BROOKLYN, NY.- At a time when mentorship and professional access remain among the most decisive factors shaping creative careers, Us for the Arts has announced the mentor lineup for its upcoming Portfolio Review Series, an initiative bringing together an international group of distinguished creative professionals to mentor the next generation of artists and creative practitioners.

Scheduled to launch this fall, the program marks an important step in the organization’s ongoing efforts to foster artistic dialogue, professional mentorship, and interdisciplinary exchange across the contemporary creative landscape.
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The initiative brings together an international group of established creative professionals whose practices span visual arts, photography, design, illustration, fashion, architecture, performing arts, film, literary arts, and culinary arts. Through group portfolio reviews and one on one mentoring sessions, participants will have the opportunity to receive guidance from professionals who are actively shaping contemporary creative culture.

The mentor lineup reflects a remarkable concentration of professional experience, bringing together artists and creative leaders whose work has received international recognition through exhibitions, performances, publications, major commissions, awards, and collaborations with leading cultural institutions and global brands. Collectively, the group represents a breadth of expertise across multiple creative fields, offering participants rare access to a multidisciplinary panel of professionals whose work contributes meaningfully to the evolving discourse and practice within international creative industries.

Since opening its doors in Brooklyn in 2017, Us for the Arts has established itself as a platform for creative dialogue and artistic development, particularly for immigrant artists working in the United States. Through exhibitions, open studios, artist talks, and professional programming, the organization has focused on fostering cross disciplinary collaboration while amplifying the contributions that immigrant creative professionals make to the American cultural landscape.

The Portfolio Review Series expands that mission by creating a space where emerging creatives can engage directly with working professionals across multiple disciplines. Participants will not only receive practical feedback on their portfolios but will also gain insight into how artists and creative professionals navigate careers across fields and cultures that are often competitive and difficult to access without mentorship.
For Kika Espejo, Founder and Director of Us for the Arts, the program addresses a reality that many artists experience early in their careers.

“This is a great opportunity for artists who are starting their careers and want to receive valuable feedback from established professionals in the field with diverse cultural backgrounds,” Espejo explains. “But it is also about building a community that can help define, support, uplift, and push forward their artistic goals.”

Espejo also emphasizes the emotional dimension of creative work, noting that isolation is a common challenge within the arts.

“Early in your career, there are very few moments where you get to place your work in front of people who truly understand the field you are trying to enter. When that happens, it can be transformative. Feedback from someone who has walked that path before you is not only helpful technically, but it can also be deeply encouraging.”

The Portfolio Review Series was conceived as a way to counter that isolation by creating a space where artists can exchange ideas, build relationships, and receive mentorship from professionals who understand the realities of sustaining a creative practice.

At the center of the initiative is the belief that meaningful artistic innovation often emerges through dialogue across disciplines.

“This program aims to bring young creatives together, whether academically trained or self-taught, to initiate conversations with established professionals across a wide range of disciplines and push the boundaries of art making and creative production,” Espejo says.

That philosophy is reflected in the diversity of the mentor lineup. Many of the participating mentors maintain practices that extend beyond a single discipline, reflecting the increasingly interconnected nature of contemporary creative fields.
Minami Otake, known internationally for her work in textile design for major fashion houses, also maintains a strong visual art practice. Kuldeep Singh, trained in classical Odissi dance, has expanded his artistic language across painting, installation, and sculpture. Maksym Kazarin, widely recognized for his sculptural painting and surface-based work, has also developed a parallel practice in interior design. Xuan Fu, initially trained as a fashion designer specializing in embellishment, later integrated fashion editorial work into her practice. Uttara Ramakrishnan, trained as an architect specializing in urban planning and design, expanded her work into children’s book creation as a way of introducing urban design concepts to younger audiences.
These trajectories illustrate the increasingly fluid nature of creative careers today. While artists have historically been encouraged to specialize narrowly, many contemporary practices evolve through conversations between disciplines, allowing ideas to circulate across different creative worlds.

The mentor lineup reflects this breadth of practice and brings together professionals whose work has gained recognition within their respective fields and who are committed to supporting the next generation of creative practitioners.

Mentor Lineup

Visual Arts

Kuldeep Singh
Maksym Kazarin
Aida Miró
José Luis Puche
Manuela Caicedo

Photography

Gaspar Márquez
Izabella Demavlys
Beatrice Aguirre
Vu Nguyen

Design and Illustration

Crissy Bogusz
Subin Yang
Suyoung Yang
Johana Kroft
Jenny Jiang
Tanya Pedra

Fashion

Yuecen Cai
Xuan Fu
Saori Mitome
Shamlee Bhagat
Vipul Bhagat
Minami Otake
Angelina Yuen
Runtan Du

Architecture, Urban and Landscape Design

Uttara Ramakrishnan
Keerti Nair
Vishwesh Panchal
Justin Thomas
Sagarika Nambiar

Performing Arts and Film

Lander Camarero
Edu Díaz
Cynthia Yiru Hu
Aaron Deakins

Literary Arts

Octavio Galvis
Larissa Xavier

Culinary Arts

Francisco Parreño
Gabriel Benitez

Sign up guidelines will be announced this spring on the Us for the Arts website. The Portfolio Review Series offers participants sustained access to high level professional insight across disciplines and is poised to become a dynamic platform for interdisciplinary exchange, mentorship, and the long-term development of emerging creative professionals.

By Adana Vincent 03/05/2026