January/February 2010 | FINE ART CONNOISSEUR.COM

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Three to Watch: Artists Making Their Mark

There is a lot of superb art being made these days; this column shines light on a trio of gifted individuals.

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TONY CURANAJ (b. 1973) grew up in New YorkCity making art everywhere he went. In adolescencethis impulse attracted him to blank walls and bridges:Signing his drawings as “Sub,” Curanaj cofounded theD.F. group, a circle of graffiti artists still revered bycognoscenti for their innovative designs and audaciousplacements. Instead of landing him in jail, his virtu-osity earned him a senior post illustrating and de-signing for Disney, as well as for other corporate clients.

Yet Curanaj always wanted to become a clas-sical realist, painting in oils and working from life.Having earned a BFA at the School of Visual Arts,he studied briefly at the National Academy of De-sign’s School of Fine Art before joining JacobCollins’s Water Street Atelier for four years. Hefollowed Collins to the new Grand Central Acad-emy of Art, where he now teaches. Curanaj hasmuch to offer students there: Although his pic-tures range in size from monumental to miniscule,they always feature deft draftsmanship, carefullycontrolled brushstrokes (sometimes almost invis-ible), and well-chosen colors. Painting so metic-ulously is time-consuming, of course, which is onereason Curanaj skews toward smaller works thatreward close study in the hand.

Although he excels in pictures of pretty mod-els and broody self-portraits, Curanaj is best knownfor his complex still lifes. These may show us clas-sically beautiful objects such as fruits or flowers, but the most inter-esting ones present quotidian objects like pencil sketches, kitchen tools,and locomotives, or unsettling ones such as a dragonfly specimen, agas mask, or a cluster of unexploded firecrackers. In the spirit of such19th-century trompe l’oeil (fool the eye) masters as J.F. Peto, Curanajoften attaches these specimens to peeling or mottled walls that onlyheighten their superrealism, as well as our sense of wonder.

Curanaj is represented by John Pence Gallery (San Francisco).

TAMMY CALLENS (b. 1962) has always been drawn to thegreat outdoors. She grew up in northern California, a region of out-standing scenic beauty on a par with her current setting in the RockyMountains near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Partly because her motherwas an art teacher, Callens drew and painted from an early age, andtoday she carries on the family tradition by leading a weekly portraitgroup at Jackson’s Center for the Arts.

Not surprisingly, Callens regularly brings her easel outdoors topaint sparkling landscapes in oil that reveal the profound influence ofsuch California impressionists as Edgar Payne, Guy Rose, and WilliamWendt through expressive brushwork and a bright, Western palette thatnever drifts toward the garish. She is especially adept at capturing theway sunlight falls on natural forms, which leads quite organically to another strong suit, one less common in the booming field of Ameri-can plein air painting: the human figure posed outdoors.

Like her idols Anders Zorn, Joaquín Sorolla, and John Singer Sar-gent, Callens brings female models of all ages outside and deftly dis-tinguishes their flesh from the nature all around. This is not an easy task,and having mastered it, Callens is turning some of her attention to

TONY CURANAJ (B. 1973)SKETCHBOOK VESPA

2009, OIL ON PANEL, 9 X 12 IN.JOHN PENCE GALLERY, SAN FRANCISCO

800.610.5771 or International 011-561.655.8778.CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE

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FINE ART CONNOISSEUR.COM | January/February 2010

women posed in darkened conditions indoors. (The vaguely symbolistfemme fatale illustrated here is a fine, and very recent, example.)

Callens is represented by Foxhall Gallery (Washington, DC),Mountain Trails Gallery (Jackson Hole), Panache Gallery (Mendo-cino, CA), and Sage Creek Gallery (Santa Fe).

ALEXEY STEELE (b. 1967) is truly a citizen of the world. Bornin Kiev, he trained from an early age with his father, the renownedRussian painter Leonid Steele (b. 1921). After studying at Moscow’sprestigious Surikov Art Institute, Steele moved to Los Angeles with hisfamily, realizing that the Soviet art world they knew so well — flawedas it was — would soon vanish.

Steele has gone on to make a big impression with his “Russianmaximalism,” which blends the draftsmanship, ambitious composi-tions, and symbols of the classical tradition with a cool palette andpalpable naturalism derived from the Moscow school. (For the lat-ter, see the February 2009 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur.) You will al-ways find a dozen works under way in Steele’s studio: perhaps a largedrawing for one of his life-size, multi-figure murals (endowed withrecognizably modern physiques and an almost baroque dynamism);or perhaps a commissioned portrait; or a plein air Californian land-scape (with or without figures).

Steele says that, for Russians, art is not a luxury, but a basic need likeshelter. Just as his father rattled the Soviet authorities with his art, so Steele— whom the Los Angeles Times has described as “intense” — believes that,“in this commercial world of ours, art is the ultimate act of defiance.” Hisdesire to see art displace greed and conspicuous consumption, and to re-claim its rightful place speaking truth to power, is explored on his uniquewebsite (highartforever.com), and also through his artworks.

For example, a large drawing in conté crayon now in the CarnegieArt Museum in Oxnard — The Quiet Steps of Approaching Thunder —connects our environmental crisis to man’s ignoring that what hurtsnature hurts him: Here thunder rolls across the ocean in the form ofherald angels toward a littered beach. This November, an ongoing

mural project helped Steele win the Philippines’ Gusi PeacePrize for using “art as a tool of international conflict resolu-tion”; his sensitivity to others (both their appearances andinner lives) also comes across in the My Neighbor portraits se-ries, for which the interfaith leader Imam Ashraf Carrim sat.

Steele’s boundary-crossing is most visible through Clas-sical Underground, the monthly series of informal events hehas hosted since 2007. These combine chamber recitals withdisplays of contemporary representational art made by suchcolleagues as Dan Pinkham, Christopher Pugliese, JeremyLipking, Ignat Ignatov, and his father Leonid Steele. The hugesuccess of this initiative, which draws several hundred lis-teners per event (with hundreds more unable to secure areservation), has only reinforced Steele’s belief that classicalart and music still matter to modern audiences. Watch thisspace to see where this enlightened view takes him next.

Steele is represented by American Legacy Fine Arts(Pasadena, CA).

TAMMY CALLENS (B. 1962)TEMPTRESS

2009, OIL ON LINEN PANEL, 30 X 30 IN.SAGE CREEK GALLERY, SANTA FEPHOTO: W. GARTH DOWLING

ALEXEY STEELE (B. 1967)LAST MAN STANDING

2006, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 IN. AMERICAN LEGACY FINE ARTS, PASADENA

Alexey Steele

Sudden GlanceOil on canvas 480 3 240

American Legacy Fine Arts, LLC Representing the Finest in American Contemporary-Traditional Art

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