A brush with...

Ben Luke talks to the US-based artist about his influences and life-changing cultural experiences. They discuss his public sculpture in Margate, April Is the Cruellest Month, with its nods to TS Eliot and Siegfried Sassoon. They reflect on his fusing of his autobiography—and particularly the influence of his mother’s Iraqi Jewish family—with global geopolitics and the legacies of colonialism. They discuss his earliest influences and the contemporary artists, writers and musicians that most inspire him. And, as with all the guests on the A brush with... podcast, he answers the ultimate question: what is art for? This episode is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to the Seoul-born, London-based artist Do Ho Suh about his influences and life-changing cultural experiences. They discuss his recreations of his various homes in coloured fabric and how his early work in South Korea has been ignored by curators and critics. Do Ho reveals that, influenced by a painting of fish and shellfish in his family home, he wanted to be a marine biologist, and that he only switched to art when he realised his maths was not good enough. He reflects on the influence of the Chinese artists Qi Baishi and Bada Shanren and discusses the contemporary artists he admires, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres to Rachel Whiteread. And, as with all the guests on the A brush with... podcast, he names the writers and musicians he admires, ponders his studio rituals and answers the ultimate question: what is art for? This episode is sponsored by Cork Street Galleries. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to Doris Salcedo about her life and work through the artists she most admires, the writers she returns to and the music she listens to. She recalls her epiphany when confronted with the works of Francisco de Goya, and how his empathy with the victims of war and violence prompted her own aim to give voice to the voiceless in the Colombian civil war and beyond. She talks about the influence of Paul Celan's poetry, which she quotes directly in her Unland series. She describes how Joseph Beuys's public sculpture gave her an example of a sensitivity to place that she has employed in her many memorable public works. Plus she reveals a secret to her studio life that she has never shown in public and answers our usual questions: if you could live with just one work of art, what would it be? And what is art for? This episode is sponsored by Cork Street Galleries. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As he prepares for a two-part exhibition in Florence, the Tehran-born, Brooklyn-based artist discusses his life and work through the cultural epiphanies and influences that have shaped him. He talks about drawing in the basement of his family home as the Iran-Iraq war raged around him as a child and how visiting the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy prompted a turning point in his work. He talks about the auditory-visual synaesthesia that means he hears and feels the paintings as he creates them. He recalls life-changing encounters with Michelangelo and Hieronymus Bosch, reflects on his love of epic poetry and Sufi verse, and discusses the music he listens to as he works. And, of course, he answers those tricky questions that close all the A brush with... interviews: if you could live with just one work of art, what would it be? And what is art for? This episode is sponsored by Cork Street Galleries. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As her retrospective opens at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Ethiopian-born, New York-based artist Julie Mehretu talks in depth about her life and work. She discusses the rich language she uses in her paintings, drawing on geopolitical subject matter but pushing towards abstraction. She talks about the influence of contemporary artists like David Hammons, Kara Walker and Glenn Ligon, her collaboration with the British artist Tacita Dean, how Rembrandt made his mark on her as a child and the way she uses news photography as the basis for her most recent works. She talks about her literary influences, from Toni Morrison to Chris Abani, on the music she listens to in her studio, from Sun Ra to Joan Armatrading, and her fruitful collaborations with the jazz pianist Jason Moran and the theatre and opera director Peter Sellars. Among much else, she also talks about the cultural experience that changed the way she sees the world, the one work of art she would choose to live with, and answers our ultimate question: what is art for? This episode is sponsored by Cork Street Galleries. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the last of the present series, Ben Luke talks to Tala Madani, the Tehran-born, Los Angeles-based artist, about the influences and cultural experiences behind her remarkable paintings and animations. She talks about art's role in shaping her experience in the US after she had moved to Oregon from Tehran as a teenager, about the early influence of Francis Bacon, and about a range of artists she continues to think about today, from Giorgio de Chirico to Lee Lozano and Paul McCarthy. As always on A brush with... Tala is asked about the literature and music that have played key roles in her life, and reflects on the influence of Iranian poetry, her enduring fascination with Stanisław Lem's Solaris, her love of Miles Davis and Léo Ferré and about how "sometimes I need to go to Iran, in my brain, and I listen to music that emotionally puts me in Iran". Plus, she answers the other questions we ask all our guests, about studio rituals, the one artwork they would want to live with and, ultimately, what art is for. This episode is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to Charles Gaines, one of the key figures in American conceptual art, about his influences and cultural experiences and how they have affected his life and work. Gaines discusses the impact of visiting the Metropolitan Museum's collection of African art during a period in which he "completely rethought who I was, not only as a person but as a Black person in America". He talks about the early influence of Magritte and Matisse. He discusses the impact of writers and activists like Edward Said and Frantz Fanon. He enthuses about jazz (he is jazz drummer himself) including Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, and classical music, including Beethoven and Bruckner. And he answers our usual questions, including those about his daily studio rituals and the one work of art he would want to live with. This episode is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Ben Luke interviews the Danish artist Tal R about his influences and cultural experiences. In this in-depth conversation, the painter and sculptor discusses his early love of art and frustration with art school, the unlikely ritual that keeps his art fresh, and why pursuing mystery is perilous for an artist. He talks about the writers and music that he returns to, and discusses painters including Georges Rouault, Marsden Hartley and Alfred Wallis. Plus, he answers our usual questions, including which cultural experience changed the way he sees the world, what work of art he would most want to live with, and what he thinks art is for. This episode is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to Tracey Rose about how her influences and cultural experiences have affected her life and work. Among other things, she talks about her education as the only Black child in a catholic school in South Africa and her performances in which she explored gender and race, pushing her body to extremes. She talks about the seismic effect of seeing international contemporary art after the end of Apartheid, about how Duchamp is the most "African" artist in the Modernist canon, and how exploring her ancestry has led her to research the East African slave trade and the earliest forms of human creativity. Plus, she answers the questions we ask all our guests, including: if you could live with just one work of art, what would it be? And what is art for? This episode is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to Rachel Whiteread about how her influences and cultural experiences have affected her life and work. Among other things, she talks about the influence of her parents on her work; the enduring power of Piero della Francesca; the seismic effect of seeing Bruce Nauman's art; how poetry informs her sculpture; and she recalls memorable trips to Egypt and the Soviet Union. Plus, she answers the questions we ask all our guests, including: if you could live with just one work of art, what would it be? And what is art for? This episode is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.