An architectural collective formed in the 1960s, Archigram’s remit was unrelentingly experimental, neo-futuristic and flamboyantly pro-consumerist, drawing inspiration from technological advances to conceive new and speculative worlds which existed only as theoretical projects. Born within the Architectural Association in London, the core members of the group were Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, Dennis Crompton,…
American artist Cameron Rowland, selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 2019, endeavours to make visible the institutions, systems, and policies that perpetuate systemic racism and economic inequality through his work. The Wesleyan University graduate’s research-intensive practice centres around the display of objects and documents whose provenance and operations expose the legacies of racial capitalism and…
Isa Genzken has long been considered one of Germany’s most influential contemporary artists. Born in Bad Oldesloe, Genzken studied at the renowned Kunstakademie Düsseldorf whose faculty at the time included Joseph Beuys, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh and Gerhard Richter. Since the 1970s, Genzken’s diverse practice has encompassed sculpture, photography, found-object installation, film,…
Born in 1936 and hailing from Soloba, a small town in southwestern Mali, Malick Sidibé’s flair for drawing was recognised by the French colonial administration during his youth. As a result, at sixteen, he joined the École des artisans Soudanais in Bamako, Mali’s capital. There, Sidibé had his first portrait taken by Malian photographer Baru…
Richard Artschwager carved a distinctive path in the art world from the early 1950s through the early twenty-first century, making the visual comprehension of space and the everyday objects that occupy it strangely unfamiliar. His work has been variously described as Pop art, because of its derivation from utilitarian objects and incorporation of commercial and…
Hailing from Savannah, Georgia and based in New York until his passing in 1987, instrumental architect Alan Buchsbaum was a figure of central importance on the American design scene during his two decades of independent practice. His career, and his unique ability both to draw from and to draw out the world around him, reflected…
Few artists or thinkers have created bodies of work as challenging, intellectually stimulating, or conceptually rich as Trinh T. Minh-ha, the renowned filmmaker and theorist. Trinh’s career has encompassed multimedia installations, eight extraordinary films, and numerous written works that stand as pioneering examples of cultural, literary, and film theory. Her moving-image works – which are…
Novelist Zadie Smith was born in North London in 1975 to an English father and a Jamaican mother. After studying English at Cambridge, graduating in 1997, her acclaimed first novel, White Teeth, published in 2000, was a vibrant portrait of contemporary multicultural London, told through the story of three ethnically diverse families. The book won…