inside the contemporary SPARK art fair vienna

For its 2025 artist collaboration, Ruinart partners with Julian Charrière, a Franco-Swiss artist whose work explores the intersections of time, geology, and human impact. Known for blending scientific research with poetic storytelling, Charrière challenges how we perceive nature — not as something separate from us, but as a force constantly shaped by human history and intervention. Conversations with Nature brings this perspective to Ruinart’s terroir, transforming the Champagne house’s deep connection to the land into an artistic dialogue that spans millennia.  

Ruinart’s selection of Charrière is a natural fit. The Maison has long been at the forefront of sustainability in winemaking, from regenerative viticulture to eco-designed packaging. Charrière’s work adds another layer, questioning how human activity reshapes the environment and what it means to engage with nature in a time of ecological urgency. “At the heart of my work lies the notion of encounter — an intimate dialogue with place, biome, and environment. These moments are not mere observations but exchanges, where landscape and presence intertwine, shaping one another in a quiet, reciprocal conversation,” he explains.  

Champagne’s limestone-rich soil holds traces of an ancient sea that once covered much of Europe. Forty-five million years ago, the region was submerged under the Lutetian Sea, a vast marine world whose fossilised remains still shape the land. The chalk pits (crayères) beneath Ruinart’s vineyards are ghostly echoes of this past, a reminder that landscapes are never static — they carry the memory of deep geological time.  

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Charrière pays tribute to this lost ocean while reflecting on the fragile state of today’s marine ecosystems. His Conversations with Nature series includes a collection of photo lithographs capturing coral reefs — luminous, living structures that mirror the prehistoric marine forests that once thrived beneath Champagne. Using a 19th-century lithographic process, Charrière reimagines these corals through pigments sourced from locally collected limestone and crushed corals. The muted, pale tones evoke the fading vitality of these ecosystems, suggesting both the resilience of nature and its vulnerability in the face of environmental change.  

Beyond these prints, Charrière transforms Ruinart’s crayères into an immersive installation. At 4 Rue des Crayères, a subterranean vault becomes an echo chamber where the memory of the Lutetian Sea collides with the imperilled frequencies of today’s coral reefs. 

Unlike a traditional gallery exhibition, Conversations with Nature is designed as a multi-sensory experience. Through large-scale installations, geological textures, and soundscapes, Charrière invites viewers to engage with Champagne’s terroir in a way that goes beyond observation. The collaboration reinforces Ruinart’s vision of Champagne as a product of time, landscape, and human ingenuity.  

Charrière’s artworks will debut at Art Basel Hong Kong from 28–30 March, before traveling to Miart, Berlin Gallery Weekend, Art Basel Basel, Frieze Seoul, and Art Basel Paris. The installation at 4 Rue des Crayères will open in June 2025, offering an ongoing meditation on the deep time embedded in the landscape of Champagne.

Learn more here.

photography. Alice Jacquemin, Gregoire Machavoine, Raul Cabrera
words. Gennaro Costanzo

No atelier de Constança Entrudo

No atelier de Constança Entrudo

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Credits

From furniture to fashion, meet Lisbon’s emerging textile artist and sustainability advocate. Hot on the heels of Milan Fashion Week, Portugal threw their hat in the fashion ring with Moda Lisboa: an explosive weekend of fashion, art and design. Guests enjoyed a program of talks, workshops and runways, including the much-anticipated debut of Constança Entrudo’s AW25 collection Second Best.

Second Best was showcased in a dynamic installation format at Lisbon’s Centro Arte Moderna Gulbenkian museum. The space was a nod to Entrudo’s roots as an artist and brought her concept of spotlighting what is typically underappreciated to the fore. “Textile Art has been seen as ‘second best’ for years,” she explains. “We live in a culture that celebrates victory, where meritocracy defines worth, but I wanted to celebrate the ‘silver lining’ of coming second.” Exploring this idea throughout her installation and runway presentation, Entrudo introduced a carousel of textiles designed to mimic velvet or had the sheen of silk, but were ”alternatives” to “traditionally prized materials.” 

No atelier de Constança Entrudo

No atelier de Constança Entrudo

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Credits

No atelier de Constança Entrudo

No atelier de Constança Entrudo

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Credits

No atelier de Constança Entrudo

No atelier de Constança Entrudo

×

Credits

Entrudo created these textiles in collaboration with RDD Textiles, a knitting factory specializing in sustainable innovation. By brazenly challenging the fact that knits are rarely used in set design or interiors, Entrudo also countered the perception of fabric as merely functional. ”I think it’s relevant to place textile work in contemporary art contexts,” she says. Even the colours used in the collection reflected this concept. “Rather than black and white, we gravitated toward navy and dark grey—tones often overlooked in favor of their more ‘definitive’ counterparts.” 

Since Entrudo graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2018, she has worked for prestigious fashion houses such as Balmain, Peter Pilotto, and Marques’Almeida. While she holds an impressive roster of fashion-oriented experience under her belt, the artist’s passion is rooted in textile art. “Textiles are more than just fabrics to me,” she explains. “They are living mediums that respond to movement, space, and light.” Applying her striking vision to furniture, sculpture and product design, her work is about “pushing the boundaries of fabric — not just in how it’s made, but also in how it’s experienced.”

After graduation, the artist returned to Lisbon to find a gap in the way design and production interacted in Portugal. Despite the country’s rich history in textile manufacturing, she felt that it lacked the close collaboration between designers and technicians. Thus, in 2019, she established her own design studio with a new model of design production. Namely, one that fosters close collaboration between designers and factory workers. The artist’s design studio in Lisbon plays host to her team’s material research and artisanal craftsmanship. Since its inception, the studio’s work with local artisans and factory technicians has enabled Entrudo to create new, sustainable textiles using recycled materials and upcycled fabrics.

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Taking inspiration from her homeland, Madeira, the Portuguese creative injects splashes of vivid pigment and eccentric motifs into her work. There is the hand painted Invertebrate Visitors soft sculpture series, made in collaboration with SOFTROCK studio. As well as pepto-bismol pink (un)woven shirts, silver bow earrings, crochet tunics and a jacquard knit Trompe L’Oeil Dress exposing a nude body- but not the wearer’s. It’s no wonder that Entrudo’s garments have been stylists’ first port-of-call for an array of sunkissed colourful magazine shoots. 

With a deep-rooted belief in the intersection of art, sustainability, and functionality, the artist elevates textiles beyond their conventional use. Her signature (un)woven technique, for instance, is a compelling process which bonds recycled polyester yarns to create distinctive, tactile textiles. This method not only challenges traditional notions of fabric construction but also promotes sustainability by incorporating leftover fabrics and waste materials into the design process. Entrudo’s work, therefore, isn’t just about creating beautiful textiles—it’s about reimagining how materials can be used and reused, contributing to a more sustainable fashion ecosystem.

Through her work, Entrudo is showing the world that fabric is not just a backdrop to fashion—it is fashion in its most elemental form. Entrudo invited her Moda Lisboa audience to take a closer look at the fabric of our lives. The call to action was clear: Now is the time to appreciate the artistry behind the materials that shape our world.

words. Raegan Rubin

From Dubai to London, the gallery is staying true to its mission to launch talented contemporary artists into the world-at-large. As the Middle East continues to expand its presence in the art world, JD Malat Gallery has expanded its own presence from London’s Mayfair to Dubai. In January, the eight year-old gallery opened a new space on the renowned Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard. It is marking the move with an inaugural exhibition called Carte Blanche: a celebration of fourteen diverse contemporary artists, including Kojo Marfo, Conrad Jon Godly and Santiago Parra. 

The scale-up was not only on par with the gallery’s ongoing mission to present contemporary art to diverse audiences, but speaks of “the growing appetite for international contemporary art among collectors in the Middle East,” says the gallery’s founder. Indeed, just last year, esteemed Saudi artist Ahmed Mater made headlines with an exhibition at Christie’s auction house, while the Islamic Arts Biennale is continuing to attract droves (running until May 25th). 

While the gallery is making waves in Dubai, its London flagship space on Davies Street is simultaneously hosting an exciting exhibition. Portraits: Through The Looking Glass is a group exhibition that unites twenty-one contemporary artists who are challenging traditional perceptions of portraiture. The exhibition (which draws inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s 1871 novel of the same name) reimagines how humans engage with identity, perception and representation in the modern age.

Using its title as a metaphor, the gallery’s curators have explored the looking glass as more than a reflective surface but a transformative portal. It represents both a mirror of reality and a window into the imagination. This idea has flitted through history, from Narcissus gazing into the reflective pool of Greek mythology, to the introspective self-portraits of Rembrandt. Today, we feel its presence in the surreal representations of identity in contemporary art. 

The participating artists include renowned names like Bernard Buffet, Ian Cumberland, and Thierry Carrier, alongside emerging talents such as Sophie-Yen Bretez, Máté Orr, and Yann Leto. Each artist brings their unique voice to the concept of the looking glass. From realism to dreamlike surrealism and figurative abstraction, they offer viewers fresh perspectives on how portraiture can reflect both individual and collective experiences.

French artist Bernard Buffet combines bold black lines and a restrained color palette to evoke a powerful sense of emotional depth. His signature style, often somber and angular, is emblematic of post-war emotional devastation, making his portraits particularly poignant as we gaze through his ‘looking glass’ and onto ourselves. Similarly, Ian Cumberland’s voyeuristic approach to portraiture explores moments of private introspection. His works remind viewers of the impact of media and surveillance on personal identity; capturing the vulnerability many of us experience in our daily lives. 

In contrast, artists like Sophie-Yen Bretez take a more surrealist approach to portraiture. Her figurative pieces depict dream-like scenes centered around the emotional recovery and identity formation of her characters. Through soft, ethereal works draw the viewer into an imaginary space, inviting them into the provocative depths of abstraction. Meanwhile, Hungarian artist Máté Orr, combines traditional oil painting with contemporary vector graphics to mystifying effect. Similarly, the delicate nihilistic works of South Korean artist Henrik Uldalen encourages viewers to explore the fragility of human existence. Uldalen’s paintings, which often feature solitary figures in ambiguous settings, appear as an invitation to peer into the mirror and consider what is reflected back—both the known and the unknown.

In a rapidly changing world, the exhibition serves as a refreshing reminder that our outlook on life is a malleable creature. It may be affected by our environment and subconscious but our perceptions shift and change with time. Likewise, our identities expand and grow as we do; moulded by our experiences, relationships and desires. Like Alice in Lewis Carrol’s book, we can step through the looking glass and question the seemingly backward elements of our realities and challenge ourselves to look beyond the surface.

photography. Rob Harris 
words. Raegan Rubin