991 and documenta 11, 2002. 

Beatriz González (born 1938, Bucamaranga, Colombia; lives Bogotá, Colombia) has worked for over six decades producing paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures that connect local aesthetics with universal emotions. She studied architecture at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá and later got an MFA from Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá. González has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; and Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; as well as KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany; Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia and Bogotá Museum of Modern Art, both Bogotá; CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, France; Museo de Arte Moderno, Bucaramanga; Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Colombia; and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland, among others. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at venues including the Brooklyn Museum, NY; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; as well as the Museo Nacional de Colombia, Bucaramanga; Museo de Arte Moderno (MAMBA) and Museo de Bellas Artes, both Buenos Aires, Argentina; Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany; Tate Modern, London, UK; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China; and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan. González was included in the Berlin Biennale, 2014; Venice Biennale, 1978; and São Paulo Biennale, 1971. Her work can be found in numerous public collections worldwide. 

Helena Hernmarck (born 1941, Stockholm, Sweden; lives Ridgefield, CT) is a textile artist whose work couples fleeting subject matter with a time-intensive format and contemporary design with folk history and tradition. She studied weaving at the Swedish Association of Friends of the Textile Arts and continued her studies at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, Sweden. Hernmark has exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions including at the American Swedish Institute and Minneapolis Institute of Art, both Minneapolis, MN; New Britain Museum of American Art, CT; Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and The Museum of Modern Art, both New York, NY; American Swedish Historical Museum, Philadelphia, PA; and Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; as well as the Zorn Museum, Mora, Sweden and the Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde Museum, Stockholm. She has been featured in many group exhibitions including those at the American Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA; Minneapolis College of Art and Design, MN; and American Craft Museum, New York, NY; as well as Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK. Her work can be found in numerous public collections worldwide. 

Rita Maas (born 1956, New York, NY; lives Chappaqua, NY) creates conceptually-driven work that explores the gap between representation and abstraction. Her imagery is constructed through playful use of photographic materials and processes. Maas received a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY and an MFA in visual arts from Lesley University College of Art and Design, Cambridge, MA. Her work has been exhibited at Klompching Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Filter Photo, Chicago, IL; Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY; Phoenix Art Museum, AZ; and Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, among others. Her work is included in the collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Archive 92, New York, NY; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ; and Griffin Museum of Photography. 

Dan Perjovschi (born 1961, Sibiu, Romania; lives Sibiu and Bucharest, Romania) hand draws interventions onto walls, windows, and newspapers, providing satirical and incisive critiques of international media and current events. Perjovschi holds an MFA from George Enescu Conservatoire of Fine Arts, Iasi, Romania. He has exhibited in solo exhibitions at Jane Lombard Gallery and The Museum of Modern Art, both New York, NY; San Francisco Art Institute and Walter & McBean Galleries, both San Francisco, CA; as well as Reinbeckhallen, Berlin, Germany; Sandwich Art Space, Bucharest, Romania; The City Museum of Art, Cluj, Romania; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland; Tate Modern, London, UK; Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea; and Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, among others. His work has also been featured in group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL; and Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; as well as Kunsthal Extra City, Antwerp, Belgium; Centrale for Contemporary Art, Brussels, Belgium; Musée Nationale d’Art Moderne Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; MeetFactory, Prague, Czech Republic; and The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan. Perjovschi was included in the Moscow Biennale, 2007 and 2009; Venice Biennale in 1999 and 2007; and the Istanbul Biennale, 2005. His work can be found in the collections of the Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. He has won many prizes, including the European Cultural Foundation Princess Margaret Award and George Maciunas Prize. 

Donna Ruff (born 1947, Chicago, IL; lives Miami, FL) is interested in using art to push the economy of communication to its limits. Working primarily with and on paper, Ruff manipulates, cuts and burns the material to subvert narratives, highlight positive and negative space and create something aesthetically beautiful. She holds a BA in art from the University of Miami, FL; an MA in art history from Florida State University, Tallahassee; and an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. Ruff has exhibited in solo and two person exhibitions at venues such as the Bakehouse Art Complex and Laundromat Art Space, both Miami; Artspace, New Haven, CT; Rick Wester Fine Art, New York, NY; and Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA; as well as in group exhibitions at Artium Gallery, The Emerson Dorsch Gallery, LnS Gallery and Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University, all Miami; Central Booking Art and FLAG Foundation, both New York, NY; Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; and New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe; among others. Her work is in the collections of The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA; and Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; as well as Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK. 

Soledad Salamé (born 1954, Santiago, Chile; lives Baltimore, MD) is an artist and activist, exploring the intersections between technology and the environment through printmaking, painting and sculpture. She received a BA from Santiago College, Chile and an MA from the Graphic Arts Institute for Graphic Instruction, CONAC, Caracas, Venezuela. She has had many noteworthy solo and group exhibitions, including those at Baltimore Museum of Art, Goya Contemporary Gallery and Contemporary Museum, all Baltimore, MD; Katonah Museum of Art, NY; and Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago. Her work was included in the national traveling exhibition Latin American Women Artists, 1915-1995, hosted by the Denver Art Museum, CO; The Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL; Milwaukee Art Museum, WI; Phoenix Art Museum, AZ; and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. Salamé’s work is found in collections including the Baltimore Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts and the University of Essex, UK. She has received scholarships, awards and grants, including the Pollock Krasner Grant and the Latina Excellence Award from Hispanic Magazine. She is the founder and director of Sol Print Studios, where she teaches print workshops. 

Paul Thek (born 1933, Brooklyn, NY; died 1988, New York, NY) was a leading postwar artist whose paintings, sculptures and installations employ complex iconography, mythic allusions, recognizable imagery and biographical references. Thek studied at the Art Students League of New York and Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, before attending The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York. In 1977, Thek was the subject of the solo exhibition Processions at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA. His work has been exhibited widely, including posthumous solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Alexander and Bonin and Whitney Museum of American Art, both New York, NY; and Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; as well as Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany; Pace Gallery, London, UK; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Musee d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, France; and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands, among others. His many group exhibitions include those at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art and Met Breuer, both New York, NY; as well as The ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe and Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg, both Germany; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal; and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec, Canada. In addition, Thek’s work was exhibited in documenta 4, 1968; documenta 5, 1973; and the Venice Biennale, 1976. 

Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali (born 1933, Athens, Greece; died 2013, Athens), known as Chryssa, was a pioneer of light art and luminist sculpture, made of neon, steel, aluminum and acrylic glass, that prefigured the Pop Art and Minimalist movements. Chryssa studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris, France and later attended the California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco. She has had solo exhibitions at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Whitney Museum of American Art, both New York, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France. She has exhibited in group exhibitions at Castelli Gallery and The Museum of Modern Art, both New York; Princeton University Art Museum, NJ; and the European Cultural Centre of Delphi, Greece; as well as documenta 6, 1977 and documenta 14, 2017. Her work can be found in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art and The Museum of Modern Art, both New York; as well as the National Gallery of Athens and National Museum of Contemporary Art, both Athens. Chryssa was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow.