About the Artists
"THE WAY" Group Exhibition Artists
AGNES SHEIKH, UAE
Agnes Sheikh is French, but it is too restrictive in her eyes, she considers herself as a citizen of the world. She was born and raised in Africa for 15 years, lived 13 years in Pakistan-Karachi where she had her 3 children, and currently she is living in Dubai since 2004. She had the chance to approach different cultures, religions, people, arts, traditions…And she is a part of all these fabulous “rencontres”…
She works as an art teacher for middle and high school in a French school. Before the pandemic, she used to enjoy “fluid art”, its “unexpected” component, and abstract work. But lockdowns and anxiety led her to figurative art, allowing her to “control” something through her paintings. A big relief!
ACQUAETTA WILLIAMS, USA
Acquaetta Williams’s art has been a life journey from glassblower to sculpture and now painter. Her inspiration evolved from vision of African Images to tell the story of African American Women in a sense of relevance in a complexity of her feelings, thoughts and memories. Williams reflects on her past to form an identity.
She tells a story in assemblages of materials contained in Giraffe Neck Women, Women Who Carry and then into Timekeepers and Deconstructing Time: Memories. and now Faceless Melodies. Her love for art was cemented under instructor and well known artist Harvey Littleton at the University of Wisconsin. were she received a MFA degree. An Arts International Travel Grant that was awarded to her included travels through Benin in West Africa. She has exhibited her art Nationally, in Uncommon Beauty in Common Objects: The Legacy of African American Craft Art which included a tour throughout the United States, visiting 5 major museum, as well as International: the International Glass Exhibition, Kanazawa, Japan and “Color 2018”, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, Gyeonggi, Korea. Her work as glassblower has been acknowledged in the permanent collections of Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY, the Museum of Arts and Design in NY and the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio.
ANASTASIYA KROKHMAL, RUSSIA
Anastasiya Krokhmal (born in 1997) - contemporary artist. Lives and works in Moscow. The artist's paintings are aimed at studying people and their psycho-emotional state.
"I paint expressive oil paintings in the figurative genre. The main theme of my paintings is feelings and conditions of people, including conditions related to the spectrum of mental disorders. My artistic practice is based on self-reflection, emotional intelligence and personal life experience with anxiety-depressive disorder. The characteristic features of my paintings are pronounced contrast, drips of paint, raw paper margins or pieces of canvas. With these techniques, I strive to share my energy with the viewer. Art for me is not only the result of my experience and reactions to everything that happens, but also the opportunity to combat the stigmatization of mental deviations."
BROLY SU, USA
Broly Su is an Atlanta-based illustrator and graphic designer, who is currently pursuing an MFA degree in Illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, GA. Broly creates most of his work digitally, taking inspiration from the knowledge and beliefs like positivity, integrity, perseverance, and justice that he has absorbed from hip-hop music, graffiti, and street culture throughout the years.
Heavily influenced by artists like Keith Haring, Steven Harrington, and Verdy, Broly also works with traditional techniques, such as acrylic, Posca markers, and ballpoint pens, to achieve his bold-lined and graffiti-like style. Additionally, Broly expands his work and applies it in graphic design so his work could be practical in real life.
FABIO GIORGIANNI , ITALY
Fabio Giorgianni is a self-taught painter. He was born on the slopes of Etna, in Catania and, despite having never attended painting courses or attended academies, he felt the passion for graphic-pictorial art grow in him from a very young age.
He moved to Turin at the end of the 1980s to follow his university studies at the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic and, during these years, he experimented with different styles and various pictorial-graphic techniques that led him to mature his personal style in which he blends his root with contemporary art. The passion for the East and for Japan in particular, the practice of martial arts, yoga, meditation and spiritual research, influence many of his works, where the continuous search for new suggestions leads him to a phase of study in where the realism of representation coexists with graphic and formal abstraction.
Fabio Giorgianni's works live and change thanks to the continuous suggestions that the surrounding natural environment evokes to the artist. The subjects of his works range from hyper-realistic portraits to volcanic landscapes, from the Sicilian hinterland with its sunny wheat fields to Mediterranean gardens and urban landscapes, creating an ever-changing emotion in the observer, leading him to get lost in those worlds. that in realism find a magical and spiritual dimension.
GIOVANNI GRECO, ITALY
Giovanni Greco was born in Rome but he lives in Catania (Sicily), after the completion of artistic studies at the School of the Naked in Catania and Academy Fine Art in Roma and early '90s he began his painting career; in those years working as an assistant at galleries, cultural associations that allow him to penetrate in the most challenging environments in order that his desire to deepen knowledge of art history, urging him and enriching the culture that encouraged him to study the activity artistic; at the same time a strong passion for the art of the '500 and' 600 led him to investigate the technique and the study of painting through an analysis and careful observation of the works of Caravaggio, Poussin and especially Flemish Van Eyck, Brueghel, Bosch.
After a way on figurative namely classical art, for some years he dedicate himself to abstract art, informal art ; his research was to analyse the nature of man and of things in another way and arrive to the synthesis of a more immediate reality where the gesture and the dream are the emotional content determine passions, tensions and inconvenience thanks to the association with the informal artists of his hometown. It adopts in his work a kind of psychoanalysis of form and color, eliminating the third dimension, accentuating the emotional values in expressing feelings with the sign, where the means of expression are lines and strongly attracted by the color textural relationship s that ' eye can grasp in the surfaces of the objects, along the walls of the city, in the street poster where the posters have large tears or even fluttering edges, where the work itself is understood as a result of the meeting between man and nature in a empathy alternation between pure form and its complexity is intended to develop a discourse around the structural nature, and particularly to the technique. He thinks it was necessary to arrive at the summary, now, a reality where most immediate gesture, the dream not separated from rationality are the emotional content determine passions, tensions and hardships that must therefore be expressed in the most free, spontaneous and violent possible.
He currently lives between Rome and Catania.
JASON ENGELBART , GERMANY
Jason Engelbart lives and works in Hamburg, Germany. Degree in Art and Design.
His works have been shown in numerous national and international exhibitions, such as Amory Art Weeks New York, Art Basel Miami, Swiss Art Expo Zurich and more.
His work has been recognised with several awards. Since 2020, Jason Engelbart has been actively involved with the online charity platform PRODUCERS ART, which was launched by the Hamburg-based Spiegelberger Foundation to support artists in need as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
JORDANA RAE GASSNER, GERMANY
Jordana Rae Gassner was born in the year of the dragon, 1976, in the Black Hills, SD, USA.
She began working at age 14 within the fashion industry which helped to influence her later decision to direct her own creative arts endeavors. Her later experiences working at her family’s gallery and picture framing business before beginning studies in Psychology, Literature and Philosophy, helped to refine her focus towards 2 dimensional paintings and small sculpture.
She obtained her Bachelors of Arts in 1999. Mostly, her art practice was confined to watercolor and acrylic painting until 2005 when she and her small family moved to Seattle, WA. There, she was able to re-commence learning to paint with oil painting materials. In 2007, she again relocated, this time to Regensburg, one of the most beautiful cities in Germany. Ironically, the overwhelming “European-ness” of her new home had her yearning to create artworks reminiscent of her abstract expressionist fore-fathers and mothers in America.
JOSEPHINE FLORENS, UKRAIN
Josephine Florens was born in Odessa on September 22, 1988.
Graduated from Odessa National Academy of Law and received a Master's degree in Civil Law, graduated from Odessa International Humanitarian University and received a Master's degree in International Law.
She started painting in 2017. She studied individually at the Art-Ra school of painting with the Odessa artist-painter Sergei Simora. The main direction of study was the South Russian school of painting.
Josephine Florens is a member of the National Association of Artists and Sculptors of Ukraine, member of the Odessa Marine Union, Ukraine. Member of the section "Environmental Protection and Monitoring of the Black Sea".
She is the founder of the "Obriy Nadii" charitable foundation - https://obriys.com/en .
Creates oil paintings in various genres, such as portrait, landscape, still life, genre painting, animal painting, marina. Works with oil paints. The painting styles used in the work are realism, impressionism, mixed styles.
KATARYNA CHYRVA, POLAND
Katarina Chyrva was born in 1992 in Oleksandriya, Ukraine, where she started her art education in the school of arts. Then she studied architecture at Poltava National Technical University and graduated in 2014 with a master’s degree.
After graduation, she moved to Russia, where she worked as an architect. In summer 2016, she moved to Warsaw, Poland. She has already lived in six cities in three countries. As an artist, Katarina creates abstract painting patterns, fashion illustrations, and paintings. She started with a series of paintings depicting mutual influence between people and the cities they live in. They were published in a Saint Petersburg art magazine, Start in Art. Katarina`s fashion illustrations and paintings have been published in several international fashion and art magazines. The New York based Hunter Magazine featured her illustrations on the front and back cover of its February 2021 issue. Katarina has recently received a certificate of merit from the Luxembourg Art Prize for her artwork "Trandence".
Katarina constantly experiments with combinations of different media, such as classical painting and digital graphic technologies, which augment the effect of each technique. As a result, she developed her unique artistic style. The abundance of colours and intricate ornaments create a surreal atmosphere of infinity and have a mesmerising impact on the viewer. Her picturesque seamless abstract painting patterns have been recently published in the Marika Magazine.
KRISTINE NARVIDA, LATVIA
Kristine Narvida is a Latvian fine artist and a graduated Magister of the Art Academy in Riga. Since 2006 she lives and works in Germany in Berlin and Potsdam.
She works with oil on linen, using models as her subjects. Conceptually her paintings explore the acceleration of time and humankind’s place within the present moment.
KSENIIA ANTIPINA, GERMANY
Kseniia Antipina is the Russian artist based in Berlin.
She holds Degree in History and Graphic design.
Participated in numerous exhibitions: Kotartfest / Moscow / 2020; Mixing Identities / London / 2021
Video Fenster / Cologne / 2021; Reclaim Award / Cologne / 2021.
LOUISE HAPTON, UK
Louise Hapton is a teen French artist and writer newly based in London.
Her main concern is the human mind and the different perceptions it can have of the world we all live in. Eyes are very present in her work: they represent madness, excessive anger, illness and death. They don’t come from her artistic imagination but from her inside world, as they are her chronic hallucinations since the age of 10.
In her work, Louise tries to recreate the feeling she has about things surrounding her when they are covered in eyes and dark hands. Her first book was published at age 14 in France (Arnold, ed. Jets d’encre) and the second will be out in May 2022.
Manon Raman, USA
Manon Raman was born in ’96 in Wetteren, Belgium. She spent part of her teenage years in The Netherlands but moved back to her home country where she studied at the Royal Institute of Theatre, Cinema and Sound. Before she painted on canvasses she worked on faces as a make up artist for series and movies.
She is a self thought artist who started painting at age 22. Her early work is colourful, bold and revolves around women and the naked body.
Her art became less evocative when she moved to Niger, Africa at age 23 where she started painting full time. With her African inspired art she has had multiple successful solo shows, part of which also contributed to a charity or cause to help the local population.
Recently Manon has moved to New York where she is working from her home studio on a new body of work, exploring simpler shapes and rougher features in people.
MATHILDE LÂM, BELGIUM
Mathilde Lâm is a young self-taught artist who started painting a little over a year ago. She grew up in a multicultural household with a Belgian mother and a Vietnamese-Chinese father. With her father eventually living in Vietnam and her mother in Belgium she started to question her own identity and heritage, which influences her life and work.
Her artistic focus is therefore on finding harmony between east and west, as well as the search for humanization of (Asian) women, who are often stereotyped as weak or hyper sexualized objects.
The women she paints are her own subconsciousness as well as every woman that experiences the pressure of today's society that is built on the male gaze. She had her artwork in Oblivion, an exhibition of The Holy Art Gallery and in Summersalon 2021 (Zomersalon 2021) an exhibition of Arthall (Kunsthal). January 2022 she will take part in an online exhibition as a result of Women United ART PRIZE 2021 where she received a special mention. She will have a solo-exhibition in Art-Uur January 2023. She will also have a piece in Cicamuseum for the Youth #8 2022 exhibition in South-Korea.
MATINA VOSSOU , GREECE
Matina Vossou is a self-taught artist living in Athens, Greece. She uses acrylics and a toothpick, a technique which she learned by her father, who was a naïve painter. Her most recent participations were in Onboards Biennale in Antwerp, Belgium and in Emerging Scene in Dubai, UAE. She is also included in the 2021 publication (yearbook) of the Gran Anuario Internacional de arte contemporáneo, edición Madrid.
She has exhibited her artworks in MADS Gallery in Milan. She has been featured in various art magazines. Except from painting, she also loves writing; her play “The nothing of People” (a dystopian comedy) was published in Greek in 2018.
TONI BARBOSA, USA
Toni Barbosa is a scenic artist with additional skills in set design, costuming and set dressing in the entertainment field.
Her education is in Environmental Design from University of California Irvine and a scenic art workshop from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. She has over 20 years working in performing arts, films, theme parks and themed events. Beginning her career in architectural space planning, drafting and rendering, later adding work in visual display. Eventually her lifelong love of dance and painting provided the direction as a scenic artist, designer and costumer with regional ballet companies and dance schools, from there expanding to all areas of entertainment.
Sunny J , BELGIUM
Sunny J is a Chinese visual artist living in Brussels, Belgium.
She received her B.A. in Studio Arts from the University of Rochester, United States, and her MFA in Painting from the ENSAV-La Cambre in Belgium. She has been an artist-in-residence in the Old School Residency program in Gorna Lipnitsa, Bulgaria (2015); Shangyuan Art Museum in Beijing, China (2016); AADK Residency in Blanca, Spain (2017); GLO’ART Residency in Lanaken, Belgium (2018), and Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, China (2019).
Her works has been included in multiple public and private collections in three continents.
SONIA BUKHGALTER , ITALY
Sonia Bukhgalter was born in 1996 in Florence, Italy. I am half Scottish-Canadian and half Ukrainian.
"As a young child I was able to experience the beautiful renaissance city of Florence and the incredible
artistic ability of its historic master artists. Through my mother's artisan studio I learned many
ancient techniques such as gilding and fresco from a young age. I have worked as an Artist,
Artisan, and Art Educator while studying Fine Art.
I have recently graduated from a fine arts academy in Florence, Italy where I worked on
expressing the concept of spiritual ascension in the modern era through art.
During the pandemic lockdown in 2020 my art changed to express a more simple, yet equally
divine idea of peace and tranquility, because these feelings were missing from my life and from
the lives of others. I began to use physical landscapes and mainly the sky to describe my
emotional and mental landscape. I have had much experience working with traditional Italian
artisan techniques, mainly gilding. This has influenced my work and I often paint with oils on
gold or silver leaf."
FRANCESCA BRIVIO , ITALY
Francesca Brivio, from Italy, learned how to paint very young, focusing in oil painting on canvas.
She graduated at artistic high school and then studied design. After a period in London, as well as a few other experiences in the fashion industry, she began working in a new field that allowed her to travel. Currently, She paints almost every evening in her new studio.
She is drawn to subjects such as portraits, the human bodies, animals, magical creatures, water and untouched landscapes.
