Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

Today's guest is David Humphrey, a New York-based painter whose work has been shown nationally and internationally, and who has been recognized with some of the most prestigious awards in the art world, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rome Prize. He teaches in the MFA program at Columbia University, is represented by Fredericks & Freiser Gallery in New York, and is the author of Blind Handshake, an anthology of David’s art writing.

On today's episode I ask David about how he knows when a painting is finished, his works on paper, and what late-career de Kooning taught him about the surface of a painting. We get into what David calls the "ecology" of his studio, the sociability of paintings, decision-making in the studio, and the question of shallow vs implied space in his newer work. We also talk about his recent show at Kate Werbel Gallery which features works on paper, wall painting and installation. Finally, David reflects on navigating privilege and provocation during his career, including a memorable and charged moment at a Hunter College lecture that I was actually in the audience for. We finish up by talking about the stakes of painting and the absurdity, weakness, and humor inherent in the medium.

Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!
If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!  If you have any questions you want answered, write in to [email protected] 

host: Isaac Mann
www.isaacmann.com
insta: @isaac.mann

guest: David Humphrey
www.davidhumphreynyc.com
insta: @aikenhump

Thank you as always to ARRN, the Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist, for the music.

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

Our guest today is Margaret Curtis, a feminist painter born in Bermuda whose vivid, densely layered canvases explore power dynamics at both the personal and societal level. Margaret is an inaugural recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship, and her work first gained national recognition in Marcia Tucker's landmark Bad Girls exhibition at the New Museum in New York in 1994. Since then she has shown at the Brooklyn Museum, the Andy Warhol Museum, and the Wexner Center, with recent solo shows at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art and Post Times Gallery in New York City. Her work has been reviewed in the Times, Artforum, Art in America, and Harper's, and is held in permanent collections throughout the United States.

I sat down with Margaret in the last days of her exhibition entitled ‘S at Post Times in Lower Manhattan. I set up the mics and the cameras and Margaret spoke to me about endurance, dumb mark-making, her beloved Quinacridone gold and how she describes a day in her studio as 30,000 nonverbal decisions, and feeling practically broken by the end of it.

We talk Cricut, Frisket, Speedy Carve and Dibond as well as the cake decorating tools that she snatched up in a deliberate act of rebellion against her painting instructors - and originally kicked off this predilection for alternative mark-making, Margaret explains why she believes style is a market pressure, not something worth pursuing, and that each painting demands its own visual language. She also talks Jack Whitten, gives some great final advice, and tells me why painting has always been "her friendliest enemy.”

Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!
If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!  

If you have any questions you want answered, write in to [email protected] 

host: Isaac Mann
www.isaacmann.com
insta: @isaac.mann

guest: Margaret Curtis
www.margaretcurtisart.com
insta: @margarcur

Thank you as always to ARRN, the Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist, for the music.

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

Today's guest is Catherine Haggarty, a Brooklyn-based painter, educator and founder whose work has been featured in Artforum, the New York Times, Hyperallergic, and BOMB magazine, among others.

Catherine has exhibited widely across New York, LA, and Miami and has been a visiting artist at institutions including Cornell, RISD, Pratt and Rutgers, where she also earned her MFA.

She co-founded NYC Crit Club in 2017 and also created the Canopy Program, a one-year mentorship platform now serving artists all around the world.

On today's episode I joined Catherine in her Crown Heights studio for an expansive conversation. We discussed the emotional weight of years of unsold work in storage to what it really means to slow down and become more deliberate as an artist.

Catherine speaks to me about motherhood, sustaining a practice over decades, the difference between style and voice and what led her to co-found NYC Crit Club and build the Canopy Program into the global platform it is today.

We also talk about drawing, watercolor and other painting practices, as well as the importance of saving money and taking care of your body.

Enjoy the conversation!

Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!

If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!

If you have any questions you want answered, write in to [email protected]

host: Isaac Mann www.isaacmann.com 
insta: @isaac.mann

guest: Catherine Haggarty www.catherinehaggarty.com 
insta: @catherinehaggarty 
insta: @thecanopyprogram 
insta: @nyccritclub

Canopy Program Application - NOW OPEN

Thank you as always to ARRN, the Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist, for the music.

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

On this week’s episode I’m joined by Brittany Fanning.

Brittany Fanning graduated from the University of north Virginia, and moved to South Korea in 2015. She spent seven years painting the neighborhoods around her, drawn particularly to the contrast between new Brutalist structures and traditional hanoks. 

After relocating to Los Angeles in 2022 her work shifted toward the city’s architecture, flora, and fauna. Fanning  began exhibiting in Korea in 2018 and has since shown at Steve Turner and The Lodge in Los Angeles, Galerie BHAK in Seoul, as well as Mindy Solomon in Miami and Artemin in Taipei. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Portray Mag, and Type 7. She is currently based in New York.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I joined Brittany Fanning in her studio, surrounded by rolled and unrolled canvases and at least one painting she's threatening to destroy. We get into her process: the impatience that launches a painting before the plan exists, and the small linen studies she uses to dig herself out of the compositional holes that impatience creates.

We also talk about her push away from photo reference, her complicated relationship with the figure, and her black-and-white paintings. And then we get into the art world stuff: galleries that don't pay, galleries that disappear, and why Brittany has made a bit of a tradition of calling people out on Instagram right around the holidays.

It's a hell of a conversation, articulate, transparent, and resilient. Without spoiling it, I'll just say: good luck to any gallery that tries to mess with her.

Listener note: Brittany's candor about her experiences with Pictorum and OTI inspired me to share my own, with Primary Projects in Miami. It felt like the right time.

Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!

If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!
  
If you have an any questions you want answered, write in to [email protected]

host: Isaac Mann

www.isaacmann.com

insta: @isaac.mann

guest: Brittany Fanning

www.brittanyfanning.com

insta: @brittanyfanning

Thank you as always to ARRN, the Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist, for the music.

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

On this week’s episode I’m joined by David Ambrose.

David Ambrose was born in 1960 and lives and works in Bound Brook, New Jersey. He received his BA in Fine Arts from Muhlenberg College and his MFA in Painting from the University of Pennsylvania.

He has exhibited widely over the past four decades, including solo exhibitions at the New Jersey State Museum, where he was the subject of a mid-career retrospective, as well as Gold/Scopophilia in Montclair and Tibor de Nagy in New York. His work has also been included in group exhibitions at Pierogi and Kentler International Drawing Space in Brooklyn, among many others, and is held in public collections including the Library of Congress. Ambrose is the recipient of multiple fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, most recently in 2022 to 2023. He has also taught at institutions including Parsons, Pratt, and the Fashion Institute of Technology.

I sat down with David in his New Jersey studio last month and we discussed the surface of a painting, building paintings, building objects, planning for abstraction, materials and pigments, damage and repair, crosshatching, carving, and the use of non-traditional tools. David Ambrose also explains why there’s no rush, how linear thinking has served him through the years, allowing for change, quality and beauty, daily practices, handling rejection, building  community and his new works on paper.

Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!

If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!
  
If you have any questions you want answered, write in to [email protected]
 
host: Isaac Mann

www.isaacmann.com

insta: @isaac.mann

guest: David Ambrose

www.davidambrosestudio.com

insta: @david_m_ambrose_art

Thank you as always to ARRN, the Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist, for the music.

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

On this week’s episode I’m joined by Will Hutnick.

Will is a painter based in Sharon, Connecticut. He holds an MFA from Pratt Institute and a BA from Providence College. Hutnick is a 2021 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Painting. His solo exhibitions include High Noon in New York, the McDonough Museum of Art, Geary Contemporary, and Pamela Salisbury Gallery. His work has been featured in The New York Times, New American Paintings, and Hyperallergic. He's held residencies at Yaddo, the Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency, and Vermont Studio Center. Will currently serves as Director of Artistic Programming at the Wassaic Project, a nonprofit that uses art and education to foster social change.

Will and I sat down last month at High Noon in Tribeca, where his solo exhibition  “Time’s a Goon” was on display. Will and I discussed planning a painting, starting a painting, new content, landscapes, working on 15-year-old canvases, his printmaker background, the challenges of editing and finishing and his love of works on paper. We also discuss chance, noise, and the lack of control, decoration, orchestration and the arbitrary, Will’s work as Director at the Wassaic Artist Residency and the simple efficacy of the Thank You Note.

Before we begin, a reminder that ARTMATTERS is entirely listener-supported. If you want to support the show and help make more conversations like this possible, consider joining the ARTMATTERS Patreon. Supporters get video versions of every episode, as well as more behind-the-scenes content. Find the link in the description or go to patreon.com/artmatterspodcast

Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!

If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!

Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!

If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!
 
If you have an any questions you want answered, write in to [email protected]
 
host: Isaac Mann
www.isaacmann.com
insta: @isaac.mann

guest: Will Hutnick
www.willhutnick.com
insta: @willhutnick

Thank you as always to ARRN, the Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist, for the music.

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

On this week’s episode I’m joined by Bruce Tapola.

Bruce Tapola was born and raised in Ohio and received his BFA from the University of Utah, and his MFA from Montana State University. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and has received several awards, including the McKnight Foundation Visual Artist Fellowship (1995, 2001, 2017). His work has been written about in Artforum, The New York Times, New American Painting, Art Papers, and New Art Examiner, and is in numerous public and private collections. He taught painting and drawing at St. Cloud State University in MN from 2000 to 2022, and in addition to his studio practice, Bruce is a member of the artist collectives Paintallica, Free Art School, and Artpolice (RIP). Bruce lives and works in St. Paul, Minnesota.

I sit down with Bruce back in December in Saint Paul, in his backyard studio with a wood-burning stove. It was a cold day, but the studio was cozy and Bruce, I discovered, as you will shortly, is a talker so we covered a lot of ground. Bruce discusses rejecting cleverness, when something smells like art, humor in art, sameness in imagination, screaming colors, sneaking up on a painting, magic, ceramics,  the price of art, emptying-out content, outsider art, having a family of artists and painting the perfect cloud.

Before we begin, a reminder that ARTMATTERS is entirely listener-supported. If you want to support the show and help make more conversations like this possible, consider joining the ARTMATTERS Patreon. Supporters get video versions of every episode as well as more behind-the-scenes content. 

Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!

If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!
 
If you have an any questions you want answered, write in to [email protected]
 
host: Isaac Mann
www.isaacmann.com
insta: @isaac.mann

guest: Bruce Tapola
insta: @btapola

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

On this week’s episode I’m joined by Hiba Schahbaz.

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Hiba Schahbaz trained in traditional Indo-Persian miniature painting at the National College of Arts in Lahore. Her practice spans oil, wood, paper, black tea, and water-based pigments. Schahbaz received an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute and has exhibited internationally since 2002. Recent exhibitions include the FLAG Art Foundation, Almine Rech Paris, the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, and Jeffrey Deitch, as well as a public art commission for Rockefeller Center produced with Art Production Fund. Her current retrospective, Hiba Schahbaz: The Garden, on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, brings together roughly fifteen years of work tracing her evolution from the disciplined traditions of miniature painting to expansive, immersive works.

I sat down with Hiba in her Bushwick loft studio and asked her about the “aha” moment - when a new idea begins to take shape. We also talk about cut-outs and shifting scale, the difference between one-off paintings and a sustained flow state, learning from mistakes, and why she never lets a painting leave the studio before the idea feels fully resolved. We talk materials and process, how Hiba starts a painting, and how she approaches large commissions, museum projects, and multi-panel works differently. Hiba discusses maintaining a daily studio practice and how it shifts with seasonal rhythms, the difficulty and necessity of waiting for ideas to develop, and the importance of physical health in the studio and taking responsibility for one’s body over time. Finally, we talk about avoiding creative burnout through continuous learning, and why Schahbaz believes in committing fully to the path of an artist without a Plan B.

Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!

If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!
  
If you have an any questions you want answered, write in to [email protected]
 
 host: Isaac Mann
 www.isaacmann.com
 insta: @isaac.mann

 guest: Hiba Schahbaz
 www.hibaschahbaz.com
 insta: @hiba_schahbaz

Thank you as always to ARRN, the Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist, for the music.

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

On this week's episode I'm joined by New York artist David Hornung.

David Hornung is a painter and mixed media artist whose work has been exhibited in the US and UK. Over the course of a long career he has served on the faculties of The Rhode Island School of Design, Indiana University, Skidmore College, Pratt Institute, and Adelphi University. He is the author of Color: A Workshop for Artists and Designers (Laurence King Pub Ltd.), a color textbook. Translated into six languages it is used in art schools around the world. His work is shown at Cynthia Winings Gallery, Elena Zang Gallery, Pulp Gallery, and J.J. Murphy Gallery in NYC.

We recorded this episode early one morning at the JJ Murphy Gallery during his solo exhibition "Continuum."

On today's episode, David and I explore the nuanced terrain of painting practice and philosophy. We discuss the importance of a painting's surface, how he starts a painting and how one reads a painting. David shares his perspective on scale, arguing that painting is an intimate experience rather than spectacle. We trace his six-decade evolution from observational work through post-painterly abstraction, his collage techniques, and his four recent years of pure abstraction. The conversation touches on Henri Matisse, Ad Reinhardt, Fra Angelico, Albert Pinkham Ryder, and Paul Klee. David also talks his love of shapes, collage, a raw edge, painting slower than he is thinking, factual versus fictional painting, and finally, emphasizes the importance of recognizing one's own temperament and painting both honestly and sincerely from that space; which, he argues, is where great paintings come from.

Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!

If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM!
 
If you have an any questions you want answered, write in to [email protected]
 
host: Isaac Mann
www.isaacmann.com
insta: @isaac.mann

guest: David Hornung
www.davidhornung.com
insta: @davidhornungart

workshops: https://www.artfuelstudio.com/scotland-september-2026-hornung
madelineartschool.com/collections/workshops/products/exploring-improvisation-in-abstract-painting?_pos=7&_fid=5184b59de&_ss=c 

Thank you as always to ARRN, the Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist, for the music.

Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

On this week’s episode I’m joined by New York artist Fran Shalom. Fran has exhibited widely throughout the United States, including a solo show at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, and the Hunterdon Museum in New Jersey. She has been the recipient of a Pollock Krasner Artist Grant, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and an Art Omi Residency. Her work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Rose Art Museum, and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. 

Fran and I recorded this episode after hours at her solo exhibition at the Kathryn Markel Gallery in Chelsea, surrounded by her recent paintings. 

In this conversation Fran discusses beginner's mind and call-and-response painting, how she builds trust in improvisation despite recurring doubts, and the many paintings buried beneath each finished surface. She tells me about getting rid of precious moments, loving the fiddly finishing bits, navigating flatness and why not everything in a painting needs to function, Finally we discuss Fran’s early-career transition from photography to self-taught painting, balancing her three practices (art, family, Zen), and why generosity matters more than networking.

Support this podcast by clicking HERE and becoming a Patreon Supporter!

If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please rate, review, subscribe and SHARE ON INSTAGRAM! 

If you have an any questions you want answered, write in to [email protected]

host: Isaac Mann
www.isaacmann.com
insta: @isaac.mann
 
guest: Fran Shalom  
www.franshalom.com
insta: @fshalom64

Thank you as always to ARRN, the Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist, for the music.