Talk Art

Talk Art exclusive!!! We meet a living LEGEND!! For episode 8, Russell and Robert meet the iconic British fashion designer Sir Paul Smith CH CBE RDI (born 5 July 1946). We discuss a lifetime of collecting art, his recent award of Companion of Honour from the Queen, setting up a new foundation with the aim of giving advice to creative people, his support of artists at the Royal Academy Schools...

Russell and Robert meet legendary UK based queer artist/photographer Sunil Gupta (b. 1953, New Delhi India). From Here to Eternity  is Gupta's first major retrospective, offering a complex and layered view of his unique transcontinental photographic vision.  Born in New Delhi, India, relocated to Montreal, Canada, before studying at the Royal College of Art in London, Gupta has been usin...

Talk Art Season 7 continues!! For episode 6, Russell and Robert meet the creative power couple of singer/songwriter DENAI MOORE & film director NADIRA AMRANI!!!! Denai's new album 'Modern Dread', with sleeve art by Nadira, is Talk Art's FAVOURITE album of 2020!!! We discuss the influence of art on both of their creative disciplines and their favourite contemporary artists including Joy Yamusan...

Russell and Robert meet Catherine Opie (b. 1961, Sandusky, OH; lives in Los Angeles), known for her powerfully dynamic photography that examines the ideals and norms surrounding the culturally constructed American dream and American identity. She first gained recognition in the 1990s for her series of studio portraits titled Being and Having, in which she photographed gay, lesbian, and transg...

Russell and Robert meet Noel Fielding, legendary comedian, writer, actor, artist, musician, and TV presenter - back on screens this week in The Great British Bake Off! Known for his use of surreal humour and black comedy, Noel first came to prominence in The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe, starring as lead character Vince Noir but also creating many of the costumes, make-up designs and animated segmen...

Season 7 continues!!! For episode 3, Russell & Robert meet Jeffry Mitchell a "gay folk artist" (as he describes himself) whose primary mediums are ceramic and drawing. Well versed in ceramic's traditions around the globe (references to Early American glazes, Pennsylvania Dutch pickle jars, asymmetrical Japanese aesthetic decisions and Chinese Foo Dogs abound), Mitchell takes a very direct appr...

Season 7 continues!!! For episode 2, Russell & Robert chat to Cassi Namoda (b. 1988, Maputo, Mozambique), a painter and performance artist who explores the intricacies of social dynamics and mixed cultural and racial identity. Capturing scenes of everyday life, from mundane moments to life-changing events, Namoda paints a vibrant and nuanced portrait of post-colonial Mozambique within an incre...

Talk Art returns for Season 7! Russell and Robert meet Marianne Berenhaut, the Belgian-born artist (b. 1934) who for almost 50 years has been gathering, curating and transforming objects found in her immediate surroundings. Her powerful yet delicate sculptures and installations address themes of longing, trauma, absence and memory. Through her vast body of work, spanning five decades, Marianne Ber...

Russell & Robert meet Kenny Schachter for Talk Art's Season 6 Finale... and what better way to close this special quarantine season than with art world ROYALTY!!!! Kenny is truly a polymath - dealer, artist, writer, collector, curator, lecturer and all-round LEGEND!!! We admire his deep love of art, the way he champions artists but also how he speaks truth to power, never afraid to call out ba...

Russell & Robert meet Jennifer Gilbert, leading curator, gallerist and champion of Outsider Art! As founder of the Jennifer Lauren Gallery, her aim is to champion and exhibit international self-taught, disabled and overlooked artists who create works outside the mainstream art world and art history. Jennifer works closely with UK organisations, studios and communities supporting disabled artis...

Talk Art exclusive!!! For this very special, feature-length episode, Russell & Robert speak to legendary artist Wolfgang Tillmans. We discuss growing up in Germany, his move to the Bournemouth, UK to study art, his collaboration with gallerist Maureen Paley and how he went on to become the first photographer to win the Turner Prize in 2000. We explore some of our favourite works including his...

Robert & Russell meet leading British artist Anthea Hamilton, best known for creating strange and surreal artworks and large-scale installations. Recorded on 5th January 2020 at Spiritland, Kings Cross. We discuss the experience of being a Turner Prize nominee, meeting Gaetano Pesce the Italian architect and design pioneer, working with curator Ruba Katrib from New York’s Sculpture Center and...

Robert & Russell meet artist Shawanda Corbett, best known for her ceramics, paintings and performances. Shawanda is a recent recipient of The Turner Bursary which replaces the Turner Prize 2020, recognised for her significant contribution to contemporary art in the UK during the past 12 months.  We discuss the themes within “Neighbourhood Garden”, her current debut solo exhibition at...

Season 6 continues! Russell & Robert chat to emerging artist Ana Benaroya from her studio in Jersey City, New Jersey. Recorded remotely on 19th April 2020 during lockdown, we are massive fans of Ana's paintings!!! We discuss her early career as an illustrator, her love of cartoons, her passion for drawing, identifying with male characters in 80s/90s movies growing up and how she developed stud...

New Talk Art! Russell & Robert meet Aindrea Emelife, art critic, independent curator, advisor and arts presenter. We discuss her recent powerful mission statement written for The Independent newspaper investigating how the art world can step up for Black Lives Matter. Aindrea spoke to leading figures for their perspectives including Jasmine Wahi, the Holly Block Social Justice Curator at...

On this week's Talk Art, we're feeling the POWER of LOVE! Russell & Robert chat to the captivating superstar duo of Ellie Goulding and Caspar Jopling from their home in Oxfordshire. As passionate art collectors, we learn about the artists they admire and collect including Rebecca Warren, Julie Mehretu, Tracey Emin, Donna Huanca, Raymond Pettibon, George Rouy, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jack Whitten, R...

Season 6 continues! Recorded remotely on 3rd April 2020 during lockdown, Russell & Robert chat to leading artist Katherine Bradford, best known for her radiant paintings of swimmers, superheroes, ships and dreamy landscapes that critics describe as simultaneously representational and abstract, luminous, and richly metaphorical. We explore how Katherine changed her life aged 30 years old to bec...

Season 6 continues! Recorded remotely on 1st May 2020 during lockdown, Russell & Robert chat to Philadelphia-based artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase whose paintings and drawings focus primarily on queer black bodies in everyday, domestic spaces. We explore the importance of family including Jonathan's husband Will (who is also their studio manager), sea horses, shyness, Bipolar disorder, identifyin...

Talk Art Season 6 continues! Recorded during lockdown on 19th April 2020 from the Mexican jungle, Russell & Robert chat to Rose McGowan, leading activist, author, singer, actress and creative polymath. We discuss her debut album 'Planet 9', how creativity can promote healing, why Rose sees America as a cult, growing up as a child in the Children of God cult, Rose & Robert's shared admirati...

Welcome to Season 6 of Talk Art! Recorded on 10th April 2020, we chat to Troy Michie, the acclaimed American collage artist, painter, interdisciplinary installation artist, and sculptor based in New York City. Michie's work is often in dialogue with the canon of collage; as well as investigating society's understanding of race, gender, sexuality, and other fields of identity and power. This episod...

Recorded in New York on Sunday 26th January 2020, Russell & Robert meet leading artist Toyin Ojih Odutola, best known for her multimedia drawings and works on paper, which explore the malleability of identity and the possibilities in visual story-telling. Interested in the topography of skin, Ojih Odutola has a distinctive style of mark-making using only basic drawing materials, such as ballpo...

Russell and Robert chat to leading English actor Josh O'Connor. We discuss family connections to art with his artist/ceramicist grandmother Romola Jane, the ongoing search to buy back her previously sold studio art pottery, his sculptor grandfather John Bunting who's wooden sculptures, bronzes & stone works was a contemporary of Henry Moore and teacher to artist Antony Gormley. We explore Josh...

Russell & Robert chat to critically acclaimed German artist Lenz Geerk. Recorded at the start of lockdown, we discuss his psychologically charged paintings that are seemingly removed from any specific time or place. Emphasizing his subjects in such a way as to draw out the hidden emotions of the human psyche, ...

Russell & Robert meet legendary fashion writer Tim Blanks, Editor-at-large of Business Of Fashion and a passionate art fan/collector. We discuss growing up in New Zealand, hanging out in the late 70s with artist collective General Idea in New York, meeting Andy Warhol in Toronto, the influence of David Bowie, his love of The Photographer’s Gallery, collecting photography including Juergen Tell...

Russell & Robert meet Alice Rawsthorn OBE, the award-winning British design critic and author. Based in London, she is chair of the boards of trustees at Chisenhale Gallery in East London and The Hepworth Wakefield art gallery in Yorkshire. Alice was awarded an OBE for services to design and the arts. We discuss growing up in Manchester, studying at Cambridge University, her role as design cri...