ARTISTS

Ihab Ahmad is a Lebanese artist born in Beirut whose practice is deeply shaped by his early life experiences. During his childhood, his family relocated to Cyprus to escape the Lebanese civil war — a displacement that later became a subtle but powerful influence on his artistic language. From an early age, he turned to drawing as a way to process emotion and translate memory into visual form.

After initially developing his path in visual arts, Ahmad later dedicated himself fully to painting, completing a degree in Visual Communication Arts at the Lebanese University. His work reflects a long-standing engagement with image-making, symbolism, and narrative composition.

Ahmad’s practice is characterized by a vibrant visual universe where figuration and abstraction coexist. His compositions are built from recurring symbols — such as eyes, fish, animals, flowers, and trees — that originate from childhood imagery and personal memory. These elements are arranged within dense, energetic structures, often defined by bold colors, rhythmic patterns, and strong black outlines.

Although visually playful and uplifting at first glance, his work carries a layered complexity. The intensity of his compositions and their structured chaos suggest deeper reflections on human emotion, fragility, and resilience. Through this balance of joy and tension, Ahmad constructs what he describes as a personal visual escape — a space where imagination, memory, and hope intersect.

Christina Gschwantner, born in Vienna in 1975, is a distinguished Austrian contemporary artist whose work represents a sophisticated dialogue between abstract expression and structural rhythm.

After completing her studies in painting and graphic arts at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2001, where she was supported by a scholarship from the Sussmann Foundation, she spent several formative years traveling and working in Greece, Mexico, Italy, and New York. A pivotal one-year residency in Australia further broadened her artistic perspective before she established her independent studio in Vienna in 2003.

Her artistic journey has evolved from early works featuring "peculiar creatures" and surreal figures toward a mastery of pure abstraction. Working predominantly on unprimed raw linen, Gschwantner treats the canvas as a site for social and structural experiments, using dots, splashes, and gestural brushstrokes to create what she describes as "relationship paintings."

Her process is defined by a meticulous balance of spontaneity and control, where vibrant color palettes — ranging from earthy tones to high-contrast neons — act as the primary building blocks of the composition. As a member of the Künstlerhaus Verein and IG Bildende Kunst, Gschwantner has achieved significant international recognition. Her works are held in major public and private collections, including the State Museum of Lower Austria, the Fubon Art Foundation in Taiwan, and the Saatchi Art Collection in London. Today, she continues to push the boundaries of contemporary abstraction, exploring the "metamorphosis of the visible" through ongoing series that emphasize the physical and emotional impact of mark-making on the material surface.

Celio Koko is a Belgian–Lebanese contemporary artist known for his expressive, emotionally charged works that balance between abstraction and figuration. Born in Belgium, he spent a significant part of his early life in Africa, including Uganda, Tanzania, and Congo. These formative years had a lasting impact on his artistic vision, shaping his fascination with raw nature, animal imagery, tribal cultures, and instinctive forms of expression.

Koko’s path to art was unconventional. After a life-changing personal experience in his late twenties, he fully committed himself to artistic practice, using painting as a tool for self-discovery and emotional release. His works are driven by intuition rather than strict conceptual frameworks, allowing spontaneity, gesture, and energy to play a central role in the creative process.

Characterized by bold colors, powerful brushstrokes, and layered textures, Koko’s visual language reflects influences of neo-expressionism while remaining deeply personal. He works across various media, producing paintings and sculptural works that evoke movement, intensity, and psychological depth.

Celio Koko has exhibited internationally, and his works are part of numerous private collections around the world. Through his practice, he continues to explore the boundaries between the conscious and the instinctive, creating artworks that resonate on both a visceral and emotional level.

Tobi Olsen is an abstract artist based in Berlin whose works are driven by radical immediacy and emotional directness. Figures, forms, and creatures emerge spontaneously — raw, poetic, and at times ironic. Humor meets vulnerability, seriousness meets playfulness, creating a vivid tension that defines his visual language.

Working with reduced materials, Olsen explores composition, color, and texture to give shape to the unconscious. His works are uncompromisingly honest, physical, and deeply human — expressions of raw emotion balanced between spontaneity and control.

His works are now represented in private and public collections around the world, attracting the attention of curators, galleries, and art enthusiasts alike. As an emerging artist, Olsen is gaining increasing recognition within the international art scene for his distinctive visual language and emotional authenticity.

Berlin remains his creative anchor — a pulsating hub from which he continues to explore new visual and emotional territories. His practice stands at the intersection of contemporary painting and intuitive psychology, forming an open dialogue between the visible and the hidden.

Paul Kuntze (born 1995) is a Berlin-based contemporary painter whose work explores the intersection of classical Baroque fresco and 21st-century abstract expressionism. Inspired by an artistic lineage—his grandfather studied under Max Liebermann — Kuntze began his career as a self-taught artist in 2019. His practice is deeply rooted in a lifelong fascination with the monumental ceiling paintings of European churches and palaces, which he reinterprets through a lens of modern abstraction.

Kuntze’s signature "Modern Fresko" series, launched in 2023, utilizes a meticulous layering process to bridge centuries of artistic thought. He begins by preparing the canvas with sandpaper for a smooth finish, followed by softly sprayed acrylic gradients that establish the luminous, atmospheric background reminiscent of traditional plaster walls. Upon this foundation, he builds thin layers of "clouds" and finishes with bold, impasto brushstrokes — often using a palette knife—to suggest figures and "Godscenes". Rather than rendering clear narratives, he provides hints of forms and human traces, inviting viewers to engage their own imagination and creativity.

Since his debut, Kuntze’s international presence has expanded rapidly through exhibitions and residencies in Berlin, Rome, Vienna, and Tuscany. His work has gained global attention with major solo showcases. Beyond traditional galleries, his practice has reached new contexts through high-profile collaborations, such as a permanent installation at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in Limassol and a creative partnership with Bentley.

Anna Chekh is a multidisciplinary contemporary artist from Ukraine whose work bridges the gap between traditional fine art and futuristic digital technologies. Originally from Dnipro, Chekh attended art classes as a child but initially pursued a career in advertising and public relations, graduating from the National University in Kyiv to ensure professional stability. After an eight-year career that saw her rise to the role of art director, she decided to return to her "childhood dream" and transition into a full-time independent art practice. Currently based in Thailand and holding a 10-year Golden Talent Visa from the UAE, she has established herself as a global figure in the "phygital" art movement, where physical and digital realms intersect.

Her artistic philosophy centers on the exploration of modern society, emotional complexity, and human behavior through a style she describes as a blend of contemporary surrealism and neo-symbolism. The cornerstone of her oeuvre is the "Shadow Man," a recurring faceless character that serves as a satirical yet profound commentary on the anonymity and facelessness of the digital generation. Chekh’s portfolio is remarkably diverse, encompassing vibrant acrylic paintings on canvas, 3D-printed sculptures, interactive installations, and NFTs. She is particularly noted for her innovative use of technology, creating 3D sculptural paintings that merge physical relief with digital layers.

Chekh’s global recognition has led to exhibitions at some of the world's most prestigious art venues, including the Arsenale during the 2024 Venice Biennale, the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, and the Museum of the Future in Dubai. Her work has received international accolades, such as the Best Innovative NFT award at the Burj Khalifa in 2024, and she was appointed Art Ambassador of Ukraine by UNESCO. Beyond traditional galleries, Chekh actively collaborates with luxury brands in the furniture, jewelry, and automotive sectors, further expanding her "Shadow Man" philosophy into functional design and lifestyle spaces.

Akil Mostafa Ahmad (born 1988) is an award-winning Syrian contemporary artist whose practice is deeply rooted in the philosophical and intellectual exploration of Arabic calligraphy. Born in Syria and a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Aleppo, he currently lives and works between Beirut, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. Ahmad is widely recognized for his innovative "optical modern language," which seeks to bridge the gap between traditional Islamic culture and contemporary visual expression.

His artistic philosophy is unique for its fusion of audio and visual experiences; he specifically bases his work on Arabic musical "Maqams" (melodic modes), transcribing their rhythmic and tonal patterns into optical structures on canvas and metal. Ahmad describes this process as capturing "moments of ecstasy" heard internally and inverting them into an intricate dance of letters, words, and color. His technique often involves mixed media and a rich palette of vibrant reds, ethereal blues, and metallic golds, frequently incorporating the poetry of classical masters like Omar Khayyam. Through these abstract simplifications, his compositions navigate deep human themes such as love, loss, and endurance.

Ahmad’s work has garnered significant international acclaim and is held in prestigious public and private collections across the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, including the Museum of Islamic Art in Malaysia. He was awarded the First Prize in the 15th round of the Global Burda Award in Abu Dhabi (2018). His exhibition history includes high-profile solo shows such as Khatt at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr (2024), Maknun in Many Letters in Kuwait (2021), and Forty Maqamat of Love (2018). Additionally, his pieces have been featured at major global auction houses, including Christie's and Sotheby's.

Gleb Baranov explores the complex intersections of intimacy, desire, and perception in the digital age. His practice engages with found imagery from anime, art history, and online archives—images already shaped by repetition, fantasy, and distance—and transforms them through painting, drawing, and graphic processes. By introducing slow, manual gestures into these circulating visual systems, Baranov’s hand becomes a corrective force, creating delay, friction, and vulnerability in images designed for seamless consumption. His work is particularly concerned with moments when immersion fails — when digitally mediated figures escape the screen to occupy material space, destabilizing the viewer’s gaze and generating new relationships between image, body, and audience.

In his ongoing project Monet-Anime (2025–present), Baranov examines the collision of two seemingly incompatible systems of seeing: the perceptual, vibrating atmospheres of Impressionism and the hyper-stylized, emotionally coded logic of anime. While Monet’s landscapes depend on embodied observation, anime characters function as pre-formed vessels of identification shaped by digital media. By placing these systems into shared pictorial spaces, Baranov tests how contemporary subjectivity negotiates between sensory experience and mediated projection. The figures do not inhabit the landscape but confront it, standing at the threshold where physical perception meets the clarity of digital desire.

Rather than framing “high” and “low” culture as opposed, Baranov proposes a hybrid visual model: one in which immersion in media images refracts rather than erases material perception. His paintings operate as experiments in reconstruction, assembling feeling through fragments of cultural memory. In doing so, he demonstrates how styles often dismissed as escapist—like anime—can be reconsidered as tools for exploring contemporary subjectivity, intimacy, and the subtle interplay between the digital and the material.

Sasan Nasernia (born 1974) is a Tehran-born, Vancouver-based multidisciplinary artist whose work deconstructs the ancient traditions of Persian and Arabic calligraphy to create a modern, abstract visual lexicon. Educated at the Azad Art University of Tehran with a BFA, he began his career as a calligrapher and typography artist, eventually spending 18 years as a graphic designer—a background that informs the clean lines, meticulous balance, and structural precision seen in his large-scale paintings. Nasernia is best known for developing his signature calligraphic style, "Crazy Kufic," which deconstructs the rigid rules of historical Kufic script to explore themes of fluidity, uncertainty, and the interplay between order and chaos.

His artistic philosophy is deeply influenced by philosophical notions of chaos versus cosmos, modern physics, and the "Shahnameh" (Book of Kings), from which he draws a sense of drama and rhythmic movement. In his process, Nasernia often treats letterforms as building blocks for figurative and "asemic" pieces—works that point toward meaning beyond the literal definitions of words. He frequently employs unique techniques, such as squeezing paint directly from tubes onto the canvas to create tangible, crisp shapes, or using tape to build calligraphic visions. This approach creates a "visual lexicon" where letters are stretched, distorted, and layered to suggest metaphysical or existential reflections.

Nasernia has exhibited extensively across the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, including major solo shows at the Sharjah Calligraphy Biennale (2022) and Mestaria Gallery in Dubai (2022, 2025). His work, ranging from intricate paintings and prints to large-scale installations like "Transcendental Object at the End of Time," continues to bridge the gap between cultural heritage and contemporary abstraction. By blending the mystical traditions of the East with the expressive freedoms of the West, his art serves as an inquiry into the unseen forces that shape human reality and the "gigantic code" of the written word.

JEM is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist based in Dubai. His artistic journey began through a hands-on relationship with wood, tools, and raw materials—an early engagement with making that fostered an intuitive understanding of form, balance, and tension. His practice is shaped by the tension between structure and freedom. Initially trained within a discipline rooted in precision and order, he spent years immersed in systems defined by symmetry, predictability, and control. Over time, this rigidity became constraining, prompting a shift toward a more intuitive and physical mode of expression.

The flowing forms in his work are guided by movement, spontaneity, and the quiet influence of lived experience. Each piece evolves from impressions gathered through places he has visited, spaces he has moved through, and emotions absorbed in passing—moments that resist clear definition yet leave a lasting trace. Rather than translating these experiences literally, he allows them to surface through gesture, rhythm, and instinctive decision-making.
Working with canvas as both surface and structure, JEM pushes the material beyond its traditional role. The canvas bends, curves, and occupies space, reflecting the way memory and emotion are rarely linear or fixed. His process remains intentionally open, allowing randomness to interrupt control and guide the final form.

While rooted in places he has moved through and experiences absorbed over time, the works do not aim to represent specific locations or narratives. Rather, they distill these impressions into a state of movement—between order and chaos, intention and release. They invite the viewer to engage not with a static object, but with a physical and emotional experience shaped as much by perception as by form.

Syugir Buluktayev was born in 1994 in Elista, Kalmykia. He works across painting, drawing, and sculpture. He studied Design at the University of Liberec in the Czech Republic (2011–2016). In 2017, he presented a solo exhibition at the National Museum of the Republic of Kalmykia. His works are held in private collections in Russia.

The core imagery of Sugir’s practice is built around horses and tulips, symbols deeply connected to Kalmykia, the artist’s homeland. These motifs emerged organically in 2018, during a prolonged period of living in Europe, as a visual return to familiar cultural roots.
In Kalmyk nomadic culture, the horse holds a central symbolic role. In the epic traditions of Mongolic and Turkic peoples, the genre of “magtal to the horse” celebrates the horse as a powerful, almost mythical being endowed with extraordinary qualities. Sugir’s work can be understood as a contemporary visual continuation of this tradition.

His horses are not realistic; they are poetic and mythical embodiments of energy, movement, and light. Always depicted in motion—running, leaping, flying—they exist in a state of dynamic harmony. Textural surfaces of clouds, flowers, and abstract ornament reference traditional decorative arts and national textiles, while the vivid palette evokes the blooming steppe.

The tulip, a longstanding national symbol of Kalmykia alongside the horse, represents purity, loyalty, and friendship—core values that lie at the heart of Sugir’s artistic universe.