My original inspiration for making fiber art came from studying ethnic embroidery traditions. I aim to make modern pieces that are as faithful to their materials as traditional handmade textiles. I often work in smaller formats, which allow the fibers and the individual threads to have a more dominant visual role in the final image. After the pandemic began, my work became more representational and focused on my family and our daily life. I was embroidering us, but because of the medium, the fabrics around us came through very vividly.

 Growing Up Jewish–Art & Storytelling is a series of contemporary artworks and short narratives about Jewish identity as it evolved through five generations of my family. Inspired by vintage photos, I created this series to look at the people, experiences, and community that shaped my Jewish identity, to tell my family’s Jewish story, and perhaps shine a fresh new light on what North American Judaic art could look like.

 My work explores the relationship between humans and nature, environmental concerns, and the balance of my local plains ecosystem. Through working with naturalists, biologists, and wildlife enthusiasts, I seek to gain a better understanding of native, invasive, and endangered species of the area I inhabit. I use painting as a tool to preserve, elevate, and marvel at the intricate details of living things.

 I have always been infatuated with the complexity of the intrapersonal. A space where emotions, time, memory, and knowledge live amongst each other. The way that these elements work together and war together in a single hidden space provides a theatrical glimpse into what it’s like to be human. My work explores this hidden space and its ability to visualize and have self-dialogue resulting in conflict, innovation, and transformations that propel us forward and sometimes hold us back. I like to believe that my paintings are all the elements spilling out of me and taking a human form.

 Working primarily in oil paint and gouache, Gregor creates psychological portraits of young girls caught within the awkward tension between girlhood and womanhood, innocence and sexuality. Her compositions are often warm and inviting, yet loom with a sense of existential dread. The surroundings that the figures are confined to hint at rural Midwestern landscapes and outdated interiors. There is a sense of frustration and boredom behind the girl’s often heavy eyes.

 I examine the often conflicting ways we conceive of the natural world. My approach is multidisciplinary—I work with a wide range of materials and images to create mixed-media paintings and collages, experimental videos, and installative interventions and situations.

 Thomas Frontini combines surrealist techniques of painting detailed foreground images with atmospheric backgrounds. The dreamlike imagery balances contemporary objects with historical scenes. His paintings explore magic in the mundane and draw from the transformative power of the subconscious. Frontini’s palette and technique are directly influenced by his Italian heritage and interest in Italian art history. With his incorporation of historical research into the modern day, he creates a dialogue across time—from the past, present, and future.

 These works are drawings, made with ivory black watercolor on paper. For me, drawing is about transparency, the most direct route from an idea to the paper. Watercolor pushes back on my obsessive tendencies, requiring me to make compromises and not lose the forest for the trees. The drawings are inspired by chance encounters with objects, spaces, or events that trigger moments of clarity, where they suddenly appear to be intensely strange, or intensely beautiful. I attempt to stage these moments, either on site or in the studio, but inevitably I end up making changes.

 In the fall of 2019, I had the privilege of living and working in the heart of Tokyo. With time to explore and create new work, I made paintings based on encounters, interactions, and observations. This began a journey I hoped might capture the freshness of this endeavor in the form of responsive imagery or documentation for future development.

 Shanique Emelife is a queer Nigerian-American self-taught painter. Their work often centers on a first-generation immigrant experience and explores family history and home.