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Hello Eric and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.zhibit.org/ericartist in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have been drawing and painting since early childhood and you hold a BA in Art, however you spent your working years as a professional geographer: how does the combination of your cultural substratum due to your studies and your work influence your evolution as a visual artist? Eric Matranga: Attending Graduate School was a humbling experience. It taught me that I didn’t know what I thought I knew and provided me another opportunity for growth. Because my inquiries in objective truth exposed my hidden biases, I reexamined everything I thought I knew and transformed myself again. Life has provided opportunities disguised as challenges that resulted in intellectual growth repeatedly. I started drawing and painting as a child to stay sane, to find quiet time to think about the incredible hypocrisy I saw playing out in Society and in the streets. I couldn’t reconcile what I saw on the news at night with what I was being taught. The two were so divergent that I thought the world must be mad and had to find a solution in my own mind. Early on I determined to live what I believed and provide an example that you can define your own success and not live out your hypocrisy. “Cognitive dissonance” was defined the year I was born and I grew up in Art is first and foremost personal expression. While the appeal of what the artist produces may reflect the values of the time it is still drawn from the artist’s internal vision. Art has always been my method to heal and seek comfort and remains so. Not everything can be measured, analyzed, and described in scientific terms, though I spent much of my life engaged in scientific investigation. Art is more than science and often defies description and measurement. My Art is about harmony and reaches the soul in ways that can’t always be quantified or pinned down. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Eric Matranga
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a world of sharply defined dichotomy. I’ve always been interested in Nature and the natural resources involved in the complexity of modern life. The works of Man do not impress me and you don’t find them in my Art. I am frequently moved by the presence of grandeur I have experienced outside among the wonders of Nature found among western landscapes. I am working to continue to simply my composition and constantly seek to add more “pop” to the effect of color harmonies and contrast. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape —and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article — has at once captured our attention for the way it captures harmony and sense of connnection with our surroundings, highlighting at the same time the uniqueness of the viewers' Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land New Growth Redwoods
Fading Light
response to the work of art. When walking our readers through the genesis of your works, would you tell us something about your usual setup and process? Eric Matranga: I started painting on colored grounds about twenty years ago and I haven’t scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Eucalyptus Grove
Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land painted on a white surface since. I also was exposed to the writings of Johann von Goethe and his investigations into light and color transformed my artistic efforts. Many of us were exposed to the linear light spectrum from the work of Isaac Newton that we’re taught in
scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition school as children. If it can’t be measured and explained, it doesn’t exist. Goethe found darkness as well as light influencing color. What is in the shadows may not be measurable or understood on its own and required context for explanation and understanding. I found this explanation closer to how the real world worked. It also required the cognitive process of the viewer to interpret what the brain expects to see and it becomes so. But, what I see may not be what you see. The subjective becomes influenced by expectations, and I try to produce something that allows for multiple interpretations.. The tones of your works — be they intense and bright as in FadingLight, be they marked out with such thoughtful, almost meditative ambiance, as in Lost Coast Reflections — create delicate tension and dynamics: how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your works? In particular, what role does intuition play in the composition of your pallette? Eric Matranga: My pallette of color is highly influenced by Goethe’s color theory and explorations I did with color pastels on black and other dark colored paprers. The pigment of the dry pastels held up well on the paper and the intensity of the contrast was bold and quite striking. I could experiment quickly with the dry pigment but prefer to execute finished work in the permanence of the oil paints. I have always seen myself as part of the lineage of western painters that reached a peak with the explosion of Modernism at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. I take pigment bound by oil and distribute it across the picture space of stretched canvas. Many of those Artists forging their space in Modernism experienced alienation and succumbed to their inner demons. I hope my
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life experiences and my inner strength that comes with survival continues to drive me. I have seen considerable growth and maturity in my more recent work and attribute that to this inner fortitude and intuition and to how it all plays out on the canvas. The artists I found most interesting all had at least inclinations to symbolism and intuition. Van Gogh broke with tradition and used color like none before him. Cezanne broke up his landscapes into geometric representations. Edward Hopper captured alienated and lonely characters populating his cities and towns. I paint a landscape devoid of Man and let my viewers make of it what they will. Your works seem to be laboriously structured to pursue such effective and at the same time thoughtful visual impact: how important is intuition for you? Eric Matranga: Laboriously structured is a good way to put it, I think. I did a lot of drawing when I was younger and only gradually moved to the paint and canvas. When I discovered Goethe’s color theory and began using more of the pastel colors, I realized to many of my canvases were “thin” and relied on washes of transparent color instead of depicting those colors in the opaque. Once those pastel colors started showing up in the shadows, the finished works began taking on a different appearance. I do find that the creative application of pigment occurs best in bursts of frenzied and inspired activity. There are mechanical tasks I use to build up the layers that go into my finished paintings, but the bold strokes and intense pigments must come spontaniously and without effort. For me personnaly, intuition has always been that little voice in my head warning me I was missing something if I started getting complacent. I find value in little things that don’t come with a price tag. They have to be earned and can’t be Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
Lost Coast Reflections
purchased in a store anyway. I trust what I feel about what is revealed around the fuzzy edges. I like to suggest visual elements and let my mind and the viewers mind and intellect complete the picture. It doesn’t work for everybody and I am OK with that. Your works drawn heavily from the peculiar specifics of the outdoor environment: how do you select the location that you include in your artworks? Eric Matranga: I was born in the southwest desert and have been influenced by my surroundings throughout my years. That includes my dissatisfaction with the political environment that has shaped all of our lives. My inquiries about who we are and how we shape our environment, and how it shapes us, led me to the issue of global warming. It is clearly an existential threat and all other political discussions are noise and a rearranging of the deckchairs on our figurative Titanic. We are not going to be saved by going to Mars or distant galexies. Even if we had the time and technology, the scope as well as scale of the problem is beyond such an option. We must take care of what we have. I select my locations and events to paint based on the impact the natural world has on me. If I am moved by the play of light or that fleeting glimpse of possibility, maybe I can convey that and depict it in a way that will influence others to think outside the box. We highly appreciate the way you draw from real places to create works able to address your audience to discover its connections with the realm of imagination. Scottish painter Peter Doig once remarked that even the most realistic paintings are derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
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us, how do you consider the relationship between reality and imagination, playing within your artistic production? Eric Matranga: I do paint more than just the landscape, and my figurative efforts usually take on aspects of Surrealism and are quite dark in what I depict. I do think it is important to recognize the divergent alternatives available to us as a society but I hesitate to share my darker vision. There is enough conflict between the political poles that I don’t need to contribute to that fray. I do recognize the power of color and the power of the visual image. When I have been particularly successful down through the years, it is because the finished work has soothing and healing characteristics that bring comfort. What is in my head is how special Place is to me and should be to all. There is such a fragile beauty to all that surrounds us and it is in danger of crashing down around our ears. I would hope my work conveys the beauty that surrounds us and how important it is to respect and care for what we are a part of. You are a versatile artist and your artworks include realistic subjects that you harmonize with such unique vivacious tones that provide them with such expressionistic quality. In this sense, we daresay that your artistic production aims to urge the spectatorship to a participative effort, to realize their own interpretation: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? Eric Matranga: I have always felt that I am successful when individual viewers get different things from what I present artistically. If everyone sees the same thing I have failed. Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
While most viewers will see the same elements in my simplified composition, the meaning they take away may differ widely. What I am trying to depict in a landscape is whatever the positive emotion I was moved by in the natural world to capture in image and then attempt to portray with pigment. Their is healing infused in each piece because that is scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition The Back Door
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what I seek from Nature. I gave up trying to anticipate reactions and figure people out a long time ago. I used to think everyone thought the same. As I grew older I gradually realized that was not the case and it was very disappointing to see how low so many would go. I’ve tried not to be judgemental and overly critical with others and have learned to walk in their shoes. I can’t control if they like my work or not, but it is available to them and anyone interested. What I do see is the positive reaction from those that do enjoy what I create and the joy that brings into their life. Though the painting and the picture space is clearly static and doesn’t change, how the viewer sees and interprets a piece will and they Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Eye of the Child
may come away with different aspects of what it means over time. The painting hasn’t changed but the emotions it provokes may and will. Those who see no value in what I do can walk away. I create Art because I have to for my own fulfilment, and sometimes others are moved positively also. What I see in my finished work will evolve over time as I continue to mature as an individual and Art is for sharing, not locking up and hiding away. Over the years you have watched climate change alter the face of Nature and you paint the special places to document what we are destroying: do you think that artists can raise awareness to an evergrowing audience on topical issues — as environmental issues — that affect our everchanging society? Eric Matranga: I really struggle with this issue, especially as I watch us backsliding into denial. People forget it was Nixon and the Republicans that launched the environmental legislation in the Sixties. It wasn’t that they wanted to change anything, but they could control the discussion and message. I am appalled to see politicians with no expertise in anything convincing people there is no problem and the whole issue is somehow “fake news”. Nobody with a stake in the Ponzi scheme we call capitalism is going to criticize. It is left to the Artists, though my concern is that we have wasted fifty years and it is too late. I’ve never liked being preached at and I’m not going to do it to others. However, we all have a moral imperative to recognize that money is no substitute for clean air, drinkable and available water, and soil to grow food for sustinance. All other arguements and concerns are nonesense, but I failed to make the case as a scientist and present what I have to offer without apology as an Artist. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
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I’ve watched in amazement over the past decade or so as disinformation and lies have become the norm in our political discourse. The scientist in me cuts to the chase and eliminates what is objectively false. The Artist in me struggles to find meaning free of the chaos and confusion. Perhaps the natural environment and what I have to say about it can help move the needle in a positive and meaningful direction. That may be a tall order but an objective worth pursueing. As you have remarked once, "art is more than science and often defies description and measurement": as a visual artist with a solid background in scientific fields, do you think that there's any kind of relationships between Art and Science? Eric Matranga: I don’t engage in science anymore, but my science was always highly informed by my Art. Because my Art is about what is felt as much as what is seen, I was always seeking the obscure and hidden in what I was investigating scientifically. As a social scientist, objective truth motivated me but what I selected to investigate was determined more by my subjective interests. My interests in both Art and Science were tied to Nature from an early age My whole life has been about the tension between Science and Art, the objective and the subjective. Since I was a child I have struggled with dichotomy, the things my intellect tell me are not compatible with what I see Society chasing. The relationship I see between Art and Science is one of tension. The inner turmoil and constant need to self examine continue to drive my Art and mould my personality. Science does influence my Art. The more I know about something the better I can depict Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land
it in picture space. What I learned about vegetation classes and other distributions in the natural world plays out in my work. It helps to show, or at least suggest those physical elements actually present. I wouldn’t put an elephant in a western landscape but it could end up there if the picture space became more Surreal in presentation. I delve down that Surrealist path primarily because it does push to develop techniques I might not other wise consider. Your works have been intensively exhibited in many occasions: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? As the move of Art from traditional gallery spaces, to street and especially to online platforms — as Instagram — increases, how would in your opinion change the relationship with a globalised audience? Eric Matranga: I’ve been pretty alienated from society since the turmoil of the Sixties and see much of that social conflict rearing it’s ugly head again. I can’t believe we are going here again and I don’t understand. When I retired, the pain associated with my pursuit of science and the use of the computer nearly left me immobile. My health has certainly benefited from painting and not sitting in front of a computer all day, but I can’t do what I did when I was younger. Technology means I can share what I do digitally, but I would much rather create Art than try and market what I do. I do want to continue getting my work accepted in online shows and getting more exposure than brick and mortar exhibitions are going to garner. I find the passage of time to be a very curious phenomena. I am a very different individual at sixty five than was that wide eyed young man who joined the Navy at eighteen to see the world. I am truly amazed at how fresh all the memories are, as if it were just yesterday. The changes in technology have been phenominal, but I would question if we are really better off for them. Are we really becoming more efficient or have we lost what is truly important. I have been convinced for a long time we are instead spinning faster and faster without actually going somewhere and accomplishing objectives, I used to call it “high speed neutral” and refused to play.. Technology is such that we can transmit instantaneously and create records for eternity but I question whether it is worth the effort and have we learned anything? All this is out of my hands and I just spend what time I have left productively in Art and constantly seek more from what I do. The process is important. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Eric. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? Eric Matranga: I have been working in various aspects of arts education with children in the past several years and feel very strongly that these efforts are rewarding. I can’t change the horrendous condition our natural environment is in as we pass it to them. I hope I can inspire them and give them the confidence to pursue artistic ventures and seek what is real, not what they want to find. Hopefully that is enough, and I encourage them to do it better and more sustainably than we did. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
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I can’t change the past and refuse to waste time on “what if”. Most of us have very little influence on what goes on around us day to day and the societal disconnect between individuals and groups is remarkable. Art can be judgement free and can be the platform on which to rebuild community and heal the division between and among us that distract from what is really important. Art and Science must reveal answers for an alternative path of sustainability and collective health going forward that isn’t commodified and tainted by greed. Sounds like a pretty tall order but also a worthy objective going forward. Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] West to the Orient
Hello Marie-Judith and welcome to LandEscape. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit https://www.mariejudith.com in order to get a wide idea about your multifaceted artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. As a basically self-taught artist, are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as an artist? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum direct the trajectory of your current artistic research? Marie-Judith Jean-Louis: Thank you for the I create to better understand my surroundings and to uncover the mysteries behind people, nature, places and how they relate to one another. I study them through my sketches, words, drawings and paintings, looking for connections and meaning. I tend to paint a lot of cloud scenes. They are visual meditations pieces, exploring the interactions between the viewers’ mind and the art. I have an obsession with finding meaning behind my subjects: looking for the unseen and bringing them into light for others to see more. Creating art makes me feel more connected to people because I feel I understand them (and myself) better. With my art, I wish to convey a sense of human connection, curiosity, wonder, awe, and peace. Uplifting people’s spirit through my art energizes me. Knowing that there’s a chance that my art can help others appreciate life more gives me a great sense of purpose. The main message I aim to convey with my art is that our world is more wonderful and magical than we can ever imagine and that we are all connected. My goal is to be able to not only help others see and feel that as well. It has always been a goal of mine to participate in increasing the presence of positive, uplifting and insightful art and share it with as many people as possible so that I can contribute in positively impacting the lives of as many people as I can. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Land scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW LandEscape meets Marie-Judith Jean-Louis
Marie-Judith Jean-Louis Photo by Sean Brown (IG @seandeanbrown)
warm welcome. Yes, there are several experiences that influence my evolution as an artist. Too many to count. I’ve always had an appreciation for art and have been drawing since I could hold a pen. It’s what I would do during all my spare time, but there are a few highlights that come to mind: The earliest one was when I was around 5 years old and my teacher thought my parents drew my homework assignment for me, which consisted of drawing a scene from a book. I still vividly remember drawing on the kitchen table the night before. Then receiving a grade of zero from the teacher telling me I cheated. I was shocked, sad and confused. On one hand I was flattered that she thought it was made by someone with more experience than me. On the other hand I was hurt that she thought I lied and thought I wasn’t good enough to draw like this. I still have the apology letter after my mother confronted her about it. Another major influence was my introduction to the Urban Sketchers group. At the time, I was looking to be around creative people and reignite my passion for drawing as a hobby. I joined their symposium in Barcelona and met with many talented artists and hobbyists. Being around them gave me more confidence and inspired me to start the Toronto Chapter of the group. It also put me in contact with other artists and organizations in the city helping artists thrive, such as Mural Routes and STEPS Public Art. A more recent influence was the opportunity I received to intern with American trompe-l’oeil muralist John Pugh in his California studio in 2018. I got to see first hand what the life of a successful professional artist can look like. I also participated in creating large scale murals, which is something I wasn’t used to and was a bit afraid to tackle. But working along side other artists under Pugh’s guidance gave me more confidence in my abilities, expanded my technical knowledge and broadened my perception of the life of an artist. Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Anchored Thought
I grew up in an environment where being an artist was seen only as a hobby not a career. So this has also been on a journey of shedding old mental constructs around what’s possible for me as an artist. When it comes to my series of paintings around clouds and mindfulness. A trip to Washington DC was a the turning point for me to get that series started. I was walking and observing some sites when I suddenly felt compelled to look up and saw a cloud in the shape of a question mark as my mind was taking in all the sights and wondering about many things in my life. The synchronicity caught my attention. Not too long after, I started to paint more clouds and the series slowly started to take shape. The body of works that we have selected for this special edition of LandEscape and that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article, has at once captured our attention for the way it walks your audience to dive into the unknown, helping them to discover the sense of connection that bonds ourselves with each other: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how did you develop the idea of your Strings of thoughts series? Marie-Judith Jean-Louis: I’m quite the introspective thinker and dreamer by nature. When I was painting clouds, each painting kept bringing new ideas. Every time I finished scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
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Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land a painting, I would look back at it and discover new insights about how I view the world, life an my place in it. After making the connection between clouds and thoughts and playing around with various ideas from my Mindfulness series, one day I thought of connecting clouds with strings after creating the piece called Pulled Thoughts and another Tangled Thought. Once I created the pieces called Strings of Thoughts and String of Thought Knot, I felt compelled to expend on the idea of strings of thoughts into a new separate series. The shapes are mostly created intuitively. One paint stroke informing the next until I felt it was time to stop. My process parallels the idea of the sculptor uncovering the existing sculpture within the slab of stone. But instead of removing materials, I’m adding material. but with the clouds. Instead of removing material, I add paint until I see a shape that feels right. We have appreciated the delicate, thoughtful nuances of your artworks, and that in your Strings of thoughts series you draw the viewers to such an immersive visual experience. How does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in your artworks and how do you develop your textures in order to achieve such unique results? In particular, would you tell us something about the duality of blue/red tones that marks out the background of the works from your series? With their apparent simplicity, your artworks are marked out with unique combination between rigorous
Tangled Thought
Time To Think: Past
sense of geometry and precise choice of tones, able to provide your works with recognizable visual identity: do you create your works intuitively, instinctively? How important are improvisation and spontaneity in your practice? Marie-Judith Jean-Louis: Thank you. For the String of Thoughts series I had a vague idea that I wanted : combine strings and clouds in paintings and see what I would discover from that experiment. The choice of the blue and pink backgrounds came instinctively at first and then I just intuitively decided to keep going with a simple colour palette to create a series. I tend to operate with both sides of my brain in everything I do: The logical left side and the creative right side. The initial concept is a very left brain process. It provides me with structure and the boundaries I need to be able to focus on creating a certain body of work from start to finish. I had a clear objective for this series. I find if I’m too loose, the work doesn’t get Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Time to think: Present Confined Thoughts
done. So for this series I decided on two main background colours, a limited colour palette, and a small wood canvas for each piece. Once that was established, I was able to let my right brain take the lead and just create with the tools and boundaries that were provided. The shapes of the clouds, the tone of the background, even the direction of the strings were mostly all intuitive and in the moment. There was very little planning at this point. I just let my hand guide me and ‘listened’ to any direction that came to mind as I was painting. And then there’s a point where my mind tells me the painting is done. So I stop. After that, I take a look back at the work and try to understand what it means to me. And the more I look back at it after a while, the more gets revealed to me. That’s one of the parts that I find fascinating about my painting process. It’s almost as if my subconscious paints the picture and I get to decode the message once it’s completed. I never paid too much attention to the duality of my background colour choices for these paintings until now when the questions was asked. It’s a perfect example on how the viewer contributes to the painting by their own observations. Now that I look at it, it reminds me of the dualities of life: the left logical side (blue) and the right creative side (pink). Coincidentally, it also illustrates the importance I tend to place on the balance between planning vs being spontaneous. Being structured vs being fluid. It’s part of my process but it’s also part of my essence : I’m a Libra sun. We’re all about balancing dualities. The stimulating surrealistic feeling that pervades your paintings takes on allegorical meanings. In this sense, your artworks have more than a story to tell and trigger the viewers' imagination, addressing them to elaborate personal interpretations: how open would you like your works to be understood? As an artist particularly interested in exploring the interactions between the viewers’ mind and the art, how important is it for you to invite the viewers to extract particular meanings from the images that you create? Marie-Judith Jean-Louis: Thank you. I love the fact that there is an infinite number of ways to interpret my paintings and I’m always open to hear what it reveals to others. There’s a quote, I believe by Anaïs Nin, that perfectly illustrates my understanding of how viewers see my paintings : “We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are”. I’ve come to realize that everything we see is subjective to a certain degree. Different sets of eyes, different backgrounds, different life experiences, different moods and emotions will influence someone’s interpretation of my work. I’m always curious to find out what viewers see in them because it expands my own perception and also gives me a better understanding of others and how we relate to one another. I’m at a point where I think we’re all various facets of the same prism, reflecting the same light from different angles. My personal view is limited but it gets to expand by learning about the perspectives of others. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition
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Pulled thought
As you have remarked once, you create to better understand your surroundings: how do your surroundings — as well as your mood — influence your work as a visual artist and how does your everyday life's experience fuel your creative process? Marie-Judith Jean-Louis: I’m curious by scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Let Go
nature. I learn from everything and everyone around me. My surroundings inform my subconscious on a continual basis. Random things will grab my attention: From an impromptu conversation with neighbours, to reading personal development books, listening to a podcast, catching an intriguing post on social media, capturing the colour Elaine Crowe scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Love
palette of a particular sunset, etc. These experiences plant a seeds of ideas in my mind. Eventually the fruit of these seeds find their way into my artworks. I feel my job is to pay attention to my surroundings and my emotions : be the observer first. Then note them down and allow my subconscious to create the new connections and fuel my creativity. scape CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW Land Special Edition Synchronize