In the Studio Cecilia Vicuña, New York

Cecilia Vicuña’s practice moves fluidly between poetry, sculpture, textile, and performance, always returning to what she calls arte precario: an art built from debris, unspun wool, feathers, and stone that she has been making since 1966. Rooted in Indigenous Andean knowledge systems, and above all in the khipu—the knotted cord long dismissed as a mere accounting device—her work reframes precariousness and fragility as forms of consciousness rather than loss.

Person with long wavy hair sits on a stool in a gallery, looking at the camera, wearing a navy jacket; left wall covered in blue Life posters.

In the Studio Robin Kid, Rambouillet, France

Robin Kid works with images that feel less made than encountered. Cowboys, cops, fragments of cartoon Americana: images that existed long before he picked them up, suspended somewhere between memory and mass culture. Raised in the south of the Netherlands by his grandparents, in a former mining neighbourhood bordering an American army base, he grew up with the idea of the U.S. glowing faintly from the other side of the fence.

Adult female with blonde ponytail in a dark sweatshirt stands with arms crossed amid tall cacti in a sunlit garden.

In the Studio Megan Plunkett, Los Angeles, CA

American artist Megan Plunkett turns away from depicting people, instead focusing on everyday objects. Drawn from consumer culture, and the film industry, her carefully constructed photographic series cultivate a sense of estrangement within things that might otherwise feel familiar.

Two adults chat and smile on a colorful circular-seat bench in a bright modern room with white walls and art.

Collector Stories Johanna and Friedrich Gräfling, Wiesen, Germany

The program that Johanna and Friedrich Gräfling have completed in terms of art over the past ten years is actually more than enough for three lifetimes. They have founded an experimental exhibition space in Aschaffenburg, established the “Salon Kennedy” in Frankfurt am Main, a place for exhibitions and discourse on art, architecture and design, founded an art association, converted a barn into a residence, and built up a distinguished art collection with an international reputation, including works by Alicia Kwade, Simon Fujiwara, and Michael Sailstorfer.

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Nordic Notes

Person with dark hair and glasses, in a black turtleneck and jacket, stands with arms crossed in an art studio with pastel canvases.

Marianna Uutinen, Berlin
For over thirty years, Finnish artist Marianna Uutinen has been making works that reject the making of gestural marks in favor of an expanded notion of painting. She is best known for her large-scale abstract paintings made using her signature technique, which comprises building up layers of acrylic paint to make a skin and then draping these skins directly onto the canvas.
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