New York-based Dutch artist Sebastiaan Bremer creates a variety of manipulated photos that are produced by drawing directly onto a photograph with photo retouching inks. Bremer uses personal photos of friends and family and employs a dense application of pointillism across the surface of the photo to create surreal scenes with reduced information. These images suggest dreams or memories and the associations of personal relationships. Last year, the artist exhibited “The Past in the Present,” curated by Frank van der Stok, at the Fotomuseum Rotterdam and at Roebling Hall in Chelsea, New York. Bremer received a scholarship from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and has been a recipient of the Basisbeurs S.F.B.K in Amsterdam three times. Bremer has also had solo exhibitions with the Taka Ishii Gallery in Tokyo and Galerie Barbara Thumm in Berlin.

Icelandic artist Katrin Sigurdardottir‘s work creates imaginary spaces within another space. Sigurdardottir deals with scale to create a relationship between the work and the viewer. She uses architectural structures to bring together nature and design, allowing the viewer to participate with the work. Her most recent exhibition, open now with P.S.1 in New York, depicts an artificial landscape where the viewer must climb a ladder to view the created space. Currently, Sigurdardottir is seen as one of the most influential artists of Iceland. She received her MFA from Rutgers University and since has shown with Art Basel in Miami, the Renaissance Society in Chicago, Fonds Regional d’Art Contemporain de Bourgogne in France and Galleri i8 in Iceland. In 2005, she was one of the recipients of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant for the Arts.

The sculptures of Korean artist Michael Joo focus on the process of energy transfer between visible organisms and invisible calories and energy sources. Also of interest to the artist is how the body expends calories as it copes with the mental strain of dealing with social and historical identity. Joo created an installation of modeled cast resin dogs titled “Separation Anxiety” that depict the animal during that particular emotional state. These works seem to make reference to artist Joseph Beuys, as when he lived alongside a live coyote in a gallery in his “I Like America and America Likes Me” installation in New York City. Joo is a graduate of Washington University and received an M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art. In 2001, he represented Korea at the Venice Biennale, and, last year, the artist was featured in the Gwangju Biennale in Seoul, Korea. Joo has exhibited with organizations such as the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco and the Palm Beach Institute of the Contemporary Art (PBICA), which is discussed in an article on absolutearts.com. Michael Joo also appeared in a review in Art in America and a review in Artforum for his 2004 exhibition at the MIT List Visual Art Center.

British artist Ian Dawson produces large-scale sculptures out of a variety of materials. The artist has used colorful industrial plastic containers that are modeled into exotic forms through heat manipulation in several new works. Through this process, the object is stripped of its original use and begins to exist in a position between painting and sculpture. Other projects include large sheets of screen-printed paper that have been crumpled and seemingly tossed randomly into a corner. Each piece underlines the notion of dematerialization and seems to refer to the disposability and waste of Western societies. The objects also possess a life-like quality, often becoming animated and with an apparent potential for movement. Dawson attended the Royal College of Art and the Winchester School of Art in England. The artist recently exhibited with Galerie Xippas in Paris and Hales Gallery in London. U.S. exhibitions include “Tilt Trucks and Free Fliers” at the James Cohan Gallery in New York and a self-titled show with Grand Arts in Kansas. Dawson is a recipient of the Margaret Hall-Silva Award and will be exhibiting in “Cold Climate” March 9 at the Living Art Museum in Reyljavik, Iceland.

Demetrius Oliver uses his body to explore social issues of race, history and culture. Large digital c-prints depict a variety of simple, yet compelling, images of the artist interacting with loaded objects and materials such as coal and white cream. The artist also draws pictures on his own body, such as railroad tracks across his hands and small ships on his finger nails, as well as creates significant works in sculpture and performance. Oliver confronts issues that deal with the history of African-Americans by directly using these images as metaphors for problems that seem to remain to some degree unsolved. The artist is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Fine Arts Program (2004) and since has exhibited works with the Inman Gallery in Houston. He is currently exhibiting in Pulse New York and has had museum exhibitions with the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina (2006), and the Contemporary Art Musuem of Houston. Oliver has participated with Project Row Houses in Houston and is a Core Fellow with the Glassell School of Art.

Doris Salcedo creates sculptures and installations that re-contextualize everyday domestic items as she alters their physical properties. Often rooted in historical events, Salcedo’s works ambitiously alter the existing space, transforming the mundane into the magnificent. The artist is a member of a new generation of young South American artists who are gaining international recognition while remaining in their home countries. Salcedo was born in Bogota, Colombia, and is a graduate of Universidad de Bogota Jorge Tadeo Lozano and the New York University. The artist received a Guggenheim Foundation Grant in 1995 and has exhibited widely in venues such as White Cube in London, L.A. Louver Gallery in Los Angeles and Le Creux de L’ Enfer in Thiers, France. Salcedo is featured in the eighth Istanbul Biennial(2003) and Sao Paolo Biennial (1998).

In a recent exhibition at The Moore Space in Miami, artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla created a room-sized architectural sculpture titled “Clamor.” The large, white structure is ambiguously designed and references chamber, bunker or space-cave architecture. During a performance in the gallery, a group of musicians played various elements of war songs from multiple geographic locations and historical periods simultaneously out of the structure. The artist duo has been working together since 1995, producing a variety of works in sculpture, performance, architecture and social and public relations. Allora is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003), and she attended the Whitney Independent Study Program (1999). Calzadilla attended Bard College for his MFA (2001) and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1998). Last year, the artists exhibited with S.M.A.K. (Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst) in Ghent, Belgium, and Land Mark, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France. Allora and Calzadilla received grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Penny McCall Foundation.