Brilliant Ideas

Grayson Perry is best known for creating ceramic vases and tapestries whose unconventional imagery chronicles all aspects of contemporary life. Born in Essex, England in 1960, Perry often appears publicly as his alter ego, Claire. He is an award-winning TV broadcaster, a best-selling author, an architect and a Trustee of the British Museum. In the first episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, we meet Perry in his London studio, where he reveals what inspires and motivates him.

Cornelia Parker is an internationally-acclaimed sculptor and installation artist best known for transforming everyday objects into extraordinary works of art. She was born in 1956, in Cheshire, England. In the second episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, she reveals her inspirations, from gravity and ghosts to memory and the unconscious. She also discusses some of her best-loved works. In "Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View", the assembled fragments of a garden shed blown up by the British Army are dramatically suspended from the ceiling and lit by a single bulb, while "The Distance (A Kiss With String Attached)" is a copy of Rodin's "The Kiss" with a mile of string wound around it.

Born in Ithaca, New York to Korean parents in 1966, Michael Joo is an artist whose work crosses the boundaries between sculpture, performance, drawing, video art and installation. A biology graduate turned artist, Joo explores life's biggest themes – science and religion, high and low culture, sex and death. His work can be found in numerous public and private collections including New York's Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Samsung Centre for Art and Culture in Seoul. Meet Michael Joo in this third episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor.

Born in Ithaca, New York to Korean parents in 1966, Michael Joo is an artist whose work crosses the boundaries between sculpture, performance, drawing, video art and installation. A biology graduate turned artist, Joo explores life's biggest themes – science and religion, high and low culture, sex and death. His work can be found in numerous public and private collections including New York's Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Samsung Centre for Art and Culture in Seoul. Meet Michael Joo in this third episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor.

Born in Tokyo in 1967, Mariko Mori burst onto the art scene in the 1990s after starting her career as a fashion model. She has won international acclaim for her innovative multimedia works. Her early work mixed Japanese pop culture and manga imagery with high-tech architecture and futuristic costumes. Now living in New York, Mori uses cutting-edge technology to create striking visions for the 21st century. Mori has had solo shows at New York's Brooklyn Museum, the Royal Academy in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Meet Mori in this fifth episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor.

One of British artist Luke Jerram's projects, "Play me, I'm Yours", involves placing pianos in public parks, at bus stops and in train stations for anyone to play and enjoy. Presented in over 50 cities around the world, from London, Los Angeles and Lima to Hong Kong, Sao Paolo and Stockholm, it has reached an audience of millions. Born in 1974, he lives in Bristol, England, but his works – encompassing installation, performance and intricate glass sculpture – have been capturing the imagination of viewers worldwide since 1997. The sixth episode of Brilliant Ideas, presented by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, tells his story.

Danny Lane is an American-born, London-based sculptor who uses glass to play with light and space. His public artworks are installed in bustling cities around the world. Born in Urbana, Illinois, in 1955, he has worked actively from London since the 1980s. The seventh episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, takes a look into the story of this master of light.

Inspired by artists such as Hieronymus Bosch, Francisco Goya and William Blake, Bharti Kher weaves references to magical beasts, mythical monsters and allegorical tales into her multidisciplinary work. Kher was born in London in 1969 and moved to India in 1993, where she has become one of the country's biggest contemporary art stars. In episode eight of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, we meet her at her studio in New Delhi, where she currently lives and works. Ker looks to India's rich history and philosophy for inspiration, but also finds it in tiny moments and mundane sights of daily life.

Born in 1952, in Naples, Francesco is one of the most highly regarded painters in the world. He was central to the resurgence of painting in the 1980s. Part figurative and part abstract, his paintings and drawings explore the mysteries of human life. His subjects are drawn from myth, religion, and popular culture and reflect Mediterranean, Indian and American influences. He lives in New York, where he has worked with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Allen Ginsberg among others. Francesco's work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in the world's leading galleries including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Sezon Museum in Tokyo. Meet Clemente in the ninth episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor.

Born in 1965, in Providence, Rhode Island, Ellen Gallagher burst onto the art scene in the mid-1990s. Ellen's Irish and African-American origins have shaped the texture and subject matter of her work. She is known for her politically charged paintings, collages, drawings, prints, sculptures and films about African-American history and culture. Her work is inspired by a wide range of references: nineteenth-century literature, science fiction, ocean life and vintage magazine advertising. In the tenth episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, we catch up with Gallagher in her studio next to the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Jaume Plensa is an internationally acclaimed sculptor. Born in 1955 in Barcelona, the culture, streets and architecture of the Catalan capital have been a constant source of inspiration. He is best known for figurative sculptures, often found in public settings. He works in steel, glass, marble, wood, stone and light. Major projects include his "Crown Fountain" in Chicago's Millennium Park and "Dream", a large scale sculpture near Liverpool, and in 2015 Plensa was commissioned to create sculptures for San Giorgio Maggiore at the Venice Biennale. In the eleventh episode of Brilliant Ideas, presented by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, we journey through Plensa's world.

Subodh Gupta is India's most exciting, internationally renowned artists. Born in 1964 in Khagaul, India, he now lives and works in New Delhi. He is best known for using commonplace objects to create thought-provoking sculptures. His work captures the everyday realities of life in India: pots and pans, buckets, cow dung, loam, copper, bronze and gold all feature in his sculptures. His work raises big questions about the impact of globalization and inequality. Discover Gupta's work in the twelfth episode of Brilliant Ideas by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor.

Selected for the inaugural Hyundai Commission for the Turbine Hall at London's Tate Modern, Abraham Cruzvillegas is a conceptual artist best known for his work with found objects such as old furniture, wood, bottles, plastic, hair and feathers. Born in 1968 in Mexico City, Cruzvilleagas creates his work under the title autoconstrucción - or self-construction. In the thirteenth episode of Brilliant Ideas, presented by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, watch Cruzvillegas tackle the Turbine Hall commission in Tate Modern, one of the biggest challenges in the art world.

Born in Chicago in 1973, Theaster Gates is a visual artist, social activist, urban planner, musical performer and Professor of Visual Art at the University of Chicago. From his base in the city's South Side district, Gates creates sculptures, installations, performances about social change. He buys and renovates derelict properties, using the materials he finds there - floorboards, tar, fire hoses - to create new works. He won the prestigious Artes Mundi prize in 2015. In the fourteenth episode of Brilliant Ideas, presented by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, we track down Gates at his studio.

Born in 1955 in Chongqing, China, Xu Bing plays with traditional Chinese art forms, such as calligraphy, printmaking and ink painting, to create installations that question how we communicate meaning through language. In the fifteenth episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, Xu discusses some of his most celebrated works.

Born in 1964 in Seoul, South Korea, where she still lives and works, Lee Bul's virtuosity across a wide range of media - from drawing and performance to sculpture, installation and video – cemented her position as an artist to be reckoned with early in her career. The sixteenth episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, showcases Lee's extraordinary drawings, studies, sculptural pieces and installations.

Born in 1982 in Auckland, now based in Berlin, Simon Denny is widely recognised as one of today's most innovative young artists. His work explores digital technology, corporate culture and state power. His installations combine sculpture, graphics, and moving images, looking at technology both as a force for good and as something more sinister. He was invited to the 2008 Sydney Biennale and the 2009 Brussels Biennale and won the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel in 2012. In the seventeenth episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, we catch up with Denny ahead of the unveiling of his commission representing New Zealand at the 2015 Venice Biennale.

Born in 1965 in China's rural Henan Province, Zhang Huan was part of Beijing's East Village community in the 1990s, whose performance pieces would eventually mark him as a critical figure in the history of contemporary art in China. Zhang is known primarily for performance art that focuses on universal themes such as poverty, individual freedom and cultural differences. Zhang's recent work has featured sculptures and paintings that explore themes of memory and spirituality and how these relate to Buddhist practice. In the eighteenth episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, we meet Zhang in his huge Shanghai studio.

Born in 1962 in San Francisco, Diana Thater has been a pioneering creator of video, film and installation art over the past 25 years. Her work explores the relationship between humans and animals: the underwater world of dolphins, honeybees who communicate through dancing and the lives of monkeys in India. Her immersive installations push the physical and conceptual boundaries of how we experience moving images. In the nineteenth episode of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, we meet Thater in her Los Angeles studio as she talks us through the most comprehensive exhibition of her work to date - Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination - at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Conrad Shawcross's rise in the British art world was unprecedented, beginning with his 2003 debut, a wooden machine that slowly wound threads into yarn. It was quickly acquired by the mega-­collector Charles Saatchi. A year later, at the age of 25, Shawcross cold-called Victoria Miro, arguably one of London's most important dealers. "I got a meeting, and two weeks later she took me on," he says. In 2013 he was inducted into London's Royal Academy of Art, the youngest person ever to achieve the honor.

Wangechi Mutu explores colonial history, African politics and the worldwide fashion industry in a range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture and installation. She draws on her experiences and observations to contrast Western and African cultures. She is known for confronting racial and gender stereotypes and is a committed campaigner for LGBT rights in Africa. Mutu was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1972, and is now based in New York. In the twenty-first episode of Brilliant Ideas, presented by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, Mutu discusses her work from her studio.

Born in 1969, NS Harsha lives and works in Mysore, India. Drawing on a broad spectrum of Indian painting traditions, miniature painting, popular art and western art, he creates works that reflect on the modern world. NS Harsha is best known for painstakingly rendered paintings, works on paper, wall and floor works, sculptures, site-specific installations and public projects. His work has been exhibited in Tokyo, Moscow, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Rome and Beijing. In the twenty-second episode of Brilliant Ideas, presented by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, Harsha lets us into his studio and unique way of working.

Heri Dono was born in 1960 in Jakarta, Indonesia and is one of Indonesia's best-known contemporary artists. Heavily influenced by Javanese "wayang" theatre, comic books and animation, Dono's works are characterized by his penchant for the fantastical and the absurd, populated by astonishing characters and strange juxtapositions. While ostensibly playful and humorous, his works often contain incisive socio-political commentary on both Indonesia and abroad. He works across a broad range of media, from painting, sculpture, installation to performance. His work has featured in exhibitions around the globe, the most recent being the 2015 Venice Biennale. In episode 23 of Brilliant Ideas, brought to you by Bloomberg and Hyundai Motor, Dono shows us around his studio in Jakarta.

Born in 1976 in Tehran, Ali Banisadr moved to America when he was a child. His works are influenced by his experiences as a refugee from the Iran-Iraq war and his approach to abstraction mixes memory, nostalgia and violence. He is best known for his large, lush, highly intricate paintings featuring fantastical landscapes reminiscent of stained glass. Ali experiences synaesthesia, a condition which shapes his perception of the world, and a dimension of his work. His work can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum der Moderna in Salzburg, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the British Museum.

Born in 1955, Ahn Kyuchul is a Korean sculpture and installation artist, writer and teacher. He has taken a different path to the circle of Korean sculptors who mainly work on decorative art and monumental sculptures, preferring instead to work with mundane objects like the hammer, the door, the table – objects with no real meaning or aesthetic value. His work explores aims to realise his long and profound examination on life and what contemporary art could be. He is the artist chosen for the 2015 edition of the Hyundai Motor Series at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea's 10-year long project to support solo exhibitions of distinguished Korean artists with distinctive practices.

Pioneer of performance art, Marina Abramović is one of the most acclaimed, remarkable and influential contemporary artists in the world today. Born in Belgrade in 1946, she pushes the boundaries of both body and mind in works such as the now-legendary "Rhythm 0" where she relinquished all control to her audience and for eight hours permitted them to use a series of objects, including a gun, on her person. Abramović's most recent show, "As One," is at the Benaki Museum in Athens, where she has been mentoring young Greek performance artists as well as introducing her audience to The Abramović Method, as practised by Lady Gaga.

U-Ram Choe is one of South Korea's most exciting contemporary artists. Born in 1970 in Seoul, U-Ram creates meticulously intricate and beautiful art works. Biology, mathematics, robotics and engineering shape his work. In this episode of the series "Brilliant Ideas," presented by Bloomberg and Hyundai, U-Ram talks about his struggle to become an artist and reveals how he makes his extraordinarily life-like sculptures. His art has been shown in cities across the world including Tokyo, Venice, New York and Shanghai. His machine-like sculptures are remarkable - they have to be seen to be believed.

Michael Craig-Martin has always been a radical. In the '60s & '70s he was at the vanguard of of conceptual art in Britain. In the '80s and '90s he nurtured a whole generation of rebellious young artists known as "Y-B-A's", he went on to change the face of contemporary art. Today he is celebrated around the world for his vibrant and distinctive work. From drawings and paintings to sculptures and installations that challenge the way we see the world around us.

KAWS, real name Brian Donnelly, is considered one of the relevant artists of his generation. Born 1974 in New Jersey and now based in Brooklyn, his instantly recognizable aesthetic has attracted a devoted following of fans all over the world. Famously medium agnostic, KAWS' huge body of work straddles the worlds of art and design to include street art, graphic and product design, paintings, murals and large‐scale sculptures. He made his name in the New York graffiti scene in the 1990s where he frequently tagged walls and freight trains with the letters K A W S.. He regularly exhibits in museums and galleries internationally and has found a wide audience through high-profile collaborations with industry leaders including Nike, Uniqlo, MTV, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West.

Gun powder is Cai Guo Qiang's calling card, as the artist behind the fireworks displays of the Beijing Olympics, having also won the coveted Golden Lion award at the Venice Bienale, Cai Guo-Qiang stands today as a bona-fide rock-start in the world of arts. From his "Explosion of Ants" to his gun powder drawings, to his monumental installations, his art is unique, and one seen it's never forgotten.

Abdoulaye Konaté is one of the world's greatest artists. From Mali, west Africa. He works with textiles, a rich tradition in the region. many of his works are on a huge scale, one the size of a football pitch, where he shows just how much it is possible to do with fabrics.

Olafur Eliasson was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and it's where he still has one of his studios. The work that put Olafur on the map was the weather project, in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern in London, in 2003. It featured a glowing, half sun, that was reflected and completed by a mirror in the ceiling. Smoke and mirrors is one of his specialities.

Marc Quinn is a British based artist best know for his sculptures of disabled people, golden supermodels and heads made of several pints of his own blood. His work explores the relationship between the human body and perceptions of beauty and conveys an obssession with the body's mutability.

Chinese artist Cao Fei is one of the most ground-breaking and talked-about artists of her generation. She skillfully uses new technologies to create multimedia projects that explore themes of escapism, consumerism and the effects of economic change across China.

Based in London and Berlin, Michael Elmgreen from Denmark and Ingar Dragset from Norway have worked as a collaborative duo since the mid 1990s. Throughout their career, Elmgreen & Dragset have redefined the way in which art is presented and experienced. Tackling subjects as divergent as institutional critique, social politics, performance and architecture, the artists' sculptures and installations turn the familiar on its head with characteristic wit and subversive humor. From transforming New York City's Bohen Foundation into a 13th Street Subway Station in 2004, to placing a Prada boutique in a Texan desert in 2005, their work draws attention to social conventions and prompts a re-thinking of the status quo.

Martin Creed is many things: a painter, performance artist, filmmaker, sculptor, and musician. His work is deadly serious and funny too. He caused a furor when he won the prestigious Turner Prize for an empty room with the lights going on and off. He has exhibited a crumpled up piece of paper, a piece of Blu-Tack, live runners at Tate Britain and got the British nation to perform a mass act of ringing bells simultaneously. He has a new work called "Understanding" overlooking Manhattan. All his work invites audiences to consider everyday objects and ways of thinking in new ways. Martin is also inventive, funny, a dynamo of new ideas.

Originally trained in music composition, Samson Young's creative outputs now take shape in a variety of media and across many disciplines. Born in 1979 in Hong Kong, Samson studied music, philosophy and gender studies at the University of Sydney and holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Princeton University. His diverse and experimental practice includes live performances, radio broadcasts, public-participatory events, films, installations, and "sound drawings". Each work of Samson's is a product of an extensive process of research and fieldwork, and often, his projects are marked by an undercurrent of recurring themes like conflict, war, and politically-imposed borders.

Born in 1962 in Seoul, South Korea, Do Ho Suh's art is very much rooted by his own history of migration, having moved to the United States in his late twenties. From his sculptures, installations and drawings, his works explore the notion of personal space, the boundaries of identity, and the relationship between the individual and the collective body. He is best-known for his extraordinary fabric sculptures – carefully rendered full-scale replicas of personal spaces of the artist, from his childhood home in Seoul, to his New York apartment and studio.

Artist, researcher and historian Tiffany Chung has made a name for herself with her stunning cartographic works. Her experience as a Vietnamese refugee has influenced the subjects of her art. Her work examines conflict, migration and urban transformation in relation to history and cultural memory. She is a contemporary artist whose work crosses many mediums including video and performance art, embroidery and beadwork on canvases, and sculptures and archaeological discoveries.

For over 40 years, British sculptor Antony Gormley's work has focused on what it feels like to inhabit the human body. From intimate sculptures casting his own form and collaborative community projects to architecture explorations on a grand scale, his work can be seen around the world on shorelines and clifftops, tower blocks and in cathedrals. Influenced by the dialogue between arts and the spiritual, anthropology and science, he asks questions about our place in the world.

South African artist William Kentridge is best known for his animated charcoal drawings but he also works in sculpture, print making, tapestry and stage design. He directs operas and creates multi-screen video installations that tour the globe. Recently, he's combined his love of figurative art with dance, music and mime and he's created an extraordinary 500-meter freeze set within the heart of the ancient city of Rome. William Kentridge is frequently in the top rankings for international artists but, despite his global reputation, he's always remained anchored to his roots.

Sopheap Pich is one of Cambodia's most exciting and internationally recognized artists. His instantly recognizable bamboo and rattan sculptures are shaping the South East Asian contemporary art world. Sopheap's work ranges from large geometric sculpture to grid paintings to his most recent bamboo strip and natural pigment paintings. His work has been featured in various international exhibitions and biennales, including the Moscow Biennale in 2013 and the Singapore Biennale in 2011.

British artist Maggi Hambling is best known for her intimate portraits, paintings of the sea and controversial public sculptures. For being something of a non-conformist, she refuses to be pigeonholed. After half a century of challenging the art world, Maggi Hambling has a new exhibition at the British Museum. Entitled "Touch," the exhibition features 40 works, many of which have never been seen in public before. Primarily on paper and ranging from early pieces right through to some of her most recent works, the show reveals how drawing is at the heart of her artistic practice.

Random International is a collaborative studio for experimental practice within contemporary art, founded in 2005 by Hannes Koch and Florian Ortkrass and now based in London. Their work employs beautiful and complex technology to explore human behavior, the body and natural phenomena. They produce art installations, kinetic sculpture and interactive art. They don't want the technology to dominate, so there is always a kind of magic to what they produce. They are best known for the jaw-dropping "Rain Room," which been exhibited all around the world from the Barbican in London to Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Their work is in the collections of MoMA, LACMA and the Victorian and Albert Museum in London. In this edition of "Brilliant Ideas," we talk to Hanes and Florian about their works including "Rain Room," "Swarm" and "Blur Mirror" and we follow the creation of their new work "15 Points."

Born in 1957 in Daegu, South Korea, Kimsooja started attracting the attention of the international art community when she began constructing Korean bottaris in her art – a gesture and motif that continues to appear in her work till today. Her art centers on the work and labor of women –beginning with her early sewn works, to her films and video performances, and now to her sparse, experiential installations that we see today. Kimsooja's work has been shown in numerous venues and museums around the world, and she's participated in over thirty major international biennials and triennials, including the 48th, 49th, 51st, 52nd and 55th Venice Biennale.

Sun Xun is one of China's most talented and ambitious young artists. He experiments with drawings, traditional ink paintings and woodcuts, and then uses new technologies to transform them into his artistic trademark – black and white animations. Born in 1980 in Fuxin, his works often explore and question what is known about Chinese history. In 2006 he founded his own animation studio called Pi and produces large amounts of work each year. In just under 10 years, Sun Xun has held over 30 solo exhibitions, most notably at the Hayward Gallery in London, and at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. He has also shown his films at more than 150 film festivals worldwide, including the 8th Seoul International Film Festival and the 25th Torino Film Festival.

Polish artist Wilhelm Sasnal is a prolific painter and filmmaker whose vivid images draw on the mass media, the intimate experience of family life and the darkest chapters of Polish history. A child of the punk era and the fall of the Berlin Wall, he's insatiably curious about the modern world and unafraid to confront the powers that be and the most taboo subjects.

Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson is said to be one of the most exciting artists working today, making his name with performance and video works that combine duration and repetition and dance between the realms of theatre, music, and art. Bloomberg joins him as he prepares to open his first major U.K. exhibition at the Barbican in the heart of London.

Born in 1972 in Singapore, Charles Lim is a former Olympic sailor and his art is based on his special affinity with the sea. From films, installations, and photography, his works explore the biophysical, aspirational, and cerebral contours of the island city-state of Singapore, through the visible and invisible lenses of the sea. Lim challenges people's sublime notion of the sea by his unconventional representations of the sea. He is best-known for his Sea State series, a decade-long collection of works with the premise of inverting perceptions of sea and land in Singapore.

Philippe Parreno works in many media, he uses cutting edge technology to weave together film, sound design and sculpture. His exhibitions explore complex ideas about time, memory and the boundaries between reality and fiction.

Thomas Struth is one of the most important and influential photographic artists working today. A child of post-World War II Germany, Struth started out photographing the reconstructed streets in his hometown of Dusseldorf. Within a few years he was travelling the world to photograph city streets across the globe as a way of reflecting the societies that created them.

Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota is best known for her fantastical installations made out of intricately woven yarn but her body of work is much more diverse - ranging from visceral performance art to grand sculptures created with used objects.

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is best known for her inexhaustible creations involving polka dots, pumpkins, and vibrant colors. Her love of design has seen her join forces with top fashion houses.

In this episode, we meet Ai Weiwei in Athens for his solo exhibition at the Cycladic Museum. We revisit his most iconic works and see how Ai Weiwei became the artist and the champion of human rights that he is today.

Pipilotti Rist is one of the most acclaimed artists working anywhere in the world. A pioneer of video arts and multimedia installations, her works envelop viewers in kaleidoscopic projections that fuse the natural world with technology.

British sculptor Phyllida Barlow has been making art since the '60s but has only found public recognition in the last few years. Barlow, 73, is getting ready for the biggest show of her career after she was commissioned by the British Council to represent the UK at the Venice Biennale.

Hiroshima-based artist SUIKO is one of Japan's best-known street artists. Formally trained in visual design, SUIKO made his mark with his unique style that combines graffiti with traditional Japanese art forms such as calligraphy and ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

Nicholas Hlobo is a South African artist, best known for his sculptures and installations using materials that have become iconic to his work. Hlobo is considered one of South Africa's brightest post-apartheid stars and his studio is in a former synagogue in his home city of Johannesburg.

Mexican artist Damián Ortega is known for the intriguing sculptures, drawings and films that he makes using everyday materials. One of his best-known works, Domestic Cosmogon, was made when he was commissioned to make a sculpture for the opening of the Jumex Museum in Mexico City.

British artist Sonia Boyce was born in 1962 in London's East End to parents who had recently emigrated from the Caribbean. Collaboration and improvisation are very much Sonia's style. She works with the element of chance, bringing people together to create performance and video works that span film, music and dance.

FX Harsono has been a central figure of the Indonesian art scene for over four decades. He works across many mediums, experimenting with paintings, installations, film and performance art. Harsono was among the group of artists who founded the New Art Movement (Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru), which rejected Western techniques, and promoted a more conceptual and experimental approach.

Liu Wei is one of China's rebellious and unconventional artists. With the common use of surprising materials in his sculptures and construction of massive installations, his works are fearless and uncompromising. Having lived through a period that witnessed drastic urban change in China, Liu Wei frequently turns to architectural themes in his work.

Michelangelo Pistoletto is today celebrated as a ground-breaking contemporary artist. Known for his mirror paintings and art made from modesd materials, he has also brought new life to his hometown of Biella, in northern Italy, and created a vast art complex, "Cittadelarte."

Yeondoo Jung mesmerizes audiences with his photography and video. From live performance art to virtual reality photo booths, he blurs the lines between the real and the ideal. And delving into the hopes, dreams and passions of ordinary people, his artwork has a profound effect.

Behind the name Superflex are Danish artists Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, who have been working together for over two decades. Superflex is famous for getting audiences involved in artworks, which playfully challenge conventions.

Vietnamese-born Danish artist Danh Vo often draws on his own personal experience to investigate larger historical, social or political themes, especially those relating to Vietnam towards the end of the 20th century. In this episode, "Brilliant Ideas" looks at Vo's signature use of found objects (often rich with emotional or historical significance), and how his life and the lives of his family, friends and other artists are a part of his art.

Founded in 2001 by Toshiyuki Inoko, teamLab is a 400-strong Japanese digital art collective whose members include artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, architects and designers. Their multi-disciplinary, intensely collaborative practice fuses art, technology and the natural world, resulting in immersive, multi-sensory artworks that thoroughly redefine how we view and interact with art. In this episode, teamLab takes us behind the scenes of two exhibitions, a solo exhibition in London and a three-year project in Singapore that is their largest and most ambitious installation to date.

Takahiro Iwasaki is best known for his detailed miniature landscapes, made from found materials such as toothbrushes, books, flags and used clothing – even hair. Takahiro's work is very much a reflection of his relationship with Japan, having grown up in Hiroshima. His works, while whimsical, are melancholy, reflecting Japan's past trauma, both historically and more recently with the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Turner Prize-winning sculptor Tony Cragg has a huge international reputation and has represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, but home is in Wuppertal, Germany where he's lived and worked since 1977. Tony has lived and worked in Germany for 40 years but hasn't had a major exhibition in his native UK for decades, until now. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield prepares for his largest exhibition to date. This exhibition will be a kind of homecoming for Tony. He was born in Liverpool in 1949 but grew up in various places throughout Britain as a result of his father's engineering job.

London-based artist Haroon Mirza is at the forefront of British sound and installation art. Each element of Haroon's work interacts and produces provocative sounds. Through the interplay of flashing lights, sound and object, Haroon explores profound themes of science, culture and religion, often drawn from his experiences of British and Pakistani culture.

Striking, complex, and deeply moving, the poignant video works of Korean-born artist Im Heung Soon deal with serious local and international issues like war, poverty and state repression. Unveiling the nuances of trauma and turmoil faced by his female subjects, Im Heung Soon's work crosses the boundary between documentary film and art, combining interview footage with surreal, dreamlike montages and re-enactments.

An assortment of video, colour and sound, Anri Sala's work demands your attention. Striving for communication that goes beyond the limits of language, is exhibitions challenge the viewer to question politics, music and history. Although his art can take a variety of forms, from documentary to live performance, it is Anri's ability to manipulate sound that makes his work unique.

Bangladeshi born, but British raised artist, Rana Begum, is best known for her minimalist, abstract sculpture. Whether it is her delicate wire structures or large-scale public installation, all her work explores the principles of light, colour and form. Rana's command of this trinity allows her to create art that changes each time you see it. (Source: Bloomberg)

Kader Attia is an activist artist. His politically charged work addresses complex global issues in symbolic and thought provoking ways. Film, installation, sculpture, photography - Kader employs a diverse range of mediums to explore problems surrounding immigration and Western colonialism.

Richard Mosse is an Irish photographer and filmmaker, who immerses himself in his subject, integrating documentary journalism and art practice to explore issues of conflict, displacement and perception. He is one of only two photographers ever to have won both the Deutsche Borse Prize and The Prix Pictet, two of photography's most prestigious international awards. Richard is working on his latest award winning project, Heat Maps, a detailed documentation of Europe's refugee camps. (Source: Bloomberg)

Mark Bradford is an American artist from Los Angeles. Known for drawing on the urban environment, he uses what he finds around him as material for his multi-layered work. He's been chosen to represent the United States in the Venice Biennale, perhaps the biggest commission of any artist's career. Born in 1961, Mark spent much of his early years in the hair salon run by his mother in downtown Los Angeles.

A winner of the Hugo Boss Prize for contemporary art, Rirkrit Tiravanija is widely considered to be one of the world's most influential artists. He is best-known for his unconventional approach to art-making - converting museums and galleries into kitchens, and above all, for making audiences a part of his art, for which he is a pioneer. His work explores the question of identity, and the boundaries between art and life.