Talk Art

Russell and Robert meet leading artist Jordan Casteel who has rooted her practice in community engagement, painting from her own photographs of people she encounters. Posing her subjects within their natural environments, her nearly life-size portraits and cropped “subway” compositions chronicle personal observations of the human experience.In February 2020, Casteel opened a major solo exhibition 'Within Reach', curated by Massimiliano Gioni, at the New Museum. Bringing together nearly forty paintings spanning her career, including works from her celebrated series Visible Man (2013–14) and Nights in Harlem (2017), along with recent portraits of her students at Rutgers University, where she is an Assistant Professor of Painting.Special thanks to Jordan for this enlightening conversation and to Veronica Levitt & the team at Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York for invaluable assistance and support. Follow @JordanMCasteel on Instagram. Further images can be found @CaseyKaplanGallery, @NewMuseum and of course our own @TalkArt page. We are also on Twitter @TalkArtPodcast. Thanks for listening!!!! http://www.jordancasteel.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russell and Robert chat to music legend & flamboyant superstar Sir Elton John CBE from lockdown at his home in Los Angeles. We discuss art collecting, a lifelong obsession that began by collecting dinky toys and vinyl records during childhood, buying Man Ray posters at Athena when he first started songwriting with Bernie Taupin, why he started his photography collection in the early 1990s, what it was like to be photographed by Irving Penn, why he just missed out on getting his portrait taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, his friendships with contemporary artists such as Nathaniel Mary Quinn and Catherine Opie, his admiration for David Hockney, and why he & John Lennon once refused to answer the door to Andy Warhol!!! We discuss his love of glass, a preference for all-things analogue, his love of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, staging the groundbreaking exhibition 'The Radical Eye' at Tate Modern (that included photographs from the 1920s to the 1950s) and his hopes to stage further exhibitions at the V&A (where a gallery was recently named after Elton and husband David Furnish). We also discover his lockdown passion for jigsaw puzzles, playing Snakes & Ladders with his kids, and joyful binge-watching TV shows such as Fleabag and Pose!Follow @EltonJohn on Instagram, Elton's website is: https://www.eltonjohn.comPlease visit @EJAF for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and website: http://ejaf.orgFor all images discussed in today’s episode visit @TalkArt and we are also on Twitter @TalkArtPodcast. Special thanks to Elton, David Furnish and the Rocket team for making this interview possible. Thanks for listening!!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russell and Robert meet British artist Somaya Critchlow whose figurative paintings of women explore facets of race, sex and culture. Working mostly on a small scale, her works depict bold, curvaceous and self-possessed female characters, of her own creation, that simultaneously combine and subvert the culture expectations of race, gender and power in the history of portraiture. They are self-reflective and personal, and at the same time commentary of the cultural, class and political dynamics of contemporary society.We discuss the bringing together of pop culture influences including 'Love and Hip Hop', Cardi B, Lil' Kim, Nicki Minaj with artistic influences of Rubens, Renaissance masters and European miniatures. We explore her alienation from the art history she studied growing up and the lack of representation, tying in autobiographical references in her new works, her response to the death and problematic life of rapper XXXTentacion, the paintings of Lisa Yuskavage, Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, Lucy Stein, cartoonist Robert Crumb, architect Carlo Mollino and filmmaker David Lynch. We discuss the appeal of 1960s-70s style, kitsch, vintage erotica, life-drawing and the writing of Angela Carter including her feminist reappraisal of the Marquis de Sade’s books. We also chat about the more recent movement to openly discuss body image, sexuality and representation in the mainstream including writer/documentary maker Chidera Eggerue and Instagram community iWeigh.Somaya’s forthcoming solo exhibition ‘Underneath a Bebop Moon’ will be at Maximillian William, London. Follow @SomayaCritchlow on Instagram or @Maximillian_William. https://maximillianwilliam.com/somaya-critchlow/For all images discussed in today’s episode visit @TalkArt and we are also on Twitter @TalkArtPodcast. Thanks for listening!!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ladies and Gentleman, the category is TALK ART!!!! Russell and Robert chat to superstar Billy Porter, the leading actor, singer, writer, fashion icon and star of award-winning TV show POSE. We chat about the lockdown closure of Broadway and New York's theatres, losing two friends to the Coronavirus pandemic, his appreciation for Lady Gaga, Erykah Badu, Boy George and Madonna, writing new music and a recent conversation with Salma Hayek that helped him realise that he makes & lives performance art! We explore his show-stopping red carpet outfits designed by Christian Siriano, Rick Owens and The Blonds (the fashion duo behind his iconic gold-winged look at the Met Gala 2019), we learn about his childhood singing in the church, discovering his muscular singing voice and his journey to winning both a Tony and a Grammy award for his lead role in Kinky Boots musical. Plus we hear all about the exciting beginnings of his art collection by discovering artists whilst travelling in Cuba, his admiration for the art of Kara Walker, Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley, painting diptych he commissioned inspired by his favourite play 'Angels in America', his passion for the Whitney Museum in New York and his love of European architecture including the Royal Academy in London and Gaudi's buildings in Barcelona. Follow @TheeBillyPorter on Instagram, you can watch POSE television series on BBC and FX, @PoseOnFX. For images discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt and we are also now on Twitter @TalkArtPodcast. Thanks for listening!!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russell and Robert meet artist Doron Langberg, an Israeli-born, Brooklyn-based painter. Langberg paints in the style of genre painting and portraiture, addressing issues of gender and sexuality creating a shared experience of love and desire through the surface and subjects of his paintings. Langberg paints large-scale portraits of family, close friends and lovers. These visualizations of queerness—both his own and those of the many queer subjects depicted—move beyond the traditional shorthand of signs and easily recognizable queer iconographies. Instead, Langberg contextualizes queer sexuality and intimacy within larger narratives of everyday life. Follow @DoronLangberg on Instagram and Yossi Milo Gallery @YossiMilo. For all images discussed today visit @TalkArt and check out our new Twitter is @TalkArtPodcast Thanks for listening!!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russell and Robert return for Season 5! Recorded primarily during quarantine lockdown, we’ve reached out to international creative guests from art, design, music, sport, fashion, TV and film. Every Tuesday & Friday (yes, twice a week!) we will bring you voices that inspire us and that we hope will inspire you too. These are unprecedented, scary, challenging and deeply sad times. We strongly believe in art and in its power to unify, to resonate, to bring hope through adversity, to offer encouragement but most of all to shine light in the darkest of moments.For episode 1 of Talk Art's QuarARTine series, Russell and Robert chat with legendary singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright from his home in Los Angeles.We discuss his iconic song ‘The Art Teacher’, his love of Whistler and John Singer Sargent’s paintings, his childhood passion for making zines and his baroque alter ego Bella von Herzgold. We hear about the time Rufus met legendary artist Erté in late 1980s New York, the influence of Aubrey Beardsley, Mucha's posters and Art Nouveau. We explore the realist paintings of Andrew Wyeth, his husband Jorn’s love of art and friendships with curator Klaus Biesenbach & artist Marina Abramović, visiting the Venice Biennale, and living with artworks by Timothy Cummings, Jonathan Meese, Clementine Hunter, Robert Wilson and even an iconic Andy Warhol polaroid of Grace Jones! We explore the psychology behind composing & developing characters for his recent opera’s 'Prima Donna' and 'Hadrian' and he reminisces about a travelling exhibition of art from the Russian Hermitage museum that made a big impact in his youth and New York afternoons hanging out with performance icons Penny Arcade, Jack Smith and Quentin Crisp. Follow @RufusWainwright and be sure to watch Rufus' daily 'Quarantunes/Robe Recitals' live performances streaming free via his Instagram. Pre-order Rufus' new album 'Unfollow The Rules' out from 10th July 2020. Lead single 'Damsel in Distress' is available now with a stunning animated video created from Rufus' own drawings!! www.RufusWainwright.com For images of all artworks discussed in this episode, visit us @TalkArt on IG or @TalkArtPodcast on Twitter. Thanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robert & Russell meet Mark Gatiss, the influential British actor, screenwriter, director and novelist. We discuss Mark's recent BBC4 art documentary 'John Minton: The Lost Man of British Art', celebrating the life and work of the highly prolific and successful 20th century English artist whose work is now all but forgotten. A contemporary of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, Minton suffered psychological problems, self-medicated with alcohol, and in 1957 died by suicide. We chat in depth about Mark's forthcoming documentary on the life of illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, a peer of Oscar Wilde, whose black ink drawings revealed the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. We explore Mark's own passion for drawing and painting portraits, the psychology behind The League of Gentlemen, his admiration for Alan Bennett, and how he came to write the series of 8 monologues ‘Queers’ in response to the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act. This episode was recorded in early January 2020.Follow @TalkArt on Instagram for images of all artworks discussed in this episode! Follow @MarkGatiss on Twitter, and check out @TalkArtPodcast, our new Twitter.Thanks for listening to Season 4! We will be back NEXT WEEK with the all new Season 5 'Talk Art: QuarARTine' series, recorded remotely from the global lockdown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russell & Robert meet leading British photographer Alasdair McLellan. World-renowned for his sensitive approach to photography across fashion, portraiture, landscape or documentary, his work embraces references high and low, classical and pop, and continues to reflect contemporary conversations around gender, sexuality and identity. McLellan’s photography has been exhibited at the ICA, Somerset House, National Portrait Gallery and Phillips. We discuss the British male nude, his recurrent photography of Yorkshire hometown Doncaster, a longterm collaboration with skateboarder/artist Blondey McCoy and striking front-cover portraits for The Gentlewoman of subjects as varied as Margaret Atwood, Beyoncé, Julia Davis, Vivienne Westwood and Björk. We explore his admiration for the photography of Tom Wood, Corinne Day, Herb Ritts and Nigel Shafran, the music & album sleeves of bands including The Smiths and Pet Shop Boys, and artists Mark Leckey, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gilbert & George and Jeremy Deller. We discuss shooting the album cover for Adele's iconic album '25', whilst Russell recalls the experience of being photographed himself by McLellan almost a decade ago... plus one of Russell's favourite subjects Joey Essex! In 2016/17 he directed three celebrated music videos for The xx. He has published numerous books including Ultimate Clothing Company (2013), Ceremony (2016), The Palace (2016) and Blondey 15-21 (2019). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robert & Russell meet the one-and-only legend that is Princess Julia!!!! We discuss her endless creativity across different worlds of music, fashion and art, life-drawing and her weekly trip to ‘Sketch Sesh’, her friendship with DJ Jeffry Hinton, and how she started DJing herself at queer spaces in London. We find out what it’s like to be photographed by Wolfgang Tillmans, her memories of being the coat check girl at Blitz & Taboo nightclubs, Leigh Bowery, Boy George, Jordan (a Malcolm McLaren protégé who featured in Derek Jarman’s film Jubilee) and the long lasting influence & legacy of that era. We discuss being shy, her love for Old Master paintings, emerging artists like Richard Porter and Lydia Blakley, her passion for Fashion East, modelling for Kylie Minogue, our mutual admiration for Pet Shop Boys plus her favourite performance artists including David Hoyle, Justin Vivian Bond and Christeene!! Finally discover how Robert first met Julia almost 20 years ago at the early 2000s clubs Kashpoint, Nag Nag Nag and Electrogogo resulting in a duet for Rob’s then electropop-band Temposhark. Follow @HRHPrincessJulia on Instagram and @TalkArt for photos of artworks discussed in this episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russell & Robert meet British artist Ima-Abasi Okon. Ima's current solo exhibition is at VOID, Derry~Londonderry and runs until 25th April 2020. This episode was recorded in July 2019 during an earlier iteration of Ima's solo exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery, London. Ima works with sculpture, sound and video to produce installations that explore exhibition-making as an exercise in syntax, adopting linguistic and grammatical structures within her installations as a way of complicating the construction of knowledge. For the VOID iteration of the commission, a series of industrial air conditioners are adapted to become hosts for a new multi-channel sound piece comprising an existing audio track that has been slowed down. Acting as both a cooling system for the gallery and as a vehicle for the sound work, the fans perform at various speeds and durations. In another gallery the ceiling has been partially lowered using a standardised modular system, often found within offices, retail spaces, waiting rooms and other administrative environments. The mass-produced ceiling tiles have been smeared with an invisible mixture of morphine, insulin, ultrasound gel and gold, imbuing the otherwise everyday objects with a personal, totemic charge. Hand-crafted glass light shades, each adorned with an opulent design and filled with palm oil and Courvoisier VS Cognac, hang from the ceiling. With the introduction of these liquids, the lights emit a golden glow, further highlighting an atmospheric friction between Okon's production processes, pointing to the possibilities of magic as a sculptural act. Okon's ongoing use of oriented strand board, painted with varnish and framed with 'exotic woods' further explore how value is assigned to a given object or material through its categorisation, modes of display and origin. Ima-Abasi Okon is currently participating in the residency programme at Rijksakademie Academy for fine arts, Amsterdam. For more about Ima’s work please visit http://www.imaokon.co.uk or follow @i_a_okon. For exhibition images: @DerryVoid and @ChisenhaleGallery. Special thanks to Polly Staple & Ellen Greig at Chisenhale and Mary Cremin & Tansy Cowley at VOID. Finally, THANK YOU for listening! We love to hear your feedback. @talkart Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.