Podcast appearances and mentions of william powhida

In this second part of our two-part series on New York Art Fair Week, William Powhida and Paddy Johnson discuss the standout artworks from Independent, NADA, and Spring Break. Despite the thin crowds and economic challenges explored in Part 1, there were notable works worth celebrating. The conversation highlights vintage game boards at Independent, playful Nancy Drew-inspired paintings at Spring Break, and meticulously detailed highway landscapes at NADA. Most significantly, we explore how the most politically relevant work happened outside the fairs, with an extended conversation of Mitchell Chan's "Insert Coins" – a deceptively simple video game installation that reveals itself as a devastating commentary on capitalism, cryptocurrency, and rigged systems. This piece, along with Open Collective's Ukrainian war karaoke installation, connected to the anxieties of the real world, in a way that seemed largely absent from the commercial fair venues. Relevant Links: Artists & Galleries Mentioned: Lisa Sanditz at Alexandre Gallery Ricco Maresca Gallery (vintage game boards) Eleanor Aldrich at Field Projects Eve Sussman and Simon Lee William Pope.L at Mitchell-Innes & Nash Namwon Choi at Pentimenti Gallery Megan Dominescu at Anca Poterasu Gallery Mitchell Chan's "Insert Coins" at Nguyen Wahed Guy Richard Smith at A Hug From The Art World Duke Riley & Jean Shin at In Praise of Shadows Lucia Hierro at Swivel David Molesky (banana paintings) Sophia  Lapres at Towards Gallery Ernesto Solana at NADA guadalajara90210 Julia Garcia at Hair + Nails Lars Korff-Lofthus at Entree Gallery Bill Abdale Magda Sawon, Postmasters Venues: Independent Art Fair NADA Fair (at Star-Lehigh Building) Spring Break Art Show 601 Artist Space (Open Collective exhibition) American Folk Art Museum

Is New York Art Fair Week losing its momentum? This week, artist and critic William Powhida and I spent time at Independent, NADA, and Spring Break—and the energy felt deflated across all three. In this first part of our two-part series, we dig into what went wrong. Thin crowds. Dealers complaining about slow sales. International collectors staying away due to political uncertainty and travel concerns. The overall market recession. But is it just market fatigue, or something deeper? We explore whether New York has simply become too expensive for emerging galleries to self-subsidize, whether political anxiety is creating a chilling effect on both artists and collectors, and why even the best new venues (NADA's stunning Star-Lehigh building) couldn't energize the crowds. From The Shed's "art prison" atmosphere to Spring Break's maturation away from experimental energy, we examine whether these fairs are losing their essential character—or if broader economic and political forces are reshaping the entire ecosystem. Next week in Part 2: We'll walk through the specific artwork that caught our attention at each fair and discuss why we had to leave the fairs entirely to find art that truly captured this political moment.   Relevant Links: William Powhida: Jilian Steinhauer for the New York Times on Spring Break https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/arts/design/spring-break-art-fair-review.html# NADA Fair: https://newartdealers.org/ Independent Art Fair: https://independent-art.org/ Spring Break Art Show: https://springbreakartshow.com/

Doesn't it seem like everyone is talking about crappy things are lately? This starts with the state of politics and extends all the way through to culture. Is culture in stasis? And if not, why does it feel like it is to so many people? On this episode of Art Problems, the artist William Powhida and I discuss the following articles: “Why has culture come to a standstill,” Jason Farago, The New York times "The Painted Protest, How Politics Destroyed Contemporary Art", Dean Kissick, Harper's Magazine. “The One Word That Describes Art Now” Ben Davis and scholar Anna Kornbluh, Artnet's Art Angle Podcast You'll get more understanding of where culture is moving forward and where it isn't from this episode than any other podcast I've done. Consider this a must-listen.   Relevant links: “Why has culture come to a standstill,” Jason Farago, The New York times https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/magazine/stale-culture.html   "The Painted Protest, How Politics Destroyed Contemporary Art", Dean Kissick, Harper's Magazine https://harpers.org/archive/2024/12/the-painted-protest-dean-kissick-contemporary-art/   “The One Word That Describes Art Now” Ben Davis and scholar Anna Kornbluh, Artnet's Art Angle Podcast https://news.artnet.com/multimedia/the-one-word-that-explains-art-now-2524844   "Episode 70: Is there a Dead Body Trend in Art?" Paddy Johnson and William Powhida, Art Problems Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-70-is-there-a-dead-body-trend-in-art/id1646991472?i=1000669157335

What's with the dead bodies? Yes, that's an actual question from the New York fairs. This week on the podcast, I invited the artist William Powhida on to the show ostensibly to discuss what we saw last week. The discussion, though, ended up going far deeper. On the podcast, we talk about: What we want from art in an increasingly tumultuous world What landscapes, florals, and a dead body trend at the fair say about the world. The shifting landscape of art, which includes many new faces and names Plus, we talk about all the work in the shows that sparked thought!   Relevant links: Armory The Armory Show | New York's Art Fair Lydia Pettit at Dinner Gallery Rodrigo Valenzuela at Asya Geisberg Gallery  CHIFFON THOMAS at Michael Kohn Gallery  Derrick Adams and Jeffrey Gibson at Tandem Press Rafael Lozano-Hemmer SPURS Gallery Jeanne Silverthorne at Marc Straus Gallery David Scher and Ward Shelley at Pierogi Gallery  Simonette Quamina at Praxis Art  Manuel López at Charlie James Gallery (cjamesgallery.com) Paige K.B.'s installation Of Course, You Realize, This Means War at Blade Study CURRO (galeriacurro.mx) Alejandro Almanza Pereda at Galeria CURRO David Hammons at Jack Tilton Gallery Tamarind Institute (unm.edu) Eva Koťátková at hunt kastner gallery William Kentridge and Ai Weiwei at Whitechapel Gallery Matt Bollinger Katinka Lampe at Gallerie Ron Mandos  The Library Collective out of Baltimore Caro Jost  Jennifer Bartlett at Locks Gallery Grayson Perry at Paragon (paragonpress.co.uk) Kathris Linkersdorff, Zoe Walk, and Sarah Anne Johnson at Yossi Milo Broadway (broadwaygallery.nyc) Theo Pinto at Nature Morte Whitestone Gallery (whitestone-gallery.com) 1301SW Sim Smith (sim-smith.com) Nicodim Gallery Tschabalala Self at Two Palms Michael Berryhill at DIMIN Emily Weiner at MILES McENERY GALLERY I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih at Gajah Gallery Andy Dixon at The Hole   Spring Break SPRING/BREAK Art Show - About (springbreakartshow.com) Jac Lahav and Michele Maslow's Monster with artists Caitlin McCormack, Taylor Lee Nicholson, and Charles Clary Stuart Lantry, Post It Notes Stina Puotinen, "Two Fishes"  “All's Fair in love and Lore” curated by Harsh Collective, featuring Laura Benson, Lucinda Gold, and Gabriel Kramer Gary Gissler at Anita Rogers Gallery Robert Jamora in “Everything is Fine” Peter Dayton Marianna Peragallo Eric Diehl  54 | Bobby Anspach Studios Foundation  ACE LEHNER (ace-lehner.com)'s The Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure 

Is there a scenario in which giving your work away for free is preferable to storing it? For more than 80 artists, the answer to this question is called the Zero Art Fair. (In other words, if the storage fees become too high, then yes, free is better than the trash.) The fair, which took place last weekend at Upstate Art Weekend, helped artists place more than 200 works and close to half a million dollars in art. Today on the Art Problems Podcast I talk to the artists behind the fair, Jennifer Dalton and William Powhida. Let's get the skinny direct from the source!     Relevant links: https://www.zeroartfair.com/home http://www.jenniferdalton.com/ https://williampowhida.com/

In this podcast, Paddy Johnson and artist William Powhida discuss the increasing cost of museums, art fairs, application fees, and travel impacting artists and how to beat them. You'll learn: Where to stay when visiting New York that won't cost $500 or more a night How to avoid a large fair entrance fee And how to lower the cost of museum fees

In this episode, William Powhida joins Paddy Johnson to talk about the changes in the art world, since 2017. Powhida and Johnson focus on Upstate Art Weekend and a recent New Yorker profile of Larry Gagosian to examine these changes, and use Powhida's 2017 show, "After the Contemporary" at the Aldrich Museum of Art, which imagines the art world of the future, as a starting point.    Relevant Links:  The World According to Larry Gagosian. FT.com Upstate Art Weekend How Larry Gagosian Reshaped the Art World. The New Yorker After the Contemporary -The Aldrich Museum of Art

In this episode, artist and critic William Powhida joins Paddy Johnson to discuss the context surrounding an expanded art fair cycle in New York. What once lasted a week now spans two, which, in this year's depressed market, amounted to a much longer timeline to lose money. We discuss Frieze, NADA, Future Fair, and Spring Break, and why the growing exclusiveness of the fairs hurts art.     Relevant links: Hat tip to Michael Anthony Farley and Whitney Kimball for their summary of Spring Break in BMore Art. https://bmoreart.com/2023/05/cigarettes-ceramics-and-curatorial-chaos-spring-breaks-secret-show.html

Holly Wong lives and works in San Francisco, California. She was educated at the San Francisco Art Institute where she graduated with a Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in New Genres. Holly creates installations and assemblages, integrating non-traditional approaches with more traditional sewing techniques associated with the history of women. She has been awarded visual arts grants from the Integrity: Arts and Culture Association, Barbara Deming Memorial fund, the George Sugarman Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, and a Gerbode Foundation purchase award. She has had over 70 group exhibitions and 10 solo exhibitions. She is represented by SLATE Contemporary Gallery in Oakland, California, ELLIO Fine Art Gallery in Houston, TX, and is a member of A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. "My work reclaims the female body and bears witness to the spirit. I create fiber and drawing based installations, assemblages and works on paper to remember my mother whom I lost to alcoholism and domestic violence. These works range in size from intimate pieces to larger immersive works. I use a variety of fabric and flexible drawing surfaces as my medium, applying the skills passed down to me from my mother who was a talented seamstress. The sexual violence we both experienced in our lives led to a self-loathing of my body, cultivating the anorexia and mental illness I struggled with as a young woman. Now, I stitch and draw as a journey towards wholeness, both for myself and for my mother's memory. I started to work with fiber installation in 2017. I became attracted to working with light, reflective, transparent fabrics because it reminds me of the permeable separation between the living and the dead. In my recent series “quilt suspensions,” I use a flat felled seam technique with transparent fabric. I combine these ephemeral materials with LED strip lighting and diffusion film as a proxy for my mother's spirit. The layers of pieced fabric are suspended over this light-spirit as a shroud or mourning cloth. Inspired by Chinese funeral customs, the quilt layers become burial blankets that are offered by the children of the deceased and layered upon their loved ones. A major throughline in my work is the wound or scar and the power of taking back the night by healing the scar. Creating works of beauty in brokenness is my highest act of resistance."   Links: https://hollywongart.com/   Instagram: @hollywongart     Artist Shoutout:   Ed Love @edloveart Al Wong @alwongart. Christina Massey @cmasseyart. Laura Sallade @laura.sallade. Bonny Leibowitz. @bonnyleibowitz. Etty Yaniv @etty.yaniv. William Powhida @williampowhida. Will Hutnick @willhutnick. Mia Pearlman @mia_pearlman. Kira Dominguez Hultgren. @kiradominguezhultgren. Jutta Haeckel @juttahaeckel. Natalie Ball @natalie_m_ball. Rachel Hayes @rachelbhayes. Stephanie Syjuco @ssyjuco   I Like Your Work Links: Radiate and Repeat Exhibition  Join The Works Membership! https://theworksmembership.com/ Submit Your Work Check out our Catalogs! Exhibitions Studio Visit Artist Interviews I Like Your Work Podcast Say “hi” on Instagram

n the 14th installment of the podcast's Virtual Café, we take as our prompt a Dec. review by NYTimes art critic Holland Cotter about politics in art: About 10 artists in the Virtual Café (including past guests Ianna Frisby of Art Advice and William Powhida) talk about art and politics, including successful examples of political art; the nimbleness of capitalism to absorb all things protest; the challenges and failures of artists to organize, particularly artist unions; the question of whether artwork being in a gallery is neutered, in terms of its political/social power; virtue signaling in art, particularly political art; Theaster Gates as a strong example of an artist changing a community, and of socially engaged art; the importance of the rhetoric around so-called political art (including the good side of the word ‘didactic'); the lack of transparency in galleries reporting where their donations to (political) causes are allocated; and how to take political art to the people, as opposed to through the gallery system.

In this episode, artist William Powhida joins Paddy Johnson to discuss changes to social media and what we expect to see in 2023.  Mentioned:  Bluesky - a decentralized social network protocol that allows social media networks to interact. Mastodon - A twitter alternative Emily Weiner's Instagram Peer Review - A publication of reviews for artists by artists

Jen Dalton did a great show this summer at Mother-In-Laws, a wonderful, experimental art space in Germantown, run by  Jessica Hargreaves, Kathleen Vance and Daniel Aycock Here's a quote from the press release of Jen's exhibition that will highlight the genesis in topics we covered in this emotionally transparent session: There is so much to apologize for. And almost everyone does a terrible job of it, when they try at all. No amount of money seems to smooth the process from mistakes and bad behavior to self-awareness and reckoning. Famous people are terrible role models in this regard, as so in so many others; their vague, slow-to-emerge statements are designed to imply the bare minimum of contrition and help their careers survive another day. Each text is a shrewdly-honed gem that its crafters hope will dissipate a controversy or deflect attention; taken all together they expose the values of those in power and our culture at large. We're living through a boom-time for disingenuousness, gaslighting and DARVO*, wholly of a piece with the faux authenticity seen elsewhere in our culture. Mistakes Were Made connects some of these dots. More about this exhibition and photos HERE: https://www.frontroomles.com/motherinlawsarchive   Also—there were so many great artists that Jen curated into the show: Featuring: Chloë Bass, Celeste Fichter, Ghost of a Dream, Susan Hamburger, Lisa Levy, Alyssa McClenaghan, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Sal Muñoz, Andrew Ohanesian, William Powhida, Marshall Reese and Nora Ligorano, Michelle Vaughan, Senon Williams. 

Art media does a great job at looking forward to art events, yet rarely looks back to reflect on what these happenings say about the cultural moment. In this episode of Explain Me, co-hosts Paddy Johnson and William Powhida do a deep dive into the fairs to discuss the deeply conservative sales landscape we've been sinking into over the past ten years.   ARTISTS DISCUSSED Carlos Jacanamijoy's 2020 ab ex painting “Carminos de Luz” at Harper's Laurie Reid's “Ballast” at Et Al. Gallery The Baboon Chair by  Margaux Valengin at Pact Paul Gabrelli's “Everyday Objects” at New Discretions Elliot Reed at Anonymous Gallery Dan Colen at Gagosian Al Freeman at 56 Henry Tessa Lynch's text-based compositions at Patricia Fleming Gallery Scott Lyal at Migeul Abbreu Gallery Aaron Garber-Maikovska Casja von Zeipel's Celesbian Terrain   Kevin McCoy's corporate-sponsored display of Quantum and some generative artworks by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy.  Pedro Reyes, Alex da Corte, Nayland Blake, Alex Katz, Matthew Wong, 

As an exhibition opens at the Whitechapel Gallery in London focusing on artists' studios over the last century, we take an in-depth look at the subject. The artist, critic and activist William Powhida discusses the Artist Studio Affordability Project in New York and how developers and gentrification have forced artists' communities to breaking point. We take a tour of the Whitechapel exhibition with the gallery's director Iwona Blazwick, and explore works by Kerry James Marshall, Paul McCarthy, Laboratoire Agit'Art, Alina Szapocznikow, Tehching Hsieh and Egon Schiele, among others. And in this episode's Work of the Week, the photographer Eamonn McCabe, who has made a series of photographs of artists in their studios, talks about his visit to Paula Rego's space in Camden Town, London, in 2004. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

- Can James sell his work for $500k? - Hunter Biden in now an "Artist" - "Never would have been better" - George Berges - Gallerists is a dumb and pretentious word - Sylvester Stallone's paintings - Xeo Chu - Vietnam's Jackson Pollock - "Artistic abuse" - This is not art - William Powhida discusses Hunter's "art" - Don't anger the Gallerists Gods - To cover a bad spakle job - Catherine is getting high, not James - Let's ride the Biden name! - Art dealers undermine US sanctions on Russia - You're not buying Hunter's art, you're buying influence - Vomiting on canvas - Huner is NOW comfortable calling himself an artist - Art is like crypto currency - Put Hunter in a corner, or send him to Guantanamo Bay - We can't say the word pseudonymously or remember how to say nom de plume - May not be illegal, but is totally immoral - Privilege - Catherine says kudos too many times - Walter Shaub on Hunter's art sale "the perfect mechanism for funneling bribes" - Is Stephen Colbert listening to our show? - James likes painting and money so buy his paintings. For money. - Artisanally crafting a Ford - Catherine should listen to our podcast

This week hosts William Powhida and Paddy Johnson sit down with curator, writer, and former museum director Laura Raicovich to discuss her new book Culture Strike: Art and Museums in An Age of Protest. We do a deep dive with her not just on the subjects in the book, but her latest project, The Art and Society Census. Relevant links below.  Culture Strike: Art and Museums in An Age of Protest, VERSO The Art and Society Census, HYPERALLERGIC AND THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY Deinstutitional Research Team. (A project William Powhida worked on mentioned in the book.) LINK StrikeMoMA LINK The Whitney Staff letter central to the Kanders' protests. HYPERALLERGIC A good policy-based companion for Laura Raicovich's project. THE PEOPLE'S CULTURAL PLAN A non-profit with a board structure worth promoting as a positive example. RECESS Back story on Laura Raicovich's resignation from the Queens Museum of Art- ARTNET NEWS

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mayday. What a busy weekend for NYC activism! Sarah and OK visit the Strike MoMA action and speak with William Powhida of Artists for a Post-MoMA Future (and many other art-activist projects) and prolific anti-imperalist printmaker Kyle Goen. Strike MoMA have actions planned every Friday for the rest of the … Continue reading "DISPATCH – Strike MoMA"

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mayday. What a busy weekend for NYC activism! Sarah and OK visit the Strike MoMA action and speak with William Powhida of Artists for a Post-MoMA Future (and many other art-activist projects) and prolific anti-imperalist printmaker Kyle Goen. Strike MoMA have actions planned every Friday for the rest of the … Continue reading "DISPATCH – Strike MoMA"

On this episode of Explain Me we do a deep dive on Non-Fungible Tokens, NFTs, pronounced Nifty, by also N-F-T. Joined by guests Marina Galperina, features editor of Gizmodo, and former curator and writer on digital art, and Amy Whitaker, author and assistant professor of visual arts administration, hosts William Powhida and Paddy Johnson navigate the headlines generating news around this new digital currency, the basic definitions, and the potential and dangers it poses to artists.    Timestamped resources   6' 21'' Explain Me's episode Related Utopias: Bitcoin and the Artworld with Kevin McCoy.   7' NFT definitions and the blockchain    13 Do artists need to care?    21' The Guardian features Marina Galperina's Vine Show.  26' Beeple Mania and aesthetics discussion - Liberal Jon McNaughton or early digital art maximalism in the style of Cliff Evans and Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung?    40' NFT platforms and markets. Massimo Franceschet and Sparrow Read's The Inconvenient Truth About Secondary Markets, Part II  43' Legacy Russell tweets about the toxic white male culture dominating NFT conversation. Follows up with a shout out to QTPOCIA+ and female-identified people engaging NFTs.   44' Who is the face of NFTs? Kenny Schachter. His NFT article on Artnet.    47' Kenny Schachter's "Scam Likely" on Nifty Gateway. 51' Alternatives - Casey Reese's Artist-to-artist exchange with Bitmark.com, Feral File. Goes live March 19. Also relevant: Reese's Medium article, Collecting Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction  57' - NFT and blockchain carbon footprint 1 hour 10' Reasons for optimism 1 hour 16' Art pricing and Greg Allen's Facsimile Objects   1 hour 22' Amy Whitaker discusses valuation and commensuration sociological studies   Read and Watch   Amy Whitaker, A New Way To Pay Artists, TEDXfoggybottom Amy Whitaker and Roman Kraussl, Fractional Equity, Blockchain, and the Future of Creative Work, Management Science, July 2020 Amy Whitaker, Art and Blockchain: A Primer, History, and Taxonomy of Blockchain Use Cases in the Arts, Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts. Summer 2019 Amy Whitaker, Hannah Grannemann, Artists’ Royalties and Performers’ Equity: A Ground-Up Approach to Social Impact Investment in Creative Fields, CMSE Vol 3, no 2, pg 33-51. Memo Atkin, The Unreasonable Ecological Cost of #Cryptoart, Dec 14 2020 Rea McNamara, How Crypto Art Might Offer Artists Increased Autonomy, March 2, 2021  

Pretty words and guides about art. Featuring: Maude, Kay Kasparhauser, Sharon Mashihi, Millie Kapp, Leah Sophia Dworkin, Harrison Atkins, Dusty Grella, William Powhida, Andrei Roiter, Derrick Gardrvits.

A couple of things about making stuff. Contributors: Alexandra Tatarsky, Demi Vera, Olivia Rosenberg, Deenah Vollmer, Sharon Mashihi, John Cleater, Jennifer Doyle, Cali Dewitt, William Powhida, Rachel Perry Welty, David Gordon, Shannon Lucy, Cooper Vasquez.

In part two, Brooklyn-based artist and activist William Powhida talks about the ivory tower syndrome that accompanies working at an ivy-league institution, his project Store-To-Own,  which allows people to store his work in their home for free under contract, his exhibition After The Contemporary, which satirizes life after contemporary art, his ongoing critique of the art world and its service to and for the ultra wealthy, and the 'Dirtbag left,' which promotes left-wing politics through vulgarity and online attacks.

This week on Explain Me, co-hosts William Powhida and Paddy Johnson talk to arts organizers and activists Heather Bhandari and Nikki Columbus about the challenges for mothers during the pandemic, and the challenges for arts workers seeking to make changes to a system that no longer works for them.  Of the family-focused topics discussed we take on pandemic screen time for kids (Bhandari describes DinoTrux as terrible for kids, but a necessary evil), what to do if your toddler licks a bodega door, and disrupted schedules that make it impossible to find or look for work and require long and often unusual hours.  On the subject of organizing we discuss several projects spearheaded by Bhandari and Columbus respectively designed to pave actionable paths for artists.  Finally we discuss Frieze New York, and contrast their dubious charity efforts during the fair to the more collective NADA art fair model that works towards a sustainable model for everyone. Show links below.  The Art World Conference  Forward Union  Art/Work, Heather Bhandari and Jonathan Melber  N+1, Free Your Mind, by Claire Bishop and Nikki Columbus Art+Work+Place, Emergency Session I, Veralist Center Art+Work+Place, Emergency Session II, Veralist Center Museum transparency Newsletter (Read about all the layoffs and other bad news that’s happening in the museum world right now—of which there is a ton.) The Model Model: Ethical Actions by Arts Organizations in the time of COVID-19 (Read about the good news and exemplary work by arts organizations.)  Obama Commencement Speech #graduatetogether2020 (twitter hashtag)  Frieze Art Fair (May 8-15th)  NADA Fair (May 20-June 21)

Brooklyn-based artist and co-host of the Explain Me podcast talks about the highs and lows of being the art world court jester (including alienating art world players along the way), what it’s like when your visibility as an artist dissipates, our various complicities in an art world that’s tied to tremendous wealth, and how activism, even in art, relies on activating the media to accomplish its objectives…

Serkan Özkaya's Proletarier Aller Länder (Workers of the World) 1999, Image via Postmaster's Gallery. In this episode of Explain Me, hosts Paddy Johnson and William Powhida talk to Magda Sawon of Postmasters Gallery in New York, and Jonathan Schwartz, the CEO and founder of Atelier4, an arts logistics company based out of New York. The discussion includes stories and conversations you won’t find anywhere else.  Schwartz reports that at least one logistics company is currently breaking the law to ship art, and that Fedex trucks are in short supply because they’re being used to transport the dead.  Magda describes the challenges for galleries which range from financial burdens to the need to better consider the online art environment.  William and Paddy discuss the financial precarity of artists, writers, and educators.  As a group we talk about what needs to be done to respond to the crisis and what is being done. We also make the mini announcement that we will be launching a Patreon for Explain Me in the next week or two. More details on that soon! We’re looking at a radical shift in opportunity, so this conversation includes a fair amount of debate. We’re also doing it over zoom, with William on the phone due to an internet connectivity issue. This isn’t the best recording quality we’ve ever produced, but it might be the most important episode. Please tune in.   COMING UP: Resources for freelancers and art organizations. What relief is available and how long it will take to get to the people who need it.

The stories of trailblazing women continue to inspire but many of these figures, who occur throughout history, have been written out of the history books or relegated to accounts of their time and ignored by historians. Now, curator Marcela Micucci talks to use about these figures who had a big impact on all aspects of city life, including the so-called "Witch of Wall Street," Hetty Green. It's an exhibition full of colorful stories. And then I talk to critic Paddy Johnson and artist William Powhida, co-hosts of the Explain Me podcast, about the fall season, New York museums, and what they've been up to. A special thanks to Twig Twig for the music to this week’s episode. You can listen to that and more at twigtwig.bandcamp.com and other streaming services.

In Part II of Explain Me, William Powhida and Paddy Johnson discuss the difference between relational aesthetics and social practice, the whims of the auction market and the perilous affect it can have on artist careers, and Doug Aitken's train wreck of a show at 303 Gallery along with a handful of truly remarkable shows. Those shows listed below.   Doug Aitken at 303.  Painted in Mexico 1700-1790 at The Met Huma Bhabha at the Met A Luta Continua The Sylvio Perlstein Collection Mel Chin at the Queens Museum #OE2018 Jacolby Satterwhite at Gavin Brown On Human Limits at Present Company Ander Mikalson *Plus we throw Dan Colen under the bus. 

This week on Explain Me, William Powhida and Paddy Johnson talk with artist Kevin McCoy about Blockchain, Bitcoin and the Monegraph. This episode is your ultimate bitcoin/blockchain/monegraph explainer.  Links:  Monegraph Seven on Seven, 2014 Public Key/Private Key Reading List:  China, Crypto-Currency, and the World OrderTribute and Tribulations - http://wdwreview.org/desks/china-crypto-currency-and-the-world-order/Digital Denominations - http://wdwreview.org/desks/china-crypto-currency-and-the-world-order-part-2/Clone Wars - http://wdwreview.org/desks/china-crypto-currency-and-the-world-order-part-3/ A modern classic Hito Steyerl - If you don’t have bread, eat Art! http://www.e-flux.com/journal/76/69732/if-you-don-t-have-bread-eat-art-contemporary-art-and-derivative-fascisms/   Does Digital Culture Want to be Free? How blockchains are transforming the economy of cultural goods http://www.academia.edu/33838249/Does_digital_culture_want_to_be_free_How_blockchains_are_transforming_the_economy_of_cultural_goods   Thanks to Explain Me sponsor, Superfine

In this episode of Explain Me, Paddy Johnson and William Powhida discuss the New Museum Triennial "Songs for Sabotage". Both Johnson and Powhida agree this show has more of its fair share of bad art but only Powhida sees this as a dealbreaker. Debate ensues. The ad in which Pepsi and model Kendall Jenner create world peace gets a mention.  All images discussed can be viewed on Art F City.   Thanks to Explain Me sponsor, Superfine

Back in January, William Powhida and I recorded an episode of Explain Me on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's new admission policy. Earlier that month, the museum known for housing some of the world's greatest treasures announced its admission price would no longer remain "pay-as-you-wish". As of March 1st, their suggested admission, $25 will become mandatory for anyone living outside of New York State. Children under 12 get in for free. Given that there's less than two weeks until this policy change goes into affect, we thought it might be a good time to release our discussion and revisit the debate. Because what came out of the debate, was not a picture of an institution starving for more funds, but wealthy museum with a board and President ideologically opposed to the free admission policy. Learning this changed my position, which was one initially in support of a change the museum described as an absolute necessity, to boycotting the museum for the month of March. While the admission increase doesn't affect my cost of admission, it affects that of my family and friends from out of town. It is also entirely out of step with generosity of creative spirit that brought me to this city in the first place. Over the course of the podcast, William and I discuss a large number of articles and the conclusions drawn by the authors. We go through the points rather quickly, so for those who want them at your finger tips, I've included them below. Data People These are thoughts by people we describe as "data driven". Grey Matter's Tim Schneider. Cites studies that claim cost is a secondary factor to why people visit museums. People cite lack of time and lack of transportation as major factors. Adds the caveat that structural discrimination may account for some of these factors. Colleen Dilen Schneider. The original blogger who sourced studies that claim cost is a secondary factor to why people visit museums. Expect a treasure trove of studies, over use of bolding and zero caveating. Read at your own risk. Blogs Hrag Vartanian interviews Met president Daniel Weiss for Hyperallergic. There's a lot in here, but we discuss the following points: Vartanian notes the museum's well-known $40 million deficit in the intro. Weiss says asking David Koch to pay for the Met's admissions would be inappropriate morally because the wealthy already support 75% of their budget and their current admissions is "failing". Claims a dramatic increase in visitors. Says there has been 71 percent decline in what visitors pay. Says the museum has close to a billion in endowments reserved for operations. Felix Salmon at Cause and Effect. Looks at the Met's annual reports and finds that Weiss overstates the Met's visitor numbers (which increased by 11.5 % thanks to the Met Breuer opening), and misleads the public about admissions revenue, which has actually increased by 13 %. Concludes that admissions isn't the reason the museum has the deficit. Also, notes that the Met's endowment has risen $170 million a year through investments, of which, over $100 million a year can be used for anything they want. Concludes that the Met won't suffer by making $10 million a year less because they are maintaining their "pay-as-you-wish" policy. Petitions The Met Should Remain Free For All.  Main Stream Media Jillian Steinhauer for CNN The Met Needs to Live Up To Its History and Its Public Robin Pogrebin for The New York Times reports that Weiss cites the city's plans to reduce the Met's funding as one rationale for the change. Holland Cotter at New York Times. New York residents would have to prove their residency by "carding" procedures, which he doesn't like because "it potentially discriminates against  a population of residents who either don’t have legal identification or are reluctant to show the identification they have." Roberta Smith at The New York Times. Rebukes the position that because other museums charge they should too, saying  "Actually it should be just the opposite. Pay as you wish is a principle that should be upheld and defended, a point of great pride. The city should be equally proud of it. No one else has this, although they should. It indicates a kind of attitude, like having the Statue of Liberty in our harbor. It is, symbolically speaking, a beacon."

Hosts Paddy Johnson and William Powhida talk to art advisor Kenny Schacter about the art market at the upper levels and the art market in the middle and emerging tiers. Our central question: How Trumpian is the Art World. We learn about that, plus Schacter's great love for art and dealers. A word of warning though: some of Schacter's conclusions for struggling artists are bleak at best. 

This week we talk aesthetics, Rafael coins the term Klingoncoco and Jeremy declares anti-social aesthetics impossible. Explain Me, Paddy Johnson and William Powhida’s new art podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/explain-me/id1292346467?mt=2 Kickstarter PWL camp https://storify.com/GloryEdim/pwlcamp2016 Relational Aesthetics https://www.amazon.com/Relational-Aesthetics-Nicolas-Bourriaud/dp/2840660601/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297140777&sr=8-1 A Happening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happening Jeremy’s accelerator for artists, Lean Artist http://www.leanartistchicago.com/ A Vernacular Web http://art.teleportacia.org/observation/vernacular/ Nam June Paik https://theculturetrip.com/asia/south-korea/articles/nam-june-paik-the-father-of-contemporary-video-art/ Theaster Gates https://art21.org/artist/theaster-gates/ Bad Troemel taco http://gawker.com/5922870/taco-locks-and-other-delights-from-the-internets-weirdest-etsy-store Roy Lichtenstein http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/roy-lichtenstein-1508 Bootstrap http://getbootstrap.com/ The Aesthetics of Failure https://www.guggenheim.org/arts-curriculum/topic/aesthetics-of-failure The New Aesthetic http://jamesbridle.com/works/the-new-aesthetic Ugly LA coffee shop Christian Marclay, The Clock (Yes it’s just a 24 hour video synced to the exact time) https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/apr/07/christian-marclay-the-clock Original Blade Runner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eogpIG53Cis Blade Runner 2049 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCcx85zbxz4 Mad Max (1979) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caHnaRq8Qlg Star Trek Discovery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsYu9jsmlHc Geiger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._R._Giger Rococo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rococo Generative design https://www.autodesk.com/solutions/generative-design Rirkrit Tiravanija https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rirkrit_Tiravanija ** Comercial Break ** The Wrong Biennial http://thewrong.org/ 'Ode To Spot' Star Trek: The Next Generation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SySZdvsFYt4 Autodesk airplane design https://www.autodesk.com/redshift/bionic-design/ Bauhaus https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm Jan Robert Leegte http://www.leegte.org/ John Baldessari http://www.baldessari.org/ Made with ARKit https://twitter.com/madewitharkit?lang=en K Hole’s Youth Mode (lead to norm core) http://khole.net/issues/youth-mode/ Normcore http://www.dazeddigital.com/tag/normcore Chuck Close http://chuckclose.com/

The inaugural episode of Explain Me, an art podcast with critic Paddy Johnson and artist William Powhida! A round of woos and hoos please! Explain Me looks at politics, money and the moral of responsibility of artists working in the art world. In this episode, we discuss Documenta's massive overspending and near bankrupcy, the closure of Bruce High Quality Foundation University, and a new development along the 7 line describing itself as New York's best installation. We also talk about a few shows we've seen recently in Chelsea, Kara Walker at Sikkema Jenkins, Christian Marclay at Paula Cooper, Tom Friedman at Lurhing Augustine, Franklin Evans at Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe,  Maya Lin at Pace, Robert Motherwell at Paul Kasmin, and Celeste Dupuy Spencer at Marlborough Gallery. Expect opinions. 

We live in a strange world, and an even stranger art world. Luckily William Powhida is here to firmly poke a stick in the eye of the art world, and we love it. We were lucky enough to get to sit down with him right before the preview of his exhibition here in Copenhagen, at Gallery Poulsen. We got to talk about his work, the art world, and the simple joys of quality shit talking. But really this episode is an in-depth look at the New York art world as well as being the personal story of an artist trying to make sense of what he does and what he takes part in. It's good fodder for all of us out here trying to make work. Because it's tough in these street yo. Enjoy our talk! www.undergang.net

We live in a strange world, and an even stranger art world. Luckily William Powhida is here to firmly poke a stick in the eye of the art world, and we love it. We were lucky enough to get to sit down with him right before the preview of his exhibition here in Copenhagen, at Gallery Poulsen. We got to talk about his work, the art world, and the simple joys of quality shit talking. But really this episode is an in-depth look at the New York art world as well as being the personal story of an artist trying to make sense of what he does and what he takes part in. It's good fodder for all of us out here trying to make work. Because it's tough in these street yo. Enjoy our talk! www.undergang.net

This week: Live on stage without a net from Art Expo Chicago 2013 (aka EXPO CHICAGO, The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art) Duncan and Richard talk to Galleries Charlie James (Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles) and artist William Powhida!   William Powhida (b. 1976, New York) is an artist and critic living and working in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For several years Powhida worked as an art critic for the Brooklyn Rail while developing his own artistic practice. Powhida’s work, reflecting his critical background, displays a concentrated fascination with the politics of access and the powers that control the assignment of value in the artworld. All roles are fair game, from nouveau-hot artists and the market-setting collectors that buy them, to the branded dealers that sell the work and the critics paid to provide intellectual justification for the pricepoints. To soften what might appear a direct editorial voice, Powhida projects his commentary through the lens of an alter-ego, one with whom he shares a name (William Powhida). This alter-ego closely resembles any number of freshly minted artworld ‘geniuses,’ though Powhida’s character happens to exhibit all of the worst traits imaginable in any coddled enfant-terrible art star. The fictional Powhida is petulant, narcissistic, and debauched. He has enormous feelings of entitlement, and a perspective so firmly rooted in solipsism that it seems an impossible exaggeration. This art star on the verge of self-immolation documents his misery and rage against the manifold injustices of the art world through a series of To Do Lists, Enemies Lists, and monomaniacal screeds that take on the look of disturbed 3am rants. However, not all of this work exists in the first person. In addition to the alter-ego’s jeremiads, Powhida adds the sycophantic voice of the press ¬ a vital part of the star-making process. Ostensibly a frequent subject of Man About Town profiles in fashion magazines and newspapers, the alter-ego’s more offensive conduct and outsized claims are documented in this way. Which brings us to the startling visual power of Powhida’s work. All of the content above, from the character’s first-person attacks to press profiles by the New York Post, the LA Weekly, and 944 Magazine (examples) are all rendered in beautiful trompe l’oeil compositions that use various combinations of graphite, gouache, and colored pencil on either panel or paper. It is in fact the visual presentation of Powhida’s arguments, coupled with their humor, that makes Powhida’s sometimes scathing commentaries so much fun to digest. William Powhida earned his BFA from Syracuse University, and took his MFA from Hunter College. He is represented by Platform Gallery in Seattle, and Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles. Established in Los Angeles in 2008, Charlie James Gallery represents work by emerging and mid-career artists. 969 Chung King Road Los Angeles, CA 90012 T: 213.687.0844 F: 213.687.8815 HOURS: Wednesday - Saturday 12 - 6 PM

You can listen to the Podcast Mp3 here. In this episode we discuss the Vine versus Instagram Video fight. We talk about the differences between the two services, why that matters, and how artists are using them. You should definitely follow ShyGuyTim. You can follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/davidlamorte You can follow me on Vine: https://vine.co/v/bxgQlvTg0Yh We also talked about the current show at Freight and Volume with Michael Scoggins, William Powhida, and Loren Munk. Check out that show on their website here.

William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton were in town to jury the Vox Populi annual in July, 2018. They sat down with Libby and Roberta to discuss jurying the show (the first time either of them had undertaken a jurying gig) and what they were looking for (the unusual, the otherworldly, things they hadn't seen before.) The episode was recorded in July, 2018 at Vietnam Restaurant. It runs 13:33 minutes long.

William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton were in town to jury the Vox Populi annual in July, 2018. They sat down with Libby and Roberta to discuss jurying the show (the first time either of them had undertaken a jurying gig) and what they were looking for (the unusual, the otherworldly, things they hadn't seen before.) The episode was recorded in July, 2018 at Vietnam Restaurant. It runs 13:33 minutes long.

THE AMANDA BROWDER SHOW: Amanda and Tom talk to artist William Powhida, about coke, naked girls, and even some talk of art. Bad at Sports get added to William's enemies list.Next: Duncan presents a lecture by Pete Fugundo at Dan Devening's space.THIS FRIDAY: GardenFresh closes their space at 119 Peoria with a final show//event, come check it out!