This week on Top Artist Podcast we chat with embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning on her successful professional journey and about how her work has changed along the way. Benning tells us about her decision to embark on an art career. We hear about managing an 80-hour workweek to fill an Etsy shop, pursue new projects, and to keep up with demand. We think you’ll enjoy hearing about this artist’s relatable struggle with finding a work-life balance—especially when your work includes creating art...

This week on the Top Artist Podcast, we talk with artist Ian Berry about his creative process and the way he uses denim to create spectacularly detailed installations and works of art. Barry has been fascinating the world with blue-toned scenes that celebrate the range of colors and textures found in jeans. He tells us that to him, this style is about portraying contemporary life out of a very urban fabric that may be the “material of our time.”

This week on the Top Artist Podcast, we talk to photographer and game designer Liam Wong about his cinematic photography.  He tells us about the effect video games and film had on him as an artist. These artistic influences helped him develop the sharp eye for composition that allows him to capture such dramatic shots of lively urban streets, often in Tokyo, Japan.

This week on the Top Artist Podcast, we talk to sculptor Ben Young about his incredible glass and concrete sculptures and how he began making these unique pieces.  He explains that boating and water sports were an important part of his life for a long time, but a family trip first introduced him to the glass art that would later define his career. We learn about the influence his time as a boatbuilder had on his craft and about the leap of faith he made when transitioning to a full-time...

This week on the Top Artist Podcast, we talk to photographer Sophie Gamand on her many dog photography series and the changes they have made in both dog and human lives. Gamand’s Pit Bull Flower Power series is just one example of her work that tackles unjust treatment of animals and helps us to appreciate the fragility of life. We talk to her about this work, her experiences at shelters and dog meat farms, and about what motivates her to use photography to give a voice to the voiceless.

This week on the Top Artist Podcast, we talk with sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor about his incredible work and the impact his pieces have on their local environment and the world. Trained at the London Institute of Art, deCaires Taylor uses his sculptures to rebuilt natural habitats and mitigate damage caused by tourism to at-risk underwater areas. His large body of work spans from additions to the Great Barrier Reef to entire underwater museums carefully considered to benefit the local ecology.

This week on the Top Artist Podcast, we talk with painter Omar Ortiz about his shockingly realistic paintings. Ortiz specializes in hyperrealistic female nudes with often more abstract backgrounds. Ortiz shares that he has always been interested in technique and precision. He experimented with airbrushing in university because it allowed him to achieve a texture and blurriness common to the realism he is now known for. He currently works with oil paint as he believes it the “noblest technique.”

Photographer Richard Silver has a talent for capturing space in unique and unexpected ways. This week on My Modern Met’s Top Artist Podcast, we talk about the techniques featured in his work, his upcoming Vertical Churches book, and much more. In each place he visits, Silver documents iconic landmarks, incredible modern architecture, and beautiful vernacular designs. His photography also allows us to explore even the most famous or familiar places from a completely new perspective.

Photographer Navid Baraty's love for space is clear in his work. Though astrophotography is just one series in his incredibly diverse portfolio as a photographer, people around the world are inspired by his carefully composed shots of solar eclipses, meteor showers, and more. This week, we chat with Navid about his astrophotography, fictional kitchen space-scapes, and incredible planetary cross-stitching.

Successful oil painter Erin Hanson has cultivated her own, distinct style called Open Impressionism. This fresh take on landscape painting is a reflection of her love for the great outdoors. Listen as we chat about her transition into painting full-time (and how art fairs helped her do so), as well as her innovative new 3D prints of her canvases.

Photographer Omar Z. Robles is known for his electrifying images of ballet dancers. But he doesn't take these photographs inside of theaters or dance studio. Rather, he works with dancers out in the streets, combining urban grit with their elegant moves. This work has brought him around the world and we chat about how he got started and what the world of dance means to him.

We're thrilled to welcome acclaimed photographer Steve McCurry for an intimate look at his incredible career, which spans more than four decades. We'll touch on his early photojournalism in Afganistan, as well as how his work has been impacted by COVID-19. And, he'll give us a preview of his new book 'In Search of Elsewhere,' which contains previously unpublished photographs.

Painter Iris Scott has built her career by forgoing one of the tools most artists work with—the paintbrush. Listen along as we chat with Iris about how she set the brush aside to launch a career as the world's foremost finger painter. She'll inspire you with her story of trusting her inner voice and knowing that she could break into the contemporary art market with her unconventional work. See some of the artwork we discuss on the Top Artist Instagram:...

American photographer Gregg Segal has always been fascinated by the way we consume. From what we throw away to what we eat, nothing is off-limits. We spend time chatting with Gregg about his groundbreaking series “7 Days of Garbage” and “Undaily Bread” to understand what he’s learned about the way we produce waste and what we can take away from other cultures. See some of the artwork we discuss on the Top Artist Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/topartistpodcast/

We sit down with Dutch landscape photographer Albert Dros to learn more about how he made the leap into full-time photography. Along the way, we'll discuss how photographing his own backyard got his work recognized internationally, how he managed to enter the famous Keukenhof tulip garden during the coronavirus lockdown, and how he discovered the beauty of Kyrgyzstan. See some of the artwork we discuss on the Top Artist Instagram: https://instagram.com/topartistpodcast

Do you love art and culture? Are you interested in hearing more from today’s top creatives? We’ve got just the thing for you. The My Modern Met team has been sharing creativity on its website since 2008 and now, we’re starting the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast to go in-depth with some of our favorite photographers, painters, sculptors, crafters, and installation artists as they share what it takes to have a successful art career and take us behind the scenes of their incredible artwork.