Caravaggio, Vermeer & the Power of Museums – Dr Caroline Campbell - 254 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Release Date: 09/21/2025
Architecture as a Language - Sean Griffiths on Cities, Power & Design - 260 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
MODERN ARCHITECT. Sean Griffiths is Professor of Architecture at the University of Westminster and former Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University. His current architecture and design practice Modern Architect was founded in 2014 and has worked largely on residential, commercial and public art projects. Previously Sean Griffiths was a founding director of the internationally renowned art/architecture practice FAT, where he won many design awards. FAT represented the UK at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014. “I was really thinking I would pursue a career...
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Change Yourself, Change the World: Wisdom from Buddhist Monk Nicholas Vreeland - 259 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
PHOTOGRAPHER MONK. Nicholas Vreeland, also known as Rato Khensur Thubten Lhundup, is a Tibetan Buddhist monk and the former abbot of Rato Dratsang, an important 14th-century Tibetan Buddhist monastery reestablished in India. The first and only Westerner the Dalai Lama has appointed Abbot of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, he is a photographer who learned his craft as an assistant to Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. “Once you are a monk, you may receive a teaching from a holy being, a lama or master, on techniques by which you can cultivate concern for others and diminish...
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“Half Poetry, Half Science”: The Art of Food with River Cafe’s Ruthie Rogers - 258 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY. Ruthie Rogers CBE is an American and British chef who owns and runs the Michelin starred Italian restaurant The River Café in Hammersmith, London. She is the widow of the Italian-born British architect Richard Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside, who together with Renzo Piano created the Pompidou Centre in Paris. “I always want somebody to come to the River Cafe and leave happier than they arrived.” “A lot of immigrants talk about the food of their grandmothers, because very often the mothers adapt and the grandmothers retain the cooking of their country of...
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Coco Brandolini: Building Dada. Small-Batch Luxury, Big Identity - 257 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
REVOLUTIONALIZING FASHION IN MILAN. Coco Brandolini was nobly born in France. An Italian fashion executive, artist and designer, in 2022 she launched her own brand called d’AddA and established it in a charming apartment on Via Montenapoleone in Milano. She describes her enterprise as a joyous ode to her heritage transformed into limited edition pieces made from upcycled materials. “The craftsmanship is superb. Milano is the most interesting and efficient city for me to work. Everything is here.” “Clients love that each piece is almost unique.” “If a woman is...
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Inside Design Miami: Jennifer Roberts on Paris, Miami, and Beyond - 256 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
GLOBALLY RELEVANT DESIGN. JENNIFER ROBERTS became the Chief Executive Officer of Design Miami, the global forum for collectible design, in 2015. She has introduced several new verticals for the company including Design Miami Curatorial Lab, a strategic consultancy to help businesses build cultural capital. In addition, Roberts successfully launched Design Miami.Paris and developed new event formats including Podium and In Situ. Born and raised in Manhattan, schooled in London, she has a residence in the unspoiled jungles of Ilha Grande, Brazil. “The interior design market comes through...
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Amos Gitai: “Our Voyage on This Beautiful Planet Is Short - Do What You Love” - 255 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
INSCRIBING IDEAS TO MEMORY. Amos Gitai is an Israeli film-maker, internationally known for his documentaries and feature films about the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and personal and collective memory. Born in Haifa, Israel in 1950, Gitai was wounded during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when a medical evacuation helicopter in which he was travelling was hit by a Syrian missile. He has drawn on biographical, familial and generational themes throughout his career, as well as the trauma of war and the celebration of life in the face of adversity. “You have to inscribe some ideas...
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Caravaggio, Vermeer & the Power of Museums – Dr Caroline Campbell - 254 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
ART FOR PUBLIC PURPOSE. Dr Caroline Campbell was born and educated in Belfast, and became Director of the National Gallery of Ireland in 2022. She studied Modern History at University College Oxford, and has an MA and PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. A former Fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership, New York, before joining the National Gallery of Ireland, Caroline was Director of Collections and Research at the National Gallery, London. Earlier in her career she held curatorial positions at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Courtauld Gallery,...
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Antonio Monfreda: A Life in Art, Fashion & Photography - 253 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
COSINESS NEVER GOES OUT OF FASHION. Antonio Monfreda is an Italian art director and curator who has become a defining figure in the worlds of design, photography, and art direction. As international editor of Martina Mondadori’s Cabana Magazine since 2016, from the very first issue he turned his talent to the photography of interiors and lifestyle. Monfreda’s new book Tuscan Rooms: Interiors from the Heartland of the Renaissance, published by Rizzoli International Publications and Cabana, is an exclusive look into Tuscan interiors that has the hallmarks of Cabana Magazine’s coverage of...
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Inside LUMA Arles: Maja Hoffmann on Art, Nature & Change - 252 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
A VISION OF TRANSFORMATION. Explore the impact of Maja Hoffmann on contemporary culture through her LUMA Foundation and innovative art projects. Maja Hoffmann is a Swiss art collector and patron. The Founder and President of LUMA Foundation, she has led the development of LUMA Arles in Provence, an important international cultural project. By addressing urgent issues in culture, nature, scientific experimentation and ecology, she has promoted new structures for innovation and positive change. Her efforts have earned LUMA widespread recognition for its diverse...
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Thaddaeus Ropac on Passion, Purpose, and the Future of Contemporary Art - 251 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
TOWARDS THE ULTIMATE GALLERY. Thaddaeus Ropac is an Austrian born gallerist specializing in international contemporary art. He founded the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in 1981, and today he represents more than 70 artists with galleries located in Salzburg, Le Marais and Pantin in Paris, London and Seoul. In September 2025 he will open his new 280 m2 space in Palazzo Belgioioso in Milan, with a show titled Georg Baselitz and Lucio Fontana, L’aurora viene (The Dawn is Coming). “Milan is the heartbeat of Italian art making.” “We represent around 70 artists and estates.” “I...
info_outlineART FOR PUBLIC PURPOSE. Dr Caroline Campbell was born and educated in Belfast, and became Director of the National Gallery of Ireland in 2022. She studied Modern History at University College Oxford, and has an MA and PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. A former Fellow of the Center for Curatorial Leadership, New York, before joining the National Gallery of Ireland, Caroline was Director of Collections and Research at the National Gallery, London. Earlier in her career she held curatorial positions at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Courtauld Gallery, London, and the National Gallery. Caroline has published widely on European art from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, particularly on the Italian Renaissance, most recently Mantegna & Bellini and 14th Century Siena.
“The Taking of Christ is an absolutely astonishing painting because of the moment of drama in it, and that, as much as the name Caravaggio, is what really excites our visitors.”
“Irish art is really strong, but it is much less known outside of Ireland. I would love people to be able to appreciate it more, as part of the more widespread European and Western tradition.”
“I love the connection that people have with the gallery.”