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.

Two adults pose in a doorway with ornate wallpaper; man in a suit and pink striped tie, woman in a dark dress with necklace and glasses.

Collector Stories Otto and Saskia Wiesenthal, Vienna

It has been twenty-five years since Otto Wiesenthal resigned from a managerial position to devote his time to the transformation of a house in Vienna’s seventh district built during the period of intensive industrial expansion at the end of the nineteenth century into the Hotel Altstadt Vienna, a key role in this decision, was the intention of installing his personal art collection. We met with Wiesenthal and his daughter Saskia, the hotel’s marketing and art manager and an art collector in her own right, in one of the suites of the “Altstadt” filled with design and art for a conversation about life with beautiful things and of that which is special about Vienna.

Culture Briefing

Where to meet art, culture and creativity

Nordic Notes

Adult man with wavy gray hair sits in a pale-green chair, legs crossed, striped shirt, in a bright studio with large black panels featuring square spirals behind him.

Jacob Dahlgren, Stockholm
Attracted by minimalist tradition, Swedish artist Jacob Dahlgren finds abstraction in everyday objects and often overlooked details of contemporary life, which he employs to create dynamic interactive installations and performances. When arranged, the individual objects lose their intended function and form something completely new.
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