Episode No. 279 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Dara Birnbaum and curator Julie J. Thomson.

Dara Birnbaum is included in "Breaking News: Turning the Lens on Mass Media," at the J. Paul Getty Museum. The exhibition examines how artists have used newspapers, magazines and televised news programs to consider media, news and the messages included therein. The exhibition was curated by Arpad Kovacs and will be on view through April 30.

Birnbaum is among the pioneers of video art. Her work often includes pointedly feminist critiques of mass media, including of entertainment and journalism. Retrospectives of her work include "The Dark Matter of Media Light" at SMAK, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent, Belgium, and at the Serralves Foundation in Porto, Portugal, and "Dara Birnbaum Retrospective exhibition" at the Kunsthalle Wien in Austria and at the Norrtalje Konsthall in Sweden.

On the second segment, Julie J. Thomson discusses "Begin to See: The Photographers of Black Mountain College." The exhibition surveys photography made at Black Mountain College, including landscapes, documentary work (including of performance), experiments with the medium and more. The exhibition is at the Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center in Asheville, North Carolina through May 20.