Maria Rita Pires, 1975 | Figurative and Paper sculptor

Maria Rita was born in Minde, Portugal, and felt her “fascination for clay” with only eleven years old. She began her studies in ceramics at ARCO - Center for Arts and Visual Communication (Centro de Artes e Comunicação Visual) in 1995, having concluded her degree in Ceramics and Art History in 1998.

She has developed her work in her own studio, and has participated in various interior design projects.

Her work is diversified using various materials, from porcelain to paper and cardboard, and includes the production of installations of mixed techniques.

Anna Ancher | Skagen painter

Anna Ancher (1859-1935) was in reality the only Woman painter among the Skagen artists, a fact that was mirrored in her paintings, which depict the world of women.

She painted many women - many more than men - and these women were often alone.

A typical Anna Ancher motif was a single female figure in an interior setting - a bedroom or a living room - quietly occupied with a task or merely thoughtful and withdrawn.

This contemplation is a very characteristic trait in Anna Ancher’s female figures.

Chidi Okoye, 1961 | Abstract painter / sculptor

Nigerian born painter Chidi A. Okoye graduated with a distinction in sculpture from the Institute of Management and Technology in Enugu, Nigeria, in 1988.

For the next six years he taught sculpture and drawing at Federal Polytechnic Oko Anambra State Nigeria. During this period, he created an outstanding collection, not only sculpting, but painting and writing as well.

In Nigeria, He had his national solo exhibition “Textures of Life” and launching of his book “Lamentation” at national museum Lagos in 1993 sponsored by Mobil Producing Nigeria.

Taras Loboda, 1961 | Pittore astratto

Taras Loboda è nato a Ivano-Frankovsk, Ucraina, nella famiglia di I.I.Loboda, famoso artista Ucraino.

Si è laureato presso l'Istituto d'Arte di Kiev (1979-1985).

Nel 1979 frequenta il noto Studio di Zaretsky.

Partecipa a molte mostre internazionali, repubblicane e dell'intera Unione Sovietica.

Dal 1993 vive e lavora a Praga (Repubblica Ceca).

Narcisse Diaz de la Peña | The Barbizon school of painters

Narcisse-Virgilio Díaz de la Peña (1808-1876) was born in 1808 in Bordeaux, of Spanish parents who had fled the Peninsular Wars.

After their early deaths, he grew up in foster care at Meudon.

At thirteen, an infection, caused by an insect sting or snake bite, necessitated the amputation of his left leg.

In 1823 he began an apprenticeship in painting on porcelain at a china factory in Paris, where he met Jules Dupré (1811-1889), who was to become his lifelong friend.

Théodore Rousseau | The Barbizon school of painters

Théodore Rousseau, in full Pierre-Étienne-Théodore Rousseau (born April 15, 1812, Paris, France-died December 22, 1867, Barbizon), French painter who was a leader of the Barbizon school of landscape painters.

His direct observation of nature made him an important figure in the development of Landscape painting.

Rousseau, the son of a tailor, began to paint at age 14.

Attilio Pratella | Landscape/Genre painter

Italian painter Attilio Pratella was born in Lugo, Italy in 1856, and died in Naples in 1949. Pratella began drawing in 1877, was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna through a scholarship and was inspired by the works of Fontanesi. By 1880 attended the Fine Arts Institute in Naples, during which time he earned livelihood as a ceramics decorator in the Cacciapuoti factory.

Théodore Ralli | Orientalist Academic painter

From a well-known family of Chios, Greek painter Théodore Ralli or Theodoros Rallis / Θεόδωρος Ράλλης (1852-1909) worked for a brief period in the commercial house of Rallis-Mavroyannis in London, but abandoned his entrepreneurial career and settled permanently in Paris, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

There he studied painting under the Academic teacher and Orientalist painter Jean-Leon Gerome until approximately 1880.

In 1873 he took part in the Salon des Refuses.