Ignacio Goitia

Artist Ignacio Goitia ((b. 1968 Bilbao, Spain) is a surrealist painter who embellishes images of imposing buildings and grand, palatial interiors with startling, incongruent extras, such as nude or semi-nude men in leather fetish garb, giving his work an over-the-top homoerotic bent. Sometimes he includes images of himself, as in a painting in which he is seated on a motorcycle taking notes while admiring museum sculptures. As well, Goitia (shown above) has completed dozens of paintings featuring monumental giraffes.

Passion for Canaletto (2005):

Until last week his work was being exhibited at a gallery in Spain under the title “The Grand Tour,” capturing the spirit of visitors to Europe’s great cities and museums during the 18th and 19th centuries. This show has traveled from Brussels to Munich to Rome and will settle into the important modern art scene of Miami, FL, later this year.

Ignacio studied in Florence, London and Paris, eventually devoting himself exclusively to drawing and painting. Although Goitia divides his time between Bilbao and Miami, he has mainly exhibited his art in Paris, Miami, Madrid, Rome, Bordeaux and various other European venues. Goitia’s personal appearance evokes the cultured high-society travelers depicted in his paintings – that of an adventurous, well-bred Bohemian.

www.ignaciogoitia.com

Mr. Goitia presents himself as quite the dandy:

Juan Gabriel

Born in Mexico as Alberto Aguilera Valadez (1950), the life of singer Juan Gabriel is a rags-to-riches story. He grew up poor, working as a craftsman at age 13, to become a legendary singer of Mexican ranchera music, as well as a star in the genres of Latin pop, mariachi music and Latino ballads. After several years spent honing his musical composition skills in a boarding school away from his family, he decided to escape at the age of 15. Taking advantage of having daily garbage duty, one day Alberto walked out of the school with garbage in his hand, headed for the dumpsters, and never returned.

He soon established himself as a performer in Juárez and Mexico City. In 1971, at the age of 21, Alberto signed a contract with RCA and changed his name to Juan Gabriel (Juan, in honor of a schoolmaster whom he held in high regard, and the surname Gabriel, after his deceased father, Gabriel Aguilera). He has become a legend in Latino music as a singer, composer and entertainer, selling in excess of 100 million albums.

As a philanthropist, Gabriel has consistently given large sums to support Mexican orphans. He has four adopted children of his own. To be an out-and-proud entertainer in Hollywood is one thing, but in rigidly traditional Mexico it is another, so when asked if he were gay, Gabriel famously responded, "What is seen does not need to be asked. I don't have to tell you things that do not concern you or others. I think that I am an artist who has given much with my music" (Lo que se ve no se pregunta. Yo no tengo por qué decirle cosas que a usted, como a muchas otras personas, no les interesa, yo pienso que soy un artista que he dado mucho con mis canciones). However, proving that actions speak louder than words, he recently confirmed that he was engaged to marry his male partner, 23-year-old Spanish singer Jaz Bael, shown below.

Gabriel has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and there is a statue of him on Mexico City's Plaza Garibaldi, a favorite performance area for mariachi bands. The sculpture, erected in 2001, was crafted by artist Oscar Ponzanelli.


In this live performance clip Gabriel performs his signature tune Querida:

Jeremy Kost

Texas born photographer Jeremy Kost (at right) is known as New York City’s "Polaroid artist," advancing a technique exploited by art world legends Andy Warhol and David Hockney. Bucking the trend of increasing numbers of digital images in contemporary art, Kost creates his work with Polaroid cameras. Because celebrities (Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan and the like), embrace his creative methods, Kost has direct access to their relaxed environments. Jeremy exposes the reality of celebrities and the fashion/art world elite in compelling, unstaged Polaroid photographs.

While celebrity photographs made him famous, he is perhaps best known for his homoerotic Polaroids of young men with buffed bodies and the gritty, underground scenes of the East Village and the Lower East Side (he lives and works in NYC). Instead of relying on lighting, make-up, or styling, Kost seizes upon the unvarnished moment. Whether his shots convey the energy of a hedonistic smile, or the honest look of true exhaustion, Kost's images and photographic montages reveal the character of his subjects with immediacy.

Jeremy has had numerous exhibitions of his work in major cities around the world, including New York, Dallas, Miami, Washington DC, Paris and Tokyo. Recently he was included in The International Center of Photography's Triennial Exhibition "Dress Codes". His work has been published in print media such as V and Vogue Hommes Japan, and in 2009 his book "Love.Hate.Nature." was published by The International Center of Photography.