Interviews
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Chris Martin: ‘When you’re outside, you can have a truly gigantic studio’
New York City-based artist Chris Martin, whose works were recently on show at the Anton Kern Gallery, talks about painting outside in the woods in Walton, how he gets his inspiration, and why he loves glitter so much
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Franklin Sirmans: ‘You should be able to smell, hear and taste New Orleans’
Franklin Sirmans, artistic director of the New Orleans biennial Prospect.3: Notes for Now, on the books and films that influenced his choices, and moving on from being a post-Hurricane Katrina show
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Faig Ahmed: ‘Collision of old and new is one of the concepts in my works’
The Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed talks about his exhibition Fluid Forms, how he reinterprets the process of carpet-making, and the fact that traditional weavers were not happy producing carpets with gaping holes
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Roxy Paine interview: ‘The best ideas come out of long gestation’
Roxy Paine’s Checkpoint is the latest of his meticulously crafted dioramas. He talks about how he fuses industry and nature in his work and why, despite the vast scale of some of his pieces, he still makes everything by hand
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Marni Kotak interview: ‘I wanted to have my son’s birth as a performance’
US artist Marni Kotak talks about her performance of everyday events in real life as way to raise awareness of self-destructive emotions that ruin women’s lives and often go unnoticed
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Hayal Pozanti interview: ‘Materials and processes are pushing the boundaries of what constitutes a painting physically’
Hayal Pozanti interview: ‘Materials and processes are pushing the boundaries of what constitutes a painting physically’
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E.V. Day interview: ‘I stiffened 200 thongs to look like jet fighters and strung them in the atrium of Philip Morris’s. That would not have happened in the 70s.’
Best-known for her 3D installations, artist E.V. Day talks about using Barbie dolls, ripped clothing, skulls, monofilament and light to explore sexuality and feminism, and why she’s glad the humour shows in her work
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Piotr Uklański interview: ‘I think of death all the time’
The New York-based Polish artist Piotr Uklański talks about the influence of the second world war on his work, dealing with death as a subject, and his eternal pessimism
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Christian Thompson interview: ‘My work does not need to be read through the optical lens of my race’
Janet McKenzie: Christian, you were born in South Australia, travelled extensively with your family while growing up, but consider your home to be in Queensland, where your great-great-great-grandfather was a senior tribesman of the Bidjara people. Can you describe your…
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Nathaniel Prottas interview: ‘Often museum didactics get in the way of people viewing art’
Nathaniel Prottas, director of education at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York, talks about public programming for its current exhibition, which traces the history of printmaking, through works by Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo and…
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Michelle Grabner interview: ‘My family is an important part of my life as an artist’
American conceptual artist Michelle Grabner talks about how she combines her roles as artist, curator, teacher and writer, the importance of her family to her art, and why she stays rooted in the Midwest
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Peter Sacks interview: ‘Every painting has its own secret story’
Peter Sacks, a South African expatriate, has a biography that is as rich and varied as the art he practises. Having left his native country at a young age and gone on to become a recognised poet with tenure at…
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John Keane interview: ‘Art shouldn’t be sensationalist, but at the same time it shouldn’t flinch from addressing difficult questions’
John Keane, artist in residence at the University of St Andrews, talks about the political influences behind his painting and his views on the relationship between art, performance and politics
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Natalia Kolodzei interview: ‘My dream is that every American museum has a small collection of Russian art’
Natalia Kolodzei, executive director of the Kolodzei Art Foundation, talks about her family collection of Soviet and Russian art, begun in the 1960s when Nikita Khrushchev’s leadership of the Soviet Union led to slightly more freedom for artists
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Glenn Adamson interview: ‘Webb saw clearly that human connection was the real value to be found in the handmade’
As New York’s Museum of Arts and Design celebrates its founder, Aileen Osborn Webb, with a superb array of 100 objects, including some made by Webb herself, MAD’s director, Glenn Adamson, talks about this indomitable pioneer of foundational craft organisations…
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Ed Fornieles interview: ‘If you want access to the site, it’s a trade of your photos or data’
For his show at the Chisenhale Gallery, Ed Fornieles has created a suburban Los Angeles television set with a twist. Titled Modern Family, the exhibition explores how contemporary identities are shaped by our online existences
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Zarouhie Abdalian interview: ‘It’s important for work to be challenging and perhaps even difficult’
A Will Brown: Zarouhie, can you give a brief summary of what you are working on and what shows you have coming up? ZarouhieAbdalian: At the moment, I’m focusing on a couple of projects: next up is a site-responsive outdoor…
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Richard Demarco interview: ‘The art world, like the Edinburgh festival itself, is in danger of being identified with the world of entertainment and leisure’
Richard Demarco has organised exhibitions and theatre events for the Edinburgh festival since 1963. He talks about his memories of the very first festival in 1947, bringing Joseph Beuys to Scotland, his own work as an artist and the Demarco…
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GW Bot interview: ‘Living and working in Australia has meant coming to terms with the country in one’s own way’
The signs and symbols that have developed in Bot’s work, which she calls “glyphs”, form a calligraphic language, from which she creates a visual poetry. Her work was included in the Royal Academy’s exhibition Australia in 2013.
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DALeast interview: ‘I’m constantly thinking about creating something more than the eye can see’
The Laten Photon Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York 4 September – 4 October 2014
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Anne Graham interview: ‘The ability to see things as if for the first time is for me the essential quality necessary to make art’
Anne Graham William Wright Artist Projects, Sydney 28 August – 13 September 2014
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Deb Covell interview: ‘I want to show how far painting can be pushed’
Deb Covell (b1966) is a painter who seeks to celebrate the material qualities of paint. Rejecting pictorial imagery, she also eschews the traditional canvas support, producing paintings that hang from walls like drapes or lie folded and crumpled on the…
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Nico van der Endt interview: ‘Willem van Genk was a visionary, a man discovering a universal truth about the human species’
Willem van Genk, one of the most fascinating outsider artists, is featured in a new exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum. Studio International talks with his longtime dealer, Nico van der Endt, for a personal view of the artist
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Mwangi Hutter interview: ‘we are interested in personal and universal responsibility’
Berlin and Nairobi-based artist duo Mwangi Hutter talk about their work as a collaborative, how they work through ideas and some past and forthcoming projects
