Salman Toor 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. Toor was born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1983, and lives and works in New York. His paintings capture everyday moments in the lives of fictional young, queer, Brown men. Set within private and public environments, these scenes speak of a wealth of feelings and experiences, ranging from touching domestic intimacy and love, to communal solidarity, to societal precarity and violence. While abundantly concerned with contemporary life and identity, Salman’s paintings are informed by a deep passion for historic art, both in Western and South Asian traditions. The result is a body of work of immense technical sensitivity and beauty, shot through with poignancy and wit. He reflects on the growing complexity of his references to the Western tradition of painting in relation to his subject matter. He discusses how the “mist and gaseousness” of a particular shade of green has helped him create particular moods and atmospheres in his work. He talks about playing with conventions in the depictions of certain types of bodies, and exploring and subverting orientalist and racist tropes. Among many other references, he recalls the early influence of Paul Delaroche’s The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (1833) and Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period, the enduring impact of Jean-Honoré Fragonard, whose sweetness is like “a cup of tea with five teaspoons”, and suggests that he enjoys painters who embark on “slightly crazy” transformations of academic painting traditions. He expresses his ongoing admiration for Anton Chekhov’s short stories and discusses how Whitney Houston’s music was important to him and his “chosen family” in his early years in New York. Plus, he gives insight into his life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?

Salman Toor: Wish Maker, Luhring Augustine Chelsea and Tribeca, New York, 1 May-21 June.

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Kent Monkman 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. Monkman was born in 1965 in St Mary’s, Ontario, and today lives and works between New York City and Toronto. He is a member of the Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory, in Manitoba, Canada, and uses the language of European and North American art to reflect on Indigenous experiences. He addresses colonisation and its legacies, loss and memory, resistance and protest, and the disparities between Native American and settler colonial attitudes to gender and sexuality, among many other subjects.

Monkman is often present in his work through his gender-fluid alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, a glamorous, supernatural, shapeshifting time-traveller. At once a witness, a trickster and an agent of change, Miss Chief is a key means for Monkman to subvert colonial perspectives, in challenging both the imagery of Old Master paintings and the construction of histories relating to Indigenous peoples. In the conversation, he describes Miss Chief’s role—“living inside” his paintings—reflects on the reimagining of queer narratives of the American fur trade, and discusses the historical and present reverence for gender-fluid or two-spirit people in Indigenous communities. He reflects on the enduring impact of Eugène Delacroix’s painting and writing, the influence of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith on his political conviction, and the dramatic impact of seeing Antonio Gisbert Pérez’s painting The Execution of Torrijos and his Companions on the Beach at Málaga (1988) at the Prado in Madrid. He gives insight into the complex process of making his paintings and other aspects of his studio life. Plus, he answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?

Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors, Denver Art Museum, Colorado, US, 20 April-17 August; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 27 September-8 March 2026

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Ed Atkins 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. Atkins, born in Oxford, UK, in 1982, is best known for exploring the strange but endlessly rich space between the digital world and human experience and emotion. He has taken an unorthodox approach to software and hardware, “misusing” them, as he puts it, to produce videos and animations that reflect on technologies critically and poetically, testing their relationship with the messy world of physicality and feeling. A crucial factor in achieving this is his work in writing and drawing, which offers a counterweight to the digital textures of the video installations. Atkins himself is ever-present in the multiple manifestations of his practice, physically and emotionally, and the result is a body of work that, for all its deliberate complexities and confusions, has a profound core of tenderness. He reflects on the transformative experience of encountering the Czechian artist Jan Švankmajer’s animated films on television, the emotional impact of Velázquez’s Las Meninas, his collaborations with the Swiss composer and clarinettist Jürg Frey, and his ongoing engagement with the US literary critic Leo Bersani. Plus, he discusses life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?

Ed Atkins, Tate Britain, London, until 25 August; Ed Atkins, Flower, Fitzcarraldo Editions, published on 10 April, £12.99 (pb).

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