It’s the Talk Art Christmas special! We meet Alison Goldfrapp, the creative force behind some of the most captivating music of the past two and a half decades!!! We celebrate Alison’s new reinterpretation of David Bowie’s Heroes which she has just released with Lorne Balfe for The War Between The Land and The Sea soundtrack, the new TV series starting our very own Russell Tovey.

Having set a towering bar for synth-pop in the 21st century, Alison Goldfrapp– the magnetic British songwriter, vocalist, performer & producer – is recognised for approaching each iteration of her stellar career from an innovative new position. With the release of Alison's debut solo album The Love Invention — an electrifying dance-pop suite — her multi-faceted musicianship reaches a new peak. “It feels like a new time, and a new era,” Alison says decisively.

The momentum towards her journey into solo music was solidified back in 2021, when she was collabored with Röyksopp on the shimmering track “Impossible”. This led to Alison signing with legendary Skint Records and recording 'The Love Invention' which marks Alison’s reawakening as a dancefloor priestess, featuring an intoxicating showcase of the disco and house influences that have always been at the heart of her musical DNA.

Alison's previous seven albums with Goldfrapp were fuelled by an unfailing modernity & a sixth sense for sounds that were more timeless than any trend. The band's 1999 debut album 'Felt Mountain' was nominated for a Mercury Prize and over their career they produced 3 #1 US dance singles & received multiple Grammy nominations incl. Best Electronic/Dance Album. The multi-platinum selling band have won prestigious awards including 2 Ivor Novellos, ASCAP/PRS, Music Week, MTV Europe and Music Producers Guild award. They were also nominated for two BRITs and a Mercury.

Follow @Alison_Goldfrapp and @GoldfrappMusic.

Alison’s new album FLUX is out now.

Watch @TheWarBetweenTV now on BBC iplayer.

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Russell & Robert meet Barbara Dawson for a behind the scenes visit to Francis Bacon’s Studio, installed in Dublin’s iconic Hugh Lane Gallery. The gallery is currently closed to the public for major renovations so we thought it would be a great opportunity to bring the studio and galleries to life with this exclusive audio tour, while closed to public.

A visit to Francis Bacon’s Studio at Hugh Lane Gallery gives a unique opportunity to experience the working process of one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists.

Born in Dublin in 1909, Bacon grew up in county Kildare. He left home at the age of sixteen and eventually settled in London where he established himself as one of the leading international artists of his generation. Bacon moved into 7 Reece Mews, London, in 1961 where he lived and worked until his death in 1992 (in Madrid).

We also loved seeing photographer Perry Ogden's iconic documentation of artist Francis Bacon's chaotic studio at 7 Reece Mews, London. 

In 1998, director Barbara Dawson secured the donation of Francis Bacon’s studio from the artist’s heir, John Edwards, and Brian Clarke, executor of the Estate of Francis Bacon. Her vision was to remove the entire studio including all of the items without exception, as well as the architectural features, and relocate the studio as it was, to the Hugh Lane Gallery.

In the August of that year, as project manager, she assembled a team of conservators, curators, and archaeologists to carry out the move. The archaeologists made survey and elevation drawings of the small studio, mapping out the spaces and locations of all the objects, while the conservators prepared the works for travel and curators tagged and packed each of the items, including the dust. The walls, doors floor and ceiling were also removed.

Barbara Dawson is an Irish art historian, gallery director, curator and author. She has curated numerous significant exhibitions including retrospectives by notable artists including Francis Bacon, 2009. Dawson is the first female director of the Hugh Lane Gallery, a municipal art space and "the first known public gallery of modern art in the world" in Dublin. She has been the gallery's director since 1991.

Follow @TheHughLane and visit: https://hughlane.ie/arts_artists/francis-bacons-studio/

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We are delighted to announce the first ever Irish episode of Russell Tovey and Robert Diament’s acclaimed Talk Art podcast, recorded live at the National Gallery of Ireland Lecture Theatre on Saturday November 8th for Dublin Gallery Weekend 2025.

Isabel Nolan, Ireland’s representative at the 2026 Venice Biennale, has an expansive practice that incorporates sculptures, paintings, textile works, photographs, writing and works on paper. Her subject matter is similarly comprehensive, taking in cosmological phenomena, religious reliquaries, Greco-Roman sculptures and literary/historical figures, examining the behaviour of humans and animals alike.

These diverse artistic investigations are driven by intensive research, but the end result is always deeply personal and subjective. Exploring the “intimacy of materiality”, Nolan’s work ranges from the architectural – steel sculptures that frame or obstruct our path – to small handmade objects in clay, hand-tufted wool rugs illuminated with striking cosmic imagery, to drawings and paintings using humble gouache or colouring pencils. In concert, they feel equally enchanted by and afraid of the world around us, expressing humanity’s fear of mortality and deep need for connection as well as its startling achievements in art and thought.

Driven by “the calamity, the weirdness, horror, brevity and wonder of existing alongside billions of other preoccupied humans”, her works give generous form to fundamental questions about the ways the chaos of the world is made beautiful or given meaning through human activity.

In 2026, Nolan will represent Ireland at the 61st Venice Biennale, with Georgina Jackson and The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art as the curator and Cian O’Brien as producer. In 2025, Nolan participated in the 13th Liverpool Biennial, Bedrock, curated by Marie-Anne McQuay. 

Isabel Nolan lives and works in Dublin.

Follow @NolanIsabel and @KerlinGallery.

Thank you @DublinGalleryWeekend, we loved visiting! We can’t wait to return to beautiful Ireland.

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This episode is a special partnership with BOSS. Special episode recorded during Miami Basel week, December 2025. #AD

Russell & Robert catch up with Marco Falcioni, Creative Director of HUGO BOSS. We discuss the Art Basel Awards which BOSS have been partnering with.

The BOSS AWARD for Outstanding Achievement was presented at Art Basel Miami Beach to Meriam Bennani for her work entitled “For My Best Family.”

The BOSS AWARD for Outstanding Achievement celebrates work that embodies the BOSS values of boldness, personal authenticity, ambition, and responsibility. It honors a singular work, produced within the last 18 months, that has catalyzed change at the intersection of art, technological innovation, social dialogue, and identity. 

Moroccan-born and New York-based, Meriam Bennani uses a broad range of artistic mediums that include video, sound, animation, sculpture as well as large-scale installations, among others. She’s known for mixing humor, pop-cultural aesthetics and digital language in her storytelling to create immersive, playful yet critical pieces that resonate with the viewer. 

The BOSS AWARD for Outstanding Achievement has a prize of US$100,000 and empowers the awardee to amplify voices beyond their own, allowing them to allocate a reward of US$50,000 to a community or cause of the artist’s choosing. The remaining US$50,000 will be invested in a project, commission, or cultural activation by the artist that will be co-developed with BOSS.

Introduced earlier this year in May, the Art Basel Awards recognized 36 Medalists across nine categories within the contemporary art world. These categories included iconic, established, and emerging artists, as well as cross-disciplinary creators, curators, institutions, patrons, media and storytellers, and allies shaping the future of cutting-edge artistry. Through a peer-driven process, the Medalists then selected 12 Gold Medalists from among their ranks, who were honored with the highest distinction at last night’s ceremony.

BOSS has supported art for 30 years and is known for timeless and sophisticated style, and commitment to culture, sport and sustainability, underpinned by technical innovations developed over its century-long history. Russell explores his inspirations and design approach, including runway collections, collaborations with David Beckham, Aston Martin, and reimagining classics with a modern twist.

Follow @FalcioniMarco and @BOSS

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We meet curator Kate Bryan and artist David Shrigley to explore their new book How To Art. Recorded live in London, in front of a sold out audience.

What is art, where do I find it, and once I’m in front of it, what am I supposed to think about it? Kate Bryan is a self-confessed art addict who has worked with art for over twenty years. But before she studied art history at university, she’d visited a gallery just twice in her life and had no idea she was entering an elitist world. Now, she’s on a mission to help everybody come to art.

Like playing or listening to music, or cooking and eating great food, reading or watching films, making art or looking at other people’s deserves to be an enriching part of all our lives. How to Art provides a nifty way to ingest art on your own terms.

From where it is to what it is, to tips on how to actually enjoy famous artworks like the Mona Lisa, to how to own art and make art at home, to vital advice for making a career as an artist and even how to make your dog more cultural, How to Art gives art to everyone—and makes it fun. Laced throughout with original artworks by the very down-to-earth artist David Shrigley.

Follow @KateBryan_Art and @DavidShrigley

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#AD - Cork Street Galleries special episode!

We meet art critic Louisa Buck to explore 100 years of Cork Street!

Cork Street Galleries this year celebrates its centenary as a pioneering force in the art world, 

with 2025 marking 100 years as the iconic London art destination. A specially curated programme honours its rich legacy as the historic and enduring home of modern and 

contemporary art in London.

In tribute to the centennial year, a first-of-its-kind initiative, a group exhibition entitled Fear Gives Wings to Courage was staged across all 15 galleries on Cork Street in the Summer, with each gallery presenting a response to a central theme conceived by Tarini Malik, curator of modern and contemporary Art at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

Fear Gives Wings to Courage has been commissioned in three parts as a response to the curatorial theme conceived by Malik. This is comprised of Fear Gives Wings to Courage Part I; a new edition of the Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission forming an outdoor element of the 

exhibition on view until the end of 2025; Fear Gives Wings to Courage Part II; a presentation 

of works within each participating gallery space, on view from 11 to 25 July 2025; and Fear 

Gives Wings to Courage Part III; CATALOGUE Issue 8:0, guest-edited by Malik, which coincided with Frieze London 2025.

Taking its title from Jean Cocteau’s seminal 1938 work La peur donnant des ailes au courage

(Fear Giving Wings to Courage), the exhibition celebrates 100 years of Cork Street and the 

transformative potential of artists' voices both within gallery spaces and outside of them. 

Gesturing to the street's long-established cultural history, the exhibition's theme recalls Cork 

Street’s pioneering role in transforming London into a hub for international art practices in 

the twentieth century, while also making it one of the key platforms in Europe for the 

expansion of Surrealist and Dadaist movements.

13 years after Freddy Mayor established the first gallery on Cork Street in 1925, Peggy 

Guggenheim opened her 'Guggenheim Jeune' gallery in 1938. While hosting her first show 

with the famed polymath Jean Cocteau, the gallery stirred up significant controversy due to 

his painting La peur donnant des ailes au courage (Fear Giving Wings to Courage), which was 

confiscated by British customs authorities upon arrival in the United Kingdom. Similarly, this 

exhibition nods to the necessity of the gallery ecosystem in encouraging, upholding and 

presenting artists' practices that are assertions of agency in the face of societal and political 

pressures. The galleries on Cork Street were asked to respond to the theme with artists’ work 

that can be thought of as emblematic of Cocteau’s unabashed vigour and Guggenheim’s 

abiding belief in supporting artists. The galleries were also encouraged to profile artists who 

continue to draw from the legacies of Surrealism, not as a mere style or movement within the 

Western canon, but rather as a state of mind; a fluid, boundless approach of navigating 

notions of the self and society that transgress borders and temporalities. 

Follow @CorkStreetGalleries and Visit http://CorkStGalleries.com to discover more about this history of Cork Street as well as current exhibitions! Follow Louisa Buck on her Instagram @LouBuck01

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New @TalkArt podcast episode! We meet legendary artist, potter and author @EdmunddeWaal at his studio in South London!!

We explore more than 40 years of making pots, and learn about the first major exhibition of acclaimed Danish ceramicist Axel Salto (1889 – 1961), considered one of the greatest masters of 20th-century ceramic art. This epic new show curated by #EdmunddeWaal (b.1964, Nottingham) is now open at the Hepworth Wakefield, including a major new installation by de Waal reflecting on Salto’s enduring influence.

Salto was a radical polymathic figure who crossed boundaries from one discipline to another, producing an extraordinary body of ceramic work alongside paintings, wood- cuts, drawings, book illustration and textiles. Salto is internationally renowned for his highly individual and expressive stoneware inspired by organic forms, characterised by budding, sprouting and fluted surface textures that appear to ripple and burst with life.

In his own visual art and literary works, Edmund de Waal uses objects as vehicles for human narrative, emotion, and history. His installations of handmade porcelain vessels, often contained in minimalist structures, investigate themes of diaspora, memory, and materiality.

De Waal’s sculptural practice, writing, and art historical research are deeply intertwined, as he works across mediums and collaborates with museums, poets, performers, musicians, and other visual artists, both living and deceased. Much of de Waal’s work is concerned with collecting and collections—how objects are kept together, lost, stolen, or dispersed. 

His ceramics and writing expand upon conceptual and physical dialogues among minimalism, architecture, and sound, imbuing them with a sense of quiet calm. Manifest across de Waal’s practice is a distinct aesthetic philosophy that puts the hand, the sense of touch, and thus the human above all else. His work is about connecting people by reviving and telling stories that matter.

Playing with Fire: Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto 

is now open and runs until 4th May 2026 at Hepworth Wakefield.

Follow @EdmundDeWaal and @HepworthWakefield on Instagram.

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We meet gallerist Jeffrey Fraenkel to discuss the work of Diane Arbus, recorded live in London at David Zwirner.

— Sanctum Sanctorum: a sacred room or inner chamber; a place of inviolable privacy

Diane Arbus: Sanctum Sanctorum, an exhibition of forty-five photographs made in private places across New York, New Jersey, California, and London between 1961 and 1971, is now open at David Zwirner, London until 20 December 2025, before travelling to Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco in spring 2026. The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive monograph reproducing all works in the exhibition.

Through her singular combination of intelligence, charisma, intuition, and courage, Diane Arbus was frequently invited into homes and other private realms seldom seen by strangers. Though made in intimate settings, her photographs evidence no sense of intrusion or trespass. Instead, they reveal an unspoken exchange between photographer and subject, a moment of recognition in which confidences emerge freely and without judgment.

Arbus’s desire to know people embraced a vast spectrum of humanity. Her subjects in Sanctum Sanctorum include debutantes, nudists, celebrities, aspiring celebrities, socialites, transvestites, babies, widows, circus performers, lovers, female impersonators, and a blind couple in their bedroom.

The exhibition brings together little-known works, such as Girl sitting in bed with her boyfriend, N.Y.C. 1966; Ozzie and Harriet Nelson on their bed, Los Angeles 1970; and Interior decorator at the nudist camp in his trailer, New Jersey 1963, alongside celebrated images like Mexican dwarf in his hotel room, N.Y.C. 1970 and A naked man being a woman, N.Y.C. 1968. 

While many of Arbus’s photographs have become part of the public’s collective consciousness since her landmark retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1972, seen in this context, viewers may discover aspects of even familiar works that have previously gone unnoticed.

Sanctum Sanctorum follows two recent major exhibitions of the artist’s work: Cataclysm: The 1972 Diane Arbus Retrospective Revisited at David Zwirner New York (2022) and Los Angeles (2025), and Diane Arbus: Constellation at LUMA, Arles (2023–2024) and the Park Avenue Armory, New York (2025).

Follow @FraenkelGallery @DavidZwirner

With special thanks to the Estate of Diane Arbus.

#DianeArbus

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Russell and Robert meet leading artist Chantal Joffe in her East London studio. We explore I Remember, Chantal Joffe’s fourteenth solo exhibition for Victoria Miro gallery. I Remember takes its title from Joe Brainard’s iconic memoir and is inspired by the late American writer’s poetic prompts that evoke the atmosphere and time of memories. Joffe’s paintings attempt to capture the fleeting yet enduring nature of memory and how it shapes our sense of self. This evocative new series of large-scale paintings explores themes of memory, nostalgia and personal history to offer a reflective and deeply personal journey into the artist’s childhood and family life. The exhibition is accompanied by a new text, entitled Time Transmission, by Olivia Laing.

‘Joe Brainard’s book always makes me list for myself the things I remember and the atmosphere and time that they conjure. These paintings are a sort of memoir of my childhood and of my family, an attempt at a kind of time travel. When I am making them, it’s almost as if I am existing in that past.’ – Chantal Joffe

Chantal Joffe’s paintings are always attentive to narratives about connection, perception and representation, alerting us to the endless intricacies of bodily expression, the complexities of emotion and attachment, and how these change over time. This evocative new series explores themes of memory, nostalgia and personal history to offer a reflective and deeply personal journey into the artist’s childhood and family life.

A new book published by MACK to coincide with this new show, Painting Writing Texting chronicles the friendship between Chantal Joffe and writer Olivia Laing, which began in 2016 when Joffe approached Laing to ask if they would sit for a portrait. From this unexpected encounter, the two embarked on an expansive and ranging collaboration, fuelled by conversations about art, books, and their shared attempts to understand the world. Combining ten essays by Laing with a sequence of paintings by Joffe, Painting Writing Texting explores the strange and risky process by which everyday life is converted into art.

Born in 1969, Chantal Joffe lives and works in London. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and was awarded the Royal Academy Wollaston Prize in 2006. Chantal Joffe brings insight and integrity, as well as psychological and emotional depth, to the genre of figurative art. Defined by its clarity, honesty and empathetic warmth, her work is attuned to our awareness as both observers and observed beings, bold and expressive in style yet always questioning, nuanced and emotionally rich. A primary focus throughout Joffe’s career has been on the women and children in her life, captured at various stages of their own lives. Joffe has talked about her paintings in terms of transitions, those associated with growing and ageing, as well as her attempts to mark a life’s milestones. The complex relationship between mother and child over time has been a significant theme, while self-portraiture, which Joffe considers ‘a way of thinking about time passing’, remains one of the cornerstones of her art. Whether drawing inspiration from art history, popular culture or personal experiences, Joffe’s paintings are always attentive to narratives about connection, perception and representation. They alert us to the endless intricacies of bodily expression and the myriad ways in which we reveal ourselves and communicate emotion, consciously or otherwise, even in the most private of moments.

Chantal Joffe: I Remember runs until 17th January 2026 at Victoria Miro, Wharf Road. Follow @VictoriaMiroGallery

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We meet Ginny and Hartley Neel, Executive Directors of the Estate of Alice Neel, and the artist’s daughter-in-law and son. We explore her current exhibition in Belgium at Xavier Hufkens.

Alice Neel is widely recognised as one of the great American painters of the twentieth century. Her success, however, has largely been posthumous. In the past decade, interest in her work has grown exponentially, with a series of landmark exhibitions and art historical studies firmly cementing her position on the international stage.

Neel’s oeuvre is fascinating on two counts: not only was she an incredibly gifted painter, but also an astute and idiosyncratic chronicler of some of the most tumultuous decades in American history. While she also painted landscapes and still lifes, Neel is best known as a painter of people. Her sitters included artists, writers, intellectuals and family members, as well as people living on the margins of society, particularly immigrants. Deeply committed to equality and social justice, Neel was interested in the human struggle for survival, and in mankind’s capacity for resilience in the face of hardship and deprivation. With her distinctive brushwork and remarkable feel for colour, Neel succeeded in capturing the inner psychological depths of her sitters. Her commitment to truth and dedication to figuration—unfashionable during her lifetime—ensured that her work remained permanently out of kilter with avant-garde movements such as abstract expressionism, pop art and minimalism. Yet her uncompromising approach gave rise to a unique and highly individualistic body of work that continues to exert an influence on contemporary artistic production.

Alice Neel Still Lifes and Street Scenes runs until  22 November 2025 at Xavier Hufkens, Van Eyck, Brussels, Belgium. Follow @XavierHufkens

The first retrospective dedicated to the artist in Italy, ’Alice Neel: I Am the Century’ is now open @PinacotecaAgnelli at in Turin, Italy – on view through 6 April 2026. 

Special thanks to the Estate of Alice Neel and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels for making this conversation possible. #aliceneel #xavierhufkens #pinacotecaagnelli

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