Cultural commentary

INTERVIEW | Di Tian

INTERVIEW | Di Tian

Di Tian is a New York-based new-media artist from Chongqing, China. Through his current interactive and time-based artworks, Di challenges the notion of art as a solitary experience. His current body of work doesn't adhere to a specific theme; instead, it is a canvas for exploration that covers a diverse range of subjects, including folk culture, artificial intelligence, contemporary social issues, and so on.

INTERVIEW | Lisha Liang

INTERVIEW | Lisha Liang

Lisha Liang is a Chinese artist currently living in Italy. Lisha Liang's artistic endeavors are deeply rooted in the exploration of gender dynamics and the pervasive issue of gender-based violence. Motivated by a growing concern for these societal challenges, Liang's work serves as a conscientious reflection and an invitation to engage with the feminist discourse.

INTERVIEW | Ziyi Zhang

INTERVIEW | Ziyi Zhang

Ziyi Zhang is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago. Currently teaching at SAIC, her work encompasses painting, installation, and interactive media, delving into unconventional explorations of human conditions. Her series Family Photo Album is an interactive, browser-based work of art, an exploration of notions of truth, cultural and generational disconnect, and the relationship between social class and art.

INTERVIEW | Misha Waks

INTERVIEW | Misha Waks

Misha Waks refers to themes related to ecology, women's rights, and minorities. He is inspired by current events, news, and images from the internet, press, and television. He explores topics related to the concepts of post-nature and the Anthropocene. He uses various means of expression; among the most important are painting, sculpture, installations, performance, and video.

INTERVIEW | Chen Yang

INTERVIEW | Chen Yang

Renowned for their versatility and innovative use of mixed media, Chen Yang specializes in digital media art, moving images, as well as painting and sculpture installations. Their creative practice is characterized by a multidisciplinary approach, through which they investigate and articulate the nuanced dialogues between human societies and their habitats.

INTERVIEW | Melvin Ningyao Yen

INTERVIEW | Melvin Ningyao Yen

Melvin Ningyao Yen, a pioneering force in the fusion of digital media and theater, hails from the vibrant cultural landscape of Taiwan and now operates out of New York City. Their artistic ethos is anchored in the exploration of cultural narratives and the human condition, utilizing the dynamic realms of immersive theater and multimedia projects as their canvas.

INTERVIEW | Masaki Iwabuchi

INTERVIEW | Masaki Iwabuchi

Masaki Iwabuchi is a New York-based interdisciplinary designer, artist, and futurist. Masaki believes we need alternative visions and worldviews to overcome numerous wicked problems in this century, such as climate change, forced migration, political and social polarization, etc. Therefore, he is interested in challenging our societal structures, vested interests, and Cartesian belief systems through his works.

INTERVIEW | Tony J. Smith

INTERVIEW | Tony J. Smith

Tony J. Smith is a long-time Graphics Arts professional and self-trained artist. His paintings explore the human and ordinary side of life. He evokes a variety of emotions with each piece, allowing the observer to feel a new sense of connection. A perpetual student of life, Tony now works full-time on his art and artist opportunities.

INTERVIEW | Dana Al Rashid

INTERVIEW | Dana Al Rashid

Dana Al Rashid is an architect and visual artist from Kuwait. She has created a unique style coined ‘Modern Miniatures’ in which she uses a modernized version of the ancient Persian miniature style to tackle contemporary and relevant topics. Her artwork also focuses on social issues, historic building preservation, technological advancement, and consumerism as common themes.

INTERVIEW | Saman Qadir

INTERVIEW | Saman Qadir

Saman, also known as The Samaniist, is a talented photojournalist and artist with a rich cultural background. Based in the Bay Area, California, Saman's work is influenced by both her Pakistani roots and American surroundings, resulting in a unique perspective that captures the essence of diverse cultures and stories. With a passion for storytelling through the lens, Saman uses her photography to shed light on the untold narratives of people and places.

INTERVIEW | Jiangshengyu Nova Pan

INTERVIEW | Jiangshengyu Nova Pan

Jiangshengyu Nova Pan is a moving image and installation artist, currently based in Baltimore (USA). work focuses on human mobility. Working from the perspective of the individual, Pan’s work explores the profound transformations of space, power relations, and social networks faced by a mobile population through sculptures and videos, appropriating everyday life scenes based on her semi-fictional writings.

INTERVIEW | Ryan Tesluk

INTERVIEW | Ryan Tesluk

Ryan Tesluk is an Oakland and LA-based interdisciplinary artist and storyteller. Ryan Tesluk's art provides viewers with honest, unadulterated content that triggers a plethora of emotions. While many individuals may be uncomfortable with what they see, the fact that some may feel such discomfort when looking at his paintings means Tesluk is doing something right.

INTERVIEW | Madison Higginbotham

INTERVIEW | Madison Higginbotham

Madison Higginbotham, known as Mads, is a self-taught painter based out of Vancouver, Canada. She naturally gravitates towards portraiture and figurativism. She believes it’s the most captivating subject to paint. With its inherent mutuality, even the most mundane moments can be portrayed as powerful and beautiful. She looks at these moments as if time has slowed and the perfect soundtrack has been applied.

INTERVIEW | Esther Tang

INTERVIEW | Esther Tang

Esther Tang is an illustrator and designer based in New York City. Her approach involves seamlessly blending traditional drawing techniques with modern computer-aided methods to craft her pieces. As an illustrator, she thinks that her value resides in expressing her opinions and presenting issues through her work, inspiring her audience, and igniting discussions.

INTERVIEW | Yu Chen

INTERVIEW | Yu Chen

Yu Chen is a visual artist, designer, and lecturer with an MFA Degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His focus is on branding, art direction, and 3D graphics design. His project Let Parents Stay focuses on helping the people of Jinling Village, a designated poverty-stricken area - to inherit and promote the culture of Han Embroidery, a traditional technique from China.

INTERVIEW | Maria Petroff

INTERVIEW | Maria Petroff

Maria Petroff is a self-taught figurative artist living between two countries: Russia and Canada. Maria defines her artistic style as critical realism. She likes to paint people who marked our history, whether they are politicians, scientists, artists, philosophers, or fictional characters. The artist gets inspired by today’s world events, trying to thoroughly study the other non-official side of the story.

INTERVIEW | Claude Stahel

INTERVIEW | Claude Stahel

Claude Stahel, born in 1966, lives and works in Zurich. With his latest works, Stahel is currently questioning the geopolitical tensions in Europe and Ukraine. His series TV Potemkin uses functional portable televisions from the 80s cast in epoxy cubes. The conservation prohibits any following manipulation of the devices and recalls political propaganda and its prohibition of choices.

INTERVIEW | Jinming Gao

INTERVIEW | Jinming Gao

As an Asian designer, Jinming Gao frequently grapples with the prevailing state of Chinese culture and its superficial utilization of oriental elements. Jinming Gao's design philosophy revolves around the seamless integration of Eastern and Western influences within the commercial realm, all while pushing the boundaries to create work that resonates globally.

INTERVIEW | Milena Jovicevic

INTERVIEW | Milena Jovicevic

Milena Jovicevic is a multidisciplinary artist from Montenegro. Her work is inspired by everyday life situations and paradoxes of contemporary society and the world we live in, that strange place saturated with the media, exaggerated production, and consumption. She works as a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje, Montenegro.

INTERVIEW | Mark Walters

INTERVIEW | Mark Walters

Mark Louis Walters is an American-born artist, designer, and art director. Mark paints grand theatrical works that juxtapose found images, words, and occasionally found objects. His pieces play with multiple meanings of images and words, often incorporating humor or slang definitions. His paintings are frequently completed with sculptural frames he creates to extend both the picture plane itself as well as the possible narrative meanings.