Marion Fink – Why am I flying on a giant rock through space?

Potsdam. Today's studio visit takes me to Marion Fink, an artist, who caught the attention not only of current top galleries in Germany, but also of international galleries. Her remarkable paintings will be shown in London and New York before the end of this year. I want to find out what makes these paintings so special. Her studio – situated in a quiet street in a leafy part of Potsdam - is in a former Kindergarten that was transformed into a studio building. An austere stair case, an equally austere communal office in front of her studio, but then .... wow!
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Noah Becker – Say it loud!

Berlin. Commissioned by Meet Pablo – totally unsuspecting of what is going to await me in "baketown“, an off-space in Berlin-Schöneberg – I find myself face to face with Noah Becker, a creative wizard. Whether it is music, fashion, interior design, films or even painting – he is everywhere. Today, my objective is to learn something about his painting which started here in his studio and which helped him through a difficult time ...

Chris Soal – Objet trouvé travels in time

Johannesburg. Never before in my life have I seen so many fences and walls, usually topped by electric fences, and so few pedestrians. Strangely enough, there are very few parked cars. Of course I had heard that Johannesburg is plagued by high crime and serious socio-political problems. But, as I shall find out today, it is something quite different meeting people who grew up here and use art to discuss life in this city.
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Anke Loots – Everything in its right place. Walkaround with Anke Loots

Cape Town. I had no idea that the THK Gallery is an exhibition venue founded only eight months ago by – of all people – an inhabitant of Cologne, a person, therefore who just like myself, is from the Rhineland. Initially, it was the cover of the current first thursdays cape town* tour guide, which took me to Waterkant Street and thus to Frank Schönau and the artist, whose self-portrait graces the cover of the guide. It is the first solo exhibition of the 27-year-old Anke Loots, a student of the photographic artist Pieter Hugo, with whom – coincidentally ? - I also have an appointment at the end of the week ...

Conrad Hicks – In the realm of the Toolmaker

Cape Town. In Observatory, Cape Town's creative hotspot, I visit Conrad Hicks – an artist -blacksmith, or a toolmaker, as he calls himself. His studio forms a backdrop of a special kind. It is right in the middle of the previously burnt-out Art Déco cinema, which he bought and restored. Already the exterior view is quite surreal – it immediately takes me to a scene in the film Metropolis ...

Arne Quinze – Protest art exquisitely packaged

Belgium, Sint-Martens-Latem. I need to mention that I am visiting an artist today whose works I have never seen live, and which I only know as pictures via an Instagram account. A risky experiment!
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Hakan Eren – The waker-upper-stage

Walkabout in the Düsseldorfer Akademie, Class of Katharina Fritsch. Hakan Eren is on the verge of his final exam. Clearly nervous, he tinkers with the final details of his presentation. Here, the term "tinker" hits the nail on the head. The creations mounted on the walls spontaneously remind me of technoid construction models for advanced hobbyists in a toy shop of a long gone era.

Stevenson Gallery – Why African contemporary art is getting off to a flying start on the international art market …

The Stevenson Gallery was established in 2003 in Woodstock, a district of Cape Town, that is increasingly becoming the location of the creative scene. From the start, it concentrated exclusively on contemporary African art. While this may perhaps give us a weary smile, it is worth a special mentioning in view of the development of the art market there. As a result of Apartheid and its oppressive policies – despite coming to an end in 1994 - there were still no education opportunities or possibilities for grants for young artists on the entire continent at the time of the founding of the gallery. The more talented continued to go to Europe or the USA, and the more or less negligible local art market continued to focus on the established art of the 20th century. Andrew da Conceicao told me why it was precisely this situation that motivated Michael Stevenson and Andrew da Conceicao to establish a gallery of contemporary art and how they succeeded in growing it to the size it is today ...