Mark Dion, Nancy Lupo

Episode No. 431 features artists Mark Dion and Nancy Lupo.

This weekend, the Amon Carter Museum opens "The Perilous Texas Adventures of Mark Dion." For the exhibition, Dion retraced the steps of four nineteenth-century Texas explorers: Sarah Ann Lillie Hardinge, Charles Wright, John James Audubon and Frederick Law Olmsted, accumulating material and experiences all along. The Carter exhibition features both Dion's discoveries and related works from its collection. Curated by Margaret C. Adler, it will remain on view through May 17. The Amon Carter has published an extraordinary book in association with the project, in some ways an adaptation of and Dion & Co. updating of Olmsted's Texas travel diary, that is distributed by Yale University Press. Amazon offers it for $40.

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.

Dion was previously a guest on Episode No. 309. Olmsted's books on his travels through Texas and the South are available for free and in multiple formats from the Internet Archive's Open Library. Installation and related Dion images will be available early on the week of Feb. 10.

On the second segment, Lupo discusses her work on the occasion of "Nancy Lupo: Scripts for the Pageant" at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Curated by Anthony Edwards, the exhibition is on view at MCASD's downtown location through March 15. Lupo's previous exhibition credits include the 2018 version of the Hammer Museum's "Made in LA," and solo exhibitions at the Swiss Institute, New York, LAXART, and the Visual Arts Center at the University of Texas.