Artist Nari Ward creates large sculptural installations that are composed of found object materials that celebrate a variety of concepts such as site histories, community stories and temporary architecture. For the Whitney Biennial in 2006, the artist created “Glory,” a large tanning bed made from oil barrels that are designed to imprint the American flag onto the skin. Other works include a large wall stacked with more than 300 television sets that the artist presented for the “Saint Peter’s Odyssey Salon” at the Deitch Projects in New York (2004); this exhibition was also reviewed by Art in America. Nari Ward is a graduate of Brooklyn College (1992) and Hunter College in New York (1991) and has received awards from the Penny McCall Foundation and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. Last year, Ward exhibited in the Taipei Biennial and with Spazio Oberdan in Milano.

The photography of Chicago-based artist Sabrina Raaf often depicts a certain absurdity of science. Images of machines that make art for the artist and automated systems and contraptions that are assembled from industrial materials, together with architectural elements, create installations that embody both the familiarity and stark distance of science fiction. Many works are based on a “what if” scenario, which allows the artist to playfully investigate what would happen if humans evolved and obtained the capabilities of functioning in new ways. The artist received a double MFA from Cornell University (1997) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1999). Currently, Raaf is exhibiting “Meet the New You” at the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa. Last year, the artist exhibited “Grower + ?” at Lunds Konsthall in Sweden, was featured in “This is Gallery” with the Lawrimore Project in Seattle and had a solo exhibition at the Mejan Labs in Stockholm, Sweden.

A member of China’s new wave of influential artists, Cao Fei has developed an expansive young career featuring works in performance, photography, video, writing, and sound art among other projects. Taking in the mass influence of western culture in the east, the artist reflectively constructs images that offer insight into the current state of this optimistic country. The video still shown above is from a series title “Hip Hop” and exemplifies several Chinese lay individuals’ engaging in what seems to be awkward hip-hop stances. Other works such as the “COSplayers” depict young people dressed as Japanese anime characters acting out scenarios in the landscape of Cao Fei’s home city, Guangzhou. The artist attended the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (2001), and was a member of the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes) fellowship program (2005). In 2006, Cao Fei exhibited PRD “Anti-Heroes” at the Museum Het Domein, Sittard, Netherlands, and “Hip Hop” with Lombard-Freid Projects in New York City. This year, the artist will be featured in “World Factory: Resistance and Dreams” at the San Francisco Art Institute. Cao Fei has been featured in the NY Times, and was reviewed last year by ArtForum.

The inventive sculptures of German artist Birgit Dieker are centered on the body. Thematic considerations are equally placed on the inside and outside of the body and often rely on material to offer extended content. The artist regularly uses materials that commonly interact or make reference to the body, such as textiles, leather, rubber, human hair, life belts, bandages and body suits. Together, the concepts and materials create a playful dialogue that engage the viewer and symbolize the symmetry between the inside and outside of the body. Dieker attended Technischen Universitat and Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin, where she currently lives and works. In 2006, Gallery AMT in Como, Italy, presented “Headhunting,” an exhibition featuring several busts made out of layered textiles, and, in 2005, Dieker exhibited “Gluck Auf” with Galerie Volker Diehl in Berlin. Diecker exhibited at the 69th Regiment Armory Feb. 22-25 in the Pulse New York art fair.

Israeli artist Yehudit Sasportas creates large drawings and room-sized installations that investigate dreamlike, generic landscapes that are combined with dense, repetitive lines. The images reference intense spaces that are universally familiar, yet non-specific, creating a context that all viewers can recognize. The lines create a space that depicts modernism through a mathematic, systematic method that contrasts the organic qualities of the landscapes. After her graduation from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem (1999), Sasportas exhibited with Galerie Eigen + Art in Berlin (2004), the Barbara Davis Gallery in Houston (2001), Deitch Projects in New York and the Berkley Museum of Art in San Francisco (2002). Sasportas was featured with the Valencia Biennial in 2001, and her work was reviewed in an article in ArtForum in 2003.

The possibilities and pitfalls of language are of constant interest to artist Tauba Auerbach. Her text-based drawings and paintings investigate the origin of language as a system for information and the relationship between meaning and symbol. The question of how a symbol is chosen and what it reveals about the human brain is also of interest. The works are presented as technically rendered typography, singularly familiar, while collectively abstracted. Her new work addresses the technological language of binary code and its inherent limitations. Auerbach is a Bay Area artist who attended Stanford University. She had a solo New York premiere at the Deitch Projects in New York City this fall and was included in The Dreamland Artist Club exhibition in 2005, organized by Creative Time and Steve Powers. The artist was reviewed in Art in America in 2005 and was reviewed in The New York Times in 2006.

Identical twins Jane and Louise Wilson investigate institutional architectural sites that were once centers of power but have now fallen to abandonment and ruin. These images are often projected as video onto multiple screens that act as independent walls and ceiling. The structure of these connected screens serves and echoes the images of the specific architectural sites projected. The collection of these devastating images conveys a weighted sense of humanism, while also presenting stunning cinematic formalism. The artists are graduates of Goldsmith College in London (1992), and, in 1999, they were nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize, which is organized by the Tate Gallery in London. Other exhibitions include “The New Brutalists” at the Lisson Gallery (2006) and works with the Bergen Art Museum in Norway (2004). The sisters also attended the studio program of the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) in Berlin.