Ben Luke talks to Jacqueline Humphries about her influences—from writers to film-makers, musicians and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Humphries, born in 1960 in New Orleans, US, and now based in New York, is an artist who has pushed painting into new territories. She is mindful of the medium’s history but embraces technologies and explores their impact on this time-honoured discipline. Her practice, which now stretches across five decades from the late 1980s to today, is rigorous, irreverent and consistently surprising. She discusses the early influence of Édouard Manet and a late revelation about Caravaggio, key relationships with fellow painters like Charlene von Heyl, her admiration of The Fall’s Mark E. Smith, and her fascination with the video game Dwarf Fortress. Plus she answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: What is art for?Jacqueline Humphries, Modern Art, Helmet Row and Bury Street, London, until 22 July; We Smell Gas, Reena Spaulings, New York, until 25 June; From Andy Warhol to Kara Walker: Scenes from the Collection, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany, until 14 July; To Bend the Ear of the Outer World: Conversations on contemporary abstract painting, Gagosian, London, until 25 August. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to Gary Simmons about his influences—from musicians to writers, film-makers, and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Simmons, born in New York in 1964 and based in Los Angeles, is a significant figure in a generation of politically engaged, artistically ambitious US artists that emerged in the early 1990s. Gary explores the complexities of race and class through media including drawings on chalkboards, sculpture, installation, architectural environments and painting. He draws on diverse references, including from pop culture like cartoons and sports, to create works that address systemic and enduring prejudice and the nature of memory. Gary’s language is deeply personal and informed by his own experiences but also calls on imagery with collective, if unstable, meanings.Gary Simmons: Public Enemy, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 13 June-1 October, Pérez Art Museum Miami, 5 December-24 April 2024. Gary Simmons: This Must Be the Place, Hauser & Wirth, London, until 29 July. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In March this year, we went to Finsbury Park in London to the home of Phyllida Barlow to interview her for the A brush with… podcast. Tragically, Phyllida died just a few days later. So this conversation is a tribute to one of the most significant British artists of recent years. Ardently committed to sculpture and convinced of its special power, she was coruscatingly erudite and perceptive, yet also irreverent and suspicious of orthodoxies. This was evident in her combinations of simple materials such as wood, plaster and scrim, cement, paint and fabric in extraordinary sculptures and installations. She managed to achieve at once awkwardness and grace, humour and pathos, the grand and the intimate. Among much else, Phyllida discusses the morality imposed on sculpture in her art school days, the underacknowledged “dirty side of making” in Marcel Duchamp’s work, her admiration for Louise Nevelson and Eduardo Chillida, the writing of Fyodor Dostoevsky and the films of Robert Bresson. Plus she answers our usual questions, including a moving response to the ultimate question, “What is art for?”Phyllida Barlow, Chillida Leku, Hernani, near San Sebastian, Spain, until 22 October; The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Toronto, 8 September-4 February 2024. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to Alfredo Jaar about his influences—from writers to film-makers, musicians and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Jaar, who was born in 1956, in Santiago, Chile and has been based in New York since the early 1980s, addresses social injustice, human suffering, state-sponsored violence, and imbalances in power between the global north and south. He also explores how these issues are framed in the international media. He has responded to some of the most troubling moments in recent human history, from the military coup in his native Chile in 1973 and its aftermath, to the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s, to wars and covert operations waged by Western powers over multiple decades, and the relentless displacement of refugees across the world. He has done so through uncompromising, searing, yet often deeply moving installations in multiple media. Among much else, he discusses the profound influence of John Cage, Hans Haacke and Marcel Duchamp, his fascination with Pier Paolo Pasolini, a transformative experience watching Simone Forti, and the poetry of Ben Okri. Plus, he gives insight into his studio life, and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: “What is art for?”Alfredo Jaar: If It Concerns Us, It Concerns You, Goodman Gallery, London 18 April-24 May; Alfredo Jaar: 50 Years Later, Cecilia Brunson Projects, London, 19 April – 19 May 2023. One Million German Passports, Pinakothek del Moderne, Munich, 29 March-27 August; Alfredo exhibition for the 11th Hiroshima Art Prize at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan, 22 July-15 October, and an exhibition at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago, Chile, opens on 14 September. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to Marguerite Humeau about her influences—from writers to film-makers, musicians and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work.Humeau was born in 1986 in the French city of Cholet, near Nantes, and lives in London. She creates extraordinary sculptural environments in which the scientific and the speculative are fused. She acknowledges the perilous present state of the planet and the future of humanity while exploring histories of life on earth across millennia, drawing on mainstream and fringe scientific theory, science fiction and various cultural phenomena, to create dramatic tableaux that are hugely distinctive in their visual language and subject matter. She asks fundamental questions about the world we inhabit and the meaning of human existence. She discusses her early love of the painting of Marlene Dumas, her awe at the work of Pierre Huyghe and how Nina Simone is an ongoing role model. She also reflects on her fascination with Leonora Carrington and the musicians Angel Bat Dawid and Bendik Giske. Plus, she gives insight into her studio life and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: “What is art for?”Marguerite Humeau: meys, White Cube Bermondsey, London, until 14 May; Orisons, Black Cube, San Luis Valley, Colorado, 24 June-June 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to Mike Nelson about his influences—from the worlds of literature, film, music and, of course, art—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Nelson, born in 1967 in Loughborough in the UK, is one of the most significant British sculptors and installation artists of this century. He has spent the past three decades assembling materials gathered in junkyards, flea markets, online auctions, even street-corner fly tips into often labyrinthine sculptural environments. He creates distinctive spaces that suggest fictional (and often science-fictional) narratives, while alluding to diverse histories, obscure countercultural or political movements and current affairs as well as his own biography. He discusses the early influence of Graham Sutherland and Francis Bacon, his elation at discovering the work of Paul Thek, how fiction—and science-fiction writers like Stanislaw Lem, J.G. Ballard and the Strugatsky brothers—liberated his approach to art making, and the enduring influence of film-makers including Jean-Luc Godard and Sergei Parajanov.Mike Nelson: Extinction Beckons, Hayward Gallery, London, until 7 May. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first episode of this new series of A brush with… Ben Luke talks to Matthew Krishanu about his influences—including writers, composers, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work.Krishanu, who was born in 1980 in Bradford, UK, is one of Britain’s most distinctive painters. He draws on specific photographic images, including those of his family and his childhood in Bangladesh, yet his paintings are richly ambiguous, as he complicates his source material through emotion, memory, geopolitics, references to art history and literature, and the poetics of paint itself. He discusses the transformative experience of seeing Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work, the ongoing influence of El Greco, his response to the work of Gwen John and the art in the caves of Ajanta in India, and his oeuvre’s intimate connection with literature, film and music. Plus, he gives insight into his studio life and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Matthew Krishanu, Anomie Publishing, 196pp, £30/€35/$40 (hb). Out now in the UK and Europe, published 20 April in the US. Exhibitions: Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, 13 July-19 August; Tanya Leighton, Los Angeles, 11 November-11 December (tbc). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to Amy Sillman about her influences—including writers, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Sillman, who was born in 1955 in Detroit, Michigan, grew up in Chicago, and lives and works in New York, is one of the most brilliant and original painters working today. Her art is steeped in the history of painting, but manages to build on traditions while also taking an irreverent and playful approach to the medium’s time-honoured qualities: colour, line, scale, shape, figure and ground. She also pushes her painting into experimental territory through animated drawings and zines. Among a wealth of references, she discusses the early influence of Saul Steinberg, her passion for the work of artists as diverse as Prunella Clough, Maria Lassnig and Howard Hodgkin, and the enduring influence of Gertrude Stein and Fred Moten. She reflects on a life-changing trip to India and the diverse cultural landscape of late-1970s New York. Plus, she gives insight into her life in the studio and answers the ultimate question: what is art for?Amy Sillman: Temporary Object, Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples, from 26 April. Faux Pas: Selected Writings and Drawings, After 8 Books, 300pp, €20/£20/£24.95 (pb); amysillman.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to Joan Jonas about her influences—including those from the worlds of literature, film, music and, of course, art—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work.Jonas, who was born in 1936 in New York and still lives in the city today, is one of the most significant and pioneering artists in the history of video and performance. She draws inspiration from a wealth of cultures and traditions, alluding to everything from fairy tales to ancient myths, scientific study and art history, and brings them together in multidisciplinary installations involving live action, drawing, spoken word, music, sound and video. She discusses her early interest in Minoan culture and Renaissance depictions of space, life-changing visits to Japan and Iceland, and writers as diverse as Jorge Luis Borges, Halldór Laxness, and Susan Howe. Plus, she gives insights into her studio life and has a stirring answer to the ultimate question: what is art for?Joan Jonas: Moving off the Land, Walther König, 272 pp, €25. Drawing in Circles, with Eiko Otake, Castelli Gallery, New York, 14 March-1 April; Joan Jonas, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany, until 26 February. Joan Jonas, Dia Art Foundation, Beacon, NY, US, until 13 March. Her retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, opens in spring 2024 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Luke talks to Haroon Mirza about his influences—from writers to composers and musicians, film-makers and, of course, artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Mirza, born in London in 1977, creates installations using sound, light, objects and video. These complex and evolving experiences immerse the viewer in varied sensory phenomena while building fascinating connections between their materials, formally and in the meanings they produce. He reflects on his early interest in Salvador Dalí’s sense of space and time; the impact of seeing the exhibition Sensation in 1997 at the Royal Academy in London; the relationship between science and science fiction; and the complex process of translating ideas from his head to a practical language. We gain insight into Mirza’s studio life and daily rituals and he answers the ultimate question: what is art for?Haroon Mirza, Lisson Gallery, London, 24 February-8 April. You can listen to Haroon’s Modular Opera EP at haroonmirza.bandcamp.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.