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All About Curating

AIB ALUMNI

Art Intensive Berlin brings together a diverse international community of artists, curators, researchers, writers, gallerists, creative project managers, and others who are committed to expanding their practices through critical dialogue and exchange.

Since its inception, the programme has welcomed 30 alumni representing 28 countries and territories across Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and the Caribbean. Each cohort brings together participants with distinct disciplinary backgrounds, cultural perspectives, and lived experiences, creating an environment where knowledge is shared across practices, geographies, and contexts.

This archive celebrates the growing Art Intensive Berlin alumni network—a community that continues to foster meaningful collaborations, professional connections, and lasting relationships beyond the programme.

"Anita is an entrepreneurial change-maker and design strategist passionate about driving positive change through creativity. With a master’s degree in Design Strategies, she specialises in problem-solving through play. As co-founder of The Collective, a digital art studio, and Campaign Director/Curator of the non-profit art platform ALAN, Anita merges art and technology to build the connection between humans and nature.

In 2020, after the shared global experience of the pandemic and lockdown, Anita and Andy Stokes co-created the HAPPY ZOO — a zoo without captivity. By integrating science, art, and technology, HAPPY ZOO inspires wildlife conservation while offering a more human alternative to traditional zoos. Previous pojects include the world’s first digital art aquarium, BLUTOPIA (2023), and Spirit of Sumatra (2024), an immersive journey into tropical forests.

As a mother, Anita hopes to show her son the beauty of kindness, empathy, and humour—values that inspire her work and life. She actively collaborates with academic institutions on R&D to explore how emerging technologies, including mixed reality and AI, can intersect with art. Her focus is on creating accessible, engaging experiences that connect people of all ages and backgrounds with nature and creativity."

Anita Mun Yee Lam

Curator & Director of We Are Alan

Hong Kong, UK

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Curator & Director of We Are Alan

Mercy Imiegha

Gallery Director & Co-Founder, Nomadic Art Gallery

Nigeria

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Gallery Director & Co-Founder, Nomadic Art Gallery

Jacqueline van de Geer is a Montreal-based artist working primarily in performance. Hailing from the Netherlands, where she studied visual and performance art, her current practice is inspired by literature, mythology, history and personal memory. Since her arrival to Montreal in 2005, her performative actions have combined performance, theater, dance, movement, multi disciplinary and integrated arts.
Collective creation is an important part of her practice, and this philosophy informs her work both with fellow artistic collaborators as well as with her audiences. As such, developing strong connections with viewers is elemental: her performances offer many the opportunity to become active participants, with these spontaneous exchanges becoming an integral part of her pieces. Intimacy and surprise then surface as key components in her work. Lately she integrates installations and photography in her practice.
Jacqueline speaks Dutch, German, English and French. She loves to travel and to dance in her free time.

Jacqueline van de Geer

Artist

Canada, Netherlands

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Artist

Fernando Augusto Hage Soares holds a PhD in Arts (UFPA), a Master in Fashion, Culture and Art (SENAC-SP), and a Bachelor in Product Design (UEPA). Born in Belém, he is a full professor at the FAAP São Paulo University Centre and is currently on study leave in Berlin. His main areas of research are: history and culture of clothing, creative economy, and Amazonian culture. He is the author of the book Entre palavras, desenhos e modas: um percurso com João Affonso (Appris, 2020). He has worked on curatorial projects in the field of fashion and as coordinator of the Bachelor's degree courses in Fashion at the University of Amazonia (2015–2019) and FAAP São Paulo (2021–2023).

Fernando Augusto Hage Soares

Prof. History of Fashion, Federal University of Pará

Brazil, Germany

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Prof. History of Fashion, Federal University of Pará

Stella Wenny Respati Rahardjo has displayed creativity in crafts and a strong passion for various art projects from a young age. Between 2009 and 2013, she completed a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, which provided her with a solid foundation in the principles of art and design. Afterward, she worked as a graphic designer for years until the pandemic inspired her to explore the broader art world. She enrolled in online courses on art history and photography (with Sotheby's Institute of Art), before eventually securing a position at Art Agenda, an art gallery operating in Jakarta and Singapore. Over the past three years, she has demonstrated exceptional performance as an art professional, progressing from Gallery Assistant to Gallery Director in Jakarta.

Stella Wenny Respati Rahardjo

Director, Jakarta Gallery

Indonesia

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Director, Jakarta Gallery

Using the vehicle of art gallery Tribe 13 Jennifer Ingram supports the efforts of independent artists through creating opportunity and momentum on their journey. From creating new interactive experiences to bringing the culture on tour to new audiences, Tribe 13 is the on the forefront of the art, music, and fashion world of the new galactic culture emerging today.

Since the birth of Tribe 13 in 1997, with fellow artist Roman Villagrana, Jennifer Ingram has been curating and coordinating huge efforts that serve to help art, fashion, and music move from the underground to the mainstream. Beginning with art galleries at the Oracle Gatherings in Seattle, then graduating on to the Interdimensional Art Shows & Tours across the West Coast, and now internationally, Tribe 13 has helped create the space for artists of ‘visionary’ or ‘interdimensional’ art to exist and thrive within this defining culture.
Jennifer currently lives on the outskirts of the Bay area where she is pursuing her art history degree to take this movement to the masses. In addition to her work within the art world, she also contributes and volunteers within the African Birth Collective in Senegal.

Jennifer Ingram

Art Curator, Co-Founder of Tribe3Gallery

USA

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Art Curator, Co-Founder of Tribe3Gallery

"Ayelén Ruiz (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1995) is a curator and cultural manager. She graduated in Curatorial Studies from the National University of the Arts (UNA) and holds a Diploma in Curatorial Studies from the National University of Rosario (UNR). She participated in the 6th Curators Program at Proyecto PAC and completed the Curatorial Modules at the Art Department of Universidad Torcuato Di Tella.

Ruiz has taken part in several professional training programs, including the National Arts Fund program (2019) and the Conservation Planning Program organized by the Secretariat of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture of Argentina (2021). She was awarded the Work Award at the 15th Edition of ARTEBA (2023) for the exhibition project developed with Moria Galería.

In 2024 she was selected for the RESET Summer Program at Fundación Proa and the program How to Recognize and Register Cultural Assets. In 2025 she received the Radio Cultura Buenos Aires Scholarship for the VCC Curatorial Course. She works as an independent curator, art collection consultant, and contributor to Latin American art media such as Artishock and Hipermedula."

Ayelén Ruiz

Art Curator, Researcher & Creative Project Manager

Argentina, Germany

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Art Curator, Researcher & Creative Project Manager

"Pooja Bahri is a multidisciplinary artist who explores human experience, environmental consciousness, and the cultural fabric that weaves our society together. As a co-founder of Art For Art Organisation, Champatree Art Gallery and The Create Studio, and a recipient of the gold medal for video art at the Florence Biennale in 2011, her portfolio spans immersive installations, performance art, and poignant visual narratives. Bahri’s dedication to art education and her role in nurturing emerging talent through courses, portfolio development, and counselling reflect her commitment to the art community.
With a background as the former head of research for a leading political party in Delhi, Bahri infuses her artistic practice with a rich understanding of cultural policy and environmental advocacy. Her work, crossing the thresholds of gender, identity, motherhood, and our ecological footprint, invites a dialogue that challenges perceptions and promotes sustainability. Through her extensive experience and innovative approach, Bahri fosters a reflective journey, bridging personal and global narratives and urging a reevaluation of our relationship with the environment."

Pooja Bahri

Artist & Co Founder of Art For Art Foundation

India

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Artist & Co Founder of Art For Art Foundation

Lysz Flo is an AfroCaribbean Latine, polyglot, word artist, and indie author, member of The Estuary Collective, Ignyte Awards Winner for CNF, Creatively Exposed podcast host, Voodoonauts Summer 2020 Fellow/Educator in 2024 and Obsidian Black Listening 2022 Fellow. She released her poetry novel Soliloquy of an Ice Queen, March 2020. She is creative educator since 2020 and had a writing workshop series in MOCA NOMI. Her poems can be found in FIYAH, Hellebore, Lolwe, Strange Horizons and has done various multimedia projects with O’ Miami. She is also an Online Crystal and Spiritual wellness shop owner at Astrolyszics.com

Lizz Del Mar Florival

Poet & Creative Project Manager

USA, Puerto Rico, Haiti

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Poet & Creative Project Manager

Tatiana Lupashina is a Russian-American neuroscientist and visual artist currently working in Berlin, Germany and the US. She is the Co-Founder and President of EDGE Neuroscience & Art e.V., for which she has been producing and curating multimedia group exhibitions and workshops since 2018. She earned her masters degree in the International Graduate Program of Medical Neurosciences at Charité Universitätsmedizin in Berlin where she continues investigating behaviour and sensorimotor processing. Her attention to the visual and sensory filled world and her curiosity for neural networks involved in translating multisensory information influences her artistic work. She is also invested in how science informs artistic conventions and appreciation. Together with Philip DePoala, they are the lead artists of Oculus, an ongoing developing interactive sculpture featuring the neurobiology of the eye and embodying the spirit of EDGE.

Tatiana Lupashina

Artist & Co-Founder of EDGE Neuroscience & Art

USA, Germany

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Artist & Co-Founder of EDGE Neuroscience & Art

Uirá dos Reis is a multilingual Brazilian artist based in Fortaleza, with a career spanning over twenty years that encompasses film, poetry, visual arts, curation, music, and performance. He has directed music videos, experimental shorts, essay films, and co-directed a feature film. He received the award for best original soundtrack at the 44th Havana Film Festival (Cuba) for his work on "Estranho Caminho" (2023) by Guto Parente, best supporting actor at the 51st Brasília Festival of Brazilian Cinema for his performance in the short film "Plano Controle” (2018) by Juliana Antunes, best film at the 2014 edition of the Rio Gay Film Festival with the feature film "Doce Amianto" (2013) by Guto Parente and Uirá dos Reis, best original soundtrack at the 20th Cine Ceará together with Luiz Pretti for his work on the feature film "Estrada Para Ythaca" (2010) by Guto Parente, Luiz Pretti, Pedro Diógenes, Ricardo Pretti.

Uirá dos Reis de Oliveira

Media Artist

Brazil

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Media Artist

Alexandra Egorova was born in Moscow. She studied sociology at the Moscow State Linguistic University. She developed interest in savoir-faire vs innovations through her first professional experience in fashion design. She co-managed a young receptive agency in Saint Petersburg aiming to break through post-soviet touristic clichés and reshape visions towards local hospitality. Sensitive to challenging environments, she got involved into an Erasmus Mundus Master in Cultural Heritage valorisation, which spanned France, Portugal, Romania and Italy. She interned at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale and Copenhagen Architecture Festival. Currently detached from home, she is working at an artisan bakery in Lyon while questioning sense of place and looking for fundamentals.

Alexandra Egorova

Cultural Heritage Manager

France, Russia

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Cultural Heritage Manager

Monika Kozub, also known as Berlin Boudoir, is a multidisciplinary artist and visual storyteller based in Berlin. Born in Kraków, Poland, she holds a MA in History of Art and BA in Graphic Arts/Photography.

In her art, Monika explores the diverse spectrum of beauty in the world, placing emphasis on themes of nature and sexuality as means of empowerment for women. Her work celebrates the raw, the bold, and the sensual, inviting us to spark deeper connections—with ourselves, our bodies, each other, and the natural world—and prompting us to rethink the norms that shape our perceptions

Monika Kozub

Artist

Germany, Poland

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Artist

Yuki Ibata holds a BA in Art History and Arts Management from Purchase College, State University of New York. She is currently on a leave of absence from the MA program in the History of Design and Curatorial Studies at Parsons School of Design, The New School. During this time, she works as a Gallery Liaison at Tokyo Gendai, Japan’s largest international art fair. In this role, she supports galleries and other art professionals in all aspects of their participation, ensuring a smooth and successful experience. These interactions continue to shape her perspective on the international art scene and deepen her interest in curatorial practice.

Yuki Ibata

Curator & Gallery Liaison at Art Fair

Japan

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Curator & Gallery Liaison at Art Fair

Ana Balcazar Bartra (Lima, 1984) is a Peruvian visual artist. Her family moved from the jungle to the main capital, Lima, where she was raised and educated. She works and lives in between Peru, Erie-PA, and Europe. She creates murals, paintings, and installations exploring new ways of representing plans and women. In 2022, she was invited to be an artist in residence as well as guest curator of the Permanent Collection of The Erie Art Museum. Entre Plantas y Mujeres (Between Plants and Women) is her first museum and long-term exhibition at The EAM, where she was the curator and one of the exhibited artists between 2023 and 2024. During that time she won first prize at the first edition of ICPNA Street Art national contest in Peru and was a finalist at Premios Ayni. Her artwork is part of art collections such as TD Bank Miami, Hochschild Peru, and The Erie Art Museum Permanent Collection.

Ana Balcazar Bartra

Artist

Peru

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Artist

Angela Colapaoli completed five years of study at a high school specializing in graphic design and communication before pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Art at the trilingual University of Bolzano (Italian, English, and German). During these three years, she had the opportunity to work with various materials in the university’s workshops, including glass, metal, fabric, and wood. She also explored diverse fields of artistic practice, such as performance, video and photography, sculpture, and installation/curation. She graduated in November 2024 and recently moved to Berlin to embark on her professional journey in the art world.

Angela Colapaoli

Artist

Germany, Italy

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Artist

"Nitza Perry is a contemporary art curator based in Modi’in, Israel. She holds an M.A. in Art History from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specializing in contemporary art and museology. Perry is the founder and chief curator of Gallery 51, the municipal gallery of Modi’in, supported by the Ministry of Culture. She also curates contemporary art at MOMO, the city’s heritage museum. Her previous roles include independent curator, board member of the Israeli Curators Union, artistic advisor for art graduates, and head of education at Mobi-Museum Bat Yam. She has served as curator of Carmel: Jewish & Arab Contemporary Art Gallery, assistant head curator of Israeli art at the Israel Museum, and assistant curator at the Bertha Urdang Gallery in New York.
Her curatorial vision emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration, research-based practice, and critical engagement. She views the exhibition space as a site for dialogue, exploration, and lasting cultural impact.
"

Nitza Perry

Art Curator & Founder of Gallery Modiin

Israel

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Art Curator & Founder of Gallery Modiin

"Bianca Z. Sadcovitz is a cultural practitioner with over a decade of experience working with artists, galleries, and art institutions. With a background in curating, writing, and education, her practice spans research, exhibition-making, and communication. Following years of independent research into art ecosystems across continents, she developed a unique transnational perspective on how art operates within different social, cultural, and economic contexts.

Her work explores the intersections of art, urban environments, community dynamics, and the ways cultural narratives are produced, mediated, and experienced in public space.

More recently, Bianca has developed an art-based urban exploration program designed for children. Her practice focuses on how young participants, particularly those from multicultural backgrounds, develop a sense of belonging to their city through artistic engagement, including environments that may otherwise feel inaccessible or unfamiliar to them. Through this work, she examines how creative encounters with the city can support the formation of personal identity, agency, and self-perception in childhood."

Bianca Z. Sadcovitz

Art Curator, Researcher & Educator

Brazil, Germany

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Art Curator, Researcher & Educator

Deniz Yurtbay (b.Istanbul 1985) graduated with BA from Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey in June 2009. After graduating from her BA program, Yurtbay began working in the textile industry. She expanded her interest in textiles by attending Moda Academy in Istanbul, Turkey, London School of Fashion in London, 2011, and Fashion Institute of Technology NY in 2013. She is a self-taught artist that began painting in 2020. In her artistic process she incorporates her knowledge of textiles with a naïve painterly framework tethering these practices with her conceptual concerns related to pointing out inequalities to women and current socio-economic issues in her native Turkey.

Deniz Yurtbay

Artist

Turkey, Mexico

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Artist

"Eva Salazar is a process-based artist, performer and musician working at the intersection of these mediums: combining dance, movement and voice with physical materials like ceramics and textiles. Her Practice emphasizes Sensuality and Intimacy as experiential forms of knowledge.
Salazar has a background in Jazz improvisation, the RoyHart technique, and Butoh dance. She integrates these, the use of ‘Embodied Sculpture’, and the Uninhibited Voice in the creation of objects and performances: weaving in and out of ‘musical’ languages.
Salazar has presented Solo exhibitions at SITE Gallery in Chicago, and CasaCaos in CDMX. In 2025 she exhibited as part of We Will Not Be Silent at STAMP Gallery, Maryland, and From Feeling To Resisting at York University. Salazar holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Material Studies and Art History. She is co-founder, Director and Curator of the Center for Art and Thought in CDMX."

Eva Salazar

Artist, Curator & Co-founder of Center for Art and Thought

Mexico

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Artist, Curator & Co-founder of Center for Art and Thought

Inga Veldre studied chemistry, became a mother, felt need in exploring arts, became a photographer, and opened a studio. She stagnated without curation.

Inga Veldre

Artist

Latvia

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Artist

"Isabella Nicastro is a contemporary Canadian artist and curator based in Toronto, Ontario. She is a recent Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate of OCAD University and previously completed a study-abroad period at Camberwell College of Arts in London, England.

Working primarily in painting, photography, curation, and text, her practice places emphasis on concepts of lived experience, perception of self, familial relations, ancestral heritage, spirituality, and everyday rituals associated with the home environment. She often creates depictions of traditional still-life and portraiture through a contemporary lens, utilizing close-cropped and selectively curated compositions. A strong interplay of light and shadow is weaved throughout, and the quiet, reflective nature of her work lends itself to the deep sense of introspection found at the core of her practice.

Her work has been featured in several exhibitions and private collections locally in Toronto, as well as internationally in London."

Isabella Nicastro

Art Curator & Artist

Canada

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Art Curator & Artist

Lucia Provenzano holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture and has over seven years of professional experience as a graphic designer, working across print, digital media, and event design. She is now focusing her path on contemporary art and curatorial practices, which have long been a deep personal and professional passion. She completed a course in Curatorial Practices at the Node Center for Curatorial Studies (Berlin), and her desire is to step more into the contemporary art field.

Lucia Provenzano

Researcher, Creative Project Manager & Architect

Italy

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Researcher, Creative Project Manager & Architect

Mariia Malakh is a Ukraine-born, Tel Aviv-based art enthusiast and cultural catalyst with a multidisciplinary background in curating, exhibition reviewing, gallery management, and art guiding. Since 2019, she has been the CEO of Art Walks, a project dedicated to engaging audiences with contemporary art through tailored tours of galleries, museums, and artist studios.

Passionate about fostering cross-cultural artistic dialogue, Mariia has organized group art tours to major international events, including the Venice Biennale in 2022 and 2024, providing in-depth explorations of contemporary art practices. She has also curated three charity exhibitions, WithDraw the War, aimed at fundraising for Ukraine and supporting displaced Ukrainian artists seeking refuge in Israel.

Committed to exploring new curatorial methodologies and interdisciplinary collaborations, she continues to expand her expertise in contemporary art discourse, bridging diverse artistic communities through curatorial work, research, and public engagement.

Mariia Malakh

Art Curator, Researcher, & Art guide

Ukraine

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Art Curator, Researcher, & Art guide

Born and raised in San Salvador, El Salvador, Marta Torres is a multidisciplinary art worker based in Berlin, Germany. With a background in interior architecture and a master’s degree in New Media Design, her practice connects spatial design, exhibition production, and cultural research.

Marta works across artistic practice, creative production, and project coordination for interdisciplinary exhibitions and collaborations. Her work explores how environments, everyday aesthetics, and cultural narratives shape identity and social perception.

Alongside her own projects, she supports artists and cultural initiatives through exhibition development and collaborative production, helping translate conceptual ideas into spatial experiences. Through this work, she is increasingly interested in curatorial practice and the role of exhibitions as spaces for dialogue, experimentation, and cultural exchange.

Marta Torres

Artist, Researcher & Creative Project Manager

El Salvador, Germany

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Artist, Researcher & Creative Project Manager

"Palina Turko is a kitsch art photographer primarily specializing in portrait photography, film photography, and collages.
Born in 1995 in Stolbtsy, Belarus, Palina received her first film camera at the age of 11. By the age of 15, she had completed her musical education in guitar at a music school. During this time, she saved up money to purchase her first SLR camera. Palina travelled to Minsk weekly by train for her initial photography classes.
In 2012, at her parents' insistence, Palina enrolled in Belarusian State University, specialising in Customs Affairs. In 2017, after graduating, she worked for six months as a customs logistician but resigned, feeling out of place.
In 2018, Palina co-founded the art project ZZya, participating in festivals such as Vulitsa Jezha and Vidak. In the summer of 2020, she resumed her photography studies at Blenda Photo School in Minsk. Exploring various genres like food photography, love stories, and wedding photography, Palina sought to find her unique style. Simultaneously, she invested considerable effort in building her portfolio.
By a stroke of luck and entirely unexpectedly to herself, Palina was invited to study at the Warsaw Academy of Photography in 2021. Relocating to Warsaw, she found her photographic direction through the Academy's classes and creative environment. A year later, Palina successfully concluded her studies with a project centred on her fear of death, an ongoing theme in her work.
In 2022, Palina took part in the opening of the Heart Breaking Performance exhibition, Hachu Dadomu, held at the Belarusian Youth Hub. Despite not knowing Polish, she received a commission to photograph for a Polish animal activist, and her work was featured in the March '22 edition of Polish Glamour.
In October 2023, Palina began working as a mediator at exhibitions in the Wilanow Museum. Continuing her practice as a portrait photographer, Palina invents her own visual world filled with paper ""crafts."

Palina Turko

Artist

Belarus, Poland

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Artist

Shaza is a visual and storyboard artist. She is Interested in expressing and highlighting the human spectrum of emotions and behaviors hidden within oneself through various art forms. she has a bachelor degree in fine Arts, painting department and has a diplome in Storyboard and animatics from Nayzak animation School. She took part in two exhibitions in egypt with two different video art films . The two exhibitions were Roznama 9 and Youth salon 34 and was honoured to win 2 awards from both Exhibitions. She took an internship as an illustrator and a storyboard artist at 5 degree marketing solutions Agency and now she is currently employed in the agency. In addition to that she was a member for 6 years in Artkhana an NGO that aims to prove that art can and took part in 4 exhibitions in helping , curating and exhibiting some of her work with them , she was also an Illustration team head for 1 year. In addition to that She worked as a freelancer painter and an Art teacher in an art academy.

Shaza Mostafa

Artist

Egypt

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Artist

Thomas Menconi was born and raised in Carrara, where he began his studies at Liceo Scientifico. He later studied at the University of Florence, completing a three-year degree in Cultural Heritage, before continuing his studies in Venice, where he earned a master’s degree in Economics of the Arts. His master’s thesis focused on the Ugandan artist Pamela Enyonu. During his years in Venice, he worked as an intern at AKKA Project, a gallery focused on contemporary African art, and later worked at Lineadacqua Gallery until July 2024.

Thomas Menconi

Art Curator

Italy

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Art Curator

Rooted in her background in journalism, Yeri Jun specializes in transforming raw data into visual narratives that transcend traditional communication boundaries. She explores how context shapes our understanding of visual phenomena. Her work seeks to unlock the multidimensional meaning inherent in data, transcend conventional forms of communication, and inspire meaningful dialogue and discovery.

Yeri Jun

Artist

Korea, USA

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Artist

After completing his doctoral research on photography and social movements in East Asia, Yohsuke Ishizuka worked for seven years at Ota Fine Arts, one of the leading contemporary art galleries in East and Southeast Asia. During his time at the gallery, he was responsible for various tasks, including artist liaison and gallery program management. In terms of artist management, he was deeply involved in major global exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale, Singapore Biennale, and Asian Art Biennale, among others. After moving to Germany, he developed a strong interest in the topic of the diaspora of Asian artists in Europe.

Yohsuke Ishizuka

Gallerist & Art Curator

Germany, Japan

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Gallerist & Art Curator

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