Kevin Kirkwood chopped it up with David Clifton-Strawn, an Atlanta based fine-art photographer. David focuses his practice on exploring the traditional art of portraiture through a contemporary queer lens. 

Clifton-Strawn's work is represented by Alan Avery Art Company and has been exhibited across the United States, Canada and Europe. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and several private collections. He was the recipient of the 2022-23 City of Atlanta Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs Emerging Artist Award in photography. He currently serves as the Executive Director for the Atlanta Photography Group.

The Strand is produced by Kevin Kirkwood

@kevinwillpaint

@davidcliftonstrawn

@atlantaphotographygroup

@alanaveryartcompany

@kailinart

kevinwillpaint.com

davidcliftonstrawn.com

alanaveryartcompany.com

atlantaphotographygroup.org

kailinart.com

Kevin Kirkwood sat down with Craig Drennen at Westobou—one of the South’s standout contemporary art spaces—to talk about his creative practice and his latest curatorial project, The End Space – The First Five Years. This exhibition is currently on view at Westobou through August 2.

Craig is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow, represented by Brigitte Mulholland Gallery in Paris. His recent solo exhibitions include shows at The Suburban in Milwaukee and Freight+Volume in New York City.

Beyond his own studio work, Craig has made a significant impact as an educator and curator. He’s served as dean at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, teaches at Georgia State University, and runs THE END Project Space, his ongoing curatorial platform—which is also the impetus for this conversation.

A special thanks to Matt Porter and the incredible team at Westobou for their warm hospitality and for making this conversation possible.

Produced by @kevinwillpaint kevinwillpaint.com

craigdrennen.com @craigdrennen @the_end_project_space

westobou.org @westobou

thesuburban.org @the_suburban_exhibitions

brigittemulholland.com @brigittemulhollandparis

huntermuseum.org @huntermuseum

mariettacobbartmuseum.org @mariettacobbartmuseum

Kevin Kirkwood joined Juliette for a conversation a few weeks ago while he was living in Lacoste, France. This episode captures a fleeting, intimate moment in time and feels particularly special. Because at the time of the conversation, she was pregnant. Just last week, she welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world. This episode offers a glimpse into her life during a profound period of transition.

Juliette recently had a solo exhibition at the Reiter Gallery in Leipzig, Germany. The show was titled “If you want, we will love each other.” In this interview, she reflects on the significance of that body of work and shares her thoughts on entering motherhood.

juliettesturlese.com

@juliette_sturlese 

reitergalleries.com

@reiter_galleries

The Strand is produced by Kevin Kirkwood @kevinwillpaint @strandpodcast kevinwillpaint.com

All episodes are available at the link in bio, www.kevinwillpaint.com/strand and on all major podcast platforms. Including Spotify, Apple, iHeart, and Amazon.

Kevin Kirkwood shared a few minutes with Diego at his art gallery in Marseille, France.  In this conversation, Diego shares insights from his time at the École du Louvre, and how his career has taken him through esteemed auction houses like Tajan in Paris and Sotheby’s in London.

Galerie Diego Escobar, formerly known as ArtCan Gallery, dedicated to contemporary art. Founded by Diego Escobar in 2016, this Marseille-based gallery is distinguished by its passion for art and its commitment to promoting emerging and recognized talents on the international contemporary art scene.

A fundamental aspect of Galerie Diego Escobar’s mission is its interaction with various institutions, both private, such as foundations, and public. This interaction fosters fruitful collaborations and solid partnerships, enabling the artists supported by the gallery to benefit from extended visibility and privileged relationships with these key players in the contemporary art world.

The Galerie Diego Escobar is a dynamic place where creativity, innovation and artistic promotion meet. Reflecting Diego Escobar’s ongoing commitment to contemporary art.

galerie-escobar.com

@galeriediegoescobar

The Strand is produced by Kevin Kirkwood @kevinwillpaint @strandpodcast kevinwillpaint.com

All episodes are available at www.kevinwillpaint.com/strand and on all major podcast platforms. Including Spotify, Apple, iHeart, and Amazon.

Kevin Kirkwood sits down with David Van Doesburg, owner of the Amsterdam-based gallery Stigter Van Doesburg. They explore David’s early creative roots in film and television, the artists that the gallery represents today, and the vision behind NAP+—a platform co-founded by David to support emerging and mid-career artists, curators, and galleries through accessible and affordable opportunities.

Whether you're passionate about contemporary art or curious about the intersections of media and gallery culture, this conversation offers an inside look at the evolving art world from the perspective of a gallerist and cultural connector.

https://www.stigtervandoesburg.com/

https://www.napplus.nl/

The Strand is produced by Kevin Kirkwood @kevinwillpaint @strandpodcast

All episodes are available at www.kevinwillpaint.com/strand and on all major podcast platforms. Including Spotify, Apple, iHeart, and Amazon.

Kevin Kirkwood visited the studio of Dutch painter, Pim Blokker. In this conversation, they talk about what he enjoys about being a painter and why humor is important to his craft. This recording was made in late February, prior to our knowledge that he would be invited to show his work at the Stigter Vandoesburg gallery in Amsterdam. Since this recording, his solo exhibition was titled “no Worries”. To learn more about this body of work, visit StigterVan Douesburg.com or PimBlokker.com.

Pim Blokker approaches the canvas as a game board. In his work the perspective continuously shifts or stretches out, and formal qualities and the physical act of painting both collide and merge. Blokker is not interested in illusion making but in linking personal associations to new depictions of reality. He sees the collective consciousness as something without a structure, end, or beginning, and plays with our fixed connotations and expectations of reality. This he does through juxtaposition, a confrontational use of logic and a slapstick kind of humor.

Instagram @pimblok_ker

The Strand is produced by Kevin Kirkwood @kevinwillpaint @strandpodcast

All episodes are available at www.kevinwillpaint.com/strand and on all major podcast platforms. Including Spotify, Apple, iHeart, and Amazon.

Kevin Kirkwood visited the studio of photo and video artist Daya Cahen. There, they talked about how some of her childhood experiences impact the work that she creates today. 

Daya Cahen (NL/USA, born in Amsterdam) studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. She works primarily in the fields of photography and video.

In her work, she focuses on forms of political influence and the systematic manipulation of the human being. Her main interest lies in the power of mass media and its use in the construction and presentation of propaganda, indoctrination or manipulation.

Having two parents who survived WOII as Jewish children, the artist grew up with the notion that the world can change on you in a day and you never know at which end of the line you will end up. A society can turn against any group of people. Investigating how these developments of indoctrination, radicalization and fear of otherness can arise within society form the starting point for all of Cahen’s work.

Her works have been widely screened and exhibited among others at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Dutch Photo Museum, Kunstmuseum Bonn, De Appel arts centre (Amsterdam), Wiels (Brussels), Centre Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo (Paris). She participated in various international film including Short Film Festival Oberhausen, IDFA, International Film Festival Rotterdam and was nominated for a Golden Bear (Short Film) at the Berlin International Film Festival.

DayaCahen.com

IG @daya.cahen

The Strand is produced by Kevin Kirkwood @kevinwillpaint @strandpodcast

All episodes are available at www.kevinwillpaint.com/strand and on all major podcast platforms. Including Spotify, Apple, iHeart, and Amazon.

Images courtesy of Daya Cahen

Kevin Kirkwood met with Lucas Lenglet at his Amsterdam studio. Lucas shared stories about his early installations, his solo show at Stigter Van Doesburg Gallery, and his latest endeavors in making ceramic sculptures.

Lucas Lenglet (b. 1972 in Leiden, the Netherlands) makes sculpture and works with photography in which he explores notions of inclusion and exclusion. Using the language of architecture and the built environment Lenglet aims to soften the border between extremities like safety and danger, public and private, Yes and No, or self and other.

Lenglet lives and works in Amsterdam where he studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.

www.lucaslenglet.com

Instagram @lucaslenglet

The Strand is produced by Kevin Kirkwood @kevinwillpaint @strandpodcast

All episodes are available at www.kevinwillpaint.com/strand and on all major podcast platforms. Including Spotify, Apple, iHeart, and Amazon.

Kevin Kirkwood shared a conversation with the talented Cara K. Griffin a few weeks ago in Lacoste, France. She shared stories about growing up in Alabama, the loss of someone special, and how she fuses her yogi lifestyle into a creative practice. 

Cara K. Griffin is a multidisciplinary artist based in Maui, Hawai‘i, working from a 100-year-old pineapple cannery. Her work explores impermanence, material transformation, and the tension between control and surrender. Fusing painting and sculpture, she uses smoke, plaster, plant matter, and metal leaf to create textured, evolving surfaces. Rooted in fine art and movement studies, her work is visceral and tactile—gestural, physical, and in constant flux.

carakgriffin.com

instagram- @free.the.pelvis @cara.k.griffin.art

The Strand is produced by Kevin Kirkwood @kevinwillpaint @strandpodcast

All episodes are available at www.kevinwillpaint.com/strand and on all major podcast platforms. Including Spotify, Apple, iHeart, and Amazon.

Kevin Kirkwood shared a conversation with the talented Ruth Ribeaucourt a few weeks ago in Lacoste, France. Ruth opened up about her Irish heritage, her early entrepreneurial spark, and the experiences that led her into the creative world.

Ruth began her career as an international publicist and talent handler for Walt Disney Studios before trading the world of cinema for a slower life in Provence, France. Since 2010, she has immersed herself in making, creating, and collaborating—first through her jewelry line, then as a writer and photographer for publications such as Where Women Create, My French Country Home, and Quilt Mania, as well as for publishers including Flammarion, Hardie Grant UK, and Simon & Schuster.

In 2019, she launched an international creative retreat program, fostering connection through storytelling. Her passion for giving creatives a platform led her to create the independent print publication FAIRE magazine in 2021—an intimate, honest space for sharing creatives’ stories. A dedicated facilitator of workshops, exhibitions, and events, Ruth is committed to nurturing and empowering the creative community.

www.ruthribeaucourt.com

www.fairepress.com

Instagram: @ruthribeaucourt |  @faire.press

The Strand is produced by Kevin Kirkwood @kevinwillpaint

All episodes are available at www.kevinwillpaint.com/strand and on all major podcast platforms. Including Spotify, Apple, iHeart, and Amazon.

Images courtesy of Ruth Ribeaucourt