The Art Show

Richard Bell is one of the few individual artists curated into Documenta 15, the highly-anticipated global survey of contemporary art. This year, for the first time, it's been dominated by artists and collectives from the Global South. But the historic takeover has been eclipsed by a media storm ignited by what appears to be a Jewish caricature in a mural painted by Indonesian artist group Taring Padi, since taken down.  Queensland-born sculptor Sebastian di Mauro who now calls Delaware home, discusses his obsession with materiality and his new exhibition featuring appliquéd army blankets based on the arcane imagery on American dollar notes.  And we discover the little-known painter Edward Brezinski who lived on the fringes of the hyperactive 1980s New York art scene that produced Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. His desperate bid for fame is charted in the new documentary Make Me Famous which also offers a fascinating insight into the ecosystem of the art business.

A conversation with artist Daniel Boyd whose work has focussed on reframing Eurocentric images from Australia's past. Plus, Sally Ryan discusses her latest commission, a giant oil painting of Jesus, Mary and Joseph for St Mary's cathedral in Sydney. She says it's her hardest painting yet. And, returning artefacts taken from Kunwinjku and Gagadju artists in Arnhem Land in the early 1900s.

Have you ever walked through an epic entanglement of red cotton thread, by the artist Chiharu Shiota? The Japanese installation and performance artist takes Daniel through The Soul Trembles, an exhibition highlighting 25 years of her practice. Including the time she undertook a nude workshop with Marina Abramovic, mistaking her for the textile sculptor Magdalena Abakanowitcz. Plus, Daniel speaks with performance artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji, who came to Sydney to lead a public endurance performance in which a group of women haul water kegs through the streets. It was first performed in Lagos, Nigeria in 2011. From the sky, to the moon and the neon of electric globes, light is art's most essential element. Tate UK has a huge collection of works that speak to the evolution of light, from natural source to fluorescent tubes. More than 70 of them are on show at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).

Why artist and curator David Sequeira doesn't believe in just a 'pop of colour'. How a colour-blind artist adapted to colours he couldn't perceive. And how glasses that allow colour-deficient people to see the full spectrum of colours, work. Plus, Daniel chats to V&A curator Catlin Langford about her book on the mania for Autochrome, an early colour photography process invented by the Lumière brothers.

We start the show at the Parade for the Moon in Melbourne's Chinatown, part of the city's RISING festival. Then Daniel speaks with tattoo and visual artist eX-de-Medici about her intense and detailed watercolours that interrogate violent power structures. And step inside the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where Daniel catches up with Australian artist Angelica Mesiti, who teaches there.

Daniel chats with artist brothers Abdul-Rahman and Abdul Abdullah, who are close in life but not so much in their art. However, thorny issues unite them in Land Abounds, their new joint exhibition. Hear how Filipino sculptor Leeroy New builds his large-scale sci-fi installations made from 100% recycled materials. He's in Australia for Melbourne's RISING festival. And how did an 1897 painting by the Wurundjeri clan leader William Barak, end up at a Sotheby's auction house in New York? Last week Wurundjeri people successfully bid for the works.

The American artist Kiki Smith talks about tapestry and her long career. My Art Crush: painter and printmaker Kirtika Kain makes tactile work about the oppression  and unrecorded history of Dalit people. Step inside the Palais de Tokyo (in Paris), Europe's largest centre for contemporary art, for a tour of the exhibition Reclaim The Earth.

How often does a political artwork fall into the national spotlight during a federal election? Hear from Archibald portrait prize winner Blak Douglas. Plus, an Italian art exhibition that puts NFT juggernaut Beeple alongside European masters and Australia's Richard Bell. And enter the studio of weaver, printmaker and textile artist Ema Shin.

Greetings from the 22nd La Biennale di Venezia, in Italy! The Venice Biennale is known as the Olympics of the art world, complete with golden awards, stunning achievement and sometimes, disappointment. This year has seen more female artists, Black artists and minority cultures representing national pavilions than even before. Take a tour with Daniel around the storied pavilions and canals of the world's most prestigious art event, speaking with participants, former Australian representatives and punters.

What do artists think about when making huge public art? Lindy Lee is making the most expensive work commissioned by the NGA, and Judy Watson's bara will grace Sydney's harbour with a giant Gadigal fish hook. Then, the US art lab addressing the problem of confederate monuments to racist causes... and Indigenous artists Julie Gough, Nicholas Galanin and Yhonnie Scarce on Australia's own colonial memorialising.

Rebecca Belmore is one of Canada's most important artists and is now having her first Australian solo show. Plus, visit Sally Smart's studio, inspired by one of the most influential dance companies of the twentieth century. And Yuki Kihara's Venice Biennale entry Paradise Camp, where the artist reimagines tropes used by Paul Gauguin and Samoan tourism brochures, with a Fa'afafine cast.

Marco Fusinato is representing Australia at the 2022 Venice Biennale with work for 'monstrous times'. Plus, artworks that tell queer stories selected from the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, for NGV Queer. And who was Lala Deen Dayal? The pioneering Indian photographer who documented a vast nation.

Victor Ehikhamenor is one of Nigeria's most prominent artists and calls for the Benin bronzes, the looted cultural treasures of Edo State, to be repatriated. So what did he do when he was asked to make an artwork in response to the memorial to the 19th C. British leader of the looting? Plus, South Australian artist Helen Fuller turns her hand to unconventional ceramic pots -- and an original way to exhibit them. And why tropical fruit, low-cost bejewelling and a Thai auteur inspire artist Nathan Beard.

David Noonan makes intriguing black-and-white collage of people in often liminal states. But despite their evocative drama, his pictures don't tell a story. Plus, Hoda Afshar's photographic project Speak the Wind, about people in the Persian Gulf who believe that humans can be possessed by the wind. And spotlight on the Australian artist and feminist Erica McGilchrist, whose painting series in the 1950s was based on her experiences teaching art at a mental hospital.

Ian Strange uses entire houses -slated for demolition- as his canvas, exploring the symbolism of 'home' through eras of unaffordability and urban development. Plus, meet Irish artist Sean Lynch onsite at his new public artwork in inner-city Melbourne. Sera Waters uses old English needlework techniques and crafts to examine the legacy of her settler forbears. And celebrating the work of feminist artist Frances Phoenix, whose doilies and embroidery packed a punch to the patriarchy.

Colombian artist Carolina Caycedo gives voice to rivers dammed for huge hydroelectric projects. What happens when the art world turns its back on Russia's major contemporary art museum? And Dennis Golding shares memories of 'the Block', using treasured iron lace from Redfern's terrace houses.

Aunty Elaine Russell has legendary status in her home town of Sydney. She was an artist and storyteller who inspired many, and whose work has been acquired by a number of Australia's major galleries and museums.

British filmmaker and installation artist Isaac Julien on his latest works: a spellbinding interpretation of Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi and a portrait of 19th C. abolitionist Fredrick Douglass. Plus, Heather B. Swann's potent retelling of the Greek myth 'Leda and the swan', where Leda is at the centre of the story. And why you should know the name Thanakupi -- the pioneering ceramic artist from the Thaynakwith language group in western Cape York, whose legacy looms large.

Jennifer Herd is a Mbarbarrum artist and founding member of Brisbane's proppaNOW art collective.

Floods have ravaged art galleries and studios in northern New South Wales. We hear from a gallery director and artist Megan Cope. Plus Ukrainian-Australian artist Stanislava Pinchuk. And a spotlight on the bold modernist printmaker Ethel Spowers.

Dianne Jones is a provocative photo-media artist who manipulates images from colonial art to give prominence to Indigenous people.

The goddess of love has reigned supreme through Western art, but her roots are darker, more ancient and shape-shifting than you'd expect. Historian and TV presenter Prof Bettany Hughes joins Daniel to tell the surprising history of Venus/Aphrodite. Plus, a seascape painter who lives on a yacht, and step into the studio of Yul Scarf, who uses ceramics, old bricks and the revived tech of QR codes, to explore questions of colonialism.

Laurel Nannup is a Noongar artist and elder who grew up near Pinjara in Western Australia. As part of the Stolen Generation she was taken from her mother at the age of 8 and sent to the Wanderling Mission.

Who makes up “the canon” in Art today? A new book picks 50 artists from around the world, and across centuries, to take a meaningful snapshot of art masters. Plus, a curator on 16th C. artist Lavinia Fontana, Europe's first female professional painter. And Atong Atem's panoramic collage that charts 10 years of life, family and art.

Julie Gough is a Trawlwoolway artist whose practice often refers to her family's experiences as Tasmanian Aboriginal people and is held in many private collections and major galleries in Australia.

Patricia Piccinini is Australia's foremost artist exploring the relationship between humanity and technology, and the ethical tensions it inspires in the viewer. Plus, introducing our new segment My Art Crush. Jess Cochrane on the impact of Édouard Manet's Olympia on her work. And Thea Anamara Perkins on family legacy and NFTs.

Julie Dowling is considered one of Australia's greatest exponents of the family portrait, but always with an Indigenous focus.

Vivienne Binns shocked critics in the 1960s with her joyful paintings of giant genitalia and Dada-inspired assemblages. Now aged 81, she looks back at a vast arts practice that has never stopped questioning: what is art, and what do we want to say with it? Plus, Jazmina Cininas' magical take on a DIY folk instrument that conjures Pagan myths and Lithuanian folk lore.

Know My Name Series Two: interviews with Indigenous women artists from the ABC archives. In this episode meet Fiona Foley, a Badtjala artist from K'gari in Queensland

How does mindfulness stimulate artists? Meet the artists and curators of a new exhibition exploring mindfulness and meditation, called Presence of Mind. Plus, meet Gulnara Samoilova, founder of the global project Women Street Photographers.

Enter the eclectic studio and thought-provoking work of the Wiradjuri installation artist Karla Dickens. Plus, is the Aboriginal flag, now freed from copyright restrictions, a work of art? And the 'wild clay' movement, where potters dig their own.

How has social media giant Instagram changed how we experience art? Experts, artists and critics weigh in on the photo sharing platform, an evolution that's allowed artists to build careers outside of the gallery system, while drastically changing our consumption of art.

Anne Wallace paints film-like scenes of intimacy and psychological tension that speak to iso life and the female gaze. Plus, the found photo archive that documents China's embrace of capitalism.

The rediscovery of Hilma af Klint's abstract paintings has taken the art world by storm, but what meaning can we find in her powerful, mysterious work?  Plus, artist and designer W.H. Chong on the secret behind the perfect book cover. And head into the bush with immersive landscape painter Mary Tonkin.

Performance art tests the limits of the body and the gallery space. Fiona Kelly McGregor's latest book relives its bracing ascendancy in Sydney's queer and underground scene, and the well-known and lesser-known artists who lived and breathed it. Plus, performance artists Justin Shoulder and Stelarc. And, how do art galleries preserve performance art?

What if the use of white in classical sculpture was just a construct? For the ancient Greeks and Romans, sculptures were brightly-coloured affairs, clad in vivid red gowns with red lips, and pink or olive skin. Now scholars and artists want us to see that, too.

Franklin Sirmans is the curator of Family: Visions of a Shared Humanity, an exhibition of video works by renowned Black American, British and Canadian artists, including Arthur Jafa and Garrett Bradley. Plus, 'hyper-surreal' sculpture made with fake food. And enter the studio of Darwin plein air painter Max Bowden  as she works through the Top End's Build Up season.  

The enduring power of Jeffrey Smart's urban wastelands, and his comparatively beautiful life in Tuscany, as told by the late artist's partner Ermes De Zan. Plus, visit the studio of Natalya Hughes as she works on an installation of mid-century aesthetics and Freud's psychoanalytic theory.

US artist Doug Aitken looks to the future through the hyperconnected present, in New Era.| Plus, enter the studio of Robert Andrew, whose programmable machines imprint ochre residue and missing histories. And a real-life art thriller documentary centred around the 'lost Leonardo da Vinci'.

We take stock of NFTs and hear from three people invested in the future of tokens, including Jonathan Zawada, collaborator to musician Flume. Plus, Bruno Booth on being an 'unwilling inspiration'. And Taloi Havini reclaims connections to land, culture and identity of Bougainville, PNG.

Christopher Pease wanted to create his own visual language, one that spoke to European art tradition and the hidden iconography of his Nyoongar ancestors.  Plus, the horses that inspire Michael Zavros. And what happens when a painter loses half her hand? After a bad accident, Kaye Strange adapted.

A history of feminist art in Australia, painting western Tasmania and ice from a warming planet, at COP26.

The goddess of love has reigned supreme through Western art, but her roots are darker, more ancient and shape-shifting than you'd expect. Historian and TV presenter Prof Bettany Hughes joins Daniel to tell the surprising history of the powerful immortal. Plus, a seascape painter who lives on a yacht, and artist Khaled Sabsabi explores the exchange between spiritual belief and our human aspirations.

Meet the man behind the hit YouTube series Cocktails with a Curator, from The Frick in New York. Plus, what if the arts were on the nightly TV news, like sport? And artists respond to Matisse's Tahiti-inspired work in a new exhibition.

With a bower bird's habit of collecting found objects, Rosalie Gascoigne's sculptures were inspired by her surrounding natural environment. The final episode in this series of radio interviews with Australian women artists from the ABC archives.

An interview with sculptor and metal smith Mari Funaki, who was instrumental in getting Australian contemporary jewellery on the global map. The fifth episode in a pod-only series featuring interviews with women artists from the ABC archives.

A 2009 interview with the artist Margaret Olley, two years before her death. Part of our series featuring interviews with women artists from the ABC archives.

Interviews with women artists from the ABC archives. In 1979 Ivy Shore won Australia's richest art competition for women painters, for a portrait of trail blazing trade unionist Della Elliot.

Know My Name: interviews with women artists from the ABC archives. Hear Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, one of Australia's most renowned ceramicists, speaking to the ABC's Julie Copeland in 1994.

Introducing Know My Name: interviews with women artists from the ABC archives. In this episode, hear from Grace Cossington Smith. A pioneer of modernism in Australia and one of the country's most influential artists. Here she is interviewed in 1965 by Hazel de Berg for the National Library of Australia's oral history collection.

What do artists think about when making huge public art? Lindy Lee is making the most expensive work commissioned by the NGA, and Judy Watson's bara will grace Sydney's harbour with a giant Gadigal fish hook. Then, the US art lab addressing the problem of confederate monuments to racist causes... and Indigenous artists Julie Gough, Nicholas Galanin and Yhonnie Scarce on Australia's own colonial memorialising.