EMERGING ARTISTS
Lidia Masllorens
SPANISH, B. 1967
Lídia Masllorens’ aim is to create the archetypal, contemporary portrait. Her large, confrontational works radiate a strong presence and demand attention. They exude dynamism and a remarkable vitality, remarkable in part because these works are made on paper, using a subtractive technique, rather than additive. The portraits are painted with black acrylic, which is then removed and washed with a mixture of water and bleach. This technique allows for the beautiful colour palette that sets her work apart; with shades from pink to white and from black to grey. Lídia’s strokes are sharp and quick, which causes many losses and failures when paired with the destructive nature of bleach and the unpredictable behaviour of water.
Rubén Martín de Lucas
SPANISH, B. 1977
In January 2015, he began his solo career developing a body of work whose focus is “landscape and associated behaviour ¨. Studying subjects such as the progressive reduction of space for wildlife, overpopulation on a limited planet, the artificial nature of borders, the liquid nature of the concept of nation or the dichotomy between industrial agriculture and natural agriculture.
Projects that make up a committed and critical discourse that encourages us to reconsider our relationship with the territory.
Viani
ITALIAN/SPANISH, B. 1982
Viani is a Spanish/Italian artist raised in Venezuela, Viani fled the country ravaged by political crisis, and settled in Barcelona, Spain in 2002. Spain allowed him unlimited autonomy of expression through painting. Viani’s art is a loud scream of freedom and liberating gestures. “Art is the tool that frees me from political ideologies.” It unleashes in him profound sentiments of freedom and happiness. His work is deeply emotional, with every brushstroke expressing a love-anger dichotomy. These two binary opposites are revealed and beautifully reconciled by his striking choice of colour: black and white. His thick outrenoir brushstrokes characterise his paintings.
Iván Montaña
SPANISH, B. 1975
Born into a multifaceted family where culture and art have always been present through literature, music, sculpture, painting and fashion.
He studied at ELISAVA, School of Design and Engineering in Barcelona. At the age of 21 he made his first performance, “Conformist without Reflection”, and his first solo exhibi- tion at the age of 23, “The Spanish Sun”, in 1998, since then he has not stopped exhibiting all over the world.
Rune Elmegaard
DANISH, B. 1980
Rune Elmegaard is an artist and furniture designer. When he started his career as a creator, his works were wild and expressionist, but nowadays he wants to establish his very own and unique style, through a meditated motif that is inspired by the clean and simple Danish design tradition. He says “I find inspiration on my way and through a long creative life, I have stored many different shapes and colours in my memory. My DNA consists of creativity, and I have a mind that never stops for new ideas”.
Max Patté
BRITISH, B. 1977
Max Patté’s practice is, in essence, an exploration of the infinite qualities of light and how it expresses itself in the natural world that manifests itself in physical works in the studio using the technologies available to him. Advances in modern technologies are a constant source of inspiration for the production of Patté’s work. The latest advances in a range of software, iPad apps, CNC milling, digital scanning and 3D printing are employed daily in his studio.
Light, colour, tone, saturation and warmth have a direct effect on our moods, changing our emotions as much as our surroundings. Through the use of colour and light, Patté’s practice, which encompasses works of light, painting and sculpture, strives to emit the same effect. Patté aims to change the space in which the work is viewed and alter the viewer’s relationship to that space. In the same way that our immediate natural environment provokes a physiological change, Patté aims to produce works that offer a multi-sensory experience that provokes an emotional response.
Andrea Torres Balaguer
SPANISH, B. 1990
Andrea Torres creates pictures that suggest stories and invites the spectator to interpret them. She is searching and experimenting with the boundaries between reality and fiction. Inspired by references to psychoanalysis theory and magic realism, her pictures experiment with the conscious subconscious.
Adam David Taylor
BRITISH, B. 1979
Adam Taylor studied Fine Art at Cardiff School of Art, graduating in 2004. He relocated to Pembrokeshire in 2012 and his paintings are largely influenced by the coastal, rugged landscapes that surround him.
Adam’s latest body of work focusses on water, rural landscapes and where the land meets the sea. It is a reaction to the West Wales coastline.
He works mainly in oils, but uses enamel paint and various textures at the the start of the painting process, which produces a raw and layered final work.
Elena Gual
SPANISH, B. 1994
Elena Gual was trained as a classic painter at the Florence Academy of Art, followed by prestigious courses at Central Saint Martin’s and the Royal Academy in London. Even though Elena is based in London, she still spends lots of time in Mallorca, where she has also set up a studio. The studio, based in the Balearic Islands, connects her with her Mediterranean roots, which are strongly implied in the light and colours of her paintings. From a charcoal drawing, to thick and expressive strokes on canvas, applied with a palette knife. Elena finds a strong inspiration in the female figures she comes across while traveling around the world. Driven to highlight the unique and natural beauty of the female body and culture, she creates vivid portraits of very diverse women.
Toni Garau
SPANISH, B. 1974
Toni Garau a well-known artist from Sóller who raised the awareness of the textile industry of his town and the revolution that it implied. With his art he wants to honor a whole generation of workers (women and men) that, with their effort and dedication, made the town of Sóller a thriving city filled with hopes. Garau’s work breathes life into a material that was dead.
Miguel Caravaca
SPANISH, B. 1979
Miguel Caravaca represents realities that arise from his reflections thanks to the observation and study of the human body, and especially, focusing on the face and its expressions as a mirror of the human soul. His final objective is to share with the public this projection of his inner world and invite the viewer to start his/her own reflection process using a highly studied aesthetic – where color and form are the main transmitters of this close and universal language.
The artist’s aesthetic references are abstract geometry, especially cubism – which inspires the use of the line, and the importance of pigment and composition – but also urban art, which makes him feel comfortable with the large formats and the materials he uses such as acrylic and markers of enamel.
Isabelle Scheltjens
BELGIAN, B. 1981
Isabelle Scheltjens had been interested in art since she was young. She studied at SISA, the Antwerp City Institute for Decorative Arts and Crafts. The magnificent glass design of her husband Dirk Neefs inspired Isabelle to work with the same material. It took years of intense practicing and juxtaposing countless of pieces of coloured glass to refine her method and truly master the colour theory. She developed a unique glass-fusing technique, whereby pieces of glass in different colours, sizes and textures are melted together at approximately 800°C. The colourful pieces of glass are like the dots of paint used by the pointillists: forming an abstract image up close, yet a dramatic and precise portrait from a distance. Isabelle achieves striking optical effects with her technique: she captures the dance of light and colour in a way that a photograph transforms it into a black & white or sometimes a colourful portrait – the fascinating result of a process that relies on the perceptive ability of the eye and mind of the viewer.
Sepideh Ilsley
PERSIAN, B. 1980
Sepideh Ilsley is a self-taught contemporary artist, inspired by simplicity and imperfection. She is Persian, born in 1980 in Shiraz, Iran, but grew up in Sweden. After spending a number of years travelling and living all over the world she is now based with her family in Noosa, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. Creativity and art has always been a part of her life. She loves working with Imperfections and always goes where the painting and brush take her, making bold sculptural shapes, changing, re-layering, re-making, re-working. Often it is that misstep that makes the entire piece come together, as if the painting has its own will.
Alberto Murillo
SPANISH,1974
Alberto Murillo is a self-taught painter, who began his career as an interior designer. His works consist in big color fields made with vibrant colors, that are greatly inspired by his homeland, Spain, and Latin America, because of their idyllic landscapes and vibrant cities. He identifies with Abstract Expressionism, and even though his motifs have changed over time, his technique always stayed consistent. Murillo pours acrylic or a polymer emulsion onto board, and then manipulates it, he says that “they are liquid skins that can be pulled, pushed”. Finally, he covers the work with a resin coating. The artists’ earlier works were mostly abstract, but in his more recent works he also includes icons and products of consumer culture.
Manuela Karin Knaut
GERMAN, B. 1970
Manuela Karin Knaut’s painterly work reflects the enthusiasm of the artist for travel, the discovery of new terrain and the inevitable leaving of her own comfort zone. The often harsh reality on the streets of Johannesburg, the to German eyes unexpectedly chaotic and disorderly-seeming life in the townships, the colourful variety in the narrow alleys of Accra, the unvarnished, broken walls, the graffiti of the street artists of Brooklyn, the uninhibited, real life and action in the most diverse corners of the world: it is the brokenness, the charmingly imperfect, the frequently temporary-seeming that fascinates Manuela Karin Knaut, and which she imbues into her pictorial language and the primary idea of her location-specific and large format installations.
Marú Quiñonero
SPANISH, B. 1979
Quiñonero works with color palettes that help visualize emotions. Each color is attributed to a particular feeling or mood such as strength, madness, vulnerability, passion, struggle, pathos, greatness or wealth. The fullness of the meaning behind the colors layered with the emptiness of the background create a conversation between the contrasting elements. The soft, dry texture of the canvas is a clean and vast support that welcomes the shapes and colors that come from the artist’s mind. Through her investigation of palette and the emotion it pairs with, Quiñonero has come up with her most personal work so far.
Brigitta Both
HUNGARIAN, B. 1978
Brigitta Both is a Barcelona-based visual artist working across various different media. Aside from paintings, she creates collages, photography and video art. In 2021 she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
After successfully overcoming her illness she continued working in her Barcelona based studio. Interested in and inspired by psychology, her works deal with extreme life experiences, complexities of one’s identity and connections between human beings.
She moved to Oxford, UK from Budapest, Hungary in 2007 and since 2015 she has been living and working in Barcelona, Spain. In 2017 she was awarded the “BBVA de Pintura Ricard Camí” award.
“Her works are profound pieces with a powerful psychological component that fuse the figurative and abstract worlds” – Antigues Caixes Catalanes Foundation.
Noemi Carpu
SPANISH
Noemi Carpu, a visionary Spanish artist, who has established herself in the vibrant city of Río de Janeiro, where she blends the essence of the Mediterranean with the vibrancy of Brazil in her unique artistic style. Carpu’s art explores the complexities of femininity and challenges traditional gender roles and definitions. She questions whether being a woman is universally defined or shaped by cultural diversity, urging us to reconsider societal expectations. Through her art, Carpu aims to liberate women from external definitions and encourage self-affirmation and personal identity. She also challenges gender norms and advocates for inclusion and dialogue about diverse gender identities, recognizing transgender women as women. A key aspect of her art is the connection with Mother Earth, symbolizing femininity, using natural materials to represent sensitivity and identity. By utilizing natural materials, Carpu adds authenticity, sensory richness, and a sense of calmness and beauty to her artworks. Her approach prioritizes simplicity and elegance, emphasizing the pure and romantic essence of the materials.
Stefan Heyne
GERMAN, B. 1970
Heyne is a practitioner of a new approach to photographic abstraction in Germany. With his usually large-format works, Heyne departs from traditional photographic conventions. There exists neither an interpretable object nor a contour on which the in-focus or the out-of-focus can be fixed. Insofar as these parameters do not become the subject matter of the image, the motifs – evade our routines of perception. Heyne's works play with the bewildering aspect of the apparent and in this way they explore the conditions in which photography is perceived.[2] Therefore, they can also be seen as a powerful contribution to the current discussion of the philosophical concept of a new realism.
Antonio Ballester Moreno
SPANISH, B. 1977
Antonio Ballester Moreno is based on an abstraction that forges symbols out of basic geometric shapes. Moons, suns, rain and stars are used to represent a life cycle with lines and strokes reminiscent of early avant-garde artists like Paul Klee, Joan Miró and Josef Albers.
Giordan Rubio
FRENCH, B. 1998
Giordan Rubio practice is to explore the links of influence and temporality on the evolution of dreaming as a function of the Other, institutions and media. What he refers to as the dream is a metaphor representing childhood innocence that embodies idealistic and free-choice perspectives.
In his work, he creates forms that oppose or add to each other with the help of repetitions, color combos or materials with opposing physical properties to highlight the causality of external factors on freedoms. He transcribes his own experience of the social fracture linked to his medical studies, where fulfilment seemed inaccessible. Rubio translates the information absorbed from his daily consumption of conversations, advertising slogans, books, and his own diary into graphic and pictorial compositions.
Anna Sophia Rydgren
SWEDISH,1972
Anna Sophia Rydgren is a minimalistic visual artist that has a studio near Stockholm called Ary Art. Her love for drawing and painting started at a very early age, as she grew up in a home where her creativity was enforced by painting, using clay, or modifying textiles. She was influenced by her grandmother, who made oil paintings and collages with fabric, and by the Scandinavian minimalistic design, to create her own artistic expression.
Her inspiration comes from nature, such as bodies, faces or organic forms, that she conveys in her works, by making simple structures, with monochromatic colour palettes and pastel tones. Often her works are the result of an intuitive flowing of emotions, that pretend to give the viewer a sensation of calm and harmony.
François Bonnel
FRENCH, 1968
In 2018, the artist decided to devote himself full time to his passion for painting and photography. François Bonnel explores various fields and techniques of art. He exploits digital media, photography and collage techniques, freeing himself from known references to give free rein to his creation. Alone in front of the canvas, the artist defines the limits and the message to transmit
Maria De Haan
SPANISH
London ceramicist Maria De Haan, is half Spanish and half English. She was raised in the UK and moved to the mountain Village of Deià in Mallorca in 2015. After discovering her love of clay in London in 2005, she pursued her passion and quickly followed with a ceramics diploma in London, apprenticeships, tuition under renowned potter Simon Leach, and also a 2 year residency under Mike Goddard on the tiny island of Bequia in the West indies. With growing success and confidence, Maria then returned to set up her own studio in Mallorca.
Her work has been heavily influenced by her travels, mostly by the Japanese aesthetic of the “wabi-sabi”, which is based on asymmetry, irregularity, simplicity and modesty. She also finds inspiration in nature, such as rock textures and the sea.
Ana Monsó
SPANISH, B. 1998
Ana studied Art and Design at Cambridge and shortly after Fashion Design at the University of the Arts London, but she is largely self-taught. In 2021 she had her first solo exhibition at Pigment Gallery, which presented her for Art Nou as an emerging artist. During that year and the following her works have been exhibited at several art fairs in Europe. On July 2022, she presented her second solo exhibition ‘An Ode to Childhood’ by the hand of Pigment Gallery, LabArt Studio and Art Nou.
She is currently one of the resident artists at Piramidón Contemporary Art.
Despite the clear youth of Ana Monsó, Ana defines herself as an emerging multidisciplinary artist whose practice conveys a spontaneous and emotional spirit, drawing inspiration from her childhood memories.
Christopher Griffith
CANADIAN
Christopher Griffith (Cg) Is A Canadian Born Artist Who Previously Worked Internationally In The Photography World For 25 Years. Originally Trained As A Research Biochemist, Griffith Left A Ph.D Program 3 Months Prior To Its Completion At University College London To Pursue Fashion Photography In The Late 1990’S In London, Paris And Milan. With Early Commissions At Vogue Paris, Glamour And Arena Magazines, Followed By Campaigns For Trussardi, Issey Miyake And A Long Stand Relationship With Etro, Griffith Seemed Destine To Work Solely In The Fashion Industry.
After 10 Years Abroad, He Relocated To New York City And Embarked On Two Trans-American Rv Road Trips That Resulted In His First Monograph States (Powerhouse Books, 2001). The Book Completely Shifted Griffith’S Career To Commercial Advertising Campaigns Across The Globe With Clients That Have Included British Airways, Delta Airlines, Mini, Acura, Maserati, Toyota, Ibm And Verizon. He Has Since Published Three Other Monographs Fall (2004) On Autumn Foliage, Blown (2009) An Abstract Study On Blown Out Tires And Shine (2015) A Project Commissioned By The Ny Times Magazine On The Hands A Shoe Shiners In New York City.
Max Cobalto
SPANISH
Max Cobalto is a conceptual project by a well-known Spanish artist who has created a pictorial alter ego with his own voice, style and identity. The project will last for 10 years, at which time the artist’s identity will be made public, as well as all the psychological and artistic implications generated by the creative dual work over a decade.
Sol Felpeto
VENEZUELAN, B. 1990
Sol Felpeto spent her childhood and adolescence between Buenos Aires and Madrid while sporadically living in other countries with her family. In Argentina she began her studies in veterinary medicine school but after three years she decided to follow her creative rush and at the age of 21 she moved for good to Spain and studied Fashion and Creative Direction at European Institute of Design (IED). Those four years of creative studies led to develop herself as an illustrator and painter within her own style a mixture of art, fashion, humor and animals. She graduated in June 2016 and immediately participated in her first exhibition with other artists of the new generation.
Taron Marukyan
ARMENIAN, 1989
The 2023 works reflect Taron’s attitude of life and of painting ‘less is more’. In times of overload of visual impressions he is sending the viewer on a journey of discovery across the canvas surface and structured textures.His Zen inspired ethos is having infinite respect for all things past; infinite service to all things present; infinite responsibility for all things future. Through minimalistic and timeless approach based on strong conceptual thinking he aims to create an impact in the conscious realm. A lifelong challenge to create something new.
Owen Wiese
SOUTH AFRICAN
Owen J Wiese is a formally trained medical doctor and former television presenter. He is currently undergoing the path of chemical pathology. He started creating art as an answer to a never-ending conflict between his dreaming character and his analytical thinking.
He says: “I create art not for the fun of it, but because of the oxygen it provides to a starving creative brain. While art is part of our human fibre, we often ignore the fact that creating and interacting with creations are vital for survival in an ever-changing world. We tend to ignore (or are inherently “trained” to ignore) what is weaved into our very being. Creativity and expression are what makes us human. Ignoring the drive to create or express is what computers do. I refuse to believe that is what we strive for in life: to “create” a world driven by algorithms without the deeper feel of true connection”.
Evelyne Brader-Frank
SWISS, B. 1970
Evelyne Brader-Frank has been expressing herself through soapstone, bronze, and steel for over twenty years. Her dynamic male and female figures are celebrations of form and the beautiful stones from which they emerge. Fascinated with classical mythology, Brader-Frank titles her sculptures after personalities from Greek and Roman myths, looking for a match between a character and her feelings for the new sculpture.
Carlos Tárdez
SPANISH,1976
Carlos Tardez is a Spanish artist who graduated in Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. He works with both sculpture and painting, and introduces mythological references in his works, so that they have double meanings and metaphors, and sometimes ironies. His works on canvas are hyperrealistic in style, with simple compositions, in which the background takes on a conceptual meaning, with a depiction of space inspired by abstraction. His art can be classified as symbolic figuration, in which he has created his own iconography, with symbols and elements to whom he attributes a unique and personal meaning. On many occasions, the title of his works suggests some interpretation, although Tardez always tries to leave the work open to the viewer’s subjective understanding.
Moisés Yagües
SPAINISH. 1972
Moisés Yagües, a self-taught individual, works as an art teacher in Murcia while pursuing his own artistic endeavors. His artwork has been showcased in various cities worldwide, including New Mexico, China, Germany, Slovenia, Barcelona, and Madrid. With numerous accolades to his name, Yagües aims to portray his imaginative realm, inner thoughts, concise narratives, and peculiarities that defy common clichés. The shape of the head often recurs in his artistic symbolism, serving as a stimulating element that sparks numerous ideas. The head represents the abode of these small tales, brimming with hidden nooks and crannies where ideas, desires, and secrets reside. Yagües’ artworks carry multiple interpretations, and it is the viewer who imparts a distinct perspective that either enriches or diminishes the intended meaning based on their own assessment.
Jaime Monge
SPANISH, 1990
The artist’s paintings reflect architectural design principles such as proportionality, stability, and simplicity, stemming from his background as an architect. These elements serve as a foundation for expressing his creative ideas.
Having honed his skills as an architect, the artist developed a keen sense of understanding people’s feelings and desires, not only within the confines of physical spaces but also in the broader context of life experiences. His work becomes a means of articulating these emotions, experiences, and memories from a unique perspective.
Despite the strong architectural underpinnings, the artist’s 3D (axonometric) vision relinquishes the dominance of architecture, allowing individuals to define the scenery for themselves, thereby offering a more personalised and immersive experience.
