Claire Breukel graduated from the University of Cape Town with a BAFA honors (photography and English) and began working for the South African Center for Photography and the Association for Visual Arts, both non-profit organizations. Breukel went on to curate exhibitions including the 2002 Cape Town Month of Photography biennale, the Vision Photography Festival as well as the Brett Kebble Art Awards in 2003 and 2004. Her introduction to Miami was through the Rubell Family Collection Internship, after which she took the position of Director of Exhibitions at ArtCenter/South Florida. In September 2006, Breukel went on to join Locust Projects, a renowned Miami non-profit organization, as their Executive Director. http://www.locustprojects.org/
Born and raised in Miami, Jen Stark graduated with a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2005. Upon viewing her artwork, one may think of complex microscopic patterning, rainbows, and mysterious organic structures. Her work reminds us of how repetition slowly changes shape over time. Stark's artwork begins through a simple process but manages to grow into intricate structures. She frequently challenges the constrictions of paper and creates three-dimensional sculptures using only an exacto and glue. http://www.jenstark.com/
Internationally exhibiting LA-based artist and curator (http://www.dreamlandshow.info/ )Annie Wharton was born in Tallahassee, Florida and lived in Stuttgart, Germany, New York, NY, and Miami Beach, Florida before moving to Los Angeles in late 2005. Her work has been featured in publications that include the New York Times, Art in America, Art Papers, Art.Es (Spain) Ha'aretz (Israel), Giornale dell'Arte (Italy), Glamour, and German Elle. In addition to a wide array of international art fairs, gallery and alternative spaces throughout the US, Israel, Japan and Europe, she's shown her work in group shows at museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Washington, DC, the Ringling Museum of Sarasota, and in Miami at the Lowe Museum the Bass Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art and in solo museum exhibits at the Kirishima Open Air Museum in Kirishima, Japan and The Wolfsonian-FIU Museum. Her work is in important private collections throughout the world and can be found in public and corporate collections such as the 4 Seasons Hotels, the Neiman Marcus Collection, Trump Towers, The Related Group, the Miami-Dade Public Library, and the Kagoshima Public Art Collection. Her studio is located in Chinatown in Los Angeles, California. http://www.anniewharton.com/
G. Byron Peck is the Founder/Artistic Director of non-profit City Arts, and has created over 80 murals throughout the United States and abroad, including the iconic Duke Ellington mural in Washington, DC, where he resides. He has created paintings for shows in New York and Washington D.C., taught classes at the Corcoran School of Art, the Smithsonian Museum, George Washington University and George Mason University. He has won four grant awards from the D.C. Arts and Humanities Commission (1987,’95, ’97,’99), two Fellowships for Painting from the Virginia Museum of Fine Art (1977,’79), and received the prestigious District of Columbia Mayor's Art Award, for Excellence in Artistic Discipline in 2000. Mural commissions have included the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the American Embassy in Santiago, Chile and the U.S. Nuclear Energy Commission Headquarters. Peck is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he received a BFA in painting and printmaking. For the last nine years the development of the arts organization City Arts has been his main concern. http://www.peckstudios.com/
Born and raised in Miami, Jen Stark graduated with a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2005. Upon viewing her artwork, one may think of complex microscopic patterning, rainbows, and mysterious organic structures. Her work reminds us of how repetition slowly changes shape over time. Stark's artwork begins through a simple process but manages to grow into intricate structures. She frequently challenges the constrictions of paper and creates three-dimensional sculptures using only an exacto and glue. http://www.jenstark.com/
Internationally exhibiting LA-based artist and curator (http://www.dreamlandshow.info/ )Annie Wharton was born in Tallahassee, Florida and lived in Stuttgart, Germany, New York, NY, and Miami Beach, Florida before moving to Los Angeles in late 2005. Her work has been featured in publications that include the New York Times, Art in America, Art Papers, Art.Es (Spain) Ha'aretz (Israel), Giornale dell'Arte (Italy), Glamour, and German Elle. In addition to a wide array of international art fairs, gallery and alternative spaces throughout the US, Israel, Japan and Europe, she's shown her work in group shows at museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Washington, DC, the Ringling Museum of Sarasota, and in Miami at the Lowe Museum the Bass Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art and in solo museum exhibits at the Kirishima Open Air Museum in Kirishima, Japan and The Wolfsonian-FIU Museum. Her work is in important private collections throughout the world and can be found in public and corporate collections such as the 4 Seasons Hotels, the Neiman Marcus Collection, Trump Towers, The Related Group, the Miami-Dade Public Library, and the Kagoshima Public Art Collection. Her studio is located in Chinatown in Los Angeles, California. http://www.anniewharton.com/
G. Byron Peck is the Founder/Artistic Director of non-profit City Arts, and has created over 80 murals throughout the United States and abroad, including the iconic Duke Ellington mural in Washington, DC, where he resides. He has created paintings for shows in New York and Washington D.C., taught classes at the Corcoran School of Art, the Smithsonian Museum, George Washington University and George Mason University. He has won four grant awards from the D.C. Arts and Humanities Commission (1987,’95, ’97,’99), two Fellowships for Painting from the Virginia Museum of Fine Art (1977,’79), and received the prestigious District of Columbia Mayor's Art Award, for Excellence in Artistic Discipline in 2000. Mural commissions have included the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the American Embassy in Santiago, Chile and the U.S. Nuclear Energy Commission Headquarters. Peck is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he received a BFA in painting and printmaking. For the last nine years the development of the arts organization City Arts has been his main concern. http://www.peckstudios.com/
Alexandra Rangel arrived in Washington, DC from Venezuela nearly twenty years ago. Upon receiving her B.A. in Mass Media Art and Television Production, from the University of the District of Columbia in 1999, Alexandra began her journey in the pursuit of the perfect Art Show. While working as an associate producer for National Geographic, Alex realized that she was dissatisfied with the conservative culture of many of DC’s art galleries and the DC art scene in general; and she sensed that many of the people who wanted to see exciting art by new or upcoming artists, had no options in the DC area. She also understood that many emerging artists, who had a burning desire to show their work, did not have any venues in which to do so. She recognized that she would have to create a space, and Artoconecto was born.
A recipient of the prestigious City Arts Projects grant three years in a row, Alexandra turned Artoconecto from a small, Adams Morgan neighborhood art show, into one of the premier ‘underground’ art shows in Washington, DC. Fifteen shows later, many produced with the help of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts, Artoconecto took a three-year hiatus, as Alex moved to Miami, FL, and, with husband Danny Brody, opened Stop Miami. This notorious Wynwood/Design District wine & tapas bar became a local hangout for all manner of creative types, including writers, artists, gallery owners, and collectors, and was a showcase for many local artists and musicians. When it was shuttered in 2007, Alex formed a partnership with Bakehouse Arts Complex to help finance and produce their Wynwood Art Walk openings, which included the wildly successful 'Pablo Cano in Wynwood'. She shares with Bakehouse the mission of continuing to nurture and support the creative process, development, and growth, of artists.