Issue14

INTERVIEW | Yu Chen

INTERVIEW | Yu Chen

Yu Chen is a visual artist, designer, and lecturer with an MFA Degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His focus is on branding, art direction, and 3D graphics design. His project Let Parents Stay focuses on helping the people of Jinling Village, a designated poverty-stricken area - to inherit and promote the culture of Han Embroidery, a traditional technique from China.

INTERVIEW | Joanna Hoge

INTERVIEW | Joanna Hoge

Joanna Hoge (she/they) is a queer artist and designer based in Denver, Colorado. They apply their background in psychology and interest in medicine to create works that explore the dynamic between subjective identity and objectifiable body. Hoge's work is largely inspired by the division of somatic and psychological experiences in Western culture.

INTERVIEW | Tokie Wang

INTERVIEW | Tokie Wang

Tokie Wang is a Chinese choreographer, dancer, and visual artist currently based in Los Angeles. "RECORDING IN PROCESS" is a thought-provoking art piece that delves into the impact of surveillance systems on our daily lives. The project aims to recreate a "living space" by discreetly placing multiple hidden cameras to record performers while simultaneously live-streaming the recordings within the same space.

INTERVIEW | Hall'Makwanda

INTERVIEW | Hall'Makwanda

Hall'Makwanda is a collective composed of Julia Hall and Matisse Makwanda, both of whom are transdisciplinary artists. Their individual work led them to explore artistic collaboration in 2016. With a keen interest in symbolism, experimental languages, and new media, the duo explores the realms of alchemy and active spirituality; each creation serves as an opportunity to delve into the multidimensionality of human existence.

INTERVIEW | Shiqing Chen

INTERVIEW | Shiqing Chen

Shiqing Chen uses multiple visual languages and elements to communicate through print, website, and digital media. Her works focus on cross-medium storytelling and visual communication. During the pandemic, she became interested in the organic errors and uncertainties of data. By leveraging available technologies, she aims to present data through sounds, games, performances, and other means.

INTERVIEW | Connor Daly

INTERVIEW | Connor Daly

Connor Daly is a British fine art photographer from Jersey (Channel Islands), currently based in the UK. His work explores varying levels of colour and compositional effects that provoke spatial ambiguity, using a painterly and abstract style that is evocative of nostalgia, memory, and the passing of time. Furthermore, his work is predominantly concerned with the depiction of a space, exploring broad visual styles.

INTERVIEW | Hushang Omidizadeh

INTERVIEW | Hushang Omidizadeh

Hushang Omidizadeh, born in 1968, is a multidisciplinary artist based in Germany. In his art, Hushang Omidizadeh delves into diverse facets of human nature, interpersonal relationships, diversity, and human needs. In his series "SURFACE," the artist abandons the use of traditional brushes and instead directly applies color to his models' bodies. These colors are then transferred onto the canvas when pressed, leaving imprints of the models' own bodies.

INTERVIEW | Ben Große-Johannböcke

INTERVIEW | Ben Große-Johannböcke

With a background in tattooing, Ben Große-Johannböcke, born in Melle, Germany, in 2002, explores the relationship between musical compositions and visual arts. A large part of his work consists of graphite drawings on canvas, isolated mark-making with neither form nor colour. These patterns/structures aim to visually recreate certain parts of the musical composition they respond to.

INTERVIEW | Varvara Sosedova

INTERVIEW | Varvara Sosedova

Varvara Sosedova is a Russian artist, based in Kaliningrad, Russia. Varia Stern’s practice is the result of an interdisciplinary exploration of historical and contemporary phenomena. Using ancient oriental philosophical practices, she explores the human connection to the world, exposing historical and cultural parallels in history. She uses the techniques of symbolism and creates the interpenetration of different cultures by mashing them up.

INTERVIEW | Anna Salenko

INTERVIEW | Anna Salenko

Anna Salenko (b. 1990, Vladivostok, based in Hong Kong ) shares her unique style as a fusion of cultures and captures the intersection of the visible world with our inner thoughts and perceptions. Anna's art is a reflection of a fleeting moment in the human mind. Anna Salenko's works embody philosophy with the potential to make a difference in the world and transform the lives of those connected to her art.

INTERVIEW | Ofer Shomron

INTERVIEW | Ofer Shomron

Art took hold of Ofer Shomron at the advanced age of 60. Recurring dreams about colors flowing around him convinced Ofer to embark on a new path. He is an avid colorist. He loves color and exploring color and likes to place strong, expressive colors side by side. His curiosity about the world is the motivation and energy for his artistic quest. He mostly paints in oil and occasionally uses a mixed technique.

INTERVIEW | Andrés Mario de Varona

INTERVIEW | Andrés Mario de Varona

Andrés Mario de Varona was born in 1996 and grew up in Miami as a first-generation Cuban-American with two Cuban families. Art is a tool for Andrés to measure cycles of indignation and healing, our growth as human beings, and as a way to record victories. What he aims to create is an attempt to enter the collective human experience, as well as an access point into himself.

INTERVIEW | Jia Hao

INTERVIEW | Jia Hao

Jia Hao (b. 1990, China) is a visual artist based in the Yunnan province of China, with a BA in Fine Art from the State University of New York in Albany. Jia Hao works predominantly in photography and collage, building surreal narratives within her work. Her main focus is on the human body and the environment, and through her work, she creates a dialogue about the expression and concealment of human identity.

INTERVIEW | Maria Petroff

INTERVIEW | Maria Petroff

Maria Petroff is a self-taught figurative artist living between two countries: Russia and Canada. Maria defines her artistic style as critical realism. She likes to paint people who marked our history, whether they are politicians, scientists, artists, philosophers, or fictional characters. The artist gets inspired by today’s world events, trying to thoroughly study the other non-official side of the story.

INTERVIEW | Claude Stahel

INTERVIEW | Claude Stahel

Claude Stahel, born in 1966, lives and works in Zurich. With his latest works, Stahel is currently questioning the geopolitical tensions in Europe and Ukraine. His series TV Potemkin uses functional portable televisions from the 80s cast in epoxy cubes. The conservation prohibits any following manipulation of the devices and recalls political propaganda and its prohibition of choices.

INTERVIEW | Hyunse Kim

INTERVIEW | Hyunse Kim

Hyunse Kim is a designer and artist, born and raised in Korea. As a designer and artist, he approaches fashion from a perspective that revolves around the intricate world of details. At the core of his design approach lies a resolute focus on tailoring. His exploration of this craft kindled a fervor within him as he delved into various techniques and intricacies.

INTERVIEW | Tong Li

INTERVIEW |  Tong Li

Tong Li is a multidisciplinary graphic designer based in the Bay Area with a background in journalism and experience in the magazine industry. Tong's curiosity and drive lead her to explore and experiment with different approaches to design. Tong Li continues to push the boundaries of graphic design, seeking new challenges and opportunities to make a lasting impact through her creativity and design expertise.

INTERVIEW | Nanxi Jin

INTERVIEW | Nanxi Jin

Nanxi Jin is an interdisciplinary artist who works with clay. As a Chinese artist living in the United States for the past decade, Nanxi Jin has grappled with the tension between her early years in China and her art education in the US. This juxtaposition has greatly influenced her artistic journey, as she now combines her appreciation for harmony with the vibrant colors, conceptual leanings, and Eastern gestures and Western aesthetics.

INTERVIEW | Jiawei Fu

INTERVIEW | Jiawei Fu

Jiawei Fu is an Interior Designer and Painter, born in Guangzhou, China, and now living in Los Angeles, USA. Jiawei's practice depicts mundanity and emptiness through a surrealized reality to wake up subconsciousness and create new conversations between people. In her latest series, Deceitful Lovers, she uses a delicate palette to expose the sugar-coated modern ignorance and relentlessness in all beings.

INTERVIEW | Lela Amparo

INTERVIEW | Lela Amparo

Multidisciplinary visual artist Lela Amparo uses machine learning (GAN) to create visual imagery that showcases an otherworldly atmosphere. She also is an ambient music producer who merges her music and art to make a multi-sensory experience for the end viewer. Amparo specialises and takes great pleasure in transporting the viewer and listener to a different dimension.