Conflict involves opposing parties. When there is a war between two countries, the two are involved in a conflict. They will perhaps lure their allies into the conflict, and all sides will suffer casualties. We cry for the casualties and decry the war. Do we ever cry for the battlefield? [...]

In my youth, I always wondered what it would be like to be God; to be omniscient and to have a bird’s eye view of all that is around me - a snow globe of sorts. After all, the earth is spherical and rotates all day long… It would certainly be most amusing [...]

“I’ve come to visit the painter Jorge Cardarelli in his spacious studio in the Chamberi neighbourhood of Madrid… I met Cadarelli about eleven or twelve years ago… Being born in 1971, he was very young then. He had just held, or was about to hold, his first individual exhibition in the nearby [...]

I live very much inside my head. In there, I can create my own phastasmagoric realities, a universe vibrant with life, void of strife. Emancipation was the only reason I paid little attention in class. Yet, as I aged, I gradually, unbeknownst to even myself, physical realities grounded my hypothetical possibilities. [...]

I have always wondered how the brothers Gabriel and Victor Gomez, or The Wolf Boys, with their hypertrichosis syndrome, got on with school. Equipped with neither consideration nor compassion, most children can be very cruel, with their sharp tongues and stinging words. How did the brothers’ react to the jeers of their peers? [...]

Recently, I have been wondering about the control I have in my life. I like to think that I have complete control in my life - in my actions and my undertakings, but since life revolves largely, if not entirely, around cause and effect, can I truly say my actions are not mere reactions? To [...]

“As an artist I endeavor to understand and accept human nature in all of its complex majesty. Painting allows me to share the processing of experience. I enjoy the storytelling aspect of art. Each painting shares part of a larger journey, starting from a naive and hopeful worldview to one that holds [...]

Again and again, the focus of Slawomir Elsner’s work is “catastrophe’s dazzling beauty”. This series, titled “Windows on the World”, first draws you in with its furious light play and its sensual beauty, and conceptual aspects appear again on the aesthetic master plan in these large-sized coloured pencil drawings. The drawings are based on photos [...]

Feng Zhengjie paints striking contemporary women. With their coloured hair, richly hued clothes and luscious, expressive lips, the women appear irresistibly dazzling. And yet, the wandering expressions in their eyes render them elusive and enigmatic. Reminiscent of Warhol’s screen printed celebrities, Feng’s paintings reflect a vision of futuristic pop. His generic portraits of women are [...]

When I was young, I practiced painting. It was a natural extension from Chinese calligraphy. I remember being fascinated with beautifully “watery” paintings of landscapes, wildlife and buildings produced by ancient Chinese masters, and I certainly tried very hard to mimic the natural flow of brush strokes common in many Chinese paintings, but [...]