Vija Celmins

“It’s very difficult to put in words really what the work is. I think I paint things I cannot say.” (Vija Celmins 2023)
Vija Celmins’ meticulous paintings and drawings of the natural world; oceans, night skies, deserts and spiders’ webs, capture the viewer and draw them into an unknowable expanse that contains an undeniable beauty. Born in Riga shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, her family escaped from the Soviet army’s invasion, emigrating to the United States in 1948. Fascinated by the ability of a painting to have depth of imagery while at the same time remaining flat; the duality of the experience that could be created through the work stimulated Celmins’s artistic vision. In works, often inspired by photographs previously taken or found, Celmins works on building depth and filling the canvas. “I find my works tend to go slow because I build up the image till it is as full and dense as I can make it. One might say that the paint and image are in a constant shifting relationship, and it has inspired me.” Celmins images reflect her philosophy that the work is about making. “I also feel that although I work for myself. I think art is really a thing from one person to another.”

Olafur Eliasson

Color, light, water, ice; these are just some of the natural elements that Olafur Eliasson skillfully employs for his thoughtful, wide-ranging artworks; works designed to alter perception, raise awareness while creating a sense of wonder. The range of his work is extensive and diverse, including sculpture, installations, paintings, photography and video. Early masterpieces, such as Beauty (1993), have an ephemeral, poetical existence that relies on the viewer for life. Much of his inspiration has come from experiencing nature as a boy in Denmark and more especially, in Iceland, and are at the heart of his motivation for challenging global environmental issues though his art. The weather project (2003) at Tate Modern in London and Ice Watch (Copenhagen, Paris, London) are just two illustrations of Eliasson’s inventive, considered and beautiful works. In 2019 he was appointed UNDP’s Ambassador for climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Diébédo Francis Kéré

By combining local materials and skills with innovative design and smart engineering solutions, while maintaining a focus on working with local communities, Diébédo Francis Kéré has transformed architecture not only in Burkina Faso, but also across Africa and beyond. Kéré had to leave home when he was only 7 in order to be able to attend school. Studying in dark, hot, unventilated classrooms instilled in him the desire to make better buildings and his career as architect. He studied in Germany and established the Kéré Foundation to raise money for his ambition to design and build a school for his birthplace. In all his projects in Africa, Kéré has focused on providing simple, achievable plans for buildings that utilize the skills and energies of the local community – employing traditional building materials and marrying them with modern design. Kéré’s designs weave together elements of traditional African design, with modern architecture, as revealed in the colors of Coachella’s Sarbalé Ke (2019), the wooden patterns of Xylem (2019) at Tippet Rise Art Center, USA, and his constant referencing of trees – of their central role in providing shade and a social center (Serpentine Pavilion 2017).

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis is a world-renowned trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and a leading advocate of American culture. Raised in a musical family in New Orleans, Louisiana, he began performing jazz and classical trumpet music from an early age. In 1980, just after moving to New York to attend The Juilliard School, he toured with the legendary Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. In the four decades since, he has rekindled widespread international interest in jazz through performances, educational initiatives, books, curricula, and public advocacy. Between his 1982 debut and the present, he has released 127 jazz, classical and alternative recordings, composing hundreds of original pieces. He has performed in 858 cities and 65 countries across the globe to date. He is the recipient of 41 honorary degrees and has been appointed UN Messenger of Peace (2001) and Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur (2009). He is a recipient of both The National Medal of Arts (2005) and The National Humanities Medal (2016). He presently serves as Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Musical Director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Director of Jazz Studies at The Juilliard School, and President of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation.

Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson has over the decades, created some of the most important and memorable works in contemporary theater. While crafting stunning set designs, arresting lighting and radical choreography, he has created an artificiality of the stage where time and space are redrawn and the experience of the audience reimagined. This radical, highly original synthesis of vision, sound and text are the hallmarks of the theater of Robert Wilson. On moving to New York in the 1960s, he founded the experimental performance collective “Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds.” Internationally, his reputation was built with the 1971 performance in France of Deafman Glance. However, the opera, Einstein on the Beach, co-created with Philip Glass really cemented his international career when it premiered in 1976. Wilson has also brought his highly original approach to existing operas, choral works and plays. The visual lexicon of Robert Wilson is not limited to the theater. His creativity includes drawings, sculpture, furniture design, choreography, glass work and photography. He is also the artistic director of The Watermill Center, a laboratory for the Arts that he founded in 1992 in Long Island, New York.