Podcasts about Venice Biennale

A month after the opening of this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, we've invited three critics to come on the show to help make sense of what was arguably one of the most content overloaded, and curitorially ambiguous biennales in recent memory.Since its inception in 1980, The Venice architecture biennale has set the tone for global discourse on contemporary design and urbanism, and yet the agenda of this year's exhibition, curated by the MIT professor and recent guest of this podcast, Carlo Ratti, seemed surprisingly muted and anodyne, calling for architects to marshal the quote intelligence of the natural, artificial and collective”Still there are more complex although perhaps unintended themes to the biennale this year, including the emerging relationship between unaccountable technologies and authoritarianism, quantatitve expansion as a proxy for genuine inclusivity, and perhaps most importantly, the exchange of an independent curatorial vision for an apparent new ideal of algorithmically determined experience. Furter reading:Emily Conklin: We Will Rest: Seeking Resistance and Recovery During Carlo Ratti's Venice Biennale in the Brooklyn RailFabrizio Gallanti: "Fakery and deception is everywhere at Venice Architecture Biennale 2025" in DezeenPhin Harper: Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 Review: A Tech Bro Fever Dream in Art Review and La Biennale Architettura: A Beginner's Guide on The Fence.Emily Conklin is the former managing editor of the Architect's Newspaper and is an editor and critic based in New York City. She is trained as a historic preservationist and is the founder of Tiny Cutlery studio. Fabrizio Gallanti is an architect, writer and curator, and directs Arc en Rêve, an architectural center in Bordeaux.Phin Harper is a critic, curator, and sculptor and former Chief Executive of Open City. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Seawright is Professor of Photography and Deputy Vice Chancellor at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. His photographic work is held in many museum collections including The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Tate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, International Centre of Photography New York, Arts Councils of Ireland, England and N.Ireland, UK Government Collection and the Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. In 2002 he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum London to undertake a war art commission in Afghanistan and his photographs of battle-sites and minefields have subsequently been exhibited in North America, Canada, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany, Korea, Japan and China. In 2003 he represented Wales at the Venice Biennale of Art and in 1997 won the Irish Museum of Modern Art/Glen Dimplex Prize. He is represented by the Kerlin Gallery Dublin.Paul was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to higher education and the arts. In episode 258, Paul discusses, among other things:The influence of studying at Farnham..and Martin Parr……And being at NewportNot taking a position‘Allusive documentary'The danger of losing the meaningThe ethical considerations of working on foreign soilThe essential business of researchHow do you find your next project?His USA projects Volunteer and Things Left UnsaidThe importance of titlesHis work from Rwanda, Beasts of Burden Referenced:Thomas Joshua CooperAnna Fox (Ep. 166)Ken Grant (Ep. 128)Chris ShawMartin Parr (Eps. 91 & 197)Peter Fraser (Ep. 172)Paul Graham (Ep. 149)Jem Southam (Ep. 174)Chris Killip (Ep. 94)Victor BurginAnne WilliamsNewportDaniel Meadows (Ep. 116)Clive LandenIvor Prickett (Ep.204)Anastasia Taylor Lind (Ep.68)Rich GilliganJames MollisonPaul VirilloParr and BadgerRobert Adams, The New WestIan Walker, Desert Stories, or Faith In FactsBaudrillardCalvino, Invisible CitiesGilles Peress The SilenceAlfredo JaarFergal KeaneBrian Keenan Website | Instagram EPISODE SPONSOR: CHARCOAL WORKSHOPS. THE ‘SUMMER SERIES' TAKING PLACE IN PORTLAND, MAINE, SEPTEMBER 15-19, 2025. FEATURING: ANTOINE D'AGATA, TODD HIDO AND CHRISTIAN PATERSON. SIGN UP AT THE LINK! “‘Allusive documentary' is probably a good way to think about it. For me, it's really about - and this is the bit that goes back to my experience of photography in Northern Ireland, which was all about dramacentric imagery - how you can make photographs that have a documentary subject (that might be the closest I come to being a documentarian, that I work with the subject of documentary photography) but with the methodology of an artist. That's kind of the way I like to frame it, and I think that follows through to the work which is nearly always conceived for the gallery wall.” Become a A Small Voice podcast member here to access exclusive additional subscriber-only content and the full archive of 200+ previous episodes for £5 per month.Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here for everything A Small Voice related and much more besides.Follow me on Instagram here.Build Yourself a Squarespace Website video course here.

We are in conversation with Sicilian artist and scholar Elisa Giardina Papa whose practice explores subjects that resist definition. Elisa lives and works between New York and Sant'Ignazio, Sicily, and teaches Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. She was one of the artists invited by curator Cecilia Alemani to exhibit in the main international exhibition of the 59th Venice Art Biennale in 2022, The Milk of Dreams. Our conversation delves into the first two works in her trilogy set in Sicily—installations that blend myth, memory, and submerged histories, both literal and metaphorical. In She Flickered In and Out of History, Elisa explores the story of a short-lived volcanic island that emerged between Tunisia and Sicily in 1831. Claimed by various European powers before disappearing beneath the sea just five months later, the island becomes a symbol of ungovernability and resistance to imperialism. We also discuss U Scantu: A Disorderly Tale, presented at the Venice Biennale 2022, which reimagines the mythic figure of the Donna di Fora—queer, multispecies women healers—drawing on both oral folklore and Inquisition archives. Set against the backdrop of the postmodern town of Gibellina, the work brings together sonic street culture, ceramics, and archival fragments to challenge how histories are told. Elisa reflects on her Sicilian upbringing, the layered cultural influences of the island, and her interest in forms of knowledge that defy categorisation. Together we explore what it means to live, think, and create on the edges — where ground shifts, language carries memory and stories flicker in and out of view.    

Lubaina Himid talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Himid was born 1954 in Zanzibar and lives today in Preston, UK. Her paintings, sculptures and installations are an invitation to consider marginalised figures, communities and diasporic cultures, to expand the histories that frame our worldview, and ultimately to effect change. From the 1980s, Lubaina has been both artist and organiser, a prolific collaborator, and a crucial voice in establishing a platform for Black artists and women artists in the UK and beyond. Engaging directly with historic and contemporary injustice and structural racism, while relating personal and intimate experiences and feelings, and reinterpreting and reimagining Western art history, her work is rigorously critical and yet poetic, sensuous, humorous and often joyous. She talks about the early impact of Stanley Spencer and Bridget Riley, the inexhaustible influence of William Hogarth, her curatorial work of the mid-1980s and her admiration for her peer in the Black British Arts movement Claudette Johnson. She also reflects on the influence of writers including Audre Lorde and Essex Hemphill. Plus, she gives insight into her life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?Lubaina Himid with Magda Stawarska: Another Chance Encounter, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 12 July-2 November; Connecting Thin Black Lines, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 24 June-7 September. Lubaina Himid, British Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 9 May-22 November 2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season 25 begins! We meet Juergen Teller, one of the world's most sought-after contemporary photographers, successfully straddling the interface of both art and commercial photography.We discuss childhood, touring with Nirvana, Agnès Varda, Tracey Emin, William Eggleston, Kate Moss, Pope Francis, Kristen McMenemy, Zoe Bedeaux, collaborating with @DovileDrizyte and breakthroughs with Marc Jacobs. Juergen Teller's new exhibition of his photographs taken at Auschwitz Birkenau is now open Kunsthaus Göttingen, Germany until 1 June 2025 @KunsthausGoettingen. An accompanying photobook is published by @SteidlVerlag. 7 ½, Teller's concurrent exhibition runs at Galleria Degli Antichi, Sabbioneta, Italy until 23 November 2025 @VisitSabbioneta.Teller (b.1964) grew up in Bubenreuth near Erlangen, Germany. Teller graduated in 1986 and moved to London, finding work in the music industry shooting record covers for musicians such as Simply Red, Sinéad O'Connor and Morrissey with the help of the photographer, Nick Knight. By the early 1990s, he was working for avant-garde fashion magazines such as i-D, The Face, Details and Arena. Teller has collaborated with many fashion designers over the years, including Helmut Lang, Marc Jacobs, Yves Saint Laurent, Vivienne Westwood, Celine and Louis Vuitton.Teller was the recipient of the Citibank Photography Prize in association with the Photographer's Gallery, London in 2003. In 2007, he represented the Ukraine as one of five artists in the 52nd Venice Biennale. Teller has exhibited internationally, including solo shows at the Photographer's Gallery, London (1998), Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2004), Foundation Cartier, Paris (2006), Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany (2009), Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul (2011), Dallas Contemporary, USA (2011), Institute of Contemporary Art, London (2013), Deste Foundation, Athens (2014), Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2015) and Bundeskunstalle, Bonn (2016).Teller's work is featured in numerous collections around the world, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; International Center for Photography, New York; Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. He has published forty-one artist books and exhibition catalogues since 1996. He currently holds a Professorship of Photography at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg, and lives and works in London. Follow @JuergenTellerStudio and https://www.juergenteller.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Australia dropped its 2026 Venice Biennale artists just days after announcing them. Jaspar McCahon-Boersma breaks down the backlash with Dr Ben Eltham. We speak to Dr Clara Tuck Meng Soo about what Medicare changes could mean for trans healthcare ahead of the election. Dr Kean-Seng Lim joins us to unpack whether new bulk billing incentives will actually help communities in Western Sydney. Plus, Adriana Boisen from the NSW Council for Civil Liberties explains what new protest laws mean for your right to demonstrate. Produced by Jaspar McCahon-Boersma, Holly Payne, Euan Kielly and Eva Sikes-Gerogiannis.Executive produced by Bec Cushway.Hosted by Dani Zhang and Tanita Razaghi.Audio produced by Bridgette Donnellan. Aired 1st March 2025 on Gadigal land. Want to support our show? Follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, leave us a five-star review, and share an episode with a friend.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

HBO’s “The Rehearsal” probes the causes of plane crashes at a time when flyers have increasing concerns about air safety.  Native artist Jeffrey Gibson represented the US at last year’s Venice Biennale. That same show is now on view at The Broad.  A restaurant critic from the San Francisco Chronicle opens up on getting tossed from The French Laundry by celebrity chef Thomas Keller.

J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere, who was known as Nigeria's top photographer, started documenting women's hairstyles in 1968. He built up a portfolio of around 2,000 negatives revealing the elaborate ways African women styled their hair through his series of black and white photos. A selection of his 'Hairstyles' prints was displayed at the Venice Biennale in 2013. Reena Stanton-Sharma speaks to his son Amaize Ojeikere, also a photographer, about his father's work. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic' and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy's Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they've had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America's occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.(Photo: 'Hairstyles' by J. D. 'Okhai Ojeikere. Credit: TERESA SUAREZ/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

In this premiere episode of Art Destinations Sicily, we introduce the artists and key themes that will be explored in season. We look at how artists engage with the layered geographies of Sicily — a place shaped by ancient myths, volcanic terrain, and a complex cultural inheritance. Through residencies and site-responsive projects, the artists featured in this season reveal how creative practice emerges from deep entanglements with land, memory, and material. Our conversations begin with this podcast's co-producer and Sicily Artist-in Residence Program (SARP) director Alfio Puglisi. And then we have the privilege of meeting Elisa Giardina Papa (Italy's Venice Biennale 2022 artist), Vito Planeta (Planeta Wines), Irene Coppola (artist and Spaziomateria, Palermo), Francesco Vullo (artist), Claudio Gulli (art historian, Palazzo Butero, Palermo), Hanna Burkart (artist), Aurora Passero (artist) and Alessandro Giorgi (artist).   The key ideas are: Collaborating with Place The Sicilian landscape—particularly Mount Etna—acts not merely as a backdrop but as an active force shaping artistic practice. Across episodes, artists respond to the island's geology, climate, and topography as both medium and subject.   Reimagining Cultural Identity Artists explore Sicily's layered histories, myths, and social taboos to question and reframe local identity. Folklore, symbolism, and personal narratives are reinterpreted through contemporary lenses to address belonging, memory, and transformation.   3. A Return to Materiality There is a strong return to material practices—textiles, volcanic rock, pigment, and site-specific installation—as a way to connect past and present. This material sensibility serves as a tactile bridge between tradition and experimentation.   4. Peripheral Networks and Global Dialogue Sicily's perceived peripherality fosters a fertile ground for international collaboration. Through residencies and projects like SARP, artists from diverse backgrounds engage with the island to generate new models of exchange, intimacy, and creative dwelling.   The Sicily season reveals that working from the edge — whether spatially or culturally — creates rich opportunities to rethink place, practice, and belonging. Artists in this season treat the island not only as a site, but as a way of being. We hope you enjoy this season of Art Destinations Sicily. Each episode is released fortnightly. Subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on your preferred listening platform. such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and explore the visual works of our guests via @artdestinations.podcast on Instagram.

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is the esteemed American artist, Lorna Simpson. Working across photography to painting, video to collage, Simpson is a multimedia artist who – since the 1980s – has gained widespread acclaim for her pioneering approach to conceptual photography. Whether it's fusing text with image, obscuring her subject's identity, using techniques such as repetition, collage or manipulation – Simpson has conjured a plethora of ways to reinvent the image, and, by doing so, raises questions about gender, race, memory, and history. Her work, mostly centred on the female body, is full of seemingly open-ended narratives – as she has said: “I think the idea of identity or persona is interesting to me in that it is malleable and fluid. And that has always been part of the work in terms of [thinking about] who gets to determine who we are. Do we get to determine that, and what are the parameters of that, given the society that we live in?” Engaging with found images and objects, whether that be cut-outs from Ebony or Jet Magazines, or photographs she finds on eBay, which she melds with inks or collages of jewels, Simpson has continuously reconfigured what painting and photography means. Born in 1960, and raised in Queens and Brooklyn in a childhood that put the arts first, Simpson received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and following that, an MFA from the University of California San Diego, where she began to focus on the portraits of Black women she found in magazines, adding suggestive phrases from elsewhere. By 1990, she had a major exhibition at MoMA, and throughout the decades has continued to push boundaries with her seemingly limitless approach to materials. But in 2015, she turned to painting, showing her first nine-feet-tall canvases at the Venice Biennale, and this month will present a major exhibition – that considers the entirety of her painting practice – at the Metropolitan Museum of Art here in New York – where we are recording today. Titled “Source Notes”, it will feature Simpson's monumental and spellbinding paintings, which, steeped in monochromatic blues, silvers, blacks and greys, appear in settings that evoke the cosmological or natural world. An extension of her photographic work, Simpson's paintings see the manipulated figure and body pressed into landscapes akin to waterfalls or meteorites, and I can't wait to find out more… https://lsimpsonstudio.com/ Lorna Simpson: Source Notes –  https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/lorna-simpson-source-notes?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&utm_term=lorna%20simpson%20art&utm_content=39536&mkwid=s&pcrid=743882408399&pmt=b&pkw=lorna%20simpson%20art&pdv=c&slid=&product=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22399716678&gbraid=0AAAAADmlGN7UtMbglt7UAR4dicGAOa9Vx&gclid=CjwKCAjw24vBBhABEiwANFG7ywIA72_JjPaxVUdfQSWW_h8NFYNWzddlSHz6KV38M9zgiG4rs_9UNxoCVFkQAvD_BwE https://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/2860-lorna-simpson/ -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Mikaela Carmichael Music by Ben Wetherfield

Koyo Kouoh remembered, Queen Elizabeth II memorial, Jasper Johns by Robert StorrKoyo Kouoh, the Cameroon-born curator who was director of Zeitz Mocaa in Cape Town and had been invited to curate next year's Venice Biennale died on 10 May. There has been an outpouring of moving tributes to Kouoh from artists, curators and gallerists across the world, and Ben Luke speaks to Nolan Oswald Dennis, the Johannesburg-based artist who has a current show at Zeitz, and Liza Essers, the owner and director of Goodman Gallery, about her life and work. A design competition for the Queen Elizabeth II National Memorial in St James's Park in London has been launched, with five designs competing for the commission. We talk to Sandy Nairne, the former director of the National Portrait Gallery in London, who is on the committee tasked with choosing the winning design. And this episode's Work of the Week is Regrets, a painting from the series of that name made by Jasper Johns in 2013. The work is discussed in a new book of writings on Johns by the former curator at the Museum of Modern Art and of the Venice Biennale in 2007, Robert Storr. We speak to Storr about the work.Nolan Oswald Dennis: Understudies, Zeitz Mocaa, Cape Town, South Africa, until 27 July; Nolan Oswald Dennis: throwers, Gasworks, London, until 22 June.To see the five proposals for the Queen Elizabeth II National Memorial and give feedback visit competitions.malcolmreading.com/queenelizabethmemorial#overview. The opportunity to give feedback on the designs will close on 19 May.Robert Storr, Focal Points: Jasper Johns, HENI publishing, £19.99 (hb). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What makes an artist great, how does an artist become great? In today's episode of I've been thinking about, I explore the idea of maturity, ageing and process.It seems to me that maturity, ageing in the Arts is actually beneficial. Unlike other professions where ageing is synonymous with decline, with cognitive or physical impairment - people in sports have an early retirement age for that reason, Or former US president Biden wasn't he forced to step down because of his cognitive decline due to his age? That doesn't seem to apply to artists. When it comes to the Arts, age and maturity actually have the opposite effect - we can keep getting better. And there are many examples of this: Irish writer Edna O'Brien lived to 93. French writer Annie Ernaux now 84, won the Nobel prize for literature at the age of 82. Classical pianists only seem to get better with age, they have all the technique of years of practice without the need for showmanship that you sometimes see in younger pianists. I think about artists like Sonia Boyce who represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in her 60s or figurative painter Claudette Johnson also in her 60s. What about American abstract painter Stanley Whitney still making beautiful work at 79 or Indian artist, Arpita Singh. Now 87, I recently went to her solo exhibition at London's Serpentine and her work took my breath away, her use of colour and composition, I felt like I was seeing an entirely new interpretation of artistic expression.I mean as long as you can pick up a paintbrush or pencil, or a camera, the work doesn't and shouldn't stop. And I'm not saying that we have to wait until we're in our 80s to produce works that's meaningful. I'm saying that our process produces the sound and the deeper the process the richer the sound. Music Refs:Ray LaMontagne, JoleneJoni Mitchell, Both Sides Now from 1969Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now from 2000 Holding up the Ladder links:Find out ways to support the Israel-Palestine project click herePodcast WebsitePodcast IG Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Born in Los Angeles in 1986, Sable Elyse Smith works across a variety of media, including photography, painting, and sculpture, to investigate the US prison-industrial complex and its role in and effects on society.Her work has been featured at numerous prestigious institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New Museum, Guggenheim Museum, and ICA Boston - among many others. In 2022, she participated in the Whitney Biennial and the 59th Venice Biennale. Smith is a recipient of several distinguished awards from Creative Capital, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, and most recently - the 2026 Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize - just to name a few.She is currently an Assistant Professor of Visual Art at Columbia University.Follow along with all Art from the Outside updates on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/artfromtheoutsidepodcast

A quick one before we're away. Dan and Greg sum up theirsprings and get ready for spritzes and socializing with smart people in at the 2025 Venice Biennale.--Intro/Outro: “Bounder of Adventure,” by The Cooper Vane--Discussed:Going Underground -> The Space Below w/ James Parakh·        Toronto PATH·        Montreal RESO·        Chicago Pedway·        Minneapolis Skyway·        Houston Tunnels·        Oklahoma City Underground·        Hong Kong Central Elevated WalkwayZohran Mamdami –Make the Subway Great AgainSmart City Expo, New York CityBusiness Facilities Live eXchange, New OrleansCurbivore, Los AngelesJonah BlissJoshua Harris, Fordham UniversityMarchetti's constantZiplineAustin Baker Tilly ConferenceCosMc'sNational Association of Realtors surveyWaymoRoboCopSidewalk TorontoDownstate IL secession movementSnow Crash – Neal Stephenson, feat. Mr. Lee's Greater Hong KongPaul RomerCharter CitiesThe Voluntary City - David T. Beto, Peter Gordon and Alexander TabarrokHow to Run the World - Parag KhannaHell on Earth – The 30 Years' War Podcast The Network State - Balaji SrinivasanGlobal Parliament of Mayors / Ben BarberPolarization of reality > revenge of sovereigntyPraxis: Med Charter City > Greenland feat. Steven HarperThe evermore-relevant Hidden Globe episodeExit, Voice and Loyalty - Albert O. HirschmanPatri FriedmanThe lost art of imagining the future“My Brain Finally Broke,” - Jia Tolentino in The New YorkerBruce Sterling – Atemporality

Episode No. 704 features artist Wafaa Bilal. The MCA Chicago is presenting "Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me," the first major survey of Bilal's work. Across his genres-busting career, the Iraqi-American Bilal has made performances, sculptures and related digital presentations that have interrogated the United States' relationship with and conduct within Iraq, the Middle East, and broader geopolitics. Bilal's work also investigates the notion of cultural cannibalism, the ways in which the culture of one people may be used, disassembled, and consumed by another. "Indulge Me" was curated by Bana Kattan, and is on view in Chicago through October 19. An invaluable catalogue was published by the MCA. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $20-32. Bilal's work is in the collections of museums as unalike as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art Qatar. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah UAE; the Art Gallery at NYU Abu Dhabi; and the 32015 Venice Biennale. Instagram: Wafaa Bilal, Tyler Green.

On this episode I'm joined by Daniel Boyd 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.Born in 1982 in Cairns Australia, Daniel Boyd is one of Australia's most highly regarded artists. In 2014, Boyd became the first indigenous artist to win the prestigious Bulgari Art Prize, for his work, Untitled (2014), that referenced Australia's long but little known history of slavery. The painting is both a personal and social account of history, Pentecost Island was home to Daniel's great, great paternal grandfather before he was taken as slave to the sugarcane fields in Queensland. Through his artistic practice, he seeks to negotiate the identity of art, history and cultural survival through his investigations of oppressed and colonial culture. Daniel has been showing in Australia and internationally since 2005, and he participated in the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, as curated by Okwui Enwezor.In this episode, Daniel discusses his installation for the Sharjah Biennial 16 and his use of black vinyl to create an immersive environment in the iconic star-shaped building, The Flying Saucer. He talks about his artistic approach, which engages with the history of modernism, the built environment, and First Nations Australian perspectives on placemaking. He also reflects on his responsibility as an Aboriginal artist to share his people's stories and how art can offer a counter-narrative to Australia's oppressive history. He elaborates on the importance of art in slowing down and engaging deeply, mentioning influences like the American artist Bruce Nauman and the Martinican literary titan and influential philosopher, Edouard Glissant. -------------------------------------------------------------------- WHERE YOU CAN FOLLOW ME AND SUBSCRIBE Website - Sign up for my newsletter https://lightworkco.com/ Instagram - Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sadeolo/https://www.instagram.com/lightworkcompany/ YouTube - Subscribe to my YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/@lightworkco

Send us a textIn this episode, Ricardo Karam meets Jean Boghossian, the Belgian Lebanese artist of Armenian descent who transforms fire and smoke into a unique artistic language. Born in Aleppo in 1949 into a family of jewelers, his journey spans from private painting lessons in childhood to experimenting with abstract art and finding his signature medium—fire.Beyond art, Boghossian reflects on his family's exile from Armenia to Syria and Lebanon, the experiences that shaped him, his marriages, fatherhood, philanthropy, and deep-rooted belief in identity and humanism. He shares his perspective on love as a creative force, influencing both his work and life.Representing Armenia at the Venice Biennale in 2017 and again in 2022 with Melancholia Contemporanea, he continues to push artistic boundaries with exhibitions in Luxembourg, Brussels, Monaco, and Seoul in 2024.Join Ricardo Karam for an engaging conversation where fire, love, and resilience merge into a powerful narrative of art and humanity.في هذه الحلقة، يلتقي ريكاردو كرم بجان بوغوصيان، الفنان البلجيكي-اللبناني ذو الأصول الأرمنية، الذي حوّل النار والدخان إلى لغة إبداعية فريدة. وُلد في حلب عام 1949 لعائلة تعمل في صناعة المجوهرات، وبدأ رحلته الفنية منذ الطفولة عبر دروس خاصة في الرسم، قبل أن يخوض في الفن التجريدي ويكتشف وسيلته المفضلة: النار.لكن حديثه لا يقتصر على الفن، إذ يتناول أيضاً هجرة عائلته من أرمينيا إلى سوريا ولبنان، والتجارب التي شكّلته، وزيجاته، وأبوّته، وأعماله الخيرية، وإيمانه العميق بالهوية والإنسانية. كما يشارك رؤيته للحب كقوة إبداعية تؤثر في أعماله وحياته.بعد تمثيله لأرمينيا في بينالي البندقية عام 2017 وعودته إليه في 2022 بعمله الضخم الكآبة المعاصرة، يواصل بوغوصيان كسر الحدود بين الرسم والنحت والتلوين من خلال معارض فردية في لوكسمبورغ وبروكسل وموناكو وسيول عام 2024رحلة فنية وإنسانية مشوّقة في حديث عميق مع ريكاردو كرم، حيث تتحوّل النار إلى أداة تعبير عن الهوية والحب والإبداع.

This week we are running a re-air of an interview with the curator and writer Elisa Auther about the fascinating history of fiber art and its recent rise. The show we mentioned in the episode, woven histories, textiles and modern abstraction has arrived at the Museum of Modern Art in New York this week. And I think Auther's perspective makes a nice compliment to that important show. Contemporary art comes in many shapes and forms, but close your eyes and think of what an artist looks like and nine times out of 10, I bet you are still thinking of a painter in front of a canvas. If recent interest for museums and galleries is any indication, however, that image should be joined by another one: the fiber artist. Think of a weaver seated at the loom or a quilt-maker laboriously stitching together layers of fabric. The textile arts have experienced a quiet but steady groundswell of interest in the last decades, and recently I've noticed that it feels as if it is kicked into a new, even higher level, from the many kinds of textile based art throughout the most recent Venice Biennale to the major show "Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction," which is on a tour of some of North America's most important museums right now. As many textile scholars will tell you, tapestry was once as exalted as painting as an art form, and it may be so again. This surge of interest is bringing new audiences, new histories, and new vocabularies into the center of the action that are worth getting familiar with, and to unravel all the different threads, Art Critic Ben Davis turned to Elissa Auther, a scholar who looked at the tangled history of fiber art in her book String Felt, Thread: The Hierarchy of Art and Craft in American Art.  More importantly, she's been closely observing and encouraging the contemporary boom in textile art as the chief curator at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. This week she the podcast to discuss what's behind the resurgence of interest in this medium.

This week we come to terms with the giant naked woman sculpture that has been forced onto us by some kind of techno-libertarian burner foundation. We also talk about starting projects with Joan. Kate FINALLY discusses her favorite art experience of the year so far, a performance at the Lab by Alex Tatarsky. The music in this episode is by SPELLINGNobody Asked for This by Sarah HotchkissInside the Indoor Beach Opera That's the Talk of the Venice Biennale by Casey LesserYou Might Call Alex Tatarsky a Playwright. But They Identify as ‘An Experimental Clown Artist' by Hiji NamJL Murdaugh and Syndicate Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Casey Koyczan is a multi-media artist pushing boundaries by merging ancient Dene traditions with cutting-edge digital technologies. Through his diverse practice spanning installation, virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D animation, and music production, Koyczan creates immersive experiences that transport viewers into thought-provoking realms where culture, art and technology converge.At the heart of Koyczan's work lies the concept of Indigenous Futurity – envisioning Indigenous cultures, stories, and practices thriving in future contexts. Koyczan explores the powerful imagery he includes in his work that suggest cultural continuity while embracing technological possibilities. His internationally recognised Walk in a Circle series, which earned him a place on the prestigious Sobey Art Award longlist, further demonstrates his innovative approach. These meticulously crafted 3D animations give Indigenous art materials human characteristics, transforming them into spirits or creatures that forge deeper connections between viewers and traditional materials. From the playful fluffiness of tufting to the more mysterious interpretations of antler, Koyczan's work spans an impressive range.Having exhibited worldwide – from the Venice Biennale to galleries across Finland, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, the Netherlands, the UK, and beyond – Koyczan continues to push boundaries while maintaining his commitment to inspiring youth from Northwest Territories and across Canada. His advice to emerging artists reflects his own path: "Try things out, take risks, and just give it a shot". Discover how Casey Koyczan's multifaceted creative practice bridges worlds, honours heritage, and imagines new possibilities at the intersection of Indigenous knowledge and technological innovation. Connect with us:Madison Beale, HostCroocial, ProductionBe a guest on The Artalogue Podcast

Contemporary drawing is one of art's best kept secrets: associated with sound, language and writing, it turns contemporary art into a meditative form of art-making engaging the spectator in a poetic and existential voyage. Led by Blank's discovery of sound within the daily practice of drawing, this episode is a sonic wandering and a philosophical exploration of the artist's work, engaging with recent technological changes. How can a minimal and poetic practice face such specific issues? What is the role of the artist facing a global net of information which connects us as much as it separates us? And what is the value of communication – and of silence? Irma Blank has taught me that and much more.The avant-gardes of the 1960s–70s were proliferous in innovative and minimal methods of creativity engaging the breath, the whole body and graphic deconstructions of language. Irma Blank was one of those artists with a subversive take on traditional artistic languages. Have you ever wondered how artists and curators work together? This episode muses upon the relation between me, a young-ish curator and the artist Irma Blank, who'd reached the age of 80 when we met, along with my co-curator Johana Carrier. This episode is an excerpt of a lecture given by me on the 3rd of February  2025 at ABK Stuttgart whose title was "The Paper is Impatient", under the invitation of the drawing department, and their teachers Katrin Ströbel and Hanna Hennenkemper.The « drawing sounds » are excerpts of Irma Blank's recordings of the sound of each series. For Radical Writings, she recorded herself, breathing in and out, because that was the basis of the image's structure.Music by Sarturn.>>>>>>>For more information about the artist visit her gallery's website: P420, Bologna, Italy.DID YOU ENJOY THE EPISODE?Support us through a donation or membership.DID YOU ENJOY THE TEXT?Follow me on Substack for more topics on art, society, artists and exhibitions.SUBSCRIBE , RATE AND FOLLOW US. IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE.FOLLOW US ON:Instagram:   @exhibitionistas_podcast  Bluesky: @exhibitionistas.bsky.socialExhibitionistas websiteGET IN TOUCH: exhibitionistaspod@gmail.com///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////If you enjoy Katy Hessel's The Great Women Artists Podcast, this episode is for you. It is centred around the artistic practice of female German artist Irma Blank, who never stopped producing her art, whether it was shown in prestigious events such as the Venice Biennale in 1977, or it wasn't, like when her Radical Writings on canvas were deemed a form of yielding to the 80s trend of the return to painting... whereas Blank was, on the contrary, more militant than ever for her elemental forms of the line and the minimal gesture by deeply engaging with the meditative breath in relation to the line and the colour blue, which for her represented infinity. Blank passed away in 2023, leaving a potent body of work whose incredible energy leaves no spectator or curator indifferent.

Cecilia Alemani is an Italian curator based in New York City who is currently at work curating the 12th SITE SANTA FE International, titled Once Within a Time and opening in June 2025.  Since 2011, she has been the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, the public art program presented by the High Line in New York City. From 2020 to 2022, she served as Artistic Director of the 59th Venice Biennale, where she curated the acclaimed exhibition The Milk of Dreams, which received over 800,000 visitors. More recently, she has curated several exhibitions, including Tetsuya Ishida: My Anxious Self, the Japanese painter's first American retrospective, presented at Gagosian Gallery in New York (2023); Making Their Mark, the first public presentation of the Shah Garg Collection (New York, 2023; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2024); and Anu Põder: Space for My Body, Poder's first solo exhibition presented outside of Estonia at Muzeum Susch, Switzerland (2024). Alemani also served as Artistic Director of the inaugural edition of Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires in 2018 and was the curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. Over the past twenty years, Alemani has developed expertise in commissioning and producing ambitious artworks for public space and unusual sites. She and Zuckerman discuss the act of learning, not being curatorially snobby, the rhythm of nature, giving up control, objects having their own life, the realness of cultural uncertainty, the 1948 Venice Bienniale and moving between the past and the future, female voices, the artist as client, the land of enchantment, and that art matters because it is our life!

In Episode 8, Barbara speaks with Marco Fusinato, the Australian musician and artist whose work explores noise and duration. Born in 1964 in Melbourne, Marco released his first solo record in the 1990s. He has said he uses the guitar as a signal generator and amplifiers as an instrument to create improvised noise-guitar performances that can run for hours, days — even months. His work has been shown across the world, including in the 2022 Venice Biennale. 

Trump announces tariffs on China to 125% Meanwhile, doctors in the U.K. are calling the birth of a baby girl via a donated womb a "miracle." And, the Vatican will participate in the Venice Biennale of Architecture under the theme, "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective."

In Poor Artists (Particular Books) Zarina Muhammad and Gabrielle de la Puente (AKA The White Pube), explore the bizarre world of contemporary art through their protagonist Quest Talukdar. In surreal encounters with other artists, Quest learns profound truths about money and power, and must decide whether she cares more about success or staying true to herself. Blending storytelling with dialogue from anonymised interviews with artists and art workers – including a Turner Prize winner or two, a few ghosts, a Venice Biennale fraudster and a communist messiah – Poor Artists is a unique portrayal of the emotional, existential and financial experience of artists today. Joining them in conversation was Olivia Sudjic (Asylum Road, Sympathy). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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On this episode I'm joined by Ndidi Dike as we discuss her newly commissioned works 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.Ndidi Dike was born in London. She returned to Nigeria to train as a painter and graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, graduating with a BA degree in mixed media painting. Although internationally known as a sculptor, having taught herself to sculpt, with decades of transgressive sculptural practice. In the current climate of contemporary politics, protectionism, nationalism and globalization Dike primarily works as a multi-media artist with a special interest in personal archives and long term researched based projects and engagement with global histories to address the pre and post-colonial historic and social-economic legacy of the enslaved, forced migration, and memory among other issues. Ndidi participated in the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale in 2024 with two commissions, "Blackhood: the Living Archive" and  "Bearing Witness: Optimism In A Disquiet Present." In the episode Dike discusses her art practice, focusing on installations that examine complex themes such as pre and post-colonialism, global capitalism, and the impacts of the resource extraction industry in Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar. She reflects on her latest works showcased at the Sharjah Biennial 16. -------------------------------------------------------------------- WHERE YOU CAN FOLLOW ME AND SUBSCRIBE Instagram - Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sadeolo/https://www.instagram.com/lightworkcompany/ YouTube - Subscribe to my YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/@lightworkco Website - Sign up for my newsletter https://lightworkco.com/

In this episode of Visual Intonation, we dive deep into the world of Joseph Douglas Elmhirst, a filmmaker whose works explore the intricate intersections of nature, faith, and identity. Joseph's latest film 'Burnt Milk', commissioned by the 2023 Venice Biennale, serves as a visual prayer to Jamaica, capturing the spirit of the Windrush generation and their profound influence on British society. Join us as we explore how Joseph's art transcends mere storytelling and transforms into a potent meditation on the power of ritual, diaspora, and the complicated ties between memory and identity.  Through his lens, Joseph captures the vivid contrast that defines Jamaican life—evoking the beauty and harshness of the island in equal measure. With influences from the likes of Pedro Costa and Francesca Woodman, Joseph's approach to filmmaking is as much about sound as it is about vision. He draws from his cultural roots, intertwining ancestral soundscapes, such as the sounds of tree frogs from rural Jamaica, to create a rhythm that underpins his work. We'll unpack how these sonic elements, alongside his striking visuals, build an atmosphere of timelessness, offering viewers an intimate connection to his Jamaican heritage.  Joseph's journey is personal, intertwined with the story of his family—most notably his sister, Ruby Elmhirst, whose creative influence helped bring his film to the world stage. 'Burnt Milk' is not just a film, but a tribute to their shared upbringing and their mother's debut novel of the same name. We delve into the themes of motherhood and cultural heritage explored in Joseph's work, especially through the lens of the matriarchal relationships in his film 'MADA'. This project takes us on a poignant exploration of love, protection, and identity, as seen through the lives of three generations of women in rural Jamaica.  Finally, we look ahead at Joseph's future projects, including his research into spiritual transference and the personal influences that continue to shape his craft. Drawing from his deep connection to both his Jamaican roots and the broader African diaspora, Joseph is poised to continue challenging and reshaping our understanding of ritual, memory, and the power of cinematic storytelling. Tune in for an insightful conversation with one of today's most captivating voices in contemporary film.  https://www.criterionchannel.com/videos/burnt-milk  https://www.instagram.com/josephdouglaselmhirst?igsh=MTJ3NXUwMTlqYXRmYw==  https://vimeo.com/user55926319 Support the showVisual Intonation Website: https://www.visualintonations.com/Visual Intonation Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visualintonation/Vante Gregory's Website: vantegregory.comVante Gregory's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/directedbyvante/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): patreon.com/visualintonations Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@visualintonation Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@directedbyvante

In Episode 7, Barbara speaks with artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Born in Mexico City, Rafael emigrated to Canada, where he is now based. His interactive digital work examines social and political issues using technologies such as surveillance cameras, artificial intelligence, projection mapping and robotics. His work has been shown around the world, including at the 2007 Venice Biennale, where he was the first artist to represent Mexico. 

Khaled Sabsabi's name was catapulted to national prominence when he was selected from dozens of applicants to represent Australia at the prestigious Venice Biennale art exhibition. And then, less than a week after the decision was announced, he was dropped. Now he speaks to Nour Haydar about his work, how he found out, and how damaging the past two months have been for his mental health and his career.

Death of a Salesman - Four Mothers - Irish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

For more than three decades, trailblazing artist and activist Joyce J. Scott has elevated the creative potential of beadwork as a relevant contemporary art form. Scott uses off-loom, hand-threaded glass beads to create striking figurative sculptures, wall hangings, and jewelry informed by her African American ancestry, the craft traditions of her family (including her mother, renowned quilter Elizabeth T. Scott), and traditional Native American techniques, such as the peyote stitch. Each object that Scott creates is a unique, vibrant, and challenging work of art developed with imagination, wit, and sly humor. Born to sharecroppers in North Carolina who were descendants of enslaved people, Scott's family migrated to Baltimore, Maryland, where the artist was born and raised. Scott hales from a long line of makers with extraordinary craftsmanship adept at pottery, knitting, metalwork, basketry, storytelling, and quilting. It was from her family that the young artist cultivated the astonishing skills and expertise for which she is now renowned, and where she learned to upcycle all materials, repositioning craft as a forceful stage for social commentary and activism. In the 1990s, Scott began working with glass artisans to create blown, pressed, and cast glass that she incorporated into her beaded sculptures. This not only allowed her to increase the scale of her work, but also satisfied her desire to collaborate. In 1992, she was invited to the Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington. Continuing her interest in glass, Scott has worked with local Baltimore glassblowers as well as with flameworking pioneer Paul Stankard and other celebrated glass fabricators. In 2012, Goya Contemporary Gallery arranged to have Scott work at Adriano Berengo's celebrated glass studio on the island of Murano in Italy, creating works that were part of the exhibition Glasstress through the Venice Biennale. Scott has worn many hats during her illustrious career: quilter, performance artist, printmaker, sculptor, singer, teacher, textile artist, recording artist, painter, writer, installation artist, and bead artist. Her wide-ranging body of work has crossed styles and mediums, from the most intricate beaded form to large-scale outdoor installation. Whether social or political, the artist's subject matter reflects her narrative of what it means to be Black in America.  Scott continues to live and work in Baltimore, Maryland. She received a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Selected solo museum exhibitions include The Baltimore Museum of Art (2024); Seattle Art Museum (2024 – 2025); and Grounds for Sculpture (2018), Trenton, NJ. She is the recipient of myriad commissions, grants, awards, residencies, and prestigious honors including from the National Endowment for the Arts, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Anonymous Was a Woman, American Craft Council, National Living Treasure Award, Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women's Caucus for the Arts, Mary Sawyers Imboden Baker Award, MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2016), Smithsonian Visionary Artist Award, National Academy of Design Induction, and Moore College Visionary Woman Award, among others. In March of 2024, Scott opened a major 50-year traveling Museum retrospective titled Joyce J. Scott: Walk a Mile in My Dreams co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art and Seattle Art Museum. Also in 2024, Scott opened Bearing Witness: A History of Prints by Joyce J Scott at Goya Contemporary Gallery. Her latest exhibition, Joyce J. Scott: Messages, opened at The Chrysler Museum of Art on February 6, 2025 and will run through August 17, 2025 at the Glass Projects Space. This exhibition is organized by Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA. Says Carolyn Swan Needell, the Chrysler Museum's Barry Curator of Glass: “We are thrilled to host this focused traveling exhibition here in Norfolk at the very moment when Scott's brilliant career is being recognized more widely, through a retrospective of her work that is co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Seattle Museum of Art.”  In Messages, 34 remarkable beaded works of art spanning the artist's career express contemporary issues and concepts. Included in the show is Scott's recent beaded neckpiece, War, What is it Good For, Absolutely Nothin', Say it Again (2022). A technical feat in peyote stitch, infused with color and texture, this multilayered and intricate beadwork comments on violence in America. Embedding cultural critique within the pleasurable experience of viewing a pristinely crafted object, Scott's work mines history to better understand the present moment. The visual richness of Scott's objects starkly contrasts with the weight of the subject matter that they explore. She says: “I am very interested in raising issues…I skirt the borders between comedy, pathos, delight, and horror. I believe in messing with stereotypes, prodding the viewer to reassess, inciting people to look and then carry something home – even if it's subliminal – that might make a change in them.”   

On this episode, I'm joined by Julien Creuzet, the Afro-descendant French Caribbean artist who has his first institutional solo exhibition on view now through June 1, 2025 at The Bell at Brown University in Providence Rhode Island. In the episode Creuzet shares his artistic journey and passion for making exhibitions where he can have a discussion through art. His work spans various mediums including sculpture, poetry, video, music, and more. Here, he's reimagined his French Pavillion from the 60th Venice Biennale for The Bell, focusing on water as a site of both historical and contemporary traumas and emancipatory futures. Creuzet's artistic practice has long referenced legacies of colonialism, and his challenge to the architecture and history of the French Pavilion extends to Brown University's campus and Providence's centrality within the Black Atlantic. He delves into the autonomy in his creative process and how identity influences his work's adaptability across different cultural and political contexts. The exhibition reflects on the colonial history of Martinique, connections between different regions, and the fluidity of human identity. Brown is situated near the Providence River, one of the many Rhode Island ports through which the largest number of enslaved Africans entered the Thirteen Colonies prior to 1774. Triangulated with Africa and the Caribbean in the 18th century, the shipping industry of Rhode Island evolved to be deeply enmeshed with the U.S. cotton industry as the region became a center of textile production in the 19th century. Creuzet is fascinated by the watery connection between Venice, the Caribbean island of Martinique where his family has lived for generations, and Providence, conceptualizing the migration of the pavilion across a Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean dense with histories that have long informed his work. The presentation at Brown is of a different viscosity, an adaptation to Providence waterways and colonial thematics that are present on campus and loom large across the region. 

Artist, archivist, and educator Behzad Khosravi Nouri, and Richard Lackey from Fujifilm Middle East delve into Behzad's unique exhibition at Gulf Photo Plus, titled "The Life of an Itinerant Through a Pinhole," which explores his grandfather's photographic work in Tehran during the 1950s and 60s using a handcrafted camera. Richard explains Fujifilm's involvement in creating a giant walk-in camera obscura for the exhibition. We discover the historical and emotional significance behind Behzad's work and how it sheds light on the working-class immigrant community in Tehran, the democratization of photography, and the concept of "soul catcher" cameras.This special episode of The afikra Podcast was recorded on the Quoz Arts Fest stage at alserkal in Dubai in January, and is one in five episodes which were published on this podcast or Quartertones. Make sure to check them out!00:00 Introduction to the Soul Catcher Camera01:15 Behzad's Exhibition Overview02:18 Fujifilm's Role in the Camera Obscura Project04:30 Behzad's Personal Connection to Photography05:38 The Historical Context of the Archive06:31 Discovery of the Pinhole Camera08:27 The Concept of the Soul Catcher10:43 Photography as a Violent Act16:07 Self-Orientalism in Photography17:01 The Itinerant Theme in the Exhibition18:38 Final ThoughtsBehzad Khosravi Noori is a PhD, artist, writer, educator, playgrounder and necromancer. His research-based practice includes films, installations, as well as archival studies. His work investigate histories from The Global South, labor and the means of production, and histories of political relationships that have existed as a counter narrative to the east-west dichotomy during the Cold War. His work has been shown at Kalmar Museum, Malmö art Museum, Timișoara Biennale, 12.0 Contemporary Islamabad, Tensta Konsthall, Venice Biennale, HDLU Zagreb, WHW Zagreb, Botkyrka Konsthall, CFF (Centre of Photography, Stockholm), Marabouparken, and Centre of Contemporary art, Riga, among other venues.Connect with Behzad

My guest today is Henry Burmudez. He became a major artist in his home country of Venezuela in the 70's through the early 2000's. He made a good living and prospered as a creative force in his home town of Caracas. Among his other accomplishments, he represented Venezuela at the 1986 Venice Biennale. In 1998 , with the election of Cesar Chavez, his world began to fall apart. With the collapse of the economy, his  collector base evaporated and left the artist with no way of making a living and support his family. With the help of artist Frank Hyder, he was invited to show in Miami Florida.  He eventually made his way to Philadelphia where he forged a new life as an artist and in 2024 had a 20 year retrospective at the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia. The exhibit  was a survey of his extraordinary reinvention of himself and his artwork in his new chosen home. With the results of the recent election in the US, he is now reminded of the challenges he faced in Venezuela.We will be talking about all of that and what it means to be an artist in the world today.  

Ruth Patir had been, in her own words, an “artist without art” over the past year. Until this week. Patir’s inventive feminist video installation "(M)otherland" was set to debut in the Israel Pavilion at the Venice Biennale last April - under the shadow of protests against the Gaza War and efforts to oust her from the festival. Ultimately, she made a controversial decision to keep the exhibit intact but shuttered behind closed doors, with a note on the door saying: “The artist and curators of the Israeli pavilion will open the exhibition when a cease-fire and hostage release agreement is reached.” That never happened throughout the seven months of the Biennale, and, as a result, her work was never seen. As (M)otherland finally meets the public at the Tel Aviv Museum this week, Patir joined Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer to talk about the firestorm in Venice, the challenges for Israeli artists creating during war, and innovative use of motion capture technology and Judean fertility figurines to tell a deeply personal story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's something going on in the art world. Works are being covered up, a creator was controversially dropped, and an Oscar-winning documentary can't get an American distributor. Why is this happening? And what does it have to do with the war in Gaza?

It seems absurd that more than a year ahead of the next Venice Biennale, one of the major pavilions in the Giardini might be empty for next year's event. But that is the dilemma facing Creative Australia, which is responsible for that country's Biennale presentation. Last month, it announced the team comprising the Lebanese-born Sydney-based artist Khaled Sabsabi and the curator Michael Dagostino as its selection for the 2026 event—and then, within days, rescinded the invitation. An almighty row has engulfed the Australian art world to the extent that the pavilion has been thrown into doubt. So what happened? The Art Newspaper's Australian correspondent, Elizabeth Fortescue, tells Ben Luke about the debacle. A controversial auction of AI art concluded this week on Christie's website. It prompted an open letter signed by thousands of artists and creative people asking Christie's to cancel the sale and accusing the auction house of incentivising the “mass theft of human artists' work”. We talk to Louis Jebb, The Art Newspaper's managing editor, who oversees our technology coverage, about the sale and the latest developments in art and AI. And this episode's Work of the Week is Tired (1946), a terracotta sculpture made by the American-Mexican artist Elizabeth Catlett. It is part of the touring exhibition Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist, which arrived this week at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, after premiering at the Brooklyn Museum in New York last year. We discuss the sculpture with Catherine Morris, a senior curator at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, who co-curated the exhibition, and Lynn Matheny, the National Gallery of Art's deputy head of interpretation and curator of special projects.Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist, National Gallery of Art, 9 March-6 July; Art Institute of Chicago, 30 August-4 January 2026.Subscription offer: enjoy 3 issues of The Art Newspaper for just £3/$3/€3—subscribe before 21 March to start your subscription with the April bumper issue including our Visitor Figures 2024 report and an EXPO Chicago special. Subscribe here. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-3FOR3?utm_source=podcast&promocode=3FOR3 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just last month, artist Khaled Sabsabi told Full Story he never imagined he'd be picked as Australia's representative for the 2026 Venice Biennale. Days later, he was unceremoniously dropped by Creative Australia. The abrupt move set off a series of recriminations and left the art world reeling. Nour Haydar tells Reged Ahmad how it all unfolded and why the move has left many outraged about the precedent it sets

When the country’s peak arts body, Creative Australia, decided to dump Australia’s representative at the Venice Biennale, it set in motion an existential crisis for the arts. The artist in question, Khaled Sabsabi, was removed from the role just days after his appointment – following an article in a News Corp newspaper, a set of opposition questions in the Senate and a phone call from the Arts Minister Tony Burke. Now, the boss of Creative Australia faces questions about why he decided to drop Sabasabi – and whether there was ministerial interference. Today, chief political correspondent for The Saturday Paper Karen Barlow, on the controversy at Creative Australia, and what it means for artistic freedom. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Chief political correspondent for The Saturday Paper, Karen Barlow Photo: Creative AustraliaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We know that our political climate has been particularly febrile lately in the climate of the Gaza conflict. So was it political pressure that led an Australian federal arts body to pull an accomplished artist from appearing at the so-called Oscars of the art world? Today, senior culture writer Kerrie O’Brien, on Khaled Sabsabi. And whether it was his art, or stance on the Middle East, which has led to his shock dismissal. For more: Major gallery says Venice row endangers Australia’s global reputation, Linda Morris and Kerrie O'Brien, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Audio credit: Khaled Sabsabi & Tim Gregory - Interview excerpts from Resilient Landscape Documentary, Michael Pansini. Khaled Sabsabi: Creative Australia Award for Visual Arts | Arts Week,ABC Arts Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi pulled from global exhibit, ABC 7.30, Sarah Ferguson Who Was Hassan Nasrallah, Leader of Hezbollah? New York Times Changing Australia: Ben Quilty on fighting for the future of Australia's artists, Radio National, ABC Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We know that our political climate has been particularly febrile lately in the climate of the Gaza conflict. So was it political pressure that led an Australian federal arts body to pull an accomplished artist from appearing at the so-called Oscars of the art world? Today, senior culture writer Kerrie O’Brien, on Khaled Sabsabi. And whether it was his art, or stance on the Middle East, which has led to his shock dismissal. For more: Major gallery says Venice row endangers Australia’s global reputation, Linda Morris and Kerrie O'Brien, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Audio credit: Khaled Sabsabi & Tim Gregory - Interview excerpts from Resilient Landscape Documentary, Michael Pansini. Khaled Sabsabi: Creative Australia Award for Visual Arts | Arts Week,ABC Arts Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi pulled from global exhibit, ABC 7.30, Sarah Ferguson Who Was Hassan Nasrallah, Leader of Hezbollah? New York Times Changing Australia: Ben Quilty on fighting for the future of Australia's artists, Radio National, ABC Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ABOUT NATALIA OLSZEWSKA:NATALIA'S LINKEDIN PAGE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalia-olszewska/COMPANY WEBSITE: improntaspace.com EMAIL: gardener.natalia@gmail.comNATALIA'S BIO:Natalia is a versatile professional with a foundation in medicine and neuroscience, dedicated to applying neuroscientific principles to architectural design. She adeptly connects these two realms, striving to improve our built environment by making it more human-centered and conducive to well-being. Furthermore, Natalia is an accomplished researcher and practitioner in the field of neuroscience applied to architecture, specializing in evidence-based and neuroscience-informed design. She garnered invaluable experience during her tenure at Hume, a pioneering architectural and urban planning firm founded by Itai Palti, where she led the 'Human Metrics Lab.' Natalia lent her expertise to design projects for prestigious clients such as Arup, Skanska, HKS Architects, EDGE, the Association of Children's Museums, the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, Google, as well as numerous individual clients.Her interdisciplinary approach transcends boundaries, allowing her to craft built environments that foster individual well-being across various dimensions - social, psychological, and cognitive. Natalia's co-founding role at IMPRONTA, a consultancy specializing in health and well-being design, underscores her commitment to leveraging neuroscience and applied sciences in architecture. Since 2020, she has also been contributing to the NAAD (Neuroscience Applied to Architecture) course at IUAV University in Venice.Natalia's educational journey is characterized by a distinctive blend of backgrounds, encompassing medicine from Jagiellonian University and Tor Vergata, neuroscience from UCL, ENS, Sorbonne, and neuroscience applied to architectural design from Università IUAV.SHOW INTRO:Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.EPISODE 76… and my conversation with Natalia Olszewska. On the podacast our dynamic dialogues based on our acronym DATA - design, architecture, technology, and the arts crosses over disciplines but maintains a common thread of people who are passionate about the world we live in and human's influence on it, the ways we craft the built environment to maximize human experience, increasing our understanding of human behavior and searching for the New Possible.    The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD Magazine part of the Smartwork Media family of brands.VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant. You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience. SHOP Association represents companies and affiliates from 25 countries and brings value to their members through research, networking, education, events and awards. Check then out on SHOPAssociation.orgOn this episode I connect with Natalia Olszewska is a versatile professional with a foundation in medicine and neuroscience, dedicated to applying neuroscientific principles to architectural design. We'll get to all of that in a moment but first though, a few thoughts…                 *                                  *                                  *For a while now I have had a fascination with the connection between buildings and brains. While I loved psychology, and studied it before getting into architecture school, it occurred to me in the middle of the 20-teens that buildings, or the environments we design and build, have a direct effect on our psychology. There are places in which we feel good or bad or uneasy or exhilarated, or a sense of awe or agitation. There are places where we feel calm, and others that make me feel ill at ease. And all of those feelings have a body sense to them as well. Heart rises or decreases. I sweat more or less. My chest feels tight or relaxed.  Cortisol, adrenaline, norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, and other neurochemicals and hormones are released and coursing through my body as I experience places. And many of these hormones and neurochemicals being released into my blood stream I have little control over. My brain-body reacts to environmental stimuli and biochemistry does its thing.Buildings may make me feel certain way, induce certain emotions, that we may think are just about your thoughts, brain activity, but at the core, our body too is in a relationship with conditions in the environment.We feel architecture with our bodies, we don't just intellectually experience them in our heads. The experience of buildings, and our emotional reactions to them, is as much a ‘bottom-up process' - our body's sensory processes taking in stimuli from the environment - as a ‘top-down' process – our brains processing that sensory information and making decisions about who we should behave in response to them.Our bodies and brains are in continual dialogue with the world around us. In fact, through a process of neuro plasticity, our brains are wired partly in response to our experiences. Yes we are hard wired through our millions of years of evolution to have what we consider innate responses to the environment and then there are those neuronal connections that area direct result of experiences in the here and now. As you listen to this podcast, your brain is creating new wiring shaping the neural pathways that allow for learning and behaviors.And as we repeatedly experience something, those pathways are reinforced facilitating understanding. Those pathways recognize patterns in our experiences, and they are codified so that when we experience them again our brains are not continually trying to decipher every element anew. If it weren't for our brain's ability of recognize patterns and anomalies in them, we would live a life of extreme ground hog day and would likely be immobilized with the processing necessary to analyze every element we encounter every moment of every day. Over millions of years some of these patterns have become deeply ingrained in our neurobiology. They are part of our brain structures that allow us to react instinctually. You might say that some of them operate ‘below the radar' of our conscious awareness. But because they are not front row center in our awareness doesn't mean that they don't have an influence of our mindbody state.Colors, lighting, materials, geometries, visual patterns and spatial arrangements, to name of few, have an effect on us. We might not necessarily pay attention to these elements of our environment as we move through it, but they have an effect on us. We may not consciously feel the influence of these things, but the effects are there, nevertheless. Acute angles, loud sounds, bright fluorescent lights, certain colors and texture patterns, repetitive and banal patterns, things devoid of detail and out of scale with our human body all have an effect on our sense of well-being. University of Waterloo cognitive neuroscientist Colin Ellard has worked for more than three decades in the application of psychology and neuroscience to architectural and urban design. His work illustrates the impact of ‘boring buildings' on how we feel and our sense health and well-being. We humans, it turns out, function and feel better in environments of physical and visual intricacy. We seek our variety and complexity, layered environments that pique our curiosity and sense of intrigue. And yet…far too many of our built environments at simply banal.Ellard says the  - “The holy grail in urban design is to produce some kind of novelty or change every few seconds,” “Otherwise, we become cognitively disengaged.”Imagine for a moment what is happening inside our mind-bodies when we live 8 + hours in a sea of detail-less white cubicles under a blanked of fluorescent lights. We might think this is an efficient office space, but we are creating brain numbing environments and at the same time asking people to reach optimal performance in the workplace. We may wish hotels guests a good night sleep on a heavenly bed and then we fill the room with light that completely counteracts the production of melatonin telling our brain that it is still daytime and to stay alert.And… we have built city block after city block of repetitive, banality. Efficient to build, very economical yes, but a boredom inducer for the brain.Now this doesn't mean that every environment needs to be a rollercoaster for the senses nor be pristine and bucolic. In fact, some environments are better because they are well…messier. Charles Montgomery, author of Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design suggest that successful design is about “shaping emotional infrastructure.” Montgomery argues that some of the happier blocks in New York are “kind of ugly and messy.” The energy of New York can be both energizing and exhausting.It would be perhaps unfair to heap the responsibility for inhabitants' psychological and physical well-being entirely on buildings but given that we now spend the overwhelming proportion of our days enclosed in them, it stands to reason that they have a clear effect on how we feel. For whatever it's worth, Aarhus, Denmark is the world's happiest city, according to the London-based Institute for Quality of Life's 2024 Happy City Index. The Institute for the Quality of Life identified five categories it believes have the most direct impact on happiness, including citizens, governance, economy, mobility and environment.Based on these factors, Aarhus, Denmark, achieved the highest score, particularly excelling in governance and the environment. I think Copenhagen also held the title at some point I believe due to its building stock being human scale, detailed and varied engendering intrigue and visual delight.And this is where this episode's guest Natalia Olszewska comes into the story.Natalia went to medical school but always had a fascination with architecture. When on a trip to the Venice Biennale it clicked for her that she could combine both of these interests considering that neuroscience could be linked to how buildings make us feel.The rest as they say is history…Natalia adeptly connects these two realms, striving to improve our built environment by making it more human-centered and conducive to well-being. Natalia is an accomplished researcher and practitioner in the field of neuroscience applied to architecture, specializing in evidence-based and neuroscience-informed design.Her interdisciplinary approach transcends boundaries, allowing her to craft built environments that foster individual well-being across various dimensions - social, psychological, and cognitive. Natalia's co-founding role at IMPRONTA, a consultancy specializing in health and well-being design, underscores her commitment to leveraging neuroscience and applied sciences in architecture. Since 2020, she has also been contributing to the NAAD (Neuroscience Applied to Architecture) course at IUAV University in Venice a city that is most definitely not boring…                 *                                  *                                  *ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582bWebsites:  https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.comPersonal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/Bio:David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why', ‘what's now' and ‘what's next'. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott's “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine's Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation's Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.He has held teaching positions at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too. The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

In the fourth episode of Season 3, Barbara speaks with Brooklyn-based artist Matthew Ritchie. Working in installation, painting and public art, Matthew draws from ideas as varied as creation myths, particle physics, thermodynamics and art history. His work has been shown around the world, including in the Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale of Architecture.

Western Sydney artist Khaled Sabsabi's work spans more than 30 years, exploring themes of multiculturalism, racism, Arab identity and spirituality. After applying four times to the world's most prestigious contemporary art exhibition, he thought he had missed his chance. Until this week when Creative Australia announced Sabsabi as Australia's representative for the 2026 Venice Biennale, alongside curator Michael Dagostino. Sabsabi tells Nour Haydar about his journey to becoming an artist, where he finds his inspiration, and navigating the current political climate You can support the Guardian at theguardian.com/fullstorysupport

Ariel Dannielle comes back home to the Studio Noize podcast! We been following Ariel since she came on the single digit episodes of the Noize and we love how she has grown as an artist. If you've seen her work you know about her wonderful use of color, her complex compositions and her love of all things girly. She talks about her adventures in these art streets from LA to New York to Chicago and back to Atlanta. We get into her approach to painting and capturing moments, her obsession with painting food, her process of capturing these moments of womanhood/girlhood in her paintings. Its more of that good art talk that you love with one of our favorites. Listen, subscribe, and share!Episode 196 topics include:working on solo exhibitionsFeels Like Glitter show at UTA Atlantabeing obsessed with painting foodcapturing moments with friendsartistic influencesusing yourself as referencemaking in different waysexperiencing a residency in Moroccostudio space in Atlantarepresenting womanhood and girlhood in artAriel Dannielle (b. 1991) is an African-American painter born and raised in Atlanta, GA. She graduated from University of West Georgia, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Drawing directly from her life, Ariel creates large-scale paintings that depict the daily experiences of young Black women through her personal and playful lens. She believes in the importance of her artwork to provide a look into Black girlhood/womanhood that can be represented and understood. This acrylic archive has enabled her to explore aspects of the mundane, human vulnerability and sexuality. Influenced by Kerry James Marshall and Mickalene Thomas, Dannielle focuses on developing personal narratives within her portraits that challenge gender and racial stereotypes. By placing herself in the paintings, Dannielle welcomes the viewers to also participate in a process of introspection.Ariel's work has been showcased at the Venice Biennale 2024, California African American Museum, Monique Meloche Gallery, Soco Gallery, UTA Atlanta, Harvey B. Gantt Museum, Mint ATL, The Goat Farm, ZuCot Gallery, Dalton Gallery, Trio Contemporary Art Gallery, Sheetcake Gallery, and Perez Museum Miami. She was MOCA GA Working Artist Fellow of 2019-20 and an Artadia 2018 finalist. She also showcased her first mural with Living Walls x Adult Swim in Atlanta, Georgia in 2022. See more: Ariel Dannielle website + Ariel Dannielle IG @byaridannielleFollow us:StudioNoizePodcast.comIG: @studionoizepodcastJamaal Barber: @JBarberStudioSupport the podcast www.patreon.com/studionoizepodcast

Architect Liam Young shares his thoughts on how science fiction can be a powerful tool for prototyping new possibilities, why problems like climate change urgently need planetary-scale solutions, and how speculative design can inspire meaningful cultural transformation.  Liam Young is a designer, director, and BAFTA-nominated producer who operates in the spaces between design, fiction, and futures. Described by the BBC as ‘the man designing our futures', his visionary films and speculative worlds are both extraordinary images of tomorrow and urgent examinations of the environmental questions facing us today. As a world-builder, he visualises the cities, spaces, and props of our imaginary futures for the film and television industry. His own films have premiered with platforms ranging from Channel 4, Apple+, SxSW, Tribeca, the New York Metropolitan Museum, The Royal Academy, Venice Biennale, the BBC, and The Guardian. Bonus episode recorded live from the Dubai Future Forum at the Museum of the Future in partnership with the Dubai Future Foundation on 20 November 2024. Full-Video Version: https://youtu.be/gGyALHTnxk8  ABOUT THE HOST Luke Robert Mason is a British-born futures theorist who is passionate about engaging the public with emerging scientific theories and technological developments. He hosts documentaries for Futurism, and has contributed to BBC Radio, BBC One, The Guardian, Discovery Channel, VICE Motherboard and Wired Magazine. CREDITS In Partnership with the Dubai Future Foundation Producer & Host: Luke Robert Mason Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @FUTURESPodcast Follow Luke Robert Mason on Twitter at @LukeRobertMason Subscribe & Support the Podcast at http://futurespodcast.net

The filmmaker, artist, and writer Miranda July has worked across such a variety of media over the years, one might say it is almost hard to categorize her work. But there is actually a strong through line that emerges when you consider July's vast oeuvre: an interest in how the remarkable may occur in small everyday moments and interactions—an interest in loneliness, sexuality, and death, and needing each other in our capacity to change and love—all these aspects that really make us human. With this, July has built a diverse and awe-inspiring body of work. It includes a messaging app she developed called Somebody and an interfaith secondhand shop. Her art has been on view with the Venice Biennale, and she's also made three feature length films, two of which she starred in. She's published four books and a participatory website called Learning to Love You More that she created with American artist Harold Fletcher that consists of assignments for the general public who make the art. There are instructions like "make a portrait of your friend's desires," or "perform the phone call someone else wishes they could have." One of these assignments is part of her first solo exhibition, a major retrospective on view at Fondazione Prada in Milan until the end of October. It is "Assignment 43: Make an exhibition of the art in your parents' house," and it was completed by a local woman from Milan. It is one piece among many in a show that spans 30 years of July's practice. There is also a new participatory video series in the mix called F.A.M.I.L.Y (Falling Apart Meanwhile I Love You). Her newest novel, All Fours was published in May this year. A New York Times bestseller and long list finalist for the National Book Award, All Fours is an astonishingly candid look at sexuality and transformation, but also at an extremely underrepresented topic in literature: menopause and female aging. When I connected with July, she was in her home, which is also her studio in Los Angeles, a small painting by Louise Bonnet hung just behind her. It's called Miranda, and it's a contemplative portrait of a female figure in what looks like a state of metamorphosis. It suits July's universe quite poetically.

Jeff walks to the edge of Berlin and explains why the Here Be Monsters feed has been quiet for so long. On the way, Jeff talks about plans for upcoming episodes, looks at the ways that moving to Berlin has changed him, and discusses a pair of films featuring Tilda Swinton: Cycling the Frame (1988), and The Invisible Frame (2009). Both movies feature Swinton riding a bicycle around the entirety of the Berlin Wall—or, in the case of the latter, where the Berlin Wall used to be. Please follow Here Be Monsters on Patreon: patreon.com/HBMpodcastField recordings heard in this episode (starting around the 17:20): a former site of the Berlin wall in Marienfelde ~ birds and insects near Portbou, Spain ~ canoe paddling near the in Germany's Spreewald ~ geese and peacocks calling on Peacock Island (Pfaueninsel) ~ dusk crickets near Locarno, Switzerland ~ a massive pipe organ that was part of Italy's submission to the 2024 Venice Biennale ~ public transport boats in Venice revving their engines ~ Jeff singing in a bathroom while a faucet drips ~ Water splashing against cement in Banyuls-sur-mer, France ~ Hiking the Walter Benjamin memorial trail on the France / Spain border ~ Baby goat at the peak of a mountain on the France / Spain border ~ A canal boat passing in Amsterdam, Netherlands ~ An announcement bidding visitors to be quiet while visiting France's Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg. Producer: Jeff EmtmanMusic: The Black Spot