In the Studio Cecilia Vicuña, New York

Cecilia Vicuña’s practice moves fluidly between poetry, sculpture, textile, and performance, always returning to what she calls arte precario: an art built from debris, unspun wool, feathers, and stone that she has been making since 1966. Rooted in Indigenous Andean knowledge systems, and above all in the khipu—the knotted cord long dismissed as a mere accounting device—her work reframes precariousness and fragility as forms of consciousness rather than loss.

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.

Two adults stand side by side indoors, one with arms crossed and the other with a hand on the hip, against a gray concrete wall.

Collector Stories Johann und Lena König, Berlin

Johann König comes from an influential family at home in the art world, and he grew up surrounded by artworks by Andy Warhol, On Kawara, and Gerhard Richter. His wife, Lena König, is an art historian who began buying art while still a student. Today, the two not only manage one of the most important contemporary art galleries in the world, but also collect art together.

Culture Briefing

Where to meet art, culture and creativity

Nordic Notes

Person with dark hair and glasses, in a black turtleneck and jacket, stands with arms crossed in an art studio with pastel canvases.

Marianna Uutinen, Berlin
For over thirty years, Finnish artist Marianna Uutinen has been making works that reject the making of gestural marks in favor of an expanded notion of painting. She is best known for her large-scale abstract paintings made using her signature technique, which comprises building up layers of acrylic paint to make a skin and then draping these skins directly onto the canvas.
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