Like an author of comics, Andreas Leikauf (b. 1966 in Obersteiermark, Austria) seems to have access to and use of an inventory of images, which is surely traced back to the anonymous pictorial style. The idea of trash is certainly no problem for the artist. Trash replicates all major genres of advanced civilization and parodies it, too. The potency of popular culture - which of course also existed before pop art - lies in its directness and supposed inarticulacy. His image-word combinations seem to be part of a collective subconscious. Naturally, it has to do with the stereotypes of media visual perception. Trash does not claim to fathom the great questions of existence with a view to eternity, but exists for the present and the everyday. As a painter, Leikauf does what a photo-reporter does in the classic sense: he photographs into every shadow of society. The abundance of his results is as astounding as the ingenious mise-en-scène of his pictures.

Under the title ‘China', Ángel Marcos (*Medina del Campo, Valladolid, 1955) rounds off a trilogy he began six years earlier in New York and continued in Havana in 2004. Though the locations are entirely different, the images revolve around the same conceptual parameter: the conversation between the city's population and the powers that govern it through advertising and propaganda. Exploring both the city centres and the suburbs of Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, the artist captures the contrast between past and present, tradition and modernity through publicity, contrasting architectures and the clash of metropolitan landscapes. The result is a broad-reaching project that includes photography and video; a window onto Angel Marcos' personal take on today's China.

For the past four years Brian McKee (b. 1977 in Kansas City, USA), the American photography artist, has been travelling through America, Eastern Europe and the Far East in search of historical sites of topical interest. He takes pictures of sites where unique contemporary events in world politics and by international society were held. Brian McKee considers himself to be a visualizing historian, capturing for example traces of the controversy between Soviets and Afghans. The photographer contemplates our approach to fast-paced perception. His themes are architecture and landscapes, which reveal destruction and losses only at a second glance. A seemingly beautiful portrayal transforms into a gruesome scene of human suffering. The artist attaches great significance to pictures with classical compositions and a clear finish. Brian McKee studied photography by Stephen Shore, Larry Fink and Barbara Ess and he was the assistant of Lynn Davis from 1996 until 2001. He works and lives in New York City.

Kyril Rubcov is an established artist in the art-scene of Moscow. The series Russkij Robot (Russian Robot) was developed in 2002 and finished in 2007. It bears a reference to futuristic worlds and to Pop Art considering formal aspects. The female body is being perceived as a desirable sexual object and displayed in conventionalized erotic ways, symbolized as a dominant, extraterrestrial creature.

The photographer Massimo Vitali was born in Como in 1944 and studied photography in Milan and London. He has been working exclusively in photography for 25 years. In the focus of Massimo Vitali's artistic interest stands the social ongoing at places of leisure and consumerism. Till the shoot he dwells for a while on a platform of 4 to 5 metres high so that the mugged people look as if they are unaware of the presence of the camera. On the brink of voyeurism his photos show reality without any beautification by a revision. In its simple and straight way of representation the viewer is confronted with crowded beaches, densely populated discos, shopping centres, leisure parks and supermarkets on enormous photos. They are unmistakable, detailed event-photos which show the influences of his long lasting work as a photographer as well as they bear resemblances to history painting.

Further artists at PULSE Miami:

Asgar/Gabriel, Erik Binder, Daniele Buetti, Flavio Favelli, Anastasia Khoroshilova, Megan McLarney, Tim White-Sobieski