Way Beyond Program Joan Benney San Francisco, USA Photography, Mixed Media www My work explores themes of transformation, through an interplay with natural form and metaphor, driven by the personal. My process often begins in taking note of “open spaces” and other areas of interest that I see on my daily commute and coming back to investigate the landscape further. Research into the history of the area, both natural and human made provides another layer through which a project evolves. The history of a place becomes a guide for self reflection. Geographies of memory, environment and identity come together to form allegories of personhood and transformation. Noticing these wild spaces that exist along my commute provides a mirror into my own perceived inner wilds, from there a visual narrative of inquiry begins and its time to set out with my sitter. I see portraiture and figurative art through a post documentary lens, in collaboration with my subject and the lyricism inherent in visual story telling. Seiu Yang Taipei, Taiwan Clay, Worldbuilding, Installation www "I believe everything has a spirit, and i am a vessel through which my creations channel." I am a traveling artist. In 2023, I began a journey moving between artist residencies and temporary studios, learning how to build connection while honoring a nomadic rhythm. Sometimes, i wonder: what am i even doing? my practice usually begins with clay, then moves through a labyrinth of writing, filmmaking, poetry, photography, and found objects. i pull the tower card every other week. memories arrive like clues, and I follow them, opening small portals through psychological introspection and imagination, trying to understand and heal a wound. To me, clay holds a kind of material intelligence. working with it feels like something ancestral, something I come to understand through somatic awareness.

May Erik Arazi Buenos Aires, Argentina Drawing www When I am drawing I feel that I am in abstract fields with unlimited possibilities, where mind and body works beyond what language can express. I could say that within my practice I find myself in the place of consciousness that synchronizes with my own breathing, an energetic portal inside my head when I close the eyes, or that inner silent voice listening beyond the nature that surrounds us in the Cosmos. The way I work emerges as a seed of thoughts orbiting intuitively, where my interests are allowing to question myself different aspects of states of perception, contemplation and meditation. I believe in my drawings as reflections towards an act of faith, of the emotional capacity to manifest myself in a way of being present in time and space in this world. Chia-Chun Yeh Taiwan Illustration, Writing, Education www "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." To me, creating is the practice of exploring the unknown. In this ever-changing life, I train myself to be a quiet collector, using my brushes and senses to capture the flickering light within my heart. It is a journey of learning to appreciate every state of being, exactly as it is in the moment. Phoebe Rotter Albany, New York, USA Drawing, Printmaking, Installation www Phoebe Rotter is a multidisciplinary artist living in Albany, NY. Her visual work consists of translucent wall-hung drawings that investigate desire, personal mythology, and body politics. She also works with the Bread & Puppet Theater as a performing artist and puppeteer. Phoebe received her MFA in painting and drawing from SUNY Albany, where her work won the 2023 Distinguished Thesis Award. She also holds an MA in Studio Art from SUNY Albany and a BA in Art History, cum laude, from Kenyon College. Shi Jun Gui Shen Zhen, China Video, installation , photography www "Sometimes we forget we are nature itself" Gui Shijun holds a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Master’s degree in Visual Arts from Hong Kong Baptist University. She currently lives and works in Shenzhen. Her artistic practice spans the boundaries of art, ecology, and sensory experience. Through immersive art practices, she engages with nature, inviting the audience to re-examine ecosystems and living organisms through active participation. Her works emphasize "ecological perception" and "bodily interaction", where she engages in direct contact with forests, plants, and natural environments, fostering a dialogue with nature. In her works, the relationship between humans and nature is transformed into a deep, experiential exchange. Gui’s practice encompasses video, installation, performance, and experience design. Her works have been exhibited at major events such as the Hong Kong Sculpture Biennale, Shenzhen-Hong Kong Design Biennale, and the Shenzhen Biennale of Contemporary Art.

Ruth Saunders San Francisco, USA Photography, Performing Arts, Creative Writing Growing up on a farm in rural Alabama, I developed a passion for nature, art and photography at an early age. For the past 30 years I have lived in San Francisco, building a successful career in the entertainment industry. I’m fortunate to have led and/or collaborated with countless talented crews including the San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Opera, ACT-SF, and San Francisco Symphony. The opportunity for international travel arose from managing corporate events for clients such as Apple, Facebook, OpenStack and Toyota. I’ve worked on live action movies and television shows. My work as a camera assist on stop-motion animated children’s programs was most rewarding. Another highlight was touring with Barry Humphries as we spread the joy that is Dame Edna Everage across the United States and Canada, with a Broadway run and an Australian tour to boot. Throughout this time, I have continued to capture and create images, often adding poetic words. I love exploring new mediums and work diligently to keep my mind and heart open to life’s practical, spiritual and emotional lessons. Nathalia Pereira Vredeveld Brussels, Belgium Geography, Writing, Research www I am a geographer and a massage therapist. I’m developing a transdisciplinary practice with a research-oriented methodology. At its core is a thought experiment I have developed called The Weightless Society, through which I look at space as a place and explore how our beliefs are shaped by the earthly condition of gravity. Another key aspect of my practice is embodied research: I am particularly interested in the spatial dimensions of emotion, questioning whether emotions can be located and mapped within the body. My practice moves between writing, cartography, visual experimentation, and embodied research. Over time, these different forms are brought together in hybrid essays in which text, image, and moving material converge. Mercedes McDermott San Francisco, USA Painting, Printmaking www I grew up within walking distance of the Atlantic Ocean. I’m inspired by our connection to the natural world, and to each other. My love for wild places and adventure has led me to experiences as a deckhand on a pilot boat, a wilderness guide, a fine art and documentary photographer, and traveling for a year around the Pacific Rim. I began my artistic exploration through photography, and often use my photographs for painting reference in the studio. During a photography fellowship in 2007 on an island off the coast of Maine, I was inspired to begin painting as a way to convey the unique energy present in each place. In 2024, during an artist residency in Ireland, I continued to explore making inks from foraged materials for use in my painting and experimental printmaking. I’m moved by the beauty, magic and dream-like qualities that exist in everyday moments, and aim to express these feelings and observations through my work. When I’m not creating images, I’m writing songs, and making field recordings both above and below the waterline.

Efrat Lotenberg Israel Sound, Performance, Video www "There is a moment in creation that can only be felt. A simple knowing." My work moves between sound, presence, and states of awareness. Working across voice, performance, and video, I explore how perception shifts through attention, listening, and embodied experience. I am drawn to the subtle spaces where inner and outer landscapes meet, where something begins to unfold beyond language. Nature is an essential collaborator in my work. I engage with environments as living fields, using sound, voice, and image to trace relationships between body, mind, and place. Alongside my individual practice, I value shared processes and encounters that open new perspectives and ways of sensing. I approach art as an ongoing exploration, a way to sense, to listen, and to move toward what is not yet known. Jasper van Aarle Tilburg, Netherlands Sculpture, Drawing, Installation www When the global landscape seems to be at the mercy of its own turbulence, it is essential to stay attentive to the most meaningful aspects of life. Aside from walking, studying, and spending time with loved ones, I find fulfilment and a deeper understanding of our place in the world through working with sculpture and drawing. Much of what I do stems from a desire to grasp metaphysical ideas and expand on our ever-evolving views thereof. As I figure out these ontological principles for myself in a visual and spatial manner, I also aim to create new opportunities that reveal — or at least allow us to sense — the ways in which the phenomenal world comes into being. By elaborating on the interplay between imagination and experience, I want to invite others into a revitalising worldview that perceives reality and its myriad qualities, meanings, and characteristics as one unfolding process of becoming. Since, time and again, artistic practice reminds me of our profound role in the greater expression of Nature as a self-discovering whole. Manuela Pecorari UK / Italy Performance making, Research, Video www My practice encompasses multiple disciplines, from the exploration of the body through somatic practices, to paper with line and colour, to the tactile surface of textile. From the core of the inner dialogue to the relationship with the world. The work has its roots in theatre-making practice but has found nourishment in multiple soil: art history, feminist thinking, Yoga tradition, performance studies, spiritual ecology, post-humanist theory. I am interested of themes of memory, interaction, the marks left from our bodies, on our bodies, on others. The mediation between a here-now and an elsewhere-elsewhen. Home and family, found and born within. I believe my investigation on the meaning as a creature on this Earth can be boiled down to the search for the secret third thing: something that is generated when two entities enter in conversation. See the list of all the Arteles residents here