Blair Saxon-Hill lives and works in Los Angeles. While adept in many art mediums including assemblage and sculpture, Saxon-Hill has most recently been consumed with a return to oil painting. 

In her 2024 New York Times review of Blair Saxon-Hill’s exhibition at SHRINE, Roberta Smith stated, “Saxon-Hill [...] works with untroubled ease and zero pretension, when painting still lifes of wilting flowers or inhabited interiors.” 

Her works are vibrant, playful, and filled with an overarching sense of empathy and love for the world and people around her. She often moves from using larger gestural marks to more fine detailed expressions in a single canvas; rewarding the viewer in different ways at all distances from the work. 

Blair also has an observational still life practice. After gathering flowers from the market, she returns to the studio to compose bouquets and paint them from life. Collectively the works harken to the line work of masters like Matisse and Picasso, while looking forward with her new and distinct voice that can serve as an emotional balm.

Ayako Rokkaku (Chiba, Japan) lives and works between Berlin, Porto, and Tokyo. Her artistic process involves an instinctive and performative approach, as she uses her bare hands to apply acrylic paint. Indeed, Rokkaku stages live painting performances in contexts where her work will be exhibited, bringing the dialogue between the audience and artist as close to one another. 

After nearly two decades of immersing her hands in acrylic and oil paint, Rokkaku expanded her artistic boundaries by challenging herself to create sculptures, using ceramics, bronze, and glass. 

Rokkaku’s visual language seamlessly shifts between elusive abstract formations and figurative elements, drawing inspiration from the kawaii (cute) culture and capturing the boundless imagination of a child. Rokkaku is known for her colourful canvases populated by imaginary landscapes and fantastical characters. 

Rokkaku has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at The Long Museum, China (2023); the Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan (2020); Museum Jan van der Togt, Netherlands (2019); Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Slovakia (2012); and Kunsthal, Netherlands (2011). In 2015, she exhibited at the Swatch Art Pavilion during the 56th Venice Biennale.