Karin Miller

Karin Miller was born in 1957 in Pretoria, South Africa. She grew up spending hours drawing, cutting and pasting images that illustrate her imagination. Initially drawn to textile design, she chooses to study information design at Technikon – now part of University of South Africa (Unisa). Then, she began working as a graphic designer at a design firm located in Johannesburg. After several years, she decided to pursue an artistic career by following Fine Art courses including learning Photoshop at Unisa. To generate images of outstanding quality, Miller combines traditional artwork skills and photography with modern technology. She has developed a unique style that exudes a rich eclecticism, playfulness, quirky humour and the post-modern element of neo-baroque. Miller uses her art to speak about social, political and historical issues. Her images represent a large variety of subjects in diverse situations that blur the line between fantasy and reality. She carefully selects each facet of the image, and places each piece to form unexpected combinations and compositions.

Ingrid Baars

Ingrid Baars was born in 1969 in Dordrecht, Netherlands. She studied illustration at the Willem the Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and took some photography classes. Upon graduating in the early 1990s, she started working as an independent illustrator and photographer. In 2009, Baars decided to concentrate solely on her artistic work, which previously coexisted with her commercial activities. Her technique consists of merging photography of real women with fashion design and traditional African sculpture. This mix enables the artist to transcend reality and create a supernatural and enchanting atmosphere. By manipulating the pictures of the already stunning models, they turn into something almost extraterrestrial. Baars’ ongoing series – entitled “L’Afrique!” – is inspired by the rich African cultural heritage in all its diversity incorporating both the human and the non-human. She combines two opposing worlds by playing with the contrast between traditional African objects and contemporary artworks.

Vincent Michéa

Vincent Michéa was born in 1963 in Figeac, France. After graduating from the ESAG Penninghen – a school of art direction and interior architecture in Paris, he moved to Dakar in 1986. He worked as a graphic designer and exhibited his paintings and photographs for the first time at the National Gallery of Senegal in 1987. From this exhibition onwards to 1991, he worked as assistant of the renowned graphic designer Roman Cieslewicz. Greatly encouraged by the latter, he threw himself into painting profusely.  Working with different media including photography, graphics, and collage, Michéa creates narratives that are inspired by his hometown Dakar. His palette is made up of the bold colours and hard edges common in West African fabrics. Michéa often covers parts of his subjects’ identity with colourful geometric shapes. Using the illustrated aesthetic of a graphic postcard, his hyperrealist paintings capture Dakar's glamour as a modern West African city. His urban scenes document the city's landscape with emphasis on its forms and textures, which echo the style of David Hockney.