Australian-born, Prague-based painter Lukos Hey was the subject of my latest Matt’s Long Take, filmed just a few days before a lockdown was announced in the Czech Republic in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the things he showed me during the video was one of his latest works – a painting in honour of the jazz piano legend McCoy Tyner, who recently passed away. This clip, which I extrapolated from the full-length video, is of this painting; here, Hey talks with depth about the method and inspiration behind this work, even illustrating the musical aspect of the painting on his drums.
Just a few days before the Coronavirus pandemic forced Prague into a state of emergency and had us all quarantined, I was able to film a Long Take video with Australian-born painter Lukos Hey. I had interviewed Lukos Hey just a few weeks before coming to Prague for my Art Chat series and we had discussed the possibility of filming in his studio the next time I would visit the Czech capital.
Thankfully, we were able to do that, and I was able to film his studio – which is situated in a huge hostel compound that he is currently decorating. The video kicks off with Hey showing me his latest work – a painting inspired by the jazz piano legend McCoy Tyner, who recently passed. We also talk about art in general as he shows me the paintings hanging on the walls of his studio and we take a tour of the hostel, to see some of the mindblowng stuff that he is painting on its walls.
Matt’s Long Take is a series of videos documenting artists and creative people, as well as art venues from all parts of the world. These videos are filmed on an handheld camera in an unedited long-take.
My new episode of Matt’s Art Chat features a conversation with Las Vegas-based poet/author and all-around creative soul, Chris Cipollini. He is actually the first person to make the second appearance on Matt’s Art Chat since I have started the series – though I took a long break before starting it again at the start of this year.
We record our conversation just a few days after the Coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and every country seems to slowly shut down. Because he is in the States and I am in Europe, we share our experiences of this current situation. But aside from our discussion about COVID-19, we talk about his trip to Paris, France, a few months ago, art and poetry. He even ends the call by reciting one of his very own poems.
Matt’s Art Chat is a series of conversation with artists and interesting people from all over the world. You can watch all episodes of Matt’s Art Chat on Youtube, or listen to them on Spotify, and PodBean.
My Matt’s Art Chat podcast series continues with a conversation with Bret Louis Adams. Bret is a painter/photographer from Texas, currently residing in Lisbon, Portugal. His work explores post-impressionist styles while incorporating modern design concepts.
Matt’s Art Chat is a series of podcast conversations with artists and interesting, creative people from all over the world by arts presenter Matt Micucci.
I filmed a tour of Engage Art Studios in Galway, Ireland, with its Managing Director Grace Mitchell as part of my Matt’s Long Take series, where I document the art world. The video presents the venue “au naturel,” in-between art exhibitions. Engage Art Studios is the largest studio group in Galway city. Filmed here in its new premises in Churchfields Lower Salthill, Galway.
Matt’s Long Take is a series of videos documenting artists and creative people, as well as art venues from all parts of the world. These videos are filmed on an handheld camera in an unedited long-take.
Davy Ryan is one of my oldest and best friends. We used to be in a band together, Lexington 125 – a once-promising Irish band that never was. In order to keep those memories alive, I decided to dedicate one of the podcasts in this series to document a conversation where we relive some of the memories of the good old days when we dreamt of being rockstars. In addition to watching the video of the podcast via the player below, you can listen to it on Spotify HERE.
I have also recently uploaded to my podcast the album that I recorded with Lexington 125 many years ago, the music of which never really properly saw the light of day as the band broke up soon after the recording. You can check out the entire album on YouTube.
Matt’s Art Chat is a podcast series of conversations with artists and interesting people from all over the world.
For my first Long Take of 2020, I filmed Irish conceptual artist Louise Manifold in her studio in Galway, Ireland. Manifold works with a wide variety of media, including film, photography, sculpture and text. You can find out more about her on her website, http://www.louisemanifold.com/
Matt’s Long Take is a series of videos documenting artists, interesting people and venues all over the world.
This year, I was invited once again to attend to International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands. To be honest, I didn’t feel like going, not least of all because I actually had only been invited for three nights, which is far too short a time to do any proper interview-based coverage. Nevertheless convinced myself to o by promising myself that for the first time in six years I would visit a museum in the city and take some time for myself.
When I found out that the Bojimans museums, the biggest museum in the city, was closed due to renovations, I was incredibly disappointed. Even more so when I realised that with only less than two hours to spare, I would never make it to a nearby museum and take in any artwork properly the way I like to. But I was not disheartened, as I also realised that this series should not be restricted to artworks that exist in a museum. Art is everywhere, including the outdoors and even just outside the city where you live.
Rotterdam happens to be a fascinating city architecturally speaking. After it was basically torn down during the second world war, the people of Rotterdam decided to build it and make it better. And so, it became a tapestry of modern architecture of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. One of the most notable sights within this landscape are The Cube Houses, designed by Piet Blom. Work on them was finalized in 1984 and they represent his personal concept on architecture. On this video, I give a brief overview of its history and talk a little bit about this concept, with references to the inside of the houses as well.
Matt’s Wuthering Arts is a series of videos where I spotlight a single artwork and briefly talk about an individual artist or art movement. These are starting points with which I hope to inspire people to open their eyes and be aware of the wonders of art exploration and discovery.
For my second Wuthering Art episode, I take a look at Fire in the City from 1926 by Geradro Dottori.
Born in Perugia, Italy, in 1929, Dottori is one of the major painters of the Futurist movement. So much so that he was a spokesperson for futurism on various matters regarding the plastics arts. One of the major concepts he developed was Aeropainting (Aeropittura), which embraced Futirism’s love of modernity and introduced a brand new perspective to the art world during the pioneering days of flight.
Fire in the City is currently displayed as part of the permanent exhibition in the Palazzo della Penna in Dottori’s birthplace of Perugia, Italy. While the painting revels in the spectacle of the burning Medieval landscape, I argue that Dottori had a lot of love for the landscape of his birthplace, as represented by the many times he reproduced it throughout his ouvre.
With the new year, I decided to resume my Matt’s Art Chat format, which I experimented with last year. This is a series of recorded phone conversations I have with artists and interesting creative people, many of whom are my friends, from different parts of the world.
I could think of no better person to resume the series with than my friend, British author Matt Jordan, who recently published his new book, New Times.
You can hear/watch our conversation via the player below.
Matt was a good friend of mine from the days when I was in Prague. We had shared many conversations about the arts while there, however, we hadn’t talked for quite some time before this call.
This was another reason why I decided to call Matt for this video podcast, and here we discuss among other things, politics, Brexit, millennials v. boomers, his book and, of course, the arts.
In Arte Matt 