Meet the Artists: CLTRL CNTXT
CLTRL CNTXT
CLTRL CNTXT is a thought-provoking group exhibition that delves into the ways cultural references shape our shared social realities. In an increasingly interconnected world, the exhibition explores how collective understandings of symbols, language, media, and imagery create bridges between diverse communities. Through a curated selection of works across various mediums — including visual art, digital media, sound, and installation — the exhibition highlights the powerful role that cultural references play in fostering identity, belonging, and dialogue. Now let's introduce the artists that are a part of CLTRL CNTXT.
Kim Byungkwan
Kim Byungkwan is a contemporary visual artist whose work explores the boundaries between familiarity and strangeness. Through painting and mixed media, he challenges habitual vision — the automatic ways we perceive the world — by deconstructing and reconstructing everyday imagery. By disrupting visual comfort, Kim invites viewers to reconsider their surroundings and discover new possibilities within the ordinary. His practice reflects a deep belief in the transformative power of perception and the potential for art to lead us “off the track” toward unexpected perspectives.
What I aim to express through my work is simple: I seek to reveal strangeness within familiarity. Everything in this world offers us a certain kind of familiar vision — an automatic way of seeing that, over time, becomes habitual.
This visual habit brings us comfort, but it also limits us. It closes the door to other possibilities, keeping us bound to routines and preventing us from truly exploring the wonders that surround us. Through my work, I aim to disrupt, dismantle, and reconstruct these ingrained patterns of seeing, challenging viewers to reconsider what they think they know.
By breaking apart habitual vision, I hope to open up new perspectives — unexpected ways of perceiving the world, ourselves, and the objects around us. I believe that this shift in perception can inspire personal transformation and encourage us to step off the well-worn path.
“Strangeness within habitual vision — off the track.”
— Kim Byungkwan (Artist’s Note)
Fintan Magee
Fintan Magee is a Sydney-based social realist painter, specializing in large-scale murals. Born in 1985 in Lismore, New South Wales, to an architect mother and a father who was a sculptor, he started drawing at a young age. His earlier large-scale paintings often inhabited the isolated, abandoned, and broken corners of the city, and today are found all over the world including in London, Vienna, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Moscow, Rome, Jordan, and Dublin, amongst others.
Magee’s practice is informed by a profound interest in political murals, inspired by exposure at a young age to those of his father’s native Northern Ireland. This is reflected in the socialist nature of his public artworks, which combine journalistic elements with public art. Magee’s work is driven by his recognition of the power of murals to communicate political and social viewpoints and thus divide or unite communities.
Drawing from personal experience and the mundane, his figurative paintings are deeply integrated with the urban environment and explore themes of diversity, migration and transition, waste and consumption, loss, and the environment.
In recent years, Magee has solidified his position as one of Australia’s leading public artists and has traveled extensively, completing projects in countries across the world.
Magee has been featured in the Sydney Morning Herald, Juxtapoz Magazine, ABC News, The Australian, The Urban Contemporary Art Guide (2014, 2015), Street Art Australia (Lou Chamberlain), Graffiti Art (FR), Home & Design: Trends Magazine, and Surface (Søren Solkær) (DK), amongst others.
Florian Eyemann
Born on August 28, 1980, in Auxerre, Florian Eymann is a self-taught artist. He currently lives and works near Orléans (45), France.
After exploring musical expression for several years, Florian now devotes himself to pictorial territories, maintaining the same passion for experimentation and discovery. Disregarding conventional boundaries, following him through his artistic explorations can be both disorienting and intriguing. Yet, the dark themes he engages with gradually reveal themselves through their many variations.
Faces, expressions, and the traces of time are deconstructed and reinterpreted with meticulous attention, giving rise to a body of work that is both unsettling and deeply expressive, marked by a unique and singular vision.
Allison Hueman
Oakland-based artist Allison Hueman creates dynamic paintings, murals, site-specific installations, and new media works that oscillate between abstraction and the representation of the human form. Driven by instinct and experimentation, Hueman renders sublime and transcendent experiences by abstracting figures, layering, and enveloping them in vivid colors using both paint and textiles.
Her practice draws from a constellation of art movements — from the spontaneity of Abstract Expressionism and the ethereal quality of the Light and Space movement to the rich drama of the Baroque period. By blending these influences, Hueman explores themes of movement, spirituality, and the unseen.
She has received prestigious large-scale commissions throughout the U.S. and has collaborated with major brands and organizations, including the Golden State Warriors, Jordan, Estée Lauder, Adobe, and Forever 21, among others.
Hueman has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and her work is included in several public and private collections, including those of Daveed Diggs, Usher, and Swizz Beatz. She earned her BA in Design | Media Arts from UCLA.
Michal Mraz
Michal Mraz (b. Bratislava, Slovakia) is a contemporary visual artist known for his distinctive fusion of realism, abstraction, and street art influences. Working primarily with painting and mixed media, Mraz creates visually striking compositions that blur the boundaries between figuration and deconstruction, inviting viewers into layered narratives that explore identity, memory, and the human condition.
Mraz studied at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Bratislava (2007–2009), where he focused on sculpture, installation, and object art under the guidance of J. Meliša and J. Hoffstädter. Prior to that, he attended the School of Applied Arts of Josef Vydra (2003–2007), where he developed his foundational artistic skills.
Throughout his career, Michal Mraz has exhibited extensively across Europe, the United States, and beyond, with his work featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His paintings are characterized by dynamic brushwork, fragmented forms, and a bold interplay of light, texture, and color. Mraz’s practice often reflects themes of human vulnerability, impermanence, and transformation, while simultaneously incorporating raw energy drawn from urban visual culture.
Currently, Michal Mraz continues to develop his practice between Bratislava and international art centers, constantly experimenting with form and composition while pushing the boundaries of contemporary figurative painting.
Nicholas Romero
Nicolás Romero (b. 1985, Buenos Aires, Argentina), also known by his artist name Ever, began his creative journey over twenty years ago in the streets of Buenos Aires. Starting with graffiti, his early work emerged during a period when the city was recovering from an eight-year military dictatorship, and street art became a powerful expression of freedom and resistance.
Today, Romero has expanded his practice into studio-based work, developing his acclaimed series “Naturalezas Muertas” (Still Lifes). Through the union of diverse elements, he uses imagery as a form of social reflection and anthropological research. Drawing inspiration from everyday objects and cultural traces, Romero incorporates items found in his immediate environment — from soft drink bottles and religious prints to political symbols, contemporary icons, and even fruits and vegetables. These compositions serve as visual bridges to deeper social, cultural, and economic narratives, revealing complex realities through layered imagery.
Beyond the gallery space, Romero has collaborated on illustrations for The New York Times Magazine and ZEIT Magazine.
His work has been recognized and collected by major cultural institutions, including:
Santander Foundation (Buenos Aires)
Amalita Fortabat Museum (Buenos Aires)
Palais de Glace (Buenos Aires)
Macro Museum (Rosario)
Biennial of Urban Interventions (CCEC, Córdoba)
Caraffa Museum (Córdoba)
With a practice that seamlessly bridges street art and contemporary fine art, Nicolás Romero continues to explore the social, cultural, and political layers of human existence, using visual language as a tool to provoke reflection and dialogue.
Joram Roukes
Joram Roukes is a multidisciplinary visual artist with an extensive and impressive career in both fine art and public mural projects. Born and raised in The Netherlands, Roukes graduated from the Minerva Academy of Fine Arts in Groningen in 2006 and has since established himself as a prominent figure in the New Urban Contemporary art movement.
Over the years, Roukes has participated in numerous public art projects and exhibitions across the Netherlands and internationally. His artistic practice has been further enriched through residencies in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, and Paris, where he deepened his exploration of narrative, technique, and visual experimentation.
Roukes’ work is recognized for its collage-like approach to imagery, where a wide range of visual elements are combined to create striking compositions. By juxtaposing these fragmented forms, Roukes constructs abstract narratives that invite open interpretation. The meaning within his work often depends on each viewer’s personal background, cultural context, experiences, and associative patterns. While open-ended, many of these narratives are deeply rooted in contemporary culture and its complex social and psychological layers.
In 2020, Roukes founded the DreamCourts Project, a groundbreaking initiative that transforms outdoor public sportsgrounds into large-scale, interactive works of art. Through workshops and collaborative activities, the project actively involves local youth, giving them a sense of ownership, identity, and responsibility within their communities.
By blending fine art techniques, street art aesthetics, and community-driven practices, Joram Roukes has become a dynamic and influential voice in contemporary visual culture. His work continues to push the boundaries between representation and abstraction, creating immersive experiences that resonate on both personal and collective levels.