On this episode I'm joined by Phillip Collins.  Phillip is a marketer turned art collector. Out of the urgent need to bridge a gap in the commercial art market and the desire to spotlight the stories that mattered to him the most, Phillip gave birth to Good Black Art—a platform that’s investing in emerging Black artists from the onset of their careers, creating an ecosystem that offers access to sales and collaborations, exhibitions and media opportunities. We are sitting in Soho at The Malin when we begin to talk about how we first met, our experiences in the art world and the ways in which travel and new experiences bring us closer to ourselves. 

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It's Frieze Week in New York City and we are rounding out a busy week of fairs, parties, and networking. It’s gala season also and from the famed met gala a couple weeks ago to some of the most important institutions in New York, museums, and large organizations are hosting their spring gala events. 

Last week NYC played host to Future Fair and Independent Art Fair. Both fairs were great, but very different in my opinion. I personally saw some works at Independent that stopped me in my tracks. 

Frieze opened yesterday with its VIP programming, today it opens to the public with a newly commissioned work in partnership with Artadia and Frieze by the Brooklyn based conceptual artist Jessica Vaughn. It’s the first time Artadia and Frieze have partnered with each other and it’s a very exciting commission that is highlighting the work of the very talented conceptual artist Jessica Vaughn, whose work deals with issues of labor, the complex histories of place, production and use. She was an Artadia recipient in 2018. I had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica a couple of months ago in preparation for her freeze Commission. You can read more about that piece on freeze.com and in their latest issue coming out soon that's tied to the freeze New York fair. 

Today 1-54 art fair opens in Harlem and it’s sure to be a breakout fair with lots of incredible talented artists. Stay tuned for our next episode next week and if you’re in NYC have a great art week! 

On this episode I'm joined by Selasie Gomado. Selasie and I met in 2022, in Accra through Gideon Appah a Ghanaian artist, who closed his first solo show with Pace gallery earlier this year in London. Selasie and I are in Accra when we sit down to talk about the artist agency and collective ARTEMARTIS which works with some of Ghana’s most emerging artists showcasing their work both locally in Ghana and internationally throughout the continent, Europe, and beyond. What began as an online shop with a few friends in 2018 has grown into a collective that supports artists with art supplies and studio spaces to an agency that focuses on bringing the artists to larger markets through group exhibitions and shows. 

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On this episode I'm joined by Katherina Olschbaur. I first met Kat in LA when we were deeper into the pandemic and still reeling from life in lock down. We were both following each other on Instagram at the time but had never met in person. I was immediately stuck by Kat’s energetic presence and her interesting ideas about the world. 

Originally from Austria, Kat currently lives and works in LA. Her captivating surrealist paintings draw viewers in with rich luscious colors in striking combinations. Her drawings are an integral part of her painting practice deeply informed by her subjects and conceptual frameworks. Katherina was an artist in residence at Kehinde Wiley’s Black Rock residency in Senegal, West Africa in 2021. 

It’s a couple of weeks before her first solo show with Perrotin Gallery in Hong Kong when we sit down at Soho House in New York to talk about her work and practice. 

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On this episode I'm joined by Ayesha Williams and Paul Ninson. Ayesha Williams is an art professional with over a decade of experience working with visual artists, presenting programs, and generating funding for both commercial galleries and nonprofit institutions. She is currently the Executive Director of The Laundromat Project, a nonprofit organization that advances artists and neighbors as change agents in their own communities. Paul Ninson is the Founder and Executive Director of the Dikan Center, a not-for-profit visual education institution in Ghana that is fast gaining reputation for its impact and dedication to educating the next generation of Africa’s creative leaders with the skills to transform their communities, countries and the continent. 

We're at Dikan Center in Accra, Ghana when we sit down to talk about their work and respective practices within the art world. 

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On this episode I'm joined by Helina Metaferia. Helina Metaferia is an interdisciplinary artist working across collage, assemblage, video, performance, and social engagement. Her work integrates archives, somatic studies, and dialogical practices, creating overlooked narratives that amplify BIPOC/femme bodies. 

Her work is in the permanent collection of institutions including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; RISD Art Museum, Providence, RI; and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY. 

Helina is preparing for EXPO Chicago, the annual fair that brings the city's art community together, when we sit down high up at Silver Arts, the shared studio space Helina is currently working out of that plays host to dozens of emerging artists living and working in New York City. 

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On this episode I'm joined by Michaela Yearwood-Dan. Throughout paintings, works on paper, ceramics, and site-specific mural and sound installations, Michaela Yearwood-Dan (b. 1994; London, UK) endeavors to build spaces of queer community, abundance, and joy. Yearwood-Dan's singular visual language draws on a diverse range of influences, including Blackness, queerness, femininity, healing rituals, and carnival culture. Moving freely between media, Yearwood-Dan embeds botanical motifs and meditations within brushy abstract forms and heavy drips of paint. From the monumental scale of her paintings to the more intimate scale of her ceramics and works on paper, Yearwood-Dan's practice frequently reflects an inviting domesticity. Resisting any singular definition of identity, the artist explores the possibilities of creating spaces-physical, pastoral, metaphorical-that allow for unlimited and unbounded ways of being. 

This episode was created in partnership with Marianne Boesky gallery. To celebrate the artists’ second solo show with the gallery we hosted an artist talk with Michaela. It’s a warm Saturday afternoon in Chelsea when we sit down to talk about the show, her practice, and some of the ideas that guide her work. 

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On this episode I'm joined by Alex Delotch Davis. Alex is an art and fashion marketer who specializes in developing high-earning multicultural audiences. Presently, Delotch-Davis is Manager of Marketing at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where she supports the reservoir of culture and commerce that the institution generates for the Atlanta metro area. 

I got on a call with Alex a couple weeks after the Spelman symposium for Black American Portraits at the Spelman Museum of Fine Art and during the opening weekend of the first exhibition by the new director of the Johnson Lowe gallery, Donovan Johnson whose inaugural exhibition, The Alchemists, was curated by Donovan Johnson and Seph Rodney. 

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On this episode I'm joined by Gideon Appah.  Born in Accra, Ghana in 1987, Gideon received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana in 2012.  Appah lives and works in Ghana. With a diverse practice that ranges from the expressionistic to the surreal, Appah draws from his personal experiences to depict life in his native Accra. Appah’s work investigates his childhood as well as local mythologies, ethereal landscapes, rivers, domestic interiors, and recurring figures both imagined and known, such as his grandmother and brother. He has also created traditional portraiture and painted dreamlike scenes of jewel-toned figures in imaginative, symbol-laden landscapes. 

It’s a Sunday afternoon in Gideon’s studio in Kasoa, about an hour’s drive from Accra, where he’s working on a painting for his latest show on view now at Pace Gallery in London when we begin talking about his work and studio practice. 

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On this episode I'm joined by Liz Andrews. Liz is an artist, curator, museum professional, and leader who is dedicated to the arts and social justice. She has worked with arts organizations across the nation. In August 2021, Liz began her role as Executive Director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. Prior to joining Spelman College, Liz Andrews was Executive Administrator in the Director’s Office of LACMA where she expanded her role to collaborate on projects and priorities across museum departments, including diversity and inclusion efforts and curating exhibitions. Her curatorial projects at LACMA included The Obama Portraits Tour and a companion exhibition Black American Portraits. 

It's a few weeks after the Spelman Symposium for Black American Portraits when we sit down to talk about her work and the legacy of Spelman Museum of Fine Art. 

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