Paul Simon, also known as notpaulsimon, is a Romanian-American artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. As a sculptor with a background in human biology and commercial photography, Simon creates a fantastical world in which materialities are present and absent, both hiding in plain sight and as objects of the digital imaginary.

Modou Dieng Yacine received a French Catholic education, while the majority of Senegal was Muslim. This created a foundational bond with France and its culture but also bred a deep alienation from his Senegalese and African identities. Alongside his entry into the National School of Art in Dakar, began the first Dak’Art African Art Biennale through which he was able to attend workshops with Joe Overstreet, Mildred Thompson, Leonardo Drew, Frank Bowling and Mary Lovelace O’Neal. Inspired, he began to personally explore the depth and possibility presented by a canvas, the imaginative lines and multiplicity of layers which can be continuously applied to its surface.Moving to the United States he earned his MFA at SFAI in San Francisco. Moving past the perspective he gained while in Dakar, he began to open up his practice to new mediums. His paintings became, and have since remained, a performative act themselves. The topic, emotions and concept dictating the medium.While accepting a position at PNCA, Portland, which he held for a decade, he began a deep exploration of the underground subcultures presented by the Pacific Northwest and its histories. Looking back on his experiences at SFAI and his time spent with Okwui Enwezor, he founded a gallery which would last for a decade as well.In his current studio practice, using and appropriating the history of both painting and photography, as two unique contemporary mediums, he is able to layer, sample, mix and play on the theater of his newly found Black diasporic voice. He currently lives in Chicago.

Throughout her artistic career, Danielle has explored her voice through various techniques involving glass and mixed media. After receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Glass from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 2012, she immediately became immersed in the world of glass lighting and production. Danielle previously lived in Brooklyn, New York where she worked as a freelance glassblower, artist assistant and educator out of UrbanGlass. During this time, Brensinger also taught as an adjunct professor at Salem Community College in New Jersey. She has received full scholarships from the Celebrity Fund as well as the Tommie Rush and Richard Jolley Scholarship Fund to attend classes at the Corning Museum of Glass and the Penland School of Crafts. Danielle has also been able to attend Pilchuck Glass School and the Bild-Werk Academy in Frauenau, Germany as a teaching assistant for both glass blowing and bronze casting classes. She recently completed her Masters of Fine Art at Cal State San Bernardino in 2023 and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. Danielle is an integral part of Second Best Studio while she continues to work as a freelance glassblower fabricating work for lighting designers and other artists.

Originally from Seattle, Mike Jess relocated to the East Coast in 2017 to further pursue a career in glass. Currently he works as a fabricator and cold worker out of the UrbanGlass studios in Brooklyn, NY. In his personal work, he employs clean, simple forms and layered carving techniques to reveal and create dynamic color relationships. Most recently he had a residency at Gray Barn Studios in Arlington, WA, and a winter residency at Penland School of Crafts.