Interviews
Henry Leutwyler: From Quai Wilson to Images Vevey
Born in Switzerland in 1961, Henry Leutwyler is a self-taught photographer. After being rejected by one of Switzerland’s leading photography schools, he opened his own photo studio in Lausanne, photographing cheese, chocolates and watches. In 1985, he moved to Paris...
Elmgreen & Dragset: Landscapes
Together, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset make up the art duo Elmgreen & Dragset, whose show Landscapes has just opened at Pace Gallery, Geneva. In their artistic practice, they pursue questions of identity and belonging and investigate social, cultural, and...
Lee Cavaliere at VOLTA: Platforming the Unexpected
In July 2023, Ramsay Fairs announced the appointment of Lee Cavaliere as Artistic Director of VOLTA art fair. Cavaliere is an arts professional with experience in both the institutional and gallery sectors. After working with the Tate Collection’s displays, Cavaliere...
William Monk: Angels and Smoke Rings
William Monk’s Long Museum show from January 13 to March 24, 2024, was his first solo museum exhibition in Asia. It featured nineteen pieces created over four years, from 2019 to 2023, with the title: Psychopomp. This title refers to the guide of the souls; the angels...
Melinda Infante: Exploring Delicate Skin
Melinda Infante was born in 1994, and lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland. Trained in the medical field, she is an artist focused on recreating the intricate processes of the body, often working on material at a detailed, cellular level. Infante explores various...
New direction at artgenève
Two months before the opening of artgenève 2024, Art Vista contributor Sonia Jebsen caught up with the new director of the fair, Charlotte Diwan, to ask her about the direction of the fair, the "salon d'art" or "living room" concept, and new VIP offerings. Sonia...
Nacoca Ko: L’effet Ferdinand at Espace L
Nacoca Ko’s work at the L’effet Ferdinand exhibition at Espace L in Geneva represents a counterpoint to the other pieces on display. Through her digital pieces and performances, Ko brings a feminine perspective that responds to work by Fernando de la Rocque and...
Chloe West: At Your Altar
Paintings by Chloe West are on display in At Your Altar at Galerie Mighela Shama. West is an American artist born in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1993, now living and working in St. Louis, Missouri. West is continually inspired by European art from the Medieval and...
Loie Hollowell: The Third Stage
In anticipation of Loie Hollowell’s first exhibition in Switzerland at Pace Gallery, Geneva, Art Vista Magazine spoke to Hollowell about her upcoming show, as well as her expanding color palette, Transcendentalist art, kaleidoscopic experiences, the microcosm and the...
Contemporary African Art in Geneva: An Update
The contemporary African art market is booming. According to Pavillon 54, 2022 saw a record number of works by African artists sold at auction (more than 2,700), almost twice as many as before the Covid pandemic. Last year, works by Contemporary artists born in Africa...
Alice Quaresma: Abstracting Archives
Alice Quaresma, Old Romance, 2023. Photograph printed on cotton paper with acrylic paint. 50 x 45 cm. Kristen Knupp: As the week of art in Basel opens, what work will you be exhibiting with Sobering Gallery at the Volta Fair? Alice Quaresma: The work I am showing at...
Petrit Halilaj: Unfinished Histories
Petrit Halilaj's Unfinished Histories, Very Volcanic over this Green Feather at the Musée International de la Croix-rouge is part of the museum's year-long focus on mental health. First created in collaboration with the Tate St Ives in 2021, the piece comprises 53...
Salomé Monpetit: Matching with Art
Salomé Monpetit, founder of the Matchwithart concept, has been delighting us visually with her Instagram posts since 2018. Passionate about fashion, she takes on the aesthetic challenge of harmonizing her clothes with works of art. Beyond the playful aspect, her...
Leo Villareal: Nebulae
Kristen Knupp of Art Vista Magazine met with Leo Villareal at Pace Gallery, Geneva, on the eve of the opening of his show Nebulae and during the week of artgenève, which will feature a special presentation of a work by Villareal, Optical Machine 1. Leo Villareal is an...
Nicolas Boyer: In Dialogue with Hokusai
Born in 1972, Nicolas Boyer was educated at Sciences Po Paris and HEC before he trained as a photographer and cameraman at the École des Gobelins. Photoreporter between 2003 and 2005 for the French and international press ( Libération, Le Nouvel Obs, Paris-Match,...
Philippe Cramer’s Aesthetic Metaverse
You may think that the NFT wave might be receding due to the recent volatility of cryptocurrencies in the headlines, however, the rise of artworld NFTs since the sale of Beeple's digital artwork at Christie's for $69 million in March 2021, is undeniable. Digital art...
Charlotte Hopkins Hall: Being Disruptive
Charlotte Hopkins Hall was interviewed by Kristen Knupp of Art Vista Magazine on October 6, 2022, at the vernissage of her exhibition in Geneva. Kristen Knupp: Could you tell me a little about your background? Charlotte Hopkins Hall: I was born in Geneva and grew up...
VOLTA Art Fair: Interview with Director Kamiar Maleki
Kristen Knupp, Art Vista Magazine: VOLTA has a new location for the New York fair, at the former Dia building and Hauser & Wirth gallery space in Chelsea. What excites you about this new location, and about the VOLTA Art Fair New York in general? Kamiar Maleki,...
iazzu: bridging the gap between the physical and the digital
Sonia Jebsen: Could you explain how the concept of iazzu came to be? Romana Kunz: We are challenging ourselves constantly to stay ahead of the curve. Be international, be social, be physical. They are all one! I grew up in a physical world, and I speak German. The...
Billy Gerard Frank: Tales Spun from Sea and Memories
Kristen Knupp: You moved to London from Grenada as a teenager, and it seems that while you were there you became interested in art and becoming an artist. What events or people moved you or attracted you to art? BGF: My first encounter and exposure to art and the...
Bernard Garo: The Fragility and Power of Nature
Bernard Garo was born in 1964. After graduating with distinction from the Lausanne Art School (ECAL) in 1989, he has lived and worked in his studio in Nyon, between Lausanne and Geneva. His projects have also led him frequently to Paris, Barcelona, Berlin and in more...
King Houndekpinkou: Connecting in a Creative World
Born in Montreuil, France, in 1987, King Houndekpinkou is a Franco-Beninese ceramicist who lives in Paris and works in France, Benin, and Japan. In 2012, his discovery of the six ancient pottery kilns of Japan encouraged him to visit Bizen, Japan, each year to acquire...
Frédéric Elkaïm on Artgenève 2022
Sonia Jebsen: You visited Artgenève while giving several art tours to groups, what are your impressions? Frédéric Elkaïm: I rate it as excellent in terms of the quality and standard of the galleries, the works, and the way of presenting them. On the other hand, we...
In the Studio with Gregory Thielker
Sonia Jebsen: What paths did you take leading to your career as an artist? Gregory Thielker: I did everything not to be one. More exactly, I did not imagine becoming an artist in our current world. Painting and drawing have been part of my life since childhood. During...
ArtCan: Building an Artistic Community
ArtCan is an international artist-led non-profit organization dedicated to creating exhibition opportunities for artists and building an artistic community. Each year in March, ArtCan celebrates its community through 3 Days for ArtCan. The 2022 edition will run from 2...
Laurence de Valmy: Exploring Timelessness
Laurence de Valmy’s artwork invites us to reflect on the links between present and past, and the relationship between art and social media today. She explores the impact of social media on the way we learn about and appreciate artists and artworks. Inspired...
I-LAB Design: 100% African-made
A story of art and friendship Besigin Tonwe-Gold is from Nigeria. She arrived in Geneva as part of her medical studies (her diplomat parents were residing there at the time) and specialized in infectious diseases. She traveled all over West Africa during her youth....
Sarah Watson: Meticulous Construction
Kristen Knupp for Art Vista Magazine: I know you were trained as an architect, how did you go from architecture to art, and what inspired you to make that transition? Sarah Watson: I was an undergraduate at Yale University, which is not an art school, but...
Thibault de Watrigant: Art Shortlist
Sonia Jebsen: What were your motivations for creating the online platform? Why the name Art Shortlist? Thibault de Watrigant: I graduated from the IESA (School of Art and Culture in Paris) then I trained in various companies such as galleries, auction houses. I have...
Limna: An AI-powered Art Advisor
Limna, the world’s first AI-powered art advisor, analyses millions of art world data points to provide users with price estimates about the art that inspires them. This dataset contains more than 700,000 artists, and has been tracked since 1863 across 1,000,000...
IWPA: Equality in Photography
Kristen Knupp, Art Vista: Could you tell me about the International Women Photographer Association or IWPA. I read that the IWPA addresses the two goals of equality through photography in the world, and the promotion of women photographers of all origins and...
Dean Monogenis: Creating Reality
On the opening of his solo show at Xippas Gallery, Paris, Art Vista does a flashback to our interview with Dean Monogenis at the Xippas Gallery stand at Artgenève, 2019, in which he talked about creating his own reality, and adding light to a dark world. Dean...
Dr Gindi on Nature, Infinity and Descartes
Dr Gindi is a medical doctor turned sculptor based near Zurich, who is interested in the connection between the mental and the physical being, and who has a deeply philosophical approach to her work. Her sculptures convey a sweeping immediacy and unwavering...
MeetFrida Gallery: Using New Technology to Reach New Audiences
Dr. Anna Schwan, Founder of MeetFrida. I met MeetFrida, Germany’s “leading outdoor and online gallery for young contemporary art” at the Volta Fair, a satellite fair to Art Basel, where it presented pieces linked with new, innovative technology. Founded and directed...
Didier Schwarz – Collectif 1m83
The Blue Bird, Tempus building at the Palais des Nations, Yoshinori Mizutani, Tokyo Parrots, 2013. Courtesy of IMA gallery. A few years ago, Didier Schwarz discovered a wonderful island, that of Naoshima in Japan. This little piece of land is famous for its modern...
Sixtine Crutchfield and the new Art MBA at Geneva Business School
Kristen Knupp: I understand that there is a new program at Geneva Business School that focuses on the art world, and I wanted to hear more about the new program, how it started, and how you are involved with it. Sixtine Crutchfield: I am an alumni of Geneva Business...
The Red Cross Museum: Linking Art and Humanity
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum is currently showing the Concerné.e.s/Concerned exhibition of the work of thirty student artists from the Geneva School of Art and Design (HEAD). From these pieces, two students will be selected for the...
In the Studio with Stéphane Ducret
Meeting an artist in his studio is often the promise of a motionless journey, a face-to-face that has a certain intimacy. All the more so when it is conducted in his living room. Swiss artist Stéphane Ducret welcomed us to his apartment in Pâquis to discuss his long...
Both Directions at Once: Karolina Orzelek and Thomas Lesigne
Art Vista Magazine recently met with Galerie Untitled 1983's Mighela Shama Lorenceau and artists Karolina Orzelek and Thomas Lesigne to discuss their artist’s residency and exhibition of the pieces created during this period of collaboration. Galerie Untitled 1983 was...
Nigel Cooke: The Ebb and Flow of Painting
Nigel Cooke’s Oceans exhibition at Pace Gallery, Geneva, marks his first show in Switzerland and features five large paintings and three works on paper. Over his twenty-five year career, Cooke (b. 1973) has blurred the lines between figuration, abstraction,...
Fabienne Levy: A Conversation
Laure Testard: You are an art historian, a gallerist, an art advisor, a collector… can you tell us about your career path in a few words? Fabienne Levy: I started being in love with art with my parents who were collectors and who brought me a bit everywhere. After...
Paul Noble: A Cartography of the Self
KK: How did your shows in Switzerland come about? PN: The Musee des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-de-Fonds has a new director, David Lemaire. He had previously worked at MAMCO and saw my show there (2001). Apparently, and I might have this wrong, but at his...
Marta Zgierska at Gowen Contemporary: Blush
Marta was born in 1987 in Lublin, Poland and she has an MFA in Photography, as well as in Theatrology and Journalism. In her current work she explores the canons of feminine beauty and the pressure that contemporary society exerts on woman’s images. In 2016...
Trevor Paglen and The Shape of Clouds
Trevor Paglen was born in 1974 in Maryland, and his wide-ranging work includes sculpture, journalism, and engineering as well as image-making. His solo shows include those at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Frankfurter Kunstverein, and the Eli &...
Dean Monogenis: Creating His Own Reality
Dean Monogenis was born in New York in 1973. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and he lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. His work has been exhibited at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Musee d’art moderne et contemporain of Saint-Etienne, and Mcnay Art...
Michal Rovner: Leaving a Permanent Mark
I met with Michal Rovner at Pace Gallery to see the opening on January 30, 2019, of “Evolution” which is the gallery’s first exhibition of Rovner’s work in Geneva. The show coincides with the opening of Rovner’s “Dislocation” show at Espace Muraille, also...
Pace Gallery Positioned in Geneva
Kristen Knupp: What was behind the decision to open Pace Gallery in Geneva? Valentina Volchkova: Pace Gallery opened in Geneva in March, 2018, and it was based on my decision to move to Geneva. Before, I was living and working in Paris where...
Picasso and QoQa: Buying a Masterpiece
A Picasso painting hangs on the walls of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Mamco) in Geneva, and it wasn’t acquired by the museum, or donated by a generous benefactor. It is in fact owned by 25,000 people who are all members of the online retailer...
Clothilde Gosset: Living with Nature
When and why did you decide to become an artist? I don’t think you decide to become an artist, at least I didn’t. I always knew I wanted to express my creativity as a profession. I have tested various mediums and nurtured my artistic process for years. Last year...
Monique Deul: Taste Contemporary
How did you get started with your business? I’ve always had an interest in the arts. Early on in my career it was in music, however I have been collecting contemporary craft for many years and in 2012 I established Taste Contemporary Craft. I started with one...