Author: Seraphina Calder

Born in Lisbon in 1962, Miguel Barros has built a body of work shaped by movement between cultures, places, and personal histories. Having lived in Portugal, Angola, and later Canada, he carries with him a rich collection of experiences that continue to inform his artistic perspective. In 2014, Barros relocated from Angola to Calgary, creating a geographical distance from Lisbon, the city that remains deeply embedded in his imagination. Rather than weakening his connection to his birthplace, this separation has intensified it. Lisbon frequently appears throughout his work as a remembered landscape reconstructed through emotion, memory, and reflection. For Barros,…

For more than fifty years, Pasquale J. Cuomo has remained deeply connected to photography, approaching the medium with the same sense of curiosity that first drew him to a camera as a teenager. What started as a youthful interest steadily developed into a lifelong dedication to observation, craft, and visual awareness. From the era of film negatives and darkrooms to digital cameras, smartphones, and AI-driven technology, Cuomo continued evolving alongside photography itself while staying committed to the simple but demanding act of truly seeing. Throughout his career, Cuomo refused to confine himself to a single category of photography. His work…

Born in Lisbon in 1962, Miguel Barros is an artist whose work has been shaped by movement across countries, cultures, and emotional landscapes. His life has unfolded between Portugal, Canada, and Angola, experiences that continue to influence the way he approaches painting and memory. In 2014, Barros relocated from Angola to Calgary, Canada, a transition that introduced distance between himself and the city that remains emotionally central to his work: Lisbon. Rather than weakening this connection, separation appears to have intensified it. Lisbon has become more than a location in his paintings; it exists as a psychological and emotional space reconstructed through…

L. Scooter Morris creates work that refuses to sit passively in a space. Her practice moves beyond the idea of a flat image and enters something more physical, more immediate. Describing herself as a sensory illusionist, Morris constructs what she calls “Sculpted Paintings®,” layered works that shift depending on where the viewer stands, how light moves across the surface, and how the body responds to them in real time. Texture, shadow, depth, and reflection become part of the experience. Acrylic and mixed media are built outward from the canvas, creating forms that seem to hover between painting and object. The work…

Based in the North West of England, Kat Holmes approaches painting as a way of remaining connected to lived experience rather than observing it from a distance. A graduate of the University of the West of England and a studio resident at Document, Holmes has built a practice rooted in repetition, revision, and emotional honesty. Her paintings return to recurring themes of love, loss, memory, and absence, not as fixed narratives but as shifting emotional states. Moving between instinct and structure, she allows each work to develop gradually through reworking and reflection. In this interview, Holmes discusses process, persistence, and the emotional terrain that continues…

Born in 1950, Huang YI Min came of age during a period of dramatic social and political transformation in China. Those early experiences became deeply embedded in the way she understands both life and art. Rather than treating painting as simple observation, Huang approaches it as a space where memory, history, emotion, and imagination intersect. Her artistic direction has been shaped not only by the environments she lived through, but also by the cultural atmosphere surrounding her formative years. Huang studied fine arts at Beijing Normal University, where she developed a strong technical foundation while refining her personal visual language. In 1997, she…

Carlotta Schiavio, also known as YaTii Talisman, moves through her work with a sense of openness shaped by a life lived across cultures. Born in Italy and raised in Ethiopia, her background draws from Italian, Russian, Syrian, Austrian, and Ethiopian roots. These influences don’t sit on the surface—they quietly inform how she sees, feels, and creates. Her path into art didn’t begin with painting. She started in jewelry design, working with form on a smaller, more intimate scale before shifting into painting in 1998. That transition marked the beginning of a broader exploration, one that has taken her across countries…

Helena Kotnik works at a point where emotion, observation, and imagination meet. Trained across major European institutions, she brings both discipline and curiosity into her practice. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from Barcelona University and the Akademie der bildende Künste in Vienna, followed by a Master’s degree. Her background is evident, but it never feels rigid. Instead, it supports a body of work that moves freely between thought and instinct. Her paintings function as open spaces rather than fixed statements. They invite reflection rather than deliver conclusions. Each piece feels like a fragment of a larger story,…

We received these works from Peter Parker. Whether that is his real name or a playful nod to comic book history, we will leave that open. It is hard not to smile at the coincidence. A name so closely tied to one of the most recognizable comic characters arrives attached to a group of paintings that look like they have stepped straight out of that world. Peter Parker is not the artist behind these works. He takes on a different role, one that often stays out of view. He encourages, supports, and sponsors the artist who created them. It is…

Kat Holmes works through painting as a way of staying close to lived experience rather than stepping back from it. A BA Fine Art graduate from the University of the West of England, she has maintained a consistent, hands-on relationship with her practice since her early twenties. Based in the North West of England, she is also a studio resident at Document in Bristol. Her work develops through repetition and revision, returning to a set of recurring concerns—love, loss, absence, and the instability of memory. These are not treated as fixed subjects but as shifting conditions. Holmes moves between instinct and control, allowing…