In Talks With

Curator Romy Cockx talks to Danielle Radojcin about Man Ray’s journey from growing up as the son of working-class immigrants in Philadelphia to a towering giant of 20th Century image-making.

Man Ray was responsible for some of the most eye-catching photos of women in the 20th Century: Lee Miller’s floating lips, the glass tears of Kiki de Montparnasse, and portraits of fashion stars Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli to name but a few.

MoMu, the Fashion Museum in Antwerp, is currently running an exhibition showcasing Man Ray’s relationship with fashion, from his photo editorials for Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, to the gowns worn by some of the famous women who modelled them. Cockx talks about what influenced Man Ray, from Paul Poiret to Marcel Duchamp and the Marquis de Sade, and the designers he in turn has influenced, including Phoebe Philo and Martin Margiela.

Recommended links from Romy Cockx:

https://www.stockmansartbooks.be/nl/man-ray-and-fashion.html

https://www.momu.be/en/exhibitions/man-ray

Under Touria El Glaoui's guidance, the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair has become a flagship event in the art world, providing a platform for emerging and established artists from Africa and the diaspora to showcase their work. The fair has been held in major cities around the world, including London, Marrakech and New York, and has attracted a diverse audience of art enthusiasts, collectors, and curators.

Touria's visionary mindset extends far beyond the art world. Ahead of the latest New York edition of 1-54, Danielle Radojcin talks to her about pressing global issues such as restitution and climate change, highlighting the crucial role art plays in driving conversations and inspiring positive change. 

What makes a good art fair? In recent years, there has been an ever-growing number of them around the world, their size and number leading to complaints of disregard of environmental impact and general art fair fatigue. So, is it possible to make attending an art fair into a creatively fulfilling experience? Leading art advisor Nazy Vassegh addresses this with her boutique art fair, Eye of the Collector, located in the storied 2 Temple Place building in London. Nazy sees her mission as putting the art centre stage, placing established artists alongside emerging and overlooked ones, and enabling a voyage of discovery and experiential event for the culturally curious. She also gives her thoughts and advice on how to build an art collection and changing trends in art collecting. 

"What is it like to be a young artist growing up - what are your reference points and how do you take ownership and claim that history?” Taking inspiration from 1950s porn magazines, Lucian Freud and her grandfather, the young British artist Somaya Critchlow creates intimate paintings that reclaim ownership of the Black female nude.

Danielle visits The Lightbox, the regional contemporary art gallery in Surrey,  where recently-appointed director Sarah Brown  made the unconventional decision to showcase an exhibition of works by Lucian Freud alongside an adjacent exhibition, curated by the young British female artist, Somaya Critchlow. Running until the 19th March 2023, the Freud side of the exhibition features a range of portraits, nudes and photos, spanning the artist’s career; while the Soul as Sphere, which sits in the same room, is filled with works by Somaya’s grandfather, the artists and expert in sacred geometry Keith Critchlow, as well as pieces by his contemporaries such as Frank Auerback and Leon , and some by Somaya herself. The effect is highly complimentary and serves to afford the viewer the chance to look at Freud through a fresh - namely female and contemporary - lens. Speaking separately to both Sarah and Somaya, Danielle gets to hear about their motivations and inspirations behind the project. 

Image courtesy of the artist and Blau International. Photography: Lewis Ronald

This episode relates the fascinating life story of Cinzia Ruggeri, the artist and fashion designer whose free-spirited creativity saw her achieve extraordinary success during the 1970s and 80s, only for her to walk away, and, since her death, be largely forgotten by the wider creative community. 

Born in Milan in 1942 into an industrial manufacturing family, Cinzia Ruggeri studied applied arts in Milan, interned for the fashion label Carven in Paris, and worked at her father’s tailoring company before setting up on her own and designing successful menswear and womenswear collections throughout the 70s and 80s . Although her work was widely acclaimed and in demand, she became disillusioned with the commercial constraints of retail manufacturing and  left the world of fashion at the end of the 1980s to concentrate on her work as a product designer, and to teach and work on installations. 

Although she was never formally part of an artistic movement, she was closely connected with the radical design scene in Milan in the late 1970s and was an associate of The Memphis Group, the famous 80s design movement, a connection immediately evident if you look at her work. And the work does feel familiar, even if the artist behind it is not. Perhaps her most recognisable piece is an emerald green dress featuring a stepped zigurat, or zigzag line, along its edge a common motif in post-modern design of the 1980s, which is held in the permanent collection at the Victoria & albert museum.

She was one of the first designers to experiment with electronic technologies, incorporating liquid crystals, LED lights and kinetic movement into her garments and artworks. 

She died in 2019. 

See the Cinzia Says exhibition catalogue HERE. 

 In this episode, host Danielle Radojcin travels to East London to meet Hannah Starkey, the British photographer. Since she first came to prominence in the 90s, Starkey has built up an impressive body of work focusing on women and how they are represented. Born in Belfast in 1971, she studied photography and film at Edinburgh’s Napier University in the 90s and went on to study photography at the Royal College of Art in London. Today, her work can be found in major collections including the Tate and the Victoria & Albert Museum and In 2019 she was awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.

From autumn 2022 until the end of April 2023, the Hepworth Wakefield gallery in West Yorkshire presents the first major survey exhibition of Starkey’s work. 

In this episode, Radojcin and Starkey discuss Starkey's process and how she works with her subjects;  what she calls “the consumer gaze” and the tyranny of social media, porn and the fashion and beauty industries on young women; and the power of photography as a tool for communication. 

Episode photo: Jeff Moore