Dr. Lisa Gives a Sh*t

Dr. Lisa talks to Kathleen Vance and Daniel Aycock, the married couple behind Front Room Gallery , about nearly three decades of surviving, adapting to, and participating in the New York art world. Daniel founded the gallery in Williamsburg in 1999. Kathleen joined a few years later, bringing her own artistic practice and a more strategic approach to the business. They talk about the gallery’s beginnings , the wild Williamsburg gallery scene, art-world parties, sponsorships, the move to the Lower East Side, and the relentless force of NYC real estate.

Then they get into talking how the art business actually works. Kathleen and Daniel talk about artists’ careers, why art sales and social-media popularity aren't necessarily measures of artistic value, and how online marketplaces can turn something deeply personal into a blind transaction. They also talk about artists moving upstate, and their decision to relocate Front Room to the Hudson Valley, where they’re finding a new version of the artist community that originally drew them to Williamsburg. More about Front Room Gallery HERE and on Instagram: @frontroomnyc

Kathleen Vance is also an accomplished environmental installation artist. Please view here work HERE. and on her instagram: kathleenvanceart

Brooklyn Raii: l Robert-l-Bowen-with-Tom-Huhn/

Robert L. Bowen Vimeo

Dr. Lisa talks to artist, photographer, educator, and digital-art pioneer Robert L. Bowen about his book The Human Shutter: Photographs, Stereoscopic Depth, and Moving Images. Bowen traces the book back to a strange Marcel Duchamp stereoscopic photograph he encountered in college that completely hooked him. From there, he spent decades investigating stereoscopic photography, early moving images, and the science of human perception. He also digs into the largely forgotten history of early photographers and scientists who were developing photography, 3D images, and motion pictures simultaneously—not as a neat technological evolution, but as interconnected experiments in how humans see.

The conversation turns to AI, and what it means for a world where images no longer need to document something real. Bowen discusses how AI breaks photography's connection to a moment in time, while Dr. Lisa worries about technology destroying our attention spans, making us dumber, and possibly contributing to our own extinction. They wrap up by considering the importance of human creativity and why, in a world full of artificial everything, there's still something irreplaceable about making art by hand, reading a real book, and experiencing things that actually exist.

Insta ⁠@erikbergstromrad⁠

TikTok ⁠@erikbergstrom⁠

Erik Bergstrom is a comedian, artist, and cartoonist with a very dark sense of humor and, according to Dr. Lisa’s completely unlicensed professional opinion, possibly some complicated shit going on underneath all that pleasantness. Eric talks about growing up in Minnesota, his parents’ divorce, his sister’s death, surviving stage-four cancer, and how the pandemic affected him in a completely different way. Cancer still allowed him to get onstage and turn the experience into jokes; the pandemic took away the audience, the social connection, and eventually the desire to write and perform.

He talks about his love of old-school comedians, writing hundreds of jokes a day, dating, therapy, and the strange experience of living alone during lockdown. He also discusses his visual art—paintings featuring horses, pigeons, hot dogs, mushrooms, and other creatures—and his new obsession with writing mattress jokes.

@erikbergstromrad

@erikbergstrom

Lu Checkowsky has risen to the the top level of creative people from her career spanning legendary ad agency, Weiden + Kennedy, to executive creative director jobs at Comedy Central, MTV and Facebook. Make no mistake, Lu earns this all through extraordinary talent and hard work.

Lu’s worked behind the scene, managing the creative advertising of shows with just about every celebrity you can imagine — all while struggling with a serious eating disorder — at one point weighing almost 300 lbs. while excelling under crazy pressure. Subsequently, she gets seriously ill, forcing her to leave her career. The book she wrote about her experience and recovery Don't Buy What I'm Selling: On Breaking Up with Advertising and Finally Learning to Love My Whole, Fat Self, has just been published by Brown + Little. Currently she's and working on another book — this time, a novel.

Three months ago, (June 2026), and we find out about how Lu feels having her life in the form of a book out in public We also talk about her mother who passed away when Lu was 22, but infused Lu with some empowering ideas as well as some good lessons she would need in the future.

Personally am a huge fan of this book. Lu managed to take a stressful story so enjoyable to read, that my husband got mad because I literally wouldn’t put it down. 

Buy the Book / Instagram / Website / Tik Tok

Bio: Lu Chekowsky [she/they] is a writer and Emmy Award–winning creative director. In Lu’s most recent job in the advertising industry, she was lead creative director for video at Facebook. Before that, Lu was the SVP of brand creative at Comedy Central, where they developed campaigns for shows like The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, South Park, Nathan for You, and Broad City. Previously, Lu was VP, creative director at MTV, where they made ads for Teen Wolf, Jersey Shore, The Real World, and the Video Music Awards. Before working in entertainment, Lu was a creative director and copywriter at Wieden+Kennedy, where she over- saw work for brands such as Jordan, Noxzema, Delta Airlines, and The National MS Society. Lu is a 2023 New York State Council on the Arts / New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in nonfiction literature, and their writing has been supported by MASS MoCA, Vermont Studio Center, Craigardan, and Tin House. Her essays and poetry have been published in The Rumpus, Pigeon Pages, and Autofocus, and her pieces about the cultural impacts of advertising have appeared in Ad Age and Muse by Clios. Lu lives in the Hudson Valley. 

Quite honestly, this session with Brooklyn based comedian, Joe Palana, is one of the most emotionally powerful that I have done. Joe grew up with a younger cousin that has both Down syndrome and autism. Joe formed a deep bond with him that as it turns out, has directed his life in ways Joe couldn’t have expected as a child. The way Joe articulates his relationship with his cousin really helped me understand that specific relationship, but more broadly, helped me imagine what it might be like to be living with Autism and/or Down Syndrome. It was a lot more uplifting than you might imagine.

Joe's Monday 6pm open mic at Pine Box Rock Shop

Loren Munk is an amazing painter and art world chronicler. His art and videos are an amalgamation of art history. The well-known painter, Katherine Bradford said he deserves a MacArthur "Genius" Award and I wholeheartedly agree. As James Kalm, he’s had over 2 million views of his web series covering art, galleries, artists, openings and even some street musicians. There is so much to learn about this former Mormon from Utah. Loren was talented as a child but art didn’t come alive for him until he was stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army during the 70’s. Loren was a highly active part of the art world in the 80’s. He never quit, but the art world went through it’s paces and he and his wife, Kate, focused on bring up two boys. In the meantime Loren, reentered the art world with a vengeance. This is genuine inside scoop, folks. There’s even a discussion of, “What’s more important for an art career,-the work or the relationships?” Find out more about Loren and see his work here: http://www.lorenmunk.com/ Enjoy his art world videos here: https://www.youtube.com/user/jameskalm and here https://www.youtube.com/user/jameskalmroughcut

Justin Linville is a huge talent and all around nice guy. The kind of guy that’s great to hang with but also great in an emergency.

Justin is a great example of a creative person who makes his own opportunities while at the same time making opportunities for others. Justin shares a lot about this super cool project that he's been working on for the past few years as writer/director/actor along with a cast and production team. It's an animated series based around a claymation character Georgie, a curious, Liverpudlian-accented clay-monster character who drives a tiny remote-control car (built from RC car undercarriages glued to pencil boxes) through miniature sets, exploring environmental themes. It’s a super cool project that also promotes learning about the environment—SO WORTH SUPPORTING on Seed + Spark.

We also talk about how Justin, a recent vegetarian, presses tofu overnight and that he’s also part of company, Story Pirates. It's an awesome organization, they take stories that are written by kids, like this one-page thing, and write a script and make it into a radio play.

@justinmlinville Georgie on the Farm Seed + Spark For a deep dive into Justin's childhood, etc., please listen to our previous 2024 Dr. Lisa episode DLG343.

Blatant Plug—I run the Dog House Art Gallery at the BCC where Justin works, in the Dog House space. — a gallery that exhibits artists that use humor in their work. Check it out + stop in! 137 Montrose Ave., BK.

Subscribe to Sarah Cascone's Newsletter to keep up with art and culture!!!

Sarah Cascone is a widely known and highly respected art writer with a sharp, curious eye and the writing talent to bring her discoveries to life. She was part of the original team that launched ArtNet News in 2014, where she wrote or co-wrote nearly 6,000 articles. Her work has also appeared in The Art Newspaper, Art in America, Hyperallergic, Interview, and other publications.

There are so many reasons to appreciate Sarah's work, but for me, it's the way she uncovers some of the best and most innovative art and culture found anywhere.

Frankly, I was honored to have Sarah on the show. Her Instagram farewell post about leaving Artnet captures her feelings about this moment of change better than I could — and since we discuss it on the show, I wanted to share a bit of it here.

In her post (@sarahecascone, May 3), Sarah described the past two weeks as unlike anything she'd experienced before, and noted that her last day at Artnet News was April 16. She wrote about feeling a complex mix of emotions — grief, sadness, anger, and resentment, but also relief, hope, and excitement for what's next. She spoke with pride about helping launch Artnet News into a trusted, authoritative voice in the art world almost overnight, and reflected warmly on the many colleagues — now close friends — she'd worked alongside since 2014.

Sarah's experience has relevance for a lot of us these days, and I was fascinated to hear how she plans to move forward — with a mix of exploration and practical next steps. For someone as accomplished as Sarah, it was genuinely insightful to hear what's next. She already has her own newsletter — sign up here — or you can follow her brand-new Cultured Magazine column, The Overlook, where, as I mentioned, she delivers the gems she uncovers straight to you.

Relevant Episode Links:

8.2.26

Laura Parnes is an extremely accomplished filmmaker and artist . (Scroll down for bio—impressive!!) One of the themes in Laura Parnes's work is female adolescence. Here's a quote from an interview with her in ⁠FEMEXFILM Archive⁠: "A really big focus of the work is the romantic vision of a teen peering in on a culture that they haven’t personally participated in and how this holds potential for criticality. But, it’s really tempered by a desire to gain status, power, and agency. "

Bearing that in mind, I wanted to find out about Laura's own upbringing and teen years and how that has influenced her work. It turns out there were about two years in Laura's life that were filled with older friends and drugs. After that she chose to put her energy into art, got accepted to Tyler Art School and the rest is history. Art history to be specific.

Laura's work has been clearly ahead of it's time as well as an influence on the period we are living in today. Gen Z has picked up on one of her films from 2017, No Is Yes, depicting two teen girls with a crush on a rockstar they kill accidentally and then mutilate. Clips of it have gone viral on Tik Tok. Please check out her work, if you're not familiar, on her website and Vimeo.

BIO:     Laura Parnes’ critically acclaimed films and installations fuse comedy with pathos to probe social and political trauma. Informed by traditions and genres in narrative film, video art and queer theater, her work blurs the lines between conventions of storytelling and experimentation. The performers in her projects are often part of a diverse community of artists and musicians, many of whom are responsible for the rich underground scene in NYC, and who have shaped and affected other mainstream art cultures.

Laura Parnes has screened and exhibited her work widely in the US and internationally, including: The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; The Institute of Contemporary Art University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; The International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece., LOOP Festival, Barcelona, Spain; Light Industry, Brooklyn, NY; Kusthalle Winterhur, Switzerland; Overgaden- Institute for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark; iMOCA, Indianapolis, IN; Cinematexas, Austin, TX; Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania; Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Whitney Museum of American Art (1997 Whitney Biennial), NY; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand; PSI Contemporary Art Center MoMA, NY; Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, FL; and Brooklyn Museum, NY.

Her solo exhibitions include Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY; Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY; Human Resources, LA, CA; Fitzroy Gallery, NYC, NY; LAXArt, LA, CA; Alma Enterprises, London, UK; Locust Projects, Miami, FL; Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, LA, CA; Participant Inc, NYC, NY and Deitch Projects, NYC, NY. She has had solo screenings at The MoMA, NYC, NY; The Kitchen, NYC, NY; MoMA PS1, LIC, NY; NYCATE 10-year Anniversary, presented by the School of Art Institute of Chicago and Video Data Bank, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL; Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; Vtape, Toronto, Canada; and in a two-person screening at The MoMA, NYC, NY. She was presented by Participant Inc. in a two-person exhibition at No Soul for Sale at X Initiative, NYC, NY.

     Parnes is a 2021 MacDowell Fellow, a 2019 Yaddo Artist in Residence, a 2019 Wave Farm Media Arts Awardee, a 2016 Creative Capital Awardee, a 2014 NYFA recipient, a 2013 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow and has lectured as a visiting artist at numerous institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University and UCLA. She has participated in panels at Yale University, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and MoMA PS1.

Katerra Borkowski is an amazingly talented and hardworking comedian,

I do think that Katerra has some major internal resources: brains and motivation. She also had some encouragement even though her father

Here’s a quote by Katerra from our session: “I mean to credit to my birth mom It was like one of the few things she did right, which is she didn't sugarcoat our situation. So, she was like, she was like, Katerra, I want you to be better than me. I don't I don't want you to struggle and like go through welfare. I don't want you to struggle and like be on public

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@katerraborkowski5846

Katerra is an amazing comdian, writer and improviser. Katerra is an outlyer in the comedy community: she was brought up in foster homes and then eventually got adopted by a white family (she's black) in high school. Resiliance people! This is what it looks like!

I do think that Katerra has some major internal rescources: brains and motivation. She also had some encouragement even though her father committed suicide when she was an infant and her mother had serious emotional struggles. Her mother drilled into Katerra that even though Katerra was in this situation with her, you, Katerra ,are better than this situation and you need to do better. Katerra also had a great shrink from Middle school through high school that helped her understand that she'd been failed by adults and where she was in life at the moment was not her fault.