Archives: Artists

Itzchak Tarkay was born in 1935 in Subotica on the Yugoslav-Hungarian border during one of Europe’s darkest periods. At age nine, he and his family were sent to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, which they miraculously survived. After liberation in 1945, young Itzchak discovered in art a powerful way to express his love for life, transforming tragedy into celebrations of beauty and joy.

In 1949, his family emigrated to Israel, where Tarkay won a scholarship to the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. He later studied at the prestigious Avni Institute of Art and Design in Tel Aviv, mentored by important Israeli artists including Moshe Mokady and Marcel Janko. After a successful solo exhibition in 1956 at age 26, he took a fifteen-year break from painting before his triumphant return in 1975.

Tarkay’s international breakthrough came at the 1986 International Artexpo in New York, where he caught the attention of Park West Gallery Founder Albert Scaglione. His elegant paintings of fashionable ladies in cafés and drawing rooms reveal influences from French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, particularly Henri Matisse’s vibrant palette and decorative style. He passed away in 2012 at age 77, and Park West Gallery remains the exclusive agent for his estate, continuing to share his inspiring vision with collectors worldwide.

Charles Lee is a versatile artist known for his ability to move seamlessly between pencil-drawn portraits, tranquil landscapes, arresting abstracts, and serene musicians. Growing up in Seoul, Korea, Lee showed an affinity for art at age seven, though his father disapproved and would destroy his awards. Despite these hardships, Lee earned a gold medal in an international competition during high school and went on to major in art at university, holding his first show at age twenty-three.

Lee gained a following in the 1970s while exhibiting in group shows in Hong Kong and Tokyo, and presented his second solo exhibition at the Tae Yoon and Man Kang galleries in Seoul. His popularity soared in the 1980s when many of his works were introduced to the United States while he was employed at the Gaius Art Studio. Lee arrived in the United States in 1991 and worked with a Miami wholesaler of fine art before eventually settling in Florida with his wife and two children.

Today, Lee paints primarily in three distinct styles: a classical representational style with notes of romanticism, a contemporary naïve style noted for its simplicity and colorful planes harkening to Cubism, and a purely abstract style. He embraces oils, watercolors, and acrylics, often painting with a bright palette including gold foil. His low-relief mixed media compositions are accomplished through the use of Gesso, giving his artwork the illusion of emerging from the canvas. Lee is represented by Park West Gallery.

Daniel Wall creates what he calls “Intense Impressionism”—a vibrant fusion of Western Impressionist techniques and 2,000-year-old Eastern artistic traditions. His bold, colorful paintings of florals, butterflies, cityscapes, and American icons like the Statue of Liberty and Old Glory have captivated collectors worldwide. His work proved so popular that his paintings were featured in Washington, D.C.’s Petalpalooza Festival, the annual cherry blossom celebration attended by hundreds of thousands.

Born in a remote Chinese village in 1965, Wall began drawing at age four with materials his aunt, a teacher, brought home. His mother, a self-taught artist, guided his early development. At sixteen, he won a scholarship to teachers college, then studied fine arts at the provincial university in Shandong. After working as an illustrator and magazine arts editor, he and his wife came to the United States in 1995. Though he earned a Master’s in mathematics with computer science concentration from Georgia Southern University, Wall chose to pursue his lifelong passion as a full-time artist.

Wall’s technique combines Monet’s palette knife application with the dry-brush methods of Chinese calligraphy, creating dramatic impasto textures and intensified colors. Now a proud U.S. citizen living in North Carolina with his family, Wall is represented by Park West Gallery. As he explains, “I want the bright colors to inspire people to feel that every day is a good day.”

Jeff Vermeeren is the innovator behind an exciting new style he calls Extreme Abstract, in which he uses fire, freezing, pressure, and volatile chemicals to create vibrant, color-soaked works of breathtaking metallic art. Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Vermeeren gravitated toward art and creative pursuits at a young age, finding inspiration through exploration and discovery as he manipulated and repurposed everyday items.

Later in life, he founded his own construction and demolition company, which razes everything from full size buildings to small construction projects. This hands-on environment led to Vermeeren’s exploration with different techniques in creating art and ultimately to his signature Extreme Abstract style.

As described in Fine Art Magazine, Vermeeren’s process involves freezing his product, setting it on fire multiple times, and applying up to 15 layers of paint. The different temperatures brighten, darken, or coalesce to render swirling nebulae of cosmic proportion. The results often resemble ceramic, glass, or plastic, with many viewers convinced there’s a light behind his paintings. For now, Vermeeren keeps his exact techniques a closely guarded secret.

Today, Vermeeren originals are highly sought after by collectors around the world, and his work is represented by Park West Gallery.

Tim Yanke is an American artist celebrated for creating bold, rhythmic artwork inspired by the colors and culture of the Southwestern United States. His distinctive style has earned him collectors around the world who appreciate the sense of nostalgia his pieces evoke.

Yanke is best known for three signature subjects: vibrant abstract compositions, striking dragonfly imagery, and his patriotic representations of the U.S. flag, which he calls “Yanke Doodles.” Each body of work showcases his masterful use of color and his ability to transform familiar American imagery into compelling contemporary art.

The artist is represented by Park West Gallery, where his work continues to resonate with collectors who are drawn to his unique vision of American culture and landscape. His Southwestern-influenced palette and dynamic compositions have made him one of the most recognizable contemporary artists working today.

Jim Warren creates ethereal paintings that transport viewers to dreamlike worlds. Born in 1949 in Long Beach, California, Warren began drawing at age two and decided to pursue art professionally in 1967. Working primarily in surrealistic fantasy since 1969, he uses traditional oil paint on stretched canvas and is largely self-taught. Though inspired by masters like Dali, Rockwell and Rembrandt, Warren famously advises aspiring artists to paint what they like rather than follow rigid rules.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Warren built an impressive career creating album covers, movie posters, book covers and magazine illustrations for stars including Prince, Alice Cooper and Bob Seger. In 1981, he won a GRAMMY Award for his cover art for Bob Seger’s “Against the Wind” album, which topped the Billboard 200. His environmental painting “Earth – Love It or Lose It” became an iconic visual for the global environmental movement during the 1990s.

Warren has also created personalized paintings incorporating celebrities like Juliette Lewis and John Stamos, collaborated with Disney on fine art prints since 2004, and painted portraits for the Fame-Wall project in New York and Hollywood. Represented by Park West Gallery, Warren continues expanding his artistic vision from his studios in Florida and Oregon.

King Redd is a self-taught artist who bridges past and present, believing that older images and stories hold powerful resonance when conveying modern messages through art. Born in St. Croix in 1984, he moved to Miami in the late 1980s, where he still lives today with his wife and children. Raised by a single mother alongside five siblings, Redd discovered his artistic talent in second grade, initially drawing comic characters and superheroes before connecting with Miami’s graffiti scene and eventually exploring tattooing.

Redd’s creative process begins with identifying the message he wants to share, then searching through vintage cartoons, retro visual art, and old photographs to find fragments from the past that can be reimagined into something new. His work incorporates graffiti influences and vintage photography, resulting in a colorful explosion of human emotion and vivid memories that defies easy categorization.

Inspired by beloved Park West Gallery artist LEBO, who passed away in 2023, and by Basquiat’s example of carving one’s own artistic path, Redd has flourished in recent years. He collaborated with LEBO on a mural for Art Basel Miami that was featured in Forbes Magazine, created work for HBO’s Pod Save America, and exhibited at Art/New York. He has also produced original art for the Florida Panthers’ Black History Night celebration. Redd is represented by Park West Gallery.

Autumn de Forest has been a professional artist for most of her life, beginning her remarkable career at age six. Born in 2001 to Doug, a musician, and Katherine, a former actress and model, she discovered her passion at age five when she wandered into the family garage and asked to paint with wood stain. Her father was astonished by the result, noting it resembled work by Mark Rothko. Her parents nurtured her talent by converting their music studio into an art space, and at age seven, she won Best in Show at an Art in the Park event in Nevada.

De Forest’s career soared quickly. At age eight, she sold more than $100,000 in paintings in just sixteen minutes during a 2010 auction. The Discovery Channel dubbed her an “artistic genius,” while Dr. Joanne Ruthsatz of Ohio State University recognized her as an “advanced child prodigy.” Though self-taught, she descends from a lineage of recognized American painters including Roy de Forest, Lockwood de Forest, and George de Forest Brush.

The Las Vegas-based artist has developed innovative techniques including “pull painting,” which involves dragging paint across canvas with wire, and “wind painting,” using an air compressor with diluted acrylic paint. Drawing inspiration from masters like Warhol, Picasso, and O’Keeffe, she creates narrative works that often reimagine famous pieces with her unique perspective. De Forest is represented by Park West Gallery and dedicates her time and talent to numerous charitable causes.

Miguel Paredes is a quintessential New Yorker whose high-energy art combines the spirit of Broadway with influences from Tokyo’s Ginza, Seoul’s Gangnam style, Miami’s South Beach and the Vegas strip. Born and raised on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, he graduated from the high school that inspired the movie Fame. Like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paredes emerged from New York’s graffiti culture as a protégé of Andy Warhol’s studio collaborator Ronnie Cutrone. He has captivated a global collector base stretching from Manhattan to Tokyo with his storytelling across painting, sculpture, murals including 3D murals, fashion, NFTs and an animated TV series.

Paredes established himself as a Pop artist with an eye-catching graphic style featuring sexy characters and action figures in vibrant colors and crisp outlines. He is best known for his take on the Japanese anime aesthetic, including voluptuous girls and martial arts fighters. His irresistible characters include Pulgha, a magical flea, and her friends, who have been turned into a branded animated sitcom series. His New York Stories series pioneered a style he calls Urban Realism.

Now Miami-based with his wife and five children, Paredes works in the prestigious Wynwood Arts District. He was the first Miami-Dade resident honored by proclamations from the City of Miami Beach and Village of Pinecrest for supporting the Miami Design Preservation League’s Art Deco Welcome Center. His work has been featured every year at Art Basel Miami Beach since 2001, and he is represented by Park West Gallery.