Contemporary Artists

Pippa Bacca made international headlines in March 2008, when she was found naked and strangled on the outskirts of Istanbul. The Italian feminist artist had apparently been raped and murdered in the middle of her hitch-hiking program Brides on Tour, which had her traveling from Milan dressed as a bride.

Arturo Di Modica was a sculptor best known for creating the bronze sculpture Charging Bull. Born in Italy during World War II, he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and later moved to USA. He opened his own studios and built a brilliant career, often holding major exhibitions. His Charging Bull has often been featured in media. 

Brion Gysin was a Canadian painter, sound poet, writer, and performance artist. Gysin was also known as an inventor of experimental devices; he is credited with inventing the Dreamachine, a stroboscopic flicker device. Brion Gysin's ideas went on to inspire the artists of the Beat Generation and other prominent personalities like Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, and Keith Haring. 

Vanessa Beecroft is a contemporary performance artist who often works with professional models to stage tableaux vivants. In 2018, she used Kim Kardashian as her model for the release of the latter's perfume brand. A controversial personality, Vanessa Beecroft's unsuccessful attempt to adopt Sudanese twins inspired a derogative documentary titled The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins by Pietra Brettkelly.

Antoni Tàpies was a Spanish painter, sculptor, and art theorist. He is regarded as one of the most famous European artists of his generation. He studied at the German School of Barcelona, following which he embarked on a successful artistic career. He became one of the most renowned Spanish artists in the second half of the 20th century. 

Zurab Tsereteli is a Georgian painter, architect, and sculptor best known for his large-scale and controversial monuments. An influential figure, Tsereteli has been serving as the Russian Academy of Arts' President since 1997. Zurab Tsereteli is the recipient of several prestigious awards and honors, such as the USSR State Prize, Lenin Prize, and Russian Federation State Prize. 

Martin von Haselberg is an actor, director, and writer who is best known for creating the performance art group known as the Kipper Kids with his long-time collaborator, Brian Routh. The young men started performing together in the 1970s and achieved cult status. They also made TV projects and created a series of large photographic images.

Canadian avant-garde artist Michael Snow has also been associated with the development of the artistic scene in the US. Part of the structural film movement, he is best remembered for his experimental film Wavelength, which was a 45-minute movie on the events taking place in a room.

Initially known as the drummer and backing singer for the Soviet cult rock band Kino, Georgy Guryanov later also joined Timur Novikov’s non-conformist group The New Artists. He didn’t just create innovative music for Kino but was also known as a style icon, playing the drums almost half-naked.

César Baldaccini was a French sculptor who had occupied the most important position among other sculptors of the Nouveau Réalisme movement. Baldaccini, who had become one of France's most prominent sculptors by 1960, was renowned for his experimental works. He is credited with creating the César du cinéma trophy, which is regarded as the most prestigious award in French cinema.

Known as an artistic nomad, who is constantly on the move, experiencing nature, Miquel Barceló is one of Spain's most acclaimed contemporary artists, whose works effuse a fierce energy, making them animate. Although he is best known for his mixed-media paintings, bronze sculptures and ceramics, he also works with non-traditional materials like volcanic ash, food, seaweed, sediments, homemade pigments etc.

One of the most popular Aboriginal artists from Australia, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was raised in the Australian bush and later often depicted the terrain in his paintings. Starting his career as a carver, he later became part of the Aboriginal Art Movement. Dreamings remains one of his best-known paintings.

Thomas Demand is a German photographer and sculptor who had his debut solo exhibition in 1992 at Tanit Galerie in Munich. He then went on to display his works at popular art galleries like the Museum of Modern Art, Neue Nationalgalerie, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. In 2011, he was nominated for the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.

Known for his bold colors and mesmerizing landscapes, Canadian artist Matthew Wong was a self-taught painter. After making Facebook a medium to showcase his paintings, he bagged gallery exhibitions in Hong Kong and New York. Struggling with depression, he killed himself at 35 and failed to witness a hit 2019 posthumous show.

An M.A. in Clinical Psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger initially worked as psychoanalyst in Israel and England. Although self taught, she later decided to become a professional artist, eventually moving to Paris, where along with painting, drawing and photography, she also started writing and began serving as visiting professor at various European and Asian universities.

Italian artist Mimmo Rotella is best remembered for his double décollages, made out of torn paper advertisements. Part of the Lettrism movement, he also became known as one of the Les Affichistes artists. A Fulbright scholar, he later joined the New Realism movement. He also experimented with geometric painting and poetry.

Best known for his photographs and installations, Jean-Marc Bustamante had begun his career as an assistant to photographer William Klein. One of his most famous series was Something is Missing. He also produced countless projects with French sculptor Bernard Bazile, as the duo Bazile Bustamante.

Along with his wife and collaborator Madeline Gins, artist and architect Shusaku Arakawa designed buildings such as the Bioscleave house, which included surrealist features, such as sand-dune-shaped floors and the lack of doors. His art and his Reversible Destiny Foundation were geared toward increasing human longevity.