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Argentian artist Marta Estrems, one of the leading Latin American Abstractionists, imbues her ethereal and often enigmatic canvasses with a powerful repertoire of emotional depth, kinetic energy and visual imagery, evoking complex connotations within deeper layers of the viewers' intuitive perception. 
Her work is a form of meditation, an invitation to quiet the noise of the external world and to slow down to access the deeper layers of the self and human interconnectedness.
Marta Estrems' paintings seek to visualize the human capacity to connect with nature and each other, focussing on the inexpressible, the intangible, and the immaterial, with her abstract canvasses forming a bridge between our inner and outer world experiences.

Marta Estrems (born in 1949 in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina) received most of her professional training in Buenos Aires and initially pursued studies at the Manuel Belgrano National School of Fine Arts, where she obtained a degree in teaching visual arts. She later studied in the Master of fine arts program, majoring in drawing, painting, and sculpture at the Prilidiano Pueryrredon National School of Fine Arts. She moved to the United States in 1987 and lives and works in Miami.

Throughout her career, Estrems has participated in more than twenty exhibitions in Argentina, Italy, Spain, and the United States. Her work has been shown in cultural institutions such as PIAG Museum (Coral Gables, FL), Armory Art Center (West Palm Beach, FL), the Alvin Sherman Library (Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale), and the Latino Art Museum (Pomona, CA) among others. Her most recent solo exhibition includes “Containment: The Tao of Aesthetics” (Arch Gallery, Miami, 2012) and “Painting and Drawings by Marta Estrems” (Miami Beach Botanical Garden, 2008). 

CHARLES LOUIS BLANK (B. HAMMOND, LOUISIANA, 1948) HAS BEEN WORKING AS A CONTEMPORARY ARTIST FOR OVER 50 YEARS. HE RECEIVED HIS TRAINING AT LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY. EARLY IN HIS CAREER, HIS DREAM-LIKE PAINTINGS OF DISQUIETING FIGURES, WHICH INCORPORATED MYSTICISM, ICONIC DISTORTION, AND PICTORIAL DRAMA, LABELED HIM AS ONE OF THE FEW "VISIONARY IMAGISTS" OF THE TIME.

HE ACHIEVED FAME IN THE 1980S. IN 1994, HE WAS FORCED TO STEP BACK FROM THE ART WORLD DUE TO HIS DETERIORATING MENTAL HEALTH BUT HAS CONTINUED TO EVOLVE WITHIN HIS PAINTINGS EVER SINCE.

AROUND 2010, FOLLOWING HIS MOTHER'S PASSING, HE BECAME ENTIRELY HOMEBOUND. HIS WORK TRANSITIONED BETWEEN THE OX FIELD BEHIND HIS HOUSE AND PURE ABSTRACTION, INCORPORATING HIS EXPRESSIONIST COLOR SCHEME AND STYLE OF THICKLY LAYERED PAINT. HE DRAWS FROM THE VOCABULARY OF LOUISIANA’S CULTURAL HERITAGE AND HIS DYSTOPIAN, SURREALISTIC LANDSCAPES ACT AS A FOIL TO THE BUCOLIC NOSTALGIA OF HIS OX FIELD SERIES, A METAPHOR OF A COUNTRY ONLY EXISTING AS A MEMORY AND THE SENSE OF IMPENDING ERADICATION ENCAPSULATED IN THE SMALL STRIP OF LAND AS A LAST STRONGHOLD.

BLANK'S WORKS ARE PART OF THE PERMANENT COLLECTION IN THE NEW ORLEANS MUSEUM OF ART AND THE HUNTSVILLE MUSEUM OF ART