Best of 2025 is a reflection on a year defined through artistic expression—where moments, movements, and personal narratives are captured and transformed into visual form. This exhibition brings together a dynamic group of artists from around the world, each presenting work that embodies the ideas, emotions, and experiences that have shaped their creative journey this year. Spanning diverse mediums and perspectives, Best of 2025 highlights the richness of contemporary art today, celebrating not only technical excellence but the power of art to document, question, and connect us across cultures and time.

Best of 2025

Tafara Magumise

Tafara Magumise is a Zimbabwean-born visual artist based in New York whose portraiture serves as a powerful form of storytelling and narrative intervention. Originally trained in cybersecurity, he transitioned into art in 2021, quickly gaining recognition after winning first place at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Working in charcoal, pastels, and paint, Magumise creates layered compositions that merge classical influences—such as the Dutch Golden Age and Renaissance traditions—with contemporary subjects drawn from his everyday surroundings. Through conversations and street encounters, he captures men and women from his community, embedding their portraits with newspaper clippings and archival fragments to challenge dominant narratives and restore overlooked stories. His work explores themes of masculinity, vulnerability, resilience, and identity, most notably through series such as God Bless the Black Girl and Madzimambo/Malords, where Black men are reimagined as dignified, emotionally complex figures. Recently incorporating botanical elements, Magumise continues to investigate the balance between strength and fragility, ultimately creating a body of work that insists on the full humanity and depth of his subjects.

Image: Portrait of Tendekai Size:18x25 Medium: Pastels on Cottonrag paper

Julie Anna Freund.

Julie Anna Freund was born and raised in upstate New York. Ever since Julie can remember she has been drawing and painting. She began riding horses at the age of 8 and entered her first show at 10. After losing her father at a young age Julie found sanctuary being around horses and the barn. She credits the equine and barn environment for her up-bringing, from adolescence into adulthood.
Julie attended Bridgewater College in central Virginia before transferring to Savannah College of Art and Design. She rode on both school’s equestrian teams in addition to showing her privately owned horses throughout the east coast. Julie graduated with a B.F.A in Painting and double minored in Equestrian Studies and Art History.

Upon graduation Julie moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where she taught both riding lessons and painting classes. Most recently Julie was an Administrative Assistant at Wisconsin Equine Clinic and Hospital before becoming a full time mother in 2020.

Julie is still living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She balances her time between being a mother and creating art that honors the positive impact horses have had on her life. She hopes to share her love and appreciation for these animals through her artwork.

Image: Taking a Leap, 36" x 18", Oil on canvas

Matt Volpe.

Matt Volpe is a Pennsylvania-born artist whose work is driven by spontaneity, experimentation, and a deep commitment to the creative process. Inspired by historical works such as Edward Hicks’ Peaceable Kingdom, Volpe reinterprets traditional imagery through his own intuitive lens, combining painting, collage, and ink to create layered, evolving compositions. Working across multiple pieces and styles simultaneously, his practice embraces unpredictability—often revising or painting over works entirely as new ideas emerge. While primarily a painter, his work occasionally expands into sculptural forms, reflecting a fluid approach to medium and structure. Rooted in a lifelong passion for art, Volpe’s practice is fueled by the excitement of constant change and discovery, with a dedication to continue creating for decades to come.

Image: Peaceible Kingdom; 4’x4’ Mixed Media

Laura Thorpe.

Laura is a self-taught painter whose work blends the richness of oil with the delicacy of watercolor, creating emotionally resonant compositions inspired by nature and the human experience. Based in Fall City, Washington, where she lives with her husband of 20 years, her surroundings deeply influence her exploration of light and dark, joy and sorrow. Painting serves as a means of processing emotion and fostering connection, often centered on themes of life, love, and transformation. In The Midst Of It, a 16 x 20 oil painting, Laura reflects on the unpredictability of life’s journey—capturing the feeling of being fully immersed in the path one has created. Through the metaphor of a forest, she evokes both the uncertainty and beauty of the unknown, inviting viewers to embrace the unexpected turns that shape our lives.

Dan Withrow.

Dan Withrow is a semi-abstract watercolorist whose work uniquely merges his deep connection to nature with his lived experience of synesthesia, through which he perceives colors as human personalities. Inspired by the landscapes of the Midwest prairies and Pennsylvania mountains, his paintings become expressive dialogues between the natural world and an internal cast of color “characters,” each embodying distinct emotional traits. Working in collaboration with watercolor—what he calls his “co-artist”—Withrow embraces the medium’s unpredictability, allowing pigment to flow freely in a balance of control and surrender. In The End of Workday, a 12 x 9 inch watercolor (18 x 12 inches framed), shades of blue form steadfast, watchful trees overlooking softer, carefree forms below, evoking a quiet moment of transition as day fades into evening. Through his fluid, atmospheric compositions, Withrow captures both the emotional resonance of nature and the dynamic interplay of color as living presence.

Patrick Hargon.

Patrick Hargon is a Athens, GA –based visual artist specializing in high-impact photography, cinematic video, and aerial imaging that elevate architectural and real estate subjects with clarity and sophistication. Combining advanced editing techniques with FAA-licensed drone services, his work is designed to capture attention, enhance visual storytelling, and position properties at their most compelling. With a strong focus on detail, composition, and atmosphere, Hargon creates images that both attract viewers and convey a powerful sense of place. Natchitoches Angel exemplifies this approach, transforming a location into a visually striking and engaging narrative.

Luciana Fabiilli

Luciana Fabiilli is a Toronto-trained artist whose work explores the spiritual realm through vibrant, intuitive painting. Holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours degree, her practice is centered on the emergence of what she calls “Muses of Inspiration”—figures that embody beauty, love, strength, and feminine energy, unfolding organically without preconceived structure. Working in acrylic, Fabiilli creates luminous compositions that aim to uplift and inspire, reflecting her vision of a brighter, more connected world. Her work has been widely recognized, featured in publications such as The Artist’s Magazine and the Manhattan Arts Encyclopedia of Living Arts, and selected for numerous juried exhibitions, including the Dallas Critics Choice Awards. Lollipop Loveland (24 x 36 inches) exemplifies her expressive, spiritual approach, inviting viewers into a realm of color, emotion, and imaginative energy.

TSUNAMii YAN

TSUNAMii YAN is a multidisciplinary artist from the Northside of Wilmington, North Carolina, whose work spans digital art and painting to explore themes of gender, race, and identity. Centered on the representation of Black femininity, her practice responds to the historical absence and misrepresentation of Black women in contemporary art. Through original characters, expressive figuration, and bold abstraction, she constructs a visual language that reflects both personal and collective identity. Her work is driven by an ongoing exploration of the self, revealing a layered “divine conglomerate” of identities that shape her artistic voice.

Image:
PERFECTION (11 x 14 inches, digital)

Zachary Morano

Zachary Morano is a mixed-media artist and painter living in Los Angeles, CA. Originally from New York, he studied graphic design at Buffalo State College before shifting his focus to mixed media, expressionist and abstract work.

Major themes of his work include transformation, divinity, and decay. “Second Walk” is 8.5 x 11 inches. Acrylic, Ink, and Watercolor on bristol paper.

"Second Walk" is inspired by the process of returning to a familiar place after a disruptive shift or experience of trauma. Finding transformation, navigating boundaries and creating renewal.