Chris Ballantyne’s work focuses on vernacular architecture and observation of the American landscape.  Banal features of suburban and industrial zones are sources for paintings that highlight the quirky and absurd.  Ballantyne states that, “Growing up in a military family and moving to different parts of the country, there was a certain familiarity to the kinds of houses and neighborhoods. They were a series of suburban developments built in separate regions of the country, always on the outskirts of larger cities, at the exit ramps of interstate highways, and all very similar in age and design.  My own notions of space developed out of this cultural landscape which was striving for an indidvidual sense of personal space,  consciously economic, and somewhere between urban and rural.” Dysfunctional structures are flawless in their strangeness, made beautiful through symmetry, simplified lines and flat, subdued colors. Ballantyne eliminates detail to emphasize the subtleties of the way we experience space and our attempts at containment. He extends these concepts further by expanding the imagery of his paintings beyond the picture plane and onto the surrounding walls. “Most of my works involve combinations of various places, drawn from memory. As well, my own interests in skateboarding and surfing altered how I saw  the use of these structures ranging from empty pools, sidewalk curbs, to ocean jetties in a way that tied in to my sense of this larger push and pull between culture and nature.” With shrewd restraint, Ballantyne accentuates the antisocial effects of our built environment with a hint of humor and plenty of ambiguity. A curious emptiness permeates the work of Chris Ballantyne. Graphically rendered buildings, pools, parking lots, and fences take on new meanings and amplified significance, isolated on flat fields of color.

Cristian Zuzunaga is a multidisciplinary artist and designer that explores the close relationship existing between the virtual and the real world.

Ewa Doroszenko - intermedia artist, Doctor of Fine Arts, lives and works in Warsaw. Graduate of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland in 2019 and the City of Toruń in the field of culture in 2013 and 2011. A laureate of many international competitions, including Preview – Fait Gallery, Brno, 2016; Debuts 2018 – doc! photo magazine; Debut 2018 – Lithuanian Photographers Association; finalist of Noorderlicht International Photo Festival, 2021; Kranj Foto Fest, 2021; International Festival of Photography FIF BH – Brazil 2020; Athens Digital Arts Festival, 2020; GENERATE! Festival for Electronic Arts, 2019; Der Greif and the World Photography Organization open call, 2018; FILE Electronic Language International Festival, Sao Paulo, 2015; Gray House Foundation Competition, Krakow, 2011. Participant in numerous artist residency programmes, including Re_Act contemporary art laboratory in Portugal, Atelierhaus Salzamt Linz in Austria, The Island Resignified Lefkada in Greece, Petrohradska Kolektiv Prague in the Czech Republic, Klaipeda Culture Communication Center in Lithuania, AAVC Hangar Barcelona in Spain, Kunstnarhuset Messen Ålvik in Norway. Her works have been presented at the Starak Family Foundation in Warsaw, the Wozownia Art Gallery in Toruń, the Center for Contemporary Art in Toruń, Fait Gallery in Brno, Propaganda Gallery in Warsaw, Exgirlfriend Gallery in Berlin, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum.

Elsa Leydier is a French photographer and visual artist based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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