Episode No. 638 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artists Saif Azzuz and Maryam Taghavi.

The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco is presenting "Saif Azzuz: Cost of Living," an exhibition of paintings, sculptures and installation that considers settler colonialism and gentrification as related processes. The exhibition is on view through May 19.

Azzuz is a Libyan-Yurok artist based in suburban San Francisco. His work, which often addresses nature, land, and California Native American cultural practices, is in the collections of museums such as the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh. He was a 2022 SFMOMA SECA Award finalist.

Taghavi's work is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Chicago in "Chicago Works: Maryam Taghavi مریم تقوی." Taghavi's work explores perception, often by wielding or adapting Persian calligraphy. The exhibition was curated by Bana Kattan with Kamala GhaneaBassiri.

Taghavi has previously exhibited at museums such as LAXART, Los Angeles and the Queens Museum. Chicago's O'Hare Airport has recently installed a commissioned work by Taghavi in its Terminal Five.

Instagram: Saif Azzuz, Maryam Taghavi.

Episode No. 637 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curator Jamillah James and author Brent Martin. 

James has organized "Faith Ringgold: American People," a retrospective of Ringgold's career as an artist and activist, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The exhibition, which presents Ringgold as a key bridge between the Harlem Renaissance and contemporary practice, originated at the New Museum, New York, where it was curated by Massimiliano Gioni and Gary Carrion-Murayari. "Ringgold" is on view in Chicago through February 25. The outstanding catalogue was published by the New Museum and Phaidon. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $55-75.

On the occasion of photographer and scholar Angelyn Whitmeyer's launching of the George Masa Photo Database -- an important new website that makes images of Masa's pictures available via a single point-of-access for the first time, this week's show re-airs a 2022 segment with author Brent Martin. Masa was an Asheville, North Carolina-based photographer who had a significant impact on the establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and on determining the Southern route of the Appalachian Trail, the two crown jewels of the eastern United States' natural infrastructure. His work was almost lost and forgotten, in part because the region in which he worked was remote, but also due to his status as a Japanese-American immigrant at a time of intense anti-Japanese bigotry.

Martin came onto the program to discuss his 2022 book "George Masa's Wild Vision," which was published by Hub City Press.  Amazon and Indiebound offer the book for around $25. For images, see Episode No. 567.

Episode No. 636 features curators Furio Rinaldi and Jonathan Stuhlman.

Rinaldi is the curator of "Botticelli Drawings" at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco's Legion of Honor, the first exhibition dedicated to the drawings of Sandro Botticelli. The show follows Botticelli from his time with Fra Filippo Lippi to the establishment of his own workshop in Florence. The exhibition is on view through February 11. The exhibition catalogue was published by FAMSF in association with Yale University Press. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $55-70.

Stuhlman is the curator of “Southern/Modern,” a survey of modernism from artists who were from, worked in, or visited the American South. The exhibition opens arrives at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville on January 26, and will remain on view through April 28. The exhibition is accompanied by an excellent catalogue published by University of North Carolina Press. Bookshop and Amazon offer it for about $30-75. For images, see Episode No. 606.

Episode No. 635 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Leslie Martinez and curator Anthony Graham.

MoMA PS1 in Queens is presenting "Leslie Martinez: The Fault of Formation," through April 8. The exhibition features paintings built with paint, folds, pools, and collaged materials such as rags and dried acrylics. Martinez's way of making paintings both mines the history of abstraction, but also a no-waste approach informed by methodologies of rasquachismo, a term coined by scholar Tomás Ybarra-Fausto to describe a Chicano "attitude rooted in resourcefulness yet mindful of stance and style." The show was curated by Elena Ketelsen González.

Martinez was previously featured in a solo show at the Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston. Their work is in the collection of museums such as the Dallas Museum of Art, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

The Speed Art Museum in Louisville is showing Martinez's work in "Current Speed: Angel Otero/Leslie Martinez" through March 24. The exhibition features works by the two artists that are new to the Speed's collection. The presentation was organized by Tyler Blackwell.

On the second segment, a re-presentation of curator Anthony Graham on the Alexis Smith retrospective he organized at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in 2022. Smith died earlier this week. She was 74. For images, see Episode No. 568.