The Art Bystander

In this episode, our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar is joined by Miramar Al-Nayyar , the Iraqi artist whose UK solo debut opens today (July 3, 2026) at Saatchi Yates in London. Miramar is the inaugural winner of the Saatchi Yates Fellowship Prize, selected from more than 5,000 submissions worldwide. She is 29, based between Amman and Abu Dhabi, and paints with a maturity that shows in her comman...

I'm speaking today with Lea Bischofberger , a Zurich-based gallerist and art dealer whose life and work are bound up with one of the most remarkable legacies in postwar and contemporary art. The Bischofberger name runs through some of the defining artistic relationships of the late twentieth century. Her father, Bruno (who passed away in late spring 2026), was a legendary gallerist who worked with...

Today, Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar is joined by Nadya Tolokonnikova — conceptual artist, musician, activist, wanted criminal, and one of the founders of Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist protest-art collective formed in Moscow in 2011. Tolokonnikova spent nearly two years in a Russian prison after Pussy Riot’s 2012 performance Punk Prayer inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour — an action...

In this episode, Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar speaks with Galerie Nordenhake about the role of the gallery today, the importance of sustained artist relationships, and how a gallery with Nordic roots continues to operate within an increasingly global contemporary art world. Founded by Claes Nordenhake in Malmö in 1976 (meaning celebrating 50 yr in 2026), Galerie Nordenhake is one of Scandinavia’s m...

In this episode of The Art Bystander , our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar is joined by Marc Spiegler , one of the key figures shaping the global art market over the past decade. Having led Art Basel from 2007 to 2022, he helped transform the fair from a marketplace into a global cultural platform—redefining how art is experienced, communicated, and sold. Today, Spiegler operates across a portfol...

In this episode, Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar meets with Frej Forsblom a Finnish gallerist and the founder of Makasiini Contemporary , which he established in Turku in 2016. With a clear international outlook from the outset, Makasiini has developed into one of the more dynamic contemporary art platforms in Finland, working with a new generation of artists while actively positioning them within a b...

In this episode of The Art Bystander , host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar sits down with Daniel Arsham , one of the most influential contemporary artists working today — an artist whose work treats the present as if it were already history. Arsham is internationally known for what he calls “fictional archaeology”: sculptures, objects, and environments that imagine contemporary culture as relics of t...

In this episode of The Art Bystander , Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar meets with Barbara Corti, Partner at Hauser & Wirth and Senior Director overseeing the gallery’s spaces in Zurich Limmatstrasse and St. Moritz. Having spent more than two decades with the gallery across Europe and the United States, Corti brings a rare perspective on the evolving geography of the contemporary art world. After f...

This episode is for you — my loyal friends and followers who share my deep love for the purest form of human expression there is: art. Many of you have asked me to open up more, to share what sits behind the platform, the voice, and the choices — so here we are. As The Art Bystander marks its three-year anniversary this February, I sit down for an intimate conversation with my life and business pa...

Today on The Art Bystander , I speak with Marlies Wirth , Curator for Digital Culture and Head of the Design Collection at the MAK in Vienna, about one of the most quietly radical figures of late-20th- and early-21st-century culture: Helmut Lang. Our conversation turns not to his later sculptural practice, but to the architecture of a legacy that reshaped how we understand design, communication, i...

Welcome back to The Art Bystander , the podcast that explores the stories, ideas, and people shaping the world of contemporary art. Our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar is taking you behind the scenes of one of the most influential art fairs in the world — Paris Photo . Founded in 1997, it has become the leading international fair dedicated entirely to photography, a place where artists, collector...

Today on The Art Bystander, our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar is joined by Francesca Grima — Creative Director of GRIMA Jewellery , and the guardian of one of the most influential design legacies in modern jewellery. Her father, Andrew Grima , changed everything. Often called the father of modern jewellery , he treated gold like sculpture, embraced raw stones in their natural form, and pushed t...

The art world is undergoing a profound transformation. Traditional models of collecting and dealing are giving way to new players, platforms, and hybrid business models that blur the lines between galleries, auction houses, advisors, and digital marketplaces. At The Art Bystander , we are closely following these shifts—where technology, luxury, and creativity intersect to redefine how art is exper...

In this episode, our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar turns the spotlight on two art fairs that have each shaped the mid-tier ecosystem in distinct ways. The Affordable Art Fair , founded in London in 1999 by Will Ramsay, has grown into a global franchise with editions in over a dozen cities — from Hong Kong to Hamburg, New York to Stockholm. With its price cap of around €10,000, the fair has open...

In this episode of The Art Bystander, the host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar, is meeting a guest who is one of the most distinctive cultural commentators of her generation: Brenda Weischer , known to many simply as BrendaHashtag . Brenda is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose work moves fluidly between fashion and art. A graduate of Central Saint Martins in London, she has always approached fashio...

In this episode, Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar of The Art Bystander is honored to have Camilla Engström as guest—an artist whose bold, dreamlike paintings have captured audiences around the world. Born in Örebro and now based in Los Angeles, Camilla has developed a unique visual language where landscapes, flowers, and the female form intertwine—often playful, always deeply connected to nature, and f...

In this episode of The Art Bystander , Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar is joined by Alexandre Diop — one of the most compelling and radical voices in contemporary art. Born in Paris in 1995 to a Senegalese father and a French mother, Diop lives and works in Vienna. His practice spans painting, sculpture, and assemblage, anchored in what he calls “object-images” — emotionally charged compositions made...

The Art Bystander No27: Marcus Jansen. In this episode our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar, sit down with internationally acclaimed artist Marcus Jansen whose work has been exhibited at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, and Documenta among others. From his early years between the Bronx and Germany to serving in the U.S. Army and later becoming one of the most important pa...

In this episode of  The Art Bystander , host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar engages in a captivating conversation with Cristina Ljungberg, founder of the Firestorm Foundation —a non-profit organization based in Stockholm that was established in 2021 to support female and nonbinary artists while fostering inclusivity in the art world. Cristina opens up about the foundation's mission to champion u...

In this episode of The Art Bystander, our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar meets with Simon de Pury. Simon de Pury @simondepury is a pivotal figure in the art world, celebrated as an auctioneer, art dealer, curator, photographer, and DJ. Known for his legendary auction performances, which have earned him the moniker ‘the Mick Jagger of auctions,’ de Pury combines charisma with profound knowledge o...

In this unique episode of The Art Bystander, the host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar meets with the world famous sculptors Joel Shapiro and Ugo Rondinone. They are part of a group show at Carling Dalenson Gallery together with Michael Craig-Martin, who unfortunately couldn't participate in the conversation. In the relaxed and intimate dialogue with Joel and Ugo, they touch on their role as artists, i...

In this episode of The Art Bystander, our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar meets with Nicolas Hugo, the now leader of Ateliers Hugo . Ateliers Hugo, nestled in Aix en Provence, France, has been a bastion of creativity since the early 1950s, crafting exquisite jewelry and limited-edition objects in gold. Their legacy intertwines with history, embracing tradition, skilled craftsmanship, and collabor...

In this episode, Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar, is entering an inspiring and insightful conversation with Scandinavian art world legend Björn Wetterling. 1984, in the heart of Stockholm, at the iconic Kungsträdgården 3, something remarkable happened; Wetterling Gallery opened its doors. This moment marked the beginning of what would become a cornerstone in Sweden's contemporary art scene. Under the...

In this episode of The Art Bystander, Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar meets with Camelia Esmaili the founder and managing director of l’Atelier Camelia , a research-based art advisory and collection management firm based in Paris and Dubai having catered to some of the major art collectors in the Middle East and France, she caters to both the private and public sector for investment value art collecti...

In this episode of The Art Bystander our host Roland-Philippe Kretzschmar meets none other than the legendary Sharon Stone. Known worldwide for her illustrious career in film, Stone has also carved a unique space for herself in the world of art, a facet we are excited to explore in this conversation. Sharon Stone's journey in the arts extends beyond her iconic roles in cinema. Her engagement with...