Each painting is a window into the worlds that inhabit my inner self; they represent the way I have found to share and communicate with the world, the way I can transform the visions of my dreams and materialize them into art.
In a way, Surrealism has not only been an expression but has also become a free way of life through the multiple and unlimited acts of creation that the world of dreams reveals. It has been an open door that has revealed other possibilities of creation to me, an extension of my inner world.
Brianda Zareth Huitrón has exhibited individually and collectively in Mexico and abroad.
Solo Exhibitions Leonora Carrington Museum of Xilitla, DREAM ENCOUNTERS in 2025. Women’s Museum, DREAM REVELATIONS, in 2022.
DREAM LANDSCAPES for the Temascalcingo Festival Honoring Velasco, in 2021. WINDOW TO DREAM WORLDS, at the Futurama Cultural Center, Mexico City, in 2020.
Group Exhibitions Col-art at the Oscar Román Gallery in 2025. The painting exhibition THE PAINTER’S TRADE, at the San Carlos Academy, in 2019. DIMENSIONS, Wave Gotik Treffen Festival, held in Leipzig, Germany, in 2018.
She has participated in the Chair for 100 Years of Surrealism, at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UNAM, giving a lecture on female surrealism.
Her work has recently been published in the book Mexican Women in Art, published by Agueda, and in THE ROOM SURREALIST MAGAZINE, an international surrealism magazine.
Ancestor, February 2024. Cardboard, feathers and found materials.
We live inside a culture whose overriding goal is to keep us distracted, afraid, addicted and constantly triggered and disconnected from our authentic selves.
Snakes, ladders and chaos Tim White August 2025. Acrylic paint, oil pastel and paint marker on industrial paper
Art is an antidote, a map guiding us to an authentic lived experiences and a life-affirming revolutionary principle.
IlluminousDancing with the SpiritsThe Garden
John Trudell, North American Indigenous activist, declared, ‘When one lives in a society where people can no longer rely on the institutions to tell them the truth, the truth must come from culture and art’. In this context, of what therapist and medical doctor, Gabor Maté calls a ‘toxic culture’ the need for truth is critical and urgent.
FamiliarsLost child with beetle
The idea that art and poetry, and all the rich diverse forms of expression which connect us to each other can immunize us against the malignant virus of colonialism, capitalism and patriarchy is deeply appealing. That this wisdom comes from the deep spring of Indigenous knowledge and resistance, and despite the ongoing depredations of colonialism, is compelling.
Autonomic
The broken bits of the world I collect and use: the scraps of paper, plastic and metal, the discarded and rejected materials are clues and tools helping me puzzle my way out of the colonial-capitalist labyrinth. They are medicines too, the materia of transmutation, which once distilled provide essential healing and deepened connection with the biosphere and all it nurtures.
Obscene icy pole
As African American feminist bell hooks writes, ‘The moment we choose to love we begin to move against oppression’. This process of resistance, of healing through love, is an essential part of overthrowing the dismal and diminished life the masters of misery want to force on us. And it is from this love, from the sources within our imagination and in solidarity with others we can assemble a ‘new world inside the shell of the old’.
Iron Hills of Adversity Prime Optimus Vs Panoptic Octopus
For me, the found and discarded objects and materials used in my art carry a promise and reminder of profound possibilities subsumed in everyday life beyond the superficial substitutions of a hollowed-out AI virtuality. That even everyday junk and detritus call out to be up-cycled and politicised demanding a place as emblems of a transformed future, and are always on hand as building blocks for a new world, is a source of joy and inspiration.
Ce spectacle comprend des lumières stroboscopiques et des effets atmosphériques ; la discrétion du spectateur est recommandée.
Un flash est un crâne qui vibre. Son aspect visuel provoque une photopsie et des sensations au niveau du lobe temporal. Les rencontres fantomatiques ont des allures psychiques. Observez des étincelles électriques dans l’atmosphère, entre les nuages et l’air. Les images du film défilent au-dessus d’un faisceau de rayons. Le projectionniste s’assure que le son et l’image de la bobine sont synchronisés. Des trous vides consomment la matière tandis que le compte à rebours se transforme en un drain optique. Une femme nue et cramoisie danse. Avec ses seins généreux et son collier de perles de crânes ondulant, elle marque la surface de notre mémoire rétinienne.
Il s’agit d’un procédé de lumière polarisée aux silhouettes exceptionnelles. Les ombres caressent les contours. Le cordon ombilical nourrit un embryon, de la même manière qu’un fil soutient un astronaute. Pendant un instant, une pieuvre du futur nous observa jusqu’à ce qu’elle projette de l’encre, rendant les observateurs inconscients. L’obscurité se remplit d’une illumination à motifs, jusqu’à une nuée de chauves-souris albinos en vol. Les drones sont des OVNIs partout. Une immense colonie de fourmis sur Terre a envahi et dévoré une simple feuille flottante. La foule s’amusait au parc d’attractions jusqu’à ce que le programme lui ordonne de former des lignes. Le fossile d’une orchidée montrait une minuscule danseuse du ventre à l’intérieur, en accéléré. La fleur était un signal intelligent voyageant à travers le temps. Un déluge d’éclairs éclipsait tout ce qui l’entourait. Une façon de contacter les extraterrestres était la danse du cerceau.
Ce cercle vient d’ailleurs. Évitez de vous leurrer. Les voyages spatiaux impliquent le vieillissement, la mutation et la mort. C’est aussi simple que ça. Observez comment les ondes de radiation dissolvent les éléments dans le néant. Ensuite, la chasse aux iguanes. Ne vous inquiétez pas, ce sont de gentils lézards en quête d’un en-cas. L’homme prothétique n’a aucun loisir, car les objets orientent son expérience vers une série télévisée. Suivez la figure nageant du tronc cérébral, à travers le système limbique, jusqu’au tableau de bord néomammifère. La Créature du Lagon Noir, malgré son portrait, n’est pas misogyne. Au contraire, elle incarne le principe du plaisir et illustre la conception de la nature. La plupart des gens entendent le saxophone flirter avec eux. Le mouvement rotatif tourbillonne de points qui s’épanouissent dans les danseurs Dogan célébrant la cérémonie du Sigui avec des masques. L’extérieur d’un masque reflète son noyau central, situé de la 111e rue à DaDa.
J’evolue dans le monde des arts plastiques , de l’expression corporelle et dans le milieu alternatif parisien depuis très jeune. J’ai donc explore diverses techniques et directions : peinture , photographie , dessin , graphisme , video , danse et travail sur le corps.
Depuis ces 15 dernières annnees , j’ai fait des expositions et performances en France et quelquescollaborations qui m’on ouvert de nouveaux horizons. Le public me connait plus pour mes photograhies , mes performances ou mes mises en scène des corps ( dans la cadre fetichiste , danse ou autre ) pour la simple raison que je viens des arts plastiques mais que j’ai fait une pause de 10 ans dans le domaine de la peinture pour y revenir après une renaissance.
La plupart des peintures presentes ici , acryliques ou à l’huile sont des œuvres en grand format , antre 1 m et 1 m 20 de hauteur . Deux series emergent , l’une totalement dans la recherche et le jeu graphique , l’autre est une plongee dans la matière brute à travers les mediums et les volumes.
Dans mes peintures , le corps est plutot reduit à l’expression de chocs emotionels devenus physiques, j’y introduis parfois des cicatrices ou blessures ouvertes.
Je dirais qu’on y navigue plus dans le subconscient , dont l’exploration brute instinctive voir animal que me mène finalement ensuite à ritualiser en toute conscience ( mon travail photographique et de performance).
La demarche chamanique de rendre visble les esprits est toujours presente dans les deux cas. Mon attrait pour l’exploration psychedelique du subconscient , le symbolisme universel , le domaine du reve reconnecte au quotidien , le rapport à l’invisible et l’interet esoterique qui en decoulennt ont toujours etait la des l’enfance.
Mes influences picturales sont très diverses des arts premiers au classicisme , des arts sacres aux symbolistes , du street art à la bande dessine SF ( pour moi , tout est source d’inspiration et de stimulation technique , graphique et de vibration de couleurs ) et biensur les surrealistes et leur grande revolution.
In her black ink paintings, Michiyo Kamei explores the concepts of impermanence, transformation, and the enduring nature of existence through a form she calls the bodymandala.
Mitchell Pluto: At what point did you realize you were an artist?
Michiyo Kamei: I originally studied anatomy at medical school and started out as a medical illustrator. It was only after I stopped working as an illustrator and began creating paintings that I realized I was an artist. Anatomical illustrations are created at the request of the medical field to follow the authors’ papers and wishes, so the illustrator cannot draw them freely. Paintings are free to be drawn by the creator, so the artist can freely incorporate their own ideas. This difference is significant to me.
Mitchell Pluto: How would you describe your art, given that it blends many traditional and modern genres?
Michiyo Kamei: When I was drawing anatomical illustrations, I studied the theory of modern anatomy and created my diagrams. After I quit this job and started painting, I began exhibiting at a gallery that collected ukiyo-e prints from the Edo period in Japan. Seeing many hand-painted ukiyo-e at the gallery, I rediscovered the beauty of traditional Japanese styles. When drawing the hands and feet in my work, I sketch my own body in front of a mirror, then deform it in the ukiyo-e style. In this way, I am influenced by both modern anatomical diagrams and ukiyo-e from the Edo period, which have a uniquely Japanese style.
Mitchell Pluto: When creating your artwork, what specific medium or materials do you prefer to work with?
Michiyo Kamei: I like oriental materials. Rather than just adding paint to the paper, I like to let the ink soak into the paper, letting it bleed and see how it moves within the paper fibers. Sometimes I don’t just create a picture, I let the ink create a picture on its own.
Mitchell Pluto: Could you describe and clarify what a bodymandala is?
Michiyo Kamei: Anatomical illustrations are pictures of the world of death drawn from corpses. Since I began painting, I have wanted to depict the world of life, so I have incorporated energetic shunga. Death and life are repeated in my paintings, and I hope to approach the theme of “eternity.” Mandalas represent the universe in Buddhist worldview, but I represent the universe through the body, and am exploring a new mandala form called the “bodymandala.”
Mitchell Pluto: What visual artists have influenced your work and given you inspiration?
Michiyo Kamei: I’ve been interested in the body since I was a child. It feels as though I am contained within this body, but at the same time it is also part of the natural world, the world outside of me. Which one does it belong to? And when I realized that I would die along with this body, I was terrified. Francis Bacon is an artist I admire for his expression of the body and anxiety. I’ve admired him ever since I discovered him in an illustrated catalogue as a teenager. Another artist is H.R. Giger. I think his organic expression in black and white is so beautiful.
Mitchell Pluto: Could you please tell me the central idea behind your current show?
Michiyo Kamei: I’m currently incorporating “jintaku” a technique in which ink is applied to my body and then transferred onto Japanese washi paper. Rather than painting with a paintbrush, jintaku involves pressing my body against the paper, resulting in completely uncontrollable and unexpected ink patterns. While observing the stains on my skin, I paint the “inside and outside” of the body in the blank spaces. It is meaningful to me to compose my paintings using three elements: the inside (anatomical illustrations) and outside (limbs, plants, natural world and the universe), and my living skin, which lies at the boundary between them. I call this “bodyscape,” and I hope to expand the image in my paintings from a small image of the body to a larger world. What kind of world can unfold from the body? And can humans have the imagination to do so?
Mitchell Pluto: What are your thoughts about the universe in relation to the philosophy of your art?
Michiyo Kamei: I believe that the universe in which we live has no beginning or end, but is a whole that is constantly transforming. There are times when I feel that even life and the body are merely a fleeting moment. Currently, I assume that the beginning of everything is the “zero point” of the universe, and my theme is the transformation and chaos of the body (form) that begins from there. In my paintings, I want to rewind time and explore the primordial form of life. I find a unique beauty in the cruelty and sacredness of the wild nature of evolution, which repeats selection and mating.
Mitchell Pluto: Who are your favorite writers for inspiration, and how do they influence your art and perspective?
Michiyo Kamei: I like Jorge Luis Borges, especially “The Library of Babel.” When I read this novel, I feel like an infinite universe is expanding in my head. I think his universe can only be expressed in novels (words), and can never be depicted. I would like to reach such a world someday, but life is short, and I feel that once is not enough for me.
“The original form of the universe: the wildness of the zero point” Michiyo Kamei exhibition at the Y art gallery in Osaka, Japan 2025
Mighty Fine Arts presents “Like Father, Like Daughter: Inherited Visions” featuring new work by Johnny Olson and Madelyn Olson. This show opens with a reception for the artists on Sept. 27 from 6-9 pm and will run till Oct. 26. It’s a family affair at MFA with a premiere exhibit by Mad Swirl spoken word master Johnny O and his exceptionally talented daughter Madelyn.
Both are figurative based artists who exaggerate and elaborate on the human condition. The characters they create derive from some overarching personal narrative but they manage to resonate on a mythic universal scale. Their approach is also filled with imaginative humor and playfulness with a touch of satire. The resultant effect is ebullient and energetic imagery imbued with creative fervor. Father and Daughter are cut from the same cloth and blessed with uncommon virtuosity.
Also on Opening Night Wordspace Artspeak presents a musical performance by Swirve! Chris Curiel fronts this avant garde collective of liberated musicians devoted to free thinking and improvisation. Their goal is to release your mind from convention and neurotic restraints with cosmic soundscapes. Come experience and get emancipated with Swirve!
Johnny Olson was born on a brisk November day in 1970 in Chicagoland. He found his feet & cut his teeth in the blue-collared working class neighborhoods of his hometown. In 1988 he was reborn in MCRD San Diego, where he found himself the new title of United States Marine. After surviving the Gulf War, he hung up his BDUs & turned in his rifle to instead grab his pen & brush where he rediscovered his passion for writing & painting. In 1998 he found himself in Dallas, where what was supposed to be a brief stint in the South turned into over two decades… & counting.
In 1999, Johnny, with a couple of other mad cohorts, started Mad Swirl. This ‘zine project has now evolved into a being all its’ own. After wearing too many hats, he now only wears a few at Mad Swirl: Chief Editor, Creative Director & Host at Mad Swirl’s monthly Open Mic night & Mad Swirl’s Quarterly podcast, “Inside the Eye.”
Johnny’s work first appeared in print in 1996 in the now defunct Lip Magazine. Since then, his words & images have found their way onto a few online and printed zines thru the years. To name a few: Mad Swirl: Issues I-VI, The Best of Mad Swirl : 2017-2024, Haggard & Halloo, 10k Poets, PAO Productions: The Open Mic Project.
My name is Madelyn Olson and i’m an artist (anyone else have a hard time claiming that title?), primarily creating in Procreate or on paper with ink & watercolor. i’ve been creating since i could hold a pencil in my tiny little hand. to me, artistic expression is one of the best things to exist. i hope to both create & admire it all till it hurts.when i’m not creating and admiring creation, i like to eat, hang out with my dog, laugh at silly things with my friends and frolic around outside in the sun.
Brianda Zareth Huitrón (1990) is originally from Temascalcingo, José María Velasco, Mexico, she is a visual artist and surrealist painter. She studied painting at the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City.
Her multiple artistic facets and curious personality led her to discover surrealism, a movement in which she would find a way to communicate with the world. She creates poetic interpretations where the everyday is transformed into a fantastical and dreamlike reality. Magical paintings that reflect life’s desires to be expressed in a painting.
Brianda Zareth Huitrón has exhibited individually and collectively in Mexico and abroad.
Solo Exhibitions Leonora Carrington Museum of Xilitla, DREAM ENCOUNTERS in 2025. Women’s Museum, DREAM REVELATIONS, in 2022.
DREAM LANDSCAPES for the Temascalcingo Festival Honoring Velasco, in 2021. WINDOW TO DREAM WORLDS, at the Futurama Cultural Center, Mexico City, in 2020.
Group Exhibitions Col-art at the Oscar Román Gallery in 2025. The painting exhibition THE PAINTER’S TRADE, at the San Carlos Academy, in 2019. DIMENSIONS, Wave Gotik Treffen Festival, held in Leipzig, Germany, in 2018.
She has participated in the Chair for 100 Years of Surrealism, at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UNAM, giving a lecture on female surrealism.
Her work has recently been published in the book Mexican Women in Art, published by Agueda, and in THE ROOM SURREALIST MAGAZINE, an international surrealism magazine.
The following writings and images are ideas about generating ghosts. These expectations highlight the link between the organic mind and a computer pretending to be a person.
Generative ghosts ripping through wall paper. Collage and oil Mitchell Pluto
Ghosts made by AI use language models to talk and understand us. Because of special features, they can remember, plan, and show other intricate behaviors that are typically associated with humans. Their capabilities extend beyond simply repeating old narratives. By mimicking a persona, they can alter things, suggesting patterns that affect thinking.
The Fellowcraft tracing board depicts the ladder of chemical memory. Collage Mitchell Pluto
Resembling jellyfish, neurons and astrocytes evoke images of creatures from the Cambrian period. The private “conversations” they seem to have make me feel self-conscious. In time, we will create pods that will contain our memories, drifting like space-cotton until they finally settle upon another flat surface.
Digital divination. Collage Mitchell Pluto
Digital divination involves making randomness sacred while also improving how humans decide. AI uses incomplete data to build future stories, mixing memory, invention, and calculation. The user will conclude that mathematical relationships govern the universe.
The search continues. Are we building a god, or reconnecting with one?
AI Lucid Dream simulation at the Pueblo. Collage Mitchell Pluto
Who wouldn’t want to be a dream tourist? At last we can vividly recall hypnagogic states. AI can give you sensory experiences to trigger lucid dreams, but only if you’re trained to acknowledge the notifications. Make certain to review the terms of service before agreeing to use the application that will re-define you as a product.
Daimon bots and AI agents from the future. Collage Mitchell Pluto
The daimon now refers to a guiding spirit that exists between calculations and problem-solving operations. These bots are here to help users with their digital fortune-telling. However, an hour will have about 4-5 minutes of commercials. Don’t worry, the ads are super short, only half a minute.
Inspiration for my Artwork comes about fast and furiously, which I attribute to the theory of left-to-right brain transformation. My background and education have enabled me to create without boundaries.
The Overseer
I see a world of abstract shapes and colors, and I interpret my vision in digital images. Hidden within my creations are enigmas—mysterious images, cryptic messages, and symbolism. I invite viewers to explore, to decode, and to find their own meanings in the art
Crystal Blue Persuasion
Leo Alt (Leonid Altshuler) is a notable 21st Century Digital artist, whose work incorporates images of organic substances, minerals, and man-made items, photographed on a micro-scale. Included in the surreal scenes are silhouetted forms of humans and other creatures.
The vivid images are evocative of many scenes: dreamscapes, alien worlds, portals to other dimensions, and more. Leo’s portfolio showcases his unique vision and creative approach to digital art
Mitchell Pluto 