About the Artists
"OPEN MINDED" Group Exhibition Artists
Anne-Kristin Vaudour, Hong Kong
"Inspired by the countless fairy tale books I immersed myself into as a child, it was my greatest dream to become a magician and have all my wishes fulfilled by snipping a finger or saying a magic spell. Growing up, I had to realise that it doesn’t quite work that way.
I still loved to dwell in fantasy worlds and meet fancy characters. Soon I started to create my own worlds and creatures, using coloured pencils and later oil paint. My canvas became my magic wand where everything was possible with a free flow of imagination.
In my adult life reality took over and I started to work as a manger for corporate companies, never loosing sight of my artistic passion. Only about 2 years ago, I finally became a full time artist.
My pop surrealist figurative painting focuses on fantasy worlds and imaginary creatures. My background in fashion & costume design and children book illustration, combined with my love for the old masters, fairy tales and Asian tradition result in creating a blend of classic storytelling, fashion magazine advertising and Surrealism. My goal is to provoke the viewer to see beyond our conventional perception of reality.
My art is an exploration of my inner world. I create things that I wish would exist. I also want to tell a story to entertain the viewer, just like everyone loves a good story".
Anne was born in 1974, in the former East Germany. She studied Journalism and PR in Shanghai and Children Book Illustration and Oil Painting in Italy. For most of her career, she worked in luxury retail in Hong Kong and Singapore, where she is currently residing.
Just about 2 years ago, Anne had the opportunity to quit her corporate job in luxury retail to finally realise her long desired dream of becoming an artist.
For Anne the bizarre beauty and dreamy world of Pop Surrealism provides the perfect outlet to give shape to her imaginary world. That’s why she adopted this genre for her artwork. Anne paints in oil on canvas, using the traditional technique of the old masters that she acquired during her studies in Italy. Recently she is producing digital artwork.
Among others, Anne’s artwork has been exhibited at the ANIMA MUNDI Festival during the Biennale in Venice, the London Contemporary International Art Fair and the Asia Contemporary Art Show in Hong Kong. Recently, her artwork has been shown at The Hive Spring as part of the Le French May festival.
Arzu Arslan, Turkey
"As I started Çini (Traditional Turkish Iznik Ceramics), the traditional art in which Turks have been using the similar motifs for 600 years, I realized that it was time to integrate these motifs into today's modern designs with the help of ceramic forms. First, I changed the colors. Changing the colors changed the design as well. They become more sophisticated and this is a welcomed sign recognized by the authorities. Secondly, I wanted to adapt Turkish symbols used such as in rugs, carpets, fabrics, mosques, palaces etc I searched for the meanings of symbols, Turkish mithology, epics and finally The Orhun Inscriptions. The Orhun Inscriptions affected me so much that I decided to use these inscriptions. In my works, I combined traditional Turkish symbols with the inscriptions in The Old Turkic alphabet (Göktürk Alphabet). Especially I love to use woman symbols. I plan to use old alphabet with Ottoman motifs in my new works.
My goal is to add emotion to 600 years old motifs with my colors, with modern ceramic forms; to open a new turnout in Çini by using 3000 years old Turkish Culture and esoteric symbolism. Mostly, I use black, red and Turkish Blue: Turqoise in my works . Black was ignored in Çini for ages. I believe that these colors and symbols will start a new era.
I’m deeply in love with this art, loosing myself while working. Everytime i find myself thinking or searching symbols to create new designs. Changing the general perception for traditional arts by creatingtradicontemporaryartwork is what I am trying to accomplish".
Arzu was born in 14th of January 1975 in Ankara, Turkey. After graduated from Yukselis College in 1993, she studied Business Administration in Anatolia University – Eskisehir. She graduated in 1998 and started her finance career at Akbank this year. For 10 years she worked in various departments. She quited her finance career in 2008. Since 2010 she has been attending to State’s various art courses such as ceramics and Traditional Turkish Ceramic Art: Çini , also she has got private lessons from çini artists . She is participating in art auctions in Turkey in wellknown art galleries.
Ashly Sypherd, USA
"Power wears many masks. These works explore how power may present yourself in expected and unexpected ways. Within African tradition, Purple symbolizes passion, spirituality, and wealth in all aspects of life. Find yourselves and your power within these works, as I find myself."
Ashly Sypherd is a BIPOC multimedia collage artist working with organic and inorganic materials. Her work seeks to bridge the gap between the natural and artificial, the conscious and subconscious, the body and the spirit.
As a current graduate student, community worker, and applied behavioral therapist, she works from a socio-racial perspective to challenge the impersonal as the interpersonal. Originally from Upland, California (approximately 30 miles from Los Angeles) racial disparities were glaring. This sparked her desire to look inward as well as outward through her medium. Every piece is created based on her emotional state; she's guided by her feelings.
She currently is working with Its-In-Scope and their fellowship cohort to re-imagine a future that delineates and challenges the hegemonic ways of knowing and being that are so pervasive in the United States. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a sociology degree, Ashly sought to socially uplift her community with her table talk, The Ebony Table. Coupling social justice and art, she is currently creating an art collective with local artists. Her work is highly personal and tells a tale from an individualistic communal perspective.
Cristina Ciccone, UK
Cristina Ciccone is a northern artist currently living and working in South London. She studied an MA at Chelsea College of Art and Design and a PGCE in Art and Design Education at Goldsmiths College, London. She currently works in art education alongside her practise.
Her current work explores our relationship and reconnection with the concept and physicality of the 'Home' in both its tangible and emotional states, through use of wallpaper print taken directly from the home environment, alongside layered organic forms –Her most recent ‘Surbiton Hill Series” was created during lockdown where 'Home' was finally made accessible to many of us who have failed to experience its' rewards and challenges with such intensity in 'normal' everyday life.
Christina Geoghegan, Ireland
"I'm an Irish artist interested in the psychology of colour and landscape. The time in the Netherlands completing a BA in Fine Art instigated my interest in changing urban spaces to engage and impact the perceiver through landscapes.
The ongoing series depict the environment and its direct influence on people in the space. These Artworks explore the introspective moments in galleries and the threshold of the public space and the ambiguity between observer and art."
Ekaterina Nikidis, Russia
"I always emphasise the decorative side of my artworks. But as is often the case in life, behind the luxury cover there is something that one had particularly carefully wanted to hide. Perhaps only the detail will tell you this. And the thing which is usually considered a simple decoration can also be important. I let an ordinary addition play a major role and watch it change along with its status.
The best moments are painful because they will never happen again. The beauty captured in my artworks has never existed at all — it is just a game of consciousness transferred to the material. It is an illusion created with a longing for the past or the never-past.
The figures of the artworks are connected by thin threads of mutual stories. I suggest to the viewer discover them. What are they: some fancy jewellery or a tear disguised as a pearl in gold? I left the question open.
Can art be decorative, but conceal a layer of ideas and be a source for thoughts at the same time? I want to prove that it can. Just let’s see more behind a cover.
I do pay a lot of attention to aesthetics and the concept of beauty. And there is another reason for that. There is a lot of problems and darkness in the world around us. Many artists focus on them. But I think that it is also important to show an alternative. It is important to offer a positive path, and not just condemn reality. So, in addition to philosophy, my art is just the territory of a beautiful life. And I believe that we all need to visit this place sometimes".
Ekaterina started her creative path in 2007 with a private course in academic drawing. She wanted to go into the arts because she could never imagine living without creating anything. In the early period, it was difficult for her to choose a technique and style, as well as determine the direction of her creativity. She was also attracted to the ability to influence the world through design.
She received a degree in computer graphics in 2009. For 8 years she was involved in graphic design for business — she first worked in the Advertising Department of a trading company, then she was a freelance designer.
2016-2018 years she spent in jewellery, most of all for learning different techniques. She also received a degree in jewellery from the Art Lyceum named after K. Faberge.
She studied a lot of art history on her own and then entered the Department of art history and theory at the St. Petersburg Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture.
So after studying art, design, and history, working with different materials, combining knowledge and techniques from various fields, she finally came to the stage of a stable creating her own concepts and art objects.
Nowadays Ekaterina is a full-time self-employed artist. She creates series of graphics and paintings, jewellery designs, engravings on metal, installations.
Emma Coyle, UK
A recipient of International Art Market’s 'Gold List' award, ‘top international contemporary artists of today', 'most talented, inspiring, and promising artists operating in the world today. Recommended artists to invest in and to be inspired by’, with work acquired by Dame Janet Wolfson de Botton.
Coyle has been working within art for over 20 years and been based in London since 2006. She has exhibited in numerous galleries and art fairs throughout the city. Coyle’s work has appeared within many publications including The Times (UK), London's Mayfair Times (UK), Avari art (USA), A5 (UK), Al-Tiba9 (Spain), M&Art (Sweden) and Visions Libres (Germany). Also on the covers of Level 25 art journal (USA), Emergo (Netherlands), Litro (UK), and Kapa magazine (Greece).
Coyle’ work was selected by Los Angeles curator Bridget Carron for her collection Power Popon Saatchi’ online gallery in 2014. In 2018 Coyle’ painting 12.16.07 won the Artness Magazine cover competition and also won her an Artist of the Year 2019; Honorable Mention Award from Circle Foundation in France. In April 2020 painting Linda no.1 receive a review from Dab Art Co. Los Angeles.
Earlier in her career in Ireland Coyle exhibited in many galleries in Ireland and exhibited for the Irish National Portrait exhibition in 2005. Coyle also exhibited for charities in the Royal Hibernian Academy and Adam’s Fine Art auctioneers. Just before moving to London Coyle had solo exhibitions in the Signal Art Centre in Co. Wicklow and the Bank of Ireland’s art centre in Dublin, and was described as ‘one of the city’s most promising new artist’ {Metro Life newspaper- January 2006}, and a ‘rising young artist’ {Irish Independent- May 2006}.
Although Coyle’s first interest in art in the late 1990’s included an introduction to 1stwave American Pop Art of the 1950’s, her figurative work focuses on contemporary imagery to push ideas and produce accomplished paintings of a Fine Art standard using process and execution of ideas. Most recently her figurative painting series ‘12.16’ won her a Special Artist Award from BESTART.
Coyle is also working on an ongoing abstract painting project which commenced in 2002. In recent years this project branched into installation work and in 2018 the individual pieces received a special recognition and an award for excellence from Florida art gallery LightSpaceTime. In 2019 the ongoing work won an Honorable Mention Award from New Jersey’s J.Mane Gallery and NYC’s Grey Cube Gallery. Most recently in 2020 her three dimensional painting ‘Expansion’ won an Honorable Mention Award from Art Room Gallery.
While exhibiting in London since 2006, Coyle has expanded her audience exhibiting in America where her work has been positively received. She has also exhibited in NYC charity events alongside artists such as Jeff Koons, Yoko Ono, Ed Ruscha, Kiki Smith and renowned composer Philip Glass.
This year Coyle continues her work in figurative Pop art and abstraction. She has also started working on woodblock prints and after 16 years has now returned to photography, focusing in Polaroid and 120mm camera formats. The work deals with ideas in capturing and using negative space as a focal point.
FERRO, Spain
"When I was 9 years old, a teacher told us in class to draw whatever we wanted, it occurred to me to paint an abstract expression with many colours that was exactly what I liked and made me feel. Very proud of my drawing, I presented it to the teacher and tore it into as many pieces as he could. That moment marked my artistic life forever and until many years later I was not able to express myself like that again.
When I decided to do it, I started painting on canvas and presenting my works in small galleries and places such as restaurants, Pub’s, etc.
Last year 2019 was one of the most active in terms of exhibitions in my career as I have been in the Chapel of the Cangas hospital, in the restaurant "Las Tapas de Jose", in the Spazo art gallery in A Coruña, in the Marquis hotel in Granada and in "Expo metro" in London.
This year 2020, I participated in several exhibitions: individual exhibitions in the circle of businessmen of Galicia in Vigo and at the restaurant “El Barco” in Granada. Collective exhibitions at the Hotel “El Privilegio de Tena” in Huesca, “Casa Palacio María Luisa” in Cádiz, in the M.A.D.S. gallery in Milan, in Mundoarti Musseum and at the Hotel “Oca Puerta del Camino” in Santiago de Compostela.
My artistic training is based on observing what I feel and capturing it. I learn from any type of art and I try to advance every day and that my works evolve with me."
France Daffon, Philippines
"Triad reminisces the familiar affection shared with our closest friends. By chance, moments in Manila composed the thought that ‘three people are most intimate’. The form is not enough to fill a circle but stable to build a bond that is easily revived. It recognizes the different points in our lives that no one place can triads be found."
France Daffon is a videographer that’s passionate in screenwriting. At the same time, she explores abstract art and portraiture. The themes of her work orbits around the fluidity of femininity and intimacy of human connection. Her degree in film has influenced the way her works are composed, in mid-movement.
France Daffon’s work is influenced by her eager exploration of the impermanent definition of beauty. The self-reflective process initiates the acceptance of 'what is' and 'what was' without overthinking the outcome and reducing the inherent beauty of every subject. Daffon’s introspective approach is a response to create an intimate relationship between solitude and connection that then highlights imperfection.
Cinema and travel plays an important role in her creative process to remain affectionate in the mundane and the simplicity of the everyday.
ghomon, Italy
" My work heavily involves improvisation but it is always concerned with the creation of objects trying to stimulate an epiphany. My hope is that through the artistic object, an epiphany can be communicated and shared. I am constantly exploring the relationship between inner spiritual experiences and the modern world, trying to balance these two aspects of our life to find a healthy path of growth and progress".
Aldo, born in Sicily in 1991, studied literature and philosophy, worked in China, travelled by tent and hitchhiking for a while, studied art and modern philology.
To make sense of his inner conflict between philosophy and art, western and eastern thought, order and chaos, he gave birth to ghomon, that in PIE means "human", "earthling". Both an extension and a projection of aldo, ghomon is a multi-media contemporary art project that aims at expanding the possibilities of art by bringing together philosophy, science, mindfulness/awareness and human experience into a coherent vision of the world.
Jeremy Wolf, UK
"Much of my figurative work explores themes of identity, power dynamics, and relationships between persons and groups. Recent paintings continue to react to the seismic shifts in the current American political landscape, the subsequent effect on society in and outside of the United States, and the changing concept of what it means, and has meant, to be an American both at home and abroad. Recent paintings build on these themes and incorporate reactions to the ongoing coronavirus crisis and protests for social justice across the globe.
American moral authority (whether real or imagined) and influence has waned across the globe with the rise of neo-conservative and then alt-right views in the mainstream body politic. By blurring the lines between truth and falsehood, these actors have created a society of mutual distrust and suspicion. I try in my work to capture and reflect on the resultant layers of disappointment, fear, and exhaustion present in these times.
However, in dealing with such relentlessly negative topics I regularly find myself on the precipice of simultaneously beating a dead horse and screaming into the void. To avoid bludgeoning the viewer with more of what they see on cable news each day, I have sought to develop a visual language that makes these subjects more easily countenanced. In this way the audience can consider them over again and with a fresh perspective. Bright, candy colors stand in stark contrast to the weight of the scenes unfolding in the images. In some instances, vaguely suburban settings for these strange and disturbing happenings turn the post-war American Dream on its ear and make reference to my own somewhat idyllic childhood. Imagery cribbed from historical paintings reflect my interest in art history as well as drawing a line connecting the brutality of the old world and that of our own supposedly more enlightened, connected, and egalitarian age.
While I hope that all of these elements add up to something that is visually interesting and thought provoking for the audience, I don’t have all (or any) of the answers and thus attempt not to draw any obvious conclusions in my work. Today’s world is as confusing for me as it is for anyone else, and more than anything I think my pieces reflect that reality. "
Jeremy Wolf (b. 1989) is an artist living and working in London by way of New York City. Although he has always had an avid interest in drawing, by and large, he is untrained as a fine artist. Instead, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from New York University (2011). As a result he processes aesthetic information in a way that is unique if also rough around the edges. However, the absence of a more narrowly focused art education has contributed to his practice by allowing him to explore multitudes of different styles, media, and subject matter unburdened by dogmatic ideas of art history and style.
Kevin Molina-Guerrero, USA
Kevin Guerrero is a 29 Year Old San Jose CA based visual artist.
With an interest in colorful mixings of motions, patterns that he uses with shapes, objects and colors to engage the public to experience past events, memories and the beauty of his art. The outcome can either be positive or create an inner conflict that would trigger memories and would make the public face their struggles while they are seeing their Emotional Reflection.
Kevin has been inspired by the “Rorschach Inkblot Test". It’s a form of art where the subject's perceptions of this art are recorded and then utilized using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Kevin is very aware of the struggle that many people experience with mental health because he has faced some of these Same burdens. This is the reason why Kevin created the “Study of Motion” series.
As an artist, Kevin wants to bring all those emotions, and all those thoughts to create a tool through art that can help someone deal with their mental health. The intention of the artist is to help others recover from past traumas, substance abuse, depression and anxiety.
After Kevin Guerrero finished his current collection he's actively trying to help our community understand what is Mental Health and to put a spotlight on a topic that is not commonly acknowledged.
Ekaterina Kuzmina , Russia
Ekaterina Kuzmina is an artist-painter, a member of the Eurasian Art Union, the Union of Russian Artists, a permanent participant in exhibitions.
Her works are in private collections in Russia, Italy, China.
"Creativity is the most powerful and accessible tool with which you can recognize yourself and the whole world around you through yourself. That is why I do not like to explain the plots of my paintings: it seems to me that every interested viewer will be able to see and feel something of his own."
L. R. Patil , India
"As an artist I choose to be multimedia artist. My earlier works mark my rigorous engagement with process of making drawings and fine relief sculptures, and vice versa. This makes my earlier work series often holding a two dimensional presence with a thin dividing line between drawings and fine reliefs. Both the processes have been deeply integrated with/in the re-‐use of metal industrial waste.
I take intense long walks in the industrial areas of the peripheral city Mumbai to collect my materials. I have been employing the industrial metal cutouts in my works. Each detail of the industrial waste becomes a link to the languages lost and desiccated in our locales. My journey started from painting landscapes that had absence of emotions. Gradually going deep in relation to the core concept, I changed my mediums. Every work of art I made is a landscape of instincts we all go through, and are certain to lose, the actual reason we grew up for.
My works emerge at the margins of consistent crisis wherein human language/s struggle and attempt to communicate and fail. Human/emotions cling together for survival without any motivation. Like, human identities hang out together with their survival-‐instincts without questioning their deeper existential needs. I work with ink (drawings) on photographic-‐prints, installations and environmental sculptures. My visual language could be viewed as a fragment of the transforming urban landscape, an alternative view to the so called “developed” and “urbanized” metropolises. Invested with the paradox of sustenance my works are ephemeral and are allowed to erode with time, just as the human body does.
One could view my works as an analogical mediation on collective human memory and an archive of histories or a provocative series of an individual’s personal journals and stories. Who is this individual or the immigrant protagonist in the city? One may ask."
Born in 1972, L. R. Patil graduated from Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai India in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He received the K.K. Hebber Foundation Scholarship in 1994.In 1994 he also received the Camlin First Prize for the Final Year Annual show at Sir J. J. School of Art Mumbai. In 2000 he was awarded the Bombay Art Society Prize by M/S Hindustan Pencil Ltd.
In 2018 L.R. Patil has been selected in 6thEpisode of URONTO Residential Art Program, Sylhet, Bangladesh. In year 2017 he had participated at CIMA AWARDS in the Kolkatta Art Festival India. His prominent solo shows have been in 2005 and 2013 at the Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai. In 2008 He showed solo at the Fine Arts Faculty, Baroda. He has also participated in several group shows and art camps. In 2009 he received a Postgraduate Diploma in Indian Aesthetics from Jnanapravaha, Mumbai.
L.R.Patil is deeply concerned about the unholy nexus between fanatics of religion and self-serving politicians who tear apart the fabric of our society. Man, who ought to be a thinker because he is blessed with a highly developed mind, unfortunately becomes a mere tool in the hands of these manipulative forces, which incite hatred and violence. The horrific destruction of the social structure is due to the loss of man’s humanity and spiritual inner core.
He has used different kinds of mediums to give an existential core to what he sees as a feeling of layers of oppression in an urban setting in which man feels as if he is constantly on the rack. Every work expresses what the reality is and what he truly feels.
Larry Wolf ,USA
Born in Los Angeles, CA in 1950, Larry Wolf grew up with two passions in his life: art and justice. His love of art started back in kindergarten with an exquisite sculpture Larry created by sticking his hand into wet clay and leaving a palm print. But his style slowly evolved to portraits and ultimately to abstract pieces. Meanwhile, countless episodes of "Perry Mason" drew out in Larry a love for the the excitement, drama, an unpredictability of criminal law. Larry's four-decade legal career as both a prosecutor and later a defense attorney has been nothing short of extraordinary, a truly remarkable journey through so many aspects of human experience.
But it wasn't until 2000 that Larry brought together his two passions through a wide and diverse exploration of abstract art he calls "A Brush with the Law." Larry's artistic emergence was paved by his spiritual teacher, who emphasized creativity and the necessity of getting out of the way of oneʼs own head. Larry soon discovered that he was most intrigued by the use of color and texture. Through meditation and keen observation, his creativity has blossomed. The pieces in Larry's "A Brush with the Law" collection reflect the artist's never-ending search for new alternatives and solutions to problems both in art and in the courtroom. Larry is driven to always look at things in new ways, and if successful, his paintings can inspire others to do the same. In recent years, Larry's work has been exhibited throughout the Los Angeles and Southern California area, and has won awards in numerous juried art competitions.
"As an attorney, my experience is extensive, having practiced criminal defense law for over four decades. As an artist, I am self-taught and passionate. My work reflects an intensity of emotion and thought, honed through a lifetime of rich and expansive interactions with the world and the fascinating people who live in it.
My art reflects an intriguing attempt to combine my passion for law with my love for artistic expression through bold textures and vibrant colors. Dedicating over 40 years to building my legal skills, I explore my experiences in this field through introspection that is expressed in my series of original paintings entitled "A Brush with the Law."
My unique use of raw canvas allows its bare essence to create an interplay of primitive energy and sophisticated emotions. Each piece expresses the artistʼs struggle and joy in communicating my heart, mind, and soul as I travel through a systematic world.
I communicate my struggle to search for new alternatives and solutions to problems both in art and in the courtroom. This portfolio of work expresses my drive to always look at things in a new way.
Art has become an outlet that has taken me on a journey that I share with the viewer through these works that are as intriguing to the mind as they are a delight to the eye."
Marinna Shareef , Trinidad and Tobago
"Caribbean artist “Mahrinnart” can be considered as an alter-ego, confident but aware of her feelings as someone dealing with bipolar disorder. She has no self stigma, unlike myself, and is open to discuss her experiences and feelings through both physical paintings and new media art. In emulating “mahrinnart”, I distort self portraits to visually make sense of the thoughts and feelings I experience, along with the side effects of being medicated.
The two extremes, mania and depression are explored, as well as the combination of the two referred to as mixed episodes. I manipulate vivid colors to attract viewers to dark subjects, highlighting my manic depressive experiences with rainbows, glitter and confetti. It is not my aim to not to glorify the illness, but to use a surrealistic approach to transport others into a world that isn't theirs, so that they can understand mine. My paintings capture the intensity of my feelings, contrasting bright colors with a dark background. My digital art focuses more on the metaphors I use to describe my feelings, and allow me to add motion which is not possible with painting.
Being an indo-caribbean woman, I use local food motifs in my work to give some sense of familiarity, despite the unrealistic visuals. By ‘locating’ the work, the subject of mental illness can further “hit home” and spark conversation about mental illness in a stigmatising society. "
“Mahrinnart” posts her art and concepts on the social platform Instagram, as it is noted to be one of the most popular apps, but also the most detrimental to your mental health. By having these visuals appear on one’s feed, it can be a reminder to be aware of your feelings, or may even encourage someone to take steps towards having a better mental health.
Marinna Shareef isTrinidadian multi-media artisthas completed her Fine Arts degree at the University of the West Indies and has exhibited in the National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago in the ‘UWI Degree Show,’ and in the “Emerging Artists” exhibition during Carifesta in 2019.
Merani Schilcher, Germany
"Government-issued lockdowns have become standard procedure during the COVID-19 pandemic, clearly separating what is considered private and public space. Defining space by dividing it to inside and outside is one of human's ways to recognize his position in environments, because we can only ever be either inside or outside, never neither of them. But there are spaces that actively divide these territories. Spaces of transition, boundaries and connections: in-between spaces. Here things meld together and cease to be distinct.
Doors, windows, stairs and walls are at once neither and both. By using the ever-present confinement of our homes as a challenge, I wanted to open up a space that was previously off-limits to the vast majority of the people in my surroundings: my private space.
"after hours" deals with human properties within machines. Machines have always automated tasks humans didn’t or couldn’t do, and this one is no different.
Through the extension of private space into public space and public space into private space, it has become a visualization of human desire for companionship during these trying times in isolation. It is an open invitation returning every night as soon as the sun sets for anyone watching who might feel alone and hoping for another person waiting at the end of the rope. But it is still a machine extending this invitation, not a person, and it stays impossible to climb this ladder.
Merani Schilcher is a media artist and designer with a passion for the internet, machines and experiments from Berlin(Germany). Her interests range from the big questions of the universe all the way to more light-hearted ones like “should I make yet another red project?”. Her focus is always somehow related to human characteristics in technology and how we as humans are currently using and connecting with it. She has previously studied in Berlin, Stuttgart, Aberdeen and Taipei.
Mohit Sharma, India
"Dreaming is a hobby of every person and I show these dreams In my world. This shows the dreams of future. This relates our past with present. This symbolic represents how we are and how we will be in future world, having different scenes of nature and animals in the world. Dreamy world with dreamy figures and animals which take you to a dreamy universe so you can connect your dreams with the painting and remember these dreams and lost in that world for a while.
So, Every person has a connection with himself in which he thinks about her life in a dream a dream in which he wants to live.
I have done a number of exhibitions and art shows that have played important role to excel my skill. Having experience in different medium of paintings, I also work in graphics and also like traditional work. My paintings are inspired with nature and dreams as a person experiences different dreams and fantasies in a day and the creation of nature is the best one. A person see many dreams everyday and enter in a whole new world which is on another level, a dream of fantasies and future predictions. I have tried to forecast these dreams through my paintings to give you a joy at that level and entering in a world which was created by me. These paintings give a view to your memory and thought to your dreams which are full of horror, sorrow and joy. "
Rashid Asadipour, Germany
"Alike for those who for To-day prepare,
And those that after some To-morrow stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
"Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There."
Omar Khayyám
Born on 1983 in Shiraz, Iran Asadipour graduated in graphic design from the Kharaaji Conservatory in Shiraz, Iran in 2000, participated in group and solo exhibitions between 2000 and 2010 in Shiraz, Ahvaz and Tehran. After that Asadipour immigrated to Germany, where he participated in 3 Painting group exhibition in Hamburg, in the annual exhibition of the HFBK Hamburg 2018 and 2019.
Fineart student at HFBK Hamburg from 2018.
Sara Holt, USA
"My main artistic approach since the first day I started painting has been to fill my work with my own emotions in an effort to evoke the same intense emotions from the viewer. I have always been more concerned that my paintings convey emotion and human experience than whether or not I've painted an empirically perfect face or scene. I try to make powerful art that engages the viewer to stop and take time to absorb the painting.
Making art that focuses on emotional expression and reaching people on an internal level is my purpose. I want to paint/make art that has a real world impact. This is becoming more important to me by the day considering the current global pandemic and the state of daily life in America. I try to show my work to people during daily interactions and have been discouraged from gallery shows in the last few years due to high gallery fees and undue burdens placed on artists. I feel reaching out to people in person and online helps my art make a real world impact.
My own understanding of the human experience and emotional expression is what I bring to my art and the world at large. I'm the only person who can bring my point of view, my experience, myself into my art. There's no point for me to paint a perfect scene if there's none of myself contained therein. By concentrating on my own life experience and bringing it into my art I'm also infusing my work with feelings to which most people can relate. I've been through a wide myriad of highs and lows in my life much like the rest of humanity. If I couldn't bring the emotions associated with those highs and lows into my work I think it would result in an empty carcass of a painting. I feel my art is the best thing I have to offer the world so I do it generously, thoughtfully, and occasionally with wild abandon".
Sara was born and raised on the Central Coast of California. She studied art and psychology in college. Participated in numerous group exhibitions.
Sourajata Kumar Saha, India
"My works are theatrical and fathomeless presentation of dynamism. Although I do not believe in any ism or intentionally paint in that so. But it portrays my style of work in this manner only.
That my life is full of struggle and I have always given an utmost try to overcome them. And whenever the problems have repeatedly appeared in my life I have always treated them like ever before.
The slogan of my life is not to leave unless I reach my success. It might take a number of failures may be a thousand or more even more and more. I will keep on doing unless I reach that or get that. So I am dynamic and I paint that only.
The colours in my work are very vibrant and the form I select are very masculine which is the positive energy source for the manifestation. The subject I take is having a mystical and classical memories and stature.
Consciously I have never painted sorrows as I do believe it dividends nothing in return but only a heavy mind. In my very recent works the mysticism and the wholesomeness has come consciously or unconsciously.
In many of my works a the theatrical spot light has been used on a multiple objects from a multiple source of light for creating a mesmerizing visual scenic beauty. In some of my works anti perspective presentation is used with bold black and grey lines.
3D painting is my invention. I have developed this medium since 2012. I use basically Paper Pulp. and waste papers for making models and I paint on this.
This is very Eco friendly and less costly. All kind of preservation, restoration, relying are possible in th.is medium. I am able to create the curvature illusion here in this medium and in this style convex surface.
Sourajata holds Bachelor of Visual Art -Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, University of Calcutta, WB ,India. He was participating in the state, national and international level exhibitions, workshops and auctions.
Stanislav Valevski, Bulgaria
Stanislav Valevski is an emerging professional freelance artist with a master's degree in "fine arts - painting" from the Academy of arts situated in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
His inclination is in the combination of different genres from the abstract art, but his main focus is between the abstract expressionism of the action, the colour fields and especially minimalism, because when combined together they create one particular contrast between quiet contemplation and aggressive live emotion. In this setting the logical mind plays primarily a formal role manifesting in the deliberate control of the artist upon the art mediums, the chromatic solution and the construction of the art composition.
The characteristic feature in his creativity is in the thin transparent film of oil colour which makes one especially elegant gentleness of the chromatic tone, which predisposes the spirit to contemplate, countered with a solid brush strokes of unconventional medium that creates the feeling of a strong dynamic emotion, but represents only the compositional accent. The main search of emotional effect upon the spectator of art stays the contemplating experience.
Stella Tripp, UK
"My work is a line of enquiry, starting with something to explore rather than an end point to aim at. The work evolves through responding to materials and processes, maintaining mystery and surprise while exploring the nature of reality, the fragility of the world and our engagement with it. Bold colours and painterly chaos contrast with intricate details to create striking and engaging multi layered abstract images with many-layers of meaning. My investigation is made through a purely visual language. And it is an essential part of my life.
Elements from the exterior world resonate with my interior life stimulating complex imagery, enabling people to find their own world reflected in multiple ways. Through working in a variety of processes using a range of different materials, I challenge myself and the viewer to continuously see things anew from fresh perspectives, and to make new connections.
At the start of lockdown I felt very lucky to have my studio in my house, so I could carry on working “as normal”. However after working on a few canvases, I settled in to making small works on paper, with watercolours and pen and ink.
When I first went to America, many years ago, the novelty and freedom of the situation allowed my work to expand in all directions – size, materials, ideas... In the strange situation we find ourselves in now, more restrictive size and media intuitively feel more fitting."
Born in Somerset and currently living in Devon – neighbouring counties in southwest England. However, I travelled the long way round – living and studying in Israel, Portsmouth, London, and America along the way. I made and exhibited art in all those places, as well as holding many exhibitions here in the south west.
I work in a variety of media including painting, mixed-media constructions and ceramics. Since 2015 I have also been exploring collaborative performative practice, as a founding member of Exeter based artist group Preston Street Union (PSU).
I work intuitively and my art, though mainly abstract, is inevitably influenced by whatever else is going on in my life – including being a mother and now a grandmother too.
Time spent living in Israel and America, as well as studies of non-western art, have given me a wider perspective on what art can be – how art is seen in different societies – and how it can build bridges between different perspectives.
As the daughter of a refugee, I am only too aware of people’s capacity for dehumanising each other and hope that basic human values of kindness and respect come through in my work.
Uzomah Ugwu, USA
"I believe there is hope in the created darkness if we believe in the light. My art addresses those rays of light and also the darkness of society by showing through a lens or a stroke of a brush an ability to push through the debris that is gathered in life."
Uzomah Ugwu is a poet/writer and multi-disciplined artist. Her poetry, writing and art have been featured in various publications internationally. She is a political, social, and cultural activist. Her core focus is on human rights, mental health, animal rights, and the rights of LGBTQ persons.
Zita Vilutyte, Lithuania
“We are going through a very exciting, broad and fundamental time of transformation, where everything is changing, from lifestyle to technology. Although it is a time of great opportunities, it is still full of dangers. Now is the moment when we have to make a decision and become responsible for our own lives, and not just for our own, but for our live in general.
For thoughts, words, every action and everything we do. To think that changes in the consciousness of all mankind will be easy and fast is a utopia. But those who realize - they must act.
Where is the artist’s place in this period of changes?
Being an artist in today's world requires a lot of effort. Not only is it the duty of the artist to create an original expression, the artist must also be able to share what has already been created. A constant threat to the artist’s authenticity is commercialism, a consumerist society that can easily defeat the artist’s spiritual growth and blur the boundary between true live art and dead, stagnant art.
I live in a special country that, after the collapse of communism, has transformed itself into an era of extinguishing capitalism, torn by crises, and fierce competition for production and consumption. The old period has left us with a degraded environment and a sclerotic political culture enslaved by prejudices and interests. Nevertheless, this new period offers great opportunities. Everything changes, today becomes history tomorrow, and our time is now. ”
Graduated Siauliai Conservatoire, Choirmaster faculty; Siauliai University, Art faculty and Siauliai University (Lithuania) MA, Social Sciences, Musical Education.
Zita participated in over 50 solo and group exhibitions that have been organized in Lithuania and abroad (Denmark, Italy, India, Netherlands, Georgia, Latvia, Estonia, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary, Portugal, Malta, etc.).
Zita's paintings and drawings are on display at the World Museum of Drawings in Macedonia, at the Mark K. Gregorovich Memorial Museum in Brudve, Montenegro and at the D. Kipiani Memorial Museum in Georgia. Most of art workswent to private collections - in Portugal, Malta, India, UK, Sweden, Latvia, USA and others.