Gallery M&Art agents International Art Magazine NO.16
Gallery M&Art agents history begins with a physical private gallery in Lund in 2012 and later in Ystad, Sweden that Marcus Carlsson owned for five years. Gallery worked with contemporary art and many talented artists asked about promotion because they didn’t know how to be more recognizable, to sell art-works, and to communicate with collectors and galleries. This is the starting point of his mission to help out other artists with promotion.
Front cover : H2O project of Marcus Carlsson Website: https://artbymac.se , www.saatchiart.com/phmac
Founder of Gallery M&Art agents Marcus Carlsson works as an artist since 2011. He’s got a number of art shows and solo exhibitions on the world stage. Today he works mostly with social media. You can find more information at artbymac.se and www.saatchiart.com/phmac Also ambassador for 4ocean. Be a hero for clean oceans and river for better future follow the link https://bit.ly/2VG1pCI or artbymac.se/h2o-project.html
"Art is an international language that everyone understands. It doesn't matter where you come from. What color you have on your skin. What religion, politics, what language you speak, all this connects people. That's why I love working with art.”
Usa
The "Prayer for the Earth" painting is a symbolic talisman of unity and hope for the planet, created with collective intentions and blessings. A universal prayer for the Earth is transcribed beneath layers of gold leaf, imbuing it with sanctity and significance. This artwork serves as both a visual prayer and a call to action, reflecting humanity’s connection to nature and our shared commitment to protecting the Earth.
� The H2O Project: A Call to Protect Water, Life’s Most
Precious Resource
By Marcus Carlsson — Artist, Surfer, Fly Fisher & 4ocean Ambassador
Water is the essence of life. It flows through every cell of our bodies, covers most of our planet, and sustains every living thing. Yet, despite its vital role, we continue to waste, pollute, and ignore this precious natural resource.
As an artist, surfer, and fly fisher, my life has always been connected to water. I’ve felt its power in the ocean’s waves and its calm in the stillness of a mountain stream. But in my travels, I have also witnessed the damage — from plastic-choked rivers to contaminated lakes and oceans. These experiences are what gave birth to the H2O Project — a platform where art, environmentalism, and awareness meet.
� About the Artist: Marcus Carlsson
Marcus Carlsson is an internationally successful artist who has drawn wide attention in a relatively short time. Born in 1977 in Teckomatorp, Sweden, Marcus originally worked as a professional photographer across Europe. But in 2009, after attending a five-day summer course in drawing, he discovered a deep passion for art. From the very first sketch, he knew he had found his true path.
By 2011, Marcus began painting with color. His very first painting, “The Fruit,” was exhibited in Lund, Sweden. Though he has no formal art education, he always says: “I just follow my heart.”
Marcus's artistic evolution has been remarkable. Over the past decade, his paintings have gained international recognition. Among many achievements:
• � Winner of the “International Art Prize Uffizi – Florence” (2016)
• � Awarded the “Tiepolo – Arte Milan”
• � Exhibitions in Florence, MAMAG (Modern Art Museum Austria), Paris (Carrousel du Louvre)
• � Shows in New York, Washington, Milan, Shanghai, and Berlin
Marcus now owns a studio and gallery in Ystad, southern Sweden, where he continues to create art that reflects his passion for the environment and human connection.
� Water Is a Prerequisite for Life
Clean water is a basic human right — yet millions of people around the world still lack access to it. In poverty-stricken areas, sanitation is almost non-existent. People are forced to relieve themselves outdoors, and the result is widespread environmental pollution and disease.
Even basic hygiene becomes impossible without clean water and soap. And yet, the human body — composed of over 60% water — depends on constant hydration. That’s why ensuring clean water access, as laid out in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6, is one of the most urgent challenges of our time.
By 2025, it is expected that two-thirds of the world’s population will face acute water shortages
� Water Is a Limited Natural Resource
Though water covers 70% of Earth’s surface, less than 1% is available for human use. The rest is saltwater or locked away in glaciers and ice sheets.
Breakdown of global freshwater use:
• 70% for agriculture
• 20% for industrial use
• 10% for households
Water is slowly renewed through the water cycle, but demand is rising fast. With growing populations and changing climates, the threat of water scarcity is very real. In fact, many countries rely on rivers that cross national borders, increasing the risk of political tensions.
Still, there is hope: cooperation around water resources is far more common than conflict
� From Waves to Waste: A Personal Story
As someone who surfs and fly fishes around the world, I’ve seen both the beauty of water and the threat it faces. Plastic waste is everywhere — in rivers, lakes, oceans, and even inside marine animals.
According to BBC News, millions of tons of plastic enter our oceans every year, poisoning ecosystems and even entering our food chain.
This is why I’m proud to be an ambassador for 4ocean — an organization that removes plastic from the ocean and coastlines every day.
� Take Action: Be a Water Hero
You can help protect our most essential resource:
✅ Pick up trash near your local waterways
✅ Donate to environmental projects like 4ocean or the H2O Project
✅ Raise awareness in your community
✅ Support clean water access initiatives globally
� Want to contribute?
Donate to the H2O Project & 4ocean via PayPal
Every donation helps us clean waters, educate communities, and create impactful exhibitions.
� The H2O Project Exhibition – Berlin & Beyond
The H2O Project was recently featured at an art exhibition in Berlin, blending multimedia artworks with environmental storytelling. The goal? To educate, inspire, and take action through creativity.
This is just the beginning. With your help, the H2O Project will continue to raise awareness through art, activism, and global collaboration.
� Final Message: Water Is Life. Let’s Protect It.
Water connects all of us — from the rivers of Sweden to the coral reefs of the Pacific. It’s time we recognize its value and act accordingly.
Koenig Galerie (stylised KÖNIG GALERIE) is a powerhouse of contemporary art based in Berlin, founded in 2002 by Johann König and now led alongside Lena König . The gallery has earned a reputation for dynamic, concept-driven programming, representing over 40 international artists, with a strong focus on emerging talent (frieze.com).
� From Brutalist Church to Diplomatic Art Space
In May 2015, KÖNIG GALERIE opened its impressive flagship at St. Agnes Church in Kreuzberg — a monumental 1960s brutalist structure by Werner Düttmann (koeniggalerie.com). After an award-winning renovation by architect Arno Brandlhuber, the once austere church interior now features expansive, light-filled exhibition halls with innovative skylights that temper the building's heavy exterior (koeniggalerie.com).
The space hosts two simultaneous series: large-scale exhibitions in the former nave every two months, and more agile, rotating shows upstairs roughly every four to five weeks (we-heart.com).
� A Global Platform for Contemporary Art
KÖNIG GALERIE has grown well beyond Berlin. International expansions include:
• KÖNIG SEOUL (2021)
• Pop-ups in London, Vienna, Tokyo, Monaco, and Munich (2017–2025)
• KÖNIG MEXICO CITY residency (2024)
• KÖNIG TELEGRAPHENAMT, another Berlin outpost near Museumsinsel (2025) (koeniggalerie.com).
Regular participation in major art fairs—Art Basel, Frieze London, FIAC, and Art Basel Miami Beach—coupled with works acquired by MoMA and the Guggenheim, underscores its global reach (artatberlin.com).
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Concept-Driven and Interdisciplinary
KÖNIG GALERIE engages a diverse array of mediums: sculpture, painting, video, sound, installation, performance, printmaking, and photography (koeniggalerie.com). The exhibitions often push boundaries:
• Chiharu Shiota's immersive thread installations utilized the cathedral-like space of St. Agnes to explore memory and loss (koeniggalerie.com, zestandcuriosity.com).
• Andreas Schmitten showcased monumental spatial sculptures that resonate with the raw concrete surroundings (designboom.com).
The gallery maintains a commitment to experimentation and a space-based dialogue between art and architecture.
� Beyond Exhibitions: Media and Outreach
Since 2017, the gallery has published KÖNIG Magazine and introduced KÖNIG Souvenir, a line of design objects linked to exhibitions (myartguides.com, en.wikipedia.org). With the pandemic, they launched online talks ("10am Series"), direct art fairs on-site ("MISA"), podcasts, and even a virtual gallery platform (en.wikipedia.org).
� Community & Cultural Integration
St. Agnes is more than a gallery—it’s a cultural hub. The restored church also includes:
• A restaurant and private apartments (home to the König family)
• Commercial tenants including 032c Magazine, an architecture firm, and NYU Berlin offices
• Planned artist residencies in the former bell tower and a sculpture garden (architecturaldigest.com).
� Why It Matters
KÖNIG GALERIE exemplifies a bold vision in the contemporary art world—merging cutting-edge art, thoughtful curation, media innovation, and cultural reuse. From revitalising a Brutalist icon to nurturing young artists while maintaining global presence, the gallery fosters daring, concept-driven engagement with art in unprecedented ways.
Interested in current or upcoming shows? The St. Agnes location’s programming includes titles like Trial by Fire, Raw Paradise, and Asbest—plus exhibitions at Telegraphenamt and Munich (artsy.net, koeniggalerie.com).
Salvador Dalí was one of the most extraordinary and controversial artists of the 20th century. Known for his eccentric personality, technical skill, and wildly imaginative works, Dalí was a leading figure in the Surrealist movement. His art, life, and legacy continue to fascinate people around the world.
Early Life and Influences
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech was born on May 11, 1904, in Figueres, a small town in Catalonia, Spain. He was named after his older brother who had died nine months earlier, something that deeply affected Dalí throughout his life. From a very young age, he displayed unusual behavior and a vivid imagination. His parents noticed his artistic talent and enrolled him in art classes.
In 1921, Dalí entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. There, he experimented with various artistic styles such as Impressionism, Futurism, and Cubism. He was also influenced by the work of Renaissance painters like Velázquez and Raphael, which helped him develop a precise and classical painting technique.
Surrealism and the Paranoiac-Critical Method
Dalí was introduced to Surrealism in the late 1920s when he moved to Paris and met key figures like André Breton, the founder of the movement. Surrealism aimed to unlock the creative potential of the unconscious mind by using dreams, symbols, and irrational imagery. Dalí quickly became one of its most prominent representatives.
He developed his own creative technique, which he called the "paranoiac-critical method." This approach involved entering a self-induced paranoid state to access irrational thoughts and visions, which he then transformed into artwork. Dalí described it as a way of "materializing images of concrete irrationality."
Love and Personal Life
One of his most famous paintings, The Persistence of Memory (1931), shows melting clocks draped over a desolate landscape. The painting explores the concept of time as fluid and subjective, and it remains one of the most iconic images of Surrealism.
A Life Beyond Painting
Dalí was a true multimedia artist. In addition to painting, he worked in sculpture, film, photography, fashion, and even advertising. He collaborated with famous filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel (on Un Chien Andalou and L'Âge d'Or) and Walt Disney (on the animated short Destino).
He also had a flair for performance and showmanship. Dalí cultivated a unique public image, with his flamboyant clothing, exaggerated mustache, and theatrical behavior. He loved to shock, confuse, and entertain his audience. He once arrived at a lecture in a diving suit and gave interviews full of riddles and nonsense.
Dalí’s muse and lifelong partner was Gala Éluard, a Russian-born woman who had previously been married to the poet Paul Éluard. Gala played a central role in Dalí’s life and career, acting as his manager, inspiration, and model. The couple married in 1934 and remained together until her death in 1982.
Later Years and Legacy
In his later years, Dalí continued to paint, although his work became more religious and scientific in nature. He explored themes such as nuclear physics, DNA, and religious mysticism, blending them with his surrealist style. Some of his later works include The Sacrament of the Last Supper (1955) and Galatea of the Spheres (1952).
Dalí passed away on January 23, 1989, in Figueres, the town where he was born. He is buried in the crypt of the Dalí Theatre-Museum, which he designed himself. The museum is now one of the most visited cultural sites in Spain.
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Shi Ming Yi: A Monk’s Rise, Fall, and Redemption
By artbymac.se
Singapore – In the quiet corridors of Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery, Venerable Shi Ming Yi resumes his daily rituals with a calm that belies the turbulence of his past. Once celebrated as a visionary Buddhist monk and philanthropic leader, and later disgraced by a high-profile corruption scandal, his story remains one of the most complex chapters in Singapore’s religious and charitable history.
Born Goh Kah Heng in 1962, Shi Ming Yi embraced the monastic path early in life. As abbot of Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery in Geylang East, he combined traditional Mahayana Buddhist teachings with a progressive approach to public service. His most ambitious project came in 1994, when he founded Ren Ci Hospital—a non-profit healthcare facility aimed at supporting the elderly and chronically ill, especially those without financial means.
“Ren Ci was built out of compassion,” Shi says today. “It was our way of bringing Buddhist values into practical, daily service.”
The initiative quickly gained public attention, and in 1996, Shi was awarded the Public Service Medal for his contribution to healthcare and charity. He expanded his influence, serving as abbot in temples across Asia and leading one of the few major Buddhist-led health institutions in the region.
But acclaim gave way to controversy in 2007, when Singapore’s Ministry of Health raised red flags about the financial operations at Ren Ci. Auditors discovered interest-free loans, undocumented transactions, and irregularities stemming from Shi’s dual roles as both CEO and board chairman of the hospital—a clear conflict of interest under good governance standards.
In 2009, Shi was charged and convicted of forgery, misuse of funds, and falsifying accounts. One focal point of the trial was a S$50,000 loan made to his personal aide, allegedly without proper authorization. Though the loan was eventually repaid, Shi was sentenced to ten months in prison, later reduced to six, of which he served four before qualifying for home detention. His Public Service Medal was revoked in 2011.
“I made mistakes. I won’t deny that,” he reflects. “Not out of greed, but out of poor governance. The responsibility was mine to bear.”
Public reactions were mixed. Some viewed him as a spiritual figure who had strayed too far into administrative and material concerns. Others, pointing to his ownership of luxury cars, overseas properties, and even a racehorse, questioned whether his lifestyle had betrayed the ideals of monastic simplicity.
“I acknowledge the criticisms,” he says. “That chapter taught me humility in the deepest way. Power, even in service, must always be checked.”
Following his release, Shi stepped down from all formal charity leadership roles but returned to Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery, where he resumed religious duties. Under new leadership and greater transparency measures, the temple continues to operate, albeit more modestly.
In 2015, Shi quietly donated a kidney to a young woman in need—a gesture of personal redemption that only came to public light after the surgery. He shrugs off the attention.
“It wasn’t about proving anything,” he says. “It was about helping someone live.”
Today, Venerable Shi Ming Yi leads a quieter life. No longer the high-profile figure he once was, he spends his days teaching Dharma, offering guidance to the temple’s followers, and reflecting on the past.
“Redemption doesn’t erase mistakes,” he says. “But it can shape what you do next.”
His legacy remains controversial. To some, he will always be a cautionary tale of blurred lines between spirituality and power. To others, he’s a figure of resilience—a man who fell, served his time, and returned to serve again, this time with greater awareness.
As Buddhist organizations across Asia face growing pressure for transparency and reform, Shi Ming Yi’s journey stands as a powerful reminder: even those who fall from grace can still walk the path of service—if they walk it humbly.
Qigong is a healing exercise method developed in China over thousands of years. The word is formed from two Chinese characters: Qi and Gong. Qi stands for life energy and Gong means extraordinary achievement. Qigong is about self-training – through slow movements, focused breathing techniques and concentration – you influence the energy flow in your body and dissolve blockages. With very small means, you improve your health and discover how well you can actually feel.
PMQigong can help you with
– get increased energy and zest for life- become more present - learn to manage stress - increase your creativity - reduce tension and aches - improve your mobility - get better sleep - increase your body awareness
For more info
https://artbymac.se/qigong.html
STELLA PAPA biography
Stella Papa is a Cypriot ar/st. She has studied Economics and Finance at the University of Cyprus. She works as a bank officer and write ar/cle in two sites.
Art has always been a part of her life. From 2020 he started making his own pain/ngs. she prefers to paint only portraits. Every portrait which has been painted by her is the human form of an emo/on. Her artworks are the pages of her diary of emo/ons.
Stella has been already par/cipated in many exhibi/ons in Europe and New York. Some of the exhibi/ons’ themes was the women's place in society, the ways in which art heals human wounds, the rela/onship between man and nature, the influence who has the poetry on pain/ng, the ancient Greece and many more.
She was nominated for many art awards and was one of the two Cypriots who are been selected to par/cipate in the exhibi/on of the Group for UNESCO of Arts, LeOers and Sciences of Greece and Rome Interna/onal Art Fair.
Her pain/ngs have been displayed on a screen in Time Square in New York, Gracia Metro sta/on in Varkeloni and the Canada Water Underground Sta/on. She has been awarded with the Interna/onal Prize Leonardo da Vinci-The universal ar/st, “The New Great Masters in New York”,the “LOVERFORART” ,has been won honourable awards in two interna/onal thema/c compe//ons "11th ANIMAL" Inter.art comp.”, “5th Living and Breathing Juried Contest” and in “12 open-2025 Int.Juried art Contest” . She is one of the winners of the Golden Duck Gallery’s compe//on, she selected to par/cipate in an exhibi/on in three galleries in European ci/es and NY.
She is nominated for many arts Compe//on in Europe and USA. She is the only Cypriot whose her pain/ngs have been selected to be exhibited at the Carrousel du Louvre, while several of her works and interviews have been published in interna/onal art magazines. Many online magazines have wriOen about her works and contribu/on to art
Stella is currently preparing bilateral exhibi/ons in Cyprus, Greece, Cyprus, Venice, and Florence.
Her pain/ngs is been selected to be part in two interna/onal collec/bles art book , The New Protagonists of Contemporary Art and the interna/onal bilingual catalogue of contemporary art "Jubilee of hope: Art as a way for rebirth
In her pain/ngs, she used to use different materials and techniques. She loves the asymmetry and always avoids the realis/c depic/on of human characteris/cs to make others understand their uniqueness and the priceless value of their feelings.
Most of the /me he uses gold, silver, and black paints to show the conflict of human emo/ons and to convey to the audience an op/mis/c message, a message of hope and joy. Everything around may be dark but somewhere deep down there is a way out.
HOW TO COPE WITH AI, AS AN ARTIST (a casual look at this matter)
AI is here to stay, either I like it or not. Therefore, as an artist, I have to embrace it, not ignore it, not fear it, and learn as much as I can about itotherwise how would I always be one step ahead of “the machine”? These are my daily tribulations while I spend hours in my studio drawing/ painting. And I know that, out there in the world, are millions of artists who ask themselves the same questions. Being a proactive individual, I started to research about this “monster that is coming to eat me alive”. Am I ready to fight it? The more I know about “my enemy” the better I can defend myself.
So I found out that the schools of thinking about AI vs. The Artist are very simple: the PESSIMISTS - who think that AI is a great threat to our creativity and the OPTIMISTS - the ones who see it as an extension of our creativity. I definitely want to be part of the second category because, as a realistic person, I know that being original as an artist is truly a challenge - pretty much the ideas are somewhere in the universe and mostly everything that we create was done in the past by other creative minds. But my quote is “art is the definition of infinity”; so why don’t we explore what originality looks like in the age of AI Art? After all, AI can help the infinite world of an artist’s mind to become better; right?
In the past I used my original paintings as the base image to remix it over and over again with the help of various applications, until I obtained totally different images. That was the era of the digital art for me (and it was happening just a few years ago). Nowadays, some artists curate their own created collection of art by using AI and processing hundreds of images at the time. In this case, AI almost becomes the curator and the originality of that particular artist is maintained. This could be considered ethical in my opinion.
But what do I do when “artists” type in words in various AI technology (like DALL-E3, MidJourney, ChatGPT, etc.) and the result that comes out is an image that contains pieces of the art that I create? AI is trained with over 15 billion images of art created by artists from all times (including us, the ones who are still alive). In this case, we start to encounter moral, ethical and esthetical dilemmas.
One way to find out if your art was used to train the machine is by checking the website https://haveibeentrained.com/
To my unpleasant surprise, I found out that two of my works were used to train AI. But nobody asked me to OPT IN for that “training” of prompts (usually everything online is created in such a way that we have to OPT OUT) or to give my permission for my art and my name to be blatantly used by AI without my consent, nor giving me credit. The stated mission of Open AI (the makers of the image generator DALL-E3 and the ChatGPT) is “to ensure that Artificial General Intelligence by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work benefits all of humanity” (Steven Zapata presentation “The Problem with AI-generated art”, TEDxBerkley, October 12th, 2023). According to Zapata, “they use your data to replace you to the benefit of you” (from the same presentation mentioned above). And the technology gets improved daily because the more they feed it with images the better it becomes at “spitting out” images or on more elegant words “the better creative INPUTS, the better the creative OUTPUTS”.
Unfortunately, the copyrights laws were/are not made to keep up with the quick development of AI technology. Therefore, we need to speak up and fight for the establishment of all the ethical and legal work that must regulate this new system. Otherwise, we will get used to think that every image we see is generated by AI. Everything that we’ll read will make us question
ourselves: “was this written by ChatGPT?”. And in time, AI will start to generate so much work that quantity will be way over quality, educating us to loose the sense of esthetics.
A lot of artists are so afraid that AI will copy their idea before they were even able to present it to the public, that secluded communities of artists are formed behind closed doors all over the world. This is antithetical to the spirit of being an artist, of having the freedom of expression. It also makes ME, feeling that I have to compete against myself and I am sure that other colleagues feel the same.
In the US, we have the fair use doctrine of the copyright statute (or the “Fair Use Rule”). According to U.S. Copyright Office, “Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyrightprotected works in certain circumstances”. Section 107 of the Copyright Act takes in consideration four factors in evaluating a question of fair use. Three of these factors are important when we talk about copyright infringement for the AIgenerated art. In the presentation “Pixels and Principles: Ethics of AI Art”, Melody Liu (at TEDxNortheasternU, March 27th, 2024) summarizes these factors for us:
• 1) Transformative - The new work should be transformative; it should be adding value that the original art work did not provide: additional expression, meaning or insight.
• 2) Effect on Market - It shouldn’t be damaging to the original copyright owner income or taking away from their potential market (for example, MidJourney can cost an user up to $1000/year depending on what plan is used and the artist does not see a dime from that money.
• 3) Subjective Good/Bad - The judge always have discretion; it’s up to them to decide if one case of Fair Use is good or bad.
In case of AI, Liu considers that “AI can’t bring that meaning to the art and it can’t be transformative”. In addition, the presentation reiterated that AI is just a tool which can’t provide us with any insights.
I think for me, the most disturbing thing about AI is that it takes the joy of creating a painting away from me. Making art gave me perseverance, endurance, comfort and relaxation. Since I started to paint I learned how to meditate, discover myself, learn about grieving, compassion, empathy. All of these gifts that the process of creating art give me, are taken away by AI.
At the beginning of this year, I had a solo exhibition at a gallery in Los Angeles. The theme was “Deeper than AI”. When I prepared myself for the art show, I typed various words that I used in the titles of my works in an AI generative art application. I was surprised to see that most of my works were somehow transformed by the machine but the colors were similar to the ones I used. AI copied the color palette that I came up with; the works looked more abstract when in fact my originals were mixing various styles. I also observed that when a work is created with multiple layers of colors, textures, media and STYLES, AI can’t read it - at least this is what makes us original (for now) over AI. The gallery exhibited my works and next to each painting there was the printed version created by AI (at a smaller scale). Since AI copied me, I decided to use it as a tool to expand my imagination and I typed a few words that came up in my mind, in the prompts. I was surprised to see that a lot of expressions, metaphors, slang was not understood by AI and a lot of my ideas were absolutely censored not being allowed to create what was in my wild imagination. That gave me hope that we still have a little bit of time to enjoy being artists in the pure sense of our career but it also made me understand how I can use AI as an assistant.
Do you think I wrote this article or I asked ChatGPT to write it for me?
Dr. Bianca Turner | www.biancaturner.art | https://a.co/d/ixL7ZTv
Richard Solstjärna
The next edition of art magazine see website for dates.
Deadline for submission see website
Submit at www.gallerym.se
We mainly want in painting artists and photographers and collage, sculpture, NFT artists to the magazine. Even galleries and art fairs and arts events and cultural organizations can advertise in the art magazine. The magazine goes out to art buyers and galleries and the magazine will be free for everyone, even those who are not interested in art!
