National & International Artists – Legacy Fine Art Gallery

Hessam

Hessam Abrishami is a renowned contemporary artist known for his vibrant and dynamic paintings. Born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1951, Hessam developed a passion for art at an early age. He pursued formal education in art, graduating with honors from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Perugia, Italy.

Hessam’s work is characterized by its bold colors, fluid movement, and expressive figures, often capturing moments of joy, passion, and the human experience. His unique style blends elements of abstract expressionism and figurative art, making his pieces both visually striking and emotionally resonant.

Over the years, Hessam has exhibited his art in numerous galleries and museums worldwide, earning critical acclaim and a dedicated following. His paintings are part of prestigious collections, including those in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.

Residing in the United States, Hessam continues to create and inspire, contributing significantly to the contemporary art scene. His work remains a testament to his talent and his ability to connect with audiences through his vivid and emotive art.

Max Makewell

We are pleased to offer a collection of original works by Max Makewell, available on both paper and canvas in a variety of sizes. Approximately 198 pieces are available on paper and only about 30 on canvas. As originals, each piece is subject to prior sale on a first-come, first-served basis. To view the complete collection, please see the PDF presentations below.

Works on Paper Works on Canvas

Max Makewell is a New York–based, third generation artist whose work bridges classical training and dynamic abstraction. Born into a lineage of sculptors and painters, he honed his craft under mentors like Frank Porcu, studying anatomy, cadaver dissections, and color theory before briefly launching a career in tech. Drawn back to art by a renewed passion, Max channeled his analytical mindset into building a visually compelling and professionally marketed practice.

His signature Rorschach-inspired series, bold symmetrical inkblots translated onto canvas, commands attention in both galleries and collections. Exhibited at elite venues like Guy Hepner Gallery in SoHo, Art Basel, and a MAD-curated Brooklyn pop-up, his pieces are also held in private collections across the U.S. and Europe. A number of works from his catalog were officially appraised by Edward N. Okil of the National Institute of Appraisers at $23,500.

Max’s paintings offer emotional resonance rooted in technical rigor, a balance of intuition and precision. His approach appeals to seasoned collectors seeking cultivated artistry as well as new buyers drawn to distinctive visual statements. With a growing exhibition history, rising appraisal values, and a professionally curated presence, Max Makewell represents both creative depth and strong market potential.

A.B. Makk

Finding inspiration in the natural beauty of Hawaii where he has lived and worked since1967, A.B. Makk creates sparkling water scenes and
sublime landscape paintings that have received international acclaim.

His work is collected and exhibited widely, with museum and gallery exhibitions in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. Distinguished connoisseurs such as George Montgomery and Charlton Heston are among the many collectors who enjoy paintings by A.B. Makk. Also, A.B. Makk is the winner of a number of awards, such as Distinguished Americans Award for Excellence in Scenic Painting, New York Graphic Society Recognition for Impressionistic Painting, and Arpad Academy Gold Medal.

Born in 1951 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, A.B. Makk is the son of illustrious artists Eva Makk and Americo Makk. The Makks are known today as “the world’s leading family of artists”. A.B. (short for Americo Bartholomew) took up brush and palette as normally as other children reach for ice cream cones: with enjoyment and pleasure. He was exhibiting his paintings at the age of four by the insistence of his patron and first collector, Don Jose Tupinamba de Frotas, a Bishop of Ceara. The Brazilian press reviewed these young works and wrote enthusiastically about the “Little Picasso.” His childhood contained a potpourri of exotic and extraordinary experiences, which undoubtedly were impressed upon his young mind and evidence themselves today in his painting style. A.B. Makk traveled with his parents as they received exciting painting commissions throughout Brazil. Often he spent hours, even whole days, on scaffolds where Eva and Americo Makk were creating murals. When only seven years of age, he traveled deep into the Amazon jungle for more than a year with his parents during their commission to paint the indigenous tribal people, facing a primitive world filled with peril and fierce natural beauty.

A.B. Makk’s art training included studies throughout Brazil. He came to the United States with his parents in 1962, attended high school and art school in New York, and moved with them to Hawaii in 1967. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Hawaii with majors in psychology and languages, A.B. continued his intensive art apprenticeship under his parents. Since then, he has exhibited regularly in galleries and museums in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan, and has won numerous awards and honors for his paintings.

A.B. Makk absorbed his parent’s techniques, developed a blend of his own and now works in his own unique genre. He starts with colors where Monet and Renoir left off; he blends color after color in combinations that historically have not been used together to create sun-drenched warmth on a cool day or conversely, to insulate wafts of cool air on a hot day. Like Turner, his scenes of nature evoke a strong sense of mood. His manipulation of light to express beauty and dignity, his ability to paint a complex and many-faceted feeling as opposed to merely a beautiful scene and his sense of depth and serenity are among the qualities that have moved A.B. Makk into the forefront of notable contemporary artists.

Eva Makk

Eva Makk has been called “the world’s foremost living impressionist painter”. She is celebrated for graceful, light-infused compositions executed with shimmering strokes of color. She is also noted for her ability to reach the spiritual essence of her subject. Frances Maier of Southwest Art wrote of
Eva Makk: “Her feelings for life are reflected in all her paintings; they express love, beauty, dignity and a gracious elegance. They are lyric poems realized visually, with a quality at once spiritual, ethereal, yet glowing with the warmth of life.”

Eva’s distinguished career spans more than half a century. Her work has been the focus of major public exhibitions, including U.S. Senate Rotunda (Washington, D.C.), Carnegie International Center (New York), St. Stephen Museum (Hungary) and numerous other galleries and museums in the United States, France, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Monaco, Hungary, Brazil, Canada and Japan.

Eva is also a highly respected portrait artist. Princess Kyoko Osano of Japan and President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan are among the many dignitaries who have selected Eva Makk to create their portraits.

Like Michelangelo, Eva Makk has achieved a place in art history for her legacy of monumental murals. Working jointly since 1950 with her husband, renowned artist Americo Makk, she has created murals in sixteen cathedrals and churches on two continents, a feat unequaled by any other artist in our time. Recently, Eva Makk added to this legacy, completing two grand murals in Aurora, Colorado. These new murals at Queen of Peace, one of the region’s largest churches, are seen by more than 5,000 visitors each week.

Born in Ethiopia where her Hungarian father was an advisor to Haile Selassie, Eva Makk later moved to Europe with her family. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Art in Paris, she moved to Italy to continue her formal art studies at the Academy of Fine Art in Rome. It was there that she met her future husband, fellow artist Americo Makk. The couple moved to Brazil in 1949 where their reputations as artists rose rapidly. Eva and Americo Makk received appointments as Professors of Art at Sao Paulo Academy of Fine Art and later were named Official Artists of the Brazilian Government. Among their many commissions was an unprecedented expedition deep into the Amazon rainforest to paint the indigenous tribal people.

In 1962 the Makks moved to New York, then in 1967 they moved to Hawaii where they currently make their home and studio. Eva and Americo Makk’s son, A.B., (who was born in Brazil) is, like his parents, an accomplished painter whose works are exhibited and collected internationally. Today the Makks are known as “the first family of the art world”. With a history of winning awards and exhibiting in museums and galleries for over fifty years, some paintings by Eva Makk have attained values of several hundred thousand dollars. Demand for her work continues to increase as Eva Makk adds to her long list of international achievements, such as a recently opened permanent exhibition of her paintings at the Museum of Hungarian Military History, a national museum in Budapest.

Goli

Mahallati’s original acrylics and limited edition prints on canvas or board, often depict aspects of humanity. Her images of individuals alone and in communal groups are stirring. The deeper felt reaction to her work goes beyond any type of provincial artistic genre and strikes at the elemental state of the human condition, sometimes bound together in support and love, and at other times isolated, either alone or in a crowd.

The strength of the artist’s statement is enforced by her choice to work with a pallet knife, rather than with the more traditional brush, creating bold areas of color and texture. It isn’t often that an artist is able to touch our inner feelings through the truth of their images. Goli Mahallati has that ability. Hers is a work of kinship and admiration for the beauty and dignity of the ideal human spirit and form, one that is noble and free – which is sometimes captured best and made definitive in the abstract.

Significantly, her paintings mediate the tensions that are symptomatic of contemporary art. The warm and luminescent color palette, the mysterious forms lead to a unified sense of energies often lacking in post-modernism. Her paintings are less about thinking and more about intriguing energies from which they have arisen.

Goli Mahallati graduated with a Bachelors from the University of Tehran in 1977 and with her Masters from AIC (American International College) in Massachusetts in 1979. She worked for several years studying for her PhD at U Mass (University of Massachusetts) until she eventually moved to Southern California, where she now resides.

André Desjardins

Americo Makk

Americo Makk (1927-2015) is an internationally acclaimed master painter and portrait artist of two United States Presidents. Over the past five decades, the importance of Americo Makk’s work has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including American Ecclesiastic Award, European Banner of the Arts, Oscar d’Italia, Alfred Nobel Medal for Peace (Einstein International Academy Foundation) and Outstanding Achievement Award for Western Paintings (American Biographical Institute).

Paintings by Americo Makk – powerful scenes of city life, character studies, historical and western paintings – have been the focus of numerous major public exhibitions, including Carnegie International Center (NY), U.S. Senate Rotunda (Washington, D.C.), Monaco Intercontinental Exhibition (Paris), St. Stephen Museum (Hungary), and many other museums and galleries in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America, and Japan.

Regarded as one of the world’s most respected portrait artists, Americo Makk was selected to paint portraits for the U.S. White House of President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and President Jimmy Carter in 1979. He has also painted a portrait of Cardinal Mindszenty for the Vatican and many celebrities including Eva Gabor, Barbara Carrera and Ray Price.

Americo Makk has been called a “modern-day Michelangelo”. Working together with Eva Makk since 1950, he has painted large murals in sixteen cathedrals and churches on two continents. This feat is unequaled by any other artist in our time, giving the Makks a place forever in art history. Their most famous work, on the ceiling of the 150-year-old Manaus Cathedral in Brazil, is the world’s largest single-themed ceiling mural. Americo was born in Hungary in 1927. His formal training began at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Art in Budapest. At the top of his class, he received a scholarship to Italy, and while studying at the Academy of Fine Art in Rome he met his future wife, Eva, a fellow artist at the academy. The couple moved to Brazil in 1949, and their reputation as brilliant young painters spread quickly. They were appointed as Professors of Art at the Sao Paulo Academy of Fine Art, and later were named Official Artists of the Brazilian Government. Among their many commissions was an unprecedented expedition deep into the Amazon rainforest to paint the indigenous tribal people. In 1962 Americo Makk and his family moved to New York and continued their distinguished careers as artists. Americo Makk now lives in Hawaii, where he and his family have made their home since 1967.

Today Americo Makk’s paintings are highly prized, with some selling for several hundred thousand dollars. Demand for his work is still growing. As he has done for more than fifty years, Americo Makk continues to receive international acclaim, such as a recently opened permanent exhibition of his paintings at the Museum of Hungarian Military History in Budapest.

Stephen Harlan

His Story … His Inspiration

Stephen James Harlan was born in rural Minnesota. His childhood memories are filled with thoughts of family, friends and activities that kept the soul alive during the Upper Midwest’s long winter months. His family relocated to Ft. Myers, Florida when Stephen was still in grade school. His love for the water began at this early age when he spent many days (literally) sailing into the sunset on his catamaran.

Investigating the uniqueness of harbors and sunsets became a passion in those early years. Even now, Stephen’s
nautical focus grows deeper every day, with the never-ending inspiration that comes from carefully observing the sea and the water in all of their contrasts.

Artistic Development

In the early 1980s, Stephen and his wife Martha relocated to Burbank, California where his love for the ocean continued and grew. His artistic style expanded too, with images of the southwest and several other areas of inspiration becoming a part of his portfolio. Stephen’s portfolio of abstract images also grew as increased interest and requests from California and West Coast collectors surfaced.

Stephen’s work was recognized by many, and his work adorned the covers of national magazines that ran the gamut from commercial, industrial, and musical amphitheater promotions to trendsetting publications such as AV/Video.

During these years, Stephen was commissioned to produce custom images including nautical, southwestern and abstract topics. He was recognized as a leader in digital imagery and placed “Best of Show” in important exhibits in Los Angeles and across Southern California.

A Return to the East

In the late 1980s, Stephen and his family relocated to Maryland. The Harlan home on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay provided a perfect place to raise their daughters, Danielle and Samantha, while inspiring Harlan’s art.

In 2008, the Harlans moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. Today, the HarlanArt studio is located in Carolina Beach, where the Atlantic Ocean and Intercoastal Waterway serve as a constant source of stimulation for future work.

Vangelis

Vangelis Andriotakis was born in 1953 in Greece, on the island of Crete. He is the first son into a family consisting of four siblings, and a multitude of cousins, aunts, and uncles. Since his first encounter with oil colors at a very early age, his fascinating journey through Art could fill many novels.

Vangelis is an artist whose work follows a great tradition, the tradition of vision and classic excellence associated with the artists of his native island of Crete. From the masterpieces of the Minoan civilization to the paintings of El Greco to the writings of Kazantzakis, this beautiful Mediterranean island has been the berth for some of the world’s most respected artists.

Like all classics, Vangelis is reviewed by the judgment of following periods, but unlike some of the greats of earlier eras, it is impossible to pass easy verdicts on him, because of the sheer exceptional diversity of his work. The mere scope of his output makes it next to impossible to engage with it all.

Vangelis resides and works in the United States since 1972, where he met his wife and muse Ioanna. In 1995, he re-encountered his childhood love – flowers – and began the creation of what is destined to be the most prolific collection of floral works of art on canvas, the art world has ever seen: Natural Exposure.

This dazzling collection, masterfully brilliant with color, besides expressing intangible emotional concepts or ever- greater displays of spiritual and symbolic significance, is a dramatic testament to the almost surreal beauty of flowers. However, he is exceptionally diverse in his work and is continuously creating series of different themes, such as:

Greece: God’s Love Affair With Planet Earth (early era)
Women: Timeless Beauty and Classic Ideal (early era)
Dreams and Inner Consciousness (early era)
Venetian Masks: The Mystery
Fashion Series
Dazzling Jewels
Avant-Garde
Surreal Series
Abstract Series

Vangelis has held numerous exhibitions and his paintings grace the collections of the Palace of Tokyo in Japan, the U.S.A. Rose Society, the U.S.A. Orchid Society, The Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman, The Ritz Carlton Jamaica, the Umpton Hotel North Carolina, many private collectors’ residencies, and he has been commissioned to paint for the White House, the Kennedy Foundation and the Queen of England. His paintings are sold in Galleries all over the world.

“In the beginning I was trying to convey energy and composition — to cast a different light of flowers and bring to the viewer a new angle of vision, to charm and surprise…” says Vangelis of his flower paintings, “but from the very first studies I realized that beauty in flowers is strictly pragmatic”. Blossom traits — from form to scent, to color — are purely practical in Nature, designed to attract attention and ensure survival. We have been living and working with flowers for a lifetime, but never truly looked at these seductive, powerful creatures, until Vangelis revealed their most intimate crevices through his paintings. We are seduced by the flower’s exquisite beauty, intoxicated by the depth of color, and tingled by tactile sensuality of the flower’s inner self.

“After all we have borrowed the enticing power of the flowers for our own seductions. Long before diamond rings and candlelight dinners, humans used the scent and beauty of the flowers to woo true loves to courtship, marriage and ultimately reproduction. Perhaps the intelligence of flowers has being as underestimated as that of beautiful women.”

Jim Pescott

Jim Pescott left a successful corporate career after thirty years to follow a deep inner passion for Alberta landscapes and the natural light that define them.

Jim is self-taught: for him, painting involves listening visually to source joy, light, and harmony for the images on his canvas and to explore how everything is connected.

Jim’s work has exhibited internationally: Cannes, France, Florence, Italy, Rio de Janeiro, New York City, and Monaco. His work has exhibited annually, from 2011 through 2016, in the juried Salon held by the historic Société National des Beaux-Artes (SNBA) at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris France.

In 2012, Jim was recognized as a “Master Pointillist” in an award from ArtTour International Magazine for “Excellence In The Arts and Outstanding Career Achievement”. Then in 2013, Jim received medal award recognition from France’s national Académie Arts-Sciences-Letters.

In 2015, Jim received provisional membership in France’s national and historic Société National des Beaux-Artes (SNBA)

In 2018, Jim was awarded “Landscape Artist of the Year 2018” by Art Design Consultants in Cincinnati for his landscape painting entry to their Art Come Alive 2018 exhibition.

Jim lives and creates in Alberta, Canada.

Type: National & International Artists