Spiritual Kinship, Artist-Run Futures, and Burning the Art World Down (Gently) - Cat Gunn

In this episode of What’s My Thesis, Javier Proenza welcomes Cat Gunn—artist, curator, and co-organizer of Other Places Art Fair South (OPAF South)—for a wide-ranging conversation on community, creative identity, and the radical possibilities within artist-run spaces.

Rooted in their early relationship to art and shaped by their current role in the San Diego-based initiative Harvest and Gather, the dialogue illuminates the power of collaborative curation and experimental presentation. Gunn shares the ethos behind Harvest and Gather’s programming, which includes boundary-pushing moments such as a bonfire where artwork is ceremoniously burned—a powerful gesture of impermanence, intention, and spiritual offering.

As OPAF South emerges as a new chapter of the long-running artist-run platform Other Places Art Fair, Gunn reflects on mentorship, shared resources, and the liberatory potential of decentralized arts infrastructure. With detours through magic, conceptual art, regional aesthetics, and the politics of visibility, Proenza and Gunn discuss what it means to make and sustain art outside of market logic.

Topics include:

Cat Gunn’s transition from drawing and animation to curation and community-based practice

The philosophy and provocations behind Harvest and Gather

How artist-run spaces function as spiritual and political interventions

San Diego’s evolving art ecosystem and Gunn’s collaboration with MCA on OPAF South

Queerness, geography, and the differences between art scenes in Baltimore, Miami, L.A., and beyond

The sustainability of DIY and underground creative labor in a post-pandemic landscape

For those compelled by the invisible architectures of care, resistance, and ritual in contemporary art, this episode offers an inspired look into what’s being built just outside the spotlight.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

#CatGunn #WhatsMyThesis #JavierProenza #HarvestAndGather #OPAFSouth #OtherPlacesArtFair #SanDiegoArtScene #ArtistRunSpaces #ContemporaryArt #AlternativeArt #QueerArtists #ArtPodcast #ArtWorld #ConceptualArt #SpiritualArt #ArtBurning #GrassrootsArt #CommunityArt