Ivana Bukovac is a contemporary visual artist and figurative painter known for her evocative works that delicately explore themes of identity, memory, and the inner self. Born in Serbia and now based in Italy, her journey reflects a beautiful blend of cultural influences. After completing her artistic studies in Serbia, she moved to Venice to attend the Accademia di Belle Arti, where her passion for painting deepened, steering her toward a distinctive narrative style that interweaves personal memory with symbolic, surreal representation.

Patricia Schappler creates psychologically complex oil paintings, along with graphite and mixed media drawings. Influenced by Baroque attention to light and form, and Eastern love of pattern, Schappler focuses on the human condition with themes of adolescence, motherhood, and the intimacy of partnerships. Native to New Hampshire, Schappler’s expressive narratives focus on body language and reflect her interest in family through the rituals of home…’across the world our environments from our wall hangings, to the flooring beneath us, to the colors and patterns we wear, become our objects of hope, central to our sense of self, home, and community.’ Through literary nods to biblical, mythical, and personal story, she offers the portrait as an invitation to connected experience.

Elena Degenhardt is a contemporary German figurative artist celebrated for her deeply evocative pastel artworks. Known primarily for her immersive waterscapes, underwater figurative compositions, and emotionally charged narrative portraits, she often emphasizes that she doesn’t merely paint a scene, but rather a feeling. This approach transforms her canvases into spaces where viewers can experience vulnerability, resilience, and a profound sense of belonging—all conveyed through her mastery of pastel techniques.

Susan Grace is a contemporary figurative painter whose work explores the intricate interplay between representation and abstraction. Her paintings often blur the lines between literal portraiture and layered, transformative imagery. Employing techniques like fragmentation, layering, and the innovative use of both geometric and organic forms, her work captures figures in a state of evolving drama—inviting viewers to interpret each layer of meaning as a hint toward the subject’s ongoing transformation.

Francisco Toledo was a renowned Mexican painter, sculptor, and graphic artist. He was deeply connected to his Zapotec heritage and became one of Mexico’s most influential contemporary artists1. His work often featured themes of nature, mythology, and indigenous culture, blending surrealism with traditional Mexican motifs.

Paulina Aubey’s LEGO portraits ingeniously merge popular form with popular content in order to question our relationship to celebrity. Having begun her artistic career working with pastels, Aubey’s passion for pop culture inspired her to try her hand with a more popular medium: LEGO bricks. She has elevated this unusual medium to the status of fine art, creating expressive portrayals of contemporary icons and the idols of her 1980s childhood. Her portraits of religious figures, movie characters, and pop stars—including David Bowie and Marilyn Monroe—blur the distinction between figurative and abstract art. They appear highly detailed from a distance and become pixelated upon closer inspection; this viewing experience prompts audiences to reflect on how much we can ever truly understand our idols. In order to create her portraits, Aubey chooses a digital image of her subject and manipulates it to create the desired expression and color scheme before selecting appropriate blocks of LEGO to build the work.

Born in America and based in Sydney since 2012, Kim Leutwyler works across painting, installation, ceramics, printmedia, and drawing. Leutwyler holds dual bachelor degrees in Studio Art and Art History from Arizona State University, and additionally graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a Painting and Drawing degree.

Pippa Hale-Lynch is a contemporary visual artist known for her work in figurative realism. She primarily uses oils, charcoal, and digital drawings to create her art. Her artworks often depict figures and plants suspended in water, capturing moments of beauty and solitude.

Hayam Elsayed has been passionate about fine art from a young age. She finds great joy in creating her paintings, often drawing inspiration from life and nature. While she appreciates various art styles, realism remains her favorite. As a realism artist, her approach to subject matter is to depict it as it truly appears in life. However, she also admires other styles, such as impressionism and abstract art. For instance, Vincent Van Gogh is among her favorite artists whose work reflects these styles. Hayam also draws inspiration from American artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, known for her iconic flower paintings, and Thomas Kinkade, celebrated for his realism. Additionally, she has developed a fascination with the realism of Renaissance portraits by masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. Michelangelo, in particular, inspires her with his skillful use of light to dramatically emphasize specific points in his compositions.

Jeff Mathison has always been an artist. Raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, He graduated from Penn State in 1972 with a BFA degree. He so enjoyed the combination of town culture and woodsy countryside, that he never left Centre County, Pa.

Leigh Brooklyn was born outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Brooklyn enrolled into the Columbus College of Art and Design. Later she transferred to The Cleveland Institute of Art after being inspired by the work of forensic artists who helped in a missing-person’s case. There she earned her degree in Biomedical Illustration. Brooklyn worked with several hospitals, museums, and research facilities including the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, The Cleveland Botanical Gardens, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Case Western Reserve University.

Angelika Weinekötter’s oil paintings explore the profound relationship between humans and animals. Her series "Dialogue of Species" highlights the emotional connection and mutual perception between these worlds, urging reflection on ethical and emotional ties to the animal kingdom.

Best known for her neo-medieval "magic realist" paintings dealing with courtesans, organ grinder monkeys, Moors and vanished landscapes, Kei J. Constantinov's work may be likened to historical fiction excerpts: gilded vignettes of a European dreamtime featuring Venice.

Graziella Mura is an Italian artist who expresses herself in her works in a surreal figurative context with the oil color technique. An enchanted but far from static atmosphere reigns in her works; the eyes of the subjects in fact seem to be the predominant elements in wanting to communicate the inner sky: the conscience, the soul, the deepest self. In these spaces of colors there is the strength of spirituality welcomed and experienced during meditation exercises, and accentuated in the markedly sensitive character of the artist. He has presented some personal exhibitions, participated in exhibitions in Italy and abroad, some works are part of American collections and recently other paintings are part of the "Lunar Codex" project founded by Dr Samuel Peralta in collaboration with NASA and Space X.

Gayle Madeira is a contemporary NYC-based artist working in realism mainly using oils, gold and silver leaf, charcoal, and pencil, and occasionally incorporating surrealistic elements. Her paintings are in multiple genres - portraits, figurative, landscape (plein air and studio), and still life, and are often combined. Some of her favorite themes are the interaction of figures in environments, the play of light and shadow on objects and landscapes, and the investigation into the 3D qualities of oil being the “world’s thinnest sculpture”.

Aki Kano is a New York-based representational watercolor painter and instructor.  She received her BFA from the University of Michigan's School of Art and later following her passion for fashion design, attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC and worked as a fashion and handbag designer for over 15 years.