Artist Interviews

Read artist interviews featuring some of the most exciting established and emerging figures in the art world. Our conversations with contemporary artists get to the heart of what makes them tick, exploring the development of their style, their inspirations and the stories behind their recent work. Discover our artist interviews to get to know the people whose works that you can browse and buy in our online store.

Our top artist interviews

One of our most popular recent interviews was a talk with Nelson Makamo, a South African painter and winner of 2018’s Rise Art Prize known for his expressive portraits. Our conversation with Kelvin Okafor, who creates intricate photorealistic pencil portraits, dove into his unique fusion of the technical and the conceptual. You may also enjoy our interview with Fred Ingrams, in which he discusses both his technical process and what drew him to start painting the Fens.

Interviews you won’t want to miss

Among our contemporary artist interviews, you will find our Q&A with Philip Vaughan, author of the landmark 48ft-tall Light Tower which graced the London skyline from 1972 to 2008. You can read about the machinations and motivations driving rising star Anna Sofie Jesperson. Our interview with Mark Chadwick may also be of interest, where the colour master shines a light on the inspiration behind his vibrant abstract paintings.

Q&A With Philip Vaughan

Meet Philip Vaughan, the artist behind the landmark 48ft tall Light Tower which sat above the Hayward Gallery from 1972 to 2008. Philip has been involved for the last 10 years or so in an effort to restore the Light Tower. It was a rare example of a large contemporary kinetic artwork on the streets of London but it was never returned after it was taken down from the roof of the South Bank gallery for renovation.
By Bethan Street | 12 Jan 2021

Q&A With Anna Sofie Jespersen

Anna Sofie Jespersen’s paintings use intensely saturated monochromatic colour palettes which mirror the often socially intense scenes she paints. Her large scale works have a particularly strong impact. Using overlapping-layers and unusual perspectives gives Jespersen’s compositions an unsettling appeal. The young artist has succeeded in finding a recognisable style that is truly unique.
By Rise Art | 29 Dec 2020

Q&A With Clare Halifax

Clare Halifax creates illustrative screen prints inspired by cityscapes, scenes of nature and wildlife. The artist’s eye for aesthetic harmony instills balance and beauty in her art. Together with her refined palette, her attention to composition results in great skies or swirling patterns and seas of vibrant blues. Clare’s ability to capture the character of a place makes for a collection of uniquely embellished and spirited prints.
By Rise Art | 18 Nov 2020

Q&A With Aisling Drennan

Aisling Drennan is known for her Abstract Expressionist style and vibrant palette. Aisling creates dynamic oil paintings that tread the balance between structure and chaos. With a process that is led by constant layering, each of Aisling’s paintings are textural constructions, formed of gestural brushwork and mark-making. The energetic and sporadic quality of Aisling’s abstract canvases, paired with her suggestive titles, make for pieces of art that often hint at an underlying narrative.
By Rise Art | 09 Nov 2020

Q&A With Magdalena Morey

A truly international artist, Magdalena Morey was born and trained in Lublin, Poland, but now lives and works in Spain. Her Abstract Expressionist Art reflects her migrations, exploring travel, anticipation, and isolation. Using a variety of different media, including watercolour, gold leaf, and acrylic, Magdalena creates paintings that are wonderfully expressive and bursting with life. We caught up with Magdalena on her latest projects and developments.
By Rise Art | 03 Nov 2020

Q&A With Secret 7’s Kevin King

Secret 7” is a collaboration between artists and musicians with an aim to raise money for Help Refugees. It takes 7 tracks from 7 of the best-known musicians around and presses each one 100 times to 7” vinyl. Artists are then invited to create artwork for each track. The result is 700 unique records which are exhibited in London before being auctioned. However, buyers don’t know who created the artwork or even which song it’s for, until they have parted with their cash.
By Rise Art | 28 Oct 2020

Caroline List: Landscapes of Sublime Abstraction

Caroline List's enquiry into colour and space sets up a conversation within her paintings, informed by references to signatures observed within nature, colour theory and formal abstraction. This eclectic mix of references generates a spatial language, a visual tension between blended horizons of colour, light & organic shapes. Her paintings play with the push and pull of the picture plane, form and ground, creating compositions with surreal spatial horizons which allude to otherworldly vistas.
By Rise Art | 25 Sept 2020

Mychael Barratt: The Fantastical World of Storytelling

Mychael Barrat is a storyteller. His narrative-led paintings and prints take the viewer on a journey into his unique and imaginative world that merges fact and fiction. Inspired by fairytales, literature and art history, Mychael’s work is versatile in style and subject, ranging from intricate cityscapes and maps to architecture and portraiture. With an eye for colour and detail, Mychael imparts charm and intrigue into his work.
By Rise Art | 28 Aug 2020

Malayka Gormally: Protest Connections

Born to immigrant Jewish parents in San Francisco during the civil rights movement, Malayka Gormally’s upbringing has fed into an artistic interest in the “connection and conflict between people of disparate races, generations, and political beliefs.”
By Verity Babbs | 20 Aug 2020

Mark Chadwick Q&A

A master of colour and machinery, Mark Chadwick is certainly a unique artist. Using a number of machine processes and natural forces such as gravity, he creates Abstract Paintings that are exploding with colour. In this way, he relinquishes some of his control as an artist, allowing chance to dictate the beautiful and intriguing forms that emerge on the canvas. We took a moment to catch up with Mark and find out some more about his work and where he finds inspiration.
By Rise Art | 15 Jul 2020