Art Business News welcomed the opportunity to give Redwood Artist Club member Paula Pietranera our Meet the Artist questions and discover what in interesting background this international artist has had. We’re excited to share her story with you.

ABN: Introduce yourself — who you are and what your vision as an artist is?

PP: My name is Paula Pietranera, and I am an artist based in San Francisco, originally from Argentina. My art invites people to draw closer, fostering connection, intimacy, and exploration. I believe that simplicity, skilled execution, and a deep engagement with the creative act in the present moment bring life into my expression as an artist, a journey that goes beyond mere decoration or aesthetic appreciation.

ABN: What is your background?

PP: I started my professional journey as an architect, later specializing in the conservation and restoration of historical buildings. Throughout my studies, I discovered a profound spiritual connection to Asian arts, which led me to explore sumi-e, origami, and calligraphy in Argentina, Japan, and the United States. My time in Japan in 2015 was particularly transformative; it was there where I learned the “Renzuru” paper-folding technique under the guidance of master Mizuho Tomita in Kyoto. Since then, I’ve been exploring how this traditional paper-folding form can serve as an expressive medium for fine art. Additionally, I am a Zen student, having practiced in Argentina and, since 2015, residing at the San Francisco Zen Center where I’ve deepened in the relation between my Zen practice and artistic career.

ABN: What is your work philosophy and how does that impact your work?

PP: My philosophy revolves around the concept of interconnectedness. I strive to bring my art to life like a dreamcatcher, drawing the true self into a space of deep intimacy. This connection inspires me, as the desire for intimate togetherness—with oneself, others, and the world—can be both our greatest yearning and our most profound fear. Central to my work is the centuries-old paper folding Renzuru technique, where connected cranes emerge from a single sheet of paper, embodying the idea that each piece is unique, yet part of a harmonious whole.

ABN: What artist(s) inspire you?

PP: I’m inspired by artists who fully explore the potential of their medium and materials, and let the process guide them—who show us what a material can become through. I admire artists like Ruth Asawa, Kay Sekimachi, and Tanabe Chikuunsai IV for this reason. Both have worked with paper, as I do, and they show how something so ordinary can be transformed into something powerful. It’s not about creating an image, but about discovering the potential of the material—what it can express on its own, through the hands.

ABN: What is the best advice you’ve received?

PP: One piece of advice that resonates with me comes from the Zen master Dogen, who stated in the 13^th Century, “To study the way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to become one with the universe.” For me, in my art, this means “Think the fold. Be the fold. Forget the fold.”

ABN: When you are not working, where can we find you?

PP: San Francisco is a beautiful and inspiring city, and when I’m not working, I often take long walks with my husband. We enjoy discovering what might be revealed just around the next corner.

ABN: What have you done recently that enhanced you as an artist?

PP: Recently, I discovered a traditional washi paper company in Japan that has been making and dyeing paper for twelve generations. Their incredible work has left me in awe and opened new possibilities for my art.

ABN: Any plans for 2025? Where will your creativity take you?

PP: Japan! I will return to the place that inspires my art and where everything began.

The post MEET THE ARTIST: PAULA PIETRANERA appeared first on Art Business News.

And how you can do it will be our topic of the day.

KEEP EVERYTHING NEUTRAL

When people think about abstract art, the first thing that comes to their mind is usually a splash of bold colors. Abstract art can indeed be like that, especially if it tries to tell the artist’s story. But this is not always the case. Sometimes a story of abstract art can be told with gentle, simple, and neutral colors. Many artists prefer neutral, earthy, or even soft pastels in their art. These colors will bring warmth to any room and elevate it with elegance.

So, when you decide to style your home with abstract, don’t feel pressured to go bold. Go neutral instead. Moreover, choose colors that match the ‘vibe’ of your room. And, of course, pair them up with nice frames – white frames, for example, match neutral colors the most.

FILL YOUR SPACE 

However, if you are not new to abstract art, if you are not afraid to display its bold colors and peculiar shapes, then fill up your space with it. It will make your home look amazing and unique. Just think about all the exciting conversation starters you will have.

But let us get one thing straight — you can’t just hang pictures and photos randomly on the wall, and you can’t just put figurines and other pieces of art randomly on the shelves. Abstract art is abstract enough! You need the order to make it stand out. The best way to do that is to plan where your pieces will go. Use the empty space in your home and experiment with your art pieces there.

DARE TO GO SMALL 

Yes, most abstract art is big — paintings, photos, figures, and even things like bowls tend to be more prominent in size when abstract. But, if you want to style your home with abstract art, don’t think that bigger is always better. It is not! Your home will not look aesthetically pleasing if you fill it with a lot of big abstract pieces — they will look ununified, and they will always stand in your way.

So, instead of using big abstract pieces, go small instead. It is much better to fill your space with many small pieces than two big ones. Moreover, we know that sometimes it might be hard to find many art pieces for your home. After all, they should all match. If you experience difficulty when doing this, don’t hesitate to seek the help of a professional — an art dealer or gallery that you trust. This kind of professional will be able to answer all your questions, fill your collection with some of the best pieces, and make your home look amazing.

MIX THINGS UP 

Who said that art in your home must belong to the same genre? It doesn’t! Moreover, who said that art pieces must stand on an empty wall or have a special place dedicated to them? It doesn’t! You can style your home with abstract art without worrying about your other art pieces, decor, and furniture. Of course, everything should match in a way, but don’t let that be the primary focus of your attention. You can have many colors and styles in your home if an element ties them together.

So, play around with the objects in your room. Put art in the middle of furniture. Experiment with colors. And, if you want to make everything polished, try to match the colors of your abstract art pieces with something in your room. Match it to something smaller – a pillow, a frame of another art piece, a vase, etc. This will make a lot of difference.

THINK – DOUBLE 

If you have a big room and a big, empty wall to fill out, abstract pieces will work in your favor. But, this time, don’t use one big piece or plenty of smaller ones. Use doubles. Many abstract artists create these kinds of pieces called identical or mirrored. These pieces look very similar to one another or connect to one another. They can be a great way to style your home with abstract art, especially if you don’t know where and how to start incorporating abstract art in your home.

Moreover, you can use this idea for many things, not just for pictures and photos in your living room. Doubles look great above bed frames, cabinets, and even above fireplaces. So, don’t be afraid to try this out if you have some space to fill out. Just be careful of the dimensions of the art. The doubles you choose should match the size of what’s underneath them. That is the best way to style your home with abstract art and make it look interesting and unified at the same time.

Author Bio: Sarah Collins currently works for a2bmovingandstorage.com movers as a consultant. She enjoys writing articles for her blog in her free time. She covers topics such as decorating, remodeling, gardening, moving, parenting, etc. Sarah is also a wife, a mum of one girl, and a cat owner.

The post How to Style Your Home with Abstract Art appeared first on Art Business News.

Putting art on display is the future of buying and selling this commodity, and international art fairs are the becoming more popular for this purpose. But first, artists have to correspond with collectors, designers, and art magazines; post lots of pictures on social media; and fill out countless forms online in order to add pieces to art websites. You’d think that after all that marketing, the artists’ and former gallery owners’ work would be done. Au contraire! In this brave new frontier of show, tell, and sell, the sweat investment is just the beginning.

The Gebhardts pore over their vast inventory to decide what to pack. Nestled among the climate-controlled walls of their warehouse are hundreds, maybe thousands, of paintings that range in size from two to three feet tall and every bit as wide, to seven feet tall and more than eight feet wide. Decisions, decisions. Only a few will be selected to exhibit.

As former brick-and-mortar gallery owners, the Gebhardts were used to doing a lot of the heavy lifting to make sure their art hung in all the right places. But they traded gallery ownership for a life of entrepreneurship. To perpetuate their brand, they work a lot harder, taking their catalog to international collectors at art shows in Miami, New York, and California, rather than hoping that a collector from China will happen to walk through their door in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. What they have learned is that people want and need art. To succeed in today’s ever-changing art arena, they must manage their marketing and social media, wield hammers, string lights, and display their pieces in strategically selected areas of exhibit halls all over the country.

Virtual galleries alone aren’t enough; artists are turning their talent into lucrative small businesses. Maybe getting noticed happens in their spare time, and many are even successful enough that they can quit their day jobs, but the bottom line is that the old business of art is dying. Long live the new art sector! This self-serving cottage industry of sorts is creating jobs and contributing to the economy in a way that dealing with galleries never allowed them to do. More distribution channels means more art is making its way to the marketplace and into the hands of collectors to be enjoyed, rather than being cloistered in the bowels of galleries, which are existing on life support at best. Creators are breaking the system, providing customers with freedom, better service, and more choices. This makes Kris and Angela enthusiastic for what the future of the art world will bring.

“The international art fairs bring collector, artist, and the art together, which is a much more meaningful experience for all,” says Kris Gebhardt. At these events, the Gebhardts meet with tens of thousands of enthusiasts and patrons—would-be buyers—whom they never would have had access to in the previous incarnation of the industry. Buyers file through the building’s maze of eclectic, sophisticated, signature, and classic pieces. They meet the artists and schmooze all the while, adding to—or perhaps just starting—their collections with a purchase directly from the artist. It’s a little like buying opera tickets from Pavarotti, ballet seats from Baryshnikov, or a Ferrari directly from Enzo.

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In Venezuela, the sun shines year-round, brightening everything it touches—from lush, green foliage to the deep blue sea. No surprise, then, that Venezuela-born photographer Malena Assing has had a lifelong love affair with light and color.

“I like the impact of bright colors,” says the artist. “Vibrant colors represent life and being alive. With my work, I want to bring light and happiness to everybody… something that awakens their senses.”

One look at Assing’s abstract photography on paper or on Plexiglas, and you’ll definitely feel the impact. Her works pulsate with dynamism. In “Running Lights III,” for instance, Assing captures a series of unexpected, multihued reflections over indistinct objects. The result is electric.

Assing’s “Incessant Movements” series of photographs in quick succession explores the movement of light and how it creates color fields with background shadows.

“I want to show viewers that there is nothing static—that everything changes continuously,” says Assing. “Life itself is sequences of photographs of our experiences that we collect in our minds.”

Growing up in Venezuela, Assing always dabbled in photography but did not pursue it in school because “studying art was not well seen.” Instead, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in advertising and marketing. In 1999, she moved to Miami, and everything changed.

“I had the chance to start anew,” she says. She enrolled in art and photography classes, and her career took a 180-degree turn when she began taking portraits of children.

“I found that I had an innate ability to photograph children and come up with images that were somehow natural and appealing,” she says. “I seem to have a special connection with kids and can reflect their personalities in my work.”

She became a professional photographer in 2002 and has gone on to photograph hundreds of children and families in the Miami area and around the world. She has also done freelance work for Key Biscayne Magazine, Complot Magazine, Selecta magazine and others.

But when it comes to her more unleashed creative passions, Assing prefers to explore subtle nuances of light, color, shadows, abstraction and emotion. Critics sometimes compare her work to the emotive, intuitive paintings of the Lyrical Abstraction and Tachisme movements—a comparison she embraces.

“I work with emotions, and these emotions come from somewhere deep down. My work is intuitive, and color is the language that I use to express emotions.”

In that vein, Assing says, Mark Rothko,  Carlos Cruz-Diez, Julio le Parc and Wassily Kandinsky are her strongest influences, although she gains great inspiration from her three children, as well.

Currently, Assing is working on a new series of photographs with the working title of “Mystic.” They feature vibrant colors, though less intense colors than those in her previous works. During Art Week Miami this December, she’ll be showcasing new pieces at Curator’s Art Voice Projects, a gallery in the Wynwood Art District. She has made a name for herself in Midtown Miami; last year, her work was well-received at SPECTRUM Miami.

Assing plans to head to Spain next year to participate in Foto Alicante. She’s still deciding which pieces she’ll bring, but one thing is certain: Her little corner of the show will be luminous with color.

For more, check out malenaassing.com.

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