The ‘faces and figures’ of women have been the sources of inspiration for artists born at anytime; no matter it was the rotund, voluptuous figure of Aphrodite or the dissembled faces in Picasso’s Cubist paintings.
 
The contemporary Chilean artist Gina Intveen depicts women figures in exotic folk costumes and accessories stitched with elaborate, exquisite patterns which at once catch viewers’ attention but by no means disrupt the balance of the whole composition. The rich colors and attention to details create the intriguing glamour and at the same time, an uncanny mood. The women’s faces are clouded with mistiness which lends a touch of mystique to the seemingly simple ‘faces and figures’, in this sense reminding audience of the classic appeal of Mona Lisa.

Soile Yli-Mäyry, born in 1950, is one of Finland’s internationally renowned artists. Graduated from the Liberal Art School of Helsinki in Finland and the Stuttgart Art Academy in Germany, her style is quite personal but closely related to expressionism and primitive art. She makes her paintings by using a palette knife. The main theme in Yli-Mäyry’s works is humanity and people’s alienation from nature in the urban world.

Since 1975, She had had more than 250 solo exhibitions in about 25 countries from New York to London, Rome to Tokyo, India to Sao Paulo.

Besides her career as a painter, Mrs. Yli-Mäyry studies political science and has taken her Licentiate’s degree in Political Science at the University of Helsinki. Her Licentiate’s dissertation dealt with the sociology of art.