Felix Benton grew up surrounded by people who made things. His grandmother was a glass artist, his mother was a chef and painter, and his father designs furniture, including the chair sitting in his studio during our conversation. For a while, that creative environment had the opposite effect one might expect. Benton was determined not
Jackie Reeves grew up in Montreal in a family where making things was part of everyday life. Both of her parents were architects with seven children, art supplies were always within reach. Large sheets of paper covered the floor, her father drew and her mother built architectural models. Jackie learned by watching them, developing an
French visual artist and designer based near Basel, Stéphane Koyama-Meyer grew up surrounded by art, with parents who regularly took him to museums when he was young and a father who painted and taught him to draw. He remembers being exposed to the work of major twentieth century artists from an early age, seeing enormous
For Portuguese painter Mafalda d’Oliveira Martins, painting is a way of understanding people. Working primarily in oil, Mafalda creates figurative paintings that explore memory, vulnerability, relationships, and the quiet moments that often pass unnoticed. While her paintings frequently begin with ordinary scenes or familiar faces, they become much more than records of reality. They are
