Episode No. 312 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Martine Syms and art historian Petra Giloy-Hirtz.

Martine Syms is included in "Speech/Acts," a six-artist exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia that examines experimental black poetry and how language has shaped black American experiences. (Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Steffani Jemison, Tony Lewis, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed are the other artists.) The exhibition, which was curated by Meg Onli, will be on view through December 23. The museum's website includes a reading group syllabus, gallery guide, exhibition poster, installation views and more.

Syms is an artist and the founder of Dominica Publishing, a press dedicated to exploring blackness in contemporary art and culture. Her work most often uses video, installation and performance to investigate representations of blackness, especially in popular culture. She's been the subject of solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, White Flag Projects in St. Louis, the Camden Arts Centre and the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, Locust Projects in Miami and more.

On the second segment, Petra Giloy-Hirtz discusses her recent monograph of Hassel Smith, a major figure in the development of post-war painting in San Francisco. (Amazon offers it for just $20!) As Crocker Art Museum curator discussed with host Tyler Green last week, Smith was a major influence on Richard Diebenkorn. This segment originally aired in 2013. For Smith images, see Episode No. 65, and the Hassel Smith Estate's website. New York's Washburn Gallery will open an exhibition of Smith's work from 1959-62 on November 2.

Episode No. 311 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curators Eve Straussman-Pflanzer and Scott A Shields. At the top of the program, host Tyler Green shares some findings from our recently completed annual survey.

"The Medici's Painter: Carlo Dolci and 17th-Century Florence" is the first American exhibition devoted to the paintings and drawings by Carlo Dolci. Curated by Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, the Detroit Institute of Art's curator of European paintings, the exhibition is at the Nasher Museum at Duke University through January 14, 2018.

On the second segment, Crocker Art Museum curator Scott A. Shields discusses "Richard Diebenkorn: Beginnings, 1942-1955," which the Crocker co-organized with the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation. 

Episode No. 310 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curators Davide Gasparotto and Roni Baer.

Davide Gasparotto is the curator of "Giovanni Bellini: Landscapes of Faith in Renaissance Venice." The exhibition, which opened earlier this week at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, features 12 paintings and one drawing that explore Bellini's use of landscapes within his religious pictures.

On the second segment, two extraordinary gifts of 17thC Dutch and Flemish art and a 20,000-volume library to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Curator Ronni Baer discusses. 

Episode No. 309 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artists Mark Dion and Anicka Yi.

This weekend, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston opens "Mark Dion: Misadventures of a 21st-Century Naturalist," a survey of over 20 years of Dion sculptures, installations and drawings. The exhibition, which was curated by Ruth Erickson with Jessica Hong, is on view through January 1, 2018. The exhibition catalogue, published by the ICA and Yale University Press, is one of the best art books of 2017. Amazon offers it for $48.

Dion works at the intersection of art, natural history, history and anthropology. His work examines and often critiques humanity's approach to nature, landscape and science through witty address of scientific methodologies and installations that often have roots in Victorian-era presentation.

Dion has fulfilled commissions and had exhibitions at museums all over the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate, and the British Museum of Natural History in London. He is also a co-director of Mildred's Lane, a visual art education and residency program in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania.

On the second segment, Anicka Yi. She is included in "Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon" at the New Museum. The exhibition, which was curated by Johanna Burton with Sara O'Keeffe and Natalie Bell, looks at gender in the context of America's national political crisis. It is on view through January 21, 2018. The exhibition catalogue was published by the New Museum. Amazon offers it for $40.