Henrique Matos, a director and photographer born in Lisbon in 1996, has spent the past decade quietly reshaping how we perceive the spaces around us. With a background in philosophy and a current Master’s focus on film and the intersection of arts and sciences, Matos brings a cerebral edge to his visual practice. His work resists easy categorization, oscillating between urban landscapes, human subjects and pastoral scenes, yet always returning to a central impulse: to transform non-places into art.

In the restless creative pulse of Addis Ababa, Ethiopian visual artist Estifanos Solomon emerges as a storyteller with intent. Trained in painting and printmaking, his practice navigates a delicate threshold between personal confession and collective reflection, drawing from lived experience to illuminate what society too often leaves in shadow - vulnerability, conflict and care.

Lahore-based artist Vania Mazhar is part of a new generation of Pakistani painters expanding the language of their medium into experimental forms. With a practice that moves fluidly between painting, installation, video and sculpture, she builds immersive environments that respond to sites, memory and overlooked traces of history. Alongside exhibiting in museums and galleries across Pakistan, Mazhar teaches drawing at the National College of Arts, grounding her explorations in the daily rhythm of mark-making.

In the nuanced dialogue between graphite and oil paint, Giovanni Lombardi has found a language uniquely his own. His work exists in that liminal space where drawing meets painting, abstraction balances composition, and control wrestles with chaos. Since graduating from OCAD University in 2016, he has been exploring this tension, embedding graphite into wet oil on paper and linen to create hybrid surfaces that defy categorization yet feel meticulously considered.

When asked to describe her work, Veronika Bolotina defines it with a mischievous smile: the kind of art that makes you laugh when you probably shouldn’t. A filmmaker and comedian born in Belarus and now a naturalized German citizen, she creates films and music videos that witty, socially resonant, and full of surprising perspectives. 

At just 21 years old, Tehran-based photographer Mostafa Shahabi has already carved a distinct path through the Iranian visual arts landscape. Born in Ahvaz in 2003, Shahabi’s early life was marked by a rich engagement with multiple forms of creativity: drawing, painting, music, and literature. Yet it was photography and cinema, embraced at the age of sixteen through the Iranian Youth Cinema Society, that ultimately became the vessels for his artistic exploration.

In the heart of Paris, amid streets where couture tradition runs deep, Spanish artist JairaDe Arriba is quietly rewriting the language of fashion. As the founder of Kistaku, an independent upcycled fashion and art project launched in 2019, she transforms discarded textiles into emotionally charged, one-of-a-kind creations - garments that are as much statements of philosophy as they are feats of design.

There’s a quiet reverence in the work of Bella Stern - one that beckons us to slow down, reconsider our material world, and witness nature as both sculptor and collaborator. An American bio-designer, researcher, and set designer now based in Paris, Stern merges her scientific background with artistic intuition. With a Master’s in Fashion Studies from Parsons Paris and a dual undergraduate degree in Psychology and French from Villanova University and a Sustainability minor, her interdisciplinary approach feels both studied and instinctual.