Antony Micallef didn’t just happen upon the contemporary art scene, he literally crashed into it. Born and raised in Swindon, Micallef studied Fine Arts at University of Plymouth under the tutelage of John Virtue. After wining second prize at the 2000 BP portrait award, he went onto create art that explores colour and contemporary expressionism. Labelled as one of Britain’s most electrifying painters, his work has a large celebrity clientele including the likes of Angelina Jolie and Jude Law. Here he speaks exclusively to Schön! about his childhood, studying in Plymouth and his new exhibition at Lazarides Gallery, a collection of self portraits titled Self.
You were born and raised in Swindon by parents who are not from the art world. How did you develop your interest in art and when did you decide that you wanted to become a professional artist?
Art was the only thing I ever did that gave me real confidence when I was younger. I think every child has a natural interest in art and is instinctively creative. They have innocence and a simplified way of looking at the world in a wondrous way that is unique to children.
I don’t think there is an actual moment when you decide to become a ‘professional’ artist but you just dream of doing the things you love. I always wanted to become an artist, whatever that means, but I never thought for a moment it would have ever been possible.
You trained in Plymouth under the tutelage of John Virtue. What was the most important lesson you learnt from him?
He was a special person and I owe a lot to him. I guess the main thing I learnt from him was that being an artist is about what you do and not about what you say. This is especially true for a painter. He drilled into me that knowing my language was the most important thing I had to learn. There were no frills with him and he ignored all aspects of glamour and romanticisms about being an artist. He taught me to look and study, and look again until you get things right. He made me understand the mechanics of paint and how dynamic it could be if it was wielded in the right way.
You work has been exhibited all over the world, from your participation in the Santa’s Ghetto Bethlehem in 2007 to the Saatchi Gallery in aid of the Missing People Charity. Can you name one exhibition, out of the many, that stands out for you and why?
There have been many great shows supporting different charities such as the Peace One day at the ICA in London but the main two for me were the two Santa’s ghetto exhibitions. The first one was Santa’s ghetto on Oxford Street in London. It was on the busiest streets in the country and was opened on one of the busiest days of the year at Christmas. We hired a huge empty shop and turned it in to an amazing grotto of art. In the big window at the front was a huge picture of Tony Blair taking a selfie in front of a huge explosion in an Iraqi desert (A piece of art by the artist Peter Kennard). I’m just not sure and it’s sad to say even if art like that would be allowed on display there anymore. It felt like a mass protest but disguised as a shop with real energy rather than a normal exhibition.
Antony Micallef, Photography Thomas Butler
Your new exhibition Self is currently on at the Lazarides Gallery. What was the inspiration behind doing a series of meditative self portraits?
I just wanted to strip everything right back. I wanted to get rid of all the distractions and noise from my other works. I felt like I wanted to work in a simpler way but find a more concentrated way of using my language. I guess using my head as a subject was the perfect vehicle to polarize the mechanics of how I paint.
It feels like your current solo exhibition has a very different style of painting compared to your other solos such as ‘being animal’ and ‘impure idols’. The others were more closely related to pop art whereas ‘Self’ seems deeply reflective, more personal. Tell us a little bit about the how the techniques used in the series varies to what you’ve done previously.
The technique used in this show is what makes the pieces work. There is no other way in which to convey what these paintings say without using so much paint. These are not illustrated heads but heads made from the mechanics using big physical brush strokes using heavy oil paint inches thick. It was like twisting organic muscle around until something spoke to me.
You’ve been a vocal critic of consumerism and excess. How has your take on contemporary societyevolved since you started out?
I think I just became what I was painting about. It just didn’t seem right at this time to make work about this anymore as I was fully involved and taking part in the very issue I was painting about. I think I just wanted to purify myself internally and as well as physically and this was my way of doing it. I want to return to that subject at a later date, possibly, but it has to be communicated in a way that hasn’t been done before. I feel I have new tools at my disposal now, but it’s a question of how I amalgamate them with my new ideas.
You art is admired by a host of Hollywood celebrities including Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. You declined Angelina Jolie’s request to paint her children, but is there anyone in the world that you would like to paint a portrait of?
I didn’t decline it because I wasn’t interested in what she was asking. I would have loved to do it but it’s not something I felt I could do. I don’t see my portraits as conventional ones as it’s like painting your muscle and flesh under your skin. It’s about what’s underneath. It’s an internal portrait and not about how one looks. I find this really hard to do with other people I’m not familiar with it as it’s such a brutal act.
Lastly, how would you like people to remember your work in the coming years?
I just want my work to be respected… That’s just what I’ve always wanted.
Ahead of the UEFA Women’s EURO in Geneva this summer, Nike revealed the new national football team kits for 2025 with an energetic event in London. Some of the beautiful game’s brightest stars like England’s Lucy Bronze took centre stage at an electrifying showcase that featured a live drum band, roaring fans and a live performance from London rapper Ms Banks. It was a true celebration of where athleticism meets culture and fashion.
Nike has long been at the forefront of championing women in football, and not just their performance on the pitch, but also the stories that got them there. “We have been making women really visible from the very beginning. You can take it all the way back to when we started running to now in football. Whether that’s in the 90s with Mia Hamm, whether that’s Megan Rapinoe and championing her on and off the pitch, to the athletes that we’re working with today,” says Stephanie Ankrah, former Nike VP of EMEA Women’s Brand Marketing on the cultural influence of women in football. “The voice of the athlete is centre to everything we do at Nike,” she adds. Athletes “dream bigger than anyone else. There really is no finish line with them. They’re always pushing to be the best they can be. We do the same so we tend to gravitate towards each other naturally.”
From head to toe, Nike’s mission to invest in women’s football is integrated into every part of the kit design, including German player Klara Bühl’s favourite football boot, the Nike Phantom. “It’s the comfort. You just go in and feel really good,” she says. “It’s cool to see that people are taking care of [women]. When you see players get injured, you study [it] and then you create something that helps women.” With the tools to show up as her best self, Bühl says that she feels great pride to have a platform that inspires women within the sport and beyond. “I’m really proud that we made these steps, that we show who we are, and that we have this opportunity to fill women’s football with such great personalities and values.”
The power of the game to connect and empower people is unmatched, a lesson that Nike’s Ankrah learned early on. “My dad came from Ghana, landed in Wales and the one thing that made him integrate into society was being able to play football,” she tells Schön! “I do believe the power of sport in multiple situations is incredible.” When it comes to women’s football, Ankrah passionately believes in celebrating the dreams of athletes regardless of their background. “I would love to remove [the term] ‘women’ in football and just talk about athletes, and how do we help athletes make their dreams real, regardless of who they are,” she says. “There are so many young girls who are seeing the things that we do and I hope that the barrier that once existed of being a female athlete is removed for them.”
coat. Burberry
shirt + tie. Brooks Brothers
trousers. SANDRO
shoes. Christian Louboutin
belt + braces. Stylist’s own
sunglasses. Ray-Ban
Kelly McCormack moves through creative disciplines like a force of nature, propelled by a relentless curiosity. Beginning her career as an actor and singer, she has expanded her artistry into experimental realms, always seeking forms that can match the scope of her expressive drive. Speaking with us for Schön! 48, dressed in Burberry, she opens up about her latest role as Natasha in Eva Victor’s award-winning ‘Sorry, Baby,’ which sees McCormack diving into the complexities of a hyper-competitive, tightly wound character. “She’s this Anne-of-Green-Gables-cosplaying-Virginia-Woolf-wannabe-horse-girl,” McCormack says of Natasha, a portrayal that balances satire and psychological depth. “I told Eva, ‘I’ll do this part if you let me have extensions that go all the way to my butt.’” At the center of the story is a fraught triangle between two women and a male professor, creating a layered dynamic beneath the comedy.
Despite its sharp humour, ‘Sorry, Baby’ cuts deeply into serious terrain. “They manage to capture how mundane sexual violence is for women,” McCormack explains, “and how a lot of [the] fallout is you connecting with your best friend, and the two of you just talking by rote about what needs to happen next. The fact that Eva was able to capture this tone is ground-breaking.”
McCormack received the ‘Sorry, Baby’ script while completing a master’s degree in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Oxford, where she focused her thesis on male homosocial environments and the unsettling question: “How do men discuss rape when they are alone with themselves?” When academic language failed to contain her emotional response, she turned to art, creating the installation Robes & Latin: Or, How to Get Kicked Out. There, she presented what she calls her “disemboweled feelings and thoughts that came with studying this topic.”
This fluid transition between academic, artistic, and performative modes is core to McCormack’s identity. When one form falls short, she shifts seamlessly to another. Referencing librettist Oscar Hammerstein, she says, “When you can’t say it, you sing it. When you get to the point where you can’t sing it, dance it.” For her, it’s not about versatility — it’s about necessity. “It’s the constant revelation that I cannot use this language to express myself adequately. Then you move to the next, and it just gets heightened, and heightened, and heightened.”
McCormack thrives in constant metamorphosis — writer, director, actor, academic, musician — never staying in one creative skin for long. Her work is not about finality but about discovery. As she puts it, her goal is “to remain a mystery to herself” while she continues to “track the animal within.”
coat. Burberry
shirt + tie. Brooks Brothers
trousers. SANDRO
shoes. Christian Louboutin
belt + braces. Stylist’s own
sunglasses. Ray-Ban
jacket + shirt. Lemaire
trousers. Bluemarble
glasses. Gloria Vanderbilt
tie. Brooks Brothers
belt. Los Angeles Apparel
watch. OMEGA
opposite
shirt. Bluemarble
trousers. An Only Child
glasses. Ray-Ban
tie. Brooks Brothers
watch. OMEGA
jacket. Ralph Lauren @ Paumé Los Angeles
polo + shorts. Polo Ralph Lauren @ Millers Room
shirt + tie. Brooks Brothers
socks. Comme Si
shoes. Our Legacy
ring. Wild West Social Club
coat. Luu Dan
suit. SANDRO
jumper. Helmut Lang @ Paumé Los Angeles
shoes. G.H.BASS
Sorry, Baby will be released in U.S. cinemas this July.
Dylan Efron doesn’t want to be the golden boy. Admittedly, that is a difficult ask at the time we speak, as his swimming with crocodiles was swiftly superseded one day earlier by saving two girls’ lives in Miami. He leans back on his couch as we chat, having just landed back in California, but his weekend rescue landed even earlier, as the headline “Dylan Efron Heroics: Actor Rescues Two From Drowning In Miami” seemed to travel quicker than light itself.
Dylan’s win on ‘The Traitors’ third season has been gamely followed by the gleam of public favour (Britney Haynes was not wrong when she called him “too fricking lovable”). He understands that a golden boy narrative is a low-hanging slackline to latch on to. But Dylan rarely wants it easy. We talk about the realization he had in college after reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, in learning to define his own life, and in accepting failure and embarrassment as not only an option, but a good one. To the question, “Who will let you?” he seeks to always have that answer be self-determining; “Who will stop me?”
In conversation with Schön!, Dylan Efron tells us about his broadening lens through his travels and documentaries, particularly in proving himself wrong even when his “nasty” inner voice breaks through. He also talks about how he’d like to get out of his own way and step far outside of safe perfection. As he says, “Maybe it won’t work. Maybe I’ll be great.” He is more than willing to find out.
Hey Dylan! How was your weekend?
It was good! It was very eventful. I’m trying to get a post together right now, but I swam with crocodiles. I saved two people in the ocean from drowning. [Laughs]
What!?
It’s hilarious. I handled some snakes and found a turtle.
I was going to say that I wish my weekend was that eventful, but I actually don’t because crocodiles are a big no from me. [Laughs]
They’re creepy! Sharks are fun because you interact with them, but the crocodile just looked at me in the eye like it was a staring contest, and was just like, “Don’t come near me.” [laughs]
But you’ve saved two people, so it was worth it!
Yeah, that was cool. Five girls were screaming, and I had just gotten to the beach. It was the first time I’d ever been in Miami, like on South Beach. I got to the shore, heard people screaming, and saw the girls stuck in a rip current. Two guys started helping the two nearest, and then there were three further out, so I swam one back in and went out for another. One of the girls hugged me on shore for a full minute. She finally calmed down, and then I just walked away. We never said anything.
That was it? Not even a word?
I was telling her to calm down and breathe, and then she finally caught her breath, and I just walked away.
You’re like, “Okay, that’s that. And we’re never seeing each other again, but I have just saved your life.” My weekend was not eventful like that, but I did watch ‘The White Lotus’ finale, which felt eventful.
No spoilers!
I won’t spoil it, all I’ll say is you need to watch!
Every time I’m on Instagram, I’ve seen spoilers, but I’ve scrolled past them, so I haven’t recognized what’s happened yet.
‘The Traitors’ finale was spoiled for me on Instagram. I went right on it and immediately saw the Elite Daily “Dylan Efron Takes The Crown” post. I really like that we are getting back to people gathering to watch weekly TV live now. Do you have any specific childhood memories of gathering together to watch something?
Yeah, 100%. As a young kid, I watched ‘Survivor’ with my dad and my brother. We also watched ‘American Idol’. Those were the two that we scheduled. I think it was every Wednesday. My dad always watched the History Channel. I feel like I learned so much through that. Eight o’clock would roll around, my dad would be on the couch, and I’d just watch with him. The next thing I knew, I was learning about the Mayans living in 1800 BC. That’s how I fell in love with ‘Dirty Jobs’ and shows like that, because my dad was watching those, and I would just mosey downstairs.
top. Eckhaus Latta
jeans. The Seven Continents
opposite
full look. Kenzo
Now you seek out those new perspectives and information through your YouTube videos. It’s interesting to see how much of an impact media can have on your life. Speaking of younger Dylan, I’ve seen you talk a lot about wanting to prove your younger self wrong. What is something you’re doing now that your younger self would be surprised by?
This is the crazy answer: I remember I was in college and I read ‘The Fountainhead’ by Ayn Rand. Essentially, there’s one character who does everything he’s supposed to. He’s the golden child; he’s learning architecture, he borrows from all the greats, he gets good grades, and he’s well-liked. I was reading this book, envisioning myself as this character, and I’m like, “Oh, yeah, I like him.” It turned out that the character is not the villain, but he’s not the hero either. He’s the guy who’s doing what society wants him to do. And then this redheaded goofball who does architecture his own way and is creative and intuitive says, “I don’t want to copy the greats, I just want to do it myself.” He is the protagonist. That moment for me was really big in realizing that I don’t want to just go to college, get a job, go through the motions, and be loved by everybody. It made me think about what I actually love. That was a big transition for me in realizing that I don’t have to please everybody. I want to live my life the way I want, and I can take risks.
That is so interesting. It made me think of a similar experience I had reading The Catcher in the Rye. I remember relating so much to the main character and thinking the way he viewed the world was so authentic, and then I remember getting to school, and there was generally a very unfavourable response to the character’s inner monologue. That really surprised me and made me analyze my own inner monologue too. I want to get into that broadening lens and how it shapes your self-perception, especially as it relates to your travels…
Doubling down on that answer, when I was raised, I did the things I excelled at, and I wanted to prove that I was good at things. I stayed very much away from the things that I wasn’t good at, and I would get quickly embarrassed when I failed. It was that transition of being like, “No, it’s okay to fail. It’s okay to be a beginner. I don’t need to be good at everything. I want to learn how to surf, and I’m not going to let that fear of struggling hold me back.” I think that’s really what sparked that passion of putting it out there to the world that, like, “Yeah, I surf and I suck, but I still love it.” I realized I shouldn’t be afraid to try because it might become a passion. I enjoyed that people might get motivated to try new things if they see me struggle with something.
You’re talking about surfing as an example there, but even as it relates to ‘The Traitors’ and all the interviews and photoshoots you’re doing lately as a result, those must feel so new to you. Is there anything lately that you found yourself being hesitant towards, but you are glad you did it?
Oh yeah, for sure. Hosting the GLAAD Awards was my first time ever reading a teleprompter and my second time ever holding a mic. That was daunting to me, but I didn’t even think twice about doing it because I wanted to be there. I wanted to do it. So it was just not letting that little fear in my brain stop me from doing something powerful, which was really cool. And all the talk shows are so foreign to me. There absolutely is still a lot that scares me. I love dancing, but I’m still very afraid of dancing because I’m afraid of looking like an idiot. When I go to a festival and someone’s recording me, it still gets in my head. But I’m happiest when I let go and just can move. I still have a battle with it all the time, but I have to just let myself go.
That’s such a good thing to be aware of because I think a lot of people stray from what scares them without it ever being a very active thought in their minds. I want to stay on that topic because I saw on a podcast, you said you had a realization at one point that people online were really connecting with you sharing your authentic passions, so you explored them more deeply. Now that you’re being even more widely perceived by a public audience, is there anything you’ve noticed that people connect with in you that you’re now absorbing and listening to?
Maybe it’s just the fact that I’m definitely not perfect, and I don’t want to be perceived that way. Even during The Traitors, people were saying very early on that I was the greatest player in the game. It’s very easy for people to latch onto something and build it up in their heads. I was very quick to be like, “Hey, I was not the best. I made a lot of mistakes.” I don’t want to ever feel like I’m this perfect person because there are a lot of things I lack. But [public perception] is empowering me to believe in myself more because there has been some insecurity growing up. I wanted to be behind the camera. I never wanted to be in front of the camera. My brother was a huge, outgoing personality. I’ve always been shy and reserved. So, the responses have helped me believe in myself a little bit more and actually want to put myself out there.
That’s such a nice thing to get out of it. For ‘The Traitors’, I know you talked about feeling very physically capable in terms of the challenges, but I think what a lot of people attached to was that emotional intelligence and charisma. Relating that to your documentaries and travels, I imagine building relationships with locals is such a huge part of the process. How do you go about first impressions in foreign situations in that context?
I’ve always tended to get along with people when I’m in those situations, and I’m blessed to have friends all over the world. I think [forming relationships] really is just in being genuinely interested in their lives in this new environment that I’ve found myself in. When people can read that on your face, they connect. I am excited the same way that I was excited to see Boston Rob, and I showed it. I think people see that, and it makes them enjoy showing off their homes. The key is just being genuine.
full look. The Seven Continents
scarf. Hermes
opposite
full look. Dolce & Gabbana
In your ‘The Fish that Saved a Village’ documentary, you called Guyana “untouched nature, the way it’s supposed to be.” From a production perspective, how does that value shape the way you approach the creative process?
I like travelling to places that don’t necessarily get a lot of tourism. It should be a partnership. It should be that I’m going to this little village in Guyana to get this experience and share this with the world, but they should also be getting something back, and that’s the exposure that maybe ten people sign up to stay at this Eco-Lodge. For them, that’s huge. It’s that give and take. I want to use my platform to empower the places that actually need tourism, not the places that are overpopulated. I always use Machu Picchu as an example — it doesn’t need more tourists. It needs about fifty percent less. It’s overpopulated. So then, when people build it up in their head and go there, they’re disappointed, whereas you can go to Guyana for less money and have an incredible experience. It’s just that people don’t know about it. So if you can raise that awareness, it’s good. And there will always be the risk of oversaturating a place, but at this point, they know it’s in their best interest to get eyes on their village to help them grow. Ecotourism is their biggest driver of money right now.
Absolutely. I’ve read that you said that ‘The Fish that Saved a Village’ felt like the sum of your work put together, including your early work at Warner Bros. Why did it feel that way?
I think it was a perfect mix of getting comfortable on camera because it takes reps to be able to express your thoughts, and I’ve never been the most cohesive speaker in the world. So it’s like, “How do I sound organic while also carrying the story forward?” and “How do I know that my team’s on the same page as me and is going to film when we need to film and not film when we don’t need to film?” By that project, I had been working with that same videographer [Brennen Shuelke] for four years, so we were just lockstep on the same page. We knew what we wanted to do and we did it. It took a lot of practice in just honing our skills and editing and colouring and storytelling. It was the first time that I felt like we really got it.
What would you consider a huge part of the creation process that you think would be almost invisible to people who are just watching?
The edit was by far the most important. I think our first draft of the Guyana project was about two hours long. I was like, “How do we trim an hour and a half out of this?” It’s such a bummer, and I think if we knew YouTube was the end platform, we could have made four YouTube videos out of this, done a two-hour cut, and it probably would have gotten more views and engagement, but we wanted to make a documentary. If you are watching it, we wanted you to be absorbed without letting off the gas once. We wanted it to be a cohesive, fast-paced story, so the amount of time we put into editing and just microanalyzing where it gets slow took the longest.
Even though you did have to cut so much, it really does keep your interest, and I think the storytelling struck me a lot. At the end, you say, “If a village of 300 can save an entire species of fish, imagine what the rest of us can do?” Since filming, how has that idea stuck with you?
I’m speaking from my experience, but I don’t think I’m alone here. I can get really stressed out over very minor things. Everything feels like it needs to happen now, and if it doesn’t, we’re late. There’s just so much unnecessary stress. Then I saw this village where they don’t have watches, they’re not looking at the time, and they’re making such a big impact on the world. It made me realize that we need to stop stressing about the small things, take a breath, and think about the big picture sometimes.
Agreed! Through your projects, what do you think you’ve learned through experience that no one would have been able to teach you?
I talked about that shift in me earlier from wanting to surf and rock climb to realizing that I could do all these things and was just holding myself back. So I think that shift has to happen to empower you to do things alone, too. I would go to the rock climbing gym and just start there. Then maybe you meet someone who rock climbs. Next thing you know, you’re going rock climbing outside. That shift was a big thing for me to just realize that I could do things freely and didn’t have to be invited by a friend to go do it. I could be the one who invites my friend to go do it. I could be the first one to go learn and then get all my friends into it. That’s led to highlining because I was out hiking, watching rock climbers, saying, “I wish I could do that.” I realized I could do it. I don’t think anyone could have told me, besides me looking into the mirror and asking myself, “Why am I not doing these things?”
Your YouTube bio is “humbling myself outdoors.” In recent memory, when have you felt most humbled?
There is one recent one where I went highlining and I organized this big trip, and it was just a little stressful because I had so many moving parts. I had videographers there and so many people there, including friends. Finally, by the time I got a chance to highline, I had about an hour on the line, and I couldn’t stand up. I was so frustrated with myself, and my inner voice was just being so nasty. [Laughs] Then I remember one of my friends was talking me through it and could see my frustration. My friend just looked at me and said, “Remember, this is fun. You have fun doing this.” I remember smiling when she said that and thinking, “She’s right. Why am I putting all this pressure on myself? It doesn’t matter.” And I stood up on that next turn. Some things you can’t do alone, and I just needed someone to remind me to enjoy. That was really powerful.
Sometimes you really do need someone to help you get out of your own way. What do you see yourself doing next if you could fully get out of your own way?
Acting is something that I’m interested in. Again, I would have never said that three years ago. I didn’t even think it was possible. I didn’t think I could do it. I have so much respect for actors, and I know how much time they put into their craft, so it’s not like it’s something I’m just going to be good at, but maybe that would be fun. A lot of social media gigs turn into acting gigs in a way, and every time I have done that or stunts, it’s been really fun. So I think it is one of those things that I should at least see if I enjoy and not let the little kid in me say, “You’re never going to do that.” Maybe it won’t work, maybe I’ll be great. I have no idea.
That’s really cool. I hope you do that.
I’m watching ‘The White Lotus’, and I was so blown away by Patrick Schwartzenegger’s performance.
He is SO good!
Everybody on that show is so good, but it’s a lot of work to get to that point. It’s really impressive.
I’m excited for you to watch the finale, and I hope it doesn’t get spoiled for you! I can’t wait to see what you do next. Thanks so much, Dylan!
