Artist: Tom Haubrick
+ projectgalleryla.com

Artist: Michael Mararian
+ inkydreadfuls.com

Artist: Abby Leigh
+ bettycuninghamgallery.com

Artist: Leonard Cohen
+ leonardcohen.drabinskygallery.com

Jim Torok takes us into the artist’s world by employing a simple comic book style. Torok’s ink drawings tell of the trials and tribulations faced in the life of an artist. Torok’s alter-ego will often present an positive point of view in one piece which he will then negate in the subsequent one, so that we get to see the highs and lows. Of course the pessimistic, or perhaps more realistic, view is the funnier one.

Artist: Jim Torok
+ pierogi2000.com

A recent graduate of the Royal College of Art, Richard Sarson has embarked upon the Circle Project, a series of drawings created by using felt-tip markers in a compass. Sarson’s goal was to produce something complex by using very simple tools and a mathematical approach. This results in over 1000 circles per drawing. Sarson admits to having a keen sense of organization and the pieces are precise compositions of symmetry and pattern. Not a circle out of place.

Artist: Richard Sarson
+ richardsarson.com

Julian Beever creates 3D illusions on the High Streets of the world. Beever, the Pavement Picasso, uses pastels for pavement drawings that appear to be more dimensional than they really are. Beever distorts the drawings in a specific way by using a camera on a tripod, creating anamorphisms, to give the impression of three dimensions, but this can only be seen from one particular perspective. The pieces can be in production for up to 3 days, during which time not a drop of rain can fall.

Artist: Julian Beever
+ skynet.be

Subjects ranging from household still lifes to bondage are covered in the large-scale pen and ink drawings of Joan Linder. The artist’s recent work has been life size representations of the subjects – no easy feat when one remembers the fine point of a quill pen. Linder finds the scale of one to one lends an intimacy to the art, and that the “sleight, or sloppiness, of hand” can heighten this aspect. Also particularly interesting are Linder’s rope series of coloured inks on paper which make amazing use of negative space.

Artist: Joan Linder
+ mixedgreens.com

Carol Benisatto draws for the sake of the final result, not in preparation for any other medium as is so often the case. Her subjects are given a larger-than-life presence in the portraits of charcoal and pastel often on a simple white background. Benisatto captures an energy that reflects the personality of the sitter so that there is always an added dimensionality to her drawings. It is easy to see that all of her subjects have a story to tell.

Artist: Carol Benisatto
+ carolbenisatto.com

Dorothy Arnold’s series of figure drawings are simple and to the point. Snapshot moments in human development (with oneself and with others) are made relevant by the sparse black lines applied by Arnold. Who hasn’t “Had Enough”? When one, fed up, pushed to the limit, decides to sit and boycott all the surrounding nonsense for a spell? Comfortable in one’s own skin, it is time to plant it and let the chips fall where they may. Too many other moments when it is far too easy to feel the nakedness of defeat. When one is fully exposed to the elements, forced to turn one’s back on it all – but just to take a breather.

Artist: Dorothy Arnold
+ florencelynchgallery.com

Johannesburg artist William Kentridge does a lot of video work and set design, so many preparatory drawings form a large body of his work. Preparing the Flute is an exhibition based on the set Kentridge has done for Mozart’s The Magic Flute, performed in Brussels. Also included are drawings from his Porter series, silhouettes of figures bearing items of furniture crossing various maps. Kentridge’s drawings involve very little use of colour as these works are primarily of charcoal and pastel or mohair silk and embroidery, thus giving off a whiff of the past while remaining true to a very modern product.

Artist: William Kentridge
+ gallerialiarumma.it