Hilma af Klint was a Swedish artist and mystic whose paintings are considered among the first abstract works known in Western art history. A considerable body of her work predates the first purely abstract compositions by Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian. She belonged to a group called "The Five", comprising a circle of women inspired by Theosophy, who shared a belief in the importance of trying to contact the so-called "High Masters"—often by way of séances. Her paintings, which sometimes resemble diagrams, were a visual representation of complex spiritual ideas.
Stephen Lawlor is an honours graduate of its National College of Art and Design from 1980-1983. During the 1980s he taught in Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology Dublin, his work during this time was based on the figure of the horse which he developed through drawings etchings, lithographs and monotypes. An accomplished painter as well as a master printer, Lawlor has recently started to make sculpture in bronze. He has had solo shows in Ireland, England and the U.S.A. and has participated in numerous International Group exhibitions. His work is in private collections in the United States, Australia, The Far East and most of Europe.
Agnes Denes is a Hungarian-born American conceptual artist based in New York. She is known for works in a wide range of media—from poetry and philosophical writings to extremely detailed drawings, sculptures, and iconic land art works, such as Wheatfield — A Confrontation (1982), a two-acre field of wheat in downtown Manhattan, commissioned by the Public Art Fund, and Tree Mountain—A Living Time Capsule (1992–96) in Ylojärvi, Finland. Her work Rice/Tree/Burial with Time Capsule (1968–79) is recognized as one of the earliest examples of ecological art. She lives and works in New York City.
Kaljo Põllu was an Estonian artist. In 1962 he received a diploma in glass art, and became director of art cabinet of Tartu State University; he founded the contemporary artist's group Visarid in 1966 in Tartu. In 1973 he moved to Tallinn, where from 1975 to 1996 he taught drawing in the Estonian Academy of Arts; at this point his art changed in style dramatically as he searched for influences from the ancient Finnic culture.
Bianca Wallin, was a Swedish artist.
Ian McKeever is a contemporary British artist. Since 1990 McKeever has lived and worked in Hartgrove, Dorset, England.
Sevil Soyer is a Turkish interdisciplinary artist. Soyer has had solo exhibitions and group exhibitions along with several installations in Turkey and the United States.
Edna Andrade was an American abstract artist. She was an early Op Artist.
Mall Nukke is an Estonian artist. A printmaker by training, she is primarily known for her paintings, collages and installations influenced by pop art. Mall Nukke emerged on the Estonian art scene in the early 1990s, her work at the period can be seen as commentary of nascent mass culture and consumer society in newly independent Estonia. Her early collages combined various cultural references and created new media characters based on real entertainers and public figures. Since the 2000s, Mall Nukke has concentrated on creating photo-manipulations and mixed media paintings inspired by Eastern Orthodox icon art.
Ilona Harima was a Finnish artist whose paintings expressed deep oriental spirituality. Her style was strongly influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism but not similar to Asian art. Harima developed a personal style very different from the mainstream movements of that era between the world wars.
Alisa Jakobi is an Estonian artist, actress and graphic designer.
Füsun Onur is a Turkish artist, based in Istanbul. She uses everyday materials in her painting and sculpture to reflect on space, time, rhythm and form.
Arif Aziz is an artist from Azerbaijan, living and teaching in its capital, Baku. He is one of Azerbaijan's internationally known contemporary artists and serves as his country's Ambassador for Peace, People’s Artist of Azerbaijan Republic and Professor at Azerbaijani State University of Art and Culture.
Sigrid Sandström is a Swedish artist and a professor of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. Her work is characterized by graphic abstraction, an embrace of color and difference in scale, and an array of techniques used to apply paint and other materials to canvas, ranging from cloths and rugs, to masking with tape, squeegee-ing and smearing, and collaging. She has also worked in film and video, most notably for her 2005 exhibition Her Black Flags at the Mills College Art Museum in Oakland, CA, and in sculpture and installation. Artforum critic Naomi Fry, reviewing a 2007 show at Edward Thorp Gallery, cited the artist's interest in landscape as subject and noted that Sandström "also grapples here with painting’s essential difficulty in the face of the sublime. As the works consistently teeter on the verge of abstraction, the interplay between a more traditional naturalism and geometric fragmentation provides a salient tension."
Sini Manninen was a Finnish painter and artist, trained at the Académie des Beaux Arts de Helsinki in Finland. She produced the majority of her works in France, to which she moved in 1973, more precisely, to the Montmartre district of Paris. Mastering many painting techniques under various disciplines, naïve art remained her fondest style.
Nermin Sirel Farukî (1904–1991) or (1914–2001), was a Turkish sculptor, and one of Turkey's first female sculptors. She was born in Istanbul. She received education in the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts painting department and later at the Berlin Fine Arts Academy. Along with sculpture she also worked on paintings. Nermin Farukî was born as Nermin Sirel. Nermin Farukî was the daughter of the Ottoman Empires first perfume producers, Ahmet Farukî.
Maria Virginia Errázuriz Guilisasti, also known as Virginia Errázuriz, is a Chilean painter, professor, printmaker and draftsperson.
Pilvi Takala is a performance artist presenting candid camera as art. Takala won the Dutch Prix de Rome in 2011 and the Emdash Award in 2013. Her works have been exhibited in various exhibitions worldwide, most recently in London, Aarhus and Glasgow. She is known best for being in time-based media.
Elga Sesemann was a Finnish post-war neo-romantic painter. She was an expressionist whose themes often included melancholy, depression, anxiety, and loneliness.
Canal Cheong Jagerroos is a Chinese contemporary artist. Brought up in an artistic family in Macau, Cheong Jagerroos works primarily in abstract painting and installations. Her works have been exhibited worldwide since the 1980s. While Cheong Jagerroos is best known for her more traditional multi-layered rice-paper abstract paintings, her later works are based on conceptual art. Her art is infused with ancient metaphoric symbols, signs, and contemporary expressions.
