ArtIdeal v.5 by Circle Foundation Press

Explore Contemporary Aesthetics

Valentina Benigni

Jean-Claude Bise

Artero

Covert

André Brieudes

Luciano B.R.

Nira Chorev

Pavithra Dissanayaka

RFusionART

Johan Franzén

Jane Gottlieb

Ronna S. Harris

Jef Horvers

Zheng Kejing

Nataly Kenny

Oceanna Visions

Gpollieana

Paul Art Lee

Anson Liaw

Dr. Georgina Macken

Sergey Piskunov

Cher Pruys

Sastra

Humans Sato

Sotaro Takanami

Christiaan Van Ruyven

Gary Wagner

Vincent W.

Nluz

On the cover

Patterned, 2023

Acrylic on canvas 89 x 116 cm by Amir Taba Recent Artwork by Betsy Ashton

Fall 2025

Curated & Edited by Circle Foundation for the Arts

Front Cover

Amir Taba

Patterned, 2023 Acrylic on canvas 89 x 116 cm

Back Cover

Torsten Wolber

Lisa Oil on linen 100 x 75 cm

Designed & Published in France

Distributed Internationally

All Rights Reserved ®

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems, or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher and copyright holders.

® Copyright:

Circle Foundation For the Arts Press

info@circle-arts.com

ISBN: 979-10-980264-0-9 9791098026409

CFA Press , France

Dedicated to Art

Betsy Ashton

Valentina Benigni

Jean-Claude Bise

Carlos Blanco Artero

André Brieudes

Luciano B.R.

Precious Burger

François Chartier

Nira Chorev

Wendy Cohen

Bob Conge

Sharon Covert

Pavithra Dissanayaka

Georg Douglas

RVFphotoART // RFusionART

Johan Franzén

Rita Gaiziunaite-Kapoutsi

Michael Gault

Jane Gottlieb

Michael Ian Goulding

Art IDEAL v. 5

FEATURED

ARTISTS

Gpollieana

Howard Harris

Ronna S. Harris

Jef Horvers

Kadra Valeria

Alex Kagan

Zheng Kejing

Nataly Kenny

Oceanna Visions

Jennifer Koning

Paul Art Lee

Anson Liaw

Katja Lührs

Dita Lūse

Rob MacIntosh

Dr. Georgina Macken

Marissa Madonna

Pat Marino

Kathy McKnight

William T Moore III

L. Scooter Morris

Steve Negrón

Eva Nordholt

Mary Ann Ortigas

Nluz Love

Jeff Perks

Nathalie Perler

Sergey Piskunov

Jean Jacques Porret

Meinto Post

Tanya Preminger

Cher Pruys

Jalal Quinn

Michelle Reeves

Jeannette M Rein

Linda Reymore

Cheryl R Richardson Standa

Marion Rockstroh-Kruft

Natalia Rose

George Rowbottom

Natascha Sastra

Humans Sato

Tanya Shark

Jason Shih

Chris Silver

Amir Taba

Sotaro Takanami

Tammy Huynh Truong

Kate Van Doren

Christiaan Van Ruyven

Hans Van Wingerden

Mia Vucic

Gary Wagner

Vincent W.

Charlotte Wensley

Torsten Wolber

Maureen Zacharki

Zhou Yinjun

Meet the Curator

Born in 1986 in Athens, Greece, Myrina Tunberg Georgiou spent her childhood on the island of Crete. After completing high school, she moved to Athens, pursuing studies at the National University of Greece, Dept. of Methodology, History, and Theory of Sciences. Relocating to Santa Barbara, California, she completed Studio Art studies at SBCC. During her time in Santa Barbara, Myrina found profound inspiration in the teachings of Ed Inks, sculptor and Professor who served as Department Chair. This encounter propelled her to delve deeper into the realm of art, leading her to pursue further education in Art History and Studio Art. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Art in Design & Technology from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Remaining committed to the world of art, Myrina became an active member of the San Francisco Bay Area art community, working alongside various art institutions, museums, and galleries. In 2011, she co-founded Kitsch Gallery , an experimental art space situated in the vibrant Mission District of San Francisco. Within this unique establishment, Myrina co-directed a multitude of visual and sound art exhibits, fostering an environment that housed 12 artist studios and a gallery space.

In 2012, Myrina relocated to Paris, France, where she embarked on a freelance design career, working for American and French galleries, art institutions and publishing houses. Since 2014, she has made her home in Lyon, France, embracing the city’s rich artistic heritage and cultural milieu.

Drawing from her extensive experience working in galleries and art institutions, Myrina’s vision crystallized in 2017 when she founded Circle Foundation for the Arts. Motivated by the diversity of artistic practices and perspectives within contemporary art, Circle serves as a platform to showcase the work of exceptional artists from around the globe. Guided by her belief in the vital role of art and culture in shaping our social and political landscapes, she designs & curates projects and exhibitions, publishes books and magazines, and has collaborated with and provided consultation for over 8,500 artists to date.

Myrina continues to advocate for the importance of art, focusing on building opportunities for artists to sustain and develop their vital work. Through her dedication, she seeks to ensure that artistic voices are supported, heard, and celebrated across boundaries and cultures.

Curator’s Note

Welcome to the fifth volume of Art IDEAL , an exploration of contemporary aesthetics. This edition brings together a wide spectrum of voices from across the globe, each presenting their practice with conviction, imagination, and originality. Within these pages, painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, mixed and digital media coexist in dialogue, revealing not only the richness of form but also the multiplicity of perspectives that shape contemporary art.

What emerges is not a singular theme but a polyphony of concerns that feel especially vital today. Many artists explore abstraction as a way to process rhythm, gesture, and materiality, while others ground their work in the close observation of nature or the investigation of human psychology. Across these approaches, the works confront pressing issues of identity, memory, environment, and technology. Their significance lies not only in their beauty but also in their ability to act as mirrors and interlocutors, allowing us to see both the external world and our inner selves anew.

As John Berger reminded us in Ways of Seeing , art alters not only what we look at but also how we look. That proposition feels urgent today, when attention is so often consumed by the velocity of images and external distraction.

Contemporary theorists like Hito Steyerl have extended this inquiry into the digital sphere, asking us to consider how images circulate, mutate, and shape our sense of truth and reality. To look at art now is therefore not simply to appreciate beauty but to participate in an act of cultural and personal reflection, a reorientation of perception that can be b oth critical and restorative.

This book affirms the role of art as a cultural force: it gives voice to artists, provides a space for contemplation, and invites viewers into encounters that can be transformative. The diversity of practices demonstrates that contemporary art is not one voice but many, layered, resonant, and open to discovery.

I invite you to leaf through the pages of this book, pause, disconnect from the noise, and let the art connect you back to yourself. Any time spent with art is time well invested. And when a piece speaks to you, consider keeping that connection alive by collecting it, allowing art to become part of your own life and experience.

Myrina Tunberg Georgiou - CFA Director

Amir Taba

b. 1977, Iran

Lives in Dubai, UAE

Amir is a German-Swedish artist of Persian heritage. He grew up surrounded by creativity in his family, which led him to study at the Arts and Architecture University of Tehran. His life has taken him through Sweden, Morocco, and Germany, where he worked in illustration, advertising, and design before turning fully to painting. Now based in Dubai, he continues to develop his practice, shaped by experiences across cultures and the dynamic international community around him.

Amir Taba’s paintings emerge from the intersections of cultures, philosophies, and lived experience, weaving together figuration, mythology, and symbolism. With a background in illustration, design, and advertising before devoting himself fully to painting, he has developed a language that is both tec hnically refined and conceptually layered. His Persian heritage, time in Sweden, Morocco, and Germany, and his current practice in Dubai all contribute to an aesthetic that resists borders, moving fluidly between traditions and contemporary concerns.

At the heart of his work lies a fascination with metamorphosis and struggle. “Transformation is never simple,” he notes, underscoring the way his figures oscillate between burden and li beration, fragmentation and renewal. Rooted in Rumi’s notion of “The Sudden Resurrection,” his compositions suggest that awakening often comes not as pure transcendence but as something fractured, painful, or absurd. By intertwining human forms with botanical growth and architectural space, Taba visualizes inner states of resilience and collapse, offering viewers a mirror of both personal and collective evolution.

Amir Taba • The Language of Transformation

Johan Franzén

b. 1974, Sweden

Lives in Österskär, Sweden

“Dance can be pure magic and beauty, and by using long exposure and motion blur (ICD, In-Camera Distortion) the artist captures the dreamlike and abstract, out-of-control feeling of allowing your soul to be fully absorbed in the rhythm and the music. The photographs become painterly and can be described as works of Abstract Romanticism. The images are created in camera, i.e., none of the effects are produced afterward in Photoshop or with AI.”

Johan Franzén transforms the act of dance into painterly abstractions, using long exposure and intentional in-camera distortion to dissolve the body into light and movement. His photographs resist static documentation, instead embracing the fleeting, dreamlike quality of rhythm unfolding in time. Figures become traces, veils, and chromatic echoes, evoking memory and emotion rather than narrative.

By avoiding post-production manipulation, Franzén preserves the raw unpredictability of performance, capturing gestures as they shimmer between presence and disappearance. His images situate themselves within a lineage of Abstract Romanticism, where light itself becomes brushstroke, and the viewer is invited to feel music transposed into vision.

Johan Franzén • Romance in Motion

Gpollieana

For Gpollieana, also known as Gio, painting and poetry are inseparable languages of expression. “Each mark is a passage and each hue a verse,” she notes, describing how her creative process unfolds as both narrative and lyric. Her canvases move beyond depiction to evoke emotions—love, loss, perseverance—rendered through color, form, and rhythm. Infused with her Italian heritage, her work draws upon the rich traditions of Renaissance and Baroque art while weaving in a dark romanticism and layered symbolism.

This cultural grounding deepens her exploration of universal themes of identity and transformation, giving her paintings both intimacy and grandeur. By blending literary rhythm with visual form, Gio transforms her art into conversations rather than statements. Each piece becomes a personal exchange, where viewe rs find resonance in symbolic details and emotional undertones. Her practice is ultimately one of connection—an offering of kindness through texture, tone, and story, reminding us of the shared human experiences that bind us together.

Gpollieana • Storytelling in Paint and Poetry

Jean-Claude Bise

b. Switzerland

Lives in Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Swiss photographer Jean-Claude Bise has forged an accomplished career as a self-taught artist, shaped by the experimental spirit of the 1960s and 70s. Immersed in the worlds of psychedelic art, Pop, and music, he first encountered photography through the studios of d ecorators, painters, and peers. This foundation instilled a lifelong belief in photography as a medium of ideas, capable of raising questions about society and its evolution.

“In my photographic approach I try to bring subjects of reflecti on, by asking myself questions about us and the evolution of our society,” Bise affirms. His work embraces two complementary directions: the perception of everyday life, and abstraction. Across both, his practice seeks to transform simple observation into critical meditation.

Recent exhibitions and awards in Paris, London, Glasgow, Budapest, and Dresden affirm his international recognition, with honors such as the PX3 Gold Award in Paris underscoring his achievements. In each series, Bise situates photography not as mere representation but as a dynamic process of thought, where colour, silence, and form become pathways into reflection. His art maintains the experimental charge of its origins while presenting a contemporary lens on human experience.

Jean-Claude Bise • Photography as Reflection

Michael Gault

b. 1950, United States

Lives in Woodland Park, CO, United States

“I am a Colorado artist committed to the artistic process. I revel in the tactile experience of paint as it glides across the canvas, focused on each brush stroke and the gestural movements that painting enables. I believe that creativity thrives when shared. I understand that the creative experience reaches its full potential only when a spectator engages with the artwork, thereby completing its purpose and enriching the connection between the artist and viewer.”

Michael Gault’s practice is rooted in a profound commitment to process, where every brushstroke becomes a gesture of discovery. With formal training from the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of MissouriKansas City, his career has spanned traditional landscapes, still lifes, and portraits before evolving toward abstraction. Central to his work is a fascination with light and its ability to animate surface, whether in plein air landscapes or non-representational canvases. Gault has exhibited in major galleries across the United States and participated in international shows, earning numerous awards th at affirm his versatility and technical command.

A dedicated educator, he has taught at universities and workshops throughout the country, co-founded the Pikes Peak Plein Air Painters, and holds signature membership with Plein Air Artists Colorado. His works, celebrated in Fine Art Connoisseur, Plein Air Magazine, and Southwest Art, invite spectators to complete the creative act, transforming painting into a shared, living experience.

Michael Gault • Gesture, Light, and the Shared Act of Painting

Steve Negrón

b. United States Lives in Italy

Steve Negrón’s paintings navigate the borderlands between antiquity and contemporary culture, weaving stories of desire, fear, and mischievous intent. His narrative approach borrows freely from myth, history, and popular imagery, twisting familiar motifs into compositions that often take a tragicomic turn.

Now based in Italy, Negrón finds inspiration in volcanoes, temples, and the symbols of his adopted landscape, expanding his visual lexicon while maintaining his playful, incisive tone. His paintings resist solemnity, instead holding tension between humor and gravity, surface charm and deeper unease. Figures and objects appear as both archetypes and caricatures, lending his canvases a restless, performative energy.

An art educator and award-winning painter, Negrón has exhibited widely in the United States and Italy, with forthcoming solo and international fair projects. His work invites viewers into a theater of imagination where the familiar is estranged, the serious is parodied, and the tragic collides with the comic in ways both unsettling and resonant.

Steve Negrón • Tragicomic Allegories

Tanya Preminger

b. Russia

Lives in Arsuf Kedem, Israel

Tanya Preminger has built an international reputation as a pioneer of land art and environmental sculpture, creating monumental works that merge earth, form, and spirit. “My purpose is to express the immaterial essence of thi ngs in physical stuff: to make tangible the universal essence of the creation,” she explains, a conviction that has guided her practice for over five decades.

Born in Russia and based in Israel since 1972, Preminger works across sculpture, installation, landscape interventions, and photography. Her projects are realized on a global scale, with permanent installations in more than 30 countries, from Israel and Italy to Japan, Korea, Brazil, and the United States. Each work is rooted in a dialogue with its site, using soil, stone, and natural elements to shape experiences that are both contemplative and communal.

Her art recalls the monumental earthworks of Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt, yet her vision is distinct in its fusion of geometry, organic form, and spiritual resonance. The founding of the Green Gallery in Israel reflects her commitment not only to creation but also to curation and community. For Preminger, landscape is not backdrop but living material, a medium through which she sculpts the invisible, offering viewers a profound encounter with the essence of being.

Tanya Preminger • Earth as Canvas, Essence as Form

Carlos Blanco Artero

b. Spain

Lives in New York, NY, United States

Spanish painter Carlos Blanco Artero has developed a distinctiv e voice within contemporary neo-figuration, forging a practice that bridges tradition and innovation. His e arly works were centered on the female figure, but his evolving style demonstrates a dialogue with artists such as Picasso, Condo, Bacon, and Saura, while maintaining a distinctly personal vision. Exhibited internationally and represented in collections throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas, Blanco has established a reputation as a painter of global relevance.

His canvases are marked by bold distortion, expressive brushwork, and a psychological intensity that lends the figure symbolic weight. “If my style had to be labeled, it would be within neo-figuration,” he remarks, positioning himself in a lineage that resists abstraction while renewing fig uration’s expressive possibilities. His paintings confront the body not only as subject but also as metaphor, evoking rawness, immediacy, and emotional urgency.

Collectors from diverse fields, including philosophy and music, have recognized the significance of his vision. Through his work, Blanco expands the possibilities of figuration , offering a language that is uncompromisingly direct, intellectually rigorous, and profoundly human.

Carlos Blanco Artero • Neo-Figurative Narratives

Natascha Sastra

Dutch artist Natascha Sastra has developed a practice devoted to uncovering the essence of human presence through portraiture. “The goal in a portrait is often to make it look monumental, not just by size, but by setting the model down monumentally. Like a timeless frozen second,” she explains, and this conviction shapes her large-scale works that combine technical mastery with emotional intensity.

Working across self-portraits, commissions, and imaginative studies, Sastra moves fluidly between photorealism, naturalism, and the surreal. Her portraits often take more than a month to complete, each canvas revealing not only precision of form but also an unflinch ing look at vulnerability, strength, and individuality. Paint may drip or dissolve, heightening the visceral and sometimes unsettling character of her imagery.

Her work has gained international recognition, with exhibitions in Monaco and Barcelona, features in Boomer Gallery Magazine and ViewArtGallery.uk, and distinctions from the Dutch Portrait Prize, the Luxembourg Art Prize, and the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize. Named Meester van het Realisme, Sastra stands firmly within the lineage of Dutch masters while expandin g portraiture into new psychological and expressive territories. Her paintings offer more than likeness; they are monuments to presence, capturing the fragile yet profound truth of being human.

Natascha Sastra • At the Edge of Realism

FRANÇOIS CHARTIER

“I am a self-taught artist from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In 2000, after 30 years of evolving in the advertising world as an art director and illustrator, I felt the need to pursue in greater depth my own artistic journey through painting. I deeply believe that artwork should inspire. I love to create joyful, colorful, and luminous atmospheres in my paintings, and I hope that they will remain, long after I am gone, a source of inspiration and wonder.”

Chartier’s paintings reveal a mastery of detailed realism that extends beyond hyperrealism, transforming simple objects and natural elements into visions of elegance, beauty, and grace. His luminous canvases are celebrated for their joyful atmospheres and orchestration of color and light, capturing moments that radiate both serenity and wonder.

Through meticulous staging and patience, Chartier explores rhyt hm, transparency, and reflection, creating surfaces that shimmer with subtle tension. Light becomes his true subject, animating each work with theatrical intensity while preserving a sense of clarity and calm. His process is deliberate, often taking months to reach completion, and the result is a body of work that fee ls both intimate and monumental. Exhibited widely and admired for its technical brilliance, his art resonates as more than representati on. Chartier elevates the ordinary into the extraordinary, offering paintings that inspire contemplation and confirm the enduring relevance of beauty as a force for connection and renewal.

KATE VAN DOREN

“The foundation of my work lies in capturing the struggle and strength at the core of the human experience.”

Kate Van Doren’s paintings move between figuration and abstraction with a diaristic clarity, treating color as an atmosphere where memory and vulnerability can breathe. Grounds are rubbed, washed, and reworked until a lived surface appears, then animated by drawing that feels both spontaneous and calibrated. Figures and fragments drift through fields of radiant hue, like thoughts arriving midconversation.

The work reads as a poised negotiation between protection and openness, intimacy and distance, with composition serving as a gentle architecture for feeling. Van Doren’s studio notes speak to attention, empathy, and the poetics of the everyday, and the canvases reflect that ethos by giving small moments a large stage. What might be overlooked is given time and light. The resulting images are tender without sentimentality, elegant without polish for its own sake. In each painting, gesture becomes language. Van Doren offers the viewer a place to pause, to recognize, and to be quietly changed.

VALENTINA BENIGNI

Valentina Benigni has established herself as a distinctive voice in fine art photography through her ability to transform movement into light. A former dancer, she brings her experience of performance into the still image, creating photographs that capture rhythm, vulnerability, and emotion with painterly sensitivity. She explains, “My photographic approach takes the literal meaning of the word photography, writing with light, and develops into painting with light.”

Since 2020 her limited-edition prints have been shown in over twenty exhibitions across Europe and the United States, and her series on flamenco has received more than fifteen awards in Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Toronto.

In 2022 she published Luz Flamenca, a book that affirmed her reputation as a leading photographer of dance and performance.

Benigni’s work blurs the boundary between documentation and abstraction. By privileging atmosphere and gesture over static representation, she reveals dance as a universal language of emotion. Her images are at once visceral and poetic, inviting the viewer to feel movement long after it has passed.

ANDRÉ BRIEUDES

b. 1953, France

Lives in Occitanie, France

André Brieudes reimagines the map as both medium and metaphor, transforming cartographic fragments into textured terrains that reflect the instability of our times. “Painting, photography, and collage are at the core of my artistic activity,” he explains, describing how his work emerges from the appropriation of maps, which he paints, disrupts, and reassembles to question our perception of the world.

His practice begins with the ritual of choosing a map or fragment, sensing its details and latent routes. From there, layers of paint and collage

Marcher (inhabited Maps Série II)

Acrylic paint on old military map 46 x 23 cm

Ulysse, Retour à Ithaque (Série Odyssée)

Acrylic paint on fragment of nautical chart of wood 100 x 81 cm

bring the surface into dialogue, generating places that exist between fact and imagination. These cartographies fracture and dr ift, sometimes dislocating, sometimes reforming, mirroring the chaotic movements of history, migration, and global transformation. In this way, geography becomes unstable, not a fixed truth but a field of inquiry. Brieudes’ work finds kinship with Kurt Schwitters’ collages and the painted interventions of Alechinsky, yet it is distinctly his own in its focus on the aesthetics of the map: its topography, graphics, and toponymy as sources of visual poetry. His “grand atlas of the world” is less about orientation than contemplation, offering voyages into uncertainty where texture, form, and meaning are continually remade.

André Brieudes: Atlas of Transformation

RVFPHOTOART // RFUSIONART

b. 1961, Germany

Lives in Bodman-Ludwigshafen, Germany

“I merge hand-captured photographs with AI, using motion as a brush and light as ink. Through my FrameReCode process a photograph evolves across three passes: Capture (intentional camera movement), Fusion (AI-assisted synthesis), and AI Edition (a guided repainting). AI is a collaborator, not a mimic. Whether trees, water, or architecture, the result reveals the scene’s hidden architecture. What you see is captured; what you feel is ReCoded.”

Rolf Florschuetz’s photographs embody a rare balance of strength and serenity. His compositions, whether of water, trees, or twilight horizons, exude calmness while carrying an underlying intensity that holds the gaze. Each image is meticulously orchestrated yet feels fluid and alive, a visual symphony where movement and stillness meet.

What sets Florschuetz apart is his extraordinary eye for structure and atmosphere. His works reveal an innate understanding of balance, using color and form to guide the viewer into a contemplative space.

This is exemplary use of new methods and tools, particularly AI, which many are quick to dismiss as a threat to fine art.

Through this hybrid vision, Florschuetz demonstrates how technology and artistry can coexist without compromise. His photographs do more than document; they resonate as meditations on presence, perception, and transformation, affirming his place as a distinctive voice in contemporary photographic art.

RVFphotoART // RFusionART (Rolf Florschuetz): ReCoding the Photograph

PAVITHRA DISSANAYAKA

“My work aims to immortalize expressions of unconditional love that transcend romantic relationships, highlighting the inherent beauty and interconnectedness of love and nature. Currently, I work primarily with charcoal and plan to explore oil painting in the future. As an artist, I believe in the influence art has on society. I aim to make a positive impact on the art community and my country.”

Pavithra Dissanayaka works primarily in charcoal, creating portraits that capture the quiet intensity of human connection. Her drawings, such as Soul’s Oasis, explore expressions of unconditional love that extend beyond romance, illuminating the interwoven beauty of people and nature. Influenced by Renaissance masters and painters like WilliamAdolphe Bouguereau, she brings classical discipline into a contemporary search for empathy and healing.

Each work begins with conceptual sketches and careful studies from photographic references, yet her goal reaches beyond accuracy. Dissanayaka’s portraits act as spaces of solace, reflecting the possibility of renewal through vulnerability. At just 25, she demonstrates both technical refinement and emotional depth, offering drawings that resonate with timelessness while addressing the need for compassion in today’s world.

Using herself as subject, Covert avoids autobiography in favor of universality. Her veiled and faceless figures, often placed within forested landscapes or suspended in dreamlike atmospheres, become archetypes rather than portraits. They embody vulnerability, resilience, and transformation, drawing the viewer into an inner world that is both mysterious and emotionally charged.

Exhibited internationally and featured in leading publications, Covert’s photographs stand out for their symbolic richness and quiet intensity. Each composition invites contemplation, asking us to see what lies beyond appearance and to recognize the fragile but luminous truths that emerge from silence.

She Held the Silence Digital photograph 16 x 16 in.

SHARON COVERT

“My work weaves fairytales, grief, and hidden truths into symbolic self-portraits. It holds the quiet belief that beauty and darkness can coexist. Each self-portrait is an offering of my heart and all its secrets.”

Working almost exclusively in black and white, she creates enigmatic images that carry the weight of folklore and the intimacy of confession. Her art weaves together fairytales, grief, and hidden truths, revealing her conviction that beauty and darkness not only coexist but deepen one another.

JEF HORVERS

“The core of my artistic vision lies in my fascination with the delicate balance between movement and stability found in arthropods. My sculptures emerge from an exploration of how such creatures can stand and move on impossibly thin legs. The ongoing metamorphosis in my work reflects both the natural progression of life and the infinite possibilities of artistic exploration.”

Jef Horvers builds a world of sculptures and paintings governed by evolution, repetition, and finely tuned balance. Fascinated by the carrying capacity of impossibly thin legs, he constructs multicellular forms through stacking and serial mutation, letting one work generate the next. The resulting structures hover between nature, technology, and architecture, appearing graphic and translucent, almost weightless. Rhythm and proportion determine their stability, while translucency turns volume into vibration.

Each piece is an exploration of rhythm, proportion, and balance. Surfaces are pared back to skeletal frameworks, where empty space becomes as vital as line, and translucency allows light to animate the structure. The delicacy of their construction makes them appear to vibrate, as if alive with latent energy. Horvers’ sculptures invite viewers into a state of quiet attention. They reveal how complexity can arise from repetition and mutation, and how even the most precarious of forms can hold remarkable stability and grace.

Jef Horvers: Between Organism and Machine

RONNA S. HARRIS

An extraordinary realist painter, Ronna S. Harris’ painstaking attention to detail reflects patience, dedication, and stamina of the highest order. Her works, often centered on reflections in water, reveal a meditative approach where the act of painting becomes as contemplative as the final image. These surfaces of light and depth function not only as natural subjects but also as metaphors for reflection itself; of process, perception, and the viewer’s own inner state when encountering such masterful compositions.

BETSY ASHTON

Artist/writer Betsy Ashton captures character in paint and in print. A former television news reporter, she interviews people in a place that they love to discover values, inspirations, and motivations — portraying the struggles and sparkles of life.

In a moment where migration and identity are at the heart of global discourse, her work offers a deeply personal counter-narrative. Ashton’s work is a testament to the enduring power of portraiture to amplify voice, preserve dignity, and connect us, face to face.

Betsy Ashton’s career bridges journalism and portraiture, uniting sharp observation with painterly sensitivity. Trained at American University in Washington, D.C., where she studied under figures such as Gene Davis and Robert D’Arista, but discouraged over the dismissal of all but totally abstract art, she took a long detour into television news. As a pioneering anchor and reporter for major stations in Washington, D.C., New York City and the CBS network, Ashton became the only journalist known to sketch courtroom proceedings live, merging visual and narrative storytelling. In 2006 she returned fully to painting,

studying with masters including Everett Raymond Kinstler, Sharon Sprung, Mary Beth McKenzie, and Wolf Kahn. Her portraits reveal a classical foundation infused with contemporary immediacy, capturing not only likeness but the individuality and story of each sitter. She writes through paint, offering portraits as records of presence and spirit. Ashton’s work is held in notable collections including the U.S. Embassy in London, The Players in New York City, and Kenyon College. Her ongoing Portraits of Immigrants project continues her lifelong dedication to giving voice and visibility through art.

Ashton: Bearing Witness in Paint

LUCIANO B.R.

“My work explores the human condition through the face, understood as a map where emotions, memory, and spirituality are revealed. Using graphite and charcoal, I seek to capture the fragility and inner strength that coexist within every being. The contrast between light and shadow is my visual language, a way to narrate the invisible and connect humanity with nature and the transcendent. My work invites reflection and compassion, reminding us of our essential unity.”

Luciano Bujeiro Rojo has developed a body of work centered on the human face as a symbolic map of memory, emotion, and spirituality. Working primarily in graphite and charcoal, he pursues a visual language where light and shadow reveal fragility, inner strength, and transcendence.

“My work explores the human condition through the face,” he writes. “The contrast between light and shadow is my visual language, a way to narrate the invisible and connect humanity with nature and the transcendent.” Each drawing becomes a meditation on vulnerability and resilience, the delicate gradations of gray conveying compassion and unity.

Luciano’s practice is informed by close observation of human gestures, gazes, and silences. Through these details he builds portraits that transcend individuality, becoming reflections of the collective human experience. His art confronts indifference with tenderness, urging viewers toward reflection and empathy.

By elevating the face into a site of both intimacy and universality, Luciano has established himself as a distinctive figure in contemporary drawing. His work stands as a reminder of the essential unity that connects humanity with the natural and the divine.

PRECIOUS BURGER

“Painting is an act of listening for me, a space where color, marks, and texture reveal stories waiting to be told. My work, ‘Resistance,’ explores themes of resilience, identity, and connection, born from both struggle and renewal. While this collection acknowledges chaos and loss, it is also a testament to courage and perseverance. Through every piece, I hope to inspire wonder, offer joy, and invite viewers to find their own strength within our shared humanity.”

OCEANNA VISIONS

“Each canvas is a surface and a threshold: an invitation to enter, remember, reflect. Oceanna’s painting explores the meeting point between fluid movement and stillness, chaos and calm, as it mirrors the human psyche’s own ebb and flow. This art, this painting, has become my true meditation.”

Oceanna Visions creates paintings that function as meditations, thresholds between movement and stillness, chaos and calm. Rooted in long study of the human figure, her work translates physical motion into emotional transformation, producing images that feel at once intimate and expansive. Layers of texture and color evoke water, spirit, and psyche, suggesting the ebb and flow of inner life.

Each canvas invites viewers to pause, reflect, and reconnect with their own potential for renewal. By merging formal beauty with transformative intent, Oceanna offers art that resonates as both healing reflection and universal invitation.

References to Cézanne, Zao Wou-Ki, Klee, and others register as echoes within a voice that is distinctly her own. Recognition in exhibitions and awards affirms the reach of this sincerity. Valeria’s paintings function as meditations on connection, asking viewers to sense how human feeling and natural rhythm mirror each other. The canvases do not illustrate emotion. They host it, giving texture to what the heart already knows.

KADRA VALERIA

Kadra Valeria approaches abstract expressionism as a study in feeling made visible. Mentorships and constant experimentation have shaped a practice that moves among oil, acrylic, and ink with confident curiosity. Layers are poured, drawn, and revised until an emotional climate emerges, sometimes hushed, sometimes eruptive. Edges blur into fields that feel like weather systems, while incisive marks keep the image alert.

JENNIFER KONING

“I like to paint the personalities from our every lives; horses, dogs, people, cows, cats... By portraying those we see very day I place them in a different light and let the viewer take a look through my eyes.”

Jennifer Koning paints with a realism that elevates the animals and people we encounter in daily life. Her portraits grant each subject a quiet dignity, balancing technical assurance with emotional depth. Eyes often anchor the composition, while coats, skin, and gesture are rendered with patient sensitivity. Light carries the weight of character, and restrained backgrounds keep presence at the forefront. Whether commissioned or selfdirected, her work resists ornament, offering instead an intimate recognition that transforms the familiar into something timeless.

American-Canadian illustrator and fine artist

Anson Liaw has established a distinguished career at the crossroads of design, communication, and fine art. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art, now OCAD University, Liaw’s illustrations have appeared in major international publications, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as in campaigns for McDonald’s and the National Ballet of Canada. His work has been exhibited widely in invitational shows around the world and recognized by leading organizations such as American Illustration, the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, and Hiii Illustration International Awards.

Liaw’s illustrations are notable for their ability to fuse the familiar with the unexpected, creating visual metaphors that provoke recognition and reflection. His practice embraces cultural, political, and social concerns, delivering images that operate both as art and as incisive commentary. In addition to his prolific professional career, Liaw served as an instructor at OCAD University, where he mentored the next generation of artists and designers. His contributions affirm the power of illustration as a medium of thought, empathy, and dialogue in contemporary visual culture.

Hope for Solidarity for World Peace Pencil, ink and digital 16.6 x 23 in.

Anson Liaw: Illustrating the Human Condition

ANSON LIAW

b. 1965, United States Lives in Kleinburg, ON, Canada

“I feel I am useless as an artist when I am happy. Pain is what creates my artwork. The painful experiences that people go through as they journey through life in the world around us, from childhood to adulthood, which in many ways is full of chaos and hardship, are what spark and motivate me to achieve my objectives in creating purposeful artwork that hopefully generates meaningful and fulfilling empathetic connections with people. As I observe and interpret the world around me, combined with creating my artwork, I discover time and time again that true beauty lies within the darkness and that sometimes nightmares are the birthplace of some of the best ideas for an artist.”

MICHAEL IAN GOULDING

Michael Goulding has been engaged in art for nearly his entire life. He has worked in a variety of media and focused on a number of subjects, all with the purpose of creating something beautiful. Ultimately that journey led him to focus on the beauty of the female form as viewed through black and white photography. His work celebrates the beauty of the female form and spirit. He strives for his art to uplift the spirit and inspire appreciation for the beauty of life.

NIRA CHOREV

Nira Chorev treats mixed media as a storytelling instrument, building layered images that seek truth through equilibrium. “Painting for me is my life,” she writes. “I tell stories and seek the balance in nature,” a pursuit she aligns with the “golden cut.” Materials accumulate into harmonies and counterpoints: washes settle, marks insist, fragments of image press against fields of color until a narrative temperature is reached.

Abstraction and figuration trade roles, each clarifying the other. Influences from mentors who urged her to find a unique language remain visible in the work’s poise and courage. Exhibitions and placements confirm a voice that travels, yet the pictures stay intimate, like pages from a lived journal.

Chorev’s achievement is to let structure serve feeling without coercing it. The paintings carry their own gravity, inviting viewers to stand where measure and emotion meet and to recognize themselves in that balance.

Modernist lineage is present, but the language is resolutely contemporary, tuned to resonance and immediacy. Each canvas functions as a stage where color acts and reacts, sometimes in tension, sometimes in lyric accord. Paper fragments and painted shapes meet in edges that hum, drawing the eye along circuits of energy. Exhibitions at home and abroad attest to the work’s reach, while the paintings themselves suggest music in their phrasing and dance in their timing. Cohen’s achievement is to turn spontaneity into structure without sacrificing spark. She offers visual ecologies where contrast and harmony learn to live together.

WENDY COHEN

Wendy Cohen composes with velocity and care, fusing gesture, geometry, and collage into vibrant, interlocking fields. She speaks of the “chemistry” of painting, the moment when marks, hues, and rhythms snap into coherence. Planes collide, pivot, and reconcile as if choreographed, yet the surfaces retain the thrill of discovery.

BOB CONGE

“There is a darkness in the character of Homo sapiens. Perhaps it is what Nietzsche referred to as “the abyss,” or the truth of the 1954 novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Oskar Kokoschka said, “We have to become human every day,” implying that if we do not, we will slip back into the animal we are at birth. In my work, I choose to shine a light on that darkness as a reminder to become human today.”

Conge’s career spans decades of painting, sculpture, teaching, and curatorial practice. Trained at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Syracuse University, where he received the Lewis Comfort Tiffany Grant for painting, he established himself early on as both technically skilled and conceptually rigorous. Conge’s work has been exhibited widely across the United States, Europe, Japan, and China, and is represented in major public and university collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in Toyama and the Musée de la Publicité in Paris. His practice is marked by a willingness to confront the shadow side of human experience, creating art that merges intellectual depth with psychological intensity.

By working across mixed media, Conge builds layered compositions that resonate with mystery, fragility, and transformation. His art stands as an internationally recognized body of work that insists on clarity, reflection, and a profound engagement with the human condition.

Bob Conge: Illuminating the Abyss

GEORG DOUGLAS

“I like my paintings to be strong, whether through color, form, or other qualities. They appeal to the emotions and create atmosphere. The world of flowers and Irish dance has inspired me for some time. In my floral work I combine my scientific education with abstract painting, where macro and microscopic features merge to reflect the complexity of nature. My art is colorful, complex, and joyous, just like nature itself.”

NATALY KENNY

Nataly Kenny creates paintings that merge impressionism and abstraction with a focus on color’s transformative power. Working primarily in oils while also exploring acrylics, gouache, and pastels, she draws inspiration from her Armenian roots and English surroundings. Guided by masters such as Monet, Degas, and Sorolla, Nataly captures fleeting moments where atmosphere and emotion converge. Her radiant palettes and fluid brushwork evoke harmony, hope, and renewal, offering viewers a restorative encounter with beauty.

RITA GAIZIUNAITEKAPOUTSI

“I create abstract landscapes that reflect harmony between light, nature, and human emotion. My works stem from a desire to bring peace and beauty to the viewer, offering a sense of calm and inspiration. Through texture, color, and light, I seek to reveal the eternal dialogue between earth, water, and sky.”

Rita Gaiziunaite-Kapoutsi creates luminous abstract landscapes that reflect harmony between light, nature, and emotion. “Through texture, color, and light, I seek to reveal the eternal dialogue between earth, water, and sky,” she notes, summarizing her poetic approach to painting.

Working across oil, acrylic, resin, and ink, she produces works infused with vivid color and atmospheric depth. Her surfaces evoke movement and stillness simultaneously, capturing the eternal cycles of renewal found in the natural world.

Internationally exhibited and widely awarded, her art carries a universal appeal grounded in its capacity to evoke calm, peace, and inspiration. Beyond painting, she curates projects and participates in global initiatives that bring art into collective spaces.

His art reflects both technical precision and intuitive play, offering viewers a contemporary digital romanticism where memory, imagination, and technology converge in expressive harmony.

ALEX KAGAN

Alex Kagan merges computer science with visual art, creating digital works that bridge technology and imagination. His subjects include landscapes, cityscapes, figures, flowers, and cosmic events, each shaped through experimental use of art apps and digital tools. Balancing painting, photography, and design, Kagan overlays real-world imagery with abstract or otherworldly elements. The results evoke shifting light, urban energy, and the immensity of space, transforming the familiar into something futuristic.

ZHENG KEJING

Zheng Kejing brings together rigorous academic training and the lyricism of Impressionism, creating paintings that combine discipline with expressive freedom. Having studied under Wang Shensheng at the Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute, he refined a practice rooted in traditional methods while exploring the expressive possibilities of modernism. His dedication to painting is evident in the meticulous attention he gives to every canvas, reflecting a patience and stamina that elevate his work beyond description into meditation.

Light is central to Zheng’s vision. Whether depicting canals, markets, or moments of daily life, he organizes each scene through illumination rather than linear perspective. This approach allows color to carry structure in a way reminiscent of Cézanne and the Post-Impressionists, while Jiangnan cultural motifs preserve intimacy and warmth. The balance he achieves between Eastern sensibility and Western painterly inquiry makes his practice distinctive, offering viewers harmony that feels both rooted in tradition and alive with contemporary relevance.

Zheng Kejing: Light and Lyricism

KATJA LÜHRS

“The variety of colors and shapes of flowers, trees, and leaves has fascinated me since I was a child. The power of the sun and its play with light and shadow in nature are characterized by: ‘grace - joy of life - confidence - peace and serenity’. With pictures, you can capture the beauties of nature.”

Katja Lührs is a German artist whose luminous creations celebrate the beauty and fragility of the natural world. Based in Bad F üssing, she draws inspiration from the infinite variety of flowers, trees , and leaves, translating their forms into paintings that radia te color, vitality, and serenity. Her art is inseparable from her advocacy for nature: each piece carries the conviction that what we love, we protect.

Through a remarkable career that spans painting, design, and cultural engagement, Lührs has established herself as an internati onally recognized artist. Her works, often beginning as oil paintings and later enhanced digitally, shimmer with layered depth and intensity, capturing the grace of light and shadow in nature. She transforms petals, foliage, and sunlight into vibrant compositions that are both enchanting and contemplative. Lührs’s achievements in art have been recognized globally, affirming her standing as a visionary voice for preservation and beauty. What makes her work extraordinary is its ability to bridge aesthetic delight with a profound environmental message. Her art inspires wonder while calling for stewardship, reminding viewers that the earth’s treasures are both fragile and sacred.

Katja Lührs: Radiant Testimonies to Nature

JANE GOTTLIEB

“I have been expressing my joy of art with paint, shapes, and colors most of my life. I started as a painter, evolved into a photographer, and eventually began hand-painting on individual Cibachrome photographic prints over 40 years ago. With Photoshop, I discovered a way to convey an unrealistic reality through vivid, saturated, and otherworldly colors. Color becomes poetry in my world.”

Day Dream Photoshop-enhanced photography 34 x 24

Jane Gottlieb transforms photography into a radiant theater of saturated color. Trained as a painter, she pioneered a distinctive fusion of hand-painted imagery and digital enhancement that has become her signature. Her bold, unique, and original style pushes photography into a realm of “unrealistic reality,” where architecture, landscape, and culture are reinvented as dazzling harmonies of hue. Gottlieb’s technique is unapologetically vibrant, using color as both subject and structure, a force that animates each image with vitality.

Her photographs are not merely decorative; they are meticulously composed visual symphonies that balance painterly intuition with photographic precision. Buildings become geometric silhouettes, skies ignite in blazing gradients, and reflections pulse with rhythm, turning the ordinary into dreamscapes. Exhibited internationally and featured in major publications, Gottlieb’s body of work has earned her recognition as a true innovator in contemporary art. Her vision confirms that color can transcend representation, carrying emotional depth and poetic resonance.

Howard Harris brings a rare balance of technical innovation and artistic vision to contemporary photography.

Trained in design and deeply engaged with visual experimentation, he has developed layered works that activate light, depth, and transparency in striking ways. His patented technique, which fuses photographic imagery with sculptural presentation, creates surfaces that shift as the viewer moves, offering multiple perspectives within a single frame.

What makes Harris remarkable is not only his mastery of tools but the sophistication of his eye. Each composition is a study in balance and rhythm, exuding both calmness and strength. Exhibited internationally and recognized with numerous awards, his work exemplifies how technology can expand the expressive possibilities of fine art. Harris redefines photography as a medium of perception itself, inviting viewers to see and to feel in constantly renewed ways.

Play it Again Printed in Aluminum with an Acrylic overlay 76 x 91 cm

HOWARD HARRIS

“Visual reality is a constantly shifting, highly personal experience. What we see at any moment reflects both our inner state and the interplay of external factors—light, color, movement, and space. As a Techspressionist, I aim to recreate this dynamic perceptual experience, revealing its hidden complexities and inviting viewers to engage actively with my work. All my images are created on aluminum, often layered with abstracted forms over subtle grids printed on clear acrylic. This technique imbues each piece with a sense of dimensionality and fluidity, changing with the viewer’s angle and the light. I believe that perception is unique and fluid— each person’s reaction is a vital part of the artwork’s meaning.”

Howard Harris: The Art of Shifting Perception

ROB MACINTOSH

“Crest of Infinity” captures the endless rhythm of the ocean—its energy, grace, and timeless flow. In each sweeping curve of the wave, I sought to convey both the immense power of nature and its eternal serenity, reminding us of our place within the infinite cycle of water and life.”

Rob MacIntosh has built a distinguished career over four decades, creating paintings that blend technical mastery with reverenc e for nature and history. Originally from South Africa, his work ranges from wildlife and seascapes to historic trains and desert vistas, each realized with exceptional clarity. Central to his art is the commanding use of light, which animates both atmosphere and detail, allowing scenes to radiate vitality. His paintings balance precision with poetry, turning observation into lasting images of beauty. Exhibited internationally and held in major collections, MacInt osh’s works affirm painting as both celebration and preservation, preserving moments of grace for future generations.

Marissa Madonna is an American artist celebrated for her remarkably precise and realistic pencil drawings, which combine technical rigor with narrative sensitivity. A graduate of the Hartford Art School, she has worked professionally across portraiture, children’s books, and collaborative illustration projects.

Her works are meticulously layered, blending washes with tightly controlled drawing to evoke both surface detail and underlying story. Portraits capture likeness with striking accuracy, while also holding an emotional resonance that elevates them beyond documentation.

Marissa’s practice exemplifies patience, discipline, and devotion to craft, qualities that have earned her recognition in exhibitions, media, and professional commissions. Her art demonstrates how traditional drawing, pursued with persistence and vision, can achieve contemporary relevance and emotional power.

MARISSA MADONNA

b. 1990, United States Lives in Wilmington, NC, USA

“My artwork is very much inspired by visual storytelling. The thing I love most is capturing my subject’s likeness through vitalizing details, both on the surface of the artwork as well as the narrative behind it.

A mixed media approach combines the freedom of laying bold washes with the tight control of drawing. As the piece is built up in many thin layers, I can carefully explore all the details. Quilting these details together as a visual story is where I find my greatest artistic passion.”

DR. GEORGINA MACKEN

“Ah! Portraiture, portraiture with the thought, the soul of the model in it, that is what I think must come,” stated Vincent van Gogh. Emotionally connected to this philosophy, I am inspired by the soul that resides within the face. Influenced by nonverbal communication, I capture the human spirit as I illustrate unique stories in a single frame, seizing upon the special.”

Macken unites studio practice with cognitive and developmental psychology to create portraits that probe the interior life. Her art is internationally recognized for its sensitivity to nonverbal cue s, translating gesture, tilt, and fleeting expression into works that feel alive with presence. Color and composition are calibrated to mood, yielding canvases that resonate with empathy rather than spectacle . Each portrait reads as a dialogue where individuality is honored and the human spirit revealed. By merging intellectual inquiry with painterly skill, Macken confirms portraiture’s enduring relevance as a contemporary art form capable of conveying dignity, depth, and humanity.

Dr. Georgina Macken: Faces of Depth and Resonance

EVA NORDHOLT

“My main subjects as a painter are flowers and gold. Flowers fascinate me endlessly with their fantastic shapes and colors. Gold conveys a sense of luxury and power. When placed together, they seem to compete in exuberance and richness, qualities that are themselves ephemeral and thus emphasize the transitory nature of all things.”

Eva Nordholt’s paintings radiate with a lush intensity where flowers and gold stage a dazzling interplay of form, color, and meaning. Her compositions are saturated with ornate detail, as florals erupt across the canvas in bold hues, while metallic elements shimmer with symbolic weight. The result is a charged dialogue between nature’s fleeting vitality and the allure of opulence, both equally vibrant yet ephemeral. Nordholt’s background in graphic design and animation informs her precise yet imaginative approach, producing images that are visually striking and layered with narrative undertones. Her work offers a meditation on beauty, power, and impermanence, inviting viewers to revel in abundance while reflecting on its inevitable transience.

PAT MARINO

b. 1986, United States Lives in Finger Lakes, NY, USA

“My practice has evolved from foundational abstraction to thematic and narrative-driven Conceptualism and Relational Aesthetics, endogenous expressions employing my academic and research background to express contemporaneous socio-cultural phenomena. At present, I make mixed-media paintings, mostly with acrylics and pastels, using a personal iconography and childlike aesthetic to express personal concerns regarding contemporary modes of human socialization.”

Pat Marino creates mixed media paintings that merge conceptual rigor with a playful, child-like aesthetic. Working primarily in acrylics and pastels, he constructs a personal iconography that reflects on contemporary modes of human socialization. His practice, rooted in abstraction and expanded into conceptualism and relational aesthetics, transforms personal concerns into visual dialogues that feel both intimate and universally relevant.

Years spent living and working in Italy, China, and Indonesia inform Marino’s work with a cultural wanderlust and sensitivity to the forces that shape collective experience. His compositions are layered with symbolic forms, textures, and narrative cues that suggest both fragility and resilience in human connection. Exhibited in cities across Asia, Europe, and the United States, his paintings affirm his place within a global conversation on how art can reflect and refract the complexities of contemporary life.

KATHY MCKNIGHT

“I have a deep connection with the natural world. Through photography and plein air painting, I study light, form, and atmospheric effects in nature. I’m fascinated by how my memory transforms these outdoor studies— the way recalled images weave intuitively through my abstract studio paintings often surprises me. These layered memories become a rich, diverse source for my abstract work.”

Kathy McKnight works between Northern California and the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, cultivating a practice that draws equally from plein air study, photography, and memory. Working in oils often combined with cold wax, she layers translucent passages that accumulate into luminous terrains of light.

Edges blur into atmosphere, textures recall stone, tide, and sky, and rhythms unfold with the quiet persistence of natural cycles. McKnight’s paintings are not literal landscapes but composites of sensation and recollection, where what was once observed outdoors transforms into inward resonance. Her contribution is to treat memory itself as a medium, creating works that feel immediate yet timeless, poised between observation and reflection.

William T. Moore III is an American sculptor whose practice bridges craftsmanship and abstraction with a deep spiritual resonance. Trained at the Cleveland Institute of Art and Kent State University, and shaped by apprenticeships with masters William McVey, Edwin Mieczkowski and David E. Davis, Moore has cultivated a sculptural language that evokes ancient steles and totems while remaining distinctly contemporary. His years of cabinetmaking honed a precision with wood that now translates into flowing, monumental forms defined by varied surfaces and textures.

Exhibited widely across the United States and internationally, Moore’s work reflects both his academic grounding and his personal search for meaning. Abstracted avian and geometric motifs rise as if relics of a lost civilization, bridging past and present. His sculptures stand as artifacts of beauty and discovery, affirming art’s power to celebrate life and spirit.

WILLIAM T MOORE III

b. 1960, United States

Lives in Cleveland, OH, United States

“My artwork speaks to the ethereal aspects of the spiritual in men and women. I use abstracted avian and monumental forms to evoke ancient stelas and totems from lost civilizations, generated for today’s consciousness. The evolving sculptural language bridges the past and present, where abstract and geometric shapes become artifacts of celebrated histories as well as universal discoveries. These sculptural surprises remind me of how beautiful life is in the natural world.”

L. SCOOTER MORRIS

Morris creates sensory illusions, paintings that invite viewers to inhabit the fullness of a moment. Her surfaces shimmer between reality and atmosphere, with light and color carrying sensation to evoke air, temperature, and mood as much as place. Edges shift from softness to clarity, guiding the eye as if perception were sculpted. Exhibited widely, her works affirm beauty as a form of truth, balancing abstraction with threads of reality and offering images that are both immediate and timeless.

MARY ANN ORTIGAS

Mary Ann Ortigas creates paintings that transform observation into lyrical studies of colour, movement, and emotion. She focuses on the quiet truths revealed through close engagement with nature. Her paintings present vibrant natural scenes where symbolic grace and layered detail elevate the ephemeral into enduring form. Her paintings underscore a commitment to ecological and emotional resonance, affirming her as an artist who unites aesthetic beauty with environmental awareness. Ortigas’ contribution is to reveal, with quiet intensity, the poetry embedded in the everyday life of the natural world.

“I explore nature’s gentle choreography—where colour, light, movement, and emotion converge. ‘Bathing Oriole’ evokes my core style: colourful scenery, layered details, symbolic grace, and a deep respect for fleeting beauty. ‘Canna Pollinator,’ with its bold contrast and ecological tension, offers a different energy—a study in vibrancy and urgency. Together, they reflect my fascination with life’s quiet details and the subtle truths revealed through close observation.”

NLUZ LOVE

“I see my art as an extension of the universe’s creative power. Photography, for me, is more than a medium; it is a language through which the cosmos speaks. I believe that intuition is a bridge between the tangible and the intangible—a form of communication that transcends human logic. My process is fluid and instinctive, yet I see it as a mathematical dance, where every image is an inevitable outcome of universal forces. The themes of my work reflect this philosophy.”

NLuz Love’s practice work positions photography as both language and meditation. Combining advanced digital manipulation, AI tools, and meticulous color management, he reimagines architecture, environment, and abstraction as metaphors for universal forces. Mo tion blur, layering, and spectral textures give his images a sense of vibration, as if tuned to rhythms beyond the visible. Each piece seeks not only to record but to reveal, transforming light into a vessel of meaning.

Nluz Love: Cosmic Logic in Photography

Nathalie Perler is driven by a deep passion for Beauty and a profound dedication to revealing what is real and essential. Her artistic journey began with abstraction and intuitive “painting by feeling,” where colors and forms became a direct language of inner truth. In time, this exploration led her toward realism, allowing her to give visible life to her impressions and refine her mastery of oil painting techniques.

Over the years, she has developed a distinctive voice that blends realism, abstraction, and mixed media, creating works that carry the imprint of dreams, hopes, and inner landscapes. Each canvas is infused with harmony, light, and emotion, embodying a space where beauty takes shape in resonance with her deepest aspirations.

For Perler, creation is a miracle in which the invisible becomes tangible, where pure energy transforms into form and color to illuminate the world. Her art is conceived as an offering of balance and serenity in a world often marked by chaos. By weaving together discipline and freedom, clarity and intuition, she opens a contemplative space that invites viewers to rediscover inner peace and strength. Convinced that beauty is a transformative force, her work becomes both vision and refuge, affirming the essential role of creativity in shaping a brighter, more harmonious future.

Morigane Oil and mixed media 50 x 70 cm

NATHALIE PERLER

Nathalie Perler’s work explores the dialogue between contemporary realism and spiritual symbolism. Since 1999, she has been developing a distinctive visual language that integrates oil painting, mixed media, and energetic approaches. Her practice was profoundly influenced by five years spent in Colombia with the Kogi people, as well as by her training in traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, experiences that heightened her sensitivity to the invisible. Botanical forms, human figures, and archetypal symbols emerge through layered, textured surfaces, often enriched with ink and gold leaf. Her work has been exhibited in Switzerland and internationally, notably in France and Russia.

Nathalie Perler: Beyond the Visible

JEFF PERKS

“I make BIG work in linocuts, ink, acrylic, oil, ceramic, and stone. My work tells stories, using the medium most appropriate to tell each story.”

Jeff Perks’ art embraces scale and narrative, moving fluidly across linocuts, ink, acrylic, oil, ceramic, and stone. His pieces are driven by story, each medium chosen deliberately to match the spirit of the tale. “I make BIG,” he states, underscoring not only his preference for physical presence but also the ambition behind his work. Whether monumental in form or charged in imagery, his art communicates with directness and intensity, reflecting both his background as a filmmaker and his instinct for visual storytelling.

SERGEY PISKUNOV

Piskunov’s paintings balance hyperrealism with symbolism, using classical oil techniques to render portraits that feel both immediate and timeless. His meticulous brushwork heightens the interplay between reality and illusion, revealing the psychological depth of his sitters.

“My interest is in inner stillness,” he notes, and this quiet intensity permeates his work. Each canvas becomes a layered narrative of identity, emotion, and memory, demonstrating his ability to merge technical mastery with profound human insight.

CHER PRUYS

Cher Pruys has developed a singular voice within hyperrealism, transforming the technical mastery of her chosen mediums into emotionally resonant works. Her paintings in acrylic, watercolor, and gouache translate fleeting moments into meticulous detail, drawing viewers into the quiet intensity of her subjects. Demonstrating both discipline and sensitivity, she captures not only the visible but also the spirit of her subjects, creating images that are as compelling as they are precise.

Linda Reymore’s paintings pulse with geometric clarity and rhythmic movement, situating her firmly within neo-modern abstraction. Working across fully non-objective compositions and those that flirt with recognizability, she creates layered surfaces where texture, color, and balance engage in lively interplay.

Series such as String Theory and Garden showcase her mastery of structure and rhythm, while works like Big Bad Wolf suggest figuration without ever surrendering to literalness. The result is a vibrant language of abstraction that feels fresh, playful, and deeply attuned to visual harmony.

LINDA REYMORE

b. United States Lives in Stuart, FL, United States

“This piece from my Whimsy in the Abstract series bends geometry toward play, where humor and figuration peek through the lines and circles. I like to think of abstraction as music — rhythms of color and form shifting between harmony and tension, inviting both delight and reflection.”

JEAN JACQUES

“I consider myself an expressionist, as I am more interested in communicating an abstract feeling or idea than an actual image. I use recognizable forms to evoke emotions and stimulate sensations.”

Jean Jacques Porret’s bronze sculptures embody a refined expressionist vision where form transcends physicality to channel emotion and sensation. His work navigates the space between figuration a nd abstraction, creating fluid curves and precarious balances th at speak less to the human body itself than to the intangible energies it conveys. Tension, rhythm, and movement ripple through each piece, revealing an artistic language that feels at once timeless and immediate. By harnessing the demanding yet sensual qualit ies of bronze, Porret transforms the medium into a vessel for emotion, symbolism, and human experience, inviting viewers to engage not with representation but with the essence of feeling itself.

MEINTO POST

“Art is a way to express yourself in the future. I am very concerned about the environment. I believe we are all, to some extent, responsible for the health of our children and future generations. The choices we make now should therefore contribute positively to the future.

Art is a road to discover, like our journey in life.

The great thing is that there are so many creative people. There are so many thoughts and inspirations that everyone uses in one way or another to express themselves.”

Meinto Post’s work stands at the intersection of modern design and abstract art, where creativity becomes both a discipline and a philosophy. Constantly experimenting with form and material, Post transforms everyday elements—new or reused—into striking visual compositions that carry a sense of renewal and discovery. His art reflects a deep concern for the environment and the legacy left for future generations, merging design principles with a broader humanistic vision. Rooted in curiosity and inner drive, each piece embodies an evolving exploration of ideas, materials, and relationships, presenting art as a living process that connects personal expression with collective responsibility.

JALAL QUINN

“Perception of our human condition is inclusive of two sides of reality, one through scientific findings, one through spiritual awareness. Independent investigation brings the two together in art and in life.”

Jalal Quinn’s watercolor practice demonstrates an extraordinary command of one of the most demanding mediums, turning delicacy into strength and precision into poetry. Her brushwork reveals a mastery of control while preserving the fluid spontaneity that gives watercolor its vitality. Each painting is not simply an exercise in technique but a wholly original vision that fuses clarity of form with conceptual depth.

At the heart of her work lies an investigation into the human condition, framed through the dual lenses of science and spiritua lity. This balance imbues her paintings with resonance that extends beyond their surface beauty, offering viewers an invitation to consider knowledge, perception, and awareness as interconnected paths. By uniting technical brilliance with intellectual inquiry, Quinn elevates watercolor into a medium of profound reflection, producing art that is both visually captivatin g and conceptually powerful.

JEANNETTE M REIN

“Evolving from a strong connection to the natural world, my elegant, energetic work stands alone. This is evident in my wooden forms crafted from indigenous timbers. The basis of my practice is to stretch the known, imagine and create new possibilities for wood, and communicate the imperishable and untouchable spirit of living things. The works inspire a sense of awe. The vitality of the natural form, combined with the brevity of light, shadow, surface, and mass, captures the complexity.”

Jeannette M Rein’s sculpture reveals an extraordinary ability to draw vitality and presence from natural materials, particularly indigenous timbers. Her works balance elegance and energy, transforming wood into forms that speak of spirit, impermanence, and possibility. Exploring the interplay of surface, mass, light, and shadow, Rein creates pieces that stretch the familiar into new visual languages, evoking awe and contemplation. Each sculpture feels both grounded in the material world and connected to something untouchable, a distillation of nature’s enduring vitality translated through the artist’s distinctive craft.

CHERYL R RICHARDSON

Richardson dissolves boundaries between medium and subject, fusing watercolor, Chinese brush, and acrylic into landscapes that feel both discovered and invented. Her paintings evolve through washes, drips, and blocks of color, layering atmosphere until sudden lines or forms spark narrative potential. Coastlines and bushlands supply tempo rather than template, producing images that remain open-ended. By releasing raw emotion through process, Richardson creates lyrical terrains where playfulness and possibility invite viewers to journey, linger, and make their own stories.

Reeves infuses her canvases with an energy that is both emotive and deeply personal, transforming floral motifs into vivid carriers of story and meaning. She builds layers of color, texture, and movement that speak to renewal, joy, and vulnerability. Her impressionistic yet abstract style recalls the influence of Monet while asserting a wholly individual voice, one that turns flowers into symbols of resilience and expression. Each painting resonates with a vitality that celebrates nature’s power to mirror human experience, embodying the artist’s journey of rediscovery and her embrace of painting as a language of truth and connection.

MICHELLE REEVES

“As a self-taught painter who started painting at the age of 52, I feel profoundly grateful that I have finally remembered who I am: a creative. Being impacted by the visual beauty of flowers has always been part of me, and I love to tell stories, good or not so good, using these strong, gorgeous, and vivacious floras. I speak my language on each canvas, and the fact that it touches others is a true privilege.”

STANDA

“Since the 2000s, my focus has been on human emotions and adaptations, and since 2015, I have been getting deeper into the surreal-abstract style, using mixed media. My motto is: just as in a written story, the readers have space to create their image, in a visual image I like to leave a space for viewers to create their own interpretation.”

Standa’s work explores the shifting terrain of human emotion and adaptation through a distinctive surreal-abstract vocabulary. His mixed-media practice balances bold invention with space for interpretation, allowing viewers to complete the narrative in t heir own way. Deeply informed by the legacies of Bosch, Picasso, and Dalí, his compositions fuse the fantastical with the psychological, probing dilemmas and transformations of contemporary life. Vibrant, layered, and enigmatic, his paintings invite both intellectual engagement and intuitive response, affirming his reputation as a visionary voice in contemporary surreal abstraction.

MARION ROCKSTROH-KRUFT

Lifelines: Vineyard’s Natural Pulse Photograph 120 x 80 cm

Marion transforms photography into an abstract language of perception and transformation. Using intentional camera movement and layered exposures, she dissolves the visible into fluid gestures of light and shadow. Her images balance chaos and clarity, inviting viewers into moments that are fleeting yet resonant. Each composition becomes a space for reflection, where personal interpretation fills the gaps between motion and stillness. By rendering the invisible tangible, RockstrohKruft creates photographic works that move beyond documentation into the realm of poetic exploration.

NATALIA ROSE

“My paintings do not depict things I actually observe, but rather what I recall from the past, and more accurately, what I wish to see. Drawing from historical and cultural imagery, I create a map of identity that intermingles Eastern and Western ideals of beauty, as well as mythologies. Believing that color stimulates a conversation between motion and shape, I transcribe life’s events through hue, shape, and rhythm, translating onto canvas the magnificence of our world.”

Natalia Rose creates paintings that emerge not from direct observation but from recollection and desire, mapping identity through cultural imagery, myth, and memory. Her semi-abstract canvases employ bold brushstrokes and vibrant color to generate rhythmic exchanges between motion and shape. By intermingling Eastern and Western ideals of beauty, Rose situates her work within a broader dialogue of history and identity. Each painting becomes a lyrical act of translation, transforming life’s events into expressive visual form that resonates with both personal and universal meaning.

GEORGE ROWBOTTOM

“I simply paint pictures. My work is predominately figurative. My subject matter is whatever ignites my imagination and that, naturally, is ever-changing. I endeavour to make each new work unconventional, idiosyncratic and surprising while, hopefully, it remains engaging.”

George Rowbottom’s figurative paintings are guided by imagination, surprise, and an enduring commitment to idiosyncrasy. Drawing from a background in fine art, advertising, and design, his works carry a bold graphic sensibility while resisting convention. Each canvas becomes an arena for invention, where subject matter shifts according to curiosity yet remains engaging and accessible. By embracing unpredictability, Rowbottom achieves a body of work that is both unconventional and compelling, a testament to the freedom of painting as a lifelong pursuit.

HUMANS SATO

“H (humanities), M (mathematical), N (natural), S (social). I have studied sciences of these fields, and these are fields being studied at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, where Albert Einstein was, and Edward Witten is belonging now. My experiences in a lot of fields are gathered and made into one works by considering various aspects of what they are, not only visible things but also invisible concepts. If we rephrase my works in other words, the fusion of physics, visible and invisible.”

As I Was Going to St. Ives Digital 103 x 73 cm

Tanya Shark celebrates nature and humanity through luminous realism while venturing into portraits that move toward the visionary and futuristic. Her still lifes, landscapes, and portraits preserve fleeting light and harmony, each painting infused with clarity and sensitivity. Rooted in classical training yet open to imaginative transformation, Shark’s works explore inner character and symbolic depth. The balance of precision and invention allows her to create art that resonates with both timeless beauty and forward-looking vision.

TANYA SHARK

“Through realism I celebrate nature and life in all its forms, from still lifes and landscapes to portraits that reveal inner character. My paintings seek to preserve fleeting moments of light, color, and harmony. At times, I move into visionary and futuristic portraits, where imagination transforms reality.” b. 1969, Russia Lives in Tavira, Portugal

JASON SHIH

Jason Shih’s sculptures distill complexity into elegant simplicity, balancing poetic form with structural refinement. His abstract language emerges from careful observation of daily life, translated into timeless, resonant shapes. With decades of experience in public art, his practice unites fine craftsmanship with conceptual clarity, bridging cultural influences from Taiwan, the United States, and beyond. Each sculpture becomes a meditation on form, space, and perception, offering both sculptural presence and contemplative depth.

Chris Silver transforms painting into an exploration of psychology, memory, and identity. His bold style merges Abstract Expressionism, Fauvism, and Pop influences into layered works that carry both personal intimacy and universal resonance. Rooted in conversations with his late mother, a psychiatrist, Silver’s art channels complex emotional states into striking color, gesture, and form. By weaving issues of mental health, neurodivergence, and identity into contemporary portraiture, his practice asserts painting as a vital medium for empathy and understanding.

CHRIS SILVER

“As a contemporary Scottish painter and illustrator, my work is rooted in a personal investigation of psychology, mental health, and emotion. I am informed by recent art history and a sound understanding of art psychotherapy; this duality informs my layered, multidisciplinary, and introspective practice. My work draws from heart-to-hearts and deep conversations with my late mother, a psychiatrist, whose influence continues to shape my approach to depicting emotional states of mind in painting.”

SOTARO TAKANAMI

Takanami has built a remarkable career defined by relentless dedication to painting. From oil works and woodcuts to expansive exhibitions, his practice spans decades of innovation and international recognition. His paintings emerge from a near-spiritual compulsion, guided by what he describes as an unseen rhythm of creation. Influenced by both Japanese tradition and global modernism, Takanami’s works reveal a world of ideas distilled into images of enduring power. His art embodies the persistence of vision, establishing him as a seminal figure in contemporary Japanese painting.

Christiaan channels joy, imagination, and nature into exuberant abstractions where color takes center stage. Using palette knife, brush, and inventive tools, he builds vibrant worlds that explode with energy. His paintings emerge as new realities—partly inspired by the French countryside, partly by pure creative freedom— where imagination runs wild and hues generate their own momentum. In each canvas, Christiaan invites viewers into a radiant universe where abstraction is both playful and profound.

You can find out more on christiaanvanruyven.

CHRISTIAAN VAN RUYVEN

“Using palette knife, brush, and other creative tools, I create vibrant and abstract worlds. Inspired by the beauty of nature, the joy of painting, and the free expression of my imagination, I strive to make the colors explode from the canvas. A new world that I love to share with others.”

TAMMY HUYNH TRUONG

Tammy Huynh Truong transforms the environment into distilled graphic clarity, where skies, fields, and natural elements are reimagined as bold abstract gestures. Her minimalist illustrations are guided by color harmony and rhythm, producing works that balance strength and quiet resonance. Each composition meditates on presence, reducing form to its essence while preserving emotional depth. Through simplicity, Truong captures the subtle tension and beauty that define the relationship between nature and emotion.

HANS VAN WINGERDEN

Hans van Wingerden merges conceptual inquiry with experimental media, using electronics, LEDs, and salvaged neon to probe human functioning and perception. Since the mid-1990s, his work has reflected both technical precision and intellectual ambition, transforming industrial remnants into luminous explorations of form and meaning. By reimagining materials once tied to decline, he imbues them with new vitality, creating installations that critique, question, and inspire. His practice situates technology within a poetic dialogue about humanity itself.

MIA VUCIC

Mia Vucic explores the convergence of technology, identity, and spirituality through digital collage, glitch aesthetics, and printmaking. Her works translate data, disruption, and form into visually striking compositions that question how the digital shapes human experience. By merging precision with expressive layering, she creates a language where the virtual becomes tangible. Vucic’s art transforms technological fragments into reflections of contemporary identity, offering images that pulse with both rigor and imagination.

Distances Between Clouds 1, 2025 Digital archival print on canvas 111 x 111 cm

GARY WAGNER

Gary Wagner’s black-andwhite landscapes distill the natural world into essential forms of light, shadow, and texture. His mastery of monochrome unveils quiet drama and timeless presence, turning familiar vistas into spaces for reflection. With over four decades behind the lens, Wagner’s photographs resonate with restraint and reverence, capturing the enduring beauty of land and sea. Each image embodies his devotion to clarity and balance, making the invisible rhythms of nature powerfully visible.

VINCENT

Vincent W. crystallizes emotion and memory into paintings where color, line, and structure release rhythmic energy. Rooted in lived experience yet extending into imagination, his works blend Eastern visual traditions with contemporary sensibilities. Each canvas holds both atmosphere and introspection, transforming emotion into poetic imagery. By integrating contemporary art contexts with oriental aesthetics, Vincent invites dialogue between cultures and viewers, producing paintings that are both deeply personal and universally resonant.

PAUL ART LEE

“After decades of ministry and teaching, I returned to painting in 2023 with renewed purpose. My work, inspired by Isaiah 60 and John 1, explores gospel themes through symbolic realism and abstraction. Each piece begins in Bible and prayer and reflects Christ’s presence— offering healing, peace, and the transformative love and grace of the gospel.”

Paul Art Lee brings faith and painting into a unified practice of clarity and care. His works balance symbolic realism with geometric order, creating compositions that feel both intimate and expansive. Light functions as structure and as message, shaping atmospheres that invite quiet reflection and renewal.

The Light of Life series transforms scripture into chromatic architectures, where radiant hues and controlled chiaroscuro carry the weight of presence. Echoes of Caravaggio, Chagall, and Matisse surface in his approach, yet the voice is entirely his own. Figures, animals, and emblems emerge within carefully measured planes of color, their placement deliberate yet open to interpretation.

Years of ministry enrich his practice with pastoral depth, while his return to painting underscores a conviction that beauty can heal. In Lee’s art, light is not decorative but essential, a sustaining force that offers viewers restoration through vision.

“In my art, light and time are the main subjects. The themes I work with relate to this core: sunlit cloisters where the past can be sensed, light flickering through foliage, fragile structures of living creatures illuminated by the cold light of X-rays, the soft flutter of lights in a meadow, and inherited memories evoked by old photographs that emerge from the past and affect us today. Patterns enhance the depth of a space. Patterns enhance the depth of a space and both patterns and light capture the viewer and allow them to step outside of time for a moment.”

Dita Lūse has built a distinguished international career with more than forty solo exhibitions and selections for major juried projects including the Beijing Biennale, Arte Laguna in Venice, and NordArt in Germany. Educated in Latvia, Denmark, and the United States, she paints in oil with a technique so thin and aqueous it often reads as aquarelle.

Lūse names light and time as her central subjects. Cloisters lit by history, foliage flicker, X-ray translucencies, and inherited memories rising from vintage photographs all become means to suspend the viewer outside ordinary duration. Patterns, lattices, tiles, and spectral overlays temper lyricism with structure, allowing delicacy to become decisive.

Her work demonstrates that light is not merely illumination but narrative, index, and atmosphere; a way to feel the pressure of the past on the present. The paintings may appear fortuitous, yet their orchestration is exact, yielding images that stay with the viewer like remembered rooms. Lūse’s oeuvre offers a quiet but authoritative account of how painting can hold time.

CHARLOTTE WENSLEY

Charlotte Wensley’s mixedmedia abstractions are shaped by curiosity and chance encounters with colour, texture and form. Using landscape as a metaphor for the inner terrain of emotion, she explores the layered nature of lived experience. Her compositions invite viewers into liminal spaces where presence and perception shift. Through printmaking, collage, and paint, Wensley builds works that mirror the complexity of life itself, offering visual spaces for personal reflection, emotional transformation and places to escape to.

Torsten Wolber paints with a direct and authentic approach that fuses emotional openness with forceful execution. Working in oil portraiture and figuration, his practice emphasizes freedom within process, allowing change and imperfection to shape the final image. Formerly an illustrator, Wolber now channels decades of experience into expressive paintings that capture human presence in flux. Each work embodies the tension between fragility and resilience, inviting viewers into states of raw, immediate encounter.

TORSTEN WOLBER

“My goal is to unite emotional states of vulnerability and strength through a direct, authentic way of painting, which changes again and again during the process.”

MAUREEN ZACHARKI

Zacharki transforms photography into a deeply personal language of memory, emotion, and perception. Rooted in self-portraiture and shaped by lived experience, her images document not just appearance but the unseen currents of feeling beneath it. Each photograph becomes the starting point for further transformation, manipulated and reimagined until it matches the artist’s inner vision. By blurring the line between documentation and invention, Zacharki turns the camera into a painter’s brush, creating works that resonate with intimacy, nostalgia, and an unflinching exploration of self.

I Believe In Red Lipstick

Zhou Yinjun, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Graduate Supervisor at the School of Fine Arts, Shanghai Normal University. He received his Ph.D. from the Sculpture Department of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University, and was a Visiting Researcher at Tokyo University of the Arts in Japan. Zhou is a member of the China Artists Association, the Chinese Sculpture Society, the China Arts and Crafts Society, and the Shanghai Artists Association.

Against Monoculture:

Few moments in history have given art the level of visibility it enjoys today. With a single post, a painting can circulate across continents within seconds, entering the feeds of thousands who may never step into the artist’s studio or the gallery that first hosted it. This unprecedented a ccess reshapes how we encounter art and how artists imagine their audiences. The results are both exciting and troubling. On one hand, the possibilities for discovery have never been greater. On the other, the same channels that expand visibility can also standardize taste, encouraging artists to repeat what trends online rather than explore what might be unique, local, or quietly resistant.

In current discourse, theorists such as Nicolas Bourriaud (Relational Aesthetics) and Hans Ulrich Obrist emphasize the importance of multiplicity, dialogue, and the unfinished. Polyphony, borrowed from musical language, suggests not simply coexistence but resonance: voices and visions that overlap, challenge, and enrich one another without collapsing into a single dominant tone. When art trends move too quickly through global circuits of Instagram feeds, TikTok aesthetics, or Pinterest moodboards, the risk is a form of visual monoculture. As cultural theorist Hito Steyerl warns, the overcirculation of images does not equal depth; instead, it can lead to an accelerated cycle of consumption in which art becomes instantly familiar and therefore disposable.

The issue extends beyond aesthetics to the lived experience of art. While sharing work online is now almost expected of artists, the ubiquity of digital access has changed how audiences engage with exhibitions.

Attendance at physical shows can suffer when a viewer feels they have “already seen it” through documentation. But what is overlooked in this assumption is the irreplaceable encounter of being present with the work, its scale, texture, materiality, and the unrepeatable conditions of viewing. Walter Benjamin’s muchinvoked concept of the “aura” of the artwork, once endangered by mechanical reproduction, resurfaces in this digital context. To stand before a painting or sculpture, or walk through an installation is to experience what no screen can fully mediate. The challenge is not to retreat fr om the digital, but to find balance: to let online presence serve as a threshold, not a substitute, for lived encounters with art.

Why Polyphony Matters in Contemporary Art

by Myrina Tunberg Georgiou

Polyphony, then, is not only about artistic styles but also about how we experience, distribute, and discuss art. In this regard, the role of printed press and anthologies like the one in which this essay appears remains vital. Unlike the fleeting rhythms of the feed, print offers a s lower, more reflective space where ideas can be developed and preserved. Books, catalogues, and journals extend discourse beyond the ephemerality of scrolling, becoming archives that safeguard multiplicity for future readers. Printed publications invite depth, encourage careful reading, and resist the disposability of online trends by situating art in a lineage of thought and dialogue.

It is worth remembering that polyphony is not always comfortable. When divergent aesthetics, cultural traditions, or political positions come together, friction is inevitable. Yet this tension is precisely what makes contemporary art meaningful. Difference fosters dialogue, and disagreement generates new perspectives. In resisting homogenization, the art world does not simply preserve variety for its own sake. It protects the conditions under which art can surprise, unsettle, and expand our ways of seeing.

What, then, does it mean to value art in a time when the distinction between the real and the simulated no longer feels essential? For centuries authenticity was central to artistic worth, yet today images circulate so quickly that their reality often matters less than their shareability. As Jean Baudrillard suggested in his writings on simulacra, we now move in spaces where the copy can feel more powerful than the original. Should this trouble us, or should it be seen as part of a new cultural landscape? Can polyphony endure when the conditions of reality itself are uncertain? These questions may not have answers, but they remind us that contemporary art matters most when it resists sameness and keeps the space for dialogue open.

As John Berger reminded us in Ways of Seeing , art alters not only what we look at but also how we look. That proposition feels urgent today, when attention is so often consumed by the velocity of images and external distraction. Contemporary theorists such as Hito Steyerl have extended this inquiry into the digital sphere, asking us to consider how images circulate, mutate, and shape our sense of truth and reality. To look at art now is therefore not simply to appreciate beauty but to participate in an act of cultural and personal reflection, a reorientation of perc eption that can be both critical and restorative. This book affirms the role of art as a cultural force: it gives voice to artists, provides a space for contemplation, and invites viewers into encounters that can be transformative. The diversity of practices represented here demonstrates that contemporary art is not one voice but many, layered, resonant, and open to discovery.

I invite you to engage deeply with these artists, follow their journeys, and allow their works to challenge, inspire, and expand your ways of seeing.

Myrina Tunberg Georgiou - CFA Director

Torsten Wolber