ARTIST OF THE YEAR – 2025 WINNERS
ITSLIQUID Group is pleased to announce the WINNERS of the ARTIST OF THE YEAR 2025, a competition open to anyone and established to increase and develop the art market and the dialogue between collectors, art critics, journalists, and art lovers. Making contemporary art accessible to all.
Artworks have been judged based on creativity, originality, and overall artistic ability. Winners have been chosen based on the quality of a single entry as well as the excellence of overall work.
Winners 2025
Paul Abbott . UK
Zaya Ambros . Denmark
Alfredo Bucay . Mexico
Simone Campos . Brazil
Terry Flaxton . UK
Oculta Studio . Mexico/USA
C-Elia: Unchained . France
Bea Last . UK
Marika Nagaoke . Japan
Avery Silliman . USA
Elisa Sofia . Italy
Kassandra Steindl . Germany
ARTIST OF THE YEAR – 2025 Winners
Paul Abbott . UK
The thread that has held his work together is a stillness that feels animated. Seeing his grandmother after her passing, and observing how motionless she was, created an intense anticipation of movement at any moment. Without realizing it at the time, this experience profoundly informed his work from that point forward. Rather than pursuing “drama”, he chose stillness. He has consistently sought to strip things down to their essence – a pursuit that continues to guide his practice. Humans naturally emanate this essential quality, as does nature, yet we have forgotten how to see it.
Zaya Ambros . Denmark
Ambros’ work unfolds as a quiet dialogue, sharing the intangible – a trace of thought, a shift in feeling, a fleeting moment. Through painting, she expresses the inner landscape of experience without words, allowing colors and forms to suggest what might otherwise remain unspoken. She approaches each piece as a diary entry, reflecting a specific moment in time, a thought, or an internal state. Colors merge into gradients that evoke changing light and memory, while dynamic marks and brushstrokes introduce a sense of movement and energy. This interplay between controlled and spontaneous elements creates emotional depth and invites open interpretation, capturing both the subtle and the bold aspects of experience. She hopes viewers encounter a sense of familiarity, ease, or a moment of reconnection with something intrinsic yet elusive, evoking gentle nostalgia and the warmth of shared human experience.
Alfredo Bucay . Mexico
Alfredo is a curious artist: everything is in his mind, and everything seeks to be deciphered. His sensory exploration between memory and reality begins, transforming it into matter through his technique, which lies between expressionism and abstraction. Through his personal and intimate observations, he seeks to deconstruct the world with each brushstroke, to reflect the edge of existence, evoking emotion and conveying his innate curiosity for observation. For the artist, aesthetics are tied to the five senses, setting aside the abject and the rational: he seeks the human through creative freedom. Many of his works are dreamlike – sensations born in the unconscious that intensify through the character of the painting and its colours. Rather than inviting mere contemplation, his work encourages the viewer’s imagination to explore passions such as tragedy, comedy, and ecstasy.
Simone Campos . Brazil
Born in Curitiba-PR, Brazil, Simone, since childhood, reverenced the arts branch through new colors, designs and shapes in the family’s atelier. In her youth, she attended drawing and painting workshops in the search for domains and new techniques, because her passion for painting was a matter which transcended the inner quest. At this time, she searched for the Academy of Arts, which would be able to promote her necessary improvement and then she graduated at the Escola de Música e Belas Artes do Paraná. Over time she has improved her technique and skills to the point of being recognized nationally and internationally, especially in countries such as Portugal, Germany, Malaysia and France.
Terry Flaxton . UK
British artist Terry Flaxton has exhibited internationally since 1978. Originally he encountered sound, oil, etching, photography & film on entering Wimbledon College of Art in 1971 – then the video where he received a BA in communication design at the University of East London in 1979. Establishing himself as a Video Artist in the early years of Channel 4 he was commissioned to create work for Channel 4’s Eleventh Hour, then Ghosts in the Machine which aired on PBS (Alive from Off Centre) and French TV (Avance Sur Image).
Oculta Studio . Mexico/USA
Oculta Studio is a creative studio based in Mexico City and California, dedicated to designing large-scale multimedia experiences. They combine technology and creativity to transform spaces and create meaningful connections with audiences through a variety of mediums, including light sculptures, kinetic installations, ephemeral architecture, and more. David and Emmanuel founded Oculta Studio in 2020 after working in the creative and production industries for over 15 years. Since then, they’ve created multiple collaborations to international music festivals, art fairs etc.
C-Elia: Unchained . France
Laury Golliet (C-Elia: Unchained) has been passionate about clothing creation and has worked as a fashion designer since 2003. After building an impressive record through fashion competitions and gaining experience in women’s ready-to-wear (her first love) she expanded her creative path. At the end of 2013, an unexpected opportunity in the world of interior decoration presented itself, marking the beginning of her career in interior design, a discipline that inspires her just as deeply as fashion.
Bea Last . UK
Based in Scotland, Bea’s work reflects a sense of both belonging everywhere and nowhere, shaping a perspective that is outward-looking and globally engaged. Initially a painter, [Name] now merges drawing and painting into sculptural forms, exploring process-led practices that integrate salvaged, recycled, and found materials such as plastics, paper, fabric, iron, and wood. Bea’s installations respond to space and environment, engaging viewers through dialogue on contemporary societal and global issues. Central themes include relationship, connection, community, and humanity. Alongside their artistic practice, Bea Last is committed to mentoring and education, having facilitated Widening Participation Open Studio tutoring at the Glasgow School of Art (2016–2020), contributed to Weareupland.com’s VASS project, and served as a visiting creative practitioner for Better Lives, a UK-based autism support charity.
Marika Nagaoke . Japan
Marika seeks to express the relationship between the movement of the body and the movement of the air that surrounds it. Although the paintings themselves are static, by depicting afterimages and fleeting moments of vision she creates works that communicate through an imagined sense of motion. She draws by relying on the memory of the body, a sensibility rooted in her long relationship with dance, which she has practiced since the age of ten, allowing dance and painting to coexist naturally in her practice. She draws with the sensation that her own body is synchronized with the body represented in the image. She does not merely “see” the model; she works through bodily sensation. For her, painting is ultimately a physical form of expression.
Avery Silliman . USA
Avery Silliman was born in Dallas, Texas in 2001. Silliman was selected by the AP College Board as a global example and credited 6.0/5.0 on a 5.0 scale for the AP Drawing Portfolio in 2019. She received her BFA from Abilene Christian University in 2023 as a University Scholar and with highest honors. Her work was exhibited at The 13th Juried Show Riverview Art Space in Lynchburg, Virginia in 2021, Rising Eyes of Texas Exhibition at Rockport Center for the Arts in 2023, and 10 commissioned works permanently reside in the Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building in Abilene, Texas in 2024.
Elisa Sofia . Italy
Elisa Sofia, a photographer with a wandering soul, embodies the essence of the traveler who seeks the truth hidden in the most intimate places and moments, those that escape the frenzy of everyday life. Her art is an open window onto a suspended world, where time slows down and every detail is charged with a profound meaning. Her photography becomes a journey into the soul, an exploration of the emotions and thoughts that hide behind every image. With impeccable sensitivity and technical mastery, Elisa Sofia manages to transform a simple shot into a work of art, into a visual poem that speaks of light, silence, hope.
Kassandra Steindl . Germany
Kassandra Steindl was born on July 30, 1989, in Peißenberg, Upper Bavaria, Germany. Art has always been an integral part of her life. In late 2023, her project Keo emerged following a period of hearing loss that led her to turn inward and engage more deeply with herself. This phase of introspection guided her toward a heightened focus on colors and shapes. For her, Keo is akin to discovering shapes in clouds—each creation revealing small figures and hidden narratives within the colors. Through watercolors and large-scale works, she explores the connection between her emotions and thoughts. Keo is a color. Keo is vibrant. It is an expression of her inner world and an invitation for viewers to immerse themselves in this rich diversity.
ARTIST OF THE YEAR 2026
ITSLIQUID Group officially presents ARTIST OF THE YEAR, a competition open to anyone and established to increase and develop the art market and the dialogue between collectors, art critics, journalists and art lovers. Making contemporary art accessible to all.
The winner will be awarded ‘Artist of the Year’, will be represented by ITSLIQUID Group for one year and will take part in some selected exhibitions in Venice, Rome, Barcelona and London ITSLIQUID Galleries during 2027. The winner will be featured and interviewed on ITSLIQUID Platform, promoted extensively worldwide and considered for any upcoming curatorial projects of ITSLIQUID Group.
Click here to read more.
ABOUT US
ITSLIQUID is a web-based information platform, founded in 2001 by Luca Curci, dedicated to the worldwide distribution of information about calls for entries, exhibitions and events at some of the world’s leading art galleries, museums and foundations. ITSLIQUID has already built a readership of more than 300.000 qualified subscribers. Among them are architects, designers, artists, collectors, art critics, curators, dealers, and other personalities of the International art, architecture and design world. It provides advertising services, press office services for events and projects, articles and specials published on the website, and media partnership services.
During the last 20 years, ITSLIQUID Group has become a cultural hub between creatives, exhibition spaces and art lovers. Among our international partners, Art Now Fair, Art Vancouver, Design Tokyo, INDEX Qatar, INDEX Saudi, The Big 5 Construct Dubai, The Big 5 Construct Qatar, Photo LA Los Angeles and international magazines like Art Style. ITSLIQUID Group supports some of the most important non-profit organizations, like UNFCCC – United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, SSCS – Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, One Tree Planted, The Ocean CleanUp and Plastic Oceans, with the goal to increase public awareness about environmental issues. Click here to find out more.
ITSLIQUID GROUP includes a section dedicated to the organization of international art events, managing exhibitions of painting, photography, video art, installation and performance; it organizes solo and collective shows, art residencies and international contests. Its object is to use new technologies to globalize the language of art and to connect artists working in every part of the world.
ITSLIQUID Group manages a variety of art spaces all over the world; among them, Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello in Venice and different historical buildings, ELEMENTS Contemporary Art Space in the London city centre and other partners worldwide. Since 2001, ITSLIQUID Group has organised over 350 international events, engaging more than 10,000 artists across over 60 global venues. Its initiatives have featured prestigious museums like the CCCB – Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona in Spain, the NCCA – National Center for Contemporary Arts in Moscow, the MuMo – Museum Montanelli in Prague, and the MUST Museum in Lecce, in addition to numerous galleries and private foundations. Thanks to its partnership with Sedition, ITSLIQUID has presented masters such as Bill Viola and Refik Anadol, offering high-level opportunities for young, mid-career, and renowned artists.
ITSLIQUID is based on fluidity, motion, connection and accessibility. Making things easy to do. Welcome.
Are you an artist, architect, designer? Would you like to be featured on ITSLIQUID platform? Send an e-mail to info@itsliquid.com or fill the form below
