Chen Fei likes to paint bad taste. He believes the not-so-pretty things leave a longer lasting impression than beauty ever would. What impresses him most are the rogues, not the upstanding citizens. He was trained at the Beijing Film Academy, found the industry too limiting, and turned to acrylic on canvas instead — treating every painting like a film still, rendered with photographic precision that reads as digital or animated until you get close. He was at Centre Pompidou in 2024. Galerie Perrotin represents him. He is not yet a household name outside contemporary art circles. That is the point.

Photo Cristina Macaya 

She picked up a friend's camera in her late teens and never put it down. A conversation with Marie Bärsch — editorial photographer for Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar — on location as muse, the perfect shot, and why her dream project involves elephants.

Paula Mendoza was a journalist before she was a goldsmith. One course changed everything: Jewelry as Sculpture, at Washington's Corcoran School of the Arts. A pilgrimage through Peru's ancient filigree workshops did the rest. Today her pieces are worn by Beyonce, Zendaya, and Sarah Jessica Parker, her artisans in Bogota have worked with her for over a decade, and her wedding in 2026 had a dress code of all black, a lineup of five DJs from Burning Man, and a theme called Rave Royale. She is, as Leila says, something special.