Articulated: Dispatches from the Archives of American Art

In this episode, San Antonio-based photographer Mari Hernandez considers the social, political, and formal trails blazed by Kathy Vargas, another San Antonio resident. From her encounters with institutional racism and misogyny, to her radical experimentation with photography as a medium, Vargas’s vibrant career and activism have emboldened new generations of artists to expand and serve their communities. 

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

In this episode, Brooklyn-based painter Maia Cruz Palileo navigates Cherokee painter Kay WalkingStick's journey with family, art, and history. From grappling with heritage to creating art that transcends boundaries of all kinds, follow the evolution of WalkingStick's practice along the path she has painted all her own.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Native Hawaiian lauhala weaver Katherine Kalehuapuakeaula “Lehua” Domingo (1935-) and Hopi ceramicist Al Qöyawayma (1938-) are two elder Indigenous artists and practitioners that each embody lifetimes of experiences through their creative practices. In this episode, guest curator Lehuauakea, a Native Hawaiian artist, draws connections between their work through their shared challenges and celebrations, and how these elements might define the artists’ work as contemporary, traditional, or something else entirely.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

What does art make happen, and what can art make happen? Artists have adapted a variety of forms to encourage equity and advancement, creating art that serves as a forum for shared experience and growth as they spur new dynamics between creator and audience.This episode explores what feminist social practice has meant for Suzanne Lacy, particularly in her early performance work, and for Juana Alicia in her murals and paintings.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Consuelo Jiménez Underwood has blazed her own trail in fiber art, weaving with heritage and healing. Across borders, identities, and time, she creates works that celebrate the natural world and human connection. Learn more about her prolific practice and vivacious activism in this episode.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Images shape our sense of self, both as we receive and as we express them. Artists have interrogated the power of images for an array of feminist aims, and this episode tracks the work of Sarah Edwards Charlesworth and Celia Alvarez Muñoz as they examine, exploit, and explode the image.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Catherine Opie’s photographs examine the markers of human experience, how they individuate and connect us. Throughout her career she has foregrounded communities and spaces on the periphery, providing a forum to reformulate our relationships with places, materials, and bodies. Learn about her work and its reverberations in this episode.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Art reflects and shapes communities, and Jesse Treviño has made a career of enriching his lived environment in San Antonio, Texas. His work cherishes Chicano histories and futures by focusing on everyday life and heritage. This episode follows his journey from Texas to New York, Vietnam, and back to San Antonio, where he has made his home and legacy.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Artist, poet, activist, menswear designer, and renowned hugger Frederick Weston (1946–2020) found community wherever he went. Through collected ephemera, drawing, collage, and installations in the streets of New York City, he made Black and queer experience visible in a manner all his own. In this episode, learn about his work and the legacy of love he left behind.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Oral history provides a medium by which we can share our voices and stories. The Archives of American Art has one of the oldest collections of oral histories in the United States, and the largest related to the visual arts. In this episode, we reflect on how oral history enriches our understanding of art and the people who create it.

Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated