Talk Art - podcast cover

Talk Art

Russell Tovey and Robert Diamentwww.instagram.com
Actor Russell Tovey and gallerist Robert Diament host Talk Art, a podcast dedicated to the world of art featuring exclusive interviews with leading artists, curators & gallerists, and even occasionally their talented friends from other industries like acting, music and journalism. Listen in to explore the magic of art and why it connects us all in such fantastic ways. Follow the official Instagram @TalkArt for images of artworks discussed in each episode and to follow Russell and Robert's latest art adventures.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last refreshed:
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Download Metacast podcast app
Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

Sophie von Hellermann

We meet artist Sophie von Hellermann (b. 1975, Munich) at her studio in Margate, as she created brand new paintings for her Frieze London 2023 solo booth with Pilar Corrias Gallery. It's an epic installation including a giant hand-painted mural alongside a new series of Margate-themed paintings. Dreamland, Margate’s iconic funfair, is the inspiration behind a new body of work, featuring carousels, Ferris wheels and soothsayers. Opening in 1870 as a ‘pleasure garden’ set within the coastal resort...

Oct 12, 202359 minSeason 18Ep. 10

Eva Jospin, presented by Ruinart

Talk Art Special LIVE EPISODE with Ruinart! We met leading French artist EVA JOSPIN! Live from London's Frieze week, this inspiring episode was recorded in the Serpentine Pavilion designed by Lina Ghotmeh in front of a live audience. With the belief art can enlighten and connect us, Ruinart gives Carte Blanche to leading contemporary artists every year to pay tribute to the Maison’s legacy, this year French Artist Eva Jospin. As part of the Carte Blanche program Eva Jospin imagined an artistic a...

Oct 10, 202356 minSeason 18Ep. 9

Rafał Zajko

We meet artist Rafał Zajko (b.1988, Białystok, Poland). Zajko’s work deals with issues around the industrial past, exploring its environmental impact in relation to working class heritage and queer identities. His sculptural practice incorporates diverse materials and processes including ceramics, ventilation systems, prosthetics and performance as a means to examine folklore, science fiction and queer technoscience, placing an emphasis on the industrial materials and processes that resonate wit...

Oct 05, 202358 minSeason 18Ep. 8

Bengi Ünsal - ICA London

We meet Bengi Ünsal, Director of ICA London which is celebrating its landmark 75th year. She is the second woman to serve as the Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts and has been successfully refocusing their commitment to live music, live performances alongside extensive visual arts, film and education programmes. (As we discover in this episode, the first female Director was Dorothy Morland from 1952-1968 , who was also the longest running the ICA for 18 years). The Institute of Cont...

Sep 28, 202349 minSeason 18Ep. 7

Tom of Finland + Durk Dehner

Talk Art special episode with WePresent! We meet Durk Dehner to discuss TOM OF FINLAND as the 40th anniversary of the ToF Foundation approaches. Since first meeting Tom in 1978, Durk worked closely with the artist, serving from time to time as Tom's muse which continued until Tom's death in 1991. We also chat with Richard Villiani, the foundation's Creative Director. In 1984, the nonprofit Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF) was established by Durk and Touko Laaksonen a.k.a. Tom of Finland (b.1920,...

Sep 25, 20231 hr 13 minSeason 18Ep. 6

Sylvia Snowden

We meet legendary artist Sylvia Snowden from her home in Washington DC where she has been painting for the past 60+ years! Known for her use of abundantly thick, layered paint, Snowden has developed a visual language in which gems of colour and texture emerge from densely-worked under layers. From dark and earthy tones to the vibrant and artificial, Snowden’s command of chromatic range is the fuel of her expressionistic style. Over the course of her more than five-decade-long career, in which sh...

Sep 21, 20231 hr 1 minSeason 18Ep. 5

Fiza Khatri

Talk Art special episode with WePresent! We meet artist FIZA KHATRI to discuss their recent paintings. Their work represents intimate portraits and gatherings of human and nonhuman inhabitants of their community. They remix imagery from lived experiences, imagined fantasies, sacred landscapes, and archival research to imbricate the social, sacral, and political stakes of building ecosystems of cohabitation. Fiza Khatri was born and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. They currently live in New Haven, ...

Sep 18, 20231 hr 5 minSeason 18Ep. 4

Julian Schnabel

We meet legendary artist Julian Schnabel to explore more than 40 years of painting. Since his first solo exhibition in 1976, Schnabel has been on a quest to express the inexpressible. Best known for his multidisciplinary practice that extends beyond painting to include sculpture and film. His use of preexisting materials not traditionally used in art making, varied painting surfaces and modes of construction were pivotal in the reemergence of painting in the United States. Resisting the turn to ...

Sep 14, 20231 hr 22 minSeason 18Ep. 3

Ted Rogers

Talk Art special episode with WePresent!!! We meet TED ROGERS, a multidisciplinary artist based in Margate working predominantly with movement. Ted explores the extremities of movement through the neurodivergent and non binary lens; plowing their unwavering and infectious energy into any and all mediums, with a particular focus on entertainment and the deeper emotional aspects of humanity. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience within their debut solo show at Quench Gallery. They ...

Sep 12, 20231 hr 27 minSeason 18Ep. 2

Gus Van Sant

Season 18 begins!!! We meet GUS VAN SANT, iconic American film director, producer, painter, photographer and musician. We discuss his deconstructed Mona Lisa series, his friendship with Derek Jarman and how he became a painter in his teens, the lasting influence of his art teacher, and how painting informed his filmmaking!!! Gus Van Sant (b. 1952, Louisville, Kentucky), admired internationally as a filmmaker, painter, photographer, and musician, received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of D...

Sep 08, 20231 hr 1 minSeason 18Ep. 1

Oliver Hemsley (Live at TKE Studios, Margate)

Talk Art Live with Oliver Hemsley!!! Season 17 FINALE!!! For our second interview with artist Oliver Hemsley, we meet within his debut exhibition at TKE Studios, Margate - the artist studio complex and gallery founded by Tracey Emin. Recorded in front of an intimate audience of art lovers, Margate family and friends, this episode is one of our proudest moments - proud of our talent friend Oliver and his extraordinary exhibition. We discuss his new works on canvas - a new development in his journ...

Aug 31, 202351 minSeason 17Ep. 16

Victoria Cantons

We meet leading artist Victoria Cantons from her London studios!!! We discuss her autobiographical as well as confessional work. Cantons presents a record of trauma and healing, alongside a rigorous inquiry into the social constraints surrounding gender politics. Deeply informed by her own experience of limitation and stigma, her work reverberates with notions of freedom, selfhood, representation, power and aspects of the human condition which she writes, despite our divergent identities and exp...

Aug 24, 20231 hr 19 minSeason 17Ep. 15

Rene Matić

We meet leading artist RENE MATIĆ to discuss current solo exhibition ‘A Girl For The Living Room’ at Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol. This episode includes a special moment with living legend, and focus of Rene’s new show, TRAVIS ALABANZA. We also explore earlier works exhibited at South London Gallery and their solo show at Quench Gallery, Margate. Plus we discuss a series of fifteen photographs that the Tate museum have acquired for their permanent collection - currently on display at Tate Bri...

Aug 17, 20231 hr 19 minSeason 17Ep. 14

Rana Begum

We meet leading artist Rana Begum to discuss her new public art flag display on London's Piccadilly in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Arts and Art of London. We also explore her incredible current solo exhibition at The Box in Plymouth titled 'Dappled Light'. The vibrant designs entitled No.1273 Flag are currently adorning the London skies until 20th August 2023, so make sure you visit if you're in London this month! Each flag showcases intricate geometric patterns, celebrating the mult...

Aug 10, 20231 hrSeason 17Ep. 13

David Remfry MBE

We meet renowned British painter and artist David Remfry MBE RA RWS, to discuss curating/coordinating this year's RA Summer Exhibition, working with watercolour, more than 5 decades of art making, and what it was like to live in New York's iconic Hotel Chelsea for 20 years!!! Remfry’s Summer Exhibition 2023 explores the theme Only Connect, taken from the famous quote in Howards End by E.M. Forster. Among the 1,614 featured works you will find towering sculptures by the late Phyllida Barlow RA, R...

Aug 03, 20231 hr 4 minSeason 17Ep. 12

Lindsey Mendick (Live at Jupiter Artland)

Russell & Robert meet leading artist Lindsey Mendick, recorded in front of an intimate live audience at Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh. We explore Lindsey's major new solo exhibition 'Sh*tfaced', her first solo show in Scotland. Running until 1st October 2023, this multi-layered exhibition of new ceramics, film and sculptural installations is presented across all of Jupiter Artland’s galleries. Lindsey Mendick’s work is one of confession, where taboo topics and uncomfortable truths are revealed ...

Jul 27, 20231 hr 2 minSeason 17Ep. 11

Jupiter Artland, Angel of The North, Henry Moore Institute, presented by BMW

Talk Art SPECIAL EPISODE!!!! We go on an electric Art Adventure from Leeds to Edinburgh! Russell and Robert drive to Jupiter Artland in Edinburgh in a BMW electric iX to meet Jupiter's founder, the philanthropist Nicky Wilson, and discover some sculpture legends en route. Our first stop is the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds. We convene in their incredible library with Laurence Sillars, Head of the Institute, to explore their mission to inspire everyone to enjoy and study sculpture through their ...

Jul 24, 20231 hr 14 minSeason 17Ep. 10

Ilana Savdie

We meet leading artist Ilana Savdie from her studio in New York to explore the making of her major new solo exhibition at Whitney Museum! Ilana Savdie explores themes of performance, transgression, identity and power in her vibrant, large-scale paintings. Assembling fragments into finely detailed, fluid compositions, her canvases pulsate with flamboyant colour, conjoining, merging and blending their forms in an aesthetics of riotous excess. At their core, Savdie’s paintings aim to dismantle idea...

Jul 20, 20231 hr 18 minSeason 17Ep. 9

Nadya Tolokonnikova - Pussy Riot

We meet Nadya Tolokonnikova of PUSSY RIOT, the legendary Russian feminist protest art collective. We discuss Nadya's journey in art thus far and her monumental current exhibition in Sante Fe at CONTAINER space. "While working with artifacts, bottling ashes, and manufacturing the faux furry frames for the bottles, I used skills that I learned in the sweatshops of my penal colony. I was forced to sew police and army uniforms in a Russian jail. I turned what I learned in my labor camp against those...

Jul 13, 20231 hr 30 minSeason 17Ep. 8

Daniel Lismore (Live at Hay Festival)

We meet Daniel Lismore live at Hay Festival 2023! Daniel is a London-based artist. He was born in Bournemouth and raised in Fillongley Village on the border of Coventry. Although he started his career as an artist from the perspective of the outsider, working as a photographer within a year he had moved in front of the lens as a model, later emerging as a creative consultant for Mert & Marcus, Steven Klein, David LaChapelle and Ellen von Unwerth. Lismore has been named by Vogue as ‘England's...

Jul 06, 202359 minSeason 17Ep. 7

Sue Tilley and Rui Ferreira

We meet living legend Sue Tilley and artist Rui Miguel Leitão Ferreira!!! Sue Tilley (b. 1957), also known as Big Sue, is an artist, artist's model and writer. Most notably, she modelled for painter Lucian Freud. Tilley collaborated, and was best friends, with performance artist and club promoter Leigh Bowery. In 1997, she published Leigh Bowery: The life and times of an Icon , a biography. Freud painted several large nude portraits of Tilley, the first being Evening in the Studio (1993). Benefi...

Jun 29, 20231 hr 12 minSeason 17Ep. 6

Tim Stoner

New Talk Art! We meet artist Tim Stoner (b. 1970, UK), best know for his paintings, which we explore in depth in this fascinating discussion!!! Before settling in London full-time, Tim lived and worked between London and Ronda, Southern Spain. In Ronda, a village in Andalucía, he began experimenting with unfinished canvases submerging them in swimming pools, pouring dissolving chemicals and distressing their surfaces with palette knives, scalpels and sanding discs. Often reworked over several ye...

Jun 22, 20231 hr 29 minSeason 17Ep. 5

Nicholas Cullinan - National Portrait Gallery

We meet Nicholas Cullinan, leading art historian, curator and current Director of the National Portrait Gallery in London. The new National Portrait Gallery opens its doors to the public on 22nd June 2023. The Gallery is home to the most extensive collection of portraits in the world, from the 8th century. The NPG collection has over 220,000 works, 150,000 of which are illustrated from the 16th century to the present day in a wide variety of different mediums. The National Portrait Gallery tells...

Jun 15, 20231 hr 11 minSeason 17Ep. 4

Jean-Michel Basquiat Estate - Lisane Basquiat & Jeanine Heriveaux

In a significant moment for Talk Art podcast, we meet the Jean-Michel Basquiat Estate - run by his sisters Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux. We explore the extraordinary, new Los Angeles exhibition 'Jean-Michel Basquiat: KING PLEASURE © ' of over 200 never-before-seen and rarely shown paintings, drawings, multimedia presentations, ephemera, and personal artefacts that tell the story of Jean-Michel from an intimate perspective, intertwining his artistic endeavors with his personal life, infl...

Jun 08, 20231 hr 16 minSeason 17Ep. 3

Studio Lenca

Season 17 continues with a magical episode!!! We meet artist STUDIO LENCA!!!! Studio Lenca is the working name of artist Jose Campos – ‘Studio’ refers to a space for experimentation and constantly shifting place; ‘Lenca’ referring to the name of the artists ancestors from El Salvador. Jose Campos was born in 1986 in La Paz, El Salvador and like many had to flee the country during its violent civil war during the late 1980s. He travelled to the US by land, illegally with his mother and grew up in...

Jun 01, 202352 minSeason 17Ep. 2

Ajamu X

New Season 17!!! For the first episode of our NEW SEASON we meet the legendary photographer and activisit AJAMU X, at his studio on Railton Road, South London. Ajamu X (1963, Huddersfield, UK) is a photographic artist, scholar, archive curator and radical sex activist best known for his imagery that challenges dominant ideas around black masculinity, gender, sexuality, and representation of black LGBTQ people in the United Kingdom. He is the co-founder of rukus! Federation and the rukus! Black L...

May 25, 20231 hr 9 minSeason 17Ep. 1

Emma Dabiri (Live at Dulwich Picture Gallery)

Bonus Live Episode!!! We meet Emma Dabiri, Irish author, academic, and broadcaster live at Dulwich Picture Gallery in South London to discuss Talk Art Book 2! Emma's debut book, Don't Touch My Hair , was published in 2019, followed by the Sunday Times Best Seller What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition in 2021. Her new book Disobedient Bodies will be published in Autumn. Emma Dabiri is a teaching fellow in the African department at SOAS, a Visual Sociology PhD researcher at Gol...

May 18, 20231 hr 5 minSeason 16Ep. 16

Dosa Cat (Talk Art Book 2 Launch Party)

TALK ART - THE PARTY!!!! In a first for the Podcast, we invite legendary DOSA CAT to take over the podcast during our official launch party at Shreeji News in London's Marylebone, in a glamorous, roving reporter styleeeee!!! Listen in to the wild launch party of Talk Art: The Interviews... OUR NEW BOOK! Conversations captured in this episode include Russell & Robert's MOTHERS - Carole and Judith!!! Artists Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Joy Yamusangie, Navot Miller, Lydia Pettit and Matilde Cerr...

May 16, 202346 minSeason 16Ep. 15

Alan Carr (Talk Art Book 2 exclusive interview)

TURNING THE TABLES ON TALK ART with ALAN CARR!!!! To celebrate the launch of the brand new Talk Art book 'The Interviews', Russell & Robert meet legendary broadcaster, stand-up comedian and writer ALAN CARR. Who better to chat with than the CHATTY MAN himself???!!! We discuss our new book Talk Art: The Interviews! That's right, it's TALK ART BOOK 2 release day!!! We are PUBLISHED AUTHORS! for a second time!! A huge THANK YOU to all the talented artists whose artworks are featured in the book...

May 10, 202354 minSeason 16Ep. 14

Hettie Judah (on How Not To Exclude Artist Mothers, Frida Kahlo and Art Criticism)

We meet Hettie Judah, chief art critic on the British daily paper The i , a regular contributor to The Guardian ’s arts pages, and a columnist for Apollo magazine. Following publication of her 2020 study on the impact of motherhood on artists’ careers, in 2021 she worked with a group of artists to draw up the manifesto How Not To Exclude Artist Parents , now available in 15 languages. She writes for Frieze , Art Quarterly , Art Monthly , ArtReview and other publications with 'art' in the title, ...

May 04, 20231 hr 9 minSeason 16Ep. 13
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android