Author: Aria Sorell Vantine

Born in Lisbon in 1962, Miguel Barros has spent much of his life navigating different cultures and geographies. Living in Portugal, Angola, and later Canada has given his work a perspective shaped by movement, adaptation, and reflection. In 2014, he relocated from Angola to Calgary, a transition that placed thousands of miles between himself and Lisbon, the city that continues to occupy a central place in his creative world. Rather than becoming a distant memory, Lisbon has grown more present in his imagination over time. It appears throughout his work not simply as a physical location but as an emotional…

Maridee Hays is a California-based artist whose creative practice blends a wide range of influences, including literature, dance, psychology, Eastern philosophy, journaling, and studio experimentation. Rather than separating these disciplines, Hays allows them to merge naturally into a visual language shaped by intuition, reflection, and personal exploration. Her work moves beyond traditional boundaries, combining painting, mixed media, and sculptural elements in ways that feel both thoughtful and emotionally direct. Guided by an interest in spirituality and human perception, Hays approaches art as an ongoing process of discovery rather than a search for definitive conclusions. Her artworks often explore transformation, awareness,…

Pasquale J. Cuomo has devoted more than fifty years to photography, yet his work still carries the energy and curiosity of a young photographer learning how to see the world through a lens for the first time. What began as a teenage fascination with cameras gradually became a lifelong commitment to observation, precision, and visual storytelling. Cuomo first started photographing as a teenager and never stepped away from the medium. Through every major shift in photography—from film and darkroom printing to digital technology, smartphones, and artificial intelligence—he continued adapting while remaining focused on the essential act of looking carefully. Rather…

Born in Lisbon in 1962, Miguel Barros has developed an artistic practice shaped by migration, cultural overlap, and personal reflection. Having lived between Portugal, Angola, and Canada, his experiences across different environments continue to influence the emotional atmosphere of his paintings. In 2014, Barros moved from Angola to Calgary, Canada, placing physical distance between himself and the city that remains closest to him creatively: Lisbon. Rather than fading with time, this separation has deepened his connection to the city. Lisbon reappears throughout his work not simply as a real location, but as an internal space rebuilt through memory, imagination, and longing. With…

L. Scooter Morris creates artworks that demand more than a quick glance. Her practice pushes beyond the boundaries of traditional painting, transforming the canvas into something dimensional, immersive, and physically engaging. Through layered acrylic, applied canvas, and mixed media, Morris builds what she describes as “Sculpted Paintings®,” surfaces that shift with movement, light, and perspective. Texture, reflection, shadow, and depth become active elements within the work, allowing each piece to change depending on where the viewer stands and how they experience the space around it. Rather than focusing on technical perfection alone, Morris is interested in sensation and emotional response.…

Born in 1950, Huang YI Min grew up during one of the most turbulent and transformative periods in modern Chinese history. The social atmosphere surrounding her childhood and early adulthood became inseparable from the way she later approached painting. For Huang, art is not simply about recording appearances or reproducing the visible world. Instead, it becomes a place where memory, personal reflection, history, and imagination coexist. The experiences she witnessed during years of rapid political and cultural change left a lasting imprint on her understanding of identity, space, and emotional expression. Over time, Huang developed an artistic language shaped by both observation…

The name Peter Parker does not arrive quietly. It carries a long trail of comic book memory, a built-in sense of story, and a familiarity that immediately sparks curiosity. When a set of works is received under that name, it naturally raised a question. Is it genuine, or is it a deliberate reference? In the end, the distinction feels secondary. What holds more weight is the role connected to it. Here, Peter Parker is not the one creating the paintings. He occupies a different space, one that often stays just outside the spotlight. His position is rooted in support. He…

Helena Kotnik creates from a place where feeling, perception, and imagination overlap. Her education across leading European institutions gives her a strong foundation, but it never restricts her. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from Barcelona University and the Akademie der bildende Künste in Vienna, followed by a Master’s degree. That training is present in her work, though it operates quietly in the background, allowing her to move fluidly between control and intuition. Her paintings do not present fixed messages. Instead, they act as open fields for thought. They encourage viewers to pause and consider, rather than pointing…

Cynthia Karalla is an American artist whose practice moves between activism, material experimentation, and a direct, unfiltered way of thinking through art. Her path began in architecture before shifting into photography, and later into fine art, where she developed a language that resists neat categorization. What carries through all of her work is a willingness to confront systems—political, social, and visual—and rework them into something tangible. Karalla approaches materials much like a darkroom process, transforming what is often overlooked or overwhelming into something visible and deliberate. Her work operates in this tension: between structure and disruption, between information and form.…

Jana Livingston’s work includes many figures rendered in abstract form, where the body becomes less about realism and more about expression. Rather than focusing on precise anatomy, she distorts, stretches, and simplifies the human figure to explore movement, tension, and emotion. In these two pieces, that approach is clear from the start. While they differ in tone and composition—one open and saturated with color, the other stripped down and raw—they share a common language. Both figures feel unsettled and in transition, as if they exist somewhere between control and release. The first piece is dominated by a vivid yellow ground…