Author: Seraphina Calder

Alexandra Jicol follows a path shaped by depth and introspection. Born in Bucharest during a time of political limits and social tension, she spent her early years between the quiet of the mountains and the stark rhythm of city life. That contrast—between openness and structure—continues to echo through her work, where emotion, memory, and landscape merge in quiet dialogue. Her work is centered on emotional excavation. It’s not about decoration. It’s about peeling back the layers of experience. Each painting is a reflection of thought and feeling, caught in motion. Over time, Jicol has shaped a personal language built from…

Based in Athens, Vicky Tsalamata is known for her no-nonsense approach to art and meaning. A Professor Emeritus in Printmaking at the Athens School of Fine Arts, she works with mixed media, often using archival prints on 100% cotton Hahnemühle paper. But the material is just a surface. What she’s really after is a deeper look at who we are, how we behave, and what gets lost along the way. Her work doesn’t decorate. It questions. With sharp humor and unflinching tone, Tsalamata points back to Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine—and beyond that, to Dante—to show how little has changed in how…

Caroline Kampfraath works from a place of memory and emotional charge. Based in the Netherlands, she shapes sculptural forms out of found materials—metal cans, bottles, pieces of the human body—to give weight to fleeting thoughts and unspoken feelings. Her art holds the tension between presence and absence, what’s remembered and what slips away. Each piece feels like a quiet marker of time, rooted in her lived experience and tuned to the shifting rhythms of the world around her. Her materials may be ordinary, but in her hands, they speak. Her art doesn’t settle into a tidy category. It’s raw in places,…

Miguel Barros doesn’t paint just to fill a canvas. He paints to reflect something essential—how we live alongside the natural world, how we move through it, and how it moves through us. Born in Lisbon in 1962, Barros carries with him the layered perspectives of Portugal, Canada, and Angola. These three homes, spanning continents and histories, have shaped his view of art as a cross-cultural dialogue. In 2014, he moved from Angola to Calgary, Alberta, opening a new chapter of experimentation and introspection. Barros studied Architecture and Design at IADE in Lisbon, finishing in 1984, and you can still sense…

Ruth Poniarski came to painting through structure. She began her creative life in architecture, earning her degree from Pratt Institute in 1982. For ten years, she worked in construction, bringing blueprints to life in the physical world. But eventually, lines and measurements weren’t enough. In 1988, she turned to painting—not as a hobby, but as a more open-ended way to think and feel. Where architecture was grounded in rules, painting gave her freedom. She began to build in a new way: with symbols, stories, and inner vision. Her work brings together threads from mythology, literature, philosophy, and history. The result…

Sylvia Nagy moves easily between the technical and the intuitive. Her background in industrial ceramics is rooted in a strong foundation—she studied at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, where she earned her MFA in Silicet Industrial Technology and Art. That training set the tone for a practice that’s both structured and exploratory. Later, at Parsons School of Design in New York, she expanded her role as an artist and educator, even designing a course on plaster mold making. Whether she’s working in a studio or a classroom, Nagy brings an eye for form and a deep…

Pasquale J. Cuomo’s relationship with photography started early and never let go. He picked up his first camera as a teenager and didn’t put it down. What began as a fascination quickly became a full-blown pursuit, eventually stretching across five decades. Cuomo isn’t just a photographer—he’s someone who’s stuck with the craft through its many shifts, from darkrooms to digital sensors and now back to film by choice. His career is built on versatility. Over the years, he’s shot weddings, fashion spreads, architectural details, legal documentation, advertising campaigns—you name it. By the mid-1980s, he had his own lab, serious equipment,…

Some artists show you what’s already there. Kimberly McGuiness does something different—she creates what feels remembered rather than seen. Her work isn’t about observation. It’s about channeling. Every piece seems to arrive with its own voice, shaped by mythology, nature, and the quiet pull of emotion. Her art doesn’t describe a world—it becomes one. McGuiness works with recurring themes: horses that move like freedom, peacocks rich with presence, talismans and oracles full of mystery. These aren’t visual accents—they’re carriers of meaning. She pulls from the natural world, ancient stories, and the dreamy theatrics of circus life. What results is a…

Sabrina Puppin doesn’t paint to replicate what’s already visible—she paints to stir something deeper. Her canvases are loud with movement, full of color that almost vibrates off the surface. With exhibitions spanning cities like New York, Doha, and Miami, and reaching across Europe and Asia, she has developed a visual language rooted in emotion, abstraction, and instinct. Her work doesn’t sit still or ask for quiet admiration—it demands engagement. It wants to be felt. Her paintings reject realism in favor of something more personal. They take in moods, memories, and dreams, and spit them back out as shape and color.…

Nancy Staub Laughlin approaches art with a steady hand and a wide lens. A pastel artist and photographer based in the United States, she studied at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, earning a BFA before going on to exhibit her work in galleries and museums up and down the East Coast. Her artwork has caught the attention of both collectors and critics, with pieces entering private and corporate collections. She’s also been featured in media profiles and interviews. The late Sam Hunter, one of modern art’s most respected historians and critics, once described her work as “refreshingly unique.” That…