The interviews are conducted by VB Contemporary's director, Vian Borchert. Besides being a multidisciplinary noted international artist. Borchert has been a writer and art critic for over a decade contributing with art articles in a national online newspaper within the U.S.A. Borchert gets called upon to cover and write reviews for major retrospectives and exhibitions in world-class American museums. Borchert is also the Art Lead / curator of the art segment for "Oxford Public Philosophy Journal" for the Turn 5 issue - "Oxford Public Philosophy" is a philosophy journal based at Oxford University, UK. The journal is a space for critically questioning what philosophy is and how we're doing it, in form and content.
Interview with Rob Hann
Rob Hann
About the artist:
Rob Hann is an accomplished photographer who was born on a farm, a short distance from Stonehenge, in the south of England. He bought a camera at the age of 31 with the idea to become a photographer. In the following years Rob shot a great many portraits for magazines and record companies. In 2001 he took his first road trip in The United States shooting what he found along the way. Rob moved from London to the US in 2003 and from 2010 concentrated exclusively on his road trip photography. More recently he’s been experimenting with shooting objects that he places within the landscape.
Rob now divides his time between New York City and Joshua Tree, California. He has 7 photographs in the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery in London. Rob’s first book, Diesel Fried Chicken, was published by The Artist Edition in 2018.
Interview with Jessie G Gordon
Jessie G Gordon
About the artist:
Jessie Goldberg Gordon is a British visual artist / photographer who resides in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
As for Jessie's art practice, Jessie states, "in contrast to the speed of the camera which has become her notebook, the process of painting is a different visual-time interaction and technique. It takes time. Yet, by definition, a finished painting condenses time into one solid moment." In some of her mixed media works, the shadow and reflection photos are printed, often in a large format on Hahnemühle WT paper. Then with Acrylic paint, the image is sometimes accentuated, and sometimes extended further into the realm of ambiguity. An underlying notion is the regular return to the simple pleasure of shape, contrast and colour.
Interview with Sigrid Thaler
Sigrid Thaler
About the artist:
Sigrid Thaler is an artist born in Vipiteno, Italy. Thaler has worked for many years as an illustrator. Thaler has presented her works in various international exhibitions in Italy, Germany and others. Thaler is currently residing in Milan.
Working with varying mediums, Sigrid's artistry has been shaped from growing up in a small Italian mountain city and her early exposure to the Nordic and German cultures. Sigrid developed her artistic style living in Austria, Paris, Singapore and São Paulo.
With a background in illustration, Thaler chose to concentrate on painting, which has brought her art to many exhibitions in cities such as New York, London, Germany, Austria, and Italy.
Interview with Zoltán Vadászi
Zoltán Vadászi
About the artist:
Zoltán Vadászi is an international photographer based in Europe, in Hungary. For Vadászi, in photography the focus of his interest is error aesthetics by managing adverse events both in designing and imaging phases. The research field Zoltán is currently working on question the objective reality from art history, photographic, philosophical and physical perspective. Vadászi is committed to the multi-disciplinary art direction as he thinks there is no strong borderline between science and art for instance.
Nowadays, Vadászi is using medical imaging modalities (in his latest project combined with 3D printing) for photography.
Interview with Kazu Saito
Kazu Saito
About the artist:
Kazu Saito is an esteemed and accomplished award-winning Japanese artist who was born in Kyoto, Japan.
Saito graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts. Saito has won numerous awards such as:
Grand Prize, Kyoto Art and Crafts Exhibition
Grand Prize, National Ink Painting Competition
Runner-up, Shinwa Art Exhibition
Kazu Saito wants to explore and pursue "beauty" in the every day. Saito also wants to spread that knowledge to the world and deliver it to the whole world as well.
Interview with Jason Rafferty
Jason Rafferty
About the artist:
Jason Rafferty is a multidisciplinary artist and professor/educator based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, US. Rafferty is an Applied Assistant Professor of 2D Visual Art at the University of Tulsa. Rafferty holds an MFA from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia, and a BFA degree in Drawing and Painting from UNC Asheville. Jason is an AXA Art Prize Finalist and a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant. Recent exhibitions include the Athenaeum in Athens, GA, Swan Coach House Gallery in Atlanta, GA, AXA Art Prize in New York, NY, Vestige Concept Gallery in Pittsburgh, PA, Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, and Artfields in Lake City, SC. His work can be found in private collections across the US and internationally.
Interview with Satoshi Morita
Satoshi Morita
About the artist:
Satoshi Morita was born in Fukuoka, Japan, and raised in Saga, Japan.
Satoshi is a traveling ‘Amazinist’ who seeks and continues to capture and seek "Beauty" from varying perspectives.
All of Satoshi's artwork transcends all genres. Morita continues to play with photography, painting, along with playing improvised piano through his unique, original, and self-created way. Satoshi's artwork has been exhibited in a number of international exhibitions in cities such as Venice and Istanbul.
Interview with Lee Kaloidis
Lee Kaloidis
About the artist:
Lee Kaloidis was born in Philadelphia, PA, to an American mother and a Greek father. Within a year the family was transplanted to South Florida where his mother was an art teacher. At seven, Lee began playing trumpet and was playing professionally and studying with the local pros in his teens. He attended the University of Miami School of Music with a focus on Jazz Studies. Eventually, Lee would move to New York, transition from trumpet to poetry, and spend all of his time with literature. In the 1990s, poetry, trumpet, and the visual arts began to fuse via intense interest in creativity of the mind. In the 2000s, the visual world overtake poetry and music and he worked almost exclusively with paint, though he writes poetry and plays jazz trumpet to this day. He has been a professional working artist since the past 20 years. Kaloidis’s work can be found all over the globe. His main collector is Norwegian Holdings. A documentary film was recently filmed in Lee’s studio in March 2024 and is due to be released soon about Lee’s art for the Norwegian's collection.
Interview with Andrew Harrison
Andrew Harrison
About the artist:
Andrew Harrison is an accomplished photographer, born in rural Norfolk, UK. Harrison started his photographic journey 40 yrs ago. Harrison worked as a commercial photographer both in the UK and internationally for many years in the fields designs and others. Harrison worked on film in all formats from 35mm to large format 5x4. Studio still life has always been Andrew Harrison’s passion. In the late 1980s, Harrison also lectured on photography for the City & Guild Photography Course.
Interview with Katsumi Ishikawa
Katsumi Ishikawa
About the artist:
Katsumi Ishikawa is a Japanese photographer who resides and works in Hiroshima, Japan. Albeit Katsumi's works by day, yet she dedicates much of her time to her love for the art of photography and to capturing the beauty of the nature around her such as the magnificence and fragility of Japanese flowers along with trees like cherry blossoms. In her photos, Ishikawa captures the exquisiteness of the soft delicate petals of the Japanese flora. She has been a photographer for 8 years. Katsumi uses a macro lens (Nikon D850) to bring attention to the flower stamens and the leaves that protect the flowers.
Interview with Victor Griffin
Victor Griffin
About the artist:
Victor Griffin is a British fine art photographer who specializes in flower and botanical photography. Griffin spent his adult life until 2019 in the medical field where he worked with medical imaging devices in technical, educational and commercial roles. Now retired, photography has become Griffin's main focus. Griffin's specialty is nature and specifically flora.
Interview with Hermann Lederle
Hermann Lederle
About the artist:
Hermann Lederle is a German artist residing and working in Los Angeles. The artist is known for his "Pixels" painting, and more recently for his series “Adaptation". His works have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions around the world, and his artistic production is particularly unique and recognizable. Although initially the impression is abstract, Lederle's art features geometric elements that compose, as a whole, figurative elements. Lederle’s work represents the interaction between film and art. Lederle's work suggests a kind of Cubism for the digital age. Moreover, Lederle's work has been widely exhibited in NY, LA, San Francisco, Germany, and France in galleries such as: Media Rare Gallery in Los Angeles, Lawson Galleries in San Francisco, Friedman Guinness Gallery in Heidelberg, and in private collections of Ringo Starr and Eric Stoltz.
Interview with Vanessa Mitter
Vanessa Mitter
About the artist:
Vanessa Mitter is a painter and a performance artist, who lives and works in London. In her paintings and performances, Mitter is interested in interrogating the history, particularly, of expressionist painting and of the gesture. The making is very physical. The canvas is moved around, laid on the floor, then the wall, often remade or scored over, obliterated and then painted over again. Often, paintings are buried underneath other paintings. There is a narrative being referenced, but it is often hidden and autobiographical. Mitter uses layers of paint and collage, overlaid with pen and oil stick. The making is instinctive and accident driven. This tightrope is important - The painting has its own life, and leads the way. Mitter views this as a process of alchemy; a transformative process.
Interview with Glenn Wexler
Glenn Wexler
About the artist:
Glenn Wexler is a multidisciplinary esteemed artist who is Chicago based. Wexler creates urban themed artwork and installations with a cultural and environmental awareness. As a teen, Wexler was intrigued and inspired by Chicago's Chinatown’s architecture and culture. Wexler's work represents a number of projects such as the Tree collection and others. The Tree series conveys a multitude of sentiments like the depiction of isolation and vulnerability along with emphasis on a place where the human impact on nature is evident while also imparting the possibility of transformation and renewal.
Interview with Arjan Janssen
Arjan Janssen
About the artist:
Arjan Janssen is an accomplished artist who resides and works in Breda, the Netherlands. Janssen encompasses in his artwork his own probable universe. Janssen’s work showcases his individual aesthetics via the usage of structure, stripes and lines that bring forth dynamic compositions.
Interview with Jaume Llorens
Jaume Llorens
About the artist:
Jaume Llorens is a Spanish accomplished photographer who has been passionate about photography since his teens. Highlights from his photographic career include exhibitions at LensCulture group exhibition at Photo London 2023, Fundació Valvi in Girona 2022 and Valid Foto Gallery in Barcelona, 2019. Llorens has won numerous awards such as: Top Pick at LensCulture Critics' Choice 2023, Top 50 at Photolucida Critical Mass 2023, 3rd place (singles) at LensCulture Black & White Awards 2022, Barcelona International Photography Awards 2019, and 3rd prize in VI National Photography Competition Canson Infinity (Spain).
Interview with Albert John Belmont
Albert John Belmont
About the artist:
Albert John Belmont is a contemporary artist living and working in New Hampshire. He studied at the Art Institute of Boston in the mid-90s, and then at the University of Florida College of Fine Arts. Belmont’s art centers on the deconstruction of a subject to its critical elements – line and color – to communicate form and emotion. Since 2020, his work has delved into autobiographical explorations of spaces, sleep, quiet experiences, and key memories – most recently through a developing visual memoir series, “Son of ‘77”.
Interview with TamHuy
TamHuy
About the artist:
TamHuy is a contemporary artist who is recognized for his unique style of gestural painting. TamHuy, who is originally from Hanoi, Vietnam moved to Paris in 2012 where he currently resides. In Paris, he attended L'École de beaux-arts de Versailles. TamHuy employs a musically poetic approach to his paintings, creating lightness and a sense of infinity that speaks to the universal and the timeless. Moreover, TamHuy meditates and sings peaceful Buddhist songs called mantras that help him let go of the ego and create freely. He states that his art is a way to navigate towards inner search for a better version of himself.
Interview with Johnny Otto
Johnny Otto
About the artist:
Johnny Otto is a contemporary Artist and Publisher/Found of Art Squat Magazine based in Los Angeles. Often compared to Basquiat, Haring and Picasso, Otto’s work is influenced by African Art.
Otto's work spans more than 35 years and includes shows with David Hockney (Divine Design Fundraiser Auction), Compound Contemporary (Risk, WRDSMTH, Plastic Jesus, Shepard Fairey), Crystal Head Vodka Finalist at the Magic Castle, 01 Gallery, Headquarters, Jeff Hamilton's Street Art Fair, Radiant Space, Ministry Gallery, Art Squat, Project Angel Food Auction, Novian/Miller Space and others. He has been featured in numerous publications including Art Reveal Magazine, Paint the Streets Podcast, Artillery, LAWeekly, VoyageLA, and Left Bank Magazine.
Interview with Irfan Ajvazi
Irfan Ajvazi
About the artist:
Irfan Ajvazi is a visual artist, sculptor, draftsman, photographer, and printmaker based in Germany working in the field of painting, sculpture , drawing and new media. His artworks can be described as minimalist and intimate, as he investigates the concept of presence. Irfan works in the media of installation/sculpture, photography and drawing.
Interview with Karen Ghostlaw
Karen Ghostlaw
About the artist:
Karen Ghostlaw is an international photographer and Editor for The Pictorial List Magazine. She has a degree in Fine Arts and Photography from Pratt Institute, and has been creating work since the early 1980’s. Karen has been published and exhibits internationally, receiving awards of recognition for excellence in the professional field of photography, for images as well as significant projects and installations. She creates and exhibits her handbound books in major art fairs globally. Karen collaborates with artists on projects internationally, diversifying and broadening her understanding of the way contemporary photographers are developing new dialogues in the fields of art and photography today.
Interview with Ronis Varlaam
Ronis Varlaam
About the artist:
Ronis Varlaam has studied filmmaking at the London Film School and produced and directed several documentaries for TV. Gradually Varlaam's interests moved to art in general and now his practice includes painting, photography, videos and conceptual art. Ronis is primarily a painter.
Varlaam has taken part in more than 40 exhibitions, and he has been included in more than 20 publications. Varlaam has taken part in the Jerwood Drawing Finalists exhibition, Creekside Open, the Discerning Eye, the National Open Art exhibition and at the Royal Watercolour Society, Florian Museum in Romania, Project Berlin and Scope Art in Miami. Varlaam has also taken part in events at the Venice Biennale and at the Louvre. Varlaam is also the Editor of a new online art magazine ART_LOVE.
Interview with Eric Hajjar
Eric Hajjar
About the artist:
Eric Hajjar began his career in visual storytelling as a photographer and graphic designer. Armed with various film and digital cameras, Eric has traveled both domestically and internationally, focusing mostly on candid street photography. Eric’s work has been displayed in publications as well as galleries in LA, NY, Miami, and Las Vegas.
Interview with Aaron Lelito
Aaron Lelito
About the artist:
Aaron Lelito is a visual artist and writer from Buffalo, NY. His images have been published as cover art in Red Rock Review, Peatsmoke Journal, and The Scriblerus. His poetry chapbook, The Half Turn, was published in 2023, and his work has also appeared in Barzakh Magazine, Novus Literary Arts Journal, SPECTRA Poets, The Primer, and Santa Fe Review. He is editor in chief of the art & literature website Wild Roof Journal.