The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts (photography, video, and filmmaking) and architecture. These definitions should not be taken too strictly as many artistic disciplines (performing arts, conceptual art, textile arts) involve aspects of the visual arts as well as arts of other types. Also included within the visual arts are the applied arts such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design and decorative art.

As indicated above, the current usage of the term "visual arts" includes fine art as well as the applied, decorative arts and crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, the term artist was often restricted to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the handicraft, craft, or applied art media. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement who valued vernacular art forms as much as high forms.Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts maintaining that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of art.

Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin (born February 7, 1972), known as Amon Tobin, is a Brazilian musician, composer and producer of electronic music. He is described as a virtuoso sound designer and is considered to be one of the most influential electronic music artists in the world. He has released seven major studio albums since 1996 under the London-based Ninja Tune record label.

He is noted for his unusual methodology in sound design and music production. In 2007 he released Foley Room an album based entirely on the manipulation of field recordings. His latest album, 2011's ISAM, included "female" vocals made from his own voice synthesised. His music has been used in numerous major motion pictures including The Italian Job and 21. Tobin has created songs for several independent films, including the 2006 Hungarian film Taxidermia, and had his music used in other independent films such as the 2002 Cannes Palme d'Or winner Divine Intervention (Easy Muffin remixed by Bonobo). A selection of his tracks were also featured in the 2005 anime, IGPX. He has also dabbled in video game scores. In 2005, he created the musical score to Ubisoft's critically acclaimed and successful video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory as well as Sucker Punch's game Infamous.

Peter Schjeldahl, (born 1942), is an American art critic, poet, and educator.

Schjeldahl was born in Fargo, North Dakota. He grew up in small towns throughout Minnesota, and attended Carleton College and The New School. He began his professional writing career as a reporter in Minnesota, Iowa and New Jersey.

In 1964 he traveled to Paris for a year before settling in New York City in 1965. Since coming to New York he has worked as an art critic for ARTnews, The New York Times, The Village Voice (1980 to 1998), and 7 Days (The Cooper Union). In 1998 he joined The New Yorker where he is currently the head art critic. His writings have also appeared in Artforum, Art in America, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. During his career Schjeldahl has written several books of poetry as well as art criticism. He taught at Harvard University in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies for four years as well.

Schjeldahl’s poetry falls in line with many of the characteristic themes and styles of the New York School. As a contemporary postmodern poet, Schjeldahl believed fervently in the idea that poetry should be enjoyed and understood by all readers. In an interview with the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Blackbird Schjeldahl commented on how “there are no rewards in being obscure or abstruse or overbearing” (Wolgamott). Schjeldahl’s work reflects this attitude and his beliefs against institutionalizing art and poetry.

Estevan Oriol is a Mexican American photographer and director based in Los Angeles, California. His work has been featured in numerous magazines, usually reflects Los Angeles urban and gang culture, and he has also photographed many celebrities including Eminem, Kim Kardashian, Cypress Hill, Dennis Hopper, Blink 182, Forest Whitaker, Adrien Brody, Xzibit, 50 Cent, Danny Trejo and more. He is also known for directing several music videos as well as for his partnership with Mister Cartoon for Joker Brand Clothing. He is affiliated with Soul Assassins.

Oriol started his career in as a bouncer at hip-hop clubs before moving on to tour manage Cypress Hill and House of Pain. During that time he began documenting his life on the road. His reputation allowed him to photograph gang members and celebrities alike. His work has been featured in magazines such as Complex, FHM, GQ, Vibe, Rolling Stone, The Source and many more.

In 2004, he participated to the elaboration of the world success videogame, GTA San Andreas.

Zanele Muholi (Born 19 July 1972 in Umlazi, Durban) is a South African photographer and visual activist.

Muholi was born to Ashwell Tanji Banda Muholi and Bester Muholi and she is the last of 5 children. She completed an Advanced Photography course at the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg in 2003, and held her first solo exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2004. In 2009 she was awarded her Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Media from Ryerson University in Toronto. Her thesis mapped the visual history of black lesbian identity and politics in post-Apartheid South Africa.

Muholi was employed as a photographer and reporter for Behind the Mask, an online magazine on LGBTI issues in Africa. In 2002, she co-founded the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), a black lesbian organization dedicated to providing a safe space for women to meet and organize. She researched and documented the stories of hate crimes against the gay community in order to bring forth the realities of “curative rape”, assault, and HIV/AIDS, to public attention.