UPCOMING ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE
Here you can find some of artist profiles who are participating in Casa Na Ilha Residency Program. Keep checking as we will be adding artists over the next few weeks!
GEMMA SERREQI - MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
Canada
Gemma Serreqi is a Montreal-based artist whose work explores themes of memory, home and the body and their relation to one another. Although her principal mediums are acrylic paint and pastel, she explores a variety of other disciplines. She graduated from Concordia University in 2025, majoring in Studio Arts, while also completing a semester at the University of Leeds in Art and Design.
She also apprenticed with Montreal artist Joe Lima, whose large scale woodblock carvings gave her the opportunity to learn traditional woodcutting methods and print restoration. More recently, she has been selling her prints in local boutiques to widen her platform while also giving back to the community by donating a percentage of her profits to local animal shelters. Her practice and interests are ever-growing, and her journey as an emerging artist has led her down a variety of different paths. This is her first artists residency.
SAM MCFARLAND - FILMMAKER
U.S.A.
I am coming to Casa Na Ilha to continue work on my next film script! A narrative, set in rural Vermont, which looks to explore the unseen similarities between humans and trees. Tree roots are able to share nutrients, share water, and even communicate dangers, through a vast network of mycelium that connects them all. What is human's mycelium? Past the obvious, how do we share emotional nutrients, and communicate incommunicable feelings and ideas? I believe the answer can be found in art and music. I plan on spending my time on the island meditating on these ideas, and trying to embody these same ideas with the artists I'll be sharing space with!
Sam is an award-winning filmmaker who splits his time between New York and Vermont. Sam worked at a local video production company as his afterschool job in high school, and focused on documentary work during his undergraduate. His early work focused on disability, and his personal relationship with it. He went on to receive his MA in filmmaking from the London Film School. His graduate film premiered in competition at the Austin Film Festival. Sam spends his free time doing work on his cabin in the woods of Vermont, and going on road trips in search of great pool tables across the country.
LORRAINE SHACKELFORD - MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
USA
Lorraine Shackelford is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and cultural worker whose practice spans photography, documentary film, writing, and spiritual storytelling. Rooted in the Deep South and based out of their hometown in Birmingham, Alabama, Lorraine is guided by ancestral memory. Xe uses visual media as a tool for preservation, resistance, and reimagining. Their work explores the entanglements of Black life, land, environmental justice, and generational care. Lorraine uses visual storytelling to braid together oral history, archival recovery, and embodied observation.
Drawing from a background in community organizing and a deep reverence for cultural anthropology, Lorraine centers the everyday sacred: the gestures, traditions, and survival tactics passed down through families and neighborhoods. Whether behind a camera, conducting interviews or field studies, or leading workshops, they treat their creative practice as a griot’s labor. Lorraine is interested in preserving what must not be forgotten and questioning what must be transformed.
Lorraine’s work emerges from and for community. It is inseparable from their love of Black Southern heritage, their commitment to justice and social impact, and their belief in storytelling as a healing, revolutionary act.
FAUSTO CARCASSI - RESEARCHER
Italy
Fausto Carcassi is a Sardinian researcher and assistant professor at the Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation the University of Amsterdam. He studied Philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, and has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where he developed computational models of how universals of language emerge through cultural evolution. His current research sits at the intersection of formal semantics, philosophy of language, cognitive science, and cultural evolution, and he has published on linguistic universals and the architecture of meaning. Alongside his academic work, Fausto has an interest in the connections between science, art, and religious experience.
At Casa Na Ilha, Fausto will begin a new project on string figures: the woven patterns made between the hands that recur across cultures as games, stories, and ritual objects, and mostly known in the West as "cat's cradle". Drawing on recent cross-cultural databases, he is interested in what the universals and local variations of string figures can tell us about human cognition and cultural transmission, and in finding ways to bring this topic to audiences beyond academia. During the residency he hopes to begin shaping that research into a piece of popular writing.
FLORA WALLACE - CERAMIC ARTIST, INK MAKER & PAINTER
U.K.
Flora Wallace is a ceramic artist, ink maker and painter based in Stroud, UK. Much of her work is inspired by observing natural forms and the behaviour of plants, animals and fungi. She also works closely with her dreams through a long-term practice of dream documentation, analysis and automatic drawings. She is particularly interested in the surreal and mysterious nature of images and symbols that can emerge from the unconscious mind. She explores ecological processes and the materialities of places through her work by transforming seasons and moments in time into inks and pigments and glazes. She creates ceramics using porcelain and clays gathered from the regions around her home. She is a founding member of the arts collective TUMP, who use a range of art mediums to playfully engage with and reimagine the burial chambers and megaliths of southwest of England.
HUGRÚN VIDGÍS VIKOTR HÁKONAR - ARTIST & WRITER
Iceland
Good day, the name’s Hugrún Vigdís Viktor Hákonar, though most folks just call me Viktor. I am a 20-year-old non-binary artist and writer living in Reykjavik, Iceland. I’ve been writing consistently as a hobby since I was 14 years old and have written a myriad of different stories, long and short, often in collaboration with friends, but many all on my lonesome. I studied graphic design for three years and just returned from a half-a-year course at The Animation Workshop in Denmark studying classical art and visual storytelling. I have a deep passion for stories and hope to combine writing and art in interesting ways in the future. During the residency, I will be focusing on my writing skills and furthering projects and stories I’ve got in the works now, as well as new ones I am sure to have by then.
ALI GALANTE - WRITER & DOCUMENTARY PRODUCER
USA
I tell stories for a living. But somehow only recently did it dawn on me that I'm a working artist. While at Casa Na Ilha, I'll be deep in the creation of my own art.
PAOLO AGOSTINI - ABSTRACT ARTIST
Italy
Paul el Pulpo (Paolo Agostini) is an Italian self-taught abstract artist who moves between Barcelona, Cape Town and Bali — three places that shape his rhythm like shifting currents of the same ocean.
His work blends intuition, movement and introspection, guided by the natural world: the textures of rocks and waves, the pulse of wind, the murmurs of the forest, the quiet harmony of untouched landscapes.
He likes to paint actively and in multiple directions, working with mixed media on horizontal canvases, moving around them — not painting on the surface, but painting within it, as if entering the canvas and becoming part of its flow.
AMELIA DOBAN - WRITER
AUSTRALIA
Amelia Doban is an Australian writer currently living in outback Australia. With a background in theatre/media and a passion for children’s theatre, she began her writing journey on the stage improvising, collaborating, and creating with others. In recent years, she has been exploring themes of nostalgia and “finding where silly lives” as a way to reconnect with her inner child, allowing her writing to resonate more deeply with her audience.
She is currently finalising her first children’s chapter book, Fred Unleashed, set for publication in 2026. This project has given her the confidence to continue writing and to strengthen her voice as an author. Amelia hopes to use her time at Casa Na Ilha Art Residency to begin a new book for children aged 8–12. She is excited to have the time and space to explore and play, using a variety of creative modes to develop her characters and deepen the plot.
JESSICA DICKENS - JEWELRY DESIGN AND ABSTRACT ART
U.S.A.
With its fluidity and organic form, wire crochet gave me the foundation to express myself intuitively through adornment. When I create jewelry, many of my pieces start off with “what if” and from there the process unfolds. I gained confidence in trusting my curiosity and over time it led me to push further into uncharted creative ground and explore other mediums like watercolor, collage, air dry and polymer clay and painting. Layering colors and textures has brought me joy and I’ve immersed myself in the world of mixed media. This melding of my passions has become the foundation of my artistic practice. It has allowed me to tell stories with my art and it reflects my personal journey and the ways in which I continually push myself to grow and experiment as an artist while connecting with others in deeper and more meaningful ways.
YOLY BELIZAIRE - PHOTO-BASED ARTIST, COMMUNITY ORGANIZER AND MOVEMENT PRACTITIONER.
Haiti/USA
yoly belizaire is a Haitian American photo-based artist, community organizer and movement practitioner based in Miami, Florida. yoly holds a M.A. in African Diaspora Studies from Florida International University. She roots her creative practice in the deep soil of ethnography, and archival processes. Through film photography, altar installations, movement and audio storytelling, yoly explores ancestral memory, the body, grief, and dreams through the practice of black feminist world building. Her work serves as a portal for dreaming, remembrance and channeling, drawing from Haitian folkloric frameworks of possession and the ritual of image-making. She poses the question: Can the camera possess us?
At Casa Na Ilha, yoly will be diving into creative play and rest while also laying the foundation for a multimedia photo series that draws from photos, archival family items, oral stories and dream recollection.
@yolybelizaire
ESMERALDA MLIHI TERRANEO - VISUAL ARTIST & DANCER
Netherlands
Esmeralda Mlihi Terraneo is a visual artist and dancer who, three years ago, made the courageous decision to leave her established careers as an architect (having studied at TU Delft from 2007 to 2014) and a data engineer to fully pursue a world where dance and art intersect. After studying at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (2022‑2023) and opening Het Studio in Het Salon, Amsterdam, she calls herself a “sculptor of movement,” capturing the essence of dance and giving form to words.
Her artistic practice merges her architectural and dance backgrounds with her current work, drawing inspiration from dance to constantly explore the tension between closeness and distance. Central to her work is an investigation into how the intimate dance tango—a physical dialogue that fosters connection—impacts the perception of urban spaces.
She employs architectural methods to create “Floorplans of Movement,” which are layered visual documents that map the pathways and connections of the dance, intertwining choreography with cartography and the geometry of urban locations to form poetic architectural drawings. Esmeralda has participated in residencies in Barcelona (2025), Buenos Aires (2024), and Brazil (2022), and has exhibited extensively, including the “Tango Home” series throughout 2024.
PEICHEN LIN (MINI) INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTIST & CURATOR
Taiwan
Peichen Lin is an interdisciplinary artist and curator based in Taiwan, working with sensory experience as a narrative language. Her practice unfolds through movement, scent, taste, sound, and space, exploring how emotions, memory, and desire are carried and remembered by the body.
She studied fashion design, a background that shaped her sensitivity to material, form, and the relationship between the body and what surrounds it. After graduating, she worked in a wine distribution company, where prolonged exposure to tasting culture, ritual, and intoxication deepened her interest in how smell, flavor, and atmosphere influence perception and emotional states.
ALEX DAUD - SONGWRITER, MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST AND RADIO DJ
Brazil/U.S.A
Alex Daud is a Brazilian-American songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and radio DJ. Originally raised in Miami, FL, she now lives at the foot of the Catskill mountains in New York State, where she writes music with her band The Fascinating Chimera Project, and hosts a monthly radio show on Wave Farm Radio titled “A Frequently Visited Dream.” Her songwriting style melds together introspective dream pop with ambient instrumentals and Latin rhythms. The heart of her music practice lies in her lifelong passion for playing instruments (taking the word “play” very literally) and experimenting with recording technique.
CICI CLANCY - FILMMAKER
Ireland & Canada
Cici is a writer, director and producer from Dublin, working in Toronto. She is currently writing her debut feature screenplay, which is funded for development by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Cici’s work plays with female sexuality, trauma, the psyche and the occult with an undertone of sardonic humour. Her previous short films, “Ephemera” and “Coco Dreams of Blue” and music videos “Sick Girlfriend” and “Sacred Cow” all exist in this world of psychosexual exploration.
Her feature in development, a supernatural horror and psychodrama, is an Irish-Canadian co-production.
She will spend her time at Casa Na Ilha slowing down, tuning in to her surroundings and writing her screenplay.
TYLER COPE- VISUAL ARTIST
Canada
I'm a visual artist whose practice moves across mediums, though oil painting is where I most naturally settle. My work is strongly influenced by my interest in philosophy and in understanding how and why people behave the way they do. Recently I have moved away from highly specific narrative scenes toward more distilled ideas drawn from those stories, focusing less on description and more on the feeling within the painting. During the residency I hope to develop a compositional approach that draws on collage methods, experimenting with scale and perspective to translate studies and fragments into larger paintings.
MILES GREENWOOD - WRITER
UK
I’m a writer from Stockport, UK. My short story, Islands, was published in Extra Teeth Magazine in 2022, and republished in Best British Short Stories 2023 (Salt Publishing). Since then, I've been distracted by being a curator (my "salaried career"). In that time, I've written non-fiction essays for a variety of publications, but I'm hoping that the residency at Casa Na Ilha will help to reorientate me towards writing fiction again. I'm currently writing a novel and I'm eager to return to writing short stories.
YAURI DALENCOUR - INTERDISCIPLINARY DANCE ARTIST
USA
Yauri Sabrinthia Dalencour's (née Kelly) professional dance training includes the Alvin Ailey American Dance School in NYC, Alonzo King LINES Ballet in San Francisco, as well as dance degree programs and studios throughout NYC, San Francisco, Italy and Spain where she has lived, studied and performed professionally.
She is a classically and traditionally trained dancer, a classically trained anthropologist and served as Katherine Dunham’s personal archivist in NYC during Dunham’s last year of life. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts with a concentration in Performance. She is a graduate of NYU earning an MA in Performing Arts Professions - Dance/ Dance Education and earned both a BFA in Dance and BA in International Studies (political science, Spanish and Latin American Studies) holding a minor in African American and Ethnic Studies during undergrad. Yauri pursued a PhD in Dance Studies finishing ABD (doctoral training/advanced coursework and comprehensive exams) in her former program and is now a doctoral candidate in a new program, focusing on the intersections between arts, visual culture and the African Diaspora, education leadership and interdisciplinary innovation and technology studies. Yauri is a millennial wife and mother, married to AI technologist and former Googler Phil Dalencour for nearly 21 years. Early in her career, as a performing artist Yauri was determined to build both a rigorous arts career and a family; over time, motherhood has become a central thread in her work. Committed to both family and praxis, she and her husband are the parents of five children born over an 11-year span. Their family has lived in multiple parts of the United States while also spending significant time abroad, exposing them to creativity and art, culture, history and language outside of their own, throughout their upbringing. She states:
“I am an interdisciplinary dance artist, visual artist, and ethnodanceologist who approaches dance as an artistic practice and a cultural method. My work treats movement as a living archive—an embodied way of holding history, expressing identity, and telling truths about lived experience. I create at the intersection of contemporary dance, social commentary, and community engagement, using performance and new and emerging media to examine what people endure, what they inherit, and what they imagine beyond limitation. During the residency, I will further develop a series of performances and process documentation that engage the environment, nature and architectural spaces—trees, rivers, ocean, homes, markets, historic sites—as witnesses to motherhood and memory. By creating narrative frameworks for these contexts, I hope to create new chapters of “The House Remembers” a multi-site specific work that reflects the surrounding culture and its layers and motherhood. I believe dance is not separate from the world; it is a viable response to it. As an educator and community builder, I create spaces where people can return to themselves through movement. My ethnodanceology ("ethnodanceonology", a term I coined in 2007) background grounds my art and creative process in cultural context. I center the Black Family as expansive, joyful and visionary – resisting narratives that frame it as deficient, disposable, dismissible, destroyable or non-existent while affirming its inherent worth, humanity, wholeness, dignity, fortitude, integrity and cultural weight today, yesterday and tomorrow. Among other arts businesses, I also own Dancetime Publications, which holds the largest collection of archival dance on film, dating back 500 years.
NATALYA KOCHAK - VISUAL ARTIST
U.S.A
Natalya Kochak was born in New York across the US from North to South before moving to Miami. She graduated with her BFA and MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Natalya was an adjunct professor at Miami International University in the visual arts department from 2019- 2023. She was an artist-in-residence in 2018-2019 with ProjectArt, teaching displaced teenagers and students from the parks district in the Liberty City library.
She has participated in many artist residencies including Jentel in Sheridan, Wyoming, Lido Art Center in Guangzhou, China, Oolite Home and Away at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Wild Acres in North Carolina, DNA Summer Residency in Provincetown, MA, Hambidge Art Center in GA, and many more. She owns a decorative painting company in Miami, FL specializing in high end paint design and has a wallpaper line based off her artistic practice.
Her artistic statement is:
“Text, narrative and image are rooted in our individual and intrinsic cultural realities. Reading is my safe place to attempt to learn about another person’s deepest thoughts and creativity. Reading is a place where the author’s mind and my own mind merge to create vivid stories in color, but also a place where we can become indoctrinated with cultural ideologies, where history can be shaded by non-truths and hypocrisy.
My work seeks to break down narratives, taking apart disorienting dialogue in books and looking more closely at images from history. I tell my own story through the lens of a new author. I seek to break down the conventional thought around difficult stories. My own familial history, art history, and conventional history are the source materials I use to contemplate a trajectory forward.”
SALLY ZORI - MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST (music, theatre, video, photo)
Iraq/Canada
My name is Sally Zori and I am a transgender Iraqi (They/Them/Their) multi-disciplinary artist born in Baghdad, raised in the United Arab Emirates and different parts of Canada. Today, I live on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples–Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
At the age of 11, I picked up my first drum, the Doumbek (middle eastern goblet drum), and never stopped. Since then I have become a multi-instrumentalist session, live, and touring musician for almost 30 years performing with a wide range of artists (from local musicians to big names like Aretha Franklin) all over the world (Sydney Festival, Dublin Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and many more). My music career didn't stop there, I've had a chance to compose for film, as well be a music director and sound design theatre shows and projects.
I am also a video artist and producer. I began creating content for bands, non-profit orgs, and social ventures, and have now shifted my practice to video projection design for theatre. I feel very at home with a camera in my hand (a gift passed down from my father) and recently have been feeling myself called to follow that creative practice. I'm hoping to explore and develop my photography skills as well as further my video practice during my time at Casa Na Ilha. I look forward to connecting with the land in Ilhabela, the other artists at the residency, and nurture my creative expression.
NIKNAK - MUSIC DJ
UK
A trailblazing musical polymath, NikNak has carved a niche for herself in the music industry with her distinctive turntablism, immersive compositions, and captivating improvised performances. Heralded by the likes of DJ Mag, Clash, The Wire and Resident Advisor, her debut album Bashi garnered critical acclaim, positioning her as one to watch in the experimental electronic music scene. Her fourth studio album Ireti was released on Matthew Herbert's label Accidental Records in 2024 and was named one of the year's best albums by Mixmag and Bandcamp.
NICOLE MARCUZZI - ESCRITORA
Argentina
Soy escritora, narradora y creadora de proyectos que exploran la intersección entre arte, identidad y experiencia humana. Mi trabajo parte de la escritura —literaria, ensayística y autobiográfica— como una forma de investigar el deseo, la memoria, el cuerpo y los vínculos, y se expande hacia formatos híbridos: libros, diarios, procesos pedagógicos y espacios de creación colectiva.
Durante esta residencia quiero desarrollar un proyecto de escritura centrado en el amor como fuerza creativa: no solo el amor romántico, sino el amor al arte, a los procesos, a las preguntas que no se resuelven rápido. Me interesa trabajar con la idea de orientación —qué nos guía, qué nos desorienta, qué elegimos seguir— y cómo la escritura puede convertirse en un espacio de escucha profunda y transformación.
Concibo la residencia como un territorio de pausa fértil: un tiempo para escribir sin urgencia, afinar la mirada y dejar que el entorno dialogue con el texto. Mi objetivo es avanzar en un libro que combine narrativa, ensayo y fragmentos íntimos, y que nazca directamente de la experiencia de estar aquí.
NICOLE MARCUZZI - WRITER
Argentina
I am a writer, storyteller, and creator of projects that explore the intersection of art, identity, and human experience. My work stems from writing—literary, essayistic, and autobiographical—as a way to investigate desire, memory, the body, and relationships, and expands into hybrid formats: books, journals, pedagogical processes, and spaces for collective creation.
During this residency, I want to develop a writing project centered on love as a creative force: not only romantic love, but love for art, for processes, for questions that aren't easily answered. I'm interested in working with the idea of orientation—what guides us, what disorients us, what we choose to follow—and how writing can become a space for deep listening and transformation.
I envision the residency as a fertile space of pause: a time to write without urgency, to sharpen my gaze, and to allow the environment to engage with the text. My goal is to develop a book that combines narrative, essay, and intimate fragments, and that arises directly from the experience of being here.
AMY HRYCAK - PAINTER
Canada
Amy Hrycak is a Canadian painter whose affinity for natural beauty has propelled a self-taught practice since she was three. Capturing nostalgic colour, texture and feeling, she primarily works in acrylic and oil paints, as well as graphite, charcoal, and more recently, ceramics. She is a sophomore student pursuing a Fine Arts degree and a teachable minor in mathematics from the University of Manitoba.
Her work, inspired by personal memories and familiar places, has been exhibited in Riding Mountain National Park and the University of Manitoba and adorns the walls of many communities near the farm where she grew up. Hrycak paints by day and writes by night, filling journals with poetry about life’s joys and lessons. She plans to one day publish an illuminated poetry book which combines her visual expressions with written ones.
IG: @she.paints.the.world
MIGUEL MARCHETERRE-PINA - MUSICIAN ILLUSTRATOR & WORLD-BUILDER
Canada/Angola
Miguel Marcheterre-Pina is a Québéco-Angolan interdisciplinary artist involved within the music industry as a musician, illustrator, writer and world-builder. Founded in 2020, his current musical project, VOLUBILIS, consists of an ambitious endeavour interweaving extreme metal and visual arts. Immersed in its own self-created universe, VOLUBILIS’ narratives discuss themes of nature, grief and faith through the rasp of distorted instruments. The project’s lyrical and visual identity brilliantly reflect the intricacy of the music, and Miguel’s incredibly detailed, monochromatic illustrations are a testament of dedication to his craft as world-builder. Drawing most of his inspiration from comic books, Miguel works predominantly with fine pens and incorporates storytelling in his work, inviting the viewer to dig deeper into the lore surrounding VOLUBILIS. Miguel’s visual art practice also expands into acrylic painting, photography, animation and digital illustration. Based in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal), Canada, he also recently expanded his artistic practice in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia, where his work has been highly acclaimed by the local metal community.
EELISE N’DRI - ILLUSTRATOR & MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
Canada
Eelise N’Dri is an illustrator and multidisciplinary artist based in Montreal, recognized for her bold ideas, vibrant colors, and layered storytelling. Her work often appears playful at first glance, but closer observation reveals hidden details, symbolic rhythms, and a quiet depth of curiosity. Spirituality flows naturally through her art, whether through symbols or feeling, always present even when subtle.
Her signature—a thick white line across one eye—has become a visual marker of her practice, a way of seeing and showing the world through her own lens while leaving space for interpretation. Eelise’s projects span illustration, design, and community-based collaborations, including a book inspired by Adinkra symbols and poetic riddles, and her contribution to the #BlackLivesMatter mural in 2020 with the Never Was Average collective. She has also collaborated with American Eagle, Target, Tillys, Tazo Tea, McGill, Projet PAAR, LNDMRK, and the National Film Board of Canada.
At Casa Na Ilha, she will develop Roots of the Matriarch, a body of work across multiple mediums—including illustration and a short film—that explores women’s roles in preserving culture, spirituality, and community across the African diaspora.
SAINT JAMES - OIL PAINTER
U.S.A.
James is a surrealist oil painter and storyteller whose work explores the connections between nature, mythology and symbolism. She blends research with intuition, creating layered compositions where elements like bees, serpents and oysters add depth and meaning to her narrative. At Casa na Ilha, she looks forward to immersing herself in the island's landscape, letting its textures and rhythms take shape in the next evolution of her work.
@jameslovesplanet
MASSIMO NIRCHI - ABSTRACT POET AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
Canada
Massimo Nirchi is an abstract poet and multidisciplinary artist based in Montreal, Quebec. His work delves into themes of queer identity, relationships and social injustices. He excels at the blending of artistic forms. In a previous Italian residency, he created a poetry sculpture that represented the triadic connection between Montreal, Italy and his own definition of home. He has previous publications in Anomaly Poetry, Stone of Madness Press and Cholla Needles. Massimo is currently developing his debut poetry chapbook. You can follow his writing journey on Instagram: @massimonirchi.
DANIELA BAUMGAERTL - SCRIPTWRITER
Germany
Daniela Baumgaertl is a scriptwriter from Berlin/ Germany.
She was born in 1984 into a working class family, and has studied scriptwriting at the renowned film school "Konrad Wolf“, and in 2014/15, she was a participant of "Serial Eyes", an international showrunners’ programme.
Daniela has written award-winning feature films and TV series, and has worked for streamers like Netflix, Disney+, SKY, or the popular German TV series “Tatort”. Her feature film, “Welcome Home, Baby” was the opening film of Berlinale Panorama in 2025.
She also teaches series writing in Lille, at the “Series Mania Eureka“ program for emerging scriptwriters, or at “Serial Eyes” at the Berlin film school dffb.
When she's not writing, she's a passionate dancer and a sailor, and in 2024, has crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a 16m sailboat.
ALICI SOL - MUSICIAN
Brazil/U.S.A.
Alici is a New York based musician originally from Belo Horizonte Brazil trying to redefine the idea of what Bossa Nova and Trip Hop sounds like to a contemporary audience, breathing new life into Brazilian inspired R&B and jazz.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE - PLAYWRITING
UK/Canada
Michael Mackenzie’s plays have been produced across Canada, in the U.K. (including BBC radio), in French (Quebec and France), in Portugal, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany and Austria.
He has directed and written/co-written two feature films which were variously invited to Sundance, TIFF, Festival de Nouveau Cinema Montreal (closing film), the San Francisco Film Festival, Tokyo (finalist), Copenhagen and Lisbon. Both films had Canadian theatrical releases, one was nominated for Best Direction at the Quebec Jutra Awards.
He was dramaturge and script editor for the Cirque du Soleil show ‘Ka’ (the MGM Grand, Los Vegas) as well as ‘Toruk’ (Cirque de Soleil and James Cameron) and ‘Hangzhou’ (the Cirque’s first resident show in China). He has worked with Robert Lepage as dramaturge/translator/writer on a number of projects which subsequently toured North America, Europe and Asia.
Upcoming productions include ‘L’Empire de Castor: a history of the Hudson Bay Company’ (co- writer) playing at Théâtre de la Bordée (Quebec City), Jan-Feb 2026 and Espace Libre (Montreal) March 2026, and ‘The Candor of Dinosaurs’ at Centaur Theatre (Montreal) in Oct-Nov 2026.
Mackenzie has a PhD (in Histoire et Sociopolitique de Science) from Université de Montréal and has published a number of scholarly papers and a book (with Jorge Sabato) on political economy, science policy and the environment. A recent collaboration with Leonard Nakamura on U.S.economic policy appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, December 2021.
https://www.mmackenzietheatrevirtuel.com/
CHRISTIANA CASTILLO - POET, EDUCATOR, CULTURAL WORKER & GARDENER
Mexico/Brazil/U.S.A.
Christiana Castillo (she/ella) is a Mexican-Brasilian-American poet, educator, cultural worker, and gardener born in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, raised in Southeastern Michigan, and currently based out of Nashville, TN. She is currently obtaining her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) at Vanderbilt University.
At Casa Na Ilha Christiana will be working on a multimedia poetry project creating space for her identities as a Mexican-Brasilian-American, as a woman of color, as a sister, daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter, and hopefully as a good ancestor in the making. As much as her poems are about personal and cultural documentation, they are also about transformation. During her residency she will hold this quote close, “Nepantla is a limited space, a space where you are not this or that but where you are changing.” – Gloria Anzaldúa
CHEYENNE ISOLA - VISUAL ARTIST
U.S.A.
Cheyenne Isola is an oil painter based in the East Bay of San Francisco. Her painting style has evolved through a blend of diverse influences, ranging from contemporary fashion designers to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Drawing inspiration from Neoclassical art, Isola merges sacred imagery with elements of modern Americana, creating stylized portraits that reflect her view on life.
JULIET KING - ART THERAPIST, EDUCATOR & RESEARCHER
U.S.A.
I am thrilled to announce that I’ll be joining the Casa Na Ilha Artist Residency to explore the intersection of nature, neuroscience, and transpersonal inquiry in art therapy.
With nearly three decades as an art therapist, educator, and researcher, my work bridges neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, and the creative process to deepen our understanding of psychological healing.
During this residency, I’ll be:
🧠 Expanding my NeuroArts Toolkit—a clinical decision-making tool translating the neuroscience for mental health professionals.
📖 Drafting a new manuscript on brain-body-behavior connections and the science of art-based interventions.
🎨 Engaging in large-scale painting as a way to visualize the internal process, exploring how our natural environment shapes and mirrors our psychic systems.
🌎 Exploring how nature and ecosystems serve as metaphors for resilience, connection, and transformation in mental health.
This residency will be a catalyst for new insights that merge science, art, and ecological awareness, shaping future research, tools, and education in the field of therapeutic arts.
@tertiaryprocess
SUSANNE MARINS - ACTOR & SINGER SONGWRITER
Finland
Susanne Marins is an actor and singer songwriter from Vaasa, Finland.
She graduated from the Theatre Academy in Helsinki in 2005 and has since worked at several theaters in Finland. In spring 2022, she was awarded the Stina Krook Scholarship for her performing arts.
In addition to acting, she has made music from her poems, storytelling performances and the art film project KINTSUGI -Artfilms about loss. Right now she is working on a Musical storytelling performance named WILD, about sexuality, liberation and anger.
She focuses on the vulnerability and complexity of the human being when creating her art. She wants to talk about what hurts and touches, what we do not always dare to talk about.
At the writing workshop at Casa na Ilha she will start a project with the aim of creating a cross-art performance inspired by the work of artist Patti Smith.
Instagram: @susannemarins
ELEANOR HALL - WRITER
Australia
Eleanor Hall is an emerging writer based in Australia. Her writing explores the complexity of modern friendships, relationships and all the shades in-between.
She will be using this residency to work on completing her first novel amongst the inspiration of nature and other artists. In her spare time she works as a doctor and loves painting and hiking.
ZEINA FAHED - DANCER & WRITER
Palestina/Lebanon
Zeina is Palestinian born and raised in Lebanon, while happy about her roots and belonging, she also considers herself a citizen of the world. Zeina has more than a decade of professional work experience spanning various thematic and technical domains in the fields of environmental health, humanitarian aid, environmental justice, and development. Zeina is also an amateur dancer and writer. She has a passion for dancing and dabke (Levantine folk dance), and she has been dancing multiple styles since a young age, ranging from oriental, latin, and contemporary dance. Additionally, Zeina has an interest in writing, specifically about her realizations, contemplations, and beliefs. Zeina is a passionate positive person who likes to engage in as many experiences as possible while being alive and capable, on several levels, be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. She admires art and culture in their different forms, music, poetry, theater, food, etc., and likes to explore countries and cultures. Brazil has been on her travel bucket list, and what better way to visit it while joining a residency, sharing home with other artists, exchanging and creating unforgettable memories.
BRE’ - MULTIMEDIA ABOLITIONIST ARTIST
Turtle Island - Northern Paiute Land/Western Shoshone Lands
Hi im Bre’ im 24yrs old currently residing in turtle island [america] on northern Paiute land/ western Shoshone lands commonly known as Las Vegas, NV. I'm a black femme multimedia abolitionist artist. The mediums I work with range from digital/physical collaging, photography, oil/acrylic painting, writing, beading, sewing, ink, wire wrapping from recycled copper, upcycling, bass,drum, and dance. I love the outdoors doing archery, going hiking, skating, swimming. Nature heals me. I am a poet, a water protector, a land defender who will always fight for climate/land justice & human rights for all.
MALIKAH PHILLIPS - SINGER/SONGWRITER
U.K.
Malikah is a singer/ songwriter and instrumentalist. Malikah's music is completely self made and acts as a form of therapy for her, a way to process her world and environment. She has been writing for what feels like her entire life and has always been profoundly drawn to music. She is currently at the tail end of her bachelors degree in creative musicianship and is ready to start sharing and performing her music looking to find her audience and like minded lovers of art. Malikah seeks to spend her time in Casa Na Iha Reconnecting with her creativity, finding new inspirations outside of the busy London city life, slowing down and stepping outside of her comfort zone
SAVANNAH ISHMAEL - ILUSTRATOR
U.S.A
Savannah is an illustrator based in New York who is focused on childhood, womanhood, nature, and storytelling. Her work tells various stories using elements of nostalgia that will remind others of their own cultural upbringing. At Casa Na Ilha, she will spend her time working on a children’s book about children who are simultaneously bugs as well as dolls that reflect folk art and culture.
SUSAN DE CASTRO - VISUAL ARTIST
U.S.A.
Susan is an assistant professor and Program Coordinator of Digital Multimedia Design at Touro University in New York City. She has been teaching art and digital design classes there for 28 years, and during a Spring sabbatical, Susan will go to Casa Na Ilha, in February, 2025. Susan will be returning to Casa Na Ilha for the second time.
She has a BFA from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and an MA degree from New York University. Susan has also studied at the School of Visual Arts, and is a member and student of the Art Student's League of New York. She regularly exhibits in group shows with the National Association of Women Artists, the Art Student’s League of New York, and on Fire Island in New York. Susan received a Merit's Scholarship from the Art Students League, a Red Dot (Best in Show) and honorable mentions for her paintings in the Art Students League's Concours Shows. She paints in oil and mixed media. A recurring theme in her work revolves around her passion for Brazil; the nature, the colors, and Rio Carnaval. During her residency in Ilhabela, Susan plans to immerse herself in the natural surroundings and local activities of Ilhabela, and to interpret her visions into new, energetic, works.
JUDE MARKEY-SMITH - MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERFORMANCE ARTIST
U.S.A
Jude Markey-Smith is an emerging multidisciplinary performance artist from New York. As creator and interpreter, his dynamic works often combine music, dance and text to explore issues of historical fiction and masculinity.
In his practice, Jude strives to expose truths. He does so in a nonlinear fashion. This investigation can take on many forms, but often presents itself as a multifaceted presentation–– one that requires deep research and then comes alive in kinesthetic space. As a maker, he is interested in defying disciplinary categories in order to explore the unbounded field of performance, and its unparalleled potential for relevance. He creates through calculated preparation, an embrace of spontaneity and sheer force of will. He collaborates deeply, learns from others and responds accordingly. What emerges is always unknown, but meaningful and intriguing to him.
He graduated from Bard College with a BA in Multidisciplinary Studies: Dramatic Arts and Histories, where he won the Ana Itelman Prize For Choreography for his theses: End Of The Trail and Ghost Town, and was most recently LaPlasita’s first artist-in-residence in Seville, Spain where he developed a work entitled Limites (453”). He will work on doing experiential research and generating material for his new dance-theater piece on distorted themes of paradise, entitled Fountain Of Youth, in his time at Casa Na Ilha.
DRE TURNER - WRITER
Canada
Dre is a writer who explores themes of grief, identity, and the depths of our inner worlds. Drawing on her experiences as an adopted person and her journey of caring for her mother at the end of her life, she writes toward the tender and difficult places that are hardest to articulate. At Casa Na Ilha, she will devote her residency time to experimenting with form, particularly flash nonfiction, to develop a body of work.
MARTIN BARFOOT - VISUAL ARTIST
UK
Martin is a Visual Artist who has been lured away, somewhat, from his pre-occupation with photography and is now more ‘drawn’ towards other mediums. He is inspired by the spontaneity of mono-printing, the possibilities offered by collage and the fluidity and transparency of watercolour paint. Along with printmaking, collage and painting, Martin is also captivated by drawing, sculpture, mark-making, ceramics and appreciating the imperfections of the hand-made. He is quite experimental and enjoys giving some creative processes a gentle nudge in order to produce an unexpected outcome.
His work is often inspired by human interdependency with nature and concerns relating to absence and presence in the changing environment. Some past projects have explored themes of memory, fragility and extinction, but he feels there is always room for the whimsical. A tree filled Oxford park was the chosen location for a project called ‘Walking with Squirrels, (not Swimming with Dolphins)’, a documented journey following squirrels to discover their secrets.
https://martinbarfoot.carbonmade.com
NOELLE ASTRID ONDO METHOGO - PHOTOGRAPHER
Gabon
I am a photographer from Libreville, Gabon, whose artistic journey began at the tender age of 14. My art is a vibrant mood board of influences, blending elements from movies, magazines, music videos, drawings and fashion shows of the early 2000s and 90s. This fusion creates a nostalgic but contemporary aesthetic in my art.
Specializing in portrait photography, my photography is mainly to celebrate womanhood, beauty, and strength. My images have dynamic compositions, close ups and striking colors such as red and blues.
I love blending traditional photography with digital techniques I have learned over the years with Photoshop. I often use these editing techniques to give my work a timeless, vintage magazine vibe.
I am currently based in Houston, Texas, where I am completing my bachelors. I have been balancing trying to start a photography page and careers with my studies. After graduating in the spring of 2025, I am very excited and honored to travel to Ilhabela to fully dedicate all my time on my art and building my career.
CHARLES D JONES & CORINNE JONES - MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTISTS.
U.S.A.
Corinne and Charles both have solo careers as artists/musicians but occasionally come together to work on themes that respond to the unique environment of special places. They have followed this theme in Ter Appel in the north of Holland, 1987, with a project that culminated In a performance of prints, sculpture, poetry and music in a monastery converted to a contemporary art space achieving a balance. Their idea for this residency is to create work that directly responds to the unique environment of Ilhabela with drawings and studies that may be used for larger works in painting and original prints.
Charles D. Jones is an artist/musician living and working in Nacogdoches, Texas. He creates visual art, books and music.
I completed my MFA at the Universidad de las Americas, Mexico D.F., an Master of Art in New Mexico after a stint in the US Military. I have been playing music on guitar, banjo and fiddle for many years. I chased flamenco and still play, along with fiddle in a band that plays old time American and Scottish and Irish music. I combine printmaking with fine press printing and like to work with poets in print and accompanying reading with guitar. I have been an active exhibiting artist for most of my adult life.
In my career as an artist I have been inspired to make art with a variety of media according to the perceived content of the idea. Some ideas are painting ideas some are musical or verbal. I have tried to work freely with what medium that seemed suitable. I work with all the printmaking media but prefer the releif print. I make books the old fashioned way with hand set type and relief plates and blocks
My art and concerns are deeply connected to the human condition, relationships and struggle.I grew up with books and was strongly influenced by artists like William Blake, Barry Moser and Leonard Baskin. I relish working with poets and think of my work as creating a "duet" with image and text
Corinne has an MFA in painting and drawing, taught art at the University level and has also been an active exhibiting artist with an extensive exhibition record. Her work has encompassed a wide variety of subjects but always returns to the natural world. A notable series concentrated on extinct birds that used soil as a medium.
‘Over time I have discovered a personal need to create drawings that honor the longstanding requirement that artwork have a sense of presence that transcends subject and materials. Important to this idea is for form and content to be embedded in one another; and without that essential quality, the work will be incomplete. My question and journey then, is how does content take on physical form and what artistic choices are needed to achieve the desired effect.
I explore nature subjects through uncomplicated compositions and the use of multiple materials to develop a luminous and layered surface. These choices suggest the subjects’ innate strength and fragility while also addressing drawing concerns of mark making and ideas of space and form. This is my approach to understanding the world around me'
IEISHA SWEATMON - SCULPTOR
U.S.A.
Ieisha Sweatmon is a sculptor born and raised south of Atlanta, Georgia. She has been sculpting for 2.5 years. Her sculptures are an expression of herself and how she views the beauty of nature and blackness. She loves to show the beauty of her culture in her art. Her goal is to start traveling the world to learn from other African descendants in other countries. By learning more about their culture and experiences, she hopes to create many sculptures to display the uniqueness of blackness around the world.
NERJIS HASSAN - MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
Iraq/Canada
Nerjis, an artist and a recent art history graduate possesses a multifaceted creative identity. A self-taught artist driven by an insatiable curiosity, Nerjis thrives on exploration and learning. Her artistry is a testament to her penchant for diving headfirst into new processes, allowing experimentation and imperfection to flourish. Themes of duality, nature, and the surreal form the cornerstone of these creations, offering viewers a thought-provoking glimpse into her unique perspective, inviting the viewer to delve into their own. Nerjis' journey is a fusion of academic knowledge and self-discovery, resulting in a body of work that creatively weaves together diverse influences.
IG: MAD.DUALITY
CHARLOTTE HUG - INTER-MEDIA ARTIST, COMPOSER, IMPROVISER AND MUSICIAN
Switzerland
Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council supports this residency.
Swiss-born Charlotte Hug is an inter-media artist, composer, improviser and musician of the extreme. Her innovative solo performances in distinctive locations have created an international furore. With her inter-medial compositions, room-scores and Son-Icons (visual sounds) she created a new genre of multidisciplinary music and art. Having completed her studies in fine arts and classical music, she won divers awards such as “artist- residencies in London, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, Shanghai. She was “artiste étoile” (star artist) at the world-renown Lucerne Festival and nominated for the Classic:Next - Innovation Award. Hug is a lecturer at the Lucerne University of Applied Science and Art and head of the international postgraduate studies Creation & Scenario in Music at the Zurich University of the Arts. Hug is fully active as a concert performer, soloist, improviser, composer and conductor of her own works at major festivals worldwide. www.charlottehug.com
Specific locations and water in its various aggregate states are the main inspiration for my transdisciplinary work as a musician, composer, improviser and visual artist. Working outside will be the focus during the residency. I will record, play, sing, and draw in nature, close to and in the Atlantic Ocean. I am excited to create and start a new artistic transdisciplinary work, TIDAL SHAPING, at the residency at Casa Na Ilha.
PAZ GRIOT - MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
USA
Paz Griot is a spoken word poet, visual artist, actor, playwright, and performer originally from New York City. He has been living in Istanbul since 2014 and traveling the world since high school, including the United States Peace Corps and the University of Hyderabad, India. He has written and published several poems, performed in countless plays and open mic events, written seven plays and exhibited his paintings, collages, and sculptures in six gallery shows in New York City at the Art Students League. He was awarded the Blue Dot Award for innovation in visual arts in 2011 by the Art Students League and has been published in the Bosphorus Review of Books and the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal. He has worked in a variety of mediums, including watercolor and acrylic, and enjoys painting in both abstract and realistic styles with elements of spirituality, world exploration, architecture, and nature. His inspirations include Marc Chagall, Faith Ringgold, Paul Klee, Auguste Rodin, Izamu Noguchi, Claude Monet, David Hockney, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Frida Kahlo
During his time in residence, Paz intends to create a series of paintings with elements from art of the African diaspora, implementing the powerful, palpable symbolism of adinkra, the Orishas, and Candomble sacred stones combined with iridescent landscape paintings.
Paz has been captivated by the culture of Brazil for many years now. He always found that exploring cultures different from my own and landscapes and cities outside of my familiar comfort zone allows me to discover new approaches and perspectives that help me along my creative journey. He believes Brazil's brilliant capoeira dance and martial arts traditions, vibrant samba rhythms, rich spirituality in the Orishas of the Candomble tradition, and colorful landscapes can provide immense inspiration for new works. Last year, he had the opportunity to travel around Ghana, Rwanda, and Tanzania and was inspired profoundly by the spiritual meanings, intricate designs, and vibrant colors of the art he was seeing, as demonstrated in Ashante adinkra symbols and kente cloth. Brazil has a rich African arts heritage and community, and he believes this will inspire new work as he continues his creative journey.
ROJIA DADASHZADEH - MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
Canada
Rojia Dadashzadeh, a multidisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, is known for her imaginative and whimsical pieces in sculpture, painting, drawing, and collage. Her art has been featured in various publications and exhibited across North America. For over a decade, she has taught visual and culinary arts at an International Baccalaureate school. With degrees from the University of Waterloo, Sheridan College, Le Cordon Bleu Paris, and UBC, including a Master of Arts in Art Education, she seamlessly integrates her teaching and artistic practice, each informing and enriching the other.
VICTORIA CHAVEZ - MULTIMEDIA ARTIST
U.S.A.
Victoria Chavez is a multi-media artist who dives into themes of spirituality, intellect, psychological behaviors, and mysticism. She has studies interior and graphic design. Her pieces often feature surreal and psychedelic imagery, which is imbued with spiritual symbolism and meaning. Through her art, Victoria aims to inspire others to explore the mystical and spiritual aspects of their own lives and to uncover mental and spiritual blockages that are stopping them from becoming their most happy and successful version of themselves.
HOLLY SEDGWICK - PAINTER
Canada/USA
My painting practice is an exploration of the unconscious and its effect on the relationship to people, places and things. Spontaneous life events evolve into imaginative environments, rich with vibrant colours in acrylic and oil, watercolour and pen. Dreams of Love, Humanity and Nature, Mythology and Spirituality are common themes. Currently, I am exploring the surrendering and uplifting of the spirit in relationship with Nature.
EMMA CHLUMECKY - OIL PAINTER & FIBRE ARTIST
Canada
Emma Chlumecky, a 21-year-old Canadian oil painter and fibre artist based in Windsor, Ontario, is currently in her thesis year pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Windsor. She specializes in oil painting, tufting, and sculpture, often combining these techniques into one artwork. Inspired by impressionism, she blends her realistic portraiture painterly style with touches of collage, fibers, and illustration, creating a distinctive style.
Emma’s creative practice delves into the intricate nuances of the coming-of-age experience, suffused with an undercurrent of innocence and a poignant touch of nostalgia. Through Emma’s work, she narrates their unique individuality, emphasizing the aspects that make each person truly special. Drawing inspiration from contemporary romanticism, interpreting these moments through the perspective of admiration. Emma’s vision is a heartfelt attempt to evoke profound emotions, particularly the bittersweetness that accompanies the inevitable passage of time, a sentiment deeply intertwined with human experience.
Emma plans to paint numerous mock-ups and works based on her experience in this little corner of Brazil at Casa Na Ilha. Her time at Casa Na Ilha will create an interesting period in her development as an artist.
GAVIN KEW - PAINTING AND PRINTMAKING
Zimbabwe/New Zealand
I am an Artist and a teacher. I was born in Zimbabwe and was trained at Rhodes university in South Africa. I now live and work in New Zealand and I work in ceramics painting and printmaking. I tend to work in cycles and themes and at the moment I am working on a series of prints inspired by the story of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. I have been fascinated by finials which is the ornament at the top of buildings and how this narrative is a reflection of the culture of the place it is situated. I plain to travel around Europe for 4 months from May and document these finials on my journey. These drawings and photographs will result in ceramic work that I intend to make on my return to New Zealand.
HEATHER DEYLING - MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
U.S.A.
Heather Deyling is an artist whose current and ongoing body of work, the “Invented Hybrids” series, includes sculpture, installation, works on paper and glass. Her studio practice is inspired by research and observation of natural forms, eco-fiction and climate change. She earned an MFA in painting from Tyler School of Art, Temple University and a BFA from Kent State University. Deyling has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the United States. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at the Peninsula Museum of Art in Burlingame, CA and group exhibitions at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA and the Wiregrass Museum of Art, Dothan, AL. Upcoming projects include solo exhibitions at Greenville Center for Creative Arts, Greenville, SC and Day and Night Projects in Atlanta, GA, as well as two-person exhibitions at the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Athens, GA and 621 Gallery, Tallahassee, FL. Deyling lives and works in Atlanta.
SAMANTHA DA SILVA – VISUAL ARTIST
Brazil/ U.S.A
Beneath her amiable personality burns a fire to express life through art and dialog. Samantha da
Silva (born 1978 Santos, São Paulo, Brazil) is a professional artist and educator living and working in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
Having traveled extensively and acquired (nearly) three citizenships, da Silva's paintings are a visual narrative of unrelenting feminine power and the exploration of the universal
experiences of abandonment, heritage and the eternal sense of home. Against the remarkable backdrop of the American West - a place as fierce as it is exquisite - da Silva navigates her paintings
with ritual, grace and quiet force.
Da Silva infuses her environment into her work using: iron-rich Utah dirt, salt from The Great Salt Lake, plaster, repurposed paint, metallic pigments and newspaper to create ethereal, textured
abstracts.
JUDITH KLAIN – PAINTER
U.S.A.
Judith Klain began painting as a teenager when she attended New York City’s Cooper Union weekend program for high school students in 1975. After many years’ hiatus, (raising and fostering kids, working in public health and homelessness services, getting a Masters degree…life) she began painting again when she found a community of other artists at San Francisco Art Institutes Adult Continuing Education.
“I felt as if I my soul got re-awakened. The kinship and stimulation I get from my teacher and fellow cohort of artists makes it possible for me to consistently experiment and grow in my work.”
Judith works in oils, acrylics, pastels, cold wax and collage. Her paintings which are abstract and abstract figurative depict the unconscious and pre-verbal path of her life. Her bold use of color and texture explode in emotion and vulnerability.
“The evolution of my work corresponds with my emotional and spiritual development. The arts have provided me the medium to resolve early traumatic experiences of which I have no words to express cognitively. It is cathartic.”
Judith’s work is shown regularly at City Arts Gallery, an artist’s coop in St. San Francisco. You can also schedule an appointment to view her work at her studio.
After retiring in 2016, Judith attended Tamalpa Institute and was certified as an Expressive Art Therapist. She works with clients one-on-one and is also available to do community workshops on relevant social and personal issues.
Art Heals!!!
While at Na Ilha Artist residency, Judith hopes to be inspired by the natural beauty, rhythm and life of the island and to incorporate that into her paintings and drawings. She is also hoping to collaborate with NGO’s through expressive arts to support social and personal causes through a joint yet to be determined artistic project.
SOFÍA ALRICH VEYTIA - PAINTER AND PRINTMAKER
Mexico
I explore the essence of our universe through amorphous figures made up of light and darkness. My current practice revolves around the relationship between physics, hermeticism, alchemy, and spirituality, focused on vibration, the spirit, and transcendence as dialogical concepts between the fields mentioned. I work mainly with abstraction in painting and printmaking as a means to represent what is outside of our sensible plane.
My interest in the similarities between Hermeticism and Quantum Physics is that they both look for the essential connections in the universe, one from a spiritual viewpoint and the other scientific. I believe that it is essential for human beings to understand that we are all connected, and not just to each other but also to nature. The main problems that we face today as mankind is that we are not empathetic and respectful to others and to the world we live in. man is not the center of this life, we are not superior beings, and we have to stop treating the world and the earth as something inferior to us, which has no apparent "consciousness". If we open our eyes and understand that we are all in essence the same we will treat our planet and all that lives within it with greater respect. We are intrinsically connected to every living being, and everything that exists.
This is what I seek to convey through the artistic representations that I will make during the residency. Through paintings and drawings. The series will continue a current exploration of representing "windows" to another reality, to the spiritual dimension of nature, to show that it is as alive as we are.
Instagram @sofialrich
PEICHIN CHIANG - ESSAYIST, FICTION WRITER AND JOURNALIST
Taiwan
PeiChin CHIANG was born in Taiwan, has lived in Singapore and India.
She is an essayist, fiction writer, and journalist responding to underrepresented people, social and
labor issues in Asia. Her most recent writing is the post-memory about rites of passage in the form of prose: “Uncover the shell”. The book she wrote records the process and details of a
traditional funeral in Taiwan and portrays the grief and condolence from the living, her, as a suicide survivor.
She also uses different media for creation, such as video and visual art installations. She once held an artist-in-residence exhibition in Matsu, Taiwan, and joint exhibition in the historic
district of Bopiliao, Taiwan.
She works as a storyteller and communicator in the public and business world. She obtained a Global MBA, ESSEC Business School (École supérieure des sciences économiques et commerciales) from
Singapore and France, Master and Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Chemistry from National Taiwan University.
LISA SEWELL – POETRY
U.S.A.
I am the author of several books of poetry, including Impossible Object, which received the Tenth Gate prize from Word Works press. I am currently working on a manuscript of poems titled “Dry Spell,” which focuses on endangered species and disappearing ecosystems. For this book, I am trying to develop a poetics that can address the experience of living in the midst of a sixth extinction event, with dangerous weather and a destabilized environment. The manuscript includes a series of poems about endangered species, like the California grizzly and the Florida panther, and also place-based poems that explore the cultural and ecological history of endangered environments like the Salmon River estuary in Oregon and the Colorado river in Arizona. I have also been working on a series of poems about the 18th century Dutch/German artist and naturalist, Maria Sibylla Merian, whose most famous prints are based on her stay in Suriname. I am excited to learn about the flora and fauna of the area around Casa Na Ilha and have a first-hand encounter with some of the plants and creatures that appear in Merian’s images from Suriname, like the Blue Morpho butterfly in this print.
SAMANTHA MORRIS – VISUAL ARTIST
U.S.A.
Samantha Morris was born in 1995 and grew up in Madison, Connecticut; she now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Morris graduated from The University of the Arts in 2017 with a BFA in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Painting and Drawing. In addition, she is continuing her graduate studies in the MFA Fine Arts program at Pratt Institute. Solo exhibitions include: Kanna Rými, Listhús Gallery in Ólafsfjörður, Iceland; and BFA Thesis Exhibition, The Space Between, The University of the Arts. Selected group exhibitions include Black and White, Site:Brooklyn, Paperworks, b.j spoke gallery and Space Invaders, Fountain Street Gallery among others. Morris’ work has been published in FreshPaint Magazine, Opción Magazine, ArtMaze Magazine and Underground Pool.
“My large monochromatic graphite drawings and prints suggest the experience of an individual traveling through a space. Exploring place through architecture, interiors, and plant life, I am fascinated by the feeling of light and its stillness. Through the labor intensive mark-making process, internal light emerges from the work. By questioning both specificity and ambiguity, the work exists in the in-between.”
JOE WARD – VISUAL ARTIST
U.S.A.
Joe Ward is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, New York and the principal and creative director of Joe Ward LLC, a digital and communications strategy group in New York City. He studied design at George Washington University (Washington, DC) and painting at the New York Studio School Of Drawing, Painting, And Sculpture (New York, NY). Using an abstract approach, Joe creates work with oil paint, acrylics, drawing, and digital.
MAISIE COUSINS – PHOTOGRAPHER
United Kingdom
I have lived in Britain my whole life, mainly in London. I am a full time practising artist, dividing my time between making personal work and also commercial work to pay the bills. Last year I was extremely lucky to have my first solo show at T J Boulting gallery in London, and to get the opportunity to photograph the musician Bjork - who was attracted to my visceral aesthetic. After a busy year I am focusing on meeting other artists, creating stronger ideas, developing my practice and travelling as much as possible. When I travel I am particularly drawn to Latin America, there is an energy there that really appeals to me and inspires my work.
When I travel, it is not the overall grand landscape scenes I am attracted to photograph - they do not even tempt me. I am drawn in by the smaller details that I believe are the true character & story in a place - wether that be a city, a jungle, a forest, a junk yard, a beach. Details like the flies & insects on rotten fruit, the rubbish left behind, the language of food and consumption, the human mark left behind on nature.
The everyday is what inspires me. What others see as mundane or disgusting, I am drawn too and use these to transform my surroundings, creating a semi faux reality. I have mostly done this in a studio set up, but following a residency in Columbia earlier this year, where I truly felt travelling helped me completely lose my ego & sense of self, I am more inspired to continue travelling & created these faux realities in a true setting - romanticising real places, people, objects whilst staying true to their natural core.
During this residency I would like to expand on these ideas (our relationship with food, waste and nature), but within the amazing setting of Brazil. I aim to make larger scale images, using fauna I would have no access to here in the U.K. I want to bring my studio set ups into real life.