The Sacred and the Human

The Sacred and the Human

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A Conversation with Artist MARCOS LOZANO MERCHÁN

was born and raised in the city of Madrid in 1990, and this has undoubtedly had a decisive influence on the way I understand both art and the world — perhaps always from a tragic perspective, as has often been the Spanish way of seeing existence since time immemorial, but especially embodied in painters such as Velázquez, Goya, or Picasso, and today in expressions like flamenco or bullfighting. This, combined with the stark sobriety of the Castilian artist, has always led me to understand both life and art as a direct confrontation between feeling alive and facing death.

Drawing & the Art of Impermanence

Drawing & the Art of Impermanence

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A Conversation with Artist GIUSEPPE DI LEO

Drawing takes time. Time is duration. Duration is intimacy. Intimacy is Drawing. It is a means of disclosure and a reminder of what it means to be human.

Painting, Sculpture & the Primal Landscape

Painting, Sculpture & the Primal Landscape

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A Conversation with Artist JAMES MORTIMER

Art’s always been my language—all children make art, but it was the thing I was most drawn to and most encouraged in. I’m not sure what the importance of the arts is—it just feels fundamental, like rhythm or the need to tell stories. People will always create, no matter the circumstances.

Nordic Folklore & Drawing the Inner Child

Nordic Folklore & Drawing the Inner Child

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A Conversation with Artist STEPHANIE DONSØ

Honesty is one of the most important things about art. You have to be honest if you want to work with making art; it can be tough to do so, but it is also liberating. I had a vision of being an artist when I was around seven. But I never thought of myself being an artist that sticks to doing only one kind of thing; I thought a lot about the word "multi-artist." I was quite bored when going to school as a kid, so my imagination ran off with me and I'd draw instead of listen to the teachers. I just loved to disappear into my own makings. I have learned that there is much honesty in art, and in making art, while it is also challenging to be honest—at least all the time.

Painting, Ceramics, and the Memory of Place

Painting, Ceramics, and the Memory of Place

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A Conversation with Artist JOHN BUSHER

I was born in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland. As a nation, we’re immersed in our cultural identity, and it’s often taken for granted. But the sense of being on the edge of things gives you a certain autonomy; this could be found in the music scene that emerged here in the 80s, all of which grew out of DIY culture.

Landscape Painting & the Sublime

Landscape Painting & the Sublime

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A Conversation with Artist ANDREW VINER

I am a strong believer in the ideas of the Sublime—the idea that through visual art and writing we can show both the beauty of nature and its malice. The dramatic scene of a vast landscape suddenly being overtaken by storm clouds, or a viscous storm out to sea witnessed from the relative safety of the shore. Nature is a marvelous and overpowering subject that I never tire to attempt to record.

On Mysticism, Symbolism & Alchemy

On Mysticism, Symbolism & Alchemy

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A Conversation with Artist TACO SIPMA

I create paintings as if they were relics of a cult, fragments of a conspiracy, or apocryphal extensions of a religion. I grew up in Bergen op Zoom, a small town in the south of the Netherlands with little to no opportunities in the arts. From a young age, I realized that if I wanted to pursue something creative, I would have to move to a place with richer cultural ground. Growing up in a town with such limited possibilities taught me self-sufficiency. The drawback of having no facilities to rely on is that you must create them yourself. But the advantage is that, in doing so, you can shape them to fit your own needs.

Painting, Abstraction & the Search for Loss

Painting, Abstraction & the Search for Loss

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A Conversation with Artist GIULIO ZANET

Art and the creative process connects me to a constant search for loss—a deliberate relinquishment of control, a surrender and indulgence of one's deepest nature. Each layer, each mark, is a step in this creative disorientation that always leads to something unpredictable and authentic. For me, painting is a continuous investigation of representation, or rather, its absence. My painting explores how an image can exist without explicitly representing something, becoming a mirror for the projections, sensations, and thoughts of the viewer.

The Interconnected Systems of Life & Art

The Interconnected Systems of Life & Art

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A Conversation with Artist ILSA BRITTAIN

Everything operates as an interconnected system. This has made me curious about what is beneath the level of culture, morals, and acceptable behaviour—what is fundamental to the human experience, what unifies us all.

The Art of Resistance, Power & Emancipation

The Art of Resistance, Power & Emancipation

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A Conversation with Artist AMIRHOSSEIN BAYANI

Art, Architecture & Fairy Tales

Art, Architecture & Fairy Tales

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A Conversation with Artist MARYLIA FOTIADOU

The arts are our breath, our oxygen—the vital force that nourishes both mind and spirit, helping us find balance in this often hostile and unforgiving world. I don’t remember the first time I picked up a pencil or brush—I feel as if I have always been painting. It has been my way of making sense of the world around me, of experiencing it and absorbing it, or, at times, of escaping reality and getting lost in my own stories. I have never considered myself an artist, nor have I ever sought to be one—I simply love to paint. I think that all of us are artists.

Classical Portraits & the Unguarded Gaze

Classical Portraits & the Unguarded Gaze

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A Conversation with Artist MONIKA IZDEBSKA

I was born and raised in a small city in Poland. There wasn’t much to do—grey apartment blocks, the first decade of Polish capitalism, a sense of confusion as people adjusted to their newly gained freedom. But as a child, I didn’t notice any of that. Sometimes I wonder: if I had been born in Spain, would I have ever started painting? Would I have spent my weekends working, or simply enjoying a happy, easy life with vermut and aperitivo among friends? I believe my circumstances shaped my ambition. They created a kind of inner drive—a force that pushed me to paint, even when it required effort, discipline, and persistence.

Between Order & Disruption

Between Order & Disruption

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A Conversation with Artist MARIO ABELA

Art opened up another dimension—it gave me a way to say things without sounding them, to express doubt, longing, or contradiction in a visual form. That realization made me understand that being an artist wasn’t just something I wanted to do, but something I needed in order to exist fully.

The Weight of Memory

The Weight of Memory

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A Conversation with Artist VICTOR WANG

Art is my faith and belief. I practice art for my soul. I was born in a small city in Northeast China. It had a big impact on my life and influenced my work immensely. In my work, almost all the concepts come from the experiences of the Cultural Revolution, and how political and environmental situations could change human lifestyles and living conditions.

The Poetics of Memory & Migration

The Poetics of Memory & Migration

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A Conversation with Artist FARZAD KOHAN

The only true way to see the world is from within, because that’s where everything begins and unfolds. Our inner world shapes how we perceive and create. I’m genuinely excited about the potential of AI and what it can bring to art and life, but I also believe balance is essential. Technology can expand our vision, but it shouldn’t replace lived experience. Finding a harmony between AI and real, human presence could lead to a richer, more connected way of being, where innovation and authenticity move together.

The Garden of Forking Paths

The Garden of Forking Paths

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A Conversation with Artist DANNIELLE HODSON 

I’m often asked why I don’t do less, why do I do so much—there aren’t many examples of doing more. The more complex things become in real life the more one might strive for simplicity but I feel the opposite to that, I want to welcome it all and hold it because complexity is the life I know and understand. I’m a working mum of two children, if I’m not doing at least 3 things at once shit won’t get done. I titled one painting, If Everything, Nothing, which might feel pejorative but for me it's wonderful, to be so full that no one thing has the power, everything is equal, connected and no less or more important than the whole or Gestalt.

Mapping Memory & Music in the Deep South

Mapping Memory & Music in the Deep South

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A Conversation with Artist ROBBIE AUSTIN

I’m a Louisiana kid, born and raised in a place where the air is thick and the stories are thicker. You grow up learning to read people, weather, and rooms — sometimes all at once. Down here, ordinary people are never truly ordinary, and beauty and tension live side-by-side, whether you notice it or not. That upbringing taught me to see the world sideways, to pay attention to what’s said without being spoken, and to inhabit the in-between space — the place you only understand if you were raised somewhere that never stops shaping you. My work comes from that mindset: finding meaning in the mess, translating experience into something honest, and leaning into the contradictions that formed me.

Navigating Identity in a Post-Soviet World

Navigating Identity in a Post-Soviet World

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A Conversation with Artist SAMIR RAKHMANOV

For me, the importance of art lies in its ability to convey experience and that mysterious thing called life through the lens of the individual creating it. It is one of the rare ways we can exercise empathy to its fullest by accepting another’s vision and responding to it. I also believe that art requires skill and discipline, sharpened through constant practice, to communicate that experience with true strength and clarity.

Freedom on the Page

Freedom on the Page

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A Conversation with Artist AXEL PAHLAVI

People often react quite intensely to my work, ranging from great interest to absolute hatred.