The raw, almost childlike appearance of Ryan's work belies his reflective underlying vision. Ryan appreciates the unexpected or enigmatic juxtapositions in terms of both theme and placement, and often bring a sense of humor to bear on troubling contemporary issues. This sensibility, combined with quick, instinctive brushstrokes and a vibrant palette, results in striking images that can simultaneously disturb and entertain.

While a keen sense of composition informs his work, Ryan cite the less cultivated elements of the hand-lettered sign and the pop song, as two key influences that have contributed as much as his formal training to his bold signature style. These influences have led to the creation of an art that is referential, though not necessarily representational, thought-provoking and playful, and that takes the viewer on a brief, lyrical journey full of free association and surprise.

Ryan studied art at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and at SUNY in New Paltz, NY where he currently lives on an old farmstead. Ryan has had several museum and gallery exhibitions and he has participated in several outdoor installations including the Guggenheim Museum; The Sancturay Gallery; Hammond Museum; Katonah Museum of Art; Varga Gallery; and Van Brunt Gallery. Besides this exhibition at the Brill Gallery, Ryan's works are presently being exhibited at the Scoop Gallery in Charleston, SC and at the Dorsky Museum in New Paltz. Ryan is an avid fisherman and he will be participating in making Trout Art for the HOOSAC RIVER LIGHTS II Event

Joanna Gabler was born in Poland. It was while studying philosophy at the University of Warsaw in the 1970s that she began to see and feel a strong connection between the spiritual forces in nature and mankind. Joanna went on to become an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Podlasie and it was at that time that she explored painting with water colors as a way to help express her feelings. In 1989 she emigrated to the United States and found work on Wall Street while continuing with arts courses at FIT and Pratt. Joanna became known for her flower paintings. After 9/11 Joanna moved to the Northern Berkshire Region of Massachusetts where she began her deep exploration of the region's spiritual offerings including churches, meditation retreats and sweat lodges. Her art became even more entwined with nature as she tried to capture what she was experiencing during her long walks in the woods.

Joanna's paintings have been exhibited in several individual and group shows including the Chart Mind Gallery, Nomura Corporate Gallery, Lenox Gallery and the Threshold Center. Works have been purchased by private collectors in Europe and the U.S. Interestingly, several health and healing centers including Starseed, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Women's House of Peace, and the Foxhollow Clnic have found that Joanna's paintings offer therapeutic values to their clients.

In 2008 Joanna took her Nikon digital camera with her on a trip to Europe and took many photographs of architectural and natural forms. Back in Massachusetts, Joanna began to experiment with these images and she learned how to manipulate them in new and exciting ways. She was able to convey stories of her spiritual and natural journeys beyond what was possible with her oil paintings. Each image is carefully built up from a single photograph. Hundreds of hours are then spent in front of her computer to capture and communicate the beauty and spiritual harmony which she felt while experiencing a specific pond, olive tree, mushroom or building. For Joanna the camera and the computer have now become another extension of her creative juices. For her, the use of this new digital technology is just a tool like the telescope is to an astronomer or a microscope to a biologist. Joanna's amazing digital images of Odessa, Korfu and the Northern Berkshires are being shown to the public for the first time at the BRILL GALLERY.

Rieko Fujinami was born in Japan and received her arts degree from the Creative Arts University in Tokyo in 1984 and received her advanced degree from the Tama Art University. Rieko has become known internationally for her Film Drawings and Fresco Seccos - both of which are in the ARTISTS WITHOUT BODERS Exhibition.

Rieko's Film Drawings concentrate on a person's face because she believes it is the most important part of their identity. The Film Drawings reflect both the outer and inner natures of the subject. Th mylar film becomes the curtain between the abstract and the representational. On one side of the film are the varied layers of identity and ego - on the other side are the deeper layers of the unconscious and the emotions which merge together for the viewer. The Fresco Seccos feature a person's body in a similar way but instead of the flat shiny mylar surface - pigment and drawings take place in the layers of the very rough plaster surface.

Rieko has a loyal following in Japan and has had recent shows there at Gallery Milieu, Yamaguch Gallery, Gallery Yulaka, Shinobazu Gallery and in New York City at the Forum Gallery. Her works are in the collections of the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art in Israel, Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art and the Japan National Modern Art Museum in Tokyo as well as several private collections. In 2007 Rieko was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. She has also won several international prizes including Best Art of the Year, Japan; Citta di Tolentio, Italy and the Kanagawa Museum Purchase Prize. Rieko now lives in New York. She is available for Commissions of Portrait Film Drawings. Please contact the BRILL GALLERY.

Anita Rydygier was born in England where she studied and received her Masters Degree with majors in Art and Textile Design at the Royal College of Art. At a very early age, Anita sensed the impact of colors and form. For Anita color became both a symbolic language of the soul and the physical language of man. "I believe color is at the root of what it means to be human and when we give shape and form to color, we tell each other, without words, essential human stories." Through her whimsical gouache and ink drawings Anita is offering the viewer a way to connect the drawings of a child with the creative expressions of an adult before cultural standards rule the day.

After graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1979, Anita worked as a textile designer in London and her printed fabric collections were sold in Europe, the U.S. and Japan. During this period Anita's colorful combination of airbrush and gouache creations resulted in two solo exhibitions at the Actor's Institute in London. While continuing to design textiles she free-lanced as an illustrator gaining assignments from Cosmopolitan, Woman's Journal, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Chrysalis Records, The Macrobiotic Association among others. After winning a grant from Barclay's Bank, Anita put her design skills into a successful jewelry company that exhibited throughout the U.K. Private collectors including Hon. Simon Howard have Anita's works in their collections. In 2001 Anita moved to British Columbia, Canada where she works full time as an artist. The gouache and ink drawings displayed at the ARTISTS WITHOUT BORDERS Exhibition represent Anita's latest works and are a culmination of her many talents.