Gayle Chong Kwan is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and academic whose work is exhibited internationally in galleries and the public realm. Her large-scale photographic works, immersive installations, and sensory ritual events operate within and against histories of oppression and positions the viewer as one element in a cosmology of the political, social and ecological. Exhibitions include: ‘The Taotie’, Compton Verney, UK (2024); ‘A Pocket Full of Sand’, John Hansard Gallery, UK (2024); ‘Waste Archipelago’, Venice (2021); ‘Wastescape’, Auckland, New Zealand (2019); ‘The People’s Forest’, William Morris Gallery (2018); ‘Anthropo-scene’, Bloomberg Space, UK (2015); ‘Wastescape’, Southbank Centre, UK (2012); ‘The Obsidian Isle’, New Forest Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale (2011); ‘Cockaigne’, Tales from the New World, 10th Havana Biennial, Cuba (2009). Artist Fellowship, Sloane Lab and the British Museum, UK (2023); Artist in Residence in Photography at the V&A (2019–2021); Artist Fellowship, Ca’ Foscari University Venice (2020-21), as winner of the Sustainable Art Prize (2019). She has a PhD in Fine Art on ‘Imaginal Travel’ from the Royal College of Art, UK (2023).

American Stephanie Blake lives in Paris and is an illustrator and author of children’s books. In 2002 she created Simon Super Rabbit, which was published by l’École des Loisirs and translated into numerous languages before being adapted into a cartoon in 2016. Since 2018, Stephanie Blake has been creating clay sculptures that she immortalizes in bronze, Indian ink sketches on Japanese paper, and large coloured canvases. Beneath their crude, naive and spontaneous exteriors, Stephanie Blake’s works paradoxically reveal a delicate, poetic… even obvious side. A polyvalent and versatile artist, her practice includes sculptures in ceramics and bronze, small- and large-scale paintings and jewellery. As per the writing, Stephanie is not only author of children’s books, but she also recently embraced narratives for adults with a novel that will be officially released in January 2025.

ISAO, born Isao Llorens Ishikawa, is a Catalan artist living in in Spain. After studying in Paris, Isao left for Japan in a bid to connect with his motherly roots. It was during this Japanese stay, indeed, that he perfected his calligraphic and paper studies, which give his work a very particular pictorial profile. Upon his return to Paris, and his later move to Barcelona, ISAO explores, through the lens of a kaleidoscope, the many perceptions of the same concept. Paintings, sculptures, illustrations, designs, animations and films… between figuration and abstraction, under a reductionism that borders on the limits of simplification, ISAO combines saturated colours and minimalist forms in order to study serially kaleidoscopic views and perceptions of the same concept. ISAO treats with ingenuity and dexterity the nature and all those creatures cohabiting in it. This well-travelled artist, who constantly strives for regeneration, has launched several projects that are stamped with his touch and personality. ISAO is currently the Director of the Fundació J. Llorens Artigas based in Gallifa (Barcelona), a rural artists’ centre with studios built in honour of his grandfather Llorens Artigas, the ceramist who worked very closely with Joan Miró on many of his projects.

Didier Guillon is the descendant of illustrious ancestors, including the sculptor Alphonse Lamy and the collector and art dealer Charles Sedelmeyer. Creating is an irresistible impulse, spurred by his inextinguishable curiosity. He muses through many mediums, such as serigraphy, illustration, cardboard-made or glass sculptures, with a particular fondness for mixed-media installations. Guillon's installations show a commitment to sustainability: made from environmentally friendly materials, much of his artwork is destroyed for recycling after traveling around the world for solo shows. A Venetian resident for more than a year, Guillon loves his city through and through. A complete care which emerges, among other things, in his desire to work with local artisans. Since 2013, the artist has been deeply fascinated by the precious traditions that make up the identity of Murano glassmaking; he has been producing works of art in collaboration with renowned local master glassmakers ever since. Not only glass: Guillon’s latest creations are produced together with local craftsmen. Bronze and brass are the materials which recently brought his research to imagine new shapes, now part of the artist’s well-known repertoire. New experiments, then, always faithful to the heritage of Donald Judd and the American Minimalists so dear to Guillon, leading the artist to conceive imposing yet delicate cubist metamorphosis.

Voyage Within, 2019, was their very first exhibition as an artistic duo, Vangelis Kyris and Anatoli Georgiev have approached costume traditions from around the world in their own unique manner. When the National Historical Museum in Athens entrusted them with the authentic garments of its collection to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution, the two artists realised their vision by creating a new visual world between photography and embroidery. In recent years their work has been supported by a series of state and private institutions, particularly by the George & Victoria Karelia Foundation, the Anastasios G. Leventis Foundation, the Embassy of Greece in Seoul, the Anthony E. Comninos Foundation, Fondation Valmont, the Embassy of Greece in Sofia, and the Marianna V. Vardinoyannis Foundation. The Museum of ancient Eleutherna in Crete, the Acropolis Museum and the Palazzo Bonvicini in Venice have hosted their exhibitions, while the National Bulgarian Ethnographic Museum in Sofia will host new exhibitions. The mixed media artworks of Kyris and Georgiev combine photography with embroidery to create something truly unique in the contemporary art world. Their portraits in the Acropolis Museum exhibition reference history, ethnography, fashion, and museum treasures. In addition to costume tradition, the artists also employ the theatrical expression of women and men who stand in front of Vangelis Kyris’ lens dressed in the authentic garments of past centuries. The portraits are then printed on 100% cotton canvas, where Anatoli Georgiev uses his needle to create subtle details using golden, silver, metal, silk, and cotton threads. Owing to textile art, embroidery now holds a special position among contemporary art forms, while in the portraits of Kyris and Georgiev, it dynamically converses with contemporary photography.

Venetian artist Silvano Rubino studied at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts. His path as an artist has led him to work in a variety of disciplines: painting, stage sets, sculpture, photography, installations and video. Combining or separating these various languages, his work is always based on a conceptual approach. His works have been celebrated in many exhibitions the world over, from Venice to New York, Europe to South America. In 2018, he was awarded the Glass in Venice prize by the Veneto Institute of Science, Letters and Arts, for his artistic work with glass.

Carles Valverde is a Catalan artist born in 1965 and living in Switzerland for almost 30 years, after a period of several years spent on the island of Mallorca. He trained at the Llotja School of Applied Arts in Barcelona and was inspired by the works of Eduardo Chillida, Richard Serra and Max Bill.
Carles Valverde considers himself a sculptor, but his practices may embrace painting as well. He likes to combine the diversity of parts and the unity of the whole. From monumental pieces in metal to paintings, from drawings to installations: harmony must be found in everything. Minimal and linear forms characterize his universe to the fullest. Defined as a builder of space, the artist remains faithful to his style, described as austere, but also enjoys experimenting with materials and techniques. He offers animated and playful installations that provide an extension in space and time as well as static sculptures.
In Switzerland, his creations can be found at EPFL, Bex & Arts, the Louis Moret Foundation, and in several galleries and private collections. He also participates in exhibitions in Spain, Poland and Germany and, since spring 2018, at the Château de Vullierens.