Cuban artist Liset Castillo photographs small intricate sculptural landscapes that imitate large architectural environments. Each image mimics suburban terrains in desolate conditions. Her photos are illusionistic in scale, allowing each model to become a full size, dramatic landscape that is seemingly vast and all encompassing. Castillo finished her education with de Ateliers in Amsterdam, and, since then, she has had exhibitions with the Black and White Gallery in Chelsea, Luis Adelantado Gallery in Miami and Volitant Gallery in Austin, Texas. In 2003, Castillo was featured with the 8th-annual Havana Biennial and received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004. That same year, ArtForum published an article discussing Castillo’s work in relation to the Havana Biennial.

Los Angeles-based photographer Melanie Pullen has created a series of more than 100 photographs that describe crime scenes prior to the mid-1950s. Pullen is a self-taught artist who has come from a family of photojournalists, publishers and artists. She began the series after viewing Luc Sante’s 1992 book “Evidence” (1914-1919), which depicts crime-scene photos from the NYPD. From that point, Pullen began extensive research in the LAPD crime-scene archives and was able to secure a wealth of photos and information about real crimes. The artist has infused the photos with high-fashion to distract the viewer from the gruesome scenes, while also commenting on the glamorization of violence and crime. Her sets often employ up to 60 individuals, and the cloths in many of her photographs come from prominent fashion houses. Melanie Pullen is currently represented by Ace Gallery in Los Angeles and has been featured in many prominent magazines, including Flaunt, Vogue and ArtWeek.

Last fall, artist Kendell Geers exhibited new works with the Stephan Friedman Gallery in London. Geers is known for exhibiting works that disrupt and confront the viewer’s commonly held values, morals and principles. The artist works through a variety of media, including painting, ready-mades, neon sculpture and video, most of which contain some element of text. Geers often uses objects with loaded content such as urinals, disco balls and human skulls and covers the surface with barely discernable, but aggressive, profanity. The artist also uses pornography in much of his work to juxtapose ideas of sex with artificially constructed morals. This year, Kendell Geers will exhibit with Stedelijk Museum voor Aktuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.) in Gent, Belgium, and B.P.S.22 in Charleroi, Belgium. The artist was featured in the 2006 Art Basel in Miami Beach, and, in 2005, Geers exhibited “Satyr:Ikon” with Galleria Continua in San Gimigano, Italy, and “Hung, Drawn and Quartered” with the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.

Mark Ryden creates surrealist-inspired paintings of corrupted children in provocative relationships. Each image is delicately handled with painstaking technique, referencing a culture of destruction through elements of classical painting. The color is masterfully rendered in pale pastels, with a playful child-like quality, while the imagery demonstrates harsh and graphic events and addresses issues of pop culture. In recent years, Ryden has shown with the Earl McGrath Gallery and the Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles and New York, as well as with Mondo Bizzarro Gallery in Rome. Ryden had a retrospective with the Frye Museum of Art (2004) in Seattle and with the Pasadena Museum of California Art (2005). The New York Times published an article about his work in 2001.

One of Brazil’s most famous artists, Ernesto Neto creates room-sized environments for the viewer to navigate through and interact with. By using light, stretchable fabrics and organic shapes, filled occasionally with scented spices, Neto’s work allows the viewer to experience the work through all senses, creating a spatial labyrinth for the journey through the passages in the room. Currently, Neto is collaborating with Merce Cunnigham on an exhibition called “Dancing on the Cutting Edge,” where his sculptures become sets and costumes for the choreographer at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. He exhibited with the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia (2004) and worked with Carnegie International (1999). Neto was the Brazilian artist for both the Biennale of Sydney (1998) and the Venice Biennale (2001). ArtForum has reviewed his work several times, including his exhibition with Galerie Max Hetzler in 2004.

Havana-based artist collective Los Carpinteros creates work that investigates the intersection of art and society and often takes the form of architecture, design, sculpture and drawing. Los Carpinteros consisted of artists Marco Castillo, Dagoberto Rodriguez and, until 2003, Alexandre Arrechea. The group first adopted the name Los Carpinteros (“The Carpenters”) in 1991, choosing the collective name as a way of abandoning an individual artist persona for a more traditional collective laborer and artisan guild name. In recent years, the group has reached international success with exhibitions in countless countries. Last year, the artists exhibited with Galerie IN SITU in Paris, Unosunove in Rome and the USF Contemporary Art Center at South Florida University in 2005. Los Carpinteros has received awards from the Ministerio de Cultura and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), both in Havana. In 2004, the group’s exhibition with Anthony Grant Inc. in New York City was reviewed by Art in America magazine. Both current members of Los Carpinteros are graduates of the Superior Art Institute of Havana (ISA) (1994 and 1995) and continue to live and work in Havana, Cuba.

The fantastical worlds of Swiss artist Leopold Rabus are loaded with cliches and symbols, as his satirical characters engage in a variety of dualities. Rabus’ characters investigate morals, ethics, religion and sexuality through absurd and ambiguous narratives. The surrealistic imagery is rooted in Christian iconography and art history and is explored through a variety of media, including wax, real hair and miscellaneous particles. Rabus attended Cite des Arts de Paris (2000) and has exhibited with Galerie Une in Neuchatel, Switzerland, and Galerie Adler in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2005, the artist was featured in the Scope Miami art fair, and, last year, Rabus exhibited in the Collections de Saint-Cyprien in Saint-Cyprien, France.