4th Annual Cityscapes Art Exhibition Monthly Winners

Best in Show (Traditional)
Raymond Sammak

Raymond Sammak began painting at the age of eight after a neighber, who admired his drawings, began taking him for art lessons. Over the years, Mr. Sammak’s work has evolved to encompass realism, ashcan, expressionism and portraiture. Mr. Sammak has exhibited his work extensively with Allied Artists of America at The Salmagundi Club in NYC, The guild of Creative Art, The Monmouth Museum, The NJ Chapter American Artists professional League as well as numerous online art shows and galleries. Mr. Sammak recently completed a painting to help promote the upcoming feature fim, TEAM MARCO, in which he also makes his screen acting debut. His work can be seen in many local exhibitions and online galleries as well as numerous private collections.

If you are interested in seeing more of Raymond’s work, please visit his website.

Best in Show
(Digital & Photography)
Athalie Taylor

Athalie Taylor is a visual artist who lives in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. Her work encompasses photography and digital artistry. Her initial training was in the art/textile area but more recently she has embraced photography leading to her passion, digital art. Athalie has had work in exhibitions in Northern Tasmania including her first solo exhibition in 2015 and in 2017 another solo exhibition this time at the Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria. She was also selected for an online solo exhibition through Light, Space and Time in April 2017.

Athalie’s work has been shown in the Living the Photo Artistic Life magazine and Artists Down Under – Australia and New Zealand, the magazine she founded but unfortunately had to pass over to another editor when ill health intervened. Athalie has artworks in private collections across Australia. The camera is her tool, her paintbrush, her pen, her pencil. She is often found moving it, twisting it, turning it, bending it’s will to create the beginnings of her journey. Next comes the selection, the adding and subtracting, the refinement to reveal the essence of the design, her thoughts, her idea.

Athalie chooses subjects, often simple in concept, looks for pattern, shape, line and texture. She experiments with and pushes her camera to its limits to create the initial stage of each piece before she takes it into various post processing programs to explore the possibilities, develop the idea and finally hone the work. Colour plays an important role in her work as does black and white it all depends on the subject; the mood and emotion of the piece, the composition, the elements that form the design and the light and shade. Many of her images are strengthened by being presented in black and white. Athalie finds the material for her work in very many places in the urban and natural environment.

Please visit Athalie’s website if you are interested in seeing more of her work.

2nd Place
(Digital & Photography)
Ilona Surrey

Ilona Surrey was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and worked for many years as a photojournalist for a major German newspaper in the Rhein Main area. After moving to an idyllic town in Middle Hesse, she was inspired by the botanical splendor surrounding her new home to use her camera outside the realm of journalism. She started experimenting with the possibilities of digital painting and was fascinated by the new forms of artistic expression she discovered. Looking at her artworks is like looking through a kaleidoscope. She interprets structure, color and light in an innovative way: surfaces and structures seem to explode and duplicate; colors are at once glorious and guarded.

Ilona Surrey has developed a multi layered process for repeating and abstracting the botanical elements of her photographs. Through digital forms of traditional art techniques she transforms blossoms and flowers into new objects. These new objects exude a graceful and natural aesthetic that one could almost consider real – an intentional disorientation! Another aspect of her art: Ilona Surrey’s artworks appear to be paintings at first glance – e.g. a watercolor or an oil painting – and they also exist on canvas. But each work is based on a actual photograph.

Since the beginning of 2018 she has expanded her artistic interests to include new subjects. During several stays in Chicago, a city she describes as “pulsing and vibrating with energy”, she created works with her impressions of modern metropolitan life. These works are so compelling that one can hardly look away. She is fascinated by capturing those special moments of daily life that can inspire and electrify us. She has already convinced several juries and won international prizes and awards for her art.

To see more of Ilona’s work, please visit her website.

3rd Place (Traditional)
John Jaster

John works with heavy body acrylics on fairly large canvases with a lot of detail and bold colors. He calls his style ‘realistic impressions’ because, while the overall feel of the work is definitely realism, he offsets the detail with impressionistic splashes of color. Instead of smooth blending, he likes to use puzzle pieces of color to emphasize the complex relationship of light and shadow over form. John’s inspiration comes from the hidden beauty in ordinary objects.

To see more of John’s work please visit his website.

3rd Place
(Digital & Photography)
Brandi Foster

Brandi was born in Winnipeg, Canada in 1975. Photography has been a significant part of her life for as long as she can remember. Her love of picture taking is a direct result of her dad always keeping a camera in his work truck “just in case”. Completely self-taugh, her love has turned into a passion and that passion has continued to grow with every photograph taken. In 2004 she married and moved to the United States. Through the years as a military wife she has tried to hone her skills and learn new techniques to create pieces that translate emotion along with strong imagery. The many moves that come with military life have kept her points of inspiration everchanging but her determination to create evocative work has always been her goal. Her preference is to photograph in black and white and to capture spaces and places that have been abandoned and otherwise forgotten; however she has started expanding her artistic horizons by working with varying subjects and colors. 2017 was Brandi’s debut year for public showings. Up until this time her pieces were only shared among close friends and family. When the opportunity to submit her work to a local call for entry presented itself Brandi went out of her comfort zone and submitted her work. Having all photographs accepted for the exhibit, her first showing was in Baltimore and since then she has been proud to be included in several local and national shows as well as online gallery exhibits and online magazine publications. Her immediate goal is to create a solo exhibit and then start working towards opening her own small gallery to share her work and help give exposure to other artists.

To see more of Brandi’s work, please visit her website.

4th Place (Traditional)
Guglielmo Botter

Guglielmo Botter is an Italian American citizen born in Treviso, Italy, in 1966. He is an architect but mainly an artist since very young. Guglielmo displayed his work in pen and ink for the first time at the age of 11, winning the majority of the contests he entered in his childhood. Due to the economic crisis in Europe, in 2012 the artist decided to come back to the US where his mother and ancestors lived and worked since 1892 in Pittsburgh, PA.

In his recent drawings of the American cities, especially his second hometown, the “Steel City” (Pittsburgh, PA), he combines the Italian aesthetic background family history rooted in the U.S. to envision the American urban landscape. He likes the contrast between modern and historic buildings, and his sign in black and white helps to blend very well details of the contemporary era.

Guglielmo was featured many times on local and national magazines and his sketches of Pittsburgh were published in the cover of Pittsburgh Post Gazette. He usually works on a 17” x 14” acid free paper, a format easily portable when traveling. In recent years, he is expanding his interest to other American cities in the East Coast: Richmond, Norfolk and Williamsburg in Virginia; Jasper, Columbus, Indianapolis and Bloomington, IN; Cincinnati, OH; Lexington, KY; Lancaster and Harrisburg, PA and Washington, DC.

He exhibited in November 2017 in Jasper, Indiana, selected by the Kremmp Gallery through an “International Call for Artist” and in Columbus as “artist in residence”. Last year he exhibited in Lancaster, selected by an International Call for Artists and Harrisburg, PA and in Norfolk, VA at the Slover Library. He was recently selected by the John Waldron Art Center in Bloomington, IN, to show his work in August 2020.

To see more of Guglielmo’s work, please visit his website.

5th Place (Traditional)
Steve Wilson

As an Artist, Teacher, Juror Steve’s studio and Gallery is located in Niagara Falls Ontario, Canada, “Steve Wilson Studios and The Gallery” located 4681 Queen St. Niagara Falls, Ontario in the downtown arts and cultural area, he is an elected member of the Ontario Society of Artists and currently on the board serving as Vice President, an elected member and previously Director of Exhibitions for the Society of Canadian Artists and an elected member of the Colour and Form Society. He co-juried the 2nd Annual Wildlife Nature and Native Show at Beaux-Arts 2010 with international artists Charles Pachter and Daphne Odjig as well as juried may other shows.

He has shown across Canada, the United States, England, Tasmania and Turkey, in shows like the Toronto Art Expo, Red Dot Miami, Paralux and Spectrum New York VIBE Canada in London England, TAS ART Tasmania to name a few. He is in many private and corporate collections throughout the world and his work has also been featured at Queens Park, in The Peel Gallery, Brampton City Hall, Mississauga Gallery and Burnie Regional Art Gallery, Burnie Tasmania, London England and Istanbul Turkey. In addition, Steve has been featured in many magazine and articles in print.

In his work Steve tries to convey a feeling, emotion or message by capturing in one frame or image that tells a story as well as challenging the viewers perception, that makes them laugh, cry, or starts a conversation and in some cases he present a satiric look at the world we live in. He includes those little extras that allow the eye to explore and discover hidden gems or messages. His love for architecture and the urban and suburban landscape draws him in and challenges the way he portrays the world we live in.

Visit Steve’s website at www.stevesartandimagery.com Contact him via email at stevesart@gmail.com or visit his Facebook page at Steve Wilson Studios and The Gallery

5th Place
(Digital & Photography)
Shelley Benjamin

Shelley Benjamin, a resident of southeast Florida, is an award winning digital artist. She received a BS in Textile Design from Cornell University. After a career as a textile designer and weaver, she became interested in mixed media, and ultimately, photography. Ms. Benjamin’s experimentation and involvement with digital photography began after she purchased her first DSLR camera. During the learning process, she joined an international group of digital artists. With the advanced training she was able to develop her skills, which has allowed her to transform her images to reflect her vision. The inspiration from the group opened up the possibilities of taking photos into a new realm. She is motivated by the art she sees in museums and galleries. From the time she was young she has always been an avid museum visitor. Her background in weaving exposed her to the art of fine crafts and the masters in those fields. Shelley uses her photos as the foundation for a digital painterly approach, utilizing modern technology to enhance and transform the original image. Drawing upon her textile design background, she imparts a tactile feeling to her work. She is challenged and inspired by color, reflections, light, the changing seasons, nature and architectural elements. Shelley is always searching for the extraordinary visual imagery in very ordinary environments. Ms. Benjamin states that her goal is to share the beauty around her and impart the uplifting feelings to the viewer that are the source of her inspiration. Shelley Benjamin’s work has been exhibited in local and international competitions and in online galleries as well as being featured in national digital photo and print magazines.

To see more of Shelley’s work, please visit her website.