Author: Iris
Doug Caplan was born in 1965 in Montreal, Quebec. His story with photography starts quietly. In his early teens, he got a black-and-white Polaroid camera—a gift from his parents. It wasn’t much, just a plastic body with a disposable flash and a signature smell from the film chemicals. But it stuck with him. Not as a job, not even as a deep passion at first—just a feeling that photography had something to offer. Years passed. Life happened. It wasn’t until the early ’90s, after getting married, that Caplan picked up a camera again. This time, it stayed with him. He’s…
Born in 1959 in Moscow, Idaho, Linda Cancel’s earliest memory is etched with light—watching fireworks burst over the Snake River at just fifteen months old. That brief, dazzling moment set something in motion. From a young age, Linda was attuned to atmosphere, to shadow and glow, to the way light can press into memory. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, she absorbed its quiet drama: misted mountains, cool rivers, the hush of snowfall. At twelve, she began private oil painting lessons with William F. Pogue, who introduced her to the deep well of narrative art rooted in the Golden Age…
Albert Deak creates art that maps experiences beyond the surface of things. Trained in ceramics at a respected University of Art and Design in Eastern Europe in 1989, he began with a strong foundation in form and material. Over time, his work expanded into graphics, painting, and digital media, each step opening new ways to explore and express. Rather than relying on set formulas, Deak builds each piece as a search—an act of visual translation shaped by science, philosophy, and imagination. Influenced by Pollock’s freedom, Richter’s ambiguity, and Kandinsky’s spiritual use of color and form, Deak has carved out a…
Alexandra Jicol makes art that reaches beyond surface beauty, drawing from a life shaped by contrast and complexity. Born and raised in Bucharest, Romania, during a period of political tension, she grew up between the quiet strength of the Carpathian Mountains and the dense atmosphere of the city. That early duality continues to inform her work, where emotion and observation meet in thoughtful, layered compositions. For Jicol, art is a kind of excavation. She works to uncover what lies underneath the surface of human experience—emotion, vulnerability, contradiction. Her paintings aren’t just compositions of color and form; they are quiet meditations…
Vicky Tsalamata lives and works in Athens, but her practice stretches far beyond borders—geographical, historical, and emotional. A Professor Emeritus in Printmaking at the Athens School of Fine Arts, she works in mixed media with precision and insight, using archival prints on Hahnemühle cotton paper to deliver sharp, at times sarcastic, reflections on the human condition. Tsalamata’s art doesn’t aim to soothe; it cuts. It questions. It demands that we consider how much, or how little, we matter in the grand machinery of history. Her ongoing series, La Comédie Humaine, nods to Balzac and, through that, to Dante, reminding us that…
Caroline Kampfraath creates art that holds presence—works that contain memory, emotion, and fragments of lived experience. Based in the Netherlands, she builds 3D pieces using found materials like metal cans, glass bottles, and cast elements of the human body. Each object becomes part of a broader story—one shaped by personal history, curiosity about the world, and the ways we connect to our surroundings. Her sculptures feel like quiet exchanges between what’s tangible and what’s felt, between what’s been used up and what still holds meaning. Through this layering of form and feeling, Kampfraath creates something that stays with you. At…
Miguel Barros doesn’t paint just to fill a canvas. He paints to reflect something essential—how we live alongside the natural world, how we move through it, and how it moves through us. Born in Lisbon in 1962, Barros carries with him the layered perspectives of Portugal, Canada, and Angola. These three homes, spanning continents and histories, have shaped his view of art as a cross-cultural dialogue. In 2014, he moved from Angola to Calgary, Alberta, opening a new chapter of experimentation and introspection. Barros studied Architecture and Design at IADE in Lisbon, finishing in 1984, and you can still sense…
Ruth Poniarski didn’t begin her life as a painter. Her creative path started with structure—literally. She earned a Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute in 1982 and spent ten years in the construction field. But architecture, for all its logic and form, wasn’t enough. In 1988, she pivoted. Painting offered something else entirely: a way to explore the unknown. It didn’t follow a blueprint. It asked questions. It gave her room to bring together myths, culture, philosophy, and literature into a surreal, expressive language of her own. That decision—leaving behind hard angles for the freedom of canvas—opened the door to…
Sylvia Nagy’s work bridges the precision of industrial design with the intuition of spiritual exploration. Born and trained in Budapest, she earned her MFA in Silicet Industrial Technology and Art at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. Later, she continued her path in New York at Parsons School of Design, where she wasn’t just a student—she taught and even developed a course on Mold Model Making in Plaster. This balance between technical knowledge and creative instinct shows up in everything she does. Her practice has taken her from Hungary to Japan, China, Germany, and the U.S., with each place…
Pasquale J. Cuomo didn’t stumble into photography—he walked into it with purpose, camera in hand, still a teenager. What began as a simple curiosity turned into a life’s work, spanning over fifty years. An American photographer rooted in experience and passion, Cuomo has seen the artform shift from the darkroom days of film to the clean precision of digital—and now, with deliberate choice, he’s gone back to film. His career has moved through fashion, architecture, advertising, weddings, public relations, and legal documentation. By 1985, Cuomo was no longer dabbling. He had a full-fledged operation, complete with his own lab, serious…