Films — Culture

Miami was all washed-up but then a new breed of art galleries and a boatload of art collections sailed in, aided by the fair winds of Art Basel's Miami fair and the lure of the tropics. Monocle's culture editor finds out how this big, bad city turned into a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed art town.

Since 2008, Prix Pictet has championed and rewarded photojournalists and photographic artists who shed light on environmental issues. Monocle films takes a look at this year's exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London.

Art is about more than just a nice painting – it can be a tool for understanding the many brushstrokes of life. So says philosopher Alain de Botton, who's co-curating a new exhibition in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam called Art is Therapy. Monocle's Robert Bound met De Botton in the Rijksmuseum to learn more about his artistic treatment.

There is a weight of passion, wit, intellect and fun to be found on Italy's screens, in its speakers and in its print. Monocle delves into the quirks of the country's news and entertainment, and finds the best of its leaders and merchants.

Punctual? Rigorous? Romantic? What does it mean to be typically German? Rolf Sachs, a half-German, half-French artist and designer with a wry eye and a scarf made from dusters, explores the clichés that form his notion of a nation in a new exhibition at MAKK, Köln's Museum of Applied Arts. Culture editor Robert Bound went along to sort the ‘schadenfreude' from the 'sehnsucht'.

The Arctic has inspired the world for centuries with tales of adventure and exploration. Monocle heads to Denmark to see the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art’s current exhibition, Arctic, that seeks out the past and present of this mythic place.

Learning from a master is a privilege in any sphere. To nurture ideas for the arts, Rolex’s Mentor & Protégé initiative has been teaming world-leading practitioners with promising prodigies around the globe. Monocle's culture editor, Robert Bound, recently hopped to Venice to learn more about this year’s programme.

Locarno is the romantic heart of the film festival circuit. Monocle put a rose in its buttonhole and sat in its own director's chair on the shores of Lake Maggiore to assess the aesthetic and commercial importance of the festival on it's 66th birthday.

We head to Hollywood to shoot the world's most celebrated photographic art fair, this year taking place for the first time at Paramount Pictures Studios in LA.