Updated: Feb 22, 2022
Sculpture Artist Oceana Rain Stuart
Los Angeles, California, USA. 19th February, 2022. Oceana Rain Stuart is an internationally acclaimed, figurative bronze sculpture artist, and a poet. She will soon be one of the first female artists to display art on the Moon. An analogue image of Stuart’s work “Reminiscence” is going to be sent to the Oceanus Procellarum region of the Moon as part of The Lunar Codex project in the "The Nova Collection". The Lunar Codex is an international arts and culture project that will launch the works of women artists to the lunar surface in a time capsule. Stuart's work, along with the other selected artists, will be in an historical museum on the Moon in a lunar lander that is expected to launch this summer in 2022.
Stuart was born in California and grew up in a multi-generational artistic family. At a young age, Stuart knew her life path was to create art. Stuart attended California College of the Arts on a full scholarship for fashion design and fine art with a double minor in Ecological Practices and Writing and Literature. She has exhibited in over 60 exhibitions museums and galleries internationally and in the U.S., such as the Leonardo Da Vinci Society in San Francisco, California; the California Art Club, The Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the National Sculpture Society, Allied Artists of America, American Artists professional League, the Haggin Museum, the American Women Artists, the Salmagundi Art Club, and the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Oceana Rain Stuart
“My desire is to share the particular qualities that provoked my feeling of anticipation during the molding process. My work reflects my inspiration and curiosity from the beginning stages through to the finished bronze and patina. I search for a deeper reality combining the mysterious to a world of subtleties. I am fascinated by the beauty and grace of the human form and by how each face shares a unique lifetime of stories, to me this is true beauty", states Oceana.
Stuart is an Elected Member of the National Sculpture Society and will be a Juror of Awards for the American Artists Professional League in 2022. Stuart’s work appears in the permanent collection, on public display, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Catania, Sicily (MACS).
Some of Stuart's awards include: 2021 Allied Artists of America Award for Sculpture of the Gold Medal Exhibition; 2021 Board of Directors Award for Sculpture from the American Artists Professional League Gold Medal Exhibition; 2021 Art Lover’s Choice from the 110th Annual Gold Medal Exhibition of the California Art Club; 2020 and 2021 finalist for the 14th and 15th annual Art Renewal Center (ARC) Salon; 2018 and 2021 finalist for the Non-Commissioned Portrait category by the Portrait Society of America; 2019 Alizarin Award by the Representational Figurative Art Conference; 2017 Figurative Artist of the Year by Art Comes Alive and 2017 and 2021 Pre-Selected Artist by the “Figurativas” competition of the Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona (MEAM).
Neon artist and sculptor Lisa Schulte
Los Angeles, California, USA. 17th February, 2022. Lisa Schulte is a renowned sculptor who specializes in creating artwork with neon light. Lisa was born in Long Island, New York, has mastered the many “faces” of neon, earning her the moniker, “The Neon Queen.” Neon light boasts two primary identities: a jubilance that reflects the radiance of midday, and an evening persona of romance and excitement, wherein surging flickers of curved encapsulated candles intrigue passersby.
A woman of German, Irish, and Spanish descent, Lisa has lived the majority of her life in Los Angeles, California. After a childhood eye injury left the artist in darkness for several months of healing, the then seven year old not only emerged re-gifted with sight, she now possessed a fierce appreciation of the nuanced interactions between light and dark. Years later, in 1984, Lisa would discover innovation in her medium was a necessary step toward the realization of her conceptualized projects. Finding she possessed the talent to work with the medium, Lisa studied in Kansas under Master Neon Tube Bender Freddie Elliot, and her growing prowess sparked the beginnings of “Nights of Neon” – a Los Angeles neon studio and boutique creative space providing custom neon pieces for films, events, and branding.
After amassing experience and exposure, Lisa shifted her focus to envisioning and creating intricate, abstract designs often absent in neon, and for the last decade, Lisa has turned inward to create personal pieces she has exhibited in museums and fine art galleries nationwide. This includes work exploring the artist's passion for organic forms; work that provokes a broader dialogue pertaining to relativity and environmental adaptation. In a recent series, the artist externalized the metaphor of unity by pairing two disparate mediums - white neon and found wood - in a novel harmony; their differences highlighting the inherent beauty possessed by each. The artist is presently creating abstract pieces built from neon and wood.
In addition to making her own art, Schulte’s fabrication studio, Nights of Neon, produces custom designs and signage for clients that include: Showtime, The WB, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, ABC, Nike, CBS, Chanel, Calvin Klein, Gucci, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, YSL, KARMA Automotive, & NBC. Schulte has been commissioned to create installations at Stagecoach, Grand Central Market LA, The MONA (Museum of Neon Art in LA), Stella McCartney, Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, POP Austin, Lancaster MOAH, MOCA San Diego, The Palladium, and The Staples Center.
LABA Board members Harrison Engle and Princess Karen Cantrell, LABA Blue-chip artist Jiannan Huang (video conference), and LABA founder/TV host Joey Zhou.
Los Angeles, California, USA. 9th February, 2022. Board members of the Los Angeles Beverly Arts (LABA) gathered in person and by video/teleconference at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills for a planning meeting of the upcoming LABA Icon Awards Ceremony to be held on March 17th, 2022. Blue-chip artist Jiannan Huang attended part of the meeting by video conference, and was shown the gift bags that he had just sent for the event from China as well as the engraved champagne glasses from the Royal Society of St. George California Branch.
Princess Karen Cantrell, Joey Zhou, and LABA Blue-chip artist Jiannan Huang (video conference).
Princess Karen Cantrell, Joey Zhou, and Harrison Engle
This will be the second LABA Icon Awards ceremony and will feature new categories for awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. The nominations are being announced this month, then the judging begins and the winners will be announced on March 17th, 2022.
Harrison Engle, Princess Karen Cantrell, and Joey Zhou.
In addition to the meeting, there was a tour around the hotel's meeting room area where the event will be held. Board members could plan and view the space in advance, including the elegant outdoor area for the guests.
Joey Zhou, Princess Karen Cantrell, Harrison Engle.
The Royal Society of St. George California Branch is providing engraved champagne glasses for the event.
Harrison Engle, Princess Karen Cantrell, and Joey Zhou at the LABA Icon Awards planning meeting. .