Russell and Robert meet American artist Louis Fratino in London! Drawing inspiration from personal experience and, more recently, photographic source material, Fratino makes paintings and drawings of the male body. His work includes portraits, nudes, and intimate scenes of male couples engaged in activities ranging from the mundane to the graphically sexual. The result is a body of work that is a loving and honest expression of the contemporary gay experience. With great attention to surface and...
Feb 28, 2020•56 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Talk Art NYC!!! Russell & Robert meet artist Brian Donnelly aka KAWS at his Brooklyn studio for a rare glimpse into the private world of one the world's most iconic creative figures. KAWS engages audiences far beyond the museums and galleries in which he regularly exhibits. His prolific body of influential work straddles the worlds of art and design to include paintings, murals, large-scale sculptures, street art, graphic and production design. Over the last two decades KAWS has built a succ...
Feb 21, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Russell & Robert meet Tai Shani, multidisciplinary British artist and joint-winner of the Turner Prize 2019. Shani’s practice encompasses performance, film, photography and sculptural installations, frequently structured around experimental texts. She is currently a Tutor in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art. Taking inspiration from disparate histories, narratives and characters mined from forgotten sources, Shani creates dark, fantastical worlds, brimming with utopian po...
Feb 14, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Robert & Russell meet legendary British artist Denzil Forrester. We discuss 40 years of painting, his childhood in Grenada, the impact of moving to London in 1967 aged 11, his memories of making drawings in London's dub & reggae nightclubs of the late 1970s-80s, his admiration for Jah Shaka's sound system and the drive to create paintings that documented the club scene he cherished. We learn about racially-motivated arrests of the time including Forrester's own unjust arrest as a student...
Feb 07, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Robert and Russell meet leading gallerist & ceramicist Tommaso Corvi-Mora. We discuss growing up in Italy, moving to Germany for a pivotal first summer job working with Alighiero Boetti for a Bonner Kunstverein show, becoming a gallery assistant with Esther Shipper in Cologne, his early love of artist Joseph Beuys, and his longterm passion for the late Cuban-American artist Félix González-Torres. We explore collecting art, how he started his gallery in South London in the same building as Gr...
Jan 31, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Russell and Robert meet artists Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings. We explore the challenges & benefits of making art as a duo, letting go of your ego when collaborating, their decision to build their own @GayBar venue where they hosted one-off events over a 4 year period in their South London studio (complete with a bouncer, actual cocktail glasses and the occasional police raid!!!). We learn what it was like travelling around the country to make ‘UK Gay Bar Directory (UKGBD)’ (2015–16) a 5...
Jan 24, 2020•45 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Russell & Robert speak with Lawrence Abu Hamdan, an artist, audio investigator and recent Turner Prize joint-winner. Lawrence's work explores ‘the politics of listening’ and the role of sound and voice within the law and human rights. He creates audiovisual installations, lecture performances, audio archives, photography and text, translating in-depth research and investigative work into affective, spatial experiences. Abu Hamdan works with human rights organisations, such as Amnesty Interna...
Jan 17, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Talk Art returns for Season 4!! Robert & Russell meet Grayson Perry CBE, the legendary English artist, Royal Academician, writer and broadcaster. Best known for his ceramic vases, tapestries and cross-dressing, as well as his observations of the contemporary arts scene, and for dissecting British "prejudices, fashions and foibles". We discuss Essex & the 'Cockney diaspora', the relationship between his collages & pots, transvestism, inviting fashion students at St Martin's to create ...
Jan 10, 2020•55 min•Season 4Ep. 1
It’s the holidays... and our gift to you is the gift of laughter!!! What better way to celebrate Christmas than to chat (and laugh lots) with our dear friend LONDON HUGHES??!! London is a pioneer, rebel and renaissance woman: stand-up comedian, presenter (Alan Carr was her early mentor), podcaster (Spotify's 'London Actually'), actor ('Fleabag') and now screenwriter with a forthcoming USA TV series for NBC (which she will star in too). Discover why her childhood nickname was ‘The Young Picasso’ ...
Dec 26, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 17
This special episode of Talk Art is an interview with the late, great, legendary artist Joyce Pensato. Joyce was one of Russell & Robert’s favourite painters, who in recent years became a close friend to both. We were honoured to be invited by Joyce to visit her in New York on 28th May 2019 to record what became her last interview. We discuss growing up in Brooklyn, the encouragement of her father (an outsider artist who often made her toys), her love of German Expressionism in her teens but...
Dec 20, 2019•42 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Robert & Russell meet British artist Haroon Mirza, best known for installations that test the interplay and friction between sound, light waves and electric current. He devises sculptures, performances and immersive installations, such as The National Apavillion of Then and Now (2011) – an anechoic chamber with a circle of light that grows brighter in response to increasing drone, and completely dark when there is silence. An advocate of interference (in the sense of electro-acoustic or radi...
Dec 13, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Season 3Ep. 15
Talk Art New York!!!! Russell & Robert meet multidisciplinary artist Jon Key. Key is a queer black man originally from the small rural town Seale, Alabama now living and working in Bushwick, NY. A writer, designer and painter, his work excavates the lineage and history of his identity through four themes: Southerness, Blackness, Queerness, and Family. Through the process of writing, photography and painting, Jon’s work is portrayed graphically through four colours: Green, Black, Violet and R...
Dec 06, 2019•51 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Talk Art Live in London! Russell & Robert meet British artist Helen Cammock, nominated for the Turner Prize 2019 and winner of the 2018 Max Mara Arts Prize for Women. This special episode was recorded live in front of a sold-out audience at Art Assembly in Walthamstow, organised by Art Fund and the National Art Pass. Learn more at: www.artfund.org/talkart Helen Cammock works across film, photography, poetry, spoken word, song, printmaking and installation. We discuss 'The Long Note' (2018), ...
Nov 29, 2019•57 min•Season 3Ep. 13
WARNING: this episode of Talk Art contains strong language! Russell & Robert meet legendary English artist Caroline Coon. We discuss 50 years of painting in Ladbroke Grove, feminism, her longterm political activism, the importance of being socially conscious, decriminalising sex work, growing up in Kent, punk rock, managing The Clash & writing for Melody Maker in the 1970s. We explore the influence of artist Pauline Boty who helped found British Pop art, and was the only female painter i...
Nov 22, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Russell & Robert meet artist David Dawson for a private, after-hours tour of 'Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits', the breathtaking new exhibition he has curated at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. We discuss being assistant/head of studio for the last 20 years of Freud's life, Leigh Bowery, going to Taboo nightclub, Freud's early drawings and paintings inspired by surrealism, his grandfather Sigmund Freud and how Freud got all his information for his paintings from looking. We explore Freud...
Nov 15, 2019•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 11
Russell & Robert meet iconic British actor Sir Ian McKellen CBE at his home in East London. We have a private tour of Ian’s art collection including stunning works by L.S. Lowry, David Hockney, Andrew Logan, textile artist John Allen and an Antony Gormley cast iron figure he chose to display in the River Thames at the end of his garden! We learn about Ian’s childhood in Bolton and how his father’s natural talent for art meant Ian chose a different way to express himself on stage and screen! ...
Nov 08, 2019•49 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Robert & Russell meet artists Teresa Farrell and Alvaro Barrington (Tt x AB) at their joint show at Emalin gallery, East London. Titled 'TALL BOYS & A DOUBLE ESPRESSO', the exhibition celebrates creative collaboration and the importance of friendships/conversation when making art. We discuss how the duo first met at Hunter college and the ways they continue to inspire, critique and challenge each other to grow as artists. We discuss being a contrarian, hosting live music, art performance...
Nov 01, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Robert & Russell meet music icon Michael Stipe, best known as lead singer of R.E.M. We discuss his lifelong love of taking photographs (more than 37,000 so far), his childhood Nikon camera (a gift from his father), self-portraits, making sculptures, his friendship with Patti Smith, meeting members of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg & William Burroughs and why he dislikes his own handwriting. We explore his recent collaboration with Sam Taylor-Johnson on the video for his new s...
Oct 24, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Season 3Ep. 8
It's Talk Art's ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Russell & Robert meet American painter Jamian Juliano-Villani in her Brooklyn studio to discuss topics as varied as being a noisy neighbour, Weezer's Green Album, an encyclopedic knowledge of both music & art history, watching Live Leak to stay tough, political correctness, a childhood growing up in her parents silk-screening factory printing merchandise for pop bands, her friendships with NYC artists Brian Belott, Billy Grant & Borna Sammak, her...
Oct 17, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Russell & Robert meet legendary American performance artist and musician Kembra Pfahler. We discuss growing up in California, her early performance art installations in 1980s Lower East Side (including sleeping in a storefront window for The Extremist Show at ABC No Rio), the impact of the AIDS crisis and how forming her band The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black helped transform her life. We chat about Availabism (a term coined by Kembra - making the best of what's available), Future Feminis...
Oct 10, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Talk Art Live in London, with Ruinart! Russell & Robert meet Vik Muniz, the superstar Brazilian artist best-known for his complex photography made with a diverse range of materials including sugar, toys, diamonds and even trash to recreate and interpret famous images, such as the 'Mona Lisa' (which he executed in peanut butter and jelly), or a Picasso (created entirely with raw paint pigment). Muniz taps into our collective memory of known and recognisable images and artworks. With a wry and...
Oct 03, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Talk Art New York!!! Russell & Robert visit NYC to meet gallerist Jasmin Tsou (JTT Gallery). We discover why she set up her Lower East Side gallery in 2012, initially exhibiting her peers, but soon expanding her program to include emerging artists in a climate that she describes as ‘scary and intimidating.’ Tsou has a very collaborative approach: ongoing conversations with colleagues have shaped JTT’s program and remain at the heart of her activity as a gallerist. We explore the work of her ...
Sep 26, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Talk Art NEW YORK!!! Russell & Robert meet painter Katherine Bernhardt in the BIG APPLE. We discuss her early paintings of ET, growing up in St Louis, a teenage exchange trip to Portugal & Morocco that led to a love of ceramics & berber rugs, before eventually moving to Chicago & New York to study art. We explore her love of Georgia O'Keeffe, Chris Ofili, Laura Owens, Stanley Whitney & Mary Heilmann, why she started to paint Pink Panther & Garfield, her recent experiences...
Sep 19, 2019•53 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Russell & Robert meet artist Wong Ping at Camden Arts Centre, London for a special tour around his solo exhibition 'Heart Digger'. Wong Ping creates digital and sculptural works that reveal very human, often universal fantasies, through absurd narratives. Drawing from his own social encounters, he elaborates his stories into dark humorous tales that touch on political and cultural anxieties. Digitally rendered in a seductive technicolour language, they recall the modernism of Fernand Leger, ...
Sep 12, 2019•47 min•Season 3Ep. 2
We're back! Talk Art Season 3!! Robert & Russell meet one of the world's most celebrated & iconic curators Hans-Ulrich Obrist. Best known for his groundbreaking work as Artistic Director of Serpentine Galleries, London, Obrist has curated shows by many of our favourite artists as wide-ranging as Rebecca Warren, Faith Ringgold, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Wolfgang Tillmans, Etel Adnan, Phyllida Barlow, Marina Abramović, Yoko Ono and many, many more. We discuss his childhood passion of reading ...
Sep 05, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Russell & Robert meet British Vogue columnist & writer Raven Smith. We discover his definition of an Art Bro, the crossover between art & fashion, wandering through the Venice Biennale 2019, seeing a live performance by Rose McGowan, getting caught up in another performance where Raven had to hold a broom handle, drawing David Hockney’s paintings aged 6, writing his first book ‘Trivial Pursuits’ in Berlin (a collection of irreverent essays on modern life to be published in 2020) and ...
Aug 22, 2019•40 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Part 2 of a very special Talk Art episode diving deep into Edinburgh's creative scene, in partnership with Bombay Sapphire. Celebrating a decade since Russell & Robert first met at the Scottish National Gallery, the duo return to Edinburgh to uncover hidden gems of the city's art festival through a series of conversations with leading artists, curators and gallerists. Part 2: Kate Gray - COLLECTIVE GALLERY Sorcha Carey - EDINBURGH ART FESTIVAL Stuart Fallon - TALBOT RICE GALLERY "Edinburgh's...
Aug 20, 2019•57 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Part 1 of a very special Talk Art episode diving deep into Edinburgh's creative scene, in partnership with Bombay Sapphire. Celebrating a decade since Russell & Robert first met at the Scottish National Gallery, the duo return to Edinburgh to uncover hidden gems of the city's art festival through a series of conversations with leading artists, curators and gallerists. Part 1: Claire Feeley, JUPITER ARTLAND Laura Simpson & Lesley Young, EDINBURGH SCULPTURE WORKSHOP Adam Benmahklouf - Arti...
Aug 16, 2019•50 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Russell & Robert meet superstar actress, writer, director & keen watercolourist Lena Dunham in her London hotel room for a feature-length Talk Art exclusive! We discuss painting ‘en plein air’ & embracing nature in Wales this Summer, what it was like growing up as daughter of two legendary artists Laurie Simmons & Carroll Dunham and remembering New York as a child during the 1980s AIDS crisis. We learn about Lena’s favourite artists including Lisa Yuskavage, Ellen Birkenblit, Lee...
Aug 08, 2019•1 hr 31 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Russell & Robert meet London–based artist, illustrator, ceramicist and textile designer John Booth. Best-known for his graphic works featuring multi–layered collages of textures and colours, Booth draws inspiration from artists including Karel Appel and Betty Woodman as well as from retro children’s playgrounds and postmodern Italian designers. Born in Scotland in 1984 and raised in Cumbria, Booth moved to London in 2004, where he graduated with a BA in fashion print design at Central Saint ...
Aug 01, 2019•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 9
