Australian artist Ben Smith’s take on portraiture is loose and impressionistic, adhering to the classical tradition of figure painting. Yet his latest series, titled “Flux,” pops with candy-colored hues — the artificial colors that bleed into our lives by way of mass-produced products and media. The teals and violets add a playful quality to the work, accentuated by the surreal creatures he introduces into his whimsical scenarios. A miniature albino lion in one piece looks like it would make for an excellent viral pet video if it were a real animal; in another painting, a two-headed horse presents a perplexing and ultimately disturbing anatomical riddle. Tying together various threads in the world around him, Smith creates imaginative vignettes that engage the senses.
In her paintings and ink drawings of anthropomorphous forms, Belarusian artist 
Born in Bologna, Nunzio Paci developed his artistic finesse viewing the Baroque style of painting promoted in Paci's home city in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of Progressives) was established in 1582 and elevated the arts to the same level of intellectual rigor as astronomy and medicine, in addition to poetry and music. In the 21st century, Paci continues the tradition of his ancestors, innovating compositions that are a triangulation of anatomical study, lyrical song, and psychological probe.
