Exquisite Corpse: Contemporary Conversations

In the third episode of this season of Exquisite Corpse, we hear from two visual artists, Lorraine Shemesh and Frances Barth. Though the two artists have very different visual styles, their background and interest in dance and movement in their early careers heavily influenced their work and visual language, and sensibilities. They discuss their working-class upbringing, painting as women in New York for decades, and the gender biases that continue to pervade the art world and culture in general. Both artists connect on the compulsion to make art, the difficulties in but ultimate importance of their educational opportunities. 

Frances discusses her recent work Dreaming Tango, a film that explores Argentine Tango in the lives of six people. Lorraine talks about her ceramics and their impact on her work in paint. And despite all their differences, they connect over many similar experiences in their long and varied careers during which both artists worked in many different media and dealt with the challenges that presented. Finally, they explain what it means to them to be inducted into the National Academy by their peers and how difficult it is sometimes to connect with other artists.

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In this episode, we hear a conversation between abstract painter Lisa Corinne Davis and Richard Mayhew, a luminary landscape painter, who, at 98, is still painting every day. They discuss their respective approaches to painting, their use of color, and how they address internal and intellectual “subjects” with their painting. They also talk about how they became artists and the roles that their families played in their development. Richard tells us about his Shinnecock grandmother’s support of his early artistic work and how this heritage influenced his art making. He regales us with stories about his influences from Toni Morrison to his peers in the Spiral collective and sculptor Augusta Savage. Lisa and Richard relate to each other as interdisciplinary educators and share their experiences with how their progressive approaches to arts education were received with some resistance at times. Interesting connections between the two painters emerge throughout the conversation despite being from different generations as they discuss important centers of Black American artistic practice over the years. Both discuss the honor of being elected by their peers as National Academicians and how their inductions are separated by nearly 50 years.

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Season 2 of Exquisite Corpse kicks off with a conversation between two installation artists – Lisa Hoke and Elana Herzog – whose friendship and practices inspired them to speak in this format. They share thoughts on sustaining their practices, reactions from other artists as they made shifts in their work, and how a non-traditional medium like installation allows for, even necessitates, travel and community involvement. The conversation also touches on many other topics including the artists’ use of color, the significance of materials, and how the National Academy’s collection is growing and diversifying just like the membership itself.

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In this special episode of Exquisite Corpse, Host Adrienne Elise Tarver and Chief Curator, Sara Reisman talk about a recent exhibition at PS-122 Gallery, “Media Relay: An Exhibition in Two Parts” and present a unique conversation between two of the exhibition’s artists, National Academician Elizabeth King and Sound Artist Stephen Vitiello. This conversation was sound designed by the Exquisite Corpse podcast production team at SeeThruSound.

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National Academicians Dotty Attie and Pat Lasch speak with Adrienne about the difficulties of motherhood and marriage, famous former boyfriends, lessons they’ve learned in art and life, and various successes and failures in their personal life and careers. We hear about their experiences being female artists in the professional art world, founding AIR gallery in New York City, and how their artwork has changed and evolved.

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In episode 3, Michelle Grabner and Stephen Westfall speak from their roles as artists and educators about the nuance of class, gender, and genre and question how abstraction can or cannot be in dialogue with these topics. They also discuss how the focus of a residency program can assert privilege and the responsibility of shaping a living canon through  educational institutions.

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In episode 2, Enrique Chagoya NA and Titus Kaphar NA connect on their passion for arts education outside of the traditional education system, creating politically charged work that sometimes receives violent reactions, and the materiality and varied mediums of their work.

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In episode one, Director of Programs and podcast host Adrienne Elise Tarver is joined by the Chief Curator and Director of National Academician Affairs at the National Academy of Design, Sara Reisman. They discuss why the podcast was named after a surrealist collaborative drawing technique and question the type of audience it may attract and exchanges it may enable between Academicians. They also touch on what topics Sara hopes to hear about, as well as the role that collaboration could play.

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