Essi Kausalainen (b.1979) has studied performance art and - theory in Turku Arts Academy (BA) and in the Theatre Academy of Finland (MA). Since 2000 her solo performances have been shown in international festivals and events such as Co-Lab (with Alastair MacLennan / Savvy Contemporary, Berlin 2011), ACTS (Contemporary Arts Museum, Roskilde 2011), Extensions –series (Grimmuseum, Berlin 2010), Open –festival (Beijing 2009), 7a*11d (Toronto 2008), Ensemble of Women (Santiago de Chile 2007), Future of Imagination #3 (Singapore 2006), and The National Rewiev of Live Art (Glasgow 2004). In Finland Kausalainen’s work has been seen in varying venues from Meilahti Art Museum and EMMA to festivals such as ANTI –Contemporary Art Festival, L-bas and Amorph! In addition to her performance works Essi Kausalainen has had six solo exhibitions in Helsinki, Malmo and Turku presenting videos, performances and installations.

John Bonafede was born in Long island, NY and began taking art seriously at a young age. Attending the New York State Summer School of the arts program in high school, Bonafede went on to study fine arts at Syracuse University. He then attended School of Visual Arts in New York City and studied a semester of painting abroad in Barcelona's LLOTJA. He attended post BFA classes at Parsons School of Design (Book Making) and Tibet House (Tangkha Painting). He also studied Chinese Language at China Institute in Manhattan.

Bonafede creates artwork almost everywhere he travels. His performance art, printmaking, painting and installation art have been shown in several cities such as Barcelona, London, New York, and Kaliningrad.
Bonafede also co-founded a non-profit organization called Tibetan Bridge (www.tibetanbridge.org) which aims at building a boarding school for nomadic and poor children in East Tibet.

Nyugen E. Smith was born in Jersey City, NJ in 1976 to a Trinidadian mother and Haitian father. He spent his formative years growing up in his mother’s homeland-a tropical, former British colony where African customs and traditions are still woven in to the cultural fabric. Upon moving back to the United States to live with his mother, he and his brother were often taken to dance performances, art galleries, museums, Jazz concerts, and other cultural events which celebrated Black Heritage. This exposure would later prove itself to have been essential to Smith’s current artistic investigations.

In 1994 he enrolled at Seton Hall University as a Political Science major with the intention of eventually pursing a Law degree. During his time there, he became involved in the dramatic arts landing roles in the the university’s theater program as well as roles as an extra in television and film. In 1998 he earned a BA in Fine Art from Seton Hall University and began to actively participate in the art scene in downtown Jersey City which was anchored by the historic 111 1st street artist enclave.

Smith began working for a broadcasting company in New York and became an on-air commercial copywriter. He and his brother produced and recorded Hip Hop formatted commercials for which they received national attention. After leaving the company in 2004, he fully dedicated himself to the pursuit of his career as a visual artist. Since then, Smith has exhibited widely at museums and galleries in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. His Bundle House series which he began in 2005 gained attention from notable curators and in 2008 he was included in two exhibitions curated by Rocio Aranda-Alvarado (now at El Museo Del Barrio NY, NY) at the Jersey City Museum where he debuted a work titled Bundle House Worldwide: Soon Come. This ambitious work of art established him as an emerging artist to watch. Most recently, Smith has been investigating the psychological, cultural and social implications of colonialism in Africa and the West Indies using an inter-disciplinary approach working in mixed media sculpture/assemblages, performance and video art. Methods of free association, repetition, spontaneity, and improvisation governs the production of his work. He has been a visiting artist and guest panelist at Studio Museum Harlem, Pratt Institute, University of Boston-Amherst and Seton Hall University. Smith lives and works in Jersey City, NJ.

Rebecca Jampol runs the Solo(s) Project House in Newark, and has begun making Performance Art:
ABOUT The Solo(s) Project House
The original Latin and Greek roots of PROJECT mean “something that comes before anything else happens”, and that is precisely what Solo(s) Project House is in a nutshell; evolving projects around a completed one. A space where gallery and studio are elbow to elbow, where the rigors of creation are coupled with the satisfaction of completion. The gallery is a sound stage upon which the house residents can imagine their months of creativity displayed from beginning to end. A true partner in the exhibit process, the artists are commissioned with a curatorial role that gives the visitor a 360 degree view of the creators vision. Far from an original white walled space, SPH is a home for experimental installations, avante-garde performance art and a myriad of media art. With an ever evolving pool of artists from various cultural and personal experiences SPH is a true melting pot of artistic expression.

Sindy Butz is a Berlin based Visual and Performance Artist currently working and living in New York City. She was born in East Germany and grew up in the suburbs of East Berlin.Her artistic background is Fine Art, Art Science and Interactive Telecommunications. As a multi- media artist and sculptress she likes to initiate discourses between fashion designers, scientists, technologist and artists to conceptualize new possible collaborations within the art; science and business world. Sindy enjoys exploring her art concepts as research inquiries. She mainly creates ceramic objects surrounding the human body in Installations, Performances and Sculptures. Her main approach is the investigation of making sculptures become wearable art. Her art works are pure; fragile; perfectionist; sometimes radical and questioning. They have the ability to engage the audience and give an invitation to reflect, dream and hope.

Her art also encourages profound thinking about morals and ethics in modern society. Some works show a spark of Humor or Sarcasm. She tends to tell her­ fictional concepts and stories in a fairy tale like imagery. Sindy received a 2009/2010 DAAD Grant (German Academic Exchange Service) on wearable ceramics; therefore she currently researches in ITP- Tisch School of the Arts, NYU with a Fashioning Technology and Assistive Technology focus. She has displayed work in Germany, the Netherlands, America, Korea and Estonia. As a Performance artist she was on Tour with Non Grata, Diverse Universe Festival (2009) in Estonia; Tallinn and Berlin. She showed her performances in different venues such as the Korean Experimental Performance Festival -KEAF- in Seoul, South Korea (2008) and the Performance Congress Sacramento USA (2006) - SoToDo. Currently she is also active as Butoh Dancer in New York. Additionally she works in the field of Coaching through Art, Organizational Art and Assistive Technology. She has a background in Corporate Social Responsibility- CSR and Corporate Cultural Responsibility- CCR projects for better work environments and national as well as international social projects.