Artists

Early Beginnings of Singulart’s Artists

All artists have a story behind their work and their current style. The origins and beginnings of their artistic universe hide interesting and humorous stories that give meaning to their current art. At Singulart, we wanted to highlight origin stories of some our artists’ art.

Marco aka STOZ, Italy

Marco Stazzini (aka STOZ) is an emerging Italian artist with international exposure. He started drawing when he was four years old using colored pastels on the wall of his bedroom, to the great irritation of his parents. 

He was constantly drawing on anything that could be used as a canvas. Even when he finished his day at school, he secretly wrote on the walls at the city park in Milan on his way back home. Then, every day, he went back to said wall and continued writing on it. 

He crossed out and rewrote his thoughts on it, and in doing so, he noticed that the strange overlaps formed an intertwining of abstract shapes. You can still see this influence in his paintings.

CBS 94 (2020), Marco Stazzini Aka Stoz

After that, he attended the art school in Milan and would go on to participate in an artistic internship in New York in 2016 when his mentor, Morena Beltrami of the MoBeArt Gallery, urged him to do so. Here, together with other young artists, he continued working and developing his signature artistic style. 

All these experiences have fueled a desire that has made him the artist he is today, and he will continue to do the very thing that brings him the greatest sense of joy: creating art. 

Anna Sidi-Yacoub, Ireland

With exhibitions around Great Britain, Irish painter and sculptor Anna Sidi-Yacoub is intent on manifesting her artistic desires. 

One of her earliest memories was receiving an artwork from her youngest Polish aunt, Bernadka. Also, Anna had a small photograph of her face in black and white that she absolutely adored. When she was 12 years old she decided to draw it on A4 paper using a black pencil, which her mother then folded in four and sent to Anna’s aunt inside a letter. 

After many years, Anna visited her aunt during her studies and she still had the folded paper with the drawing, proudly showing it to her niece. 

Anna studied architecture in Kraków, Poland. She had a class which involved drawing different subjects, but didn’t have time to paint what she liked the most: portraits. Her painted portraits began many years later but started with the drawing of her Aunt Bernadka. 

Xiaoyang Galas, China

Xiaoyang Galas is a Chinese artist living and working in France. In her paintings, Xiaoyang seeks to bring together the East and West. Her technique, often mixed, acrylic, oil, collage and plant tissues, can give an impression of patching. Most of her early artworks are oil paintings in figurative style, influenced firstly by her uncle (a very famous oil-painter in China) and later by the artworks from Egon Schiele. 

Her uncle’s name was Du Yongqiao (1934-2007), an oil painter well known as a “Master of Oriental Colors” in China. Both of them were always connected to the world through color.

“I still remember painting with my uncle outdoors during summer vacation when I was a child..”

Xiaoyang’s early work: Lumière (2009)

Xiaoyang discovered Egon Schiele’s paintings when she was 16 years old. The great artworks of Schiele touched her soul deeply and left a mark. 

“I guess from that moment I decided to be an artist!”

From 1993 until 1998, she studied Fine Art (Painting) and received a master’s degree in Chinese Art History & Art Critic from the Sichuan Fine Art Academy, the same academy where her uncle taught oil paintings as a professor. The influence of her uncle and Egon Schiele can be seen through her entire oeuvre.

Tarik Chebil, France

Tarik Chebil is a French painter whose work has been exhibited nationally. His acrylic on canvas paintings seem to betray an impulsive handling of materials, though, upon closer inspection, one can discern a tangible subject in Cherbli’s images. The story we want to share is not about how he started painting but about his first experience of selling art.

He won a student contest when he was around 20 years old and a Portuguese collector fell in love with his work. It was his first sale and since the shipment to Lisbon was too expensive, he decided to deliver the artwork by himself. However, the artworks didn’t fit inside the car and he had to mount the artwork on top of the car. As his sister was going through a difficult period in her life, it seemed the perfect excuse to join Tarik and make a little holiday out of it with her friend, all while experiencing the whole process of selling his first artwork.

Ruben Abstract, Spain

Ruben Abstract is a Spanish painter who works to fill walls with energy, color, and optimism, fusing enamel and acrylics. Abstract centers much of his work around the motif of the lone swimmer, moving against the grain.

Swimmers 771 is about swim, swim, swim, shiny water, ready-to-hang healthy moments …

Surrounded by sport from a young age, his surfer uncle showed him videos of Hawaii’s Ironman which aroused an interest in challenges and sports. He started to prepare for a Triathlon and then he decided to do the IRONMAN in Lanzarote, which is one of the most difficult events in the world.

Once he completed the challenge, Ruben felt the need to do something else with his life. “What now?” he said. It was at this point that he discovered Singulart painter Carla Sá Fernandes on Instagram. Faced with so much routine among the hustle and bustle in his life, he decided to start painting. Inspired by the Emotions series of paintings, the self-taught artist developed his own style and technique.

Then, he was inspired to paint thanks to the images of the Hawaiian Ironman swimmers’ outing. However, he saw that something was missing and started adding a swimmer swimming against the grain. It was here that he started to identify with his work, with the swimmer going against the current regardless of what others think of him. We all live in the sea that is life, where we can choose between living with attitude or living according to societal norms. This is the motif that serves as inspiration for Ruben to continue painting and gives purpose to his life.

Michiel Folkers, Netherlands

The popularity of graffiti on the streets of Amsterdam led Michiel to start painting and enter the art world at the age of 10. After experimenting with this hobby and the problems it entails as a teenager, the art soon evolved into a more accessible form: the street art of today. Michiel started to bring his art to the canvas, but it was still a hobby since he worked for an advertising agency.

Being less traditional but completely independent is the ultimate pleasure for me. Basically I do everything myself. “

However, there came a time when his passion knocked on the door and he left his job to devote himself fully to painting. It was a difficult time in his life as it was not easy to sell and earn money, he needed to work as a DJ in order to pay the rent.

My goal in life is to spend every second doing what I feel like doing.  Mainly do what I feel like and that is mainly painting.”

Michiel did not give up. He created his own style, and thanks to Instagram, his works have reached many more admirers that extended beyond his circle of friends. It was then that he contacted galleries in London, Zurich, and New York which led to art lovers getting an insight into Michiel’s passion.

Discover more about early artists beginnings and great master’s first pieces here.