Talk Art continues!! Russell and Robert meet artist Robert Andy Coombs, all the way from Miami Beach!!! We discuss photography, queerness, disability, sexuality, nudity, beauty and representation!!!

Coombs was born and raised in Michigan’s upper peninsula in a little town bordering Wisconsin. Being a closeted gay male in a conservative rural environment, Coombs couldn’t wait to leave his small town behind. He received a scholarship to Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids where he studied photography and started living authentically as a gay male. In 2009, during a trampoline training accident, Coombs landed on the back of his neck resulting in a spinal cord injury. After a short year at home, Coombs returned to KCAD in 2010 and completed his BFA in 2013.

During those years disability and sexuality emerged as a main subject for him. He then went to study at the Yale University School of Art where he continued the exploration of disability and sexuality with a focus on documenting his intimate relationships with friends and lovers. After receiving his MFA in 2020, Coombs relocated to Miami Florida where he continues his photographic practice in the sun.

Follow @RobertAndyCoombs2 on Instagram, @RobertAndyPhoto on Twitter and visit his awesome website https://www.robertandycoombs.com/ which includes his Amazon wishlist as discussed on this week's episode! Donate if you can! We first discovered Robert's work via Jerry Saltz's article on his work in his regular 'Vulture' column. Read that exact article now (click here).

BIG NEWS!! You can pre-order our debut Talk Art book NOW from Amazon.com and Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk - including a Foreword by Jerry Saltz.

We are SOOOO excited to share our book with you, it has over 120 colour images and 50,000 words of all-new text. It will be released on 13th May 2021 in UK & Europe (published by Octopus Books) and 18th May 2021 in USA & Canada (published by Chronicle Books).

For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by...

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Russell & Robert meet artists Ronan McKenzie and Joy Yamusangie at new multifunctional creative space HOME, on Hornsey Road, North London. We explore their current joint-exhibition 'WATA, Further Explorations'. Taking root in Mckenzie and Yamusangie’s first formal collaboration, a short film of the same name (produced at the beginning of 2020), 'WATA' weaves together considerations of ancestry, cross cultural connections, music and migration. To watch 'WATA' online during lockdown, and to learn more about this extraordinary new centre for art, please visit: https://www.homebyrm.space/

Ronan Mckenzie is a London-based photographer, curator, and the publisher of HARD EARS. Her photography focuses on themes that unearth hidden beauty and cultural imagery. Visit Ronan at: https://www.ronanmckenzie.co.uk/

J Yamusangie is a mixed media artist working across illustration, printmaking, typography, poetry, ceramics, collage and painting, all with a central theme of autobiography. Visit Joy at: https://joyyamusangie.com/

Born out of the necessity to be seen and heard, HOME presents a considered curation of exhibitions from leading and exciting artists. Their lounge and co-workspace stimulate through a library of literature and arts, setting the scene for our events programme which aims always to connect and inspire. Being a modern hybrid of an art gallery and a community events space, at the heart of HOME is the aim to inspire, share and support. HOME takes ownership over cultivating our community and creating space for us to be, with a library and creative work space to be shared and enjoyed. HOME is one of very few black owned art spaces within London, and one of the only to be artist led, with a leading focus on supporting Black and Indigenous People of Colour. HOME responds directly to the personal and communal need for a more honest and representative space, that cares deeply for the artists we present and the community of people that we welcome in to our space. HOME offers a considered curatorial and events programme which highlights our founding concept; to truly contextualise artists, and continually transform to support the community we are built for.

Follow @RonanKSM and @JoyYamusangie on Instagram. Visit HOME by RM's official website and follow their Instagram @Home_by_RonanMcKenzie.

For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by Jack Northover @JackNorthoverMusic courtesy of HowlTown.com We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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Russell and Robert meet Dame Julia Peyton-Jones DBE, legendary British curator and gallery director, currently Senior Global Director at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in London, Paris and Salzburg. She formerly worked as Co-Director of the Serpentine Gallery in London for 25 years – the number of visitors to the gallery increased six-fold to over a million people a year in her tenure.

We meet in her private Green Park office to discuss curating, painting, her passion for making her own artworks and wonderful advice for emerging artists! We explore more than 2 decades at the helm of @SerpentineUK, her close lasting friendship with Hans Ulrich Obrist, navigating fundraising challenges through the decades, her highlights of the legendary Serpentine Summer Parties (including Grace Jones), plus her more recent collaboration working with #ThaddaeusRopac’s artist roster and hear her fond memories of global icon, and #TalkArt’s forever HERO, Princess Diana!

During her directorship at the Serpentine, Dame Julia worked with the world’s leading artists, architects and designers on ground-breaking exhibitions, education and public projects. In 2000, she initiated the Serpentine’s innovative architecture programme by commissioning a renowned architect to design a pavilion, constructed next to the Gallery each summer. In addition to focusing on fundraising, masterminding the influential and prestigious Summer Party. Currently, as Senior Global Director of Special Projects at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Dame Julia specializes in International Contemporary Art focusing on the creative development of the Gallery. Awarded an OBE in 2003 for services to art, she is currently Visiting Professor in the School of Arts and Humanities at the Royal College of Art in London, teaching across all departments as well as consultant and creative advisor to the Triennale Di Milano. Dame Julia serves on several boards, including The Courtauld Institute of Art, UK and many more.

Follow @Julia.PeytonJones on Instagram. Visit Thaddaeus Ropac's official website and follow their Instagram @ThaddaeusRopac. SAVE THE DATE!!! Robert & Russell will be joining Dame Julia for 'Tea with Julia' on Saturday 30th January 2021 at 11am on Instagram Live.

For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by Jack Northover @JackNorthoverMusic courtesy of HowlTown.com We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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Talk Art LIVE!!! Recorded on stage in London's Kings Cross!!! Robert & Russell meet Yinka Ilori MBE, the London based multidisciplinary artist of a British-Nigerian heritage, who specialises in storytelling by fusing his British and Nigerian heritage to tell new stories in contemporary design. This episode was recorded live at Kings Place for the London Podcast Festival, on Tuesday 22nd September 2020.

Ilori began his practice in 2011 up-cycling vintage furniture, inspired by the traditional Nigerian parables and West African fabrics that surrounded him as a child. Humorous, provocative and fun, each piece of furniture he creates tells a story, bringing Nigerian verbal traditions into playful conversation with contemporary design. The studio now consists of a team of colour-obsessed architects and designers, with the expertise and capacity to take on large-scale architectural and interior design projects. The studio continues to experiment with the relationship between function and form, with an output that sits between traditional divisions of art and design.

In this episode we discuss Yinka's most recent projects including 'Better Days Are Coming I Promise', Blackfriars, London, the 2020 artwork commissioned by the official charity of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; 'Colour Palace' at Dulwich Picture Gallery; the group show 'Get Up Stand Up Now', Somerset House; 'Happy Street' for London Festival of Architecture 2019. Further solo exhibitions include If Chairs Could Talk, The Shop At Bluebird, 2015; This is Where It Started, The Whitespace Gallery, Lagos, 2014; Just Africa, Stockholm, 2014; It Started With a Parable, Jaguar Shoes, London Design Week, 2013.

Follow @Yinka_Ilori on Instagram. Visit Yinka Ilori Studio's official website at https://yinkailori.com/ Thanks to the team at Kings Place and the London Podcast Festival for inviting us to be part of the festival for the second time! Also HUGE THANKS to you for listening to Talk Art, we've just reached an awesome 2 million downloads!!!!

For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by Jack Northover @JackNorthoverMusic courtesy of HowlTown.com We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! TALK ART CONTINUES!!! Russell & Robert meet iconic British artist Dr Chila Kumari Singh Burman who has recently transformed the front of Tate Britain into a celebration of bright lights and swirling colour for their annual Winter Commission. This extraordinary work has brought much needed joy to Londoners during the recent lockdown, due to its outdoors location on Tate's Millbank façade.

Since the late-1970s, Burman has explored the experiences and aesthetics of Asian femininity in paintings and installations, photography and printmaking, video and film. In more recent works, this theme has taken on a new power and vibrancy. Challenging stereotypical assumptions of Asian women, her work is informed by popular culture, Bollywood, fashion, found objects, the politics of femininity, the celebration of feminity; self-portraiture exploring the production of her own sexuality and dynamism; the relationship between popular culture and high art; gender and identity politics.  

Her magnificent current Tate Britain installation, "Remembering A Brave New World", combines Hindu mythology, Bollywood imagery, colonial history and personal memories. Inspired by the artist’s childhood visits to the Blackpool illuminations and her family’s ice-cream van, Burman covers the façade of Tate Britain with vinyl, bling and lights. She changes the figure of Britannia, a symbol of British imperialism, into Kali, the Hindu goddess of liberation and power. The many illuminated deities, shapes and words are joined by Lakshmibai, the Rani (queen) of Jhansi. Lakshmibai was a fierce female warrior in India’s resistance to British colonial rule in the 19th century.

Burman is celebrated internationally for her radical feminist practice, spanning printmaking, drawing, painting, installation and film. Her Punjabi and Liverpudlian heritage enrich her self-expressive work. Burman mashes up stereotypes to create new identities, beyond the limitations imposed on South Asian women in a British cultural context. The commission opened to coincide Diwali, the Festival of Light. It is a celebration of new beginnings, the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness. "Remembering A Brave New World" takes inspiration from the luminous struggles and victories of the past to offer hope for a brighter future.

Follow @ChilaBurman on Instagram. Visit Chila’s official website at www.Chila-Kumari-Burman.co.uk Thanks for listening to Talk Art, we've just reached an awesome 2 million downloads!!!!

For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by Jack Northover @JackNorthoverMusic courtesy of HowlTown.com We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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Merry Christmas Everyone!!! For this special Christmas Talk Art, Russell & Robert meet Stephen Fry, the legendary British actor, writer, comedian and all-round national treasure!!! This feature-length special episode was recorded remotely during lockdown from his home in Norfolk!

We learn about Stendhal Syndrome where people faint upon looking at artworks of great beauty, the history of the Royal Academy (where he is a trustee), his admiration for Velázquez's 'Portrait of Pope Innocent X', his memories of meeting artists Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst plus what it was like to have his portrait painted by artists including Jonathan Yeo and Maggi Hambling (now part of the National Portrait Gallery's collection). We discuss art and mental health and discover the works he collects and lives with including 1920s portrait photographs by Cecil Beaton, a series of portrait paintings by Annie Kevans, Maggi Hambling ‘dragon sunrises’ and sea paintings and Howard Hodgkin’s Olympic print ‘Swimming’ (2011) that Robert sold to Stephen back in 2012! We consider Oscar Wilde’s lasting impact on art & the art world, the bad taste of global dictators and listen to his fascinating thoughts on the history of nudity in art including paintings of Adam & Eve and Saint Sebastian. Plus Stephen reads us a famous parable by Oscar Wilde - what more could you ask for this festive season??!!! Happy Holidays!!! Thank you for supporting and listening to Talk Art this year.

Follow @StephenFry on Twitter and @StephenFryActually on Instagram. Visit Stephen’s official website at www.StephenFry.com His new book ‘Troy’ is out now in hardback, ebook and audiobook!

For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by Jack Northover @JackNorthoverMusic courtesy of HowlTown.com We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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Season 8 continues!!! Russell & Robert meet leading artist Lindsey Mendick in Margate on the eve of Robert's 40th birthday!!!

We adore the autobiographical works of Lindsey Mendick whose personal memories are launchpads for complex, ambitious immersive installations filled to the brim with wild and exuberant ceramic sculptures and more recently paintings and textile works (which she collaborates on with her mother). Mendick's work has a gothic sensibility with themes of gruesomeness, disgustingness and repulsion frequently reappearing. Her oeuvre is an exhilarating exploration of the abject in everyday banality. We discuss her recent show at CCA Goldsmiths curated by Sarah McCrory, her partnership with artist Guy J Oliver and their new project space in Margate called QUENCH.

Visit Lindsey's official website www.lindseymendick.com/ and follow her on Instagram @LindseyMendick

Plus please visit, support and follow QUENCH Gallery, the new artist space @QuenchGallery in Margate, Kent.

Linsey's work will be on display in Spring 2021 at Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate as part of group show 'Breakfast Under the Tree' curated by Russell Tovey.

Whilst her forthcoming solo show will be at Cooke Latham Gallery, London.

For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by Jack Northover @JackNorthoverMusic courtesy of HowlTown.com We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to Talk Art, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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Season 8 continues with an intimate, feature-length special episode! Russell & Robert chat with Torkwase Dyson (b. 1973, Chicago, Illinois) from her studio in New York. Dyson describes herself as a painter working across multiple mediums to explore the continuity between ecology, infrastructure, and architecture. Examining environmental racism as well as the history and future of black spatial liberation strategies, Dyson’s abstract works grapple with the ways in which space is perceived and negotiated, particularly by Black and Brown bodies. Explorations of how the body unifies, balances, and arranges itself to move through natural and built environments become both expressive and discursive structures within the work.

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Dyson builds the abstract paintings slowly, accumulating washes, building surface and configuring minimal geometric elements that lend a productive tension between image and object.  The paint-handling producing various visual qualities using brushwork and other tools is made poetic by a juxtaposition of delicate marks and scored, diagrammatic lines. This compositional rigor imbues the works with an architectural presence and optical gravity.

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Torkwase's work will be part of the Serpentine Galleries' exhibition 'Back To Earth' in London next year, 2021. Learn more at https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/back-to-earth/

Visit Torkwase's official website www.TorkwaseDyson.com/ and her artist page at Pace Gallery, London & New York. Follow Torkwase on Instagram @TorkwaseDyson and @PaceGallery.

For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by Jack Northover @JackNorthoverMusic courtesy of HowlTown.com We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to Talk Art, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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New Talk Art!!! For this special episode, we partner with Winsor & Newton to explore oil painting with two super-talented, contemporary artists! In part 1, Russell & Robert meet Adelaide Damoah RWA FRSA, a British painter and performance artist of Ghanaian descent who uses her body as the starting point for much of her work. Themes of particular interest include feminism, colonialism, religion and spirituality. We discuss her fresh approach to painting including her use of her own body as a “paintbrush of sorts” and the importance of oil paint within her performances. Follow @AdelaideDamoah or visit her official website: www.AdelaideDamoahArt.com

In part 2, R&R chat to Huddie Hamper, a 20 year-old emerging British painter and printmaker who works predominantly in oils and charcoal but also frequently making woodcuts. His work is often deeply personal in nature, responding to a tradition of self-portraiture and revealing intimate, personal stories. We discuss his passion for oil painting and why he sees painting as a lifelong pursuit and journey. Hamper will graduate next year from the Slade School of Fine Art, London. Follow @Huddie_Hamper on Instagram.

Winsor & Newton provide high-quality tools for artists and creative professionals. Winsor & Newton’s Oil Colour is made with fine art pigments and formulated to enhance each pigment’s natural characteristics. Oil Colours across their ranges have been tested for lightfastness and permanence and boast some of the best ratings of any oil paints on the market. Developed by chemists in partnership with artists, discover 9 new Cadmium-Free Artists’ Oil Colours. Their innovative range is formulated to match the vibrancy, opacity, lightfastness and permanence of traditional cadmium colours – so you no longer need to compromise when seeking an alternative. Follow @WinsorAndNewton on Instagram and visit www.WinsorAndNewton.com to learn more.

For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by Jack Northover @JackNorthoverMusic courtesy of HowlTown.com We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to Talk Art, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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TALK ART returns for SEASON 8!!! YES, lucky number EIGHT!!! Russell & Robert meet Tyler Mitchell (American, b. 1995), the leading photographer and filmmaker in London where he's been working recently! Based in Brooklyn, Mitchell works across many genres to explore and document a new aesthetic of Blackness. His work is regularly published in avant-garde magazines, commissioned by prominent fashion houses, and exhibited in top tier institutions. One of our favourite galleries, Jack Shainman, New York recently announced Tyler has joined their artist roster!

In 2018 Tyler Mitchell made history as the first Black photographer to shoot a cover of American Vogue for Beyoncé’s appearance in the September issue. In 2019 a portrait from this series was acquired by The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery for its permanent collection. This, alongside many other accomplishments, has established Mitchell as one of the most closely watched up-and-coming talents in image making today. His first solo exhibition ‘I Can Make You Feel Good’ at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam (2019) premiered video works including ‘Idyllic Space.’ An iteration of this show is now on view at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. Tyler has lectured at a number of institutions on the politics of image making including Harvard University, Paris Photo and the International Center of Photography (ICP).

In 2020 Mitchell was announced as the recipient of the Gordon Parks Fellowship which will support a new project that reflects and draws inspiration from Parks’ central themes of representation and social justice. Mitchell’s fellowship will culminate in an exhibition of the new works at the Gordon Parks Foundation Gallery in Pleasantville, NY. 

Check out Tyler's official website: www.TylerMitchell.co and Follow Tyler's instagram @tylersphotos. Order his books from the official ICMYFG.com store and view his work at his new gallery Jack Shainman, New York.

For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by Jack Northover @JackNorthoverMusic courtesy of HowlTown.com We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. Thank you for listening to Talk Art, we will be back very soon. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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