“The role of any artist is vital to any given society since art reaches out and touches people around the world, it provides pleasing emotion, colors, and also certain art can cause controversy or provoke a society.” The man who stated this, Martins Lawrence Akande, a.k.a. Teenez Martinez, an African artist, strongly believes in Nigerian art. It was at an early age that he became interested in art. He wants his art to be an influence on an international level and bring about change.
Expressionism is an art form that has been around since the early 1900s, giving us an alternative to realism. Expressionism depicts emotions, whereas realism focuses on accurate details of nature or of contemporary life. The two types of art are almost exact opposites, yet in the works of some modern artists, realism and expressionism seem to occur simultaneously. While the two working together in the same painting may be deemed impossible, one artist has given us several brilliant paintings that accomplish just that. Yann Houri, a young French artist who is passionate about photography and drawing, portrays an explosion of emotion throughout his works by combining the two. Even though he isn’t the first painter to join the two rivals together, his innovative approach to the industry has brought forth violent and emotional works of art that can be described as breathtaking.