Gallery Artists in Gallery 2: Artur Popek, Marina Aguilera, Vajira Gunawardena and Katherine Arion
Artur Popek
Artur Popek, fluent in English and Polish, is Dean of Art, at the prominent University Marii-Curie Sklodowskiej in Lublin Poland exhibits worldwide in museums. The work below is from the distinguished museum in Lublin: National Museum in Lublin, Poland (Muzeum Narodowe w Lublinie, Polska). Artur Popek has exhibition history of paintings and prints in the Gadsden Arts Center & Museum, Florida, USA and Prints in Muzeum im. St. Staszica in Hrubieszów, Poland.
Exhibits include:
Gadsden Arts Center and Museum FL
Muzeum im. St Staszica, Poland
Legacy Artist Art Museums International.com
Uniwersytet Marii Curie Sklodowiey (Polish) Maria Curie Sklodowska University (English) faculty of art.
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Marina Aguilera
Marina Aguilera is a 3rd generation American born of Mexican heritage. She resides in Southern California as an English-speaking fine artist. Her art has been inspired by her family heritage, and particularly by her parents’ spirit as workers in the agricultural industry serving as an orange packer and orange picker. They nurtured their daughter’s rare talents, and as a result even as a teenager, she made significant cultural social contributions as part of a Mural Youth Group which converted graffiti ravaged walls into culturally enriched murals. Over 30 murals were painted between 1974 -1979 throughout the City of Santa Ana, CA. Aguilera, became a Disney Hotel Caricature Artist, and eventually she became self-employed as a professional Caricaturist drawing people from around the globe. Marina Aguilera is a noted California heritage artist and curator who is a visual historian of Mexican heritage and whose proud mural work currently is installed at Bush and 4th Street in Santa Ana, California. She is widely exhibited, and her work in social contributions has become significant to this worldwide museum of art which exhibits and honors museum level artists who have achieved demonstrated successes in the arts and who further make significant social contributions. Aguilera is known for her figurative fire of strength, passion, and the embracing of her roots, which is displayed in much of her work. Her art has a deep connection to women and the empowerment of women with the soul of her art expressing her sense of strength in womanhood, a foundation… which is unshakable. The vibrant intensity of color or use of black and white captivates her audience. Each piece of her art states a delicate balance of color, life, and history, which tells a story. The expressive strength of portrayal brings to life every artwork that Marina Aguilera has created.
Exhibits (include) :
Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA)
American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) conventions 2013/ 2014/ 2019/2020
The Hispanic Chamber Conferences and Conventions USA
Curator for The Boca de Oro Lit Fest, I and II, “ The Chicano Experience”
Curator for Mural unveilings In Santa Ana CA: Green Parrots of Santa Ana Ceramic Tile April 2019, Mural Feb 2020, and Here to Stay Mural March 2020
Awards: LULAC Orange County 2013 “Woman of the Year,” Congressman Lou Correa’s 2019 “Woman of the Year award,” and California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 2019 “Business Woman of The Year award”
Innovative Founder of Projects: Santa Ana Public Library History Room presents: Mini Documentary “Here to Stay” life of Chicana Artist Marina Aguilera, Cali Caliente Designs Latina Greeting Card Company (founder), GreenParrotsofSantaAna.Com (founder), Co-Founder of Murals de Corazon Art Project.
Grants: Santa Ana Arts Grant 2018, Community Engagement Grant 2019: International Artist Festival Akumal, Mexico
Riverside Art Museum
Bowers Museum
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Vajira Gunawardena
Vajira is an artist in Sri Lanka who speaks English and other languages and he is a worldwide exhibiting artist.
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Katherine Arion
Fluent in English, French and Romanian, native born Romanian artist, Katherine Arion arrived in the United States to live from her birthplace in Romania as a versatile, established Romanian exhibiting museum artist. After leaving Romania, she resided in Paris where she rapidly became a recognized artist. In Europe, she exhibited in the Gallery Arco in Rome, Italy, and showed in Paris in the Charpentier Gallery, which represented Chagall and Dali. Her exhibitions included La Nouvelle Gravure, Salon Permanent; the Gallery of the Hilton Hotel Paris, and in France, Jaques Mourlot of the Paris Mourlot Publishing House (publisher of Picasso and Chagall) published her work. In the Middle East, Arion exhibited at Gilart and Tel Aviv Galleries, Israel. In the US, her exhibits include Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The Rental Gallery and Sales Gallery at LACMA additionally represented work for many years. Katherine Arion has made social contributions including her Los Angeles City Art Project for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a painting of 2,000 square feet located at Hollywood Blvd. and Vermont. Artist Arion has a broad highly successful career that knows no boundaries in making social and cultural contributions. This includes work as an illustrator in her design of the latest Morton Salt Little Girl image, used for the last 30 years; as an Art Director, she started the Greater Los Angeles Jewish Journal; drew the storyboards for the Magic Mountain investment; drew the first MRI machine for Simon and Schuster Publications, and the first Laptop for “Laptop” magazine; and her versatility is endless as she painted “Windows” in a stained glass style as a permanent painting, a Public Art Work, which is in the Church of the Brethen.
Exhibits and Accomplishments
Palace Albruzzi, Venice Italy.”Body Language”
“Venice International Art Fair” Itay juried exhibitions.
Group Art Show Barcelona, Spain, ARTBOX PROJECTS, Zurich, Switzerland.
Group Art Show in Zürich, Switzerland, ARTBOX PROJECTS, Zurich, Switzerland
A mural for Estherleon Arts, “The Doves Of Peace and The Blossoming Sun”
Group Art Show, Holy Trinity Romanian Church, Los Angeles, CA,
A 200 sq ft Public Work Mural painted for a retirement home, Culver City, CA, “The Garden of Life/Babies From Five Nationalities On Lotus Flowers”
Group show in Miami, FL, ARTBOX, Zurich, Switzerland
Receipt of A Diploma of Appreciation awarded for Arion’s services to the Entertainment Industry as a portraitist painter of celebrities by the Southern California Motion Picture Council, Los Angeles, CA.
Representation and a video on YouTube were created by MGM Productions to honor Arion’s work
Portraits of people at the Romanian Celebration, Descanso Gardens CA
Permanent installation, Consulate General of Romania, Los Angeles, CA.
Solo exhibit in the Romanian Consulate, Los Angeles, to celebrate the “National Day of Romania” – The art “Statue of Liberty With a Tear” was sent to the White House by the Romanian Consulate, LA.
Art Show at Congress of the American Romanian Academy of Sciences and Arts at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in conjunction with Jet Propulsion Laboratory/NASA
Three exhibitions, Mercantile Art Gallery, South Pasadena
Alex Theater Portraits, East LA Art Festival
Brand Library Glendale CA
Solo Art Exhibit Camden House, Beverly Hills CA
Los Angeles Airport Group Exhibit Los Angeles Cultural Affairs
City Hall solo exhibit Malibu Art Association – Second Prize Show;
“California 2000” and “Millennium” group shows at the Modern Art Gallery
Ashkenazy Gallery solo exhibit “Celebration of Nature”
Park LaBrea solo exhibit “About Consciousness”,
Solo Art Exhibit “Iby Fine Art” Beverly Hills
Romanian Embassy, Paris Solo Exhibit “The Dancing Trees”
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
Gallery on the Rim in San Francisco solo exhibit “Communication”
Exhibition, L.A.County Museum of Art
Dominus Z Art Gallery in Bucharest, Romania
Gallery on the Rim, San Francisco CA solo exhibit “Wonder-Trees of the World”
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Los Angeles CA Group Art Exhibit honored the L.A. Sheriff’s Department officers killed in the line of duty
Portraits: President George W. Bush exhibited in Washington, DC; Mayor of Los Angeles Richard J. Riordan; Barbara Hooper; Peter O’Toole; Jose Feliciano; Carol Connors; Anita Talbert, Bill Bogaard Mayor of Pasadena; Gloria Molina LA Supervisor
Subjects of Arion’s exhibition below: Chagall in the act of painting, Dracula, Romanian clothing in women’s portraits,
