Diana Pelenur
Diana is a photographer based in Toronto, Canada. Raised in Uruguay and Brazil, she first arrived in Montreal to pursue her studies at McGill University, graduating with a Master of Arts in Hispanic Literature. She is fluent in four languages and taught Spanish at McGill University. Driven by her passion for photography, she obtained a Certificate in Photography Studies from Ryerson University. Curious and innovative, Diana continues to explore image making including crypto art, digital compositions and selective animation.
Education
2018 Certificate in Photography Studies, Ryerson University the Chang School of Continuing Education, Toronto, Canada
1999 Master of Arts in Hispanic Literature, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
June 12-current, NFTianguis Chuchulucos Exhibit
June 12 - current, MetaMuseum Oceans NFT Collection Exhibition
June 17, 2021, ImNotArt, NFT physical gallery exhibit
May 20, 2021, ImNotArt, Community Gallery #10
April 30 - May 6 2021, Artwrk, Group Photography Exhibition Online
2020 Davenport Collective, Toronto, Group Exhibition, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto
2016 Group Photography Exhibition, The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto
2015 Group Photography Exhibition, Paul Hahn & Co, Toronto
Alex Dukay
Alex started shooting in 1982 when Pentax lent him their newest line of cameras and lenses. He worked as a stills photographer in the film business for over 30 years and has taken pictures of Academy award winning actors Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson and director Istvan Szabo. Notable musicians Alex has photographed include Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra and Oscar Peterson. Alex’s love of nature and colour and his fascination with abstract shapes and form led him to his present collection of art works.
Education
B.A Comparative religion and psychology McGill University, Montreal, QC.
M.A. studies Sir George Williams University, Montreal, QC
M.A. studies Sir George Williams University, Montreal, QC
Exhibitions
1982 Museum of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
2002 Galérie Charmante, Sutton Québec, Canada
2014 Peach Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2016 Pumphouse Art gallery Niagara-on-the-Lake Canada
2002 Galérie Charmante, Sutton Québec, Canada
2014 Peach Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2016 Pumphouse Art gallery Niagara-on-the-Lake Canada
Joel Stevens
Canadian artist Joel Stevens has made the art of graffiti his muse, the artistic purpose of his photographic work. "Graffiti is art. Graffiti writers are artists." He seeks out graffiti in hard to access places, condemned buildings, back alleys, under bridges... and he does it all over the world, creating through his body of work a kind of virtual graffiti community, and an invaluable documentation.
GALERIE LYDIA MONARO
JOEL STEVENS
Joel Stevens: Writing on the wall
By Dorota Kozinska
For what is graffiti if not writing down of our common history in signs and symbols that are born of the street. Plural of graffito, a 19th century Italian word for 'a scratch', this spontaneous form of visual expression continues to provoke. Scratched and scribbled, painted and sprayed, graffiti has existed since ancient time; from simple words to elaborate wall paintings, its examples date back to Ancient Rome and Greece as well as the Roman Empire. It often carries underlying
messages of social and political content, as well as gang affiliations, and yes, it is often just plain vandalism. When it is
not, however, it is truly an expression of creativity unlike any other, permeated with one-of-a-kind energy, appearing and
disappearing from street walls, ephemeral and powerful at the same time. There are graffiti artists who have made the
transition to gallery space, Jean-Michel Basquiat being the best known of the lot, followed by the illusive Banksy, albeit via different routes. Graffiti has also become a source of inspiration for other artists, particularly photographers, who, inadvertently, immortalize its de facto brief existence.
messages of social and political content, as well as gang affiliations, and yes, it is often just plain vandalism. When it is
not, however, it is truly an expression of creativity unlike any other, permeated with one-of-a-kind energy, appearing and
disappearing from street walls, ephemeral and powerful at the same time. There are graffiti artists who have made the
transition to gallery space, Jean-Michel Basquiat being the best known of the lot, followed by the illusive Banksy, albeit via different routes. Graffiti has also become a source of inspiration for other artists, particularly photographers, who, inadvertently, immortalize its de facto brief existence.
Canadian artist Joel Stevens has made the art of graffiti his muse, the artistic purpose of his photographic work. "Graffiti is art. Graffiti writers are artists." He seeks out graffiti in hard to access places, condemned buildings, back alleys, under bridges... and he does it all over the world, creating through his body of work a kind of virtual graffiti community, and an invaluable documentation.
Like many who look at the world through the lens of a camera, Stevens has a keen eye for colour and form, and the sites he chooses to focus on are anything but haphazard. The spontaneity belongs to the artists whose work he captures; his is precision and cropping. As is the nature of photographic images, what they present is ultimately another work of art. The graffiti-covered wall fragments in Stevens' photographs are no longer canvas; they are matter, space and colour.
In Stairway to Everywhere (Toronto) the corner of a wall recedes creating a perfect triangular composition, the spray-painted images turning the corner, as it were, and continuing on and beyond, yet in this picture they are in a beautifully staged visual dialogue.
At a first glance Bridge Door (New York) looks simply like an abstract painting, a vibrant colour infused composition with myriad jostling shapes. The fact that it is a fragment of a peeling, graffiti- covered wall is soon evident, it does not, however, in anyway change the reading of this photograph. A little bit this way, or a
little bit that way, and the whole would have been lost, the reality trumping the ephemeral beauty of the moment. The door is entirely obliterated by writing and the colours are overwhelming. A sliver of a window in the upper right corner adds a touch of black, grounding the composition.
Railroaded (Paris) is a truly striking, somewhat ominous photograph. The dilapidated, crumbling wall has two giant gaping holes, like enormous black eyes staring out. Fragments of brick and mortar are spilling
out of one of them, piling up at the foot of the wall. This scene of devastation and ruin is juxtaposed with the pure colours of bright yellow and turquoise graffiti, enormous words and letters in white against black, and black against white. The colour is what guides the eye in this image, and one cannot help but wonder at Stevens' artistic intuition. This is more than a photograph of graffiti; like the words painted on that wall, there is underlying message of the passage of time, and of our need to leave a mark...
Joel Stevens' work is as contemporary as it gets. He presents his pieces as Acrylic Pleximount images, turning them into sleek “objets d'art”, aesthetically instantly pleasing. These are in a sense no longer photographs. Together with the graffiti art they portray, they have become a works of art of a different kind.