Mélange - About the Artists
Ioana Andrei
Ioana Andrei is a final year MA student at the University of Arts and Design Cluj-Napoca, arts and textile design department. Born on April 9, 1998, in Bacau, Romania, she presented from an early age an inclination towards the exact sciences that was combined with creativity and passion for the visual world. Being fascinated by the human component and the way it works on a physical, mental and analytical level, Ioana initially wanted to be a doctor. However, she came to direct her knowledge and talent to the artistic side while still interested in everything human and humanity.
Ioana's starting point was in the textile arts (mainly natural materials, satin or taffeta). She wants to attract the viewer to the scientific research of the human body and increase the spectators' curiosity towards this field. At the same time, she enjoys painting, having an inclination towards the abstract. This helps in researching and documenting the reactions and interactions of the viewer.
These exhibited works were done by pouring technique on watercolour support. Tempera and aracet (wallpaper paste) are used in the pouring mixture and cooking oil in some places. Some works also contain colour paste applied with the help of brushes of different sizes, scrapers or painting knives.
Website: www.behance.net/ioanaandrei2 Instagram: @textile_by_luna
Nero Cosmos
Nero Cosmos is a conceptual artist based in Zurich, Switzerland. He experiments with artificial intelligence, creating images and videos that are in a constant state of metamorphosis, focusing on ideas of perception and transformation using machine learning techniques. His work allows him to explore the reciprocal relationship between humans and machines, and how consciousness changes in the digital space and affects daily life, inviting the viewer to see the world through the eyes of a machine. Due to the training of the AI model, the artist loses control temporarily as the algorithm takes over the process. The machine and the artist are intentionally forced to collaborate in a new mode and exist in constant symbiosis.
Nero Cosmos is a studio member of playform.io. He is the editor and curator of the digital magazine bubmag.com and the creative director at Soulengineer. He has exhibited his work in Switzerland and Europe. He graduated in design technology from the ZHdK.
Website: nerocosmos.com Instagram: @nerocosmos
Samira Debbah
Artist painter and sculptor.
Samira Debbah's work is the interpretation of everything she is, what she connects with the most in life, especially her sentimental side. She likes to create art which gives the viewers the possibility to create a debate between them and the work. She doesn't limit herself to just one style or concept. She likes to play with shapes and nuances to create unique combinations.
Website: sdebbah.com/painting
Terry Dugger
Terry Dugger is an artist residing in Waco, TX. Her painterly, whimsical paintings are inspired by her love for nature and flowers. She finds herself moving in and out of abstraction and back to figurative florals. She has taken acrylic painting classes and studied on her own. She is inspired by Henri Matisse and Claude Monet. Her desire is to bring out the joyful and whimsical aspects of nature in her florals.
Instagram: @terrylynnbythesea
Ilze Egle
Ilze Egle is a visual artist based in Latvia. In her paintings and drawings she captures beauty and fragility of nature, relationships, and life.
Born into a family of artists – a ceramic artist and a sculptor – I've drawn and painted since I was a young child. With my art, I capture moments and details, which show the fragility of the world. I wish to tell a story, asking the observer to stop and appreciate nature, relationships, and life. To the unhurried observer, the more detailed, intricate levels of my work are revealed, which brings it to a whole new level. By exploring details, I seek to reveal the universe in a small fragment. My art comes from where I find myself emotionally. I believe that art has the potential to make a huge difference in this world, and I feel blessed to be a part of it. I am currently working on series of portraits, seeking to uncover the layers of human emotions and power of soul.
Website: www.ilzeegle.com Instagram: @ilzeegleart
Olivia Fortier
Sculptor of Paper
Multi faceted imaginary stones, these collages are made of hundreds of bits of printed images, a sort of poetic recycling, reusing this abundance of printed ads which drown us. I work as an image collector would, going through the pages of magazines; I like to let my eyes glide along the pages to extract each image from its meaning, to keep only the shapes, the lines, the colors. Molded like paper sculptures, these paper minerals are captured between two translucent blocks, a precious casket which opposes the fragility of paper to mineral brutality.
Instagram: @_olivia_fortier
Emma Hayes
I am a visual artist, primarily a painter, working in my studio in Dunboyne, Co Meath. I have work in public and private collections including the Office of Public Works and Facebook Air Program and have shown in various exhibitions around Ireland. My work is informed by my internalised experiences, childhood memories and immediate surroundings. Through collage, paint and installation, I am interested in the process of making a picture.
Website: www.emmahayesart.com Instagram: @__emma_hayes__
Nora Lebbos
My name is Nora Lebbos, artist name - Nor - I'm a Franco-Lebanese narrative and visual artist. My visual creations are like stories in abstract, surreal, or brut art. The Neodes are the first series I created. They are all around the same size, in the same cotton fabric cut by hand, each unique. They are like spaceships that offer an imprint of a feeling, an emotion, a vibration. An other dimension captured at one moment.
Website: www.noralebbos.com Instagram : @nora_lbs
Vilma Leino
I am a Finnish born, Berlin based photographer, using self-portraiture as my main medium. In my work, I create fictional female characters to reflect inner emotions, solitude, memories and personal experiences. My work experiments with strong compositions, quirky color schemes and human body, creating worlds where beauty balances with horror and where being in control and the fear of losing it are in a constant dialogue, forming a story about personal growth and overcoming fears.
Website: www.vilmaleino.com Instagram: @vauhtivilma
Serge Levchenko
I am a multitask visual artist. Experienced in many ways, I do my creation in several fields : art direction, fashion styling, hair & make-up, photography. I was born in Kerch, AR Crimea, but for the last 7 years I've been based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Also, I am the founder of ".S.L." fashion & beauty production. #slfbp
Website: www.sergelevchenko.com
Lawrence Meju
Lawrence Meju is a visual artist currently based in Lagos, Nigeria. His work is inspired by his fascination with abstraction, his interest in exploring his own life experiences, and his hunger to create surreal landscapes and mindscapes.
He uses textured paper, upcycled paper, and paints to create intricately detailed pieces.
He is constantly experimenting with techniques and materials to introduce another dimension to his works, challenging art’s unspoken rules by testing what would happen if some lines were blurred. His work explores conversations satirizing some narratives, social profiling, and also creating unimagined worlds.
His conception, “Extranormal portraits” is a playful approach to portraiture. He is breaking the boundaries of portraiture, breaking the world down into its simplest purest forms creating his own subjects while at it. Elevating the mundane – the purity in simple forms.
He is digging deeper with his art, even more in sync with his inner child, and looks to experience the world in a way that is not preconceived. Something indicative of his style is his ability to explore the mindscapes and create unimagined worlds – people and built forms. His art remains a natural impulse and a way for him to evoke introspection and essentially inspire authenticity.
Instagram: @lawrence_koby Twitter: @koby_kolly
Hashon Milton
I'm an artist and business owner from New York City who composes bizarre arrangements of humans and objects from life to create surrealist paintings that break the barriers of reality. I use acrylic and oil paint to create my dream-like scenes and unimaginable worlds. I take inspiration from the world around me to use my art to interpret unique concepts such as manifestation, growth, astrology, and the passage of time.
Website: creationsbyhashon.wixsite.com/onlinegallery Instagram: @creationsbyhashon
Celeste Palacios
Celeste Palacios was born in Argentina. She is a painter and illustrator who lives and works in Germany.
She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Córdoba, Argentina, in 2004 and has exhibited her paintings in solo and group exhibitions for over eighteen years at home and abroad.
In her paintings, she explores the connection between colours and geometric shapes, with emotions, experiences, and memories.
Website: www.celestepalacios.de Instagram: @celeste_palacios_art
Rebeka Petrovčič
Rebeka Petrovčič is a Slovenian artist working in the fields of fine art and illustration. She was born in 1994, Postojna (SLO) and graduated in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. Using a variety of media, she strives to maintain the presence of transformation and symbolic meaning throughout her creative process.
Artist Statement:
The main source of my inspiration are the wonders of nature, the occult and world of metaphors, kept in our collective memory. The predominant characteristic of my work is the constant presence of transformation and synthesis of human and animal forms, giving my paintings a touch of other dimensions. The figures in my paintings are stripped, exposed and presented as vulnerable. With their penetrating eyes, they tell the story of their birth, their individuality and presence in a world only they know. Through the symbolism of color and the construction of figural elements, I try to discover uncontrolled primary feelings that did not develop during human growth, but are anchored deep in his consciousness.
Instagram: @reluna.artstudio
Michelle Phillips
Michelle Phillips is an MFA candidate at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.
She is a visual artist, health practitioner, and teacher human with a passion for learning and a love of science, nature, and life. A deep commitment to her peripatetic practice and the art of communication and connectivity into the worlds within worlds. Michelle enjoys the beauty held within life & everyday objects, and the joy that can be harvested out of the most difficult of her life travels. She works over a vast terrain of substrates. She seeks out being part of diverse storylines, tying into the community of others, and being in the mediumship with her mediums as a multidisciplinary maker.
Website: www.sbpart113.com Instagram: @sbp.art.113
Natasha Volk
Photographer from Ukraine, Kyiv.
Certified European photographer based in Kyiv (Ukraine) and available worldwide.
Expertise: fashion & beauty, creative product photography, including jewelry.
Founder of Modern Photo School, founder Post-production service agency PRO-POST .
Winner of the leading industry contests: International Photography Awards, Fine Art Photography Awards, EUROPEAN FASHION DISTINCTION AWORD; London International Creative Competition.
Publications in acclaimed international magazines, such as Vogue, Esquire, Forbes, Schön! and many others.
Website: www.natashavolk.com Instagram: @_natashavolk_
Michael Wagner
Born in Heidelberg in 1953. During the course of my social work studies at Mannheim University, I used every free minute for artistic studies so that I could concentrate entirely on the fine arts after completing my degree. From 1981 I lived in Heidelberg as a freelance painter and graphic artist (self-taught). Today I work with a variety of visual media and use it to create my extensive artistic universe, favoring color as a wonderful medium, as a sonorous language.
Artist statement:
Works of art reflect the world. My works are also mirror images of today. However, it is not a reflection of the external appearance, not an abstraction of the mimetic world, but a reflection of the inner constitution. My works arise from sensations. They reflect the sense of time, so to speak, and represent ciphers for today. Thinking and feeling, geometry and color - between these poles I explore my artistic possibilities, although with all seriousness playful and poetic components are always involved. In this way I develop a visual world that has its roots in the strictness of the constructive and concrete, but at the same time is also based on individuality and spontaneous intuition.