64

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ALEX VARANESE

01

ALESSANDRO GOTTARDO

04

GONI MONTES

05

SACHIN TENG

08

JAMES ROPER

09

ARON WIESENFELD

64

02

JONATHAN BARTLETT

03

ORIOTO (MIkAëL AGUIRRE)

06

JAMES WHITE

07

ANGELA FRALEIGHT

10

LAURA BIFANO

11

ALLISON TORNEROS

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12

HANNA MEGEE

13

EMILIANO PONZI

16

MILENA CAVALLO

17

FRANCESCO CODOLO

18

AISTE BILEVICIUTE

19

ALEXIS MARCOU. .-

^

14

DANI MAYO

we started Players, we decided it had to look different fromother magazines. We knew we needed not only to have excel-

lent content, but also a very precise visual identity. Some mightobject that "pretty pictures" are not – strictly speaking –

"media"; despite the opinion of the unfaithful, we were ada-mant about their inclusion. We wanted to look good and we

couldn't look good without the contribution of the best inde-pendent artists out there, and let's be honest, some of these

illustrations have whole stories to tell.

That's why, almost two years from our issue zero, we decided tocollect them all in The Art of Players. It's an experiment, and it's

also our first issue put together with an international crowd inmind. As much as we like our native language – Italian – we

know there are plenty of opportunities out there.

With the collection you are looking at now, and with some re-cent blog posts on our website (http://www.playersmagazine.it)

we started to test the waters of a possible "English Edition" ofPlayers. It might never happen without substantial financial

backing, but... how does the say go? Never say never.

The Players Team

15

OLkA OSADZINSkA

W H E N

cover: A Loving Monsterby Allison Torneros

Alex VArAnese

releases music as broken time ma-chines. Has released one episode sofar of an animated sitcom. Writes forthe new emissary. Is native to thebay area. Thinks John Hughes is big-ger than jesus. Is an ardent believerin hard determinism and wishes hewere better friends with fate. Is guiltyof an overuse - but never misuse - ofthe word "literally". Draws upon a li-mitless supply of cheeky quips desi-gned specifically for ironic,post-hipster posturing. likes redmore than you do.

www.alexvaranese.com/

AlessAndro "shout" GottArdoWas born in Pordenone in 1977. hestudied at a specialist art high schoolin Venice and in the illustration de-partment of the Istituto europeo didesign in Milan. he has won nume-rous awards, particularly in the uni-ted states. these include the mostprestigious international accolade inthe illustration field - a society of Illu-strators Gold Medal, which was pre-sented in new York in 2009.

http://www.alessandrogottardo.com

Jonathan Bartlett

Jonathan grew up in a small Pennsyl-vania town outside of harrisburg andcurrently lives and works in Brooklyn,nY. he has done work for a wide va-riety of clients in various markets, re-ceiving awards and recognitionsfrom american Illustration, the So-ciety of Illustrators, Spectrum Fan-tasy art, 3x3 Magazine, and the artDirectors Club. he has an MFa fromthe School of Visual arts, Illustrationas Visual essay program.Jonathan was recently named a win-ner in the art Directors Club YoungGuns 2011 competition and wasawarded a silver medal by the So-ciety of Illustrators for his posterwork with the Bridge theatre Com-pany.

www.bartlettstudio.com/

OriOtO aka Mikaël aguirre

Orioto, aka Mikaël aguirre, is a 30years old graphic designer and director from Paris. He likes to reimagine old 2D gaming classics ina painterly art style. When not illustrating, he also spends sometime with a camera, or with his petgaming project https://www.face-book.com/SwimmingunderClouds

http://orioto.deviantart.com/

Goni Montes

i was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico,got a BA from the UPR at Maya-güez, and an MFA from sCADAtlanta. i began working as ascientific il lustrator for thePuerto Rico sea Grant. now imostly do editorial illustrationswith some fantasy here andthere. i live in Decatur, Georgiawith my wife Jen who’s an illu-strator for Archer. My agent isRichard solomon.

http://www.goniart.com/

Sachin Teng

My name is Sachin Teng. i'm an artistliving and working in new York city. iattended Pratt institute for my BFa incommunication Design with a focusin illustration. Though i'm an illustra-tor i think more like a designer. art isa means of visual communication, akind of aesthetic discourse. They cantell you whatever they want, to buy anew flavor of gum, to go to war, goto a concert, convert to a new reli-gion or even to stop smoking. art isthe original subliminal message. Very Obi Wan Kanobi. i secretly write for-tune cookies.

http://sachinteng.com/

James White

i have been a creative person eversince i was old enough to hold apencil at the age of 4. i started dra-wing on every scrap of paper i couldfind to the point where my mothercouldn’t keep typewriter paper in thehouse without my finding and stea-ling it.

i never stopped drawing throu-ghout school, and in 1995 i was ac-cepted to the Graphic Designprogram at the Nova scotia Commu-nity College in my hometown oftruro. Upon graduation with honors,i was accepted into interactive te-chnology also at the Nova scotiaCommunity College in 1997.

immediately after graduation in1998 i was hired into the boomingweb industry. During my 12-year ca-reer i worked for a number of profes-sional companies performing bothweb and print design, gaining expe-rience through a wide variety of pro-jects and clients, both large andsmall.

http://cargocollective.com/signalnoise

AngelA FrAleight

in my current body of work, far as myeyes could see, each image serves asa character for a larger narrative;scraps of a past that i personallyhave little knowledge of. As a smallchild we lived in a trailer, we had apet raccoon, my biological fatherhad long blond hair, they grew up inthe swamps of South Carolina, andsmoked a lot of pot.

however, this work is less about apersonal narrative but rather a jum-ping off point to consider how oneconstructs narratives and how perso-nal and collective stories are concoc-ted and conceived. it examines howfantasy lives often swirl up aroundthe smallest of ideas, gaining forceand power the more you ponderthem, until they birth a life oftheir own, separate and unearthedfrom the “reality” that was just a flashin time. My work twists and exploitsnotions of nostalgia for a lost youth,when everything was seemingly pos-sible, and a longing for an idealismsomehow unmarred by defeat andfailure. this lingering desire to holdsweet and superficial ideals collideswith an unraveling discomfort anddissolution. there is an attempt to freeze the past, yet the future conti-nues to creep in, distorting and di-sturbing the vision.

this work is a continuation ofpaintings that experiment with arange of narrative structures. Cha-racters are created who attempt tomove beyond victim-hood, trauma,and helplessness to a continuallyevolving “now.” internal vs. externallives are merged and the past, pre-sent, and future slide and slip, crea-ting blanks and hollows. it is in thisspace between where meaning isformed.

http://www.angelafraleigh.com

James RopeR

Born Knutsford, england, 1982. 2002-2005 Ba(Hons) Fine art (pain-ting), manchester metropolitan Uni-versity. I live and work inmanchester, england.

The construction of each paintingfuses disparate images from a varietyof sources such as fashion magazi-nes, animation stills, comics, the In-ternet as well as my own photo's anddrawings. I predominantly chooseimages and try to create forms whichI feel register a visual 'peak shift', aterm given to the phenomena of'neurological attraction' that appearsin both humans and animals to anextreme characterisation of an ob-ject. peak shift has been suggestedby the neuroscientist V.s. Ramachan-dran as one of the '10 universal lawsof art'. This peakshift is present wi-thin advertising, Hollywood blockbu-sters and Haute couture fashion aswell as in the extreme forms of bodyexaggeration found in bodybuildingand pornography. Japanese anima-tion, which also uses this technique,has for some time informed my pain-ting style and is where I appropria-ted images exclusively for my'Hypermass' series. By isolating outwhat I see as the crucial parts of suchimages and collaging them togetherinto the work my intention is to in-tensify these visual triggers even fur-ther so they form a sort ofneurological hyperactivity.

http://www.jroper.co.uk/

Aron Wiesenfeld

Aron Wiesenfeld is quickly emergingas a well-known allegorical figurativepainter.

When i first saw one of Aron Wiesen-feld's charcoal drawings, i was imme-diately struck by two things — itsominous, enigmatic emotive power,and how much his use of light remin-ded me of edward Hopper. i wasovercome with such joy to see some-thing that was so suffused with fee-ling and significance that the imagehas haunted me ever since. Unloc-king the subconscious reservoirs ofthe spirit should be the highest goalof art, but few painters in the artworld have the courage to attemptit.

The latter-day philosopher re-becca solnit once wrote, "That thingthe nature of which is totally un-known to you is usually what youneed to find, and finding it is a mat-ter of getting lost." To see oneself cle-arly — to step outside oneselfaltogether, and be free of all the bag-gage we carry through life, one mustventure beyond the boundaries ofcomfort and security. Mystery, diso-rientation, fear — these are primalsensations that rouse the imagina-tion. Aron once said, "i think it is ne-cessary to leave unansweredquestions in a painting... if it is notfully knowable, the truth it holdschanges over time and the paintingbecomes like a living thing." like wa-king up in a strange city or losing thetrail deep in the woods, Aron's workprovokes us to do our own mythma-king, opening our minds to the un-known.

-Amanda erlanson, author of Heroesand Villians (from http://arcadiafine-arts.com/)

www.aronwiesenfeld.com

Laura Bifano

Laura Bifano grew up on the verydamp east coast of Vancouver islandwhere she spent the better part ofher childhood drawing dementedpictures for the entertainment offriends and family alike. Her pain-tings range from being whimsicaland lighthearted to macabre andsubtly disquieting. Her charactersexist in their own quiet world, imme-diately accessible and distant. Edu-cated at the alberta College of artand Design, Laura has worked as aconcept artist, storyboard artist, andeditorial illustrator.

She now lives and works in Victo-ria, BC. She enjoys surrealist pain-tings, graphic narrative and cheesy70's science fiction.

www.laurabifano.com/

Allison Torneros

Born in 1985 in the san Francisco BayArea, Torneros started drawing at theage of 2. Her early passion for art,coupled with her experience gro-wing up in silicon Valley, led her topursue both digital and traditionalavenues at a young age. At 11 yearsold she designed her first website,and began exhibiting her artwork ingalleries only months after gradua-ting high school. Torneros gradua-ted from UClA in 2008 with aBachelors Degree in Design|MediaArts. While in her senior year of col-lege, Torneros formed CircleDot - acreative studio whose roster includessuch names as Disney, Procter &Gamble, as well as celebrities and in-novative startup companies.Currently, Allison Torneros is livingand working in los Angeles.

http://allisontorneros.com/

Hanna MeGee

Hannah Megee studied Fine art atthe University of West england andgraduated in 2005. She went on tocomplete a masters degree in autho-rial Illustration at University CollegeFalmouth, which she completed inSeptember 2010. Hannah has illu-strated two books to date; ‘The Limi-nal arc Transmitter’, which she alsowrote and self-published in 2010;and ‘The Sea Swallow’, written by Ga-reth Thompson which was publishedin July 2011 by Foxtail. She alsoworks freelance as a commercial illu-strator.

Hannah is 30 years old and lives bythe sea in Devon.

http://www.hannahmegee.co.uk/

Emiliano Ponzi

Based in milan, italy, his bold textu-red illustrations use repetition, a judi-cious use of line and strong graphiccompositions to define and commu-nicate the concept at hand. His illu-strations appear in advertising,magazines, book, newspapers andanimations. His clients include Thenew York Times, le monde, The newYorker, The Boston Globe, Time, TheEconomist, newsweek, United airli-nes, Penguin books, Saatchi&Saatchinew York,leo Burnett iberia and initaly: la Repubblica, Feltrinelli, il Sole24 ore, mondadori, Wired, TriennaleDesign museum. Emiliano has recei-ved numerous honors including acoveted Young Guns award from thethe new York’s art Directors Club,medals of honor from the Society ofillustrators new York, los angelesand 3×3 magazine Pro show. awardsof excellence from Print, How inter-national Design award, Communica-tion arts illustration annuals andamerican illustration annuals.

http://www.emilianoponzi.com

Dani Mayo

Dani Mayo was born the 15th of Sep-tember 1982 in Valladolid. Since hewas a child, he has been fascinatedwith the world of comics and anima-tion, especially thanks to the Disneyuniverse, which greatly inspired himover the years. With a degree in tou-rism but without specific art educa-tion, Dani Mayo is a self-made artistwhich always felt the need to expresshimself through his drawings andpaintings, helped also by his innateability to learn new techniques overtime.

http://www.danimayo.com/

Olka Osadzinska

Olka Osadzińska is a young artistfrom Warsaw, Poland.so far, she hasworked on various national and in-ternational art projects, as well ascooperated with brands such asHugo Boss, nike, Reebok Jagermei-ster, Max Factor, saBMiller andothers. she has also worked for nu-merous advertising agencies in Po-land and abroad, clothing brands,and fashion and lifestyle magazi-nes.she has designed a limited edi-tion of cans for Redd’s, series oft-shirts for sTaR TREk world viralcampaign for Paramount Pictures,and a film poster for one of the mostfinancially successful Polish moviesof the decade, "sala samobójców".Her works were displayed at solo aswell as at group exhibitions and inthe latest Gestalten book of fashionillustration: "The Beautiful. illustra-tions for Fashion and style". in 2011she finished her internship at one ofthe most influential graphic desi-gnstudios in the world – Hort studioin Berlin.she also presented herworks at MoMa in Warsaw, and tookpart in the design for Freedom –Freedom in design exhibition (Gra-phic design in Poland 1981–2011)shown in Berlin, Tokyo and Warsaw.in 2009 she organised the first andthe most successful art fair in War-saw, The art Yard sale. The resoun-ding success of the event led OlkaOsadzinska, to be nominated for the2010 Glamour Woman of the Yearaward in the Creative in Business ca-tegory.

http://portfolio.aleosa.com/

Milena Cavallo

My name is Milena Cavallo, i'm an il-lustrator, my mother is a teacher andmy father a cellist, taught me thepassion for art. i am an illustrator. ilive and work in Rome, where i stu-died illustration and Multimedia ani-mation at the european institute ofDesign. in 2010 i moved to Milan tostudy editorial ilustration at the Mi-master. During the year in Milan icould improve my technique and getin touch with the italian publishing.i was selected to the internationalcompetition of children's illustrationfor "scarpetta d'oro" , my work"scarpe d'italia". i am one of the 28 il-lustrators who have their artwork pu-blished in the calendar. i exhibitedmy drawings in exhibitions of con-temporary art, illustration and de-sign in italy and abroad. i amcurrently working on a book andcontinue my artistic research.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mile-nacavallo/

Francesco codolo

after taking the high school diplomaat the art high-school, Francesco co-dolo worked as silk-screen printingdesigner, graphic designer, textiledesigner, factory worker, farmer, andmore.

all these experiences inspired hiscomics, and also provided some fi-nancial backing for his career as an il-lustrator.

His works are published on corollaredizioni (Jazzuri Bagato), coniglioeditore (circus, l'onda, Il morso dellavipera), eF edizioni (carmilla: caccia-tori e prede) and others.

He loves indie comics and he's cur-rently self-producing ayumi Princess.His dream-job is to work as an illu-strator for the gaming industry.

http://francescodolo.blogspot.it/

Aistė Bilevičiūtė

Born in 1981 in vilnius, lithuania,Aistė is a freelance graphic designerwith a degree in Grapichs Arts and illustration. Her inspiration comesfrom old photos, posters, ads, postcards, stamps, beauty, fashion,beautiful places, nature, and towns.Her works have been exposed in lithuania, spain, and italy.

http://aistebileviciute.lt/

Alexis MArcou

Alexis was born in March 1984 inGreece in a city called larissa. He ishalf British and half cypriot. Alexisstudied Photomedia and Designcommunication at the college of Artand Design (university of Plymouth).He has been working as an illustratorsince 2007. some of his clients include Atomic, Nike, cisco and HP.

http://alexismarcou.com/