On this episode I’m joined by Bisa Butler. We discuss her pivot from painting to quilting, what it was like for her to study at an HBCU, she earned her BFA in Painting at Howard University, how that experience shaped her and what she hopes her work does in the world. Bisa talks about her recent exhibition Hold Me Close that was previously on view at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in LA.

Bisa Butler (b. 1973) lives and works in New Jersey. She earned her BFA in Painting at Howard University and holds a MA in Teaching Art from Montclair State University. In 2020, Portraits at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Katonah Museum of Art was the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition. Her quilts were prominently featured in Black American Portrait at LACMA, Los Angeles (2022) and Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2021), and graced the cover of both exhibition catalogs.

Her work can be found in the permanent collections of several institutions, including Art Institute of Chicago; The Smithsonian American Museum of Art; The Pérez Art Museum, Miami; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; MFA Houston; and de Young Museum, San Francisco. Butler is the recipient of the 2022 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship and of the inaugural “Faith in The Arts Award,” presented by Broadway Housing Communities in recognition of the legacy of Faith Ringgold.

The World Is Yours, Butler’s first exhibition with Jeffrey Deitch in New York in 2023, attracted thousands of visitors. Hold Me Close is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles.

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On this episode I’m joined by Dr. Rashaad Newsome as we discuss his film Assembly. The documentary details the personal journey and events that inspired his 2022 Park Avenue Armory installation. I was fortunate to attend a final performance, thanks to my ARTNOIR family, and was captivated by Rashaad's immersive world. Shoutout to ART NOIR!

I especially loved the dances and spoken word segments, which highlighted the participatory nature of his work. The film honestly reveals how compelling personal narratives are. Rashaad and I discuss these personal aspects, including his family history, struggles, and experience as a Black queer artist.

Dr. Rashaad Newsome's multifaceted work blends filmmaking, animation, robotics, performance, and more, challenging traditional narratives. Drawing from diasporic improvisation, he incorporates advertising, art history, and Black and Queer culture to create counter-hegemonic works that oscillate between social practice and abstraction.

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On this episode I’m joined by Salome Asega. Salome and I discuss her journey from working at the Ford Foundation to returning to a more intimate engagement with artists at New Inc.

We cover the importance of alternative spaces for artists, how New Inc supports interdisciplinary creators, and the impact of geopolitical tensions on creative communities. And the significance of teaching, community, and place-based work, emphasizing the need for genuine engagement and collaboration.

Salome Asega is the Director of NEW INC, the New Museum's cultural incubator for creative practitioners working across art, design, and technology. Asega is also an artist, researcher, and educator working between participatory design and emerging technologies.

Thank you to our hosts at WSA Podcast Studios.

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On this episode I’m joined by Kennedy Yanko as we discuss her recent artistic endeavors, working with paper pulp prints which are on view in her latest exhibition, Without Gravity, at Pace Prints now through Oct 4th. Kennedy shares the joy of returning to immediate, experimental creation, reminiscent of her earlier abstract expressionist paintings. She reflects on her 20-year journey as an artist, acknowledging the challenges and growth that have shaped her current practice.

Kennedy and I have been in each other’s orbit for several years watching each other grow and develop our respective practices. I had the pleasure of writing about her work for the Brooklyn Rail four years ago, so it’s really a full circle moment and a moment to reflect on what’s happened and how much growth we’ve both experienced since that time. In the episode we also talk about the importance of maintaining a spiritual practice and being open to the ebbs and flows of life’s natural movements.

Thank you to our hosts WSA Podcast Studios.

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On this episode I’m joined by Michelle Kuo, Chief Curator at Large and Publisher, of the MoMA, as we discuss Jack Whitten: The Messenger, the first comprehensive retrospective dedicated to the groundbreaking art of Jack Whitten (American, 1939–2018). The exhibition showcased more than 175 works from the 1960s to the 2010s, including paintings, sculptures, rarely shown works on paper, and archival materials to explore the depth and breadth of Whitten’s near six-decade career.

The show was critically acclaimed, and emotionally impactful. In the episode, Kuo describes the collaborative and intensive five-year process involved in curating the exhibition, highlighting Whitten’s innovative approaches to art, his engagement with technology, and the deep emotional and historical context in his work.

As Kuo describes Whitten's work alongside canonical figures such as Rothko, Picasso, and Mondrian, she more importantly references the ways in which he reconfigured art history and the abstract expressionist movement with the use of new tools and techniques. Whitten’s oeuvre is marked by a courageous and uncompromising vision to resist the pressures of conformity, and instead carve his own path through abstraction. This episode emphasizes Whitten’s visionary nature and the lasting legacy of his art, which continues to inspire and move audiences.

Thank you to our hosts WSA Podcast Studios.

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On this episode I’m joined by Brice Yonkeu as we discuss his career in the arts. With a background in political science, Brice transitioned to the arts, seeking to make a more relevant contribution to culture. In this episode, he shares his experiences working in the arts, from opening his own gallery, Bwo Art Gallery in Cameroon, to participating in Amoako Boafo’s residency, dot.ateliers, as the first curator in residency, and showcasing his latest exhibition, a continuation of the show he presented at dot.aterliers upon completion of the residence, on view at Gagosian through August 8. The exhibition, Ever So Present II: Between Home and Elsewhere, brings together the work of four contemporary African artists; Luke Agada, Amoako Boafo, Josèfa Ntjam, and Emma Prempeh, to explore themes of displacement, migration, and the tension between memory and reality.

Brice reflects on his transition into art curation, and underscores the importance of presenting complex and rich contemporary African art practices. He also recounts his journey into the art field, and the necessity of creating spaces for African artists to showcase their heritage and contributions to global cultural production and ingenuity.

Thank you to our hosts WSA Podcast Studios.

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On this episode I’m joined by Hugh Hayden as we discuss his newly commissioned work presented for 16 edition of the Sharjah Biennial, elucidated through the curatorial theme, to carry. Asking questions such as, what does it mean to carry a home, a history, a language, a legacy, and a lineage.

Hugh Hayden was born in Dallas, Texas in 1983 and lives and works in New York City. He holds an MFA from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University. Hugh Hayden’s practice considers the anthropomorphization of the natural world as a visceral lens for exploring the human condition. Hayden transforms familiar objects through a process of selection, carving and juxtaposing to challenge our perceptions of ourselves, others and the environment. Raised in Texas and trained as an architect, his work arises from a deep connection to nature and its organic materials. Hayden utilizes wood as his primary medium, frequently loaded with multi-layered histories in their origin, including objects as varied as discarded trunks, rare indigenous timbers, Christmas trees or souvenir African sculptures.

In this episode Hugh reflects on his observations on cultural diversity and geographical differences, comparing the US's peripheral status to the vibrant, multicultural hub of Sharjah and the UAE, while emphasizing adaptability and cultural engagement. The discussion delves into how different environments influence his work.

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On this episode I’m joined by Cassi Namoda as we discuss her newly commissioned work presented for 16 edition of the Sharjah Biennial, elucidated through the curatorial theme, to carry. Asking questions such as, what does it mean to carry a home, a history, a language, a legacy, and a lineage.

Born in Maputo, Mozambique, Cassi Namoda is known for her strong color palette and narrative approach to painting. Her hybrid narratives are at once wondrous and poignant, every day and fantastical, archival and current. Cassi’s work transfigures the cultural mythologies and historical narratives of life in post-colonial Africa, particularly those of the artist’s familial home of Mozambique. The idiosyncratic subjects who appear and reappear in her paintings also convey this hybridity: they emerge from African indigenous religions just as much as they spring from Western mythologies.

Cassi’s work is held in the collections of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; MACAAL, Marrakesh; and The Studio Museum; New York.

In the episode, discusses her evolving body of work, including paintings that originated at the Joseph and Annie Albers residency in Connecticut that connect to her current paintings on view for the Sharjah Biennial 16. In the works, she explores themes of climate change and matriarchal societies, while emphasizing the holistic interconnectedness of her art and life. She also reflects on the importance of preserving ancestral knowledge and matriarchal wisdom, the role of women in society, and how her experiences as a mother influence her artistic practice. The conversation underscores the interconnected nature of life and art, advocating for self-attunement and holistic living.

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