People

 Still from Buffalo 66 (1998)

Still from Buffalo 66 (1998)

A Summer Chronicle, part 2: NATASHA STAGG is in love, only wants to buy designer underwear and tells us why she enjoys going to strip clubs

 Shimabuku, Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere , 1994. Courtesy: the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville. Photo: Photo Marc Domag

Shimabuku, Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere, 1994. Courtesy: the artist and Air de Paris, Romainville. Photo: Photo Marc Domag

An artist of chance encounters muses about the intimacy of dirt, world-record mountaineering, and art that opens up the body’s every cell.

 Anna-Sophie Berger,  Untitled, Alexander Berger 1979 , 2023, C-print, 162.6 x 106.6. cm. Courtesy: Anna-Sophie Berger and Emanuel Layr, Vienna. Photo: Kunstdokumentation

Anna-Sophie Berger, Untitled, Alexander Berger 1979, 2023, c-print, 162.5 x 106.5 cm. All images courtesy: the artist and Emanuel Layr, Vienna. Photos: Kunstdokumentation

Is legibility in art a violent demand? During her latest solo show at Emanuel Layr, Vienna, Anna-Sophie Berger spoke about bad faith, harmful language, and fashion’s rapport with death.

 Nicole Eisenman, Sloppy Bar Room Kiss , 2011, oil on canvas, 99 x 122 cm. Courtesy:  the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer

Nicole Eisenman, Sloppy Bar Room Kiss, 2011, oil on canvas, 99 x 122 cm. Courtesy:  the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles. Photo: Robert Wedemeyer

Joanna Fiduccia’s portrait in Spike #33 of Nicole Eisenman, now the subject of a retrospective at Museum Brandhorst, Munich, snapshots her first forays into printmaking and her opening of the body unto intimacy.

 Portrait of Lauren Elkin, 2022. © Sophie Davidson. Courtesy: Penguin Random House

Portrait of Lauren Elkin, 2022. © Sophie Davidson. Courtesy: Penguin Random House

The author of Art Monsters (2023), which takes up women artists whose works reflect the experiences and insights of their own bodies, historicizes the stakes of the unruly feminine.

 Portrait of Milo Rau

Portrait of Milo Rau. Photo: Daniel Seiffert

Wiener Festwochen’s new artistic director unpacks Vienna’s relationship with being provoked, making grotesque demands onstage, and the theater as a total democracy.

 All images: Marina Otero, FUCK ME , 2020

All images: Marina Otero, FUCK ME, 2020

Between performances at Vienna’s ImPulsTanz, the Argentinian choreographer of several confrontational autofictions recounts bringing diaries into her dramaturgy and learning to work within the limits of her own body.

 One coffee, one pack of euro nicotine pouches, one knife, one pair of sunglasses, 200 business cards

One coffee, one pack of euro nicotine pouches, one knife, one pair of sunglasses, 200 business cards

Sam Marion diarizes the five-figure antics, moral surrenders, and steady lettings down of hair one June week on the Rhine (without naming any names).

 Martin Wong, Come Over Here Rockface , 1994, acrylic on canvas, 58 x 74 cm. Courtesy: the Martin Wong Foundation and P·P·O·W, New York

Martin Wong, Come Over Here Rockface, 1994, acrylic on canvas, 58 x 74 cm. Courtesy: the Martin Wong Foundation and P·P·O·W, New York

A painter of urban brick abandonment, Chinatown merchants, and kissing inmates, Martin Wong is having a moment, kindled by an interest in intersectional figuration twenty years after his death. Yet his images of society’s margins are as enigmatic as they are empathetic: Hot yet held back, they reflect his desire to be both one with and apart from the worlds he drifted into.

 Caroline Calloway and her cat, Matisse. © Casey Brooke

Caroline Calloway and her cat, Matisse. © Casey Brooke

As pre-orders roll in for her new memoir, Scammer, the disgraced influencer spills the beans to Adina Glickstein about grifting, gendered fame-seeking, and the it-girl as a startup.

 Doris Uhlich,  more than naked , 2013 © Bernhard Müller

Doris Uhlich, more than naked, 2013 © Bernhard Müller

On 6 July, ImPulsTanz opens with a free, 10th-anniversary performance of Doris Uhlich’s more than naked. Ahead of the opening, the Austrian choreographer speaks about the aesthetics and politics of nudity and trying to be faster than the beat.

 First Breath at Factory International. ©Tomasz Kozak

First Breath at Factory International. ©Tomasz Kozak

Marking the debut of Factory International, the Manchester performing arts complex’s designer talks raving with her daughters to “get” young people’s needs, refusing 3D rendering to protect imaginative space, and unlearning that beauty is not an architectural ideal.

 Portrait of Aurel Haize Odogbo in her studio, 2023

Portrait of Aurel Haize Odogbo in her studio, 2023

Marking her debut solo exhibition at Deli Gallery, Mexico City, collage painter Aurel Haize Odogbo discusses Black womanhood in fantasy and having angels one can look like.

 Louise Lawler, (Stevie Wonder) Living Room Corner Arranged by Mr. & Mrs. Burton Tremaine, Sr. , New York City, 1984/1985, silver dye bleach print with printed text on mat, 46.5 x 60.5 cm. All images courtesy: the artist and Sprüth Magers

Louise Lawler, (Stevie Wonder) Living Room Corner Arranged by Mr. & Mrs. Burton Tremaine, Sr., New York City, 1984/1985, silver dye bleach print with printed text on mat, 46.5 x 60.5 cm. All images courtesy: the artist and Sprüth Magers

Espying 20th-century icons in all their public guises and moments of uncanny repose, Louise Lawler’s photographs convey that how we look is as formative as what we’re meant to see.

Portrait of Vincenzo De Bellis. Courtesy: Art Basel

Ahead of the Alpine extravaganza, Vincenzo de Bellis talks his Peep-Hole origins, sickness as an artistic thematic, and viewing the fairs as curatorial snapshots of the right now.

 Kenneth Anger (left) and Tav Falco (right) in conversation at the 2006 Viennale. Photo: Wolfgang Thaler

Kenneth Anger (left) and Tav Falco (right) in conversation at the 2006 Viennale. Photo: Wolfgang Thaler

In memory of Kenneth Anger (1927–2023), we’re republishing our 2006 interview with the iconoclastic filmmaker on silk flowers, vindictive scientologists, and his refusal to hustle for production money.

Ahead of his first-ever pool performance at Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, Ei Arakawa walks through the changing infrastructure for artist-parents, the integrality of surprise to humor, and modelling queer fatherhood.

 Portrait of Ulysses Jenkins, 2022. © Harry Gamboa Jr. Photo: Harry Gamboa Jr.

Portrait of Ulysses Jenkins, 2022. © Harry Gamboa Jr. Photo: Harry Gamboa Jr.

Occasioned by a retrospective at JSF Berlin, the polymathic video artist talks to Harry Gamboa Jr. about self-love and technological liberation, LA’s ethos of inclusion, and finding humor in the struggle for change.

 “Nicolas Moufarrege, National Studio Artist,” at “Nicolas Moufarrege's Room,” an unofficial exhibition installed in the artist’s studio, 1982. Courtesy: The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York

“Nicolas Moufarrege, National Studio Artist,” at “Nicolas Moufarrege's Room,” an unofficial exhibition installed in the artist’s studio, 1982. Courtesy: The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York

In a brief and internationally mythologized career, Nicolas Moufarrege, subject of a compact retrospective at CCA Berlin, threaded together feminized house craft, spray-can Pop, and an urge to find the all within.

 Michel Würhle in his home in 2006. All photos: Andrea Stappert

Michel Würthle in his home in 2006. All photos: Andrea Stappert

In memory of Michel Würthle (1943–2023), we’re resurfacing his Autumn 2006 conversation with Roberto Ohrt and Harald Fricke on unoccupied spaces and Würthle’s unquenchable desire to make books.

 Monica Bonvicini, Stonewall 3 , 2002, galvanized steel tubes, chains, and broken safety glass, 205 x 1230 x 100 cm. All images: © Monica Bonvicini, VG-Bild Kunst, Bonn, 2022. Courtesy: the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan; Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich; and Galerie Krinzinger, Austria. Photo: A. Burger

Monica Bonvicini, Stonewall 3, 2002, galvanized steel tubes, chains, and broken safety glass, 205 x 1230 x 100 cm. All images: © Monica Bonvicini, VG-Bild Kunst, Bonn, 2023. Courtesy: the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan; Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich; and Galerie Krinzinger, Austria. Photo: A. Burger

Mid-way through Monica Bonvicini’s exhibition “I do You” at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, we’re resurfacing an interview with the artist from the very first issue of Spike.

 Still from Will Benedict and Steffen Jørgensen, The Restaurant, Season 2 , 2022, HD video, 39:05 min. Courtesy: Will Benedict, Steffen Jørgensen, and Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève

Still from Will Benedict and Steffen Jørgensen, The Restaurant, Season 2 (detail), 2022, HD video, 39:05 min. Courtesy: Will Benedict, Steffen Jørgensen, and Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève

Fresh off a retrospective at Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, the artist speaks to Mitchell Anderson about trying to prove the hard materiality of time.

 Courtesy: the author, who writes: “I took this selfie in 2016 during an internet sex session, and also used it later with several other partners.”

Courtesy: the author, who writes: “I took this selfie in 2016 during an internet sex session, and also used it later with several other partners.”

Low-res, badly angled, pixilated, over-exposed: Joanna Walsh advocates images that reveal effort and failure.

Tongo Eisen-Martin is today’s leading revolutionary poet. Here, he speaks about the evils of San Francisco, Black liberation, and John Coltrane.

 Rollin Leonard, Mud Puddle , single channel video, 2014

Rollin Leonard, Mud Puddle, single channel video, 2014

Rollin Leonard stretches faces into nonsense. Here the artist speaks with poet Kate Durbin about Web3, the Anthropocene, cadavers, and more.

 Manuel Rossner, New Float , 2022

Manuel Rossner, New Float, 2022

The artist Manuel Rossner on adding digital layers to the “real” world.

 Image from  Hivemind . Courtesy: Serpentine Galleries and Trust

Image from Hivemind. Courtesy: Serpentine Galleries and Trust

Can video games dispel the commodity fetish? Hivemind, a recent project in collaboration between Trust and Serpentine Digital, leads the way.

 Courtesy: Manifesta 14. Photo: Atdhe Mulla

Courtesy: Manifesta 14. Photo: Atdhe Mulla

How to make an international exhibition in a place where the locals can’t travel internationally

 Rhea Dillon, A Caribbean Ossuary , 2022, wooden cabinet and cut crystal, 42 × 208 × 161.5 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Soft Opening, London. Photo: Theo Christelis

Rhea Dillon, A Caribbean Ossuary, 2022, wooden cabinet and cut crystal, 42 × 208 × 161.5 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Soft Opening, London. Photo: Theo Christelis

The British-Jamaican artist and poet Rhea Dillon reveals the relationship between mahogany cabinets and Carribean identity.

 Asad Raza, Diversion , 2022. Installation view, Portikus, 2022, Frankfurt am Main. Photo: Diana Pfammatter

Asad Raza, Diversion, 2022. Installation view, Portikus, 2022, Frankfurt am Main. Photo: Diana Pfammatter

Curators Liberty Adrien and Carina Bukuts are transforming the Portikus into a haven for experimental thinking.

 Portrait of Nikita Kadan. Photo: Klaus Pichler, © mumok

Portrait of Nikita Kadan. Photo: Klaus Pichler, © mumok

The Ukrainian artist Nikita Kadan moved into a bunker at the war's beginning. There, he spoke to Hans Ulrich Obrist and Sebastian Clark about how the past remains in the subjunctive and why we need a new anti-fascism.

 Cinema de la Plage, one of the only festival areas open to the public. All photos: Nolan Kelly.

Cinema de la Plage, one of the only festival areas open to the public. All photos: Nolan Kelly.

The glamor of the Cannes Film Festival feels impenetrable to most mortals. But what if it’s not? What if you just had to learn how to fake your way in? By Nolan Kelly

 Still from Wong Ping, Crumbling Earwax , 2022, 3-channel video installation, 13 min.Installation view at “Wong Ping: Ear Wax”, Times Art Center Berlin, 2022. Photo: Jens Ziehe, Berlin

Still from Wong Ping, Crumbling Earwax, 2022, 3-channel video installation, 13 min.Installation view at “Wong Ping: Ear Wax”, Times Art Center Berlin, 2022. Photo: Jens Ziehe, Berlin

The artist Wong Ping uses humor to speak the unspeakable. Here, he expresses his love for garbage, and also asks Beethoven some questions.

 LP album cover, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Blank Generation , 1977

LP album cover, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Blank Generation, 1977

Tea Hacic-Vlahovic has written Spike’s society column, “Gesellschaft am Ende”, since the summer of 2021. It’s time it gets from the paper to the World Wide Web. We start from the start, Spike #68.

 Bart Nagel,  Mondo Vanilli

Bart Nagel, Mondo Vanilli

R.U. Sirius, who shaped digital culture since its inception, dishes to Lydia Sviatoslavsky about (what’s left of) cyberpunk, stoner-inflected French theory, and the drab cruelty of American politics.

 Jordan Strafer,  PEP (Process Entanglement Procedure)  (2019). Video still. All photos courtesy the artist

Jordan Strafer, PEP (Process Entanglement Procedure) (2019). Video still. All photos courtesy the artist

Sobbing dolls, Tarkovsky remakes, and in-flight sushi served in air ambulances: Jordan Strafer’s films are equal parts haunted, heartbreaking, and hilarious. The artist talks truth with Jeppe Ugelvig on the occasion of her first major solo show.

Like the phoenix that personifies her latest album, Eartheater rises – resisting definition and thriving on contingency. Photographed by Mal Bea.

 DeFi Times, “BLOCKCHAIN WEEKS 2021 - Where To Drink & Eat!” (2021), video still

DeFi Times, “BLOCKCHAIN WEEKS 2021 - Where To Drink & Eat!” (2021), video still

A pseudonymous crypto correspondant’s party diary from a city Airbnb’d to the hilt for a weeklong Ethereum extragavanza.

 Rafaël Rozendaal, Times Square  Midnight Moment (2015). Photo: Michael Wells

Rafaël Rozendaal, Times Square Midnight Moment (2015). Photo: Michael Wells

Rafaël Rozendaal has been making digital art for two decades, and he’s unfazed by the rise of Web3. In this conversation with Spike, he explores how websites are like poetry, dishes some lessons in exhibiting digital work, and argues in favour of keeping the punk spirit alive in NFTs. 

 Tobias Spichtig, "Good OK Great Fantastic Perfect Grand Thank You". Installation view from Swiss Institute, New York. Courtesy of the artist.

Tobias Spichtig, "Good OK Great Fantastic Perfect Grand Thank You". Installation view from Swiss Institute, New York. Courtesy of the artist.

On the occasion of his first US solo show, Tobias Spichtig speaks with Jordan Richman about karaoke, mysticism, and fashionable ghosts.

 Geoffrey Mak in front of "Avery Singer: Reality Ender" at Hauser & Wirth, New York.

Geoffrey Mak in front of “Avery Singer: Reality Ender” at Hauser & Wirth, New York

Former Berlin club scene it-boy and current Julien Ceccaldi expert Geoffrey Mak is new in New York. Will somebody please invite him to a party?

 Deborah Hazler,  That Rant and Rave,  2020. Photo: Franzi Kreis

Deborah Hazler, That Rant and Rave, 2020. Photo: Franzi Kreis

Performance artist Deborah Hazler elevates grumbling – about everything from cruel politicians to cat videos – to the level of fine art at ImPulsTanz 2021.

Installation view, "Franz Josef Altenburg: Block, House, Tower, Scaffold, Frame" (2021), MAK Vienna. Photo: Georg Mayer

Remembering a landmark Austrian sculptor who shaped modern aesthetics with his own two hands.

 Matthew Tully Dugan.

Matthew Tully Dugan.

Artwork elucidates, suggests, deconstructs, and elides, but first it’s hung, framed, shipped and downloaded. In our new series,“Production Line”, Spike talks to the people who do just that: the brains (and brawn) behind the operation. First up is Matthew Tully Dugan – simply “Tully” to those in the know. Got a situation? He can handle it.

    

Yuki Kobayashi. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Ditching the strictures of sports in favour of going pro in performance art, Yuki Kobayashi adopts athletics as a lens to reveal our reductive assumptions about sexuality and gender.

 View from outside

View from outside

From the Archives: an interview with artist Kader Attia about La Colonie in Paris

 Leilah Weinraub, photo © Quentin Belt

Filmmaker, artist, and former CEO of Hood By Air Leilah Weinraub; all photos © Quentin Belt

With heavy hearts, Spike and Jordan Richman announce the death of the art world's dearly beloved After Party. 

 Installation view “On Adornments“, 2020, Spike Berlin

Installation view “On Adornments“, 2020, Spike Berlin

Spike Berlin has been host to a collaborative show between Ivan Gallery, Bucharest, and Temnikova & Kasela Gallery, Tallinn. Before the final days of the group show, we spoke to the gallerists about the situation in their home countries, and how the show “On Adornments” came together.

 Photo: Yuval Sagiv

Photo: Yuval Sagiv

Are the trees watching us?

What is the wilderness?

 Iikawa Takehiro,  DECORATOR CRAB, Arrangement, Adjustment, Movement , 2020, installation at Yokohama Triennale 2020. © Iikawa Takehiro Yokohama Triennale 2020

Iikawa Takehiro, DECORATOR CRAB, Arrangement, Adjustment, Movement, 2020, installation view Yokohama Triennale 2020, © Iikawa Takehiro

As the 7th edition of the Yokohama Triennale is set to open in Japan, Francesca Ceccherini sat down with Raqs Media Collective to discuss their curatorial strategy, and how the exhibition has developed online, in print, and elsewhere.

 Photo: Magali Bragard

Photo: Magali Bragard

What Pleasure is There in Thinking Today?

How painterly is your video work?

 Dan Bodan Photo: Julia Burlingham

Dan Bodan
Photo: Natascha Goldenberg

 

Bianca Heuser talks with Dan Bodan about his work for Google and the premiere performance of “A Flow of Serosities”, an algorithmic composition made in collaboration with programmer and sound artist Scott Carver

 Portrait of the artist © Xavier Le Roy

Portrait of the artist

© Xavier Le Roy

One of the leading figures of 1990s conceptual dance reflects on how memory, conflict and attention have shaped his ongoing project “Retrospective”, recently presented in Berlin

 Rem Koolhaas's Seattle Central Library

Rem Koolhaas's Seattle Central Library

A Summer Chronicle, part 8: NATASHA STAGG concludes her summer column on an ambivalent note, reviewing Richard Linklater’s Where’d You Go Bernadette. 

 Moschino Spring/Summer 2017

Moschino Spring/Summer 2017

A Summer Chronicle, part 7: NATASHA STAGG on (self-)promotion and dressing for the street style photographers. Participation is mandatory.

 Edouard Manet, Bouquet de Violettes,  1872 as seen on the cover of Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal  

Edouard Manet, Bouquet de Violettes, 1872 as seen on the cover of Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal, 1857

A Summer Chronicle, part 6: Poetry may be dead, but the confession reigns. NATASHA STAGG on the power of erratic tell-alls.

 Film still, Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water (1962)

Film still, Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water (1962)

A Summer Chronicle, part 5: NATASHA STAGG discusses her love of decadent psychological thrillers while she goes sailing in Mallorca

 Sharon Tate as Jennifer North in the film version of  Valley of the Dolls  (1967). Photograph: www.ronaldgrantarchive.com

Sharon Tate as Jennifer North in the film version of Valley of the Dolls (1967). Photograph: www.ronaldgrantarchive.com

 

A Summer Chronicle, part 4: NATASHA STAGG watches Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and reflects on the culture that engendered Sharon Tate and Marilyn Monroe's tragic stardom.

 All images courtesy of Celine 

Hedi Slimane, image Courtesy of Celine 

Director Hedi Slimane’s new Celine Art Project enlists contemporary artists to design work for stores around the world. Charles Teyssou discusses Slimane’s artistic imaginary through Americana cultural landscapes, and poses ten questions to two of Slimane’s collaborators, David Kramer and Shawn Kuruneru. 

 Matthew Day Jackson designed furniture

Matthew Day Jackson designed furniture

Spike attended the finger food VIP breakfast at the NetJets Art Basel lounge to talk to the American artist about the moon and the dark side of humanity’s favourite planet.

 Sill from  The Adventures of Baron Munchausen  (1988)

Sill from The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)

A Summer Chronicle, part 3: NATASHA STAGG talks about how vanity has changed and reflects on what her favourite movies have in common

 Stella McCartney's 2017 Ad Campaign

Stella McCartney’s 2017 ad campaign

A Summer Chronicle, part 1: NATASHA STAGG is back with her summer column and draws the connections between consumerism, waste, sustainability, and the intangibility of identity

 

 Really Useful Knowledge (Brook Andrew), Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2014 Photo: Joaquín Cortés & Román Lores / M.N.C.A.R.S

Really Useful Knowledge (Brook Andrew), Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2014

Photo: Joaquín Cortés & Román Lores / M.N.C.A.R.S

 Lee Anantawat on the street which inspired the name “Speedy Grandma”

Lee Anantawat on the street which inspired the name “Speedy Grandma”

Three important protagonists of the Bangkok Art Scene, Unchalee “Lee” Anantawat, Gridthiya “Jeab” Gaweewong, and Narawan “Kyo” Pathomvat, on the impacts their spaces have had, and how they have navigated Thailand’s complex political reality. By Abhijan Toto

 Installation view of Andi Fischer's works at Berlin Masters 2018, 24 September - 7 October 2018 © Bernd Borchardt

Installation view of Andi Fischer's works at Berlin Masters 2018, 24 September - 7 October 2018 © Bernd Borchardt

An interview with German artist Andi Fischer, winner of the Toy Berlin Masters Award 2018. By Chloe Stead

 Pippa Garner modeling works from her series “Shirt Storm”, 2017

Pippa Garner modeling works from her series “Shirt Storm”, 2017

Back when artist Pippa Garner was still called Phil, she worked as a combat artist in the Vietnam War. After that she studied automobile design and designed ironic functional products for a future that was never to come. A conversation about living in willed alienation. By Fiona Duncan.

 Rodney Graham Halcion Sleep (1994)

Rodney Graham
Halcion Sleep (video, 1994)

A Summer Chronicle, part 10: NATASHA STAGG on riding in the passenger seat

Photo: Chris Filippini

A Summer Chronicle, part 9: NATASHA STAGG goes to Europe and deliberates the demands and kindnesses of strangers

A Summer Chronicle, part 8. NATASHA STAGG on #paypiggies, #walletrapes, and turning the bank account into a sex organ

 Scene from BUtterfield 8 

Scene from BUtterfield 8 (1960)

A Summer Chronicle, part 7. NATASHA STAGG writes about writing this column, and about sex

 Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman

A Summer Chronicle, part 6. NATASHA STAGG on the pressure to keep up with body trends, makeup masks in the sheets, and why we need to to stop talking about going to the gym

A Summer Chronicle, part 5. NATASHA STAGG on the conflicting worlds of the art scene and her garbage man boyfriend, and the economies of attraction between writers and fans

 Mierele Laderman Ukeles Touch Sanitation Performance  (1979-1980) Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts

Mierele Laderman Ukeles
Touch Sanitation Performance (1979-1980)

Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts

A Summer Chronicle, part 4. NATASHA STAGG writes about dating a New York City garbage man

 Photo: Natasha Stagg

Photo: Natasha Stagg

A Summer Chronicle, part 3. NATASHA STAGG writes about a polarizing friend, Kylie Jenner and her favorite party.

 Etching by B. Picart, 1713, after C. Le Brun

Etching by B. Picart, 1713, after C. Le Brun

A Summer Chronicle, part 2. NATASHA STAGG writes about the consuming nature of jealousy and her greatest rival

A Summer Chronicle, part 1. NATASHA STAGG goes to Paris and writes about impressing men, hating her friends and the concept of what it is to deserve.

 Meg Stuart performing  Blanket Lady  at ZKM Karlsruhe (2012) © Pietro Pellini

Meg Stuart performing Blanket Lady at ZKM Karlsruhe (2012), © Pietro Pellini

An interview with dance and choreography artist Meg Stuart who is receiving a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award during the Venice Biennale Danza 2018. By Astrid Kaminski

 © Benjamin Huseby

© Benjamin Huseby

Why is there no criticism in fashion?

 Lara Schnittger, SUFFRAGETTE CITY

Lara Schnitger, SUFFRAGETTE CITY

For Frieze New York Spike columnist Dean Kissick didn't look at any art. Instead he drank with strangers to gauge the mood of the city.

An interview with Margaret Burton, an ex-artist who found her way into the fringes of fashion to criticise the industry from within. By Ché Zara Blomfield

 Trajal Harrell in  Caen Amour , Photo: Orpheas Emirzas

Trajal Harrell in Caen Amour, Photo: Orpheas Emirzas

Choreographer Trajal Harrell talks to Astrid Kaminski about his conceptual runway dances, Butoh and Rei Kawakubo just before the German premiere of his performance In the Mood for Frankie

The Austrian-born choreographer talks to Victoria Dejaco about the paradoxes of sexual harassment in dance and her latest work Apollon Musagète, which was recently staged at Tanzquartier Wien

An interview with the founders of Nonfood, the company that challenges earth's eating habits.

An interview with Henriette Heise, artist and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, on the state of contemporary art in Copenhagen

 Roger Federer, Australian Open 2016 Photo Leonard Zhukowsky / Shutterstock.com

Roger Federer, Australian Open 2016
Photo Leonard Zhukowsky / Shutterstock.com

Roger Federer has become the first player ever to win 20 Grand Slam titles. Asad Raza wrote an ode to him and his sport, bringing some light to a dark time.

 © Buketai by Sarune Zurba Photography

© Buketai by Sarune Zurba Photography

An interview with the co-owner of the Lithuanian gallery "Tulips & Roses”, who has since left the art world to find solace in floristry

Photo: Anthony Chiang

An interview with Parisian gallerist Frank Elbaz about his move to Dallas

 Photo: Suki Lynn

Photo: Suki Lynn

An interview with Justine Ludwig, senior curator at Dallas Contemporary, on what's special about city's art scene

 Photo: Hanna Putz

Photo: Hanna Putz

The power of Verena Dengler's art does not lie in individual objects but in the polyphonic stories they invoke. She finds the weak spots in the dominant view of reality and authoritarian discourses and puts them under strain in the hope of breaking authoritarian discourses once and for all. By Tenzing Barshee

 Tea Ceremony in pool, Mallorca, 2016; Image credit: Thirsty Moon

Tea Ceremony in pool, Mallorca, 2016; Image credit: Thirsty Moon

An interview with the founder of the Berlin tea garden Thirsty Moon on how she found what she was once looking for in the art world

Von Berlin-Art-Week-Sonderkorrespondent Rafael Horzon

A Summer Chronicle, part 10: Natasha Stagg's final summer report

A Summer Chronicle, part 9: Natasha Stagg about men, man-splaining and New York's (nonexistent) literati

A Summer Chronicle, part 8: Natasha Stagg about Trump's irreversible damage, "manic" heart racing and a not so happy Chris Kraus

 George W. Bush

A Summer Chronicle, part 7: Natasha Stagg about pre-post-truth innocence and George W. Bush at the gym

A Summer Chronicle, part 6: Natasha Stagg about a Nine Inch Nails concert, VIP areas at music festivals, and her life

A Summer Chronicle, part 5: Natasha Stagg attends a wedding and meets her idol, everything else is shit

 Photo: Deborah Turbeille for Vogue (May 1975)

Photo: Deborah Turbeille for Vogue (May 1975)

A Summer Chronicle, part 4: Natasha Stagg on castings, consultancies and Cody Critcheloe

 Photo: Egor Slizyak

Photo: Egor Slizyak

Does the feed change our experience of time?

 Still from  Arthur  (1981)

Still from Arthur (1981)

A Summer Chronicle, part 3: Natasha Stagg observes the day to day life of New York's Upper East Side while sitting in a coffee shop offering 26$ wedge salads

 Cover of Vogue in June 1932

Cover of the June 1932 Vogue (detail)

A Summer Chronicle, part 2: Natasha Stagg writes about working in the fashion-magazine world and loneliness on Independence Day

A Summer Chronicle, part 1. Natasha Stagg writes about families, fantasies, and flying

 Franziska Sophie Wildförster and Cory Scozzari

Franziska Sophie Wildförster and Cory Scozzari

Curators Cory Scozzari and Franziska Sophie Wildförster talk about their experiences setting up new exhibition spaces in Vienna

There is something enigmatic about her theatrical installations. With paintings, readymades, sculptures, drawings and videos, they draw the viewer into a world of glitter, horror, stars and victims, but we never know who it belongs to. By Barry Schwabsky 

 Laura Windhager and Oliver Croy

Laura Windhager and Oliver Croy

From a gallerist's perspective: Laura Windhager and Oliver Croy discuss the new Viennese art scene

 Photo: Alexander Coggin

Photo: Alexander Coggin

Can art still be fun?

Anne Ellegood, Senior Curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, on Bob Flanagan’s Visiting Hours (1994)

Artists Joey Holder, Merike Estner, curator Maria Arusoo, artists Kolbeinn Hugi, Kris Lemsalu, and Georg Kargl Fine Arts' Fiona Liewehr

Georg Kargl Fine Arts curated by Maria Arusoo

Photo: eSeL

Artwork by Elías Adasme

Kerstin Engholm Gallery curated by Heike Munder

Photo: eSeL

Installing HH Lim's work Lao Tzu said, 2016

Christine König Galerie curated by Giulia Ferracci

Photo: eSeL

 Hund flieht aus Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Hund flieht aus Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Jeden zweiten Dienstag schreibt Timo Feldhaus über das Wichtigste auf der Welt: andere Leute.

 Figure a Sea, 2015 Dancers of the Cullberg Ballet: In the front: Unn Faleide, Eleanor Campbell, Samuel Draper.  In the back: Barry Brannum, Eszter Czédulás, Paolo Mangiola Photo: Urban Jörén

Figure a Sea, 2015

Dancers of the Cullberg Ballet:
In the front: Unn Faleide, Eleanor Campbell, Samuel Draper. 
In the back: Barry Brannum, Eszter Czédulás, Paolo Mangiola
Photo: Urban Jörén

The choreographer and dancer Deborah Hay talks about the importance of language and the ethics of optimism.

 Archie Burnett

Archie Burnett

Dancer Archie Burnett, the first Father of the House of Ninja, talks about 45 years of Vogue and Waacking

 Photo: Filipe Braga

Photo: Filipe Braga

Who is the thief?

 Vincenzo Della Corte

Vincenzo Della Corte

Vin Vin in Vienna

 Photo: Benoit Marie

Photo: Benoit Marie

Is all the world a stage?

 Photo by Amalia Ulman

Photo by Amalia Ulman

What does it mean today to have a life with kids, to have a life in art, and to live a life? Why are children and the artist's life so hard to unite? Or is this a false assumption? Spike Art Daily dedicates a series of interviews to the problematic relationship that the art industry has with its offspring. In this interview Lauren Boyle and Marco Roso, two of the four members of DIS, talk about why the concept of family is just "too much for the art world" and the differences between raising kids in Berlin and New York.

Every Tuesday Timo Feldhaus writes about the most important thing in the world: other people.

 Still from unreleased project to be shown in Basel

Still from unreleased project to be shown in Basel

Swiss artist Hannah Weinberger has no studio, and if she started to want one, she says she would rather "stop doing art and open up a bakery". Here, the artist describes her itinerant practice, objects that inspire her, and the influence the birth of her kids has had on her work.

M.I.A's campaign to help greenwash H&M is a catastrophe. Edward Snowden is collaborating with Jean-Michel Jarre on a techno track. Lady Gaga visited Assange when he was first on the lam. All of this is totally horrible and wrong. Dean Kissick explains why and asks: How powerful is soft power? And what does it mean to be "radical chic" today?

 Interior view Sanya Kantarovsky's studio All images courtesy of Sanya Kantarovsky

Interior view Sanya Kantarovsky's studio
All images courtesy of Sanya Kantarovsky

New York-based artist Sanya Kantarovsky gives us a view of his industrial studio and shows us some things which inspire him. Finding the right balance between isolation and collaboration, and between Taylor Swift and Bulgarian choir music isn’t always easy. But Kantarovsky makes it work. Here's how:

 Jack Halberstam Photo: Assaf Evron

Jack Halberstam
Photo: Assaf Evron

What can children teach us about resistance?

 Photo: Lisa Ruyter

Photo: Lisa Ruyter

An obituary for Tamuna Sirbiladze, the widow of the late Franz West, who has now also passed away.

Is there a way out of self-exploitation?

 Untitled , 1997, Franz West & Heimo Zobernig Installation view Fundação de Serralves, Porto Photo: Archiv HZ

Untitled, 1997, Franz West & Heimo Zobernig
Installation view Fundação de Serralves, Porto
Photo: Archiv HZ

No art without alcohol. The artists' bar has a rich history in Vienna, more than perhaps anywhere else. Why do artists not only build but also go so far as to run bars themselves? Why do we give in again and again to the dubious charms of bars? With an introduction by Thomas Miessgang.

Nathan Fielder

Dean Kissick discusses the shifting value of the term “artist” in our current state of global affairs and the complicity between Comedien Nathan Fielder and political figures from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin.

 Exterior view of Mathis Altmann's current studio All images courtesy of Mathis Altmann

Exterior view of Mathis Altmann's current studio
All images courtesy of Mathis Altmann

In Zürich Mathis Altmann was involved in founding a number of artist-run spaces, such as Paloma Presents and New Jersyy, whose influence spread far beyond Switzerland. From his temporary home in sunny California, and before his upcoming presentation at Paramount Ranch 3, he reminisces about studios past and shows us his cement-covered current space in Los Angeles.

  Photo: Walther Le Kon

 Photo: Walther Le Kon

What was most important about 90s art?

 Stian Eide Kluge and Steffen Håndlykken All images: Courtesy of 1857

Stian Eide Kluge and Steffen Håndlykken
All images: Courtesy of 1857

1857 is an artist-run space in Oslo tackling the genres and conventions of exhibition making head on. Founders Stian Eide Kluge and Steffen Håndlykken talk with Esperanza Rosales about placeholders, ugly bastards, and steering ship.

 Photo: eSeL.at

Photo: eSeL.at

Why do you use paintings in your performances?

A low murmur passed through the
crowd when I entered the room. Then
everyone fell silent and all you could
hear was quiet whispering: “He’s arrived!” By Rafael Horzon

 Photo: Alberto Gamazo

Photo: Alberto Gamazo

What does it mean today to have a life with kids, to have a life in art, and to live a life? Why are children and the artist's life so hard to unite? Or is this a false assumption? Spike Art Daily dedicates a series of interviews to the problematic relationship that the art industry has with its offspring. In this interview, curator and theorist Chus Martínez talks about shared realities, competitive situations and why children always open us up.

 Photo: Kate Young

Portrait of Jacob Appelbaum 

Photo: Kate Young

If the art world has the image of a non-transparent, nepotistic closed circle, what happens when hackers claim their place in it? And more importantly why go into art when you could hack the system?

Jacob Appelbaum, internet activist and journalist, played an important role in the publication of the Snowden documents and the revelation of the spied-on mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel. The 33-years-old hacker talks with us about his first solo art exhibition in Berlin and why this city is a magnet for freedom fighters.

 Leon Kahane and Yanis Varoufakis photographed by Keren Cytter 

Leon Kahane and Yanis Varoufakis photographed by Keren Cytter 

Since this summer everybody knows that Yanis Varoufakis is a principled idealist, that his wife is an artist, and that he drives a motorbike very fast.

 Photo: G etty Images

Photo: Getty Images

The buzz in the build-up had all been about Caitlyn Jenner — attending, or possibly walking the catwalk. In the end she didn't come to the show — this Givenchy show, where fashion and art would celebrate their latest reunion. The BFF‘s Marina Abramović and designer Ricardo Tisci constructed a favela-inspired setting to combine runway show and art performance. Our writer Dean Kissick was not amused.

 Photo: Marco Anelli, © 2012

Photo: Marco Anelli, © 2012

What do you teach young artists?

Portrait by Marina Faust

One month ago the French Minister of Culture dismissed Nicolas Bourriaud from his post as director of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, in an astonishing decision that caused a storm in French - and international - media, replete with rumors of high-level intrigue and allegations of nepotism.
Now Bourriaud tells his version of events. What did the renowned curator and theorist's dismissal have to do with Ralph Lauren? How come the students couldn't work in their studios for six days beforehand? And what are his hopes for the future of the institution?

 In theh middle: Rózsa Zita Farkas with Zhoe Granger (Manager) and Lily Cheetah Nicol (assistant). British Vogue, August, p.144

Rózsa Zita Farkas with Zhoe Granger (Manager) and Lily Cheetah Nicol (assistant).

British Vogue, August, p.144

5 questions for Rózsa Farkas of Arcadia Missa

 Calanque de Sugiton

Calanque de Sugiton

The Swiss artist on temporary studio situations and swimming

The Vienna-based artist talks about Wilhelm Busch and home improvement

 Jesse James (1939), Henry Fonda, 20th Century Fox

Jesse James (1939), Henry Fonda, 20th Century Fox
Back in the days, when bank robbers carried guns instead of cameras

Filmmaker Joe Gibbons robbed a bank. That was just a performance, he said after his arrest. Now he is going to prison. The question remains: Was this a very bad robbery or really good art?

 Juergen Teller / System

Juergen Teller / System

Of course you've already seen the pictures Juergen Teller took of himself with the rapper Kanye West and his wife Kim Kardashian, the Inventress of Selfie. Our author explains why it takes an age of the grotesque to make Kim's posterior into a work of art.

Of course I like art. “It’s my wife and it’s my life”, as Lou Reed would say. But to name favorite artists like the names of Ninja Turtles – it’s like saying that Mozart is great or that Marx or Freud were important. You can’t say that, these are facts. To name some “third of May”, “raft”, “burial”, “barricade”, “luncheon”, “water lilies”, or “apples” doesn’t make sense either. They might be favourites, but they’re everybody’s favourites. If someone says Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is a good painting … yeah, it’s a great painting.

Flaka Haliti's studio in July & August on Fogo Island

Long Studio, Fogo Island Arts. Saunders Architecture. © Bent René Synnevåg

The Munich-based artist is off to beautiful places

 McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg

McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg

The New York–based artist shows us everything but her studio.

Michael E. Smith, Untitled (2014). Sunflower stalk, t-shirt, resin, 50 x 4 x 4.5 cm.

5 questions to Chris Sharp who runs "Lulu" in Mexico City

 Photo of Martin Soto Climent, Lulu (the owner of the local juice bar Climent and Sharp named our space after) and Chris Sharp, taken on the day of Lulu's two year anniversary. 

Photo of Martin Soto Climent, Lulu (the owner of the local juice bar Climent and Sharp named their space after) and Chris Sharp, taken on the day of Lulu's two year anniversary. 

5 questions to Chris Sharp who co-runs "Lulu" in Mexico City

Yesterday we published an interview in which Marina Abramović accuses the rapper Jay-Z of breaking an agreement. Abramović gave Jay-Z permission to adapt her piece “The Artist is Present” (originally performed as part of her 2010 retrospective at MoMA) for a music video of

Crystal Cinema I, Marina Abramovic

It was one of the biggest meetings of art and pop culture in the last ten years. But was it also a game changer? And what were the consequences for the participants? When Jay-Z adapted Marina Abramović's performance "The Artist is Present" (2010) for his video "Picasso Baby" at New York's Pace Gallery in 2013, many wondered: how did Abramović end up here? New York’s art scene was the audience, with Abramović herself as the star. Looking back, Marina wonders this too. At her recent retrospective at SESC Pompeia, São Paulo, she openly discussed the drawbacks of having replaced the physical, face-to-face encounter with the camera, and having become a brand.

Isabelle Graw, photo credit Heji Shin

What does it mean today to lead a life with a child, a life in art and a life as such? Why are children and life as an artist so difficult to reconcile? Or is that perhaps not true at all? In a series of interviews, Spike Art Daily is dedicating itself to the problematic relationship that the art world has with its children. We start with Isabelle Graw. The critic, professor, and editor of Texte zur Kunst explains why children sometimes even make it easier to oppose the logic of an economy that has it in for our lives.

5 questions to Salvatore Viviano who runs the "one work gallery" in Vienna

 Photo: Michael Dannenmann, Düsseldorf

Photo: Michael Dannenmann, Düsseldorf

What was the role of the rediscovery of artists in the 1960s and what is it today?

 Noam in front of his dads sculpture 

Noam in front of his dads sculpture 

Harm van den Dorpel on "having kids in the art world"

 Poetry reading by Keith J. Varadi, photograph by Sarah Rosengarten  

Mai Ueda, Tea Ceremony with Ready Mades, 2014, photograph by Adrianna Glaviano Artwork:
Anne Speier, Identity Entity, Broken Glass Pudding 1 and 2, 2013
Collage, 150 x 165cm each
INSTALLED: 29.04 - 15.09.2014

5 questions for Ché Zara Blomfield, who runs "The Composing Rooms" in Berlin

Nik Kosmas lifting weights

Why did you decide to end your career as a young and successful visual artist?

 Set photo of Madame Bovary by Vincente Minnelli showing the filmmaker, Jennifer Jones and Louis Jourdan

Set photo of Madame Bovary by Vincente Minnelli showing the filmmaker, Jennifer Jones and Louis Jourdan

I have so many favorites ... a mountain of favorites ... well so here is the peak of my mountain of favorites ... things I’m living and breathing, very inspired by, and grateful to be on the same earth as .... None of them may be “new” but perhaps they are new to you or nice to be reminded of ... so many artworks can be felt completely anew, depending on the moment one collides with them ...

 About A B order, 2013 Diverse Materialien / Mixed media 8-teilig / 8 parts 280 x 520 x 274 cm Courtesy Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Wien Photos: Markus Wörgötter

About A B order, 2013
Diverse Materialien / Mixed media
8-teilig / 8 parts
280 x 520 x 274 cm
Courtesy Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Wien
Photos: Markus Wörgötter

Though Austrian artist Heinrich Dunst is au fait with the ins and outs of painting and performance, his true medium is »discourse«. One must therefore assess his conceptual work with retrospect to its origins in the Viennese scene of the 80s. If today, the discursiveness of art has become brittle, Dunst is the man to dissolve its final binding ties.

 Foto: Fabian Gonzalez

Foto: Fabian Gonzalez

Chris Fitzpatrick, Director of Kunstverein München, on »Serial Protest Signs« (1998–?) by Frank Chu.

 Margaret Lee, Exhibition view of »Michele Abeles/Margaret Lee\Darren Bader« White Columns, New York City, 2010 Courtesy of White Columns

Margaret Lee, Exhibition view of »Michele Abeles/Margaret Lee\Darren Bader«
White Columns, New York City, 2010
Courtesy of White Columns

Affective affinities and the works of friends influence me. Dialogues and life inform my thinking. I love for works to explore new territories. I believe, naïvely, in the power of art to change society. This belief is growing stronger by the day. Here is a small sample of works and artists who open doors in my head.

 Nancy Spector & Tino Sehgal  Foto: David Velasco

Nancy Spector & Tino Sehgal 
Photo: David Velasco

Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, on This Progress (2006) by Tino Sehgal

Wherein lies the happiness of wage labour?