illumine – Leslie Nolan and Chantal Zakari

In her bold, expressive paintings, fine artist Leslie Nolan tears down the barriers we all erect to mask our inner emotions, exposing hidden feelings. Based in Virginia near Washington, DC, Nolan has been creating and exhibiting in the USA and internationally since 1998. More than a way to capture a likeness, her expressive figurative work reflects an underlying concern with the human condition.

Distinguished by lively brushwork, vivid color, and texture, the paintings remain ambiguous and open to interpretation. A feeling of intimacy surges through each work. Viewers, imposing their own personal experiences on the emotionally rich imagery, respond individually and uniquely. The artist’s innovative paintings have been widely shown in the United States and abroad at museums, galleries, and art fairs, including Art Basel Miami Week, Los Angeles, New York City, Richmond, Washington DC, London and elsewhere. Leslie usually features acrylic paints in her work, but often uses house paint and other mixed media, too. Each piece is original and one of a kind.

Her artwork has been featured and reviewed in many magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post, American Psychologist magazine, Elan magazine, American Art Collector magazine, and on the Public Broadcasting Service national journalism website Next Avenue, “Picturing Success.”

Born in Oregon, Leslie studied at the University of Madrid in Spain, has a BA from Portland State University and holds MS degrees from both the George Washington University and the National Defense University. Leslie had a distinguished career in national security here and abroad with the US Government. Since retirement from the US Department of State she has been a working artist at her Virginia studio. She is represented by Calloway Fine Art & Consulting in Washington DC’s prestigious Georgetown area.

Chantal Zakari is a Turkish-Levantine artist (and recent US citizen). Trained as a graphic designer she has been creating hyper narratives for the Web practically since its inception: I.D. was published on the Web in 1994. She collaborated on a Web journal, The Turk and The Jew, with her husband Mike Mandel and in 1998 they published the work as an artists’ book under the same title. In 2001 under the pseudonym “Show-n-tell,” she began a four-year-long performance and documentation of an adult Webcam community. She authored and designed the book webAffairs (Eighteen Publications, 2005).

Mandel and Zakari collaborated for 15 years on a body of work about the conflict between secularist culture and the Islamist movement in Turkey. Their journey, which began in 1997, has resulted in photographic images, video interviews, and public performances. In 2010 they published The State of Ata (Eighteen Publications) with exhibits in Izmir, Ankara, Atlanta, Boston and Baltimore.

The couple ran an election campaign as an activist performance in their home town in Massachusetts in order to protest Walmart’s attempt to move in. After a successful six-month battle, in the spring of 2012, Walmart decided to pull out.

Their latest book, They Came to Baghdad, was published in September 2012 and is currently on tour as part of the “Al-Mutannabi Street Starts Here” artists’ book collection.

Zakari is a full time faculty member at SMFA in Boston. She was an associate member of the Goat Island performance group (1995-2010) and is currently serving as a board member of Belmont World Film. She has had solo shows nationally and internationally.