Valentina Squitieri @valentina_squitieri
Valentina Squitieri (b.1985) is an Italian painter. Her paintings are characterized by several layers, structures, colors, shiny oil surfaces mixed with rough pigments all together to express and manifest emotions on a canvas. Her works represent the transformation we go as human beings through the discovery of our inner-self. More than a reminder, a Hymn to bring that inner light to shine, accept and evolve.

“There is a point in life where a strong force moves us to look inward rather than outside. That force is our inner light suffocated and covered by the dust of society conditioning, the environment surrounding us or the way we grew up. That light is pawing to come out. It is by letting go the unnecessary, feeling and hearing that force, that surfaces are scratched, colors are accepted and the light is expressed”

Through my art I want to inspire reflections.
Through my art I help people to connect with their inner self, to discover and accept their beauty and diversity too.
Together, whilst doing so, we change the world around us.

Brigitte Toffano Ali @brigittetoffanoali

Brigitte, an artist of French,Italian heritage born in France, moved to London in the eighties. Trained at Hampstead School of Arts (HSoA) London. Exhibitions include many venues in UK (London, Bristol), Italy, Switzerland, USA (New-York) and a solo show in Bangladesh (Dhaka).
A multidisciplinary artist, Brigitte has chosen to exhibit a selection of oil paintings she did in 2020 and 2021. For her, it is all about colours, forms and movement, it is the fluidity that interests her. Her inspiration comes from music and nature and she likes to paint intuitively using memories and imagination.

She recently had a collaboration with a very talented musician from NYC regarding the painting “Nostalgia”. Margin Alexander composed a music which he interpreted as part of a virtual exhibition/concert in a Victorian salon in NYC on November 7.

Cristina Rago @cristinaragoart

My painting practice began around the same time I was diagnosed with PTSD. Creating then became an outlet for me and the process acted as a method of healing from past trauma. I work spontaneously and intuitively as I explore this mindful reconnection with my body. I believe each time I create something I am healing and mending myself more and more. The meditative act of making brings me through a range of emotions that is mirrored in the way I lay down paint. While I paint, I look to strike a balance: I work fast and quickly, letting the canvas capture violent energy; then I work slowly, letting ink move and drip naturally.

Tamoor Afzal @tamerlane_art

Tamoor Afzal is a British Pakistani self taught Expressionist Artist.
“I like to Portray a subject perspective for the viewer to understand and acknowledge the painting message. In this Body of work I have tried to express “Identity Crisis”, as how someone is perceived by

not knowing their origin and roots and cultural values. I have always been mistaken for different nationalities and perceived quite mysterious and not easy to figure out who I am.
So through this Year I have been studying and researching my origins which lays in Ancient India and the wave of mixing migrations from the Mediterranean which leads to my Physical DNA makeup.”

Gbemi Smart @Gbemisartsupply

23 Year old self taught Nigerian female artist with an LLB, MA in international relations and currently enrolled for an LLM medical law. “In 2020, I started painting during the lockdown as some form of escape and now, I paint to create from my own existence. Painting is my attempt at capturing the human experience… to tell stories words somehow seem to diminish.

This body of work centres on what is seen vs what is felt, what defines us vs labels that we’re given. The “invisible” nature of our inner state and it’s reflection on how we see the world. Our environment and the impact it seems to have on how we perceive ourselves.”

Francesco Sandrelli @francescosandrelli

I live and I work in Italy, I took part in shows in America, Russia, Europe. I have published poetry and drawing books.

Vivek Mandalia @vivek.contemporary

Vivek Mandalia is a prolific UK based fine artist, who has been painting for the last 8 years since leaving college. Vivek’s first exhibition was in 2014 at the age of 18, where he exhibited his landscape painting collection at ’13 The Gallery’ in East London. Vivek’s latest body of work is inspired by the famous impressionists, specifically their use of bold brushwork.

Over the years, Vivek’s paintings have required more and more oil paint. A fascination with the movement of swaying tree branches has pushed Vivek to explore the theme of fruit trees; where this idea is explored with loose brushwork that encompasses the ‘bulbs of colour’ that represent fruit, and the chaotic shards of black and green that depict dancing foliage. Vivek believes that the harmony of these two components can create the most visually pleasing pieces of work.
The boldness and harshness of black outlines, the initial marks of Vivek’s paintings, are ever-present throughout the painting process. Vivek has taken this a step further with his latest flamingo oil painting, where the lines are very evident in their boldness. There is an inherent contradiction of the black lines, which usually flatten the three dimensionality of any painted subject matter, that contradicts the almost sculptural oil painting.

Annie Ashwell @annieaart

My work is about defining the relationship between surface, gravity and space within a painting. I am interested in the removal and application of layers, explicitly revealing the middle of the painting rather than the beginning and end result. I often use contrasting colours to impose contradiction on the viewer, creating energy and chaos in mark.

Kari Hansen von Seck @kari_hansen_von_seck_art

“Even as a child, I enjoyed spending time in my aunt’s studio in Norway. I love stylized nature and landscape motifs as well as portraits with intense colors and use different techniques and materials, so that my style can be described as “mixed media”.”