Kiaf Seoul 

Radu Oreian was born in 1984 in Tarnaveni, Romania. He currently works and lives in France. He awarded his first degree in 2005 at the University of Art and Design of Cluj-Napoca and he continued his studies at National University of Art of Bucharest where he graduated in 2007. Radu Oreian’s practice has at its core the classical mediums of drawing and painting and explores the way history, ancient myths and archives shape our society and our understanding of humanity. His ‘Molecular Painting’ are a miniature-like format of works that pulsate with details and thus intend to draw the viewer’s eye deeper and deeper into the fabric of the paint and hopefully deeper and deeper into the nature and meaning of painting. The red thread that runs through Radu Oreian’s works is creating a new, meditative visual imprint of a peculiar density that appears to exist in a pulsing state of tension and relaxation. Radu Oreian has been the protagonist of several solo-shows: SVIT Gallery, Befriending the memory muscle (Prague, 2020, with Ciprian Mureşan), Gallery Nosco, Microsripts and Melted Matters (London, 2019), Gallery ISA, Farewell To The Thinker of Thoughts (Mumbai, 2018). Among his institutional projects: La Fondazione, Project Room (Roma, 2020, solo-show), The Last Agora, Plan B Foundation (Cluj-Napoca, 2019) and Chasseur d’Images, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Paris, 2019). Among his group shows: One in a million, Gallery Nosco (Marseille, 2018) and On The Sex of Angels, Nicodim Gallery (Bucarest, 2017).

Oliver Okolo is a Nigerian artist who was born in 1992 in Suleja and now lives and works in Abuja; He has emerged as one of the most exciting artists working out of Ni- geria today and is a central figure in a new vanguard whose portrayal of Black people in confident and assertive gaze, challen- ges and dismantles negative racial con- structs and knowledge systems. He gra- duates at Caritas University Enugu, where he studied human resource management; His search for a more creative atmosphere that would satisfy his artistic desires and growth is ever driven by his passion for art. Intrigued by the mysteries of the human figure as a unique work of nature, he uses it to create works that speak to subjects he feels are neglected or not spoken about in Nigeria.

He uses oil paint and charcoal and em- ploys techniques of collage in his portraits. He uses charcoal and paint to capture the subjects of his striking portraits. In 2016, he studied under and worked in the studio of artist Clement Nwafor, using the oppor- tunity to hone his craft. Okolo’s paintings and drawings often start from Western art-historical reference points, recasting works from Vermeer and Michelangelo wi- th Black subjects. He refers to his practice as “classical contemporealism,” a term meant to reflect his blending of classical and contemporary styles.

He took part in both solo exhibitions and groups exhibitions such as “Oliver Okolo – I forgot to tell you, now listen”, in Accra in 2021, “Stop, listen.” in Sweden in 2021 and “Shades, exhibition of drawings” in 2018.

WonderBuhle, born 1989 in South Africa, is a Durban-based visual artist from Kwa-Ngcolosi, a village that is still ruled by a chief. He started making art as a hobby at the age of nine. He says that his mother encouraged him to explore art as a career as he used to play with charcoal from the fire and draw stick figures on the walls of the house as a child.

WonderBuhle received his first formal training through the BAT Centre Artists in Residency (AIR) Program and went on to study fine art through the Velobala apprenticeship program at Durban University of Technology, under the mentorship of Themba Shibase.

The artist states: “I understand my artistic practice as a space between my inner soul, my dreams and my identity. I communicate my views from where I am standing as a black youth in South African society and the world at large. South Africa is in a moment of self-realization; reflecting and embracing its cultural diversities, whilst rewriting its stories through the lenses of young people who are curious, like myself.”

WonderBuhle had his first solo exhibition at the Durban Art Gallery in 2018 and has been included in numerous group shows at Unit, (London, 2020); The Art House (Wakefield, 2018); Michaelis Gallery (Cape Town, 2017); KZNSA (Durban, 2015) and the African Art Centre (Durban, 2014). In 2016, he was the recipient of Bremer Kunststipendium Art Grant (three-month residency) and in 2020; he took part in the La Brea Studio Artists Residency in L.A.

Chris Soal was born in 1994 in South Africa is an award-winning, emerging artist. Living and working between Johannesburg and Cape Town. In 2017, Soal graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts (Hons) at the University of Witwatersrand. He has received numerous awards.

Soal’s work examines structural impacts on urban living, reflects on the individual in relation to the collective, and foregrounds ecological concerns. Soal’s spatial approach to sculpture reveals a sensitivity to texture, light, and form, expressed in an abstract minimalist language. While, conceptually, his works refer to the socio- political context of their making, highlighting the histories embedded in the found material, and utilizing them in a way that challenges societal assumptions of value.

He has exhibited in group shows at institutions such as the Nirox Sculpture Park (2021); Iziko South African National Museum, (2020); FRAC MECA, Bordeaux, (2019); Stellenbosch University Museum (2018), and Wits Art Museum (2017). Soal was selected as one of ten contemporary artists to participate in redesigning three handbags as part of the 5th edition of the Dior Lady Art project.

Recent solo exhibitions include Soal’s solo booth at Art Brussels (2022) and As below so above, in 2021, both with WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery.

Kevin Francis Gray was born in Northern Ireland in 1972. He currently lives and works between London and Pietrasanta.

Kevin Francis Gray has generated bodies of work which address the complex relationship between abstraction and figuration. At the core of the artist’s practice is an interrogation of the intersection of traditional sculptural techniques and contemporary life. Rather than working towards ideals of beauty or memorial, Gray attends to the psychological effects, often relying on textural surfaces rather than facial or bodily expressions. Furthering Gray’s decade of working with marble, his new work pushes the possibilities of the artist’s sculptural practice into new territories of physical and psychological expression.

He received his BA from the National College of Art & Design in Dublin (1995) and the School of Art Institute in Chicago (1996), and then went on to earn an MA in Fine Art from the Goldsmiths College in London. He works closely with the Giannoni marble studio in Pietrasanta, renowned for its use of sculpting techniques that date back to Canova and Michelangelo. His works have been included in exhibitions at the Royal Academy, London, UK; Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, UK; Museum of Contemporary Art of the Val de-Marne, Paris, France; Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam; Palazzo Arti Napoli, Naples, Italy; Musee d’art Moderne, Saint-Etienne, France; ARTIUM, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel; and Art Space, New York, USA.

Born in Brescia in 1958, he lives and works in Brescia.

Intellectual artist with training ranging from philosophy to anthropology has developed a research that has at its center the problem of the image understood as a potential place of concentration, migration, and alteration of visual memory, declined into works that develop into distinct cycles and experience different materials and techniques to continue to deepen and return to the public an infinite potential of suggestions and iconic references that sink into the dynamics of time and history and range in geographies even distant.

n this composite atlas of images, the Drawings and Tapestries, the Mirrors and the cycle of O, monochrome gold, the Nocturnes, the Pinwheels, and the Lux Drawing highlight the cruciality of thought that is behind the artistic process and bring back to the center of reflection the imaginary principle of doing.  The creative act doesn’t end with the return of the work to the world but continues in the reciprocity between this and the viewer, in a making and discarding the image as a seductive device.

These aspects have led many scholars, intellectuals and critics to deal with the work of Donzelli over the years, in exhibitions such as: Immaginale, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia e L’insieme vuoto, Marignana Arte, Venezia, both in 2022; In Nuce, Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna, for ARTCITY 2021; Metamorphosis, Villa Olmo, Como, 2021; Thresholds, MAC-Museo di Arte Contemporanea, Lissone, 2020; Diorama, Open Source First Shenzhen Biennale, Luohu Art Museum, Shenzhen, China, 2018; Giardini Cosmici, bipersonal with Aldo Grazzi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, 2017; Ad Altemps, Nazionale Romano di Palazzo Altemps, Rome, 2015; Metamorfosi, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, 2012.

The collectives: a political project born from his idea and linked to the position of art in the two years of the pandemic, GestoZero, traveling to the Museo Santa Giulia, Brescia, Museo del Violino, Cremona, Ex Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena, Bergamo, 2020-2021; Intuition, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, 2017 and Proportio, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, 2015.

The artist translated his thought also through teaching, teaching for seven years “Theory of Perception” and “Psychology of Form” at the NABA Academy in Brescia.

Over the years, theoretical reflection has been the subject of several publications, including: Spettacolo di Niente, 2003, Mazzotta, printed on the occasion of its homonymous exhibition at the Calcografia Nazionale di Roma; Lo Sguardo Del Disegnatore, editions l’Obliquo 2002; Metamorfosi, Mousse publishing 2012; Diramante, Bandecchi and Vitali Firenze 2015; La Linea Del Tutto Mousse publishing 2016.

Among others: Peter Assmann, Ilaria Bignotti, Bartholomew F. Bland, Paolo Bolpagni, Vito Calabretta, Daniele Capra, Luca Cerizza, Alberto Dambruoso, Daniela Ferretti, Luigi Ficacci, Angela Madesani, Massimo Minini, Mauro Panzera, Roberto Pinto, Francesco Poli, Francesco Tedeschi, Clarissa Tempestini, Valerio Terraroli, Tommaso Trini, Gabriele Salvaterra, Andrea Viliani, Mauro Zanchi.

Maurizio Donzelli’s works are housed in numerous public and private collections both in Italy and abroad.