South Florida-based artist Francesco Lo Castro creates immersive installations that blend projection mapping, light, soundscapes, painting and sculpture. His works fuse styles like Art Deco, Italian Futurism, Op Art, and Finish Fetish with modern technology and handcrafted elements. Originally a traditional painter, Lo Castro evolved from abstraction to three-dimensional sculptures and large-scale installations, where he explores narratives through multiple artistic disciplines. His painting process involves intricate layering of pigments, acrylics, spray paints, and epoxy resin, creating handcrafted works that appear machine-made at first glance. Francesco Lo Castro was born in Catania, Italy in 1976, raised in Germany, and transplanted to South Florida in the early 90s. He’s the founder of Pop Art Studios a creative services agency and launch pad for all projects under the ‘LOCASTRO’ moniker. In 2006, he curated the Art Basel week Exhibition at the Art Center/ South Florida, Miami Beach, which with over 40,000 visitors set the institution’s highest attendance record to date. He is also co-founder of the 2008 VANGUARD Art Fair, which merged with AQUA Art Fair the year after, establishing the first expo of its kind to emphasize emerging trends in specific New Contemporary movements of the time. Lo Castro’s artwork has been exhibited internationally in galleries and institutions, including MOCA North Miami, MOCA Nashville, and Orlando Museum of Art. He has been featured in numerous publications and is listed among the creatives who helped forge the South Florida art community in the definitive books ‘Miami Contemporary Artists,’released by Schiffer Publishing in 2007, and ‘100+ Degrees In The Shade: A Survey of South Florida Art,’ released by [NAME] publications in 2015.
Pip Brant has degrees from the University of Montana BFA, painting and metalsmithing) and the University of Wyoming. (MFA, painting and printmaking). Brant grew up on the western Plains Indian reservations (Sioux, Cheyenne, Assiniboine) where the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Public Health employed her family. She has lived and worked in Montana, Wyoming, London, England, and Missouri and in 1999 moved to Florida to take a studio teaching position at Florida International University. She has exhibited in Northern Ireland, Germany, Lithuania and London. England as well as nationally, including venues in New York, California, Illinois, as well as the western states. The year of teaching at Missouri’s Truman State University, 1997- 98, introduced her to working with surface design. This introduction to the subversive use of found cloth and the needle arts has affected her art making as well as her teaching. Brant offers a fibers course as well as teaching painting and drawing at FIU. Brant chooses to refer to her background in painting when she approaches performance art and other multimedia experiences. A year of acting studies in North London and 16 years of formal
musical training also will augment these performances. As an associate professor at Florida International University, and before that appointment, Brant has curated numerous exhibitions featuring painting, installations and performance. These have been venues in museums in the United States (Wyoming, Oregon, Montana, Colorado, Illinois)
as well as Dusseldorf, Germany. In 1992 she was awarded the Wyoming Visual Arts Fellowship. In 1993 her work in the collaborative art group, Kunstwaffen was awarded a New Forms Consortium Grant for
Cattle/Text Interaction. In 2003 she won the South Florida Cultural Consortium for Visual and Media arts. Currently she is an associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History at
Florida International University, Miami, Florida. Brant’s work embraces the use of the absurd and humor and cites the plays and philosophy of Bertold Brecht as a major influence. Hollywood, Florida 2025
Gavin Perry- Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA. Graduated from the Tyler School of Art with degrees in Painting and Printmaking. Exhibited nationally and internationally. Solo gallery exhibitions at Fred Snitzer Gallery, Miami FL; Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston TX and Sultana Gallery, Paris FR. Short listed in 2012 for the Pratt Prize in Paris FR. Short listed for the Orlando Painting Prize in 2021. In numerous private and public collections nationally and internationally.
