INTERVIEWS

For Manchester-based Tomas Gittins, art making is an act composed of instinct and intention in equal measure. Gittins is just one artist leading the charge of a promising class of up-and-coming talent in the UK – a cohort opting for a more raw, unfiltered dialogue with the world at large, often going beyond the traditional white-walled space and into on-the-ground pockets of culture.Only six months in, 2025 has already been a banner year for the Brazilian-English artist, locking in a range of fashion and artistic projects under his belt. Now, the Toxic Arts starlet is coming back together the gallery, this time, gearing up to open Pursuit of Joy, his debut solo exhibition. Staged in the heart of Soho, Gittins lands in London with a fresh crop of his signature face paintings — all of which ...

Looking at a Ji Zou painting is something akin to a haunting. Ancestral presence and personal stake unfold like bygone memories, with new meanings revealed one veil at a time. What’s left is an ever-evolving image — subtle, sublime, and like every good ghost story, bone-deep.This quality can be traced back to the Hmong ghost stories of their childhood. “In our culture, we don’t have fairy tales,” Zou told Hypeart, “so I’ve come to associate monsters with comfort.” It’s an inheritance that pulses through their immediate environment, from traditional costume fabrics that slink off chairs to paintings punctuated with silver shamanic emblems and the charms that bless the latticed fences on the walk to their studio in Ridgewood.Brought up in the sprawl of suburban Michigan, Zou, like many other...

Steven Harrington is making his Frieze New York debut with a sunny slice of Los Angeles. Known for his psychedelic-pop aesthetic and his beloved character, Mello, few artists can pull off such chaotic yet composed illustrative acts.Staged at The Shed’s top-floor lounge, Harrington transforms the space into a lush technicolor environment where a moment of meditative play cuts through the clamor of Art Week, inviting viewers to slow down, linger in the now and, as the title suggests, stop to smell the flowers.For his cozy, living room-like immersive installation, Harrington teamed up with LG to bring his vibrant universe into motion on their ultra-thin OLED screens. At the heart of the display, Mello waves from blooming fields on a transparent TV turned digital canvas. Elsewhere, he can be s...

Chris Skylark’s photographic journey began as an internet kid from Atlanta. Like many others in the heyday of Tumblr, he bought a camera to document his own style and latest pick-ups, chasing aesthetic highs and sharing them with friends. Coming up in the city’s bustling music scene, friends became subjects, and subjects became stars, with Playboi Carti and Lil Yachty passing through Skylark’s frame before becoming household names. While their rise pulled him with, the artist found himself drifting toward something more experimental and raw — something more than simply documenting the moment.The pandemic marked a turning point in Skylark's creative journey. At the time, he was living and working with Metro Boomin, often venturing out to catch some visions in a restless pursuit of captures ...

Up a narrow stairwell in SoHo, past a black metal door and into a clean white loft, Ferg is doing something he hasn’t done in a long time: slowing down. The space is bare. No crew, no clutter, no chairs. Just two rooms. One for painting, one for music. It’s quiet, focused, built entirely for the work.We got the first look inside as he prepared CHOSEN, his debut solo exhibition. The title says a lot. There was no gallery hand-holding this one, no splashy art-world PR campaign. Though, Ferg worked with the expert curator Anne-Laure Lemaitre and Larry Warsh of No More Rulers to bring his vision to life, this presentation was something largely personal. It resulted in a body of work made by Darold Brown, not for the culture, not for approval, just for himself.That shift started with the cover ...