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Drawing on art and film history, Romane de Watteville developed a practice that focuses on figurative painting, blending elements of Italian Renaissance painting with contemporary pop art as well as film effects such as framing or dramatic film set staging. Her compositions are mixtures of all kinds of textures and layers, patterns, garments, body parts, images and reflections, ultimately always revolving around one theme: the portrait, be it her own or someone else’s. Playing with fragmented angles and trompe-l’œil, the paintings tell stories about the bodies and their desires, oscillating between sensuality and visual allusions, viewers and viewed, always alternating between reality and the imaginary. The canvas thus becomes an immersive space inviting the viewer to wander through an intimate world of motifs and ornaments, with all their emotional and sensual tensions.

Romane de Watteville graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Art History and Cinema from UNIL (University of Lausanne) followed in 2020 by a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Art from ECAL (Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne). She has been the laureate of the Cultural Grant Leenards in 2023, the Prix Mobilière in 2022 as well as the Prix Ernest Manganel in 2020 and has been shortlisted for the Nestlé Young Art Prize and the Helvetia Prize in 2021.

Referring to the rich history of tapestry making, Christina Forrer weaves vibrant hangings that depict explosive moments of violence and conflict. Influenced by the palette of German Expressionism and the imagery of regional folklore, Forrer’s magical textiles reveal unsettling narratives, showcasing family discord and environmental strife. Her cartoonish figures — with their large eyes and exaggerated features that may be human, animal, or vegetal — argue and assault each other, but despite the disquiet they evoke in the viewer, they are still immensely pleasurable, always radiating an air of glee and joyous celebration.

Christina Forrer graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 2004. She was the recipient of the Emerging Artist Grant of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation in 2014. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, at the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art in Savannah and at the Swiss Institute in New York.

Inspired by Western art history, philosophy, Celtic and Japanese Manga culture, Atsushi Kaga uses a unique cast of characters to create a narrative of profound stories about personal experiences. His colourful, comic-like paintings are populated by droll characters, led by Usacchi, the artist’s alter ego. Usacchi is a lovable, but mischievous rabbit, and his friend Kumacchi is a drug-addicted bear, who was injured in a car accident, representing the artist’s dark side. Behind this playful and surreal facade of Atsushi Kaga’s misleadingly simple work, however, lurks much darker territory wherein the artist confronts serious issues of cultural politics, sexuality, death, paranoia, social relationships as a complex research for personal identity and daily philosophical crises of the harsh realities of the world.

Atsushi Kaga studied Fine Art at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, graduating in 2005, and made a critically acclaimed first solo museum exhibition at the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny in 2008. Additional exhibitions include solo shows at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Powerlong Museum in Shanghai.

Norbert Schwontkowski studied at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Bremen and at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg from 1968 to 1973. Most recently, his work has been exhibited at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art in Bremen and at the Kunstmuseum in Bonn. Previous exhibitions include solo presentations at the Kunsthalle Bremen as well as at the CAA Wattis Institute, San Francisco, which last one traveled to Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown. Furthermore, his work was included in the Berlin Biennale in 2005.