Talk Art special episode with WePresent! We meet Durk Dehner to discuss TOM OF FINLAND as the 40th anniversary of the ToF Foundation approaches. Since first meeting Tom in 1978, Durk worked closely with the artist, serving from time to time as Tom's muse which continued until Tom's death in 1991. We also chat with Richard Villiani, the foundation's Creative Director.In 1984, the nonprofit Tom of Finland Foundation (ToFF) was established by Durk and Touko Laaksonen a.k.a. Tom of Finland (b.1920, Kaarina). As Tom had established worldwide recognition as the master of homoerotic art, the Foundation’s original purpose was to preserve his vast catalog of work. Several years later the scope was widened to offer a safe haven for all erotic art in response to rampant discrimination against art that portrayed sexual behavior or generated a sexual response. Today ToFF continues in its efforts of educating the public as to the cultural merits of erotic art and in promoting healthier, more tolerant attitudes about sexuality. Unlike many artists, Tom of Finland’s work has always been appreciated by a grass-roots audience as his work was first seen in commercial settings such as magazine illustration, posters and advertising. From the perspective of art historians, Tom’s work had an effect on global culture unmatched by that of virtually any other artist. Tom’s work had a defining impact on the way Gay men throughout the world were perceived and more importantly, how they perceived themselves. Tom’s work has, therefore, had a ripple effect throughout Gay and Straight culture, influencing lifestyle, political tolerance, design, fashion and art.Follow @TomOfFinlandFoundation & support ToFF by donating, shopping or getting involved via their official website: www.TomOfFinland.orgJoin the global community of ToF! It really is a loving, creative, safe space for all.Russell Tovey is WeTransfer’s third Guest Curator across 2023 where he spotlights LGBTQIA+ artists that have inspired him. The selected artists of the Guest Curatorship have been given a platform on WePresent, the arts arm of WeTransfer, and on these TalkArt episodes. As part of this collaboration, WePresent will also launch Russell Tovey’s documentary Life is Excellent and present a tour of four performances of BLUE NOW, a live version of Derek Jarman’s film BLUE directed by Neil Bartlett and performed by Russell Tovey alongside three other performers. As a certified B Corporation™, WeTransfer has long been a champion of using business as a force for good. Since its founding in 2009, WeTransfer has donated up to 30% of its advertising space to support artists and social causes, and commissioned original projects for its Oscar-winning arts platform WePresent. Last year, WeTransfer also launched its Supporting Act Foundation to support emerging creative talent through arts education, grants, and an annual prize.Follow @WePresent on Instagram and visit https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/ to stay up to date on Russell Tovey’s Guest Curatorship on WePresent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We meet legendary artist Sylvia Snowden from her home in Washington DC where she has been painting for the past 60+ years!Known for her use of abundantly thick, layered paint, Snowden has developed a visual language in which gems of colour and texture emerge from densely-worked under layers. From dark and earthy tones to the vibrant and artificial, Snowden’s command of chromatic range is the fuel of her expressionistic style. Over the course of her more than five-decade-long career, in which she has always painted in series, Snowden developed an adroitness with her medium. She initially employed oil paint and pastels then moved toward acrylic–a less toxic and faster-drying alternative–after having children. Snowden paints sculpturally, her compositions range from larger-than-life to portrait-sized. Her process allows visible evidence of constructed layers and employs impasto that interacts with her bold figures caught in motion with physical weight.Snowden’s voluminous bodies, often contrapposto, are surrounded by peaks of shifting chroma in a physical manifestation of feeling; she depicts the tension and intensity of life, and the troubled, optimistic, and dramatic elements of our sublime existence. Snowden encapsulates the psychological essence of her subjects–some of whom were unhoused and transient, displaced by gentrification, others with whom she had intimate or long-term relationships–their triumphs, paranoia, agony, and anger are all visible; these works convey an emotionally turbulent environment. Snowden’s expressive paintings reference the immediate lives of these individuals, and act as interpretations of each subject's psyche. As a serial painter, Snowden alternates between representation and abstraction, exhausting her emotional self between each mode as she articulates the struggles and successes of humanity.Sylvia Snowden (b.1942, Raleigh, NC) spent her childhood in New Orleans. Aged 14, she and her family moved to Washington, D.C. Snowden’s parents Dr. George W. Snowden & Mrs. Jessie Burns Snowden encouraged her artistic pursuits at a young age, which led to her enrolment in the art department at Howard University. Snowden received a scholarship to Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME and has a certificate from La Grande Chaumier in Paris, France. She holds both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Howard University. At Howard University she studied under David C. Driskell. She has taught at Howard University, Cornell and Yale, has served as an artist-in-residence, a panelist, visiting artist, lecturer/instructor and curator in universities, galleries and art schools both in the United States and internationally.Visit Sylvia's new exhibition 'M Street on White' until 28th October 2023 in London at Edel Assanti: https://edelassanti.com/exhibitions/118-sylvia-snowden-m-street-on-white/Follow Sylvia's galleries @EdelAssanti and @ParraschHeijnen and @FranklinParraschGalleryVisit Sylvia's official website: https://sylviasnowden.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talk Art special episode with WePresent! We meet artist FIZA KHATRI to discuss their recent paintings. Their work represents intimate portraits and gatherings of human and nonhuman inhabitants of their community. They remix imagery from lived experiences, imagined fantasies, sacred landscapes, and archival research to imbricate the social, sacral, and political stakes of building ecosystems of cohabitation. Fiza Khatri was born and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. They currently live in New Haven, CT and are an MFA candidate at the Yale School of Art in Painting and Printmaking. Follow @fklmnop on Instagram and visit Fiza's website: https://www.fizakhatri.com/Russell Tovey is WeTransfer’s third Guest Curator across 2023 where he spotlights LGBTQIA+ artists that have inspired him. The selected artists of the Guest Curatorship have been given a platform on WePresent, the arts arm of WeTransfer, and on these TalkArt episodes. As part of this collaboration, WePresent will also launch Russell Tovey’s documentary Life is Excellent and present a tour of four performances of BLUE NOW, a live version of Derek Jarman’s film BLUE directed by Neil Bartlett and performed by Russell Tovey alongside three other performers. As a certified B Corporation™, WeTransfer has long been a champion of using business as a force for good. Since its founding in 2009, WeTransfer has donated up to 30% of its advertising space to support artists and social causes, and commissioned original projects for its Oscar-winning arts platform WePresent. Last year, WeTransfer also launched its Supporting Act Foundation to support emerging creative talent through arts education, grants, and an annual prize.With more then more than 80 million monthly active users in 190 countries, WeTransfer is a platform by creators for creators. Its ecosystem of creative productivity tools makes it easy to collaborate, share and deliver work. Follow @WePresent on Instagram and visit https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/ to stay up to date on Russell Tovey’s Guest Curatorship on WePresent, the arts arm of WeTransfer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We meet legendary artist Julian Schnabel to explore more than 40 years of painting. Since his first solo exhibition in 1976, Schnabel has been on a quest to express the inexpressible. Best known for his multidisciplinary practice that extends beyond painting to include sculpture and film. His use of preexisting materials not traditionally used in art making, varied painting surfaces and modes of construction were pivotal in the reemergence of painting in the United States. Resisting the turn to traditional conventions of painting and sculpture that characterized the 1980s, he began his series of Plate Paintings, representational works with sculptural surfaces produced by layering shards of found pottery with thick applications of pigment. Throughout his career, he has sustained his use of found materials and chance-based processes, transforming the conventions of painting and opening the door for a new generation of young artists.The works on display in Schnabel’s upcoming show were made in concert with the preparation of his seventh feature film, In the Hand of Dante, an adaptation of Nick Tosches’s novel of the same name. For Schnabel, filmmaking and painting exist in a continuum in which subject matter crosses between mediums, assuming myriad forms. This relationship resonates throughout the exhibition, where indecipherable narratives emerge from a process of imagery central both to Schnabel’s film and to the paintings on view.Celebrated for his vast and experimental practice that extends into the realms of sculpture and filmmaking, the artist has always been a painter first and foremost. Since 1978, when he created the first plate painting, The Patients and the Doctors—a work which abandoned traditional canvas in favor of a surface composed of broken plates—his use of unconventional, found materials has led to the invention of entirely new modes of painting. Dispensing with traditional distinctions between abstraction and figuration, Schnabel’s plate paintings, and his works on velvet, reinvigorated interest in painting as a medium for contemporary art. Moreover, in the early years of his practice, Schnabel decided to make paintings that incorporated the history and materiality of the medium itself, embracing a singular approach to both form and subject.With these new velvet paintings, Schnabel considers the ways that the material appears as subject matter throughout the history of art—particularly in the works of Titian, Goya, and other Old Masters—and its symbolic weight in the history of humanity itself. But rather than creating illusionistic depictions of velvet, the artist uses the material for the surfaces of his works, inventing a new, contemporary kind of history painting in the process.Among Schnabel’s recent velvet works in the exhibition is the ten-panel Buñuel Awake (for Jean-Claude Carrière) or Bouquet of Mistakes (2022), a large-scale composition that evokes the grandeur of retablos, architecturally scaled paintings that loom behind the altars of Renaissance and Baroque churches across southern Europe. Also included in this body of new works is Gesù Deriso. Jesus Mocked (2023), which refers directly to an enigmatic Renaissance fresco by the Dominican monk Fra Angelico in the famous monastery of San Marco in Florence.Julian's new exhibition 'Bouquet of Mistakes' is now open and runs until October 28th 2023.Visit: pacegallery.com/exhibitions/julian-schnabel-new-york/Follow @JulianSchnabel and visit his official website: www.julianschnabel.comSpecial thanks to @PaceGallery. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talk Art special episode with WePresent!!! We meet TED ROGERS, a multidisciplinary artist based in Margate working predominantly with movement. Ted explores the extremities of movement through the neurodivergent and non binary lens; plowing their unwavering and infectious energy into any and all mediums, with a particular focus on entertainment and the deeper emotional aspects of humanity. This episode was recorded in front of a live audience within their debut solo show at Quench Gallery. They trained professionally in Musical Theatre before moving to London and finding nightlife, queer culture, gogo-dancing, drag, fashion, music and contemporary dance.Ted's collaborations have included renowned contemporary artists such as: Rosie Hastings and Hannah Quinlan, Lindsey Mendick, Jenkin Van Zyl, Holly Blakey, Anthea Hamilton & Lucy Mcormick. Ted is currently the performance artist in Residence at Tracey Emin's TKE studios following a sell out commission to open the studios with a performance called "Valentine”.Follow @ArtPornBlog on Instagram and visit Ted's website: https://www.MxRogers.com/Russell Tovey is WeTransfer’s third Guest Curator across 2023 where he spotlights LGBTQIA+ artists that have inspired him. The selected artists of the Guest Curatorship have been given a platform on WePresent, the arts arm of WeTransfer, and on these TalkArt episodes. As part of this collaboration, WePresent will also launch Russell Tovey’s documentary Life is Excellent and present a tour of four performances of BLUE NOW, a live version of Derek Jarman’s film BLUE directed by Neil Bartlett and performed by Russell Tovey alongside three other performers. As a certified B Corporation™, WeTransfer has long been a champion of using business as a force for good. Since its founding in 2009, WeTransfer has donated up to 30% of its advertising space to support artists and social causes, and commissioned original projects for its Oscar-winning arts platform WePresent. Last year, WeTransfer also launched its Supporting Act Foundation to support emerging creative talent through arts education, grants, and an annual prize.With more then more than 80 million monthly active users in 190 countries, WeTransfer is a platform by creators for creators. Its ecosystem of creative productivity tools makes it easy to collaborate, share and deliver work. Follow @WePresent on Instagram and visit https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/ to stay up to date on Russell Tovey’s Guest Curatorship on WePresent, the arts arm of WeTransfer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.