Stephen Graham’s Print Gallery

Stephen’s Bio

Challenged to make the most of every moment, senior artist Stephen Graham splits his time as the Gallery Director for the Geezer Gallery and being a serious artist himself.

Stephen spent four years at a commercial-arts college in marketing and graphics and soon began his own advertising agency which he managed for 17 years.

Some notables; he co-owned and co-illustrated two internationally syndicated, daily comic strips for five years, and has co-written and co-illustrated over two dozen books. He also was the editor/publisher of a 32 page specialty newspaper for seven years.

Stephen went to Bible school in his late thirties and has co-pastured a church in Portland for 28 years and counting. Today Stephen has been married for 49 years with six teenaged grandchildren.

Challenged to make the most of every moment, senior artist Stephen Graham splits his time as the Gallery Director for the Geezer Gallery and being a serious artist himself. Excited about creativity, he regards watercolor and acrylics as his most fulfilling. He realistically addresses each subject in his own recognizable impressionistic style. Each new work captures real-life, using multiple techniques. He challenges himself daily in the studio as he balances working with other seniors artists at the Geezer Gallery.

Farooq Hassan’s Print Gallery

Farooq’s Bio

“Colors are like music … there are many tones. I’m like a composer who writes a piece of music. There is harmony and contrast. When I see an empty space, I put something to cover that emptiness.” ~ Farooq Hassan

Farooq Hassan could easily paint his life story as a tragedy.

Over the course of 50 years, he had built a standing as a national and internationally renowned Iraqi artist whose work had hung in galleries in London, Amman, Basrah and Baghdad. In addition, he had designed over 80 stamps for the Iraqi post office and he owned a huge, five-bedroom home. “It was my gallery,” remembers Hassan.

Then his life changed. In 2003, when hostile forces looted and stripped Baghdad’s National Art Museum, Hassan lost 10 of his large paintings on display there. Against a soundtrack of bombs and gunfire, life in Iraq was uncertain. Whenever he left home, recalls Hassan, “I [would] always say to my wife, ‘Goodbye. Maybe I will return alive. Maybe I will not.’?”

The danger especially threatened his daughter, who reported for the Washington Post. She wanted the family to leave Iraq. “At the beginning my father and mother, they are not convinced about coming [to the United States],” says Dalia Altameemi. “Because ‘we have our fame, we have our house, we have our history, and now we will lose everything.’?”

In 2010, at age 71, Hassan and his wife, Haifa did follow their daughter to the United States. And they did lose everything. Today they have made a new life for themselves in a modest, two-bedroom apartment in Beaverton. “It’s small, but my wife’s heart is very big,” says Hassan.

Hassan wasted no time mourning his losses. He took up his paint and brushes, and turned his tiny kitchen into a studio. Each canvas completely covers the dining table.

“If the painting have tongue to say something,” says Hassan’s wife, Haifa, laughing, “it will tell you that it has the smell of the onion and the tomato because it’s almost in the same space as the kitchen and it’s full of the fragrance of these things.”

Now a complete unknown in his new country, Hassan needed to rebuild his reputation as an artist. He began by taking his work to the Geezer Gallery in Portland, Oregon which is dedicated to showcasing accomplished local elder ?artists.

The curators there immediately recognized his talent. “He was magnificent,” says Stephen Graham of the Geezer Gallery. “His layout, his form, his design, the color. He’s into that master’s quality. When I saw it I said, ‘What an honor to be able to meet with this man.’ ”

Boris Uan-Zo-Li’s Print Gallery

Boris Uan-Zo-Li’s Bio

Boris Uan-Zo-li was born in Moscow, Russia, right before the WW2. His ancestry is rather unique – he is 1/4 Chinese, 1/4 Cossack and 1/2 Jewish. His mother was half-Cossack and half-Chinese. His Chinese grandfather Wang Zo Li came to Russia in 1904. After the communist revolution Zo Li Wang adopted the Russian first name, but decided to keep his Chinese name. When a Russian bureaucrat was recording his name, he made a spelling error, and the last name became Uan-Zo-li. This mistake spawned the whole generation of Uan-Zo-li’s.

Boris’s father, Lazar Goyhman was a Jew from a famous town of Odessa, and he worked as a civil engineer. In 1953 he was arrested and accused of “zionism”. During the court proceedings, KGB played the recording of Lazar Goyhman telling his “friend” (who later was revealed as a KGB undercover agent) that he would walk to Israel on foot if he could. Lazar was sent to Stalin’s forced labor camps, but luckily he survived and was released in 1956, and later the Soviet regime conceded that he was not guilty of any crimes.

In 1954, Boris’s mother bribed the passport organization and changed his name from Goyhman (a Jewish last name) to Uan-Zo-li in order to protect him from the anti-semitic prosecution and make it easier for him to be admitted to college.

Boris graduated from the Moscow Power Institute in 1961. His diploma work (equivalent to the US Master’s degree) was so original, that he was awarded two patents for it.

He was employed as an electronics engineer for 30 years and during his career authored 165 patents. He designed power supplies for Soviet Aero and Space industry and was one of the leading engineer in the field.

In spite of his evident engineering talents, Boris always felt a strong desire to paint. While continuing to work as an engineer, he enrolled in the Moscow Polygraphic Institute and graduated with a Master’s Degree in Book Illustrations. Working during the day as an electrical engineer, he would spend nights and weekends perfecting his paintings, and developed a unique style, later referred by his friends half-jokingly as “Uan-Zo-lism”.

During the Soviet times, Boris participated in four exhibitions. During one of the exhibitions a soviet bureaucrat withdrew his paintings at the last moment because they “did not fit the communist vision” – while his name was still mentioned in the catalogue. After the fall of communism, Boris’s paintings were shown in a number of exhibitions, including the “Central House of Artists”, one of the most prestigious Russian centers of art. Boris’s paintings are now privately owned in Germany, Switzerland, France and the United States.

In 2011, he immigrated to the United States, and currently resides in Oregon. He brought with him more than 300 paintings. Boris is not exhibiting his works in Russia because his style drastically differs from the art which is popular there now. He believes that the American art market is much more welcoming to his unique style, and he intends to promote his paintings in the US.

Boris’s style of painting is highly original due to his unique use of colors and images. His paintings are now privately owned in Germany, Switzerland, France and the United States.