A vast, complex map of our present moment. It wasn't just a collection of art; it was a conversation, sometimes hushed, sometimes resonant, about where we are, what we value, and the stories that shape us. Walking through the halls, one could sense the intricate connections between artists, their materials, and the larger human experience. It's a place where significant ideas find form, inviting us to look closer, to think, and to feel.
Can silence be painted? How can artists capture interior states, solitude, and the passing of time? How are the homes we live in a reflection of the people who inhabit them? How can we read a painting to piece together the life of the artist?
Artist MIA FUNK discusses her Creative Process
I feel my paintings are shaped by my life and the people I’ve met along the way. We’re all part of the same human story. And I’ve always loved learning and sharing with others. And hopefully, you can see echoes of this in the art. I love to dance. And try to write every day.
I grew up in an artistic community and like to blur the boundaries between disciplines because I believe that’s where creative ideas arise. These conversations have helped shape me. I’ve always been drawn to art that begins a dialogue. I want to express what I see and feel and share what others know about the world.
At the end of the day, for me, it’s about the search. How do we stay open and curious? And I believe that remains one of our great challenges. How do we hold on to that sense of wonder and remember that we live in a miracle that we are a part of, and that we have the ability to either nurture or destroy? And so many people that I’ve had the chance to speak with have held on to that sense of wonder, and what can be achieved individually and collectively with the life we’re given. You can hear it in their voices. You can see it in the projects they create and the way they inspire others. Somehow, they’ve managed to remain curious, which is at the heart of the creative process.
Kingdom of Cats
How do we, as humans, balance our biological necessities and the inorganic industry we have created? How do we reckon with our animal natures and our intricate consciousnesses?
A Conversation with Artist DELPHINE LEBOURGEOIS
Nature was very much part of my upbringing. I spent most of my teenage years exploring the surroundings of my grand-paren’s house in rural Auvergne. A few years ago, I did an installation where I placed large cardboard cutouts of my Amazonians in a remote forest in France. The installation was hidden, away from touristic trails and not signed posted. I wanted passers by to see it by chance rather than people searching for it. The cut outs were made from recycled cardboard so extremely fragile and prone to quick degradation. The project had to be ecological and ephemeral.
Art about nature or in nature holds a particular place for me. I remember loving “My Back to Nature” the exhibition by George Shaw at the National Gallery in London, and more recently got the same awe whilst visiting “Light into Life” by Mark Quinn at Kew Gardens.
Sustainability is important but paradoxically beauty is everywhere… in decay, in a plastic bag stuck in a tree, even in garbage. This is why I liked George Shaw’s exhibition so much. He painted woodlands with traces that humans have left behind. Dirty mattresses, soiled duvets hanging from branches. His mastery as a painter made the objects nearly sacred. I don’t think art should be sanitised.
A Conversation with Artist ISCA GREENFIELD-SANDERS
Traditionally, landscape painting has played up man’s insignificance as it compares to nature. Today, the extraordinary effect humans have had on climate and the landscape has swapped that dynamic, casting us as the danger. That is a massive shift. When I started to learn art history, I connected deeply with the notion of the sublime. I was especially moved by Turner’s landscapes. When I was 11, my family got caught in a lightning storm on the beach in Miami. It was scary but incredibly beautiful, like being inside a painting by Constable, Turner, or Homer.
The Soul Trembles
The exhibition at the Grand Palais offers visitors a poetic immersion into her unique universe, where threads weave stories of human connection and the ephemeral nature of life. The visitor is taken on a journey into an ephemeral world where they are posed fundamental questions about life and death. The threads you follow are up to you, and each visitor must answer that question for themselves. Where are we going? Are you ready for the journey? What is a soul? What do you believe? Why did you go on this journey? What gives your life meaning?
CELIA PAUL at Victoria Miro Gallery, London
March 14th to April 17, 2025
My young self and I— we are the same person. I can stretch out my old hand— with its age spots— and hold my young unblemished hand.
What is ugliness? What is beauty? How has our conception of beauty changed over the years? How do traditional notions of beauty inform our ideas about ugliness?
Just some of the questions raised by the exhibition On Ugliness at Skarstedt Gallery in London featuring George Condo, Nicole Eisenman, Jameson Green, Martin Kippenberger, Barbara Kruger, Jacob de Litemont, Pablo Picasso, Stefan Rinck, Pensionante del Saraceni, Cindy Sherman, Thomas Schütte and several unknown artists living in the Middle Ages.
Pierre Huyghe’s Variants (2021—) does not occupy space; it perpetuates it. The work takes as its foundation a complete 3D scan and model of a small island at the bend of the Randselva River in Norway. Biologists and surveyors then furnished this model with quantitative and qualitative measurements of the island’s organic and inorganic elements, such as the types of species, the water levels, the trash, and the sounds and smells. Biochemical and physical sensors are installed around the island to track the shifts in the island’s environment and funnel them into an artificial neural network, which generates from all collected data a continuously evolving and mutating simulation of the island, unfolding in real time on the large LED screen at the far end of the island.
“Once you leave the traditional constraints of anatomy behind, the way you deform can become a portrait of character or the inner psyche on a deeper level. This play with the human form marked the beginning of something new.” Renowned Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie is currently presenting two exhibitions at the Albertina and the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett. Working with a variety of materials and subjects, Ghenie explores the personal, the political, and the art historical, fusing these discourses into expressive abstract and figurative works of art across multiple mediums.
Artist
What are you trying to do with a portrait? On a basic level, you're trying to communicate something about the essence of who someone is. You're trying to figure out who they are, not necessarily who they present themselves as. The two things can quite often be different. You're trying to find ways of showing that through their face, their posture, or any other context. My instinct is always to try to reduce down to the essential elements. We read faces. It's obviously very, very deep in our DNA, really our survival instinct. We are programmed to read faces in a very fine-tuned way.
Can silence be painted? How can artists capture interior states, solitude, and the passing of time? How are the homes we live in a reflection of the people who inhabit them? How can we read a painting to piece together the life of the artist?
The Creative Process: Podcast Interviews & Portraits of the World’s Leading Authors & Creative Thinkers
Inspiring Students – Encouraging Reading - Connecting through Stories
The Creative Process exhibition is traveling to universities and museums. The Creative Process exhibition consists of interviews with over 100 esteemed writers, including Joyce Carol Oates, Hilary Mantel, Neil Gaiman, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Tobias Wolff, Richard Ford, Junot Díaz, Marie Darrieussecq, Michel Faber, T.C. Boyle, Jay McInerney, George Saunders, Geoff Dyer, Etgar Keret, Douglas Kennedy, Sam Lipsyte, and Yiyun Li, among others. Artist and interviewer: Mia Funk.
