Franco Mondini-Ruiz (b. 1961) is an American artist who lives and works in New York, New York and San Antonio, Texas. According to art critic Roberta Smith, his work "questions notions of preciousness and art-market exclusivity while delivering a fizzy visual pleasure." Mondini-Ruiz takes a variety of approaches to creating art, working in installation, performance, painting, sculpture, and short stories.

Gallery Nord

BARBEL HELMERT: GICLEE PRINTS & ASSEMBLAGES
German native, Alpine, Texas artist Barbel Helmert will exhibit two different series in two different media: giclee prints and assemblages. Their common thread is the artist's taking "the ordinary and mundane out of context and elevating it into something extraordinary." Each Assemblage is an arrangement of a multitude of found materials that is both playful and serious. The giclee prints, taken at a ranch outside Ft. Stockton, are all detail shots of ordinary objects taken out of context and transformed into something new. The artist's attention to detail, texture and composition is characteristic of her work no matter what media she is working in. Barbel Helmert has exhibited throughout North America, Europe and Australia.

ANEMONE TONTSCH: JEWELRY DESIGN
Romanian native, Düsseldorf, Germany artist Anemone Tontsch will exhibit her "everything is possible" jewelry designs. Anemone loves taking everyday things and bringing them into a new context; she plays with perception and effect thus her view that everything is, indeed, possible. Anemone looks at materials and techniques combining all possible manners of arts and crafts. Her pieces, she says, are expressions of a single moment, a situation, a temptation but always with humor. Her work has been shown in many galleries in the United States and Europe.

INGE-ROSE LIPPOK: PRINTS & LEPORELLOS
Hannover, Germany native Inge-Rose Lippok will exhibit three separate series:one group of prints entitled "Chairs and Stools" and a second entitled "Searching for the Key to Comprehension." Both series explore the artist's opinion on the beauty of the distorted together with new prospects, angles, perspectives and colorful fantasies.
In the third series, "Leporello Diaries," Inge-Rose transforms everyday ideas and inspirations into visual symbols and signs. Inge-Rose Lippok is an excellent painter, but the two-dimensional painting is often not enough to express herself properly so she creates books, objects, folding picture-books, large-sized installations, often with music and performances. She has exhibited throughout Europe and North America.

ANEMONE TONTSCH