Katya Gridneva, 1965 | Figurative painter

Katya Gridneva is an Ukrainian painter.

As a child she loved to draw and paint, but this talent was set aside when she was selected to be a gymnast at one of Russia’s prestigious Sports Schools.

This career came to an abrupt end when she was injured in a fall from the bar.

Her significant artistic talent was recognised by her acceptance in 1993 to the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg, also known as the Repin Institute.

Yves Thos (1935-2020) | La Dolce Vita

Yves Thos was a French painter, leader of a poster artist trend and author of masterpieces now listed in the Cinema World Heritage.

Since the 1980’s, his paintings have created a new pictural generation which naturally originated from posters and figurative contemporary art.

Born in Paris suburbs, Yves Thos joined the School of Graphic Arts at age 16 and painted his first movie posters when he was 19.

Yves Thos began his painting career as a cinema poster artist at the age of nineteen, never to leave it again. He painted his first posters for the firm Pathé-Cinéma.

Duy Huynh, 1975 | Symbolist Surrealist painter

Duy Huynh’s poetic and contemplative acrylic paintings symbolically reflect geographical and cultural displacement.

Drawing inspiration from a variety of storytellers in formats that range from music and movies to ancient folklore and comic book adventures, Duy, Vietnamese painter, creates his own narratives of the human condition with ethereal characters maintaining a serene, precarious balance, often in a surreal or dreamlike setting.

Kinga Britschgi, 1963 | Surrealist painter

Kinga Britschgi is a Hungarian artist living in the United States. She is best known for her magical digital images that always have some dark surrealistic elements. She was born in Nagyatád, Hungary and moved to the U.S. in 1995. She has a degree in Fine Arts (graphic design), TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), and Elementary Education.

Her works were published in numerous professional publications and in 2013 Adobe chose her as one of the artists in their 'New Creatives' campaign.

She lives with her husband and son in Boise, Idaho.

Giuseppe De Nittis | Impressionist painter

Giuseppe De Nittis (1846-1884) - printmaker, painter / draughtsman.

Born in Barletta in Apulia, De Nittis received his first artistic training from Giambattista Calò, a local painter, before moving to Naples in 1861 to attend the Istituto di Belle Arti.

He was expelled in 1863 for failing to conform to academic practice.

At that time, De Nittis' main interest was in experimenting with plein air painting.