ROBIN LOCKE MONDA (USA)
(blog administrator)

Born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1950, Robin Locke Monda is a graphic designer, visual artist and writer. Commercial clients have included book publishers, advertising agencies, non-profits and cultural organizations. As a visual artist she works in “old” and “new” media, occasionally straddling the two (digital prints). She follows the currents that run between popular media, activism and creative art practice, and is especially interested in the relationship between art-making and commerce.

Locke Monda has shown at the New York State Museum, Katonah Museum of Art, New York Hall of Science (Queens), 55 Mercer Street (Manhattan), Thread Waxing Space (Manhattan), Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Pierogi 2000 (Brooklyn) and Silicon Gallery (Philadelphia), as well as a number of other spaces. Her poetry has been published in You Are Here: New York City Streets in Poetry (P&Q Press), and she has taught production courses in QuarkXPress, Photoshop, Illustrator, typography and book design at Pratt Manhattan, Parsons School of Design, School of Visual Arts and College of Staten Island (CUNY).

MALIN ABRAHAMSSON (SWEDEN / USA)
Malin Abrahamsson was born in a small town in northern Sweden, 1971. In 1991 she traveled with her older sister through Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia for seven months. She also traveled extensively through Europe and the Americas, then attended the Fine Arts Program at Sunderby Folkhögskola, Sweden before moving to New York in 1995 to study at School of Visual Arts. She received her BFA in sculpture in 1998. She now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

An active artist (www.malinabrahamsson.com), Abrahamsson is represented by Sara Nightingale Gallery. Her work has been represented in Sweden and the United States. Her work has been on view at Concepto Gallery, Goliath Visual Space, Joymore, The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, The Noble Maritime Collection Museum, and Konstens Hus, Luleå, Sweden.

In 2007, Abrahamsson was awarded the “Arts For Transit Permanent Art Award” by Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York for the permanent decoration of a commuter train station on the LIRR. Recent grants, residencies, and awards include a chashama North Residency (2007); Premier Project Grant, funded by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Council on the Arts & Humanities of Staten Island (COAHSI) (2006); chashama AREA Visual Arts Studio Award, New York (2005); Kulturnämndens Arbetsstipendium, Skellefteå Kommun, Sweden; YEAR: Young European Artists at Ricklundgården, Sweden; JuneFest Exhibiting Arts Awards, New York; Lambent Fellow of the Arts Nomination, New York (all 2004) and the Irene C. Fromer Award for the Visual Arts, New York (2003).

TIM PORTLOCK (USA)
Tim Portlock was born in Chicago in 1969. Growing up bi-racial in Chicago at a time when the city was one of the most segregated in the country, has informed Portlock ‘s lifelong interest in the dialogue between place and the formation of identity. Educated primarily as a painter, Portlock has worked as a community-based muralist as well as a studio painter. During the last several years, his art-making practice incorporates traditional and new media, such as “Super Spectacular!” a 3D environment constructed from hand-drafted drawings. Portlock’s most recent work uses 3D gaming technology to simulate real world and imagined spaces. He is presently an assistant professor in the Film and Media Studies Department at Hunter College in New York City, where he teaches 3D animation and 3D game modification. He has exhibited in France, UK, Poland, Argentina, US, Austria and Japan as well as other various venues in Europe, North America and Asia.

ESTEBAN CHAVEZ (USA)
Born in the Denver, Colorado in 1954, Esteban Chavez is a professional artist residing in the New York City Area. He received his MFA from the Yale School of Art in 1985. Esteban is a master printmaker who has received international recognition in both Asia and Europe. His work is in the permanent collections of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Republic of China, the Smithsonian Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and El Museo del Barrio in New York City. He received the Grand Prize in the 5th Biennial of Prints from the Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, Japan in 1993, and won fellowships from the New York Foundation of the Arts in 1995 and 2003.

Chavez’s work is varied, and includes printmaking, artist’s books, sculpture, oil painting, installation, and digital imaging. Following in the tradition of caustic social commentary created by the likes of Jose Clement Orozco and Francisco Goya, Esteban’s art lambastes the hubris of Empire with monumental paper tapestries, political oil vignettes, and monumental wooden heads.

ROSS BARBER (AUSTRALIA) Ross Barber has considerable experience in Australia and internationally in the development and management of Inclusive Arts and Community Cultural Development practice and programs. He was appointed the Executive Director of Access Arts Inc (Queensland) in May 2004, bringing with him an entirely new philosophy of staff employment, development and regional engagement in Queensland and in Asia. His approach has precipitated a rise in the organisations reputation as an arts and cultural sector leader in the development and employment of administrators, artists and cultural workers experiencing a disability and for developing quality projects programs workshops events and exhibitions in a whole of community context. Ross is a Queensland government, Arts Queensland Industry Peer and continues to maintain his professional practice as an artist developing and regularly exhibiting new installation work. Recognition of his contribution to the Arts includes a Commonwealth Centenary of Federation Medal: for Distinguished Service to the Arts, Ross has a Bachelor of Visual Arts, University of Western Sydney and a Master of Fine Arts Queensland University of Technology.

EDWARD D. MILLER (USA)
Edward D. Miller was born in New York City in 1960, and continues to live there. Miller’s scholarship focuses on radio and nonfiction media. His book Emergency Broadcasting and 1930s American Radio (2003) has been widely recognized. Miller is currently completing Episodes of Reality, which examines the rise of nonfictionality in American popular culture in the early 1970s. Recently he appeared aboard the Staten Island Ferry as well as on WNYC radio. He also composes sound collages and rotates these pieces at www.myspace.com/acousmetre. He has been published in many online journals and publications and maintains the web log Adventures In and Out of Mainstream Media at http://milleremedia.blogspot.com. Miller is Associate Professor of Media Culture at the College of Staten Island and also teaches in the Film Studies Certificate Program at the Graduate Center, The City University of New York. His approach is influenced by his training in performance studies and an ongoing interest in critiques of Western philosophical and cultural traditions. Miller has also worked extensively in downtown New York theater. Before academia, Miller’s career was in magazine publishing and nonprofit management.

FIVEL ROTHBERG (USA)
Fivel Rothberg was born in Philadelphia in 1978. He is a student in Hunter’s Integrated Media Arts MFA Program, is a dedicated father to his 9-year-old son, with whom he shares time between Philly and Manhattan. For the past 7 years Rothberg has devoted his time to creating and presenting independent media that engages audiences, stimulates dialogue, encourages progressive social change, and bridges cultural divides.

BETH GORRIE