Expressive, unique jewelry has a life and a history of its own. 

It is not unusual for earrings to become a literal part of us, like totemic tattoos: we wear them every day, we wear them when we sleep, we wear them when we shower (albeit that is not the best idea for the durability and looks of precious metals and stones). 

Jewels become parts of us.

Our ornaments.

Our quiet companions.

Our shadows. 

And a silent means to communicate our moods, tastes, stories and ideas about beauty to the outside world.

Funda Baysal, a ceramic and model maker based in Rotterdam, brings to ceramics a distinct approach with her exploration of the intricate dynamics between individuals and their surroundings. 

Funda’s creative practice is deeply influenced by her observations of daily life and internal sensations. In her process, Funda employs various materials, tools, and methods of heat application, creating pieces that reflect moments of learning and discovery, as well as the time and dedication invested in the craft.

 

Diango Hernández's interpretation of the underwater world is mesmerizing. I am transported to the bottom of the clearest water spring. All I can see are the contours of a female figure, but it is enough to ignite my imagination. I find myself drawn into a whirlpool of speculation: Is she in love, I wonder, or is she grappling with some hidden pain? Is she lost in dreamy reverie, or is there a quiet intensity simmering beneath the surface?

In and through his paintings, Gbemileke Adekunle explores themes of solitude, heritage, physical and mental states of mind, struggle, resilience, meaning of life, and the human condition.

Born in 1991 in Ajilete, a village in southwestern Nigeria, Gbemileke's artistic journey was nurtured from a young age by his parents, who were passionate about art.

His art, characterized by its expressionist roots, with a tendency towards abstract expressionism in his more recent works, goes deep into the complexities of human emotions and experiences.

Browsing the Brussels Art Fair, I found this work by Pinchas Burstein aka Maryan S. Maryan. The pink color hooked me. A very particular pink: familiar, recognizable and, at the same time, rather scary.

Scary, but not aggressive.

Two pseudonyms: Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein) and Maryan S. Maryan (born Pinchas Burstein), two lives with lots of pain in them. Guston and Burstein both picked this peculiar pink to transform the pain within and outside them, as an eerie and deceitfully sedating outlet for emotional release.

Through her art, Mia Chaplin, a painter and sculptor from Cape Town, South Africa, speaks about the female experience: a profound commentary on the life of women, articulated through her painting and sculpture techniques, reflecting the complexities, struggles, and beauty of womanhood.

Her works, their sensitive and provocative nature, explore the themes of sexuality, sensuality, intimacy, even violence.

In sunny Albufeira, on the Algarve coast of Portugal, Vanessa Barragão's studio stands as a welcoming, artistic stronghold of beauty, warmth, heritage and sustainability. Using ancestral techniques, Vanessa creates soft, cozy and colorful art using textile waste, which speaks about the importance of preserving traditional crafts and advocating for environmental consciousness through upcycling.

During her master's degree, Barragão created her first wool yarn collection entirely from discarded sheep's wool.  This was when her love for wool, nature and upcycling centuries-old textile techniques was born.

Оn the 20th-century art scene, few figures loom as provocatively as the Belgian surrealist René François Ghislain Magritte. His works, marked by juxtaposing the mundane with the surreal, are a curious and colorful inquiry into the nature of perception, reality, and representation.

This inquiry finds compelling expression in his 1928 masterpiece "Le Palais des Rideaux" (The Palace of Curtains). Painted during a stay in Paris, the melting pot of avant-garde art, "Le Palais des Rideaux" shows Magritte's ability to transform the familiar into vessels of profound ambiguity and allure.

Look into the tubes and, through them, into the world of Marco A. Castillo, an artist merging art with architecture and design.

Marco’s journey began with his involvement with Los Carpinteros. Formed in Havana in 1992, Los Carpinteros is a collective of Cuban artists, known for its critical engagement with social and political issues through a unique blend of humor and craftsmanship. Its founders, Marco Antonio Castillo Valdes (Marco A. Castillo), Dagoberto Rodriguez Sanchez, and Alexandre Arrechea, adopted a guild-like approach, renouncing individual authorship to highlight the collaborative nature of art.

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