As the chill of winter recedes and the days grow longer and brighter, you may find yourself drawn to the creative energy that accompanies the arrival of spring. Spring is a time of transformation and rebirth, not just in nature, but also within ourselves.
And what better way to grow but to engage with culture and explore new art in all its forms?
This month we want to introduce to you a group of talented and accomplished artists, working in a variety of styles, from traditional figuration and abstraction to cutting edge new media, video and AI. They have come together to explore the theme of transformation through art in the upcoming Creations Atelier Exhibition Metamorphosis.
From personal evolution to societal shifts and the fluidity between form, identity, and nature, Metamorphosis showcases the transformative power of art, through a dynamic range of mediums and styles.
Diana Ali, Visual Artist and Independent Curator
Diana Ali is a British Bangladeshi artist and curator, living and working in Nottingham, UK. Her practice involves fictional narratives, analogue video making, a play on text.
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Diana is currently working with promoting and advocating the importance of creative thinking and making in different sectors outside of art. She is also a creative mentor, workshop leader, a trustee for The Nottingham Women’s Centre and Axis and a Fine Art lecturer at Loughborough University and Open College of Arts. She has appeared in several art programmes as a professional mentor and presenter on BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4.
Michelle Baharier, Artist and Disability Advocate
Michelle Baharier is an award-winning multi-media artist, graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art.
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She exhibits widely and her art is held in both public and private collections, including digital portraits in the British Transport Museum and Sound Moves, in the Tate sound archive. Michelle is a recipient of the Glaxo Smith Kline Impact Award and the Julian Sullivan Award for ground-breaking work in the arts.
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Michelle’s artwork addresses the many barriers that she and others face, some due to disability discrimination and prejudice.
Julie Bennett, Portrait Artist
Julie Bennett is a distinguished portrait painter with a BA in Fine Art Painting from Camberwell College of Arts. Her work has been showcased in numerous group exhibitions, including Mall Galleries, Arlington Arts, The Koppel Project, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, and Norden Farm Centre for the Arts.
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A longstanding member of South London Women Artists, Bennett has received notable recognition, including the People’s Choice Award at the Brixton Blog & Bungle Summer Art Show and selection as a finalist for The Signature Art Awards.
Her most recent residency at Bankside Hotel, and her works are held in private collections across the UK and internationally.
Caz Dowdall, Multidisciplinary Artist
Caz Dowdall is a British multi-disciplinary artist and community art teacher based in Earley, England.
Caz began her artistic journey studying art through GCSE and A-levels before earning a BTEC in Art and Design. She then explored diverse mediums, including glass, ceramics, and metal, while completing a BA in Contemporary Crafts at Buckinghamshire New University. After a hiatus from her creative career, she returned as a community art teacher in Woodley, specialising in ceramics and painting.
Currently pursuing a master’s degree in psychology, Caz aims to integrate art into therapeutic practices, reflecting her passion for mindfulness and creative expression.
Whether hiking in the mountains, painting in her studio, or dancing under the lights of the dancefloor, her art captures the beauty of being fully present in the moment. Connect with her here.
Simon Dunstan, a Painter of Places and Things
Simon Dunstan is a representational artist, chiefly interested in painting from life, depicting what he sees in as honest a way as he can. As he likes to put it he “paints pictures of people places and things”.
Simon also runs the Dulwich Art Group and School which has afforded him the chance to paint regularly and to enjoy the company of other artists. There he supports others on their creative journey as a tutor and demonstrator.
The Dulwich Art Group & School is a small, friendly, independent art school with a focus on observational drawing and painting based in South London.
Simon and his team of experienced artists run open studio life drawing and painting sessions and structured art courses.
Rosella Garavaglia
Rosella was born in Italy where her career as an artist began with Textile Design and then Lettering and Calligraphy.
Her freelance work includes letter design and pen and brush-written inscriptions on paper and cloth. Her main interest as a lettering artist has been to explore the expressive power of the written word through various media and writing implements including the brush, fabric, wood, stone, glass and collage. More recently her practice has evolved to include abstract painting, collage, and mono printing through which she explores the language of colour, mark making and texture, with the intent of expressing, more deeply, a connection with my inner world of feelings and emotions.
Rosella’s abstract paintings explore the fluid nature of transformation—how we, like the world around us, are in a constant state of becoming.
Through abstraction and texture, Rosella invite viewers to reflect on their own transformations, recognising that, like waves in the same sea, we are all part of a greater, ever-shifting whole.
Natalia Giacomino
Natalia Giacomino is an abstract artist, award winning architect and the co-founder of Creations Atelier. As a creative, she is always looking for something unique, and remains in love with arts and artists!
Her practice bridges architecture and abstraction, she enjoys playing with colours, the monochrome and patterns.
Born in Rome, Natalia studied architecture in Florence: she has always been surrounded by beauty, elegance and art and considers painting as necessity and the best way to express herself and her emotions.
Natalia has written a number of articles for Elysium in the last few months. Check them our here.
Carry Hornby
Carry Hornby is a Chinese brush Artist. She was born and educated in Taiwan into the respectful family of Huang, and she took art lessons from young ages. She now lives in South East London with her family.
Though she is widely known for her Calligraphy art, she also paints in different media. In this exhibition she introduces three pieces of her new work in ink as well as two of her newest paintings in oil pastel, which has become one of her favourite medium next to ink. In her painting ’Kaleidoscope Vision’, Carry seeks to express how her perception changes under various influences. Her eyes being the gateway between the mind and the outside world, this painting shows the eye with the bright red blood vessels, as if it is under stress ‘…the perception of the world in bright colours with patterns and shapes is no longer at its purest form.’
She is a member of Creation Atelier as well as an active member of SLWA, Artist Union of England and ArtCan. She regularly exhibits and teaches art classes, mostly popular for her teaching on the mindfulness of Chinese Calligraphy Art.
Kristina Kashtanova, AI educator, photographer and filmmaker.
Kashtanova is an AI educator, photographer and filmmaker with a background in software development and journalism (specialising in human rights and art).
Kris has worked in several startups as head of AI and AI consultant. She has built a large community around generative AI on X/former Twitter (over 100k followers) and has been a guest teacher at Columbia University, Austrian Academy of Sciences and CreativeMornings.
At the moment Kris works at Adobe as Senior Creative Evangelist Artificial Intelligence. In her role she speaks at conferences, creates educational workshops, consults on AI training and an AI expert who evangelises internally and externally. She’s been speaking at Columbia University, Austrian Academy of Sciences, CreativeMornings, Adobe MAX, Montreal HUB on creativity, ethics and copyright of AI.
Her work on AI was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg Law, the Guardian, and others. Her photography (non-AI) was published by the New York Post, the Telegraph, the Times & Sunday Times, The Sun, Metro and the British Parliament.
Creator of “Zarya of the Dawn” and holder of two AI assisted copyrights.
Gioacchino Loporchio
Gioacchino Loporchio is a contemporary Italian artist from Cerignola, know for his signature style of brightly coloured textured paintings. His painting techniques are mixed, with a preference for oil colours on canvas and on wood. His art is the expression of a fantastic and surreal world, as an interpretation and reinterpretation of today’s reality.
Ivan Minekov
Ivan Minekov is a famous Bulgarian sculptor, best known for his mythology inspired bronzes and the official portraits of public figures like Prof. Denton Cooley (First Heart Transplant in the world) and Dimitar Peshev, the politician responsible for saving the Bulgarian Jewish population in WWII. He is also one of very few artists in the world whose work has bee launched in space.
This exhibition will present a series of his lithographs, which are often referenced in his statues. Find out more about Ivan Minekov here.
Paola Minekov
A devoted painter, Paola Minekov encapsulates vital sentiments and moments of life using a discernible visual language. Her work reveals influences of early Modernist traditions, blending abstraction with figuration to depict lyrical, yet dynamic scenes. Inspired by her personal experiences, her visceral works inspire contemplation and focus on the human condition.
Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Paola was encouraged to pursue an artistic career from an early age, influenced by her parents, both successful artists. Her life path led her through different countries and continents, enriching her educational and living experience. While experimenting with different media during her formative years, the artist abandoned the world of digital art, to return to the canvas, her true passion.
In 2024 Paola Minekov and Natalia Giacomino cofounded Creations Atelier with the mission to connect artists and businesses, thus providing more opportunities for artists and more spatiality in the world of business.
Dil Vahidova
Dil Vahidova is a glass artist who has over 30 years behind her back as a doctor.
She initally picked glass art as a creative outlet and a way to overcome her fear of glass. Today Vahidova exhibits regularly and creates from her home studio in South London.
We recently interviewed Dil for Elysium. Read her story Prescribing Art: Dil Vahidova’s Unusual Remedy.
Metamorphosis opens on 28 March in the Art Space of Marylebone Parish Church in London.
Private View: 4 April, 6-8pm.
The exhibition is sponsored by Digibees Web Design Studio, NGA & Partners Architecture Studio, ruaB Architecture & Design and Sweet Justice Cakes. Media Partner: Elysium Lifestyle Magazine.
