Todd Hido is an American photographer known for his pictures of suburban landscapes taken during solitary, long drives. He also produced interior photos and portraits using a wide range of pros and amateur cameras. His style is summed up in one of his famous quotes “I shoot like a documentarian, but I print like a painter.”His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Getty, the Whitney Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, New York amongst many more. We’ll discuss here about his creative process in general and under the lockdown as well as his experience with the situation. Moreover he Todd Hido will talk about his vision of photography and today’s society using the examples of Walker Evans or Dorothea Lange.
Agnès b. is a stylist who started her brand in the 70’s with subtle, chic and casual clothes ; timeless pieces like the snap cardigan that became a classic. With the success of her company she multiplied initiatives in the art world, opening an art gallery La Galerie du Jour, publishing art books, producing movies. She is also a philanthropist who supports artists but also many social causes (AIDS, Fondation Abbé Pierre, Tara…). Over the years, Agnès b. has assembled a major contemporary art collection now comprising nearly 5,000 pieces (Jean-Michel Basquiat, Warhol, Gilbert and George, Nan Goldin, Harmony Korine, Ryan McGinley…). She has opened her foundation La FAB (La Fondation Agnès b.) in 2020 that gathers together her art collection, la galerie du jour and la librairie du jour. Agnès b. is is constantly in touch with the international art scene, especially in the fields of the visual arts, cinema, music, live performance and publishing.
With a bottle-feeded generation with mainstream culture, bombarded with clips, ads, magazines and blockbusters, the artist Eric Yahnker rushes into the breach without a net and without complex. Ace of the pencil, he draws 2 meters high lampoons that jeopardizes religion, politics, icons and symbols of today’s America with a stunning realism. Provocateur (or genuine) and without restraint, he was animator for the South Park movie after graduating from Cal Arts and has done the animation for the Seinfeld DVDs bonus. Trained in a school of journalism, he worships cartoonists like Paul Conrad, Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, but also cites Woody Allen and Mel Brooks as references. His works offer a double reading, from the simple visual impact of its giant drawings to their meaning and look on American society. Whatever our perception as long as we see his works as he defines himself “political, stubborn, absurd, sarcastic, cerebral, perverted, jack-ass with a heart of golden testicles.”
Damian Elwes is a British painter born in 1960 who lives in L.A. From a family of famous portrait painters, his grandfather being Queen Elizabeth’s favourite, he studied in Harvard because he was good at maths but learned playwriting. In the early 1980s, Elwes moved to New York, where he met Keith Haring who encouraged him to start painting, and became an early exponent of graffiti. From 1992–2000, Damian Elwes lived in southern Colombia in a house that he built overlooking a rainforest. There he created four vast, interactive paintings which viewers can walk around inside. His work now focuses on re-creating the studios of famous artists (Picasso, Matisse, Yayoi Kusama, Alex Katz, Keith Haring, Basquiat) through his deep research in documentation and historical records.