The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Episode No. 560 features artist Kiyan Williams and historian Paul M. Farber.

The Hammer Museum is presenting "Hammer Projects: Kiyan Williams", the artist's first solo museum presentation, through August 28. The show features Williams' 2022 installation Between Starshine and Clay, a work that features earth taken from sites that are familial or that hold Black American histories, and sculptural forms that reveal or refer to the human body. "Williams" was curated by Erin Christovale.

Williams is also included in "Black Atlantic," a Public Art Fund exhibition at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York. The exhibition, which was curated by Hugh Hayden and Daniel S. Palmer, was motivated by an exploration of transatlantic diaspora. It includes Williams' 2022 Ruins of Empire, a reimagining of Thomas Crawford's Statue of Freedom, which was installed atop the US Capitol dome in 1863. (The full-size plaster model for Freedom is in the Capitol Visitor Center.) "Black Atlantic" is on view through November 27.

In addition, they are also in "52 Artists: A Feminist Milestone" at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn. The exhibition, which was curated by Amy Smith-Stewart and is on view through January 8, 2023, showcases work by artists in the Aldrich's 1971 "Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists" show, augmented by work by 26 female identifying or nonbinary emerging artists.

On the second segment, a re-air of an October 2021 conversation with Monument Lab director Paul M. Farber on Monument Lab's National Monument Audit, which Farber co-directed with Laurie Allen and Sue Mobley. In addition to the project website, Monument Lab offers a free PDF of the audit. This week, Monument Lab's Future Memory podcast returned. Click here for information and here to subscribe.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeFiveHundredSixty.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 5:47pm EDT

Episode No. 559 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artists Esteban Cabeza de Baca and Jess T. Dugan.

The Momentary in Bentonville, Ark. is presenting "Esteban Cabeza de Baca: Let Earth Breathe" through September 25. Across the exhibition, Cabeza de Baca deconstructs the colonial European-American landscape tradition by re-considering painting and sculpture as a collaboration with nature. It was curated by Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas with Taylor Jasper. Cabeza de Baca's work is also included in "Plein Air" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson. The exhibition was curated by Aurora Tang and will be on view through February 5, 2023.

Cabeza de Baca's work has been shown at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC, The Drawing Center, New York City.

Jess T. Dugan's work is included within "Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births," which is at the MassArt Art Museum through December 18. This conversation previously aired on Episode No. 468 when photographs from Dugan‘s “To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults” project were at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Dugan produced “To Survive on This Shore” with their partner, Vanessa Fabbre, a social worker and professor at Washington University in St. Louis. The book related to the project was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2018. It is available from Amazon and from Indiebound.

Instagram: Cabeza de Baca, Dugan, Tyler Green.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeFiveHundredFiftyNine.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 4:14pm EDT

Episode No. 558 features author Hugh Eakin and artist Jordan Weber. 

Eakin is the author of "Picasso's War: How Modern Art Came to America," which tells a story of how New York City slowly, eventually, came to embrace both European modernism and the art of Pablo Picasso. Eakin's history begins with John Quinn, a white-shoe attorney with a yen for progressive literature and art, and follow's Quinn's involvement and influence across New York and Europe, through the Armory Show, Alfred Barr, and more. The book is full of original research, new angles that give life to once-ossified narratives, and bright, well-paced prose. Indiebound and Amazon offer it for about $33. 

Jordan Weber discusses "All Our Liberations," an art installation and space for community learning, reflection and healing organized by the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in Saint Louis. The project, which runs from July 16-24, takes place at the Spring Church near the Pulitzer in Saint Louis's Grand Center Arts District. The project includes a three-tiered sculpture Weber made with black obsidian stones and participation from collaborators Weber met during a 2021 residency. During the week-long program Weber will host programs for both formerly incarcerated individuals and members of the public. Urban farmers, healers, and organizers from Close the Workhouse -- a Saint Louis-area campaign working to end mass incarceration -- are Weber's programming co-host. In April 2023, Weber will expand "All Our Liberation" as part of Counterpublic, a city-wide triennial.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeFiveHundredFiftyEight.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 4:30pm EDT

Episode No. 557 features artist Meghann Riepenhoff and curator Michelle White.

Meghann Riepenhoff is included in "Watershed," an exhibition at the University of Michigan Museum of Art that considers the interconnected histories, present lives, and imagined futures of the Great Lakes region. "Watershed" features work by 15 artists, six of whom were commissioned to make new work for the show. Riepenhoff's 2022 Waters of the Americas: EPA ID NYD980592497, Eastman Kodak’s Emissions B (Confluence of the Genesee River and Lake Ontario, Rochester, NY, 03.12.2022) is among those commissions. The exhibition was curated by Jennifer M. Friess, and is on view through October 23.

Riepenhoff's work foregrounds the chemical processes from which pictures are and have been made since the nineteenth century, and brings those processes into contact with nature, including rivers, lakes and oceans. Her work has been included in exhibitions at SFMOMA, the High Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and more. This September, Radius and Yossi Milo Gallery will publish Riepenhoff's new book Ice; and Yossi Milo will present related work in its New York space. Indiebound and Amazon offer the book for about $60.

White discusses "Niki de Saint Phalle in the 1960s," which is at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego through July 17. The exhibition examines two of Saint Phalle's most important bodies of work: the Tirs, or “shooting paintings,” and exuberant sculptures of women Saint Phalle called Nanas. White co-curated the show with Jill Dawsey. The excellent exhibition catalogue was co-published by MCASD and The Menil Collection, which originated the exhibition, and distributed by Yale University Press. Amazon offers it for about $50.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeFiveHundredFiftySeven.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 4:59pm EDT

Episode No. 556 is a holiday clips episode featuring artist Maya Dunietz. 

The Bemis Center Contemporary Arts in Omaha is presenting  "Maya Dunietz: Root of Two," a 13,000-square-foot exhibition that foregrounds the physicality of sound via a series of installations. The exhibition was curated by Rachel Adams and will remain on view through September 18.

This program was taped before a live audience at the Bemis Center last November when Dunietz was in residence putting the finishing touches on this exhibition.

For works discussed on this week's program, see Dunietz's website:

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeFiveHundredFiftySix.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 8:10pm EDT

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