Guy Ngan - New Zealand artist

Guy Ngan  (3 February 1926 – 26 June 2017) was a New Zealand artist who worked across a large range of media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, design and architecture. He is known for his incorporation of Māori motifs such as the tiki. Many of his works are in prominent places, such as the tapestry in the Beehive and sculpture at the Reserve Bank, while many others are dotted around the country in smaller towns and suburban locations such as Stokes Valley.Ngan was born in 1926 in Wellington to Chinese parents Wai Yin and Chin Ting, but he called himself “Pacific Chinese”.During his young years, he was educated in China. In 1938 a Japanese bomb dropped next door while they were having breakfast. Ngan’s father took Guy and his brother to Hong Kong and put them on a boat to New Zealand and they never saw him again. Guy Ngan attended Newtown School but he was unhappy and then stayed with relatives in Miramar. In 1951, he studied at Goldsmith’s School of Art at the University of London. In the same year he was allowed entry to the Royal College of Art, in London. In 1954, he graduated and was given the Royal College Continuation Scholarship for one year. He was paid £600. In 1955 the British Council awarded him with a scholarship and an allowance of £12 a week and all travel expenses paid for.In 1956 he returned to New Zealand. He worked as a consultant at the architecture division for the Ministry of Works. He worked here until 1960 and then went to work for Stephenson and Turner Architects until 1970. Ngan then became the director of New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts for 20 years. During this time he encouraged New Zealand artists to promote their art talents at museums. He also encouraged Māori and cultural art.Ngan worked as a painter, artist, architect and designer. Many of his work are displayed in important and historical buildings across New Zealand, including the Beehive. Other public installations are at the Stokes Valley roundabout and the "Elevating Worm" sculpture in the Stokes Valley shopping centre.Wikipedia

Ceramic art Karen Karnes

Karen Karnes (November 17, 1925 – July 12, 2016) was an American ceramist, best known for her earth toned stoneware ceramics. She was born in 1925 in New York City, where she attended art schools for children. Her garment worker parents were Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants, and the family lived in the Bronx Coops. Karen was influenced in many ways by her parents' communist philosophies, and has professed respect for working in small communities.
In 1967, Karnes first experimented with salt-firing at a workshop at the Penland School of Crafts.Karnes' more recent work deal with contemporary vessels, which are given different attention to design than her original pottery. She still today makes many traditionally functional forms. Today Karen primarily fills her kilns with more contemporary forms, but she continues to produce casseroles, teapots, cups and bowls.
Another of her most well-known forms is the cut-lid jar, a form she first made at a workshop with Paulus Berensohn. Karnes continued to experiment with this form from the late 1960s until she stopped throwing.
Karen decided to live the rest of her life on a farm, working with clay and using old firing practices such as wood and salt firing. In 1998, her house and studio burned to the ground because of a kiln fire.With the help of donations from a large pottery sale, Karen rebuilt her country house and studio. She received a Graduate Fellowship from Alfred University, and more recently won a gold medal for the consummate craftsmanship from The American Craft Council.Her work is displayed in numerous galleries and permanent collections worldwide.Wikipedia

Fashion inspired art of Jean-Michel Basquiat's

Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist. He first achieved notoriety as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s where the hip hop, post-punk, and street art movements had coalesced. By the 1980s, he was exhibiting his neo-expressionist paintings in galleries and museums internationally. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his art in 1992.
Basquiat's art focused on "suggestive dichotomies", such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, and figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique.
Basquiat used social commentary in his paintings as a "springboard to deeper truths about the individual",as well as attacks on power structures and systems of racism, while his poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle. He died of a heroin overdose at his art studio at age 27.Wikipedia

Neo-expressionism often explores social commentary and individuality using bold colors and violent, emotive lines, as if the artist threw the paint onto the canvas. Undoubtedly, neo-expressionism has also strongly influenced street art (and vice versa), through the use of crude materials and hasty production

Basquiat's work explores social commentary and dichotomies (such as wealth vs. poverty) through a mix of poetry, painting, and abstraction. Scull is a great representation of his style. Its mix of graffiti creates the powerful impression that the head is full of forms. The face is peeled off in areas, exposing teeth and bone without really showing it. Basquiat's abstract lines and shapes coalesce to form what looks like a skull.
This look is inspired by the bold colors and edgy subject matter of Basquiat's work. It's street-inspired fashion to reflect his street art roots. Let the shoes be the star of the show by keeping the rest of your outfit monochromatic. Pair a loose shirt with some skinny jeans or leggings to balance each other out. For a more edgy look, add a strappy bralette to peek out from under the shirt. Accessorize with some cage-shaped rings or a bracelet."(collegefashion.net)

 Avant-garde Fashion

Orphism Sonia Delaunay

Sonia Delaunay (November 14, 1885 – December 5, 1979) was a Ukrainian-born French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris and, with her husband Robert Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. Her work extends to painting, textile design and stage set design. She was the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre in 1964, and in 1975 was named an officer of the French Legion of Honor.Wikipedia

 Painter and designer Sonia Delaunay was an artist who utilized bright colors and geometric shapes in her work. Her art was influenced by both Russian and French styles, and she is remembered for both her fine arts and applied arts, particularly in fabrics and textiles. Her interest in art-deco and abstract art influenced her work in many areas, including fashion and costume design as well as interior design. Although she is associated with several artistic movements, she is most often connected with a school of art called ‘Orphism’, which branched out of ‘Cubism’. This was an artistic style that she and her husband Robert developed together, beginning in the pre-WWI era. Whether she was painting or working with fabric, she generally used bright colors and repeating patterns. She is remembered for her innovative dress and costume designs as well as interior design objects and design work she did for stage sets and films. Although she often thought of her textile work as a kind of exercise to help her in what she saw as her more important work of painting, she may have left behind a deeper legacy in the world of fashion design. She created many beautiful and sophisticated fabrics (thefamouspeople.com)