Author: Arden McKenna

James Day works across more disciplines than most artists attempt in a lifetime, and the interest of his practice lies less in any single medium than in how they speak to each other. Painting, photography, sculpture and diorama making have all passed through his hands over twenty-five years, and each has left its mark on the others. A Practice Without Fixed Borders What distinguishes Day’s work is not a signature style so much as a signature sensibility, one that treats the flat canvas and the built scene as two ends of the same project. His early paintings, made in bright,…

Oenone Hammersley is an internationally recognized mixed-media artist whose vibrant paintings explore the beauty, complexity, and fragility of the natural world. Through bold colour, expressive texture, luminous surfaces, and abstract forms, she creates artworks that invite viewers to look more closely at the world around them. Her nature-inspired paintings, particularly her depictions of water and tropical landscapes, combine visual energy with a deeper awareness of the environmental challenges facing the planet. Born in England in 1957 and now based in Florida, USA, Hammersley has developed an artistic language shaped by both her creative background and her extensive travels. Her experiences…

If you’ve never heard the terms “grisaille” or “glazing” before, don’t worry; you don’t need an art history degree to appreciate what contemporary painter Lib Mason is doing. You just need a willingness to look a little longer than usual, because her paintings are built to reward exactly that. From Magazine Pages to Museum-Style Technique Mason didn’t start out painting the way she does now. She studied editorial illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design and spent years as a working commercial illustrator, creating images for major publications like Rolling Stone and Time Life Warner. Later, her career expanded…

Before it becomes anything else before composition, before technique, before a finished print photography, for Antonio Rana, begins as an act of looking. Long before he owned the vocabulary of the medium, he was already doing the thing photographers do: pausing at a threshold, tracking a shadow across a wall, waiting for a passerby to complete a scene that was otherwise empty. That instinct for observation, more than any formal training, is the foundation his practice was built on, and it remains the clearest throughline in his work today. Choosing the Discipline of Black and White Rana’s photographs are almost…

Michael Kaphengst was born in 1969 in Norden, a small town on Germany’s flat northern coast, where the horizon stretches wide and the North Sea sets the rhythm of daily life. He was the youngest of three children, with two older sisters a decade ahead of him. His father was never part of the picture, and his mother, overwhelmed by the demands of raising three children alone, placed him in a children’s home while he was still an infant. Those early years remain hazy in his memory. He returned home around the age of nine or ten, but his mother’s…

A painting career built on travel does not usually begin with a suitcase; it begins with attention. For Sylvianne Blum Cassereau, the two have become inseparable. Movement across countries and cultures does not simply supply backdrops for her work; it supplies the work itself, in the form of faces encountered, photographed, and eventually carried home to become pastel portraits in her Mexico City studio. The Wandering Eye Travel plays an essential role in Blum Cassereau’s creative process, and not in the incidental way it might for artists who simply happen to enjoy visiting new places. For her, movement is method.…

Some artists measure their contribution entirely in the work they produce. Others extend their influence into the institutions and communities that shape how art gets made and shared in the first place. Jane Gottlieb has spent much of her career doing both. Her photography, developed over more than thirty years, remains the foundation of her reputation, but her recent appointment as the first artistic trustee on the board of the University of California, Santa Barbara signals a broader ambition: to help build the conditions under which creativity can flourish beyond her own studio. An Artist Formed by Institutions, Now Shaping…

Michael Aldag has spent his career looking at Southern Illinois the way most people only look at places they’re about to leave: closely, and with a kind of ache. Born and raised in the region, Aldag has built a body of work that returns again and again to the Midwest landscape, rendered in tones so somber they feel less like a photographic choice and more like an honest report on how the land actually looks. His newest and most focused project, a series called Temple, takes that sensibility and points it at something specific: the empty shells of buildings that…

The rise of digital technology has transformed the creative landscape, giving artists new tools to express ideas beyond the limitations of traditional media. From detailed digital paintings to bold vector illustrations, contemporary digital art continues to evolve through innovation and experimentation. Among the artists contributing to this dynamic field is Denmaz 48, an Indonesian digital illustrator whose vibrant compositions and distinctive vector-based style have established a recognizable presence in contemporary digital art. Specializing in 2D digital illustration, vector art, and digital painting, Denmaz 48 has built a creative practice centered on precision, color, and visual impact. His work demonstrates how…

Art has long served as a bridge between tradition and the present, preserving cultural memory while allowing each generation to reinterpret its meaning. For I Ketut Jaya, widely known as Kaprus, painting is a powerful way to honor the spiritual traditions of Bali while expressing them through a contemporary artistic language. Drawing inspiration from the island’s rich cultural heritage, his work explores the symbolism of Hindu ceremonies, sacred rituals, mythology, and traditional customs, creating paintings that celebrate both history and living tradition. As a contemporary Indonesian painter, Kaprus has developed a distinctive artistic identity rooted in the spiritual life of…