Art from the Outside

This episode we have the privilege of speaking with the legendary photographer and artist Ming Smith.

During a career spanning almost six decades, Smith has documented everyday moments while pushing the limits of photography as a medium. Her distinct style combines a deliberate blurriness with experimental post-production techniques including double exposure, collage, and painting to amplify the works’ dream-like qualities.

Well known for her in-action portraits of notable cultural icons - from James Baldwin to Grace Jones - Smith’s ethereal compositions celebrate the richness of Black culture and the African diaspora. In 1972, Ming joined the Kamoinge Workshop, a collective of Black photographers established in New York City.

Born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Smith earned a Bachelor of Science from Howard University before moving to New York in the early 1970’s, where she now lives and works.

Smith’s work has been exhibited in critically-acclaimed exhibitions including MoMA’s ‘Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography’; Brooklyn Museum’s ‘We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85.’ and one of my personal favorites - ‘Soul of a Nation’ which opened at Tate Modern, and traveled to Brooklyn Museum, Crystal Bridges and The Broad.

In addition, Smith’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C. - just to name a few.

Some artists and individuals discussed in this episode:

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram. Enjoy!

This episode we are excited to be joined the pioneering artist and activist Marilyn Minter.

Minter deftly explores American culture’s pathology of glamor through painting, photography, and video works which focus primarily on the female body and its treatment in popular media. 

Well known for her meticulous technical mastery, Minter’s details often highlight natural corporeal qualities that are omitted in mass-media depictions of women, such as body hair and stretch marks.

Born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1948, Minter earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Florida at Gainesville and a Master of Fine Arts from Syracuse University before moving to New York in 1976, where she now lives and works.

Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Tate Modern in London; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; and the Perez Art Museum in Miami - just to name a few.

In addition, Minter is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant, Guggenheim Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts, Artist's Fellowship Grant - among many others.

Marilyn is represented by LGDR, New York, Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Baldwin Gallery, Aspen.

Some artists discussed in this episode:

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram. Enjoy!

This episode, we are honored to be joined by the incredible, Turner Prize-nominated artist and filmmaker, Isaac Julien.

Born in 1960 in London, Isaac is one of the leading artists working in film and video today. His 1989 film Looking for Langston garnered a cult following with this poetic exploration of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance.

Over the past three decades he has made work using multi-screen installations to express fractured narratives exploring memory and desire. 

Earlier this year, he was commissioned by the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia to create a work to celebrate the museums’ centennial. Titled Once Again . . . (Statues Never Die), the immersive five-screen installation b explored the relationship between the museum’s founder, Dr. Albert C. Barnes, and the famed philosopher and cultural critic Alain Locke.

In even more exciting news, next year, Isaac will be the subject of a solo exhibition at London’s Tate Britain in April, presenting a survey of his work from the last 40 years. Isaac was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2017 and was knighted by the Queenin the 2022 for services to diversity and inclusion in art.

Some artists, curators, and actors discussed in this episode:

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram. Enjoy!

Welcome to Season 3 of Art from the Outside!!!

To kick off Season 3, we speak with the brilliant artist, thinker, and healer Guadalupe Maravilla. Born in 1976 in El Salvador, and now based and working in Brooklyn, New York, Guadalupe received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, and an MFA from Hunter College at the City University of New York. 

Guadalupe creates intricately layered paintings, sculptures and therapeutic performances that draw from his personal history and Central American ancestry, often resembling mythic creatures or  reliquaries. Guadalupe is work examines issues of migration, healing, generational trauma, while creating new rituals for care, and regeneration. 

Guadalupe has had solo presentations at museums around the world, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, and Socrates Sculpture Park, just to name a few. He's also the recipient of countless grants, including a Joan Mitchell Fellowship, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and a Soros Fellowship. He is represented by P·P·O·W in New York and mor charpentier in Paris.

Enjoy!!

This episode we are so excited to be joined by a brilliant artist who we both greatly admire: Derrick Adams.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1970; Derrick's work spans painting, collage, sculpture, performance, video, and sound installations. His multidisciplinary practice engages the ways in which individuals’ ideals, aspirations, and personae become attached to specific objects, colors, textures, symbols, and ideologies. 

This April, Adams was awarded a $1.25 M. grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop an archive devoted to Black culture in Baltimore. He will also soon be opening a residency for Black creatives in Baltimore called The Last Resort Artist Retreat (TLRAR). You can read more at tlrar.org.

Derrick earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Pratt Institute and a Master of Fine Arts at Columbia University. His work resides in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Whitney Museum of American Art - just to name a few. In addition, Derrick is a recipient of a Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship, a Studio Museum Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award - among others.

Some artists discussed in this episode:

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram. Enjoy!

This episode we are so excited to be chatting with the incredible artist Kahlil Robert Irving. Currently living and working in St. Louis, MO, Kahlil's work encompasses ceramics, sculpture, site-specific wallpaper, and other mediums to mine the archive of visual culture and explore notions of Blackness.

In December 2021, Kahlil opened his first museum solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, titled Projects: Kahlil Robert Irving. His work has been exhibited at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas; the Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles; and the RISD Museum in Rhode Island - amongst others. He was selected to participate in the 2019 Great Rivers Biennial hosted by Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis where he had a solo exhibition in May 2020. In 2018 his first institutional solo exhibition “Street Matter decay and forever: golden age” took place at Wesleyan University Center of the Arts in CT and was accompanied by a full color catalog with essays and an interview. 

His work is in the collection the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas; and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh; and the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. He received his MFA from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art in Washington University in St. Louis; and he got his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in Art History & Ceramics. 

Some artists discussed in this episode:

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram. Enjoy!

This episode we are beyond thrilled to be joined by incredible artist Chitra Ganesh. Born and raised in Brooklyn and Queens, and currently based in Brooklyn, Chitra’s multi-disciplinary practice encompasses drawing, painting, animations, collages, and many more media to question and disrupt narratives around gender, sexuality, power, and identity.

Anchored in the history of South Asia, her gorgeous and detailed works combine a vast array of influences including South Asian iconography, science fiction and queer theory, with the visual languages of vintage comics, Bollywood posters, and video games to stunning effect.

Chitra’s work has been exhibited internationally, including solo shows at Brooklyn Museum, MoMA PS1, and the Gothenburg Kunsthalle in Sweden - just to name a few.

Her work is represented in the collections of museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Kiran Nadar Museum in Delhi, India.

Beyond her list of awards and fellowships, what makes this especially exciting is that an exhibition of Chitra’s work will be opening on February 18th at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis.

Some artists discussed in this episode:

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram. Enjoy!

This episode, we are thrilled to be joined by brilliantly creative artist Barbara Kasten. Based in Chicago, Illinois, Barbara originally trained as a painter and textile artist at the University of Arizona (BFA), the California College of Arts & Crafts (MFA), before turning to photography in the early 1970s. 

Working for over 40 years, she frequently uses mirrors, lights, and props for conceptually-based pieces that explore notions of perception and reality, figuration and abstraction. 

Barbara’s work has been exhibited extensively around the world. In 2015, she was given her first (and long overdue) survey of her work at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. Since then, she has been the subject of solo exhibitions at major institutions including the Aspen Museum of Art and the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in Wolfsburg, Germany. Last fall, she was the subject of yet another solo exhibition at the prestigious Sammlung Goetz in Munich, Germany. Her work is also in the permanent collection of many exceptional institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate in London, and the Pompidou in Paris.

Barbara is also a widely lauded thinker and the recipient of multiple awards and prizes. She holds the position of Distinguished College Artist at Columbia College Chicago and was notably the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.

Some artists discussed in this episode:

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram. Enjoy!

http://barbarakasten.net/

https://bortolamigallery.com/artist/barbara-kasten/

WELCOME TO SEASON 2 OF ART FROM THE OUTSIDE!!

We are so excited to kick off season two with the innovative artist Nari Ward! Originally from Jamaica; Ward works across a variety of media including: sculpture, installation, performance, photography and video. 

He is best known for his use of found-objects, such as baby strollers, cash registers and shoelaces, to compose sculptural installations that provoke complex thoughts regarding racism, poverty, and consumer culture. 

Ward earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from City University of New York, Hunter College and a Master of Fine Arts from Brooklyn College. 

His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas - just to name a few.

In addition, Ward is the recipient of numerous honors including the Fellowship Award from United States Artists; the Rome Prize from American Academy of Rome; and awards from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts - among many others.

Some artists discussed in this episode:

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram. Enjoy!

This episode, we are thrilled to be joined by the visionary Elizabeth Dee, Co-Founder and CEO of the Independent Art Fair. Conceived and initiated in 2009, the Independent has rapidly become one of the most important and influential art fairs globally and will be hosted at New York’s Battery Maritime Building in just a few weeks, from September 9th to September 12th. You can find more about the fair here.

In addition to her role as Founder of the Independent, Elizabeth is a seasoned art world professional. Elizabeth opened her namesake gallery in New York’s SoHo district in 1997 and proceeded to launch her first public space in 2002 in Chelsea, working with world-class artists including Adrian Piper, Ryan McNamara, and John Giorno.

Last July, Elizabeth also became Director of the recently established John Giorno Foundation, an organization dedicated to grant-making and preserving the legendary artist’s work. In some exciting news, the foundation will actually be facilitating a posthumous exhibition of the artist’s work in London at Almine Rech Gallery this October (so lots to look forward to).

Some artists discussed in this episode:

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram.