Making a Mark

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This episode of Making a Mark explores the printmaking practice of Yinka Shonibare CBE (b. 1962), a globally celebrated artist whose work examines race, class, and constructions of cultural identity.

We meet Shonibare in his busy East London studio, surrounded by his prints and rolls upon rolls of Batik fabric, a symbolic and distinct feature of the artist’s work. Listen in as Shonibare explains why this fabric has become a recurrent motif for everything he wants to say about identity, politics, colonialism, and postcolonialism.

Shonibare discusses how in recent years he has returned to two-dimensional work in the form of printmaking. Find out about the complex way he makes his woodblock prints and about his subject matter, including how the election of Donald Trump informed his first ever print project with Cristea Roberts Gallery and how the imagery of a large-scale print made in response to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, was born from a rejected commission, deemed too controversial.

We also find out why in his recent prints, Shonibare has chosen to illustrate the radical influence of African artefacts on the work of western modernists, from Picasso, Derain, Modigliani, Matisse to Man Ray and his fellow artists in the Dada and Surrealist movements.

Contributors include gallery director, David Cleaton-Roberts and curator, writer and broadcaster Ekow Eshun. Presented by writer and critic, Charlotte Mullins.

This podcast episode coincides with the exhibition Yinka Shonibare CBE: Ritual Ecstasy of the Modern at Cristea Roberts Gallery (22 September - 4 November 2023).

Click here to purchase the exhibition catalogue featuring an interview between Yinka Shonibare CBE and Charlotte Mullins.

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The sixth episode of Making a Mark explores the life and work of one of Britain’s most important living artists, Joe Tilson (b. 1928), and the continued centrality of printmaking to his practice.

Recorded on the eve of his 94th birthday, we meet Tilson, a lifelong dedicated and subversive printmaker, in his London studio to discuss the preoccupations, inspirations, philosophy, and methods, that have been the focus of his graphic works for over half a century. From prints made in the 1960s by Tilson, then an exponent of British Pop Art, to new hand-coloured editions, inspired by cultural history, we explore how Tilson continues to defy and challenge the rule book of printmaking.

Contributors include gallery founder and director Alan Cristea, who has worked with Tilson since 1969; interior designer, founder and creative director of Firmdale Hotels, Kit Kemp, who collects Tilson’s prints and art historian, writer and curator Marco Livingstone, who has authored a new biography about Tilson, published by Lund Humphries and launching in May 2023.

Presented by writer and critic, Charlotte Mullins.

This podcast episode coincides with the exhibition Joe Tilson: Breaking the Rules at Cristea Roberts Gallery (28 April – 17 June 2023).

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The fifth episode of Making a Mark explores the graphic work of Michael Craig-Martin (b. 1941), one of the best-known artists of his generation. Today his brightly coloured works of everyday objects, from mass-produced consumer goods to fruit and flowers, are easily identified by viewers the world over.

We meet Craig-Martin in his home to discuss his iconic work. He speaks about his earliest prints, the development of his drawing, the introduction of colour to his work, his choice of subject matter including era-defining representations of once familiar yet obsolete technology, and his newest body of prints which pay homage to some of his favourite artists and artworks from Western art history.

We also hear from art critic Ben Luke; artist Julian Opie, who was Craig-Martin’s student in the 1980s; writer and broadcaster Louisa Buck and gallery founder and director Alan Cristea, who first suggested to Craig-Martin he make prints over 40 years ago.

Presented by writer and critic, Charlotte Mullins.

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The fifth episode of Making a Mark explores the graphic work of Cornelia Parker (b. 1956).

Widely celebrated for her immersive installations that have become a significant part of Britain's cultural landscape, this episode explores the artist's printmaking, a medium that has been at the forefront of her practice for the past several years.

Follow Parker and master printer Pete Kosowicz into the studio where they are making prints; find out how her works are made, her influences, the possibilities printmaking offers and the importance of collaboration to Parker's practice.

Contributors include founder and gallery co-director, Alan Cristea; arts editor of the Financial Times, Jan Dalley; and curator and writer David Campany. Presented by writer and critic, Charlotte Mullins.

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The fourth episode of Making a Mark explores the work of Christiane Baumgartner (b. 1967), a ground-breaking artist who has achieved international critical acclaim for her printmaking, choosing to adopt the earliest form of the medium, the woodcut, as her primary means of expression.

Curator and director at Cristea Roberts Gallery, Helen Waters, talks to Baumgartner about her formative years spent living in East Germany under communism and how this informed and shaped her work, as well as her choice of medium and subject matter, from her earliest woodcuts, many of which are now housed in major museum collections, through to her latest editions, which are the subject of a new exhibition at Cristea Roberts Gallery. 

We also hear from Jonathan Watkins, director of Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, who gave Baumgartner her first solo show in the UK and commissioned her to make Stairway to Heaven, 2019, her largest work to date, Christian Rümelin, an early supporter of Baumgartner’s work and Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Geneva, and Gillian Forrester, independent curator and scholar, who has written about Baumgartner’s work. She is the former Curator of Prints & Drawings at Yale Center for British Art in the US.

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The second episode of Making a Mark explores the graphic work of Dame Paula Rego RA (1935 - 2022), one of the most important figurative artists of her generation, who placed women’s lives and stories at the centre of her work.

Curator and Associate Director at Cristea Roberts Gallery, Sophie Lindo, discusses Rego’s profound and ground-breaking body of work. We hear from Rego, who has made prints for over 50 years; her son, filmmaker Nick Willing; writer Marina Warner; poet Blake Morrison, whose 1996 Pendle Witches poetry collection inspired a powerful series of prints by the artist, and Professor Paul Coldwell, a master printmaker who worked with Rego over a period of 20 years.

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The first episode of Making a Mark explores the work of Richard Hamilton, the founding father of Pop Art in Britain and one of the most influential artists of his generation. Michael Bracewell, cultural critic and writer and the author of Modern World: The Art of Richard Hamilton, and gallerist and art dealer Alan Cristea, who worked with Hamilton for 35 years, discuss the art and ideas of an artist whose achievements and legacy remain unparalleled today.

Contributors include the Guardian’s art critic Jonathan Jones, writer and curator Gill Hedley, and art director and graphic designer Peter Saville. This episode also coincides with our online exhibition Richard Hamilton: Towards a Definitive Statement. 

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Header image: Michael Craig-Martin; Microphone from: Quotidian, 2017.
A series of eight laser-etched black satin acrylic panels. Panel 50 x 50 cm. Edition of 15.