ABOUT US
Ana Bukayeva
was born in Kazakhstan and moved to the US when they was fifteen. Right now they attending the College of Staten Island majoring in Studio Art. Their studies covering various techniques and mediums, which allows them to experiment further. Ana practices not only traditional studio arts but also more craft-like techniques in their work. The will for knowledge and desire to create continuously motivates them to explore and experiment with new methods for creating artwork.
Nicole Camacho
is a student of CSI who has completed courses for a BS in psychology, while currently finishing a BFA in photography, and has a background working in recreational therapy. Residing and working out of Staten Island, she creates works depicting ordinary life through different perspectives, with an emphasis on scenes which will inspire the viewer. Using her background in the sciences and psychology enables her to establish a connection with the subject matter from a broad sense of meanings. Her work was displayed twice by the CSI photography department in group exhibitions during her time there.
© 2021 CUNY CSI SP21 ART 480
Joe Gazzillo
is an illustrator and cartoonist, currently living and working in Staten Island, who uses various mediums to portray concepts and phenomena through supernatural characters to represent their alien and familiar characteristics. He also portrays various relationships through mixed mediums for an illustration that have the aesthetic of old animation illustrations with cartoons living in them. Gazzillo uses past experiences, such as self-loathing, isolation
Dayshon Holder
As an artist, I wanted to create a journey that came from literature, short stories, and novel. I was living in so many dreams, which brings me to create several bodies of work to shows a different view in life that comes together. I watched so many televisions, movies, and games that brings me passion of what I wanted to be. It made me as a dreamer to make something that bring people’s attention to show how it never exist in real life. I was very creative to show my bodies of work that has full of imaginations. I wanted to express things by trying to make several bodies of works that show great imagination. From many artists that I learned about them, I can imagine what it is like to make something different that occur the people and animals together in one, which can be so surreal. I focused on how my work gives a spiritual meaning of life that connect of how we live in the real world.
Christina Meier
Christina Meier is currently a BFA photography candidate currently at the College of Staten Island. Her preferred approach to portraiture is natural light and focusing on composition. Meier started her life path in health and medicine, but found her way into a film class at Wagner College altering her course of study. Photography always surrounded her, but never thought to pick up a camera until then. Photography is a way of documenting life and the people around her as well as how she feels about them.
Tara O'Connor
Bio
Tara O’Connor is a New York based artist whose interest in the subconscious opened her work to a world of psychological reflection and thus became a practical tool in O'Connor's life. This became a tool for her to understand consciousness and the human condition, the strengths and flaws of man. Many elements in her work reflect characters and symbols from dreams and correlate with psychological themes depicted by these symbols. Esoteric themes of mysticism, occultism, spirituality, consciousness and conspiracy continue to arise in her work from these early experiences. Surreal, psychedelic and emotional, O’Connor’s paintings seek to create a sacred mirror for the viewer. Working primarily in graphite and plaster.
Autumn Ortiz
is an artist who lives and works in New York City. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the College of Staten Island. Her work contemplates the complexity of emotion. She explores the delicacy of the interior life and its relationship to memory using photography as her primary medium.
José Eduardo Lafuente Pinto
(*New York, USA) currently resides in Staten Island, NY. Pinto has had two group exhibitions at the CUNY College of Staten Island and at the Snug Harbor’s Art Lab in Staten Island.
Two of Pinto’s paintings are in long term display at CUNY College of Staten Island. His artistic style is based on the experimentation with shapes and creation of epic illustrations and/or representations of characters, icons and symbols. In his works, Pinto uses elements such as cultural and musical references, lettering, geometry and non-representational factors. Across the mediums, Pinto applies different methods, linguistics and themes.
Maria Rosas
(*1998, Texcoco, Mexico) is a Portrait and conceptual photographer who lives and works in New York. Her photos show both a mixture of reality and imaginative. Her approach to photography was inspired by Man Ray, an American visual artist because he once said, “I photograph not nature but my imagination’. She has exhibited various times with the photography club at CUNY College of Staten Island.
Kat Stanzione
is a photographer who was born in Brooklyn, currently based in Staten Island, NY. Stanzione’s passion to create photographs lies within capturing what the eye cannot see. She uses the camera as an extension of the human body, capturing the essence of the mind.Stanzione believes art should not fall within a specific box or be created a certain way. Art is an expression of who the artist is and what most interests them. The absorption of such feelings from person to person are different, and that is what makes art so special.
Kaidon Walker
was born and raised in Maryland before moving to New York. His interests include drawing, painting and scene designing. His work mainly consists of still-life, portrait, and landscape drawings and a few still-life paintings. Through his work he expresses his beliefs and ideals set in a magical fantasy world. His goal is to create a safe space for like-minded people who only want to express their identities without being met with prejudice. Kaidon also critiques how society views people based of their religion, sexuality, and gender.
Tingting Xiao
(b.China) lives and works in New York City. Xiao is expected to receive a BFA from the College of Staten Island in 2021. Her works are uncanny poetic images that express the intersection of people, nature, and social issues. Xiao’s work, Seasons is a set of oil pastel works on the remaining of nature and human on the quarantine, another body of work includes screen-prints exploring of social issues titled: Rape Culture.
Kai Lun Zhang
(b. China) is an illustrator based in Brooklyn, NY.
His work is created using digital tools such as Photoshop or Paint Tool SAI and illustrates situations that must not be tolerated in interpersonal relationships. Zhang discovered that people subconsciously cause uncomfortable problems in interpersonal relationships. For example, parents dominate children’s choice by their identity. Zhang attempts to convey a message of improper behaviour through his work and leads the audience to become aware that this situation is wrong.
We would like to thank the department of Performing and Creative Arts for their support throughout our studies. Special thanks to Professors Miguel A. Aragón, Beth Livensperger, Beatrix Reinhardt, and Marianne Weil, for their support and input on the senior class’s projects. We also extend that thanks to the class’s faculty throughout our experience in CSI; and to all the artist who took the time to join our class meetings, we hope to meet you all in person one day.
We hope you enjoy this virtual exhibition and stay in touch for news on possible dates for a physical exhibition after these challenging times.