Everything Is Connected

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. 

---------------------------------

Follow & Subscribe 

Subscribe on Substack

Follow Light Work on Instagram

Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram

YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel 

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. 

---------------------------------

Follow & Subscribe 

Subscribe on Substack

Follow Light Work on Instagram

Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram

YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel 

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. 

---------------------------------

Follow & Subscribe 

Subscribe on Substack

Follow Light Work on Instagram

Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram

YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel 

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. 

---------------------------------

Follow & Subscribe 

Subscribe on Substack

Follow Light Work on Instagram

Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram

YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel 

On this episode I'm joined by Danny Baez. Originally from the Dominican republic,  Danny  moved to New York City when he was 18. His journey in the arts can be considered coincidental but I don't believe in coincidences. Everything in life happens for a reason and the places that we find ourselves are not by accident.  Danny has built a career over decades rooted in supporting his friends and extended community.  He is a co-founder of ARTNOIR, the majority women nonprofit organization that amplifies the work of BIPOC artists across the globe.  He is the founder of REGULARNORMAL gallery. Danny apprenticed with Gavin Brown for a time before carving out his own path. He’s worked with artists such as Aya Brown, Melissa Joseph, Na’ye Perez, Khari Turner, and more.

We're in New York City on the eve of MECA, the art fair Danny co-founded in 2017 in San Juan Puerto Rico when we sit down to talk. This is the first year the fair places host to his native country of DR.

---------------------------------

Follow & Subscribe 

Subscribe on Substack

Follow Light Work on Instagram

Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram

YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel 

On this episode I'm joined by Kent Kelley. I met Kent Kelley for the first time a couple years ago through Anwarii Musa who was on a recent episode. Kent comes from the financial world and has worked as a CFO for many years. He recently started collecting art and currently sits on the board of the High Museum in Atlanta. Kent was a big part of an article I wrote for Artnet highlighting the incredible things that are happening  on the Atlanta art scene. 

Kent shared with me some of the amazing things that have been happening in Atlanta and some of the key stakeholders who are a part of the vibrant art community there. The Spelman Symposium was in full swing when Kent and I sat down to talk about his interest in the arts, how he got started collecting and some of the things that he's most excited about in his art collecting journey.

---------------------------------

Follow & Subscribe 

Subscribe on Substack

Follow Light Work on Instagram

Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram

YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel 

On this episode I'm joined by Reyna Noriega. I met Reyna in 2021 when I was working on an editorial for Bal Harbour shops and highlighting taste makers in Miami. Reyna invited me over to her place to do our interview in person and shoot a little content. Overlooking the bay in Miami we talked about her art - she’s an illustrator and has worked with some of the world's biggest brands creating products to empower women and girls of color to feel their very best. Reyna Noriega is a visual artist and author, born, raised and working in Miami, FL. Having seen the power of introspection, self reflection and healing, Reyna’s work centers that aspect of our journeys as we seek to rise and be our best, most authentic selves so that people may experience sustainable peace and happiness. 

 We are on the rooftop at Soho Beach House overlooking the ocean when I sit down to vibe with her and learn more about her journey as an artist and some of the core ideas behind her work. 

---------------------------------

Follow & Subscribe 

Subscribe on Substack

Follow Light Work on Instagram

Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram

YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel 

On this episode I'm joined by Anwarii Musa. Over the last decade Musa has built an art advisory firm focused on the work of contemporary artists. He works with emerging as well as seasoned collectors who sit on the boards of some of the worlds most important institutions as well as works with several athletes and former athletes who are actively building legacy collections.

It’s  Frieze week in LA when we sit down to talk about his journey into the arts.

---------------------------------

Follow & Subscribe 

Subscribe on Substack

Follow Light Work on Instagram

Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram

YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel 

On this episode I'm joined by Kimberly Drew. Kimberly Drew is a curator, critic & author of two books, This Is What I Know About Art and the anthology Black Futures with Jenna Wortham, both released in 2020. Drew received her B.A. from Smith College in Art History and African-American Studies.

The last time I caught up with Kimberly we were both in Ghana experiencing all the country has to offer spending time in the capital city of Accra, while also visiting important spots in Kumasi and Tamale. Drew and I witnessed the launch of Amoako Boafo's artist residency and foundation, partied at some of Accra's hottest spots and spent time with local artists in the capital city. Listen in as we reflect on this wildly rich experience. 

---------------------------------

Follow & Subscribe 

Subscribe on Substack

Follow Light Work on Instagram

Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram

YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel 

On this episode I'm joined by Ambrose Murray. Murray received their BA in African American studies from Yale in 2018. They are a self-taught painter and seamstress from North Carolina with roots in Florida. Through their work, Ambrose seeks to bring physical form to the ideas and theories they have been struck by from Black feminist writers and visionaries. 

In an artist statement they reveal

My process is an exploration of our bodies and land as sites of historical memory and mystical/imaginative potential. The act of making through collage becomes a process to imagine and visualize the complex layers and depth of the story that live within our bodies. Through processes that deepen my relationship to my materials, texture, and color, my practice becomes a space to physically re-member and reconstruct the stories and relationships that have been pulled apart and dismembered across generations. 

---------------------------------

Follow & Subscribe 

Subscribe on Substack

Follow Light Work on Instagram

Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram

YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel