The Talking Canvas Podcast

For this new episode of the podcast, my guest is Sophie Théodose, a contemporary illuminator living and working in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. 

Since the time Sophie decided to learn illumination fifteen years ago, she has been practicing relentlessly to master an art that, at first sight, may seem to leave little room for creativity.  But a strenuous passion for her craft brought her to mix the century-long technique with contemporary design, making her pieces accessible to everyone.  

In this episode, Sophie joins me to talk about how her informal apprenticeship with illuminator Benoit Cazelle taught her how every learning experience starts with observation. She also explains how being spotted by the Michelangelo Foundation, one of the most recognised organisations for craftsmanship worldwide, confirmed her that “work pays off” and why – finally - the making of each piece requires reaching a balance between confidence and humbleness.   

Sophie on Instagram 

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For this tenth episode of The Talking Canvas, my guest is Jeanne Varaldi. Jeanne is a Paris-based visual artist whose work stems from a vibrant reflection on the way we live and interact in the public space.

In her work - no matter if you’re looking to an abstract painting, an installation, a mural or even a digital painting reproducing views from well-known streets of Eastern Paris - an exuberant mix of pastel colours transfigure typically grey surfaces, unveiling a sort of city-playground, where everyone finds his own space and “can finally bloom”.

Jeanne’s interest for the city draws strength from a solid conceptual background: graduated in Urban Studies at SciencesPo, she works today as an urban strategist, advising local authorities on urban and infrastructure development. But this has certainly not prevented her from creating art out of her own intuition, trying to realise increasingly immersive experiences, in line with the placemaking tradition.

In this episode, Jeanne explains how growing up in the countryside has intensified her desire to take part to the effervescence of the city life, why the current sanitary crisis and the subsequent confinement have triggered a more personal reflection on the public space, and why it’s time for all of us to rethink how we want to live to in a new, post-covid era.

Jeanne on Instagram: Jeanne Varaldi 

Jeanne’s website

REFERENCES:  

Chantal deckmyn, Lire la ville, 2020

Zaha Hadid (1950-2016)

Le Corbusier (1887-1965)

Pablo Tomek (1988-) 

Nelio Riga (1982-) 

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Before coming up with an idea for the intro, I normally write a couple of notes on the main topics of the interview. For this one, I covered one page and a half and the only reason why notes were not longer is because I gave up. I gave up trying to write down everything Lucia Pizzani shared about her decades-long body of work and I accepted the fact I would have to relisten to the interview again and again. 

For this episode of the The Talking Canvas Podcast, I was lucky enough to speak to Caracas-born London-based multimedia artist Lucia Pizzani. 

A traveler of cultures and time, Lucia’s first encounter with art took place – almost inevitably - during an unconventional childhood. Things could have hardly been different, with two high-profile artists as parents. 

This very peculiar family setting taught Lucia how to live at the intersection: between cultures, countries, ways of living. Split between a highly modern and extremely wealthy Caracas of the 70s and Paris, capital of the old world, Lucia first headed for New York in her 20s before coming to London, where she has been for the past 14 years. 

Her studies in Visual Communication, Conservation Biology and Fine Arts shaped her work, which is now very much defined by a profound reflection on gender, body, and nature. 

With Lucia, we discuss about how her work for an environmental NGO in Venezuela helped her find her own artistic voice, how to visually represent something intangible like emotions or change, and why it is important to make art with everything that’s available. 

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For this last episode of the French series, I had the pleasure to speak to Adélie Le Guen. Graduated with a MA in art history at the University of Rennes 2, Adélie is an art critic, an independent researcher, as well as the founder of the Artistes Manifestes podcast. 

I first met Adélie at an exhibition of photographer Teresa Suarez, that I interviewed in episode 4. When it was time for us to say goodbye, I remember having followed her in the tube to ask her phone number: I had what’s called a friend crush.  

Later on, during our friendship, I often found myself impressed by her degree of sensitivity, her high standards, and her honesty. 

Passioned by the role given, and only much later reclaimed by women in art history, she focussed her MA dissertation on Swiss artist Heidi Bucher, through whom she explored women’s reappropriation of the domestic space. 

In this episode, Adélie explains how she ended up working in the cultural industry, even though nothing in her family seemed to predestine her. Adélie speaks about her relationship with writing and the hard work it took her to forge a style that would have prompted people to read what she had to say. 

We finally spoke about the reasons behind the launch of her podcast, and how the discovery of queer art has revolutionized her way to consider artistic categories. 

Adélie on Instagram: Adélie Le Guen

Artiste Manifestes 

Artistes Manifestes on Instagram 

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For this episode, I interviewed Alina Vergnano, an Italian artist living in Sweden.

Alina’s work sits at the crossroads of different materials, as she defies categorization which, she says, can only come at the detriment of the artist, the artwork and, by consequence, the viewer. 

Starting out as an illustrator after her studies at the European Institute of Design in Turin, her hometown, she’s later added oil painting, clay sculpture, murals and even video making to what she describes as her tool box. 

While the techniques may vary, an exacerbated presence of the inner world is a constant theme in Alina’s work, even when subjects are as large as an entire building’s wall, as in the case of her delicate murals. 

With Alina, we talked about the importance of a first encouragement when starting out, how having a DIY approach helped her when she didn’t have commissions yet, and why drawing should not be considered only a preliminary gesture but should be instead perceived as a completed artwork. 

Alina on Instagram: Alina Vergnano

Alina’s website 

REFERENCES:  

Louise Bourgeois

Margaret Kilgallen

Eva Hesse

Less Krasner 

Ágota Kristóf, The Illiterate, 2005

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New year, new podcast episodes!

For this (much awaited) 6th episode, I was very happy to interview Geneva-based illustrator and designer Thénie K. 

After studying socioeconomics and innovation management in Switzerland, Thénie decided to move to Armenia, her ancestors' motherland. 

The two greatly transformative years that followed were a turning point for Thénie's career. Plunged in the new reality, she came to drawing, obsessed with the idea to reproduce "the Armenian gaze", a feature that remains present in most of her portraits. 

Thénie's drawings are nothing but a tender declaration of love to the Armenian cultural heritage, visible through the use of ancient patterns, as well as of the black and white, which looks reminiscent of stonework, a practice for which Armenia is well-reputed. 

With Thénie, we talked about what it takes to make a name for yourself when you are a self-taught artist, the need to know and imitate the work of old masters in order to develop your own style, and of the role of "the Sacred" in her artworks. 

Thénie on Instagram 

Thénie’s website

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For this fifth episode, I had the pleasure to interview painter Nathanaëlle Herbelin. 

Nathanaëlle is one of those artists split between two cities, Paris and Tel Aviv in her case, who are continuously asked how the one and the other influence their art. 

That’s especially true for Nathanaëlle, whose paintings reveal a particular attention to places, and notably interiors, which are often represented as if they had their own soul, out of time. 

Along with interiors, the French-Israeli artist loves painting daily objects and people caught in the midst of everyday actions. 

But there’s a condition: Nathanaëlle says she needs to be deeply moved.  

“Maybe they did something very generous or maybe they are lacking something, and it’s this lack I want to paint.”

With Nathanaëlle, we talked about how her lockdown in a building in one of Tel Aviv’s poorest areas provided her with unlimited inspiration, how her studies in Paris taught her to use the technique without becoming a technician, and why it is important to give your practice the time it needs to develop. 

Only this way, she says, lucky accidents can knock on the door. 

Nathanaëlle on Instagram

Nathanaëlle’s portfolio

Nathanaëlle’s exhibition in Brest

REFERENCES

Georges Perec

Fra Angelico

Article by Anaël Pigeat

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In this fourth episode, I interviewed Teresa Suárez, a documentary photographer based in Paris. I met Teresa three years ago, when I just arrived in the city.  She seemed to know it very well, and I was impressed to see this young Spanish girl carving out her place in Paris’ highly competitive journalism industry.   

Born and raised in Oviedo, Teresa had her first encounter with documentary photography through the reportages of the Spanish civil war. Mesmerized by the shots of Robert Capa and David Seymour, that ended up being an eye-opening experience for the soon-to-be photographer, who would have later covered a variety of social movements stretching from the anti-corruption protests in Spain in 2011 to the latest Paris demonstrations against police violence in June 2020.   

With Teresa, we talked about the importance to know your role when you tell someone’s else story, why being a woman photographer is still way tougher than it should be, and why you need to be confident about your work, even before you actually master the craft.  

Teresa’s portfolio

Teresa on Instagram

The collective Femmes Photographes

The 8th issue of the collective

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REFERENCES

David Seymour

Robert Capa

Henri Cartier-Bresson 

Robert Doisneau

The podcast Kiffe ta race 

Rokhaya Diallo 

Tina Modotti

La vérité pour Adama 

For this third episode, I interviewed Nadja Makhlouf, a Franco-Algerian photographer and videomaker based in Paris. 

Nadja’s documentary work revolves around a single obsession: to make visible those who are not, and shed a light on hidden or simply forgotten stories.

This is why women are often the main character of her shots, no matter whether they are living a normal life in Northern Algeria or they have fought for independence.   

After having studied documentary photography at the University of Aix-Marseille, Nadja embarked on a personal project called "Algérie, algériennes" (Algeria, Algerians) to explore the status of women in the country where she’s originally from. 

With Nadja, we talked about how art can help you become a subject when you fear remaining an object, the Algerian war and why thinking that being a feminist antagonizes being a Muslim is a profoundly wrong idea. 

Nadja on Instagram: Nadja Makhlouf 

Nadja’s Portfolio: Nadja Makhlouf

Nadja’s latest reportage on Ramadan in lockdown 

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As a woman 

I know the difference between

appreciation

and 

teeth

what really hurts 

is that as a girl 

i had to know the same thing. 

—survivor 

Nayyirah Waheed

For this second episode, I interviewed Cecilia Granara, professional artist and fellow Italian that has made of Paris her home. 

When I first saw Cecilia’s paintings, an exuberant mix of bright colourful bodies, often naked and stylized, I thought she was bold and outspoken. 

As I talked with her, it became clear her practice was greatly influenced by an uncompromising academic research and endless feminist readings. 

So, take out your notebooks because this episode is packed with references and reading tips you might want to save. 

With Cecilia, we talked about the importance to depict women through a broader palette than what usually codified by the male gaze, how a very personal experience may morph into a collective one and why being disgraceful can actually lead to empowerment. 

Cecilia on Instagram: Cecilia Granara

Cecilia's work available at Non Cancelled Art online exhibition

Cecilia's picture by Michele Yong

REFERENCES:  

Mona Chollet, Sorcières, 2019

Linda Nochlin, Why there have not been great women artists?, 1971

Griselda Pollock

Sarah Ahmed, The cultural politics of emotion, 2004

Chris Kraus

Maggie Nelson, « Bluets » and «  The argonauts », 2009, 2015

Trin T Min Ha, Woman other native, 1989 

Theresa Hak Yung Cha, Dictée, 1996

Claudia Rankine, Don’t let me be lonely, 2004

Louis Fratino

Ridley Howard’s Instagram account 

Jenna Gribbon’s Instagram account 

John Berger, Ways of seeing, 1972

Liv Strômquist, L’origine du monde, 2016

Nancy Spero

Dana Schutz, How We Would Give Birth, 2007 

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