Person with long wavy hair sits on a stool in a gallery, looking at the camera, wearing a navy jacket; left wall covered in blue Life posters.

In the Studio Robin Kid, Rambouillet, France

Robin Kid works with images that feel less made than encountered. Cowboys, cops, fragments of cartoon Americana: images that existed long before he picked them up, suspended somewhere between memory and mass culture. Raised in the south of the Netherlands by his grandparents, in a former mining neighbourhood bordering an American army base, he grew up with the idea of the U.S. glowing faintly from the other side of the fence.

Adult female with blonde ponytail in a dark sweatshirt stands with arms crossed amid tall cacti in a sunlit garden.

In the Studio Megan Plunkett, Los Angeles, CA

American artist Megan Plunkett turns away from depicting people, instead focusing on everyday objects. Drawn from consumer culture, and the film industry, her carefully constructed photographic series cultivate a sense of estrangement within things that might otherwise feel familiar.

Older woman with red hair stands between two tall wooden frames in a dim sculpture studio, surrounded by unfinished wooden sculptures.

In the Studio Elisabeth von Samsonow, Vienna/Lower Austria

Elisabeth von Samsonow is a philosopher, artist, author and emeritus professor of Philosophical and Historical Anthropology at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In her work she brings together art, ecological concerns and feminist theory.

Adult person in a navy suit sits at a table, hands clasped, speaking, in a room with built-in white bookshelves, a black fireplace, and red chairs

Collector Stories Robert Punkenhofer, Barcelona/Vienna

For more than 20 years, Robert Punkenhofer has been involved in international corporate and art management. His agency Art & Idea considers itself a nexus between art, architecture, design, and economics. He has curated more than 100 exhibitions, among them the annual Vienna Art Week. He has served as Trade Commissioner for the Austrian Foreign Trade Organisation in Mexico City, New York, and Berlin, a role that he currently holds in Barcelona. We spoke with the unusual collector about art, his ability to repeatedly create things from nothing, and about his passion for Vienna’s brilliant k. and k. period.

Culture Briefing

Where to meet art, culture and creativity

Poster for Julian Charrière's 'Spiral Economy' exhibition at Museo Corner Venezia during the Venice Biennale.

Nordic Notes

Back view of a person with a top knot wearing a black T-shirt reading 'DEAD INSIDE BUT STILL HAVE FUN', standing in a bright attic studio.

Toni R. Toivonen, Hämeenkoski
Toni R. Toivonen reflects on the duality of life. Moving between abstraction and realism, his golden-hued works on brass depict decaying animals lying recumbent. As the dead animal’s body decomposes it leaves its presence on a sheet of brass, an aesthetic image that is both peaceful and dignified.
read more