The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Episode No. 599 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curators David Pullins and Veronica Roberts.

With Vanessa K. Valdés, Pullins is the co-curator of "Juan de Pareja: Afro-Hispanic Painter in the Age of Velázquez" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The exhibition is the first examination of the life and oeuvre of Pareja, who was enslaved in Velázquez's studio before developing his own independent practice. The Met's exhibition features works by Velázquez and Pareja, as well as examinations of how Spanish painters presented Black and Morisco populations. It is on view through July 16. A superb exhibition catalogue was published by the Met. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $46.

Roberts discusses "Day Jobs" at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas. The exhibition explores how artists have taken jobs beyond their studios, and how those jobs have informed their work. "Day Jobs" is on view through July 23.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeFiveHundredNinetyNine.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 7:00pm EDT

Episode No. 598 features artist Faye HeavyShield and curator Glenn Phillips.

The Pulitzer Arts Foundation in Saint Louis is presenting "Faye HeavyShield: Confluences," a career-spanning presentation of HeavyShield's work that includes drawings, sculptures and installations, and two commissions that engage the landscapes and histories of the Saint Louis region. HeavyShield's spare, often minimal vocabulary and use of modest materials often addresses land, traditional Kainai stories, and HeavyShield's experiences in the residential school system. The exhibition, which was curated by Tamara Schenkenberg, will be on view through August 6.

A member of the Kainai (Blood) Nation, part of the Blackfoot Confederacy, Heavyshield lives and works in the foothills of southern Alberta.

Phillips discusses "Barbara T. Smith: The Way to Be," a presentation of work from the first 50 years of Smith's career (1931-81). Phillips co-curated the exhibition with Pietro Rigolo. It's on view at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles through July 16.

Smith is a pioneering second-wave feminist artist whose work addressed the seemingly limited options available to women from Smith's class and racial background. Phillips worked with Smith to present the exhibition in her own voice, which coincides with the Getty's publication of Smith's memoir, "The Way to Be: A Memoir." Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $24-46.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeFiveHundredNinetyEight.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 6:00pm EDT

Episode No. 597 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Binh Danh and curator Jeffrey Richmond-Moll.

Radius Books has just published a two-volume monograph titled, "Binh Danh: The Enigma of Belonging." The book, Danh's first monograph, brings together Danh's prints on plant matter that consider images associated with the war in Vietnam, and Danh's daguerreotypes of scenic vistas in the American West, his attempt to negotiate the land and history of a still-contested region. The book features essays by Danh, Boreth Ly, Joshua Chuang, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, and Andrew Lam. Bookshop and Amazon offer it for about $60.

Danh's work is on view in "Ansel Adams in Our Time" at the de Young Museum, San Francisco. The exhibition, which was curated by Karen Haas for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is on view through July 23.

Danh has had solo shows at museums such as the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; and the Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska. He's in many major US museum collections, including at the Eastman House in Rochester, NY; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Harvard Art Museums, and the Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.

Richmond-Moll discusses "Object Lessons in American Art: Selections from the Princeton University Art Museum" at the Georgia Museum of Art. The exhibition features work from PUAM that present artworks about American history, culture, and society in ways that reveal how Princeton has taught and presented US art history. It's on view through May 14. A catalogue was published by PUAM. Bookshop and Amazon offer it for $30-40.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeFiveHundredNinetySeven.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 6:18pm EDT

Episode No. 596 is a holiday weekend clips show featuring artist Renée Stout.

Stout is included in the Nasher's "Spirit in the Land," an exhibition that considers today’s ecological concerns and demonstrates how our identities and natural environments are intertwined. The show particularly focuses on the relationship between the mainland United States and the Caribbean. Curated by Trevor Schoonmaker, it will be on view through July 9. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue which, as of the show posting date, is available only at the Nasher.

Her work is also in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's version of "Afro-Atlantic Histories." LACMA's presentation is a mostly contemporary version of an exhibition that originated at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in Brazil in 2018 before traveling to the National Gallery of Art, Washington last year. "Afro-Atlantic Histories" is at LACMA through September 10.

If it seems like Stout has been in every major contemporary group show in the last year, it may be because she has been: she was included in both "The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse," organized last year by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and "Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art," which was put together by the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

An exhibition of Stout's recent work, "Renée Stout: Navigating the Abyss," closed at New York's Marc Straus gallery last month.

This program was taped on the occasion of Stout's inclusion in "Person of Interest" at the Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska in 2020. For images related to this program, see Episode No. 437.

Direct download: MANPodcastEpisodeFiveHundredNinetySix.mp3
Category:visual art -- posted at: 8:18am EDT

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