Portraiture is one of the oldest and most enduring artistic practices, yet it remains endlessly redefined. In this special edition of Collect Art Magazine, Volume 90, we turn our attention to Portraits—not as a fixed genre, but as a living, evolving language through which artists explore identity, presence, memory, and the human condition. Across cultures and centuries, portraits have served as records of power, intimacy, resistance, and self-reflection. Today, they continue

Daye Kim is a contemporary jewellery artist and sculptor based in London. She holds an MA in Jewellery & Metal from the Royal College of Art (2024) and a BA in Metalwork & Textiles from Korea. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including as a SCHMUCK 2024 finalist and in the Hunt Museum's Open Submission Exhibition (Ireland, 2024). Daye's practice combines traditional metalworking with digital fabrication processes, including ZBrush modelling and resin casting. She

Wurm is an artist, educator, and curator engaged in expanding the community forum for contemporary art dialogue. Having lived in California, where she received a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Europe, where she received an M.A.R.C.A. from the Royal College of Art in London, Jan Wurm has honed an eye for social patterns and conventions. She currently divides her time between Berkeley and L.A. and her hand between drawing and painting. As an artist, Wu

E.B. is a multidisciplinary artist based in London. He began painting three years ago, at the age of 31, using art as a means of survival, inquiry, and transformation. His practice explores how visual language communicates with the soul, revealing truths that cannot be spoken aloud. Drawing from personal experiences of trauma, identity, displacement, and healing, his work sits between the psychological and the symbolic. Through painting, digital work, and mixed media, E.B. co

‘’Making art seems to be a reaction to my being in this temporary human visit we all experience. It began with the impulse to make things, chairs, tables, even a small boat. I ran out of functional objects to make, and at my brother's suggestion, began to paint and make art. I was free of the functional objects, and, unknown to me at the time, I began an inner journey with endless possibilities. This practice continues to this very day. There is a never-ending joy in the proc

Born in 1999 and raised in Bacau, Romania, Laura Candet is currently exploring the alarming increase in femicide in Romania and around the world. Experiencing the gender gap firsthand, her visual art conveys the frustration and powerful emotions felt during these turbulent times. With significant achievements in the artistic and academic fields, Laura Candet combines theoretical and practical study for a good artistic representation of her subjects. The artist has won multipl

Bahar Talebi Najafabadi is a visual artist from Isfahan, Iran, now based in London since 2023. She uses different methods to create her artwork, including charcoal, chalk, and oil painting. Bahar's artistic practice is defined by exploration; she embraces a diverse approach to express her emotions through oil paint. Her work reflects the transmission of human feeling, using colour, style, and pattern as essential means of communication with viewers. Currently, Bahar focuses on t

Elice is a visual artist from South Korea, currently based in London. She creates portraits of people with whom she has personal connections. Her practice primarily involves pencil and coloured pencils, with occasional use of watercolours or markers. When she first began making portraits, Elice often depicted strangers, including celebrities or people she encountered on the street. Over time, she began to reflect on whether portraying individuals she had personally met and fo

Nadia Kissel’s artistic journey began in Russia, where she trained from the age of fourteen at the Ryazan College of Art and later at the Leningrad Academy. Grounded in the classical traditions of drawing and composition, her practice has since evolved across cultures and continents. A move to Kenya marked a transformative chapter, immersing her in the vibrant textures of African life and expanding her visual language through bold colour and dynamic contrasts. Later, in the U

War and peace are not opposites. They are entangled states—historical, psychological, political, and deeply personal. They coexist within nations, communities, and individuals, often simultaneously. In this special edition of the magazine, we explore The Art of War & Peace not as a binary theme, but as a spectrum of human experience shaped by conflict, survival, resistance, reconciliation, memory, and hope. Throughout history, artists have been witnesses to war and architects

Rob Sunderman graduated from the University of Iowa with a BFA, MA & MFA. He is a Fine Artist, Scenic Designer, Scenic Artist & ISU Associate Professor Emeritus of Theatre. He was the Resident Scenic Designer/Scenic Artist & Associate Professor of Theatre Design at Iowa State University for 21 years. Before that, he was the Scenic Designer at Iowa PBS for 16 years. Rob has been teaching art classes at the Des Moines Art Center for over 36 years. He has designed & scenically p

Igor Grechanyk is a sculptor and artist whose work blends philosophical symbolism, mytho-poetic imagery, and a contemporary sculptural language. His creations are visualized fragments of spiritual experience, resonating with the collective unconscious and touching on the eternal questions of human existence. He gives form to the undefined, materializing spirit in bronze. Born in Kyiv into an artistic family, Grechanyk graduated from the Kyiv State Art Institute in 1984. His e

Maddie Blanchard is an illustrator and painter from the UK. Horror, surrealism, the dark, and the strange have been prevalent themes in Maddie’s work from a young age, for they are places to dispel all the ugliness of the world. This expressive approach has aided her career, allowing her to create heartfelt but gritty artwork for the poster advertising Phantasmal Galleries' exhibition Scary Monsters, Super Creeps (2025), the paintings to be displayed in the set design of the

Infused with warmth, humor, and an energetic line, these paintings on canvas and mixed media works on paper invite the viewer to contemplate the moment. Jan Wurm’s work is in collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, New York Public Library Print Collection, Monterey Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Art, Archiv Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen, Berlin, Universität für angewandte Kunst in Vienna, and Tiroler Landesmuseen

Having previously embroidered handkerchiefs for the Board of Marks and Spencer alongside Sarah Corbett, Jenny Spouge then came across the Leeds Craftivists group online during the Covid pandemic, joined their Zoom meetings, and contributed items towards their projects. However, they focus on Leeds issues, and so she began to draw together people local to her who were interested in a similar group. She tried to explore a wider faith-based network - but to date, we are all memb

Born in 1999 and raised in Bacau, Romania, Laura Candet is currently exploring the alarming increase in femicide in Romania and around the world. Experiencing the gender gap firsthand, her visual art conveys the frustration and powerful emotions felt during these turbulent times. With significant achievements in the artistic and academic fields, Laura Candet combines theoretical and practical study for a good artistic representation of her subjects. The artist has won multipl

Jerry has more years in product and furniture design. He worked for IDEO's product development team for over 10 years, contributing to national & international award-winning projects. From there, he set up KD design and designed and marketed my own furniture design label. He sold furniture to many small design outlets while working on projects for the likes of Gucci and Hugo Boss with other design studios,

For many years, Louise Wellington worked as a nurse before making a major career change in 1987. In 1990, she graduated from Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne with a degree in Creative Arts (Visual Art). Since then, her artistic practice has centred on the use of handmade paper, collograph prints, and found objects—primarily wood, stones, bones, feathers, and shells. Until 1998, she worked as a freelance artist, delivering printmaking and papermaking workshops in