THE GRADIENT: SEBASTIAN ŚCIGALSKI
Sebastian Ścigalski spent years in advertising, where every visual element has a job to do. His painting practice is a direct counterpoint to that. Debuting his work in 2025 after years of keeping it private, Ścigalski has found a visual language that prioritizes feeling over meaning. Here is our conversation on the life of an artwork outside the studio, his transition from art direction, and the power of a quiet mind.
SPIRITUAL ABSTRACTION: SAHAYA SHARMA
Every layer in Sahaya Sharma’s work is a chosen reality. Working with upcycled textiles, mixed media, and immersive soundscapes, she builds visual manifestos designed to evoke reverence and inner stillness. Informed by an early spiritual awakening and her practice of Pranic Healing, her art is simultaneously deeply personal and universal. We talked with Sharma to discuss the evolution of her abstraction, the profound impact of her son on her worldview, and the intricate creative process behind her art
TRANSLATING COLORS AND TOUCHING THE HORIZONS: THE ARCHITECTURE OF MALLIKA KANODIA’S PASTELS
Mallika Kanodia’s soft pastels invite viewers to closely examine the horizons. Trained in interior architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, she blends her structural expertise with a deep exploration of color and emotion. Returning to the easel, she shifted her focus to visual art. Furthermore, her personal experience with constant movement between cities brings a distinct, dynamic edge to her work.
A CONVERSATION WITH DOROTA ČECHOVÁ
One of the most intriguing aspects of the unknown resides within ourselves, though: that which the brain cannot conceive but that depends on it to be. The expression of this foggy area is one of the driving forces behind the work of multidisciplinary artist Dorota Čechová, who ambitiously and beautifully conceived a quasi-encyclopedic book of visualizations of different forms of synesthesia. We discussed her work “Syn(a)esthesis: Harmony of the senses,” in which, through the lens of her own experiences and scientific research, she proposes a range of artistic explorations of new ways to experience our senses.
THE PARADIGM SHIFT: THE ARTIST AS BRAND AMBASSADOR AND STORYTELLER 2.0
In recent years, the relationship between art and business has begun to evolve into increasingly fluid forms. The work of Italian artist Martina Cabrini fits precisely within this trajectory. An illustrator and visual artist with a background spanning editorial illustration, fashion design, and styling, Cabrini has developed in recent years a practice that combines live drawing, illustration and visual design for events, collaborating with fashion brands and cultural institutions.
UNFOLDING THE PAGE: NICOLE PIETRANTONI
For over a decade, Nicole Pietrantoni was a cornerstone of the American printmaking community - a tenured professor, an academic administrator, and the President of SGC International. Then, she walked away from the stability of the university system to build a full-time studio practice in Europe. Moving first to Prague and now based in Girona, Spain, Pietrantoni’s work has expanded from flat printmaking into massive, three-dimensional accordion installations that manipulate paper, bent steel armatures, and fluorescent gradients. In this conversation, we talk about growing up in a DIY household, unlearning the exhausting surveillance of academic productivity, the conceptual weight of the accordion fold, and finding joy in seeing again IRL.
THE BEAUTY OF UNCERTAINTY: DELIA HOU ON PAINTING THROUGH PARADOX
In Delia Hou's practice, color becomes a site of inquiry rather than resolution. Presented in the online exhibition Color as Concept, her painting Derrumbe occupies a space where perception, sensation, and thought remain in continual flux. Drawing on a background that spans astrophysics, law, performance, and visual art, Hou approaches abstraction as a method for engaging paradox and complexity. This conversation explores the artist's concept of the "No-edge Painting," the role of ambiguity in contemporary life, and the ways color can evoke experiences that resist the certainty of language.
SIMPLICITY LEADS YOU TO THE DEPTH: INTERVIEW WITH STEPHANIE SAETA
It takes only a few words to grasp the art of Stéphanie Saêta. Her painting does not lend itself to the complications of a superficial explanation; rather, it prefers to present itself with simplicity and, with that same immediacy, to explore a way of giving form to experiences still finding resolution in the artist’s life.
ANTONIO COLOMBONI x BACI PERUGINA: THE EVOLUTION OF A MADE IN ITALY ICON
Beyond aesthetics to rewrite an Italian classic: from the love note to human connection, a new idea of product, from consumer good to socio-cultural device. In the relationship between art and business, there are collaborations that simply refresh a product’s image and others that engage more deeply with its symbolic codes. The partnership between Antonio Colomboni and #BaciPerugina clearly belongs to this second category.
THE THREADS OF PHLOX VAN OPPEN
“Textile holds time in a way other materials don’t. It has always felt like the most honest medium to me, something people live with, wear, pass down.” In this intimate conversation with textile artist Phlox van Oppen, we trace the emotional threads woven through her practice - from memory, identity, and womanhood to sustainability and material transformation. Through tactile works and deeply personal storytelling, Phlox reveals how textiles can hold entire lives within their fibers.
THE MANIFEST: NATALIA PONOMAROVA
In a world where air raid sirens interrupt ordinary evenings and survival becomes part of the daily routine, Ukrainian artist Natalia Ponomarova continues to create. This interview explores the emotional reality of making art under the constant shadow of war, tracing Natalia’s journey through abstraction, identity, memory and resistance. From sleepless nights during rocket attacks to questions of national and queer identity, her work becomes both a personal refuge and a powerful act of defiance. “The Manifest” is a conversation about what it means to keep living, feeling and creating when the world around you is falling apart.
PHIL BRIADE: WHEN LIFE IS IN-BETWEEN
“What if perfection is not where everybody thinks it is? What if perfection exists between two things?” Phil Briade is an artist who searches for the liminal, for the in-between, perhaps because it is there that meaning can emerge - where matter is not fully fixed and spirit becomes more accessible to us. It is this mystery, this sensation of seeing something that both is and is not, that captivates us through his black-and-white charcoal drawings: a tree that could be a woman, a bird that could become an entire landscape.
FINDING HARMONY THROUGH ART: A CONVERSATION WITH OLAH DRAGANA
For artist Olah Dragana, creativity has never been confined to a single chapter of life. After years spent teaching and inspiring others, she turned her focus toward her own artistic practice, creating intricate works that explore themes of nature, interconnectedness, movement, and transformation.
MONIKA GRYGIER: THE LANDSCAPES
“This creative process is quite self-centered at its origin: I create it thinking only about myself.” With these words, Monika Grygier strips away the romanticized "service" of art and returns it to its most honest state – an internal necessity. This idea is the core of her creative vision and to my mind this is the only way to go when it comes to art.
POP ART’S REBEL VOICE: UNFOLDING MARIO SCHIFANO’S UNIVERSE
In the work of Mario Schifano, multiple expressive languages converge, reflecting a practice that spans painting, text, photography, and film. His universe is made of visual codes, often rooted in Pop, that overlap and resonate with one another, taking shape across different media and resulting in a body of work of remarkable visual strength.
MORNING DEW: NATALIIA KRYKUN
Why do we share our souls with strangers? Because a dialogue is the only thing that validates the journey. Nataliia’s work is about the courage to turn the lights on in a room that has been dark for a long time. To embrace other opinions, no matter how difficult it is at times. In this interview, we dive into the "lakes" of Nataliia Krykun – a place where memory, home, and the urgent reality of the present moment collide.
ISABEL KLEINERT: DANCING WITH ULTRAMARINE
Isabel Kleinert has been creating her whole life, exploring and improving. Finally, after a long path, she stood up and said: "Now or never!" In 2020, she entered an everlasting dance with her art, and that beautiful tango has given us some of her best works. We sat down with Isabel to discuss finally stepping onto the path you truly want, taking her work into the 3D, and her lifelong fascination with the color blue.
THE PERFECT LINE: CORINNE PAGÈS
Corinne Pagès is an observer, she’s not intervening. She lets the material dictate its own path. Her work is an agreement between the artist's hand and the canvas. For Pagès, the creative process is a journey through an undefined nomadland where the goal isn't just to reach a destination, but to remain in the balance of the moment. In this conversation, we delve into her beginnings, the territories she has crossed, and the lines that map her world.
THE RIGHT TO DREAM: JULIEN ABSTRAIT
If you haven't cried, it’s hard to say you’ve truly lived; if you haven’t even tried to reach for what haunts your imagination, was the path ever really worth the walk? In his work, Julien Abstrait uses emotion as a storytelling tool – a hand that leads the viewer through the labyrinth of his ideas. His journey from feeling like he is gated from his own dreams to breaking that barrier and embracing his true calling is etched into every textured layer of his canvas. We sat down with Julien to discuss the transition from the industrial to the astral, and the profound physical sensation of "letting go".
OKSANA ALEKHINA: THE ART OF SEEING WITH EYES SEALED SHUT
Throughout her colorful, collage-like artwork, Oksana Alekhina explores what it’s like to perceive life with feeling and intuition rather than what’s tangible. Her vivid, dream-inspired compositions provide viewers with a shelter from the noise of reality, where they can lean more into their inner balance. Drawing on many years of experience in interior design, she creates expressive visual accents that bring color, harmony, and emotional depth into contemporary spaces. In this interview, Oksana Alekhina talks to us about intuition, imagination, and the inner worlds that shape her distinctive visual language.
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The Ambrose Journal, curated by Ambrose Creatives, traces the movement of art through culture, commerce, and ideas. Through considered features, intimate conversations, and curated visual studies, we examine the practices and perspectives of creative minds shaping the contemporary moment.
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