Ministry of Arts Podcast

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Sophie Derrick (@SophieDerrickArt) Sophie Derrick's work very much focuses on portraiture, but with the use of both painting and photography this genre is skewed and manipulated, and the transformative properties of paint are pushed to the limit. She photographs the act of painting onto her own skin and then paints on top of the photographs, creating a laye...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Holly Stevenson (@holly__stevenson) Holly Stevenson makes fluid ceramic forms that explore Sigmund Freud’s favourite ashtray and last cigar as an analytical metaphor. Her vessels diligently embody the ashtray and cigar as though they were two gendered male and female forms, the yonic ovular dish and the cylindrical phallic cigar, as she reconfigures them in...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Ant Hamlyn (@anthamlyn) Working across a pollination of hand made and digital fabrication processes, Ant Hamlyn’s works delve into our relationship and fluctuating enthusiasm towards contemporary life. His sculptures regularly have anthropomorphic elements and work with metaphor, technology and the interplay between hard and soft to create moments of tactil...

In this bonus episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Ben Oakley (@BenOakleyGallery_)   Ben Oakley Gallery II 2 Nelson Arcade, Greenwich SE10 9JB   We've gone round the bend! BOG2 the resurrection, sounds like a David Lynch Film ffs     Navigation of location is tricky, especially with all the costs that go with that on the high street. We had our last gallery for 12 years and built a...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Charlie Haydn Taylor (@charliehtart) Charlie Haydn Taylor was born in Jersey, Channel Islands and is now based in London. His work evokes a sense of contemplation and isolation, where the lines between the fictional and autobiographical collide. His most recent works respond to the emotional weight of isolation that can occur when living in a major city, pa...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to INKTERAKTIV(@inkteraktiv) INKTERAKTIV, aka Caro Clarke is a London based Urban Paper Artist. She works mostly with fluorescent paper strips using paper quilling techniques, and playing with paper and light. Born in Paris, France in 1976, she has spent most of her life travelling, finally settling in London in 2006. Following a degree in Art History & Fi...

In this bonus episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Background Bob (@background_bob) Background Bob & his amazing friends…back again A simple little idea that has turned into a worldwide phenomenon. Background Bob is the artist name of 14 yr old Noah. Noah has hydrocephalus, epilepsy and cerebral palsy, but despite that, he’s a cheeky, kid full of smiles who loves to paint. He paints wonderful abst...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Elizabeth Power (@ElizabethPowerArt ) Bursting with colour and energy, Elizabeth Power’s paintings exude a warmth and vibrancy. Based in St Leonards on Sea, UK, Power’s work has a colour palette rich in coral pinks, forest greens and cool blues. Drawing inspiration from colourists such as Matisse, Hockney, Milton Avery and Tal R, Power’s loose and free abst...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Billy Childish (@billychildish_for_it_is_he) Billy Childish is an English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. Since the late 1970s, Childish has been prolific in creating music, writing and visual art. He has led and played in bands including the Pop Rivets, Thee Milkshakes, Thee Headcoats, and the Musicians of the British...

In this bonus episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Tere Chad & Caroline Russell (#OnTheEdgeRSS) On The Edge is a multimedia exhibition of work by members of the Royal Society of Sculptors, made at a time when the world is on the edge, with climate change and war in Ukraine. The exhibition will be held at Espacio Gallery, 159 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 7DG from 14-19 March, with a Private View o...

In this bonus episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Ritchie Iwanski (@_r_i_t_c_h_i_e) Ritchie Iwański, a Canadian native, has been honing his artistic skills for the last ten years and has since made New York City his place of residence. He is dedicated to a style of art known as transcendent collage, where he utilizes genuine magazine or comic book clippings to produce his art, providing them with a r...

PART 2/2 In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Steve Lowe founder of L-13 (@l13lightindustrialworkshop) L-13 LIGHT INDUSTRIAL WORKSHOP Private Ladies & Gentlemen's Club for Art, Leisure & the Disruptive Betterment of Culture The L-13 Light Industrial Workshop is not a gallery, a publisher, nor do we represent artists. Neither are we a real Ladies and Gentlemen’s Club, a Light Industrial...

PART 1/2 In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Steve Lowe founder of L-13 (@l13lightindustrialworkshop) L-13 LIGHT INDUSTRIAL WORKSHOP Private Ladies & Gentlemen's Club for Art, Leisure & the Disruptive Betterment of Culture The L-13 Light Industrial Workshop is not a gallery, a publisher, nor do we represent artists. Neither are we a real Ladies and Gentlemen’s Club, a Light Industrial...

In this bonus episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Sasha Bowles (@sashabowles1) Sasha Bowles is a London based multi-disciplinary artist, working across painting, objects, film and installation. Bowles creates artefacts and installations housed within provisional environments that are a means of storytelling but are not a narrative. Her practice is an evolving loop, dealing with illusion, intervention...

  In this bonus episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Gemma Peppe, founder of Art on a Postcard (@artonapostcard)   Art on a Postcard (AOAP) raises money for The Hepatitis C Trust towards its campaign to eliminate hepatitis C in the UK by the year 2030.   In 2014 Art on a Postcard was intended to be a one off secret postcard auction, but it went so well it has spawned a small i...

In this bonus episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Charlotte Rose (@char.lotteroseart)   Charlotte Rose is a self-taught artist residing in North London. In 2021, Rose held her debut solo show, ‘I Quit Last Week’, which centred around nostalgic branding from the late 20th century.   The sell-out show featured 15 large-scale acrylic on plywood paintings. The aim of the exhibition was to presc...

In this Bonus Episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Meg & Kieran of Gallery No.32 about their Winter Sculpture Park (@gallery_no.32)   Introducing Gallery No.32's third WINTER SCULPTURE PARK, an annual outdoor exhibition of contemporary sculpture and public art.   Gallery No.32’s WINTER SCULPTURE PARK is a group exhibition of UK and internationally-based artists exploring how today’s liqu...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Stacey Clare founder of the East London Strippers Collective  (@ethicalstripper)   Stacey Clare is a stripper, writer, activist, theatre performer and one of the co-founding members of the ELSC. Stacey has become known as the resident Gobbess of the collective, giving public talks, writing articles and generally shouting from the rooftops about se...

In this bonus episode Gary Mansfield speaks to James Ryan, director and co-founder of Quantus Gallrery (@quantusgallery)   Quantus Gallery was a bold move by the founder James Ryan who already owns a successful art gallery.  Quantus is a cutting edge art gallery that is re-shaping the future of the art market through transparency and accessibility, for a new generation of art enthusiasts...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Opake(@Opake_­lwi) Since the age of thirteen, Ed Worley, AKA Opake, has been fascinated with graffiti art. He was instantly enchanted with the idea that anyone could create large-scale artworks for the public to see and access, for free. At first, Opake began experimenting with tagging and later developed his artworks into monumental murals, featuring both...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Tanya Ling (@Tanya_Ling) Tanya Ling is an artist, designer and fashion illustrator. Ling studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London before working in Paris in the design studio of Christian Lacroix. On her return to London she started a contemporary art gallery with her husband William Ling called Bipasha Ghosh. An exhibition of he...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Jemima Sara (@JemimaSara) Jemima Sara is a multidisciplinary artist who incorporates freedom of expression, everyday life and mental health into her practice.   Her work is inspired by the nitty-gritty of day-to-day. She reflects and reveals struggles of daily life to ignite conversations as a form of self-therapy or catharsis. The artist's contem...

In this episode Gary Mansfield gives a round-up of the episodes of 2022, in a year that gave us Keithy Brymer Jones and his Great British Throw Down co-host Rich Miller, Camille Walala, kennardphillipps, Pure Evil, Gavin Turk, Kate Knight, Rankin, Charlotte Colbert & Jake Chapman, to name but a few. What were your top 5 episodes of 2022? To Support this podcast from as little as £3 per month:...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Hanna Benihoud (@hanna_benihoud_studio) Hanna Benihoud is an interdisciplinary design studio working between the worlds of art, architecture and design. She is passionate about working on exciting projects with a social conscience. She works on public art, wayfinding, illustration, animation, exhibition design and anything else she feels can tell a story an...

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Alice Mara (@alicemaraceramics) Alice has spent her career developing the relationship between form, function and decoration, and has an insatiable appetite for new challenges. She experimented with printing methods before perfecting the art of realising photography in three dimensions, a complex and painstaking process. Her previous work features the archi...