Hew Locke talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Locke was born in 1959 in Edinburgh, UK, to the artists Donald and Leila Locke. The family sailed from the UK to Guyana in 1966 and Hew was based there until 1980. He returned to the UK to study art in 1980 and now lives in London. Over more than three decades, Locke has explored a panoply of imagery about nationhood, culture and power. Since he was a child growing up in postcolonial Guyana, he has had a lifelong interest in the symbols nations choose to reflect themselves, the objects they acquire to enrich their cultures, and the institutions that project these values into the world. In sculpture and installation, photography, drawing and textiles, he has created arresting tableaux whose layers of rich materiality, fusing found and everyday objects with finely drawn and crafted elements, foreground nuance and complexity. He reflects the shifting nature of significance and meaning according to time, place and the collective values and subjectivities of his audience. He discusses his desire for complexity without dispensing with formal rigour and visual impact. He reflects on the different forms of composition necessitated by his approach, and his consistent use of cardboard as a material. He discusses the equal influence of his parents on his work, the tutorial with Paula Rego that led to a complete change in the direction of his work, and the impact of seeing Hans Haacke’s celebrated German pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1993. Plus, he gives insight into life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?

Hew Locke, Gilt, Compton Verney, 5 July-July 2027; Hew Locke: Passages, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, US, 2 October-11 January 2026; Armada, Newlyn Art Gallery, UK, 1 November; Cargoes, King Edward Memorial Park, opening September.

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Rudolf Stingel talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Stingel was born in 1956 in Merano, South Tyrol, Italy, and lives in New York. He explores myriad ways of making paintings and extending the idea of what painting might be. With both a love of his medium and skepticism about the possibility of creating something new from such a time-honoured discipline, Rudolf explores a range of forms of painting, from abstraction to photorealism. He emerged in the 1980s, a period in which painting was condemned to obsolescence by some prominent critics, but he met this dismissal with a tangible sense of liberation, pushing painting beyond its traditional formats and contexts into the realms of sculpture and installation, while also engaging with historical genres and with key figures and objects in art history. The result is a body of work that is simultaneously weighty in the seriousness with which it questions painting and fleet-footed in the way that it relentlessly shifts, doubles-back and invents. Stingel reflects on his constant irreverence for convention, his attempts to “crank up the volume” in his groups of paintings and installation, the subtle strain of autobiography through his work. He discusses the early influence of Pablo Picasso, the enduring impact of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and the energy given to him by close friendships with artists including Urs Fischer and Maurizio Cattelan. He talks about the impact of films by Marguerite Duras and the music of Brian Eno. Plus, he answers our usual questions, including those about the art he would like to live with and the rituals of studio life.

Rudolf Stingel: Vineyard Paintings, Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London, until 20 September; Les yeux dans les yeux: portraits from the Pinault Collection, Couvent des Jacobins, Rennes, France, until 14 September

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Lubaina Himid talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Himid was born 1954 in Zanzibar and lives today in Preston, UK. Her paintings, sculptures and installations are an invitation to consider marginalised figures, communities and diasporic cultures, to expand the histories that frame our worldview, and ultimately to effect change. From the 1980s, Lubaina has been both artist and organiser, a prolific collaborator, and a crucial voice in establishing a platform for Black artists and women artists in the UK and beyond. Engaging directly with historic and contemporary injustice and structural racism, while relating personal and intimate experiences and feelings, and reinterpreting and reimagining Western art history, her work is rigorously critical and yet poetic, sensuous, humorous and often joyous. She talks about the early impact of Stanley Spencer and Bridget Riley, the inexhaustible influence of William Hogarth, her curatorial work of the mid-1980s and her admiration for her peer in the Black British Arts movement Claudette Johnson. She also reflects on the influence of writers including Audre Lorde and Essex Hemphill. Plus, she gives insight into her life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?

Lubaina Himid with Magda Stawarska: Another Chance Encounter, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 12 July-2 November; Connecting Thin Black Lines, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 24 June-7 September. Lubaina Himid, British Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 9 May-22 November 2026

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