Interviews by Brainard Carey

The musical concerts mentioned at the end of the interview can be explored through this link. Below are two examples of concerts and Sir Norman Rosenthal's biography is beneath that.

Norman Rosenthal was born in Cambridge, UK, in 1944, the son of Paul

Rosenthal and Kaethe Zucker, who came to England in 1941 and 1939

respectively. He was educated at Westminster City Grammar School and the

University of Leicester, where he graduated in 1966 with a degree in history. He

undertook postgraduate studies at the School of Slavonic and Eastern Studies, as

well as the Free University of Berlin.

Norman Rosenthal organised his first exhibition in 1965 Artists in Cornwall at the

Leicester Museum and Art Gallery in connection with the University Arts

Festival. Since that time his professional career took him to Thomas Agnew &

Sons, the well known firm of London art dealers, as librarian and researcher

from 1966 – 1970; Brighton Museum and Art Gallery as exhibition officer from

1970 – 1971; Artist’s Market, a non-profit making gallery in Covent Garden, as

organiser; from 1973 to 1976 director of European art exhibitions at The

Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, responsible for two festivals, one in

1974 devoted to contemporary German culture, which inter alia brought Joseph

Beuys to London for the first time, where he made his famous blackboard

environment Richtkräfte, now belonging to the Nationalgalerie Berlin. The other,

in 1975, was devoted to contemporary Greek culture, which brought inter alia

Jannis Kounellis to London.

From 1977 –December 2007 Norman Rosenthal was Exhibitions Secretary of the

Royal Academy of Arts, London, where he enabled and organised all loan

exhibitions, including Robert Motherwell 1978; Post Impressionism 1979-1980;

A New Spirit in Painting 1981; Painting in Naples 1981;  David Hockney: A Drawing Retrospective 1995; Sensation 1997; Joseph Beuys: The Secret Block for a Secret

Person in Ireland 1999; Georg Baselitz 2007; and many more.

Many of the above exhibitions were organised in conjunction with major

museums, largely in Europe and in North America.

Norman Rosenthal has been particularly associated with a series of exhibitions

at the Royal Academy documenting the art of the 20th Century, including German

art in the Twentieth Century 1985; British Art in the Twentieth Century 1987;

Italian Art in the Twentieth Century 1989; Pop Art 1991; American Art in the

Twentieth Century 1993.

At the Martin Gropius-Bau, the leading exhibition venue in Berlin, Norman

Rosenthal was jointly responsible for two ground-breaking exhibitions of

contemporary art: Zeitgeist in 1982 and Metropolis 1991, as well as The Age of

Modernism- Art in the 20th Century, 1997.

In 2005 Norman Rosenthal was curator of the exhibition From Luther to the

Bauhaus – National Treasures from Germany, for the Konferenz National

Kultureinrichtungen [KNK], in collaboration with the Kunst – und

Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland [KAH], Bonn.

Appointments and awards include:

1985-2000 Member of the Board of the Palazzo Grassi, Venice

1987 Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art, London

1988 Chevalier de l’Ordre de Arts et Lettres of the French Republic

1989 Cavaliere Ufficiale of the Italian Republic

1993 Bundesverdienstkreuz of the Federal Republic of Germany

1994-1998 Opera Advisory Board, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

2002-2012 Appointed to Board of Trustees, Thyssen Bornemisza Foundation, Madrid

2003 Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres of the French Republic

2003 Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters [D,

Photo credit: Gina Ruggeri

Robert(a) Marshall’s biography of Carlos Castaneda, American Trickster, is due out from University of California Press in 2022. Their novel, A Separate Reality, was published by Carroll & Graf in 2006; their writing has also appeared in Salon, The Evergreen Review, N + 1 Online, the Kenyon Review, Barcelona Review, Another Chicago Magazine and numerous other publications.

Their paintings, photographs, and videos have been shown at Participant Inc, White Columns, Art in General, Baxter Street, Studio One Gallery, and many other venues in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. They are the coproducer of Trickster, a podcast about Castaneda.

Double Self portrait 1 42 x 36 UV Curable Ink on Mirrored Dibond 2020

Car Window 42 (JFK) 42 x 56 UV curable ink on Mirrored Dibond 2019

Martin Durazo received his Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Art from Pitzer College. Durazo is the recipient of the 2012 C.O.L.A. Individual Artists Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles and a 2011 California Community Foundation Fellowship Award, funded by the Getty Trust.

His work was included in the inaugural 2011 SUR Biennial and in 2010 he was an Artist-in-Residence at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica. He has exhibited at the Torrance Art Museum; PULSE Los Angeles Contemporary Art Fair; Pomona College Museum of Art; MexiCali Biennial 2013; Harris Art Gallery at the University of LaVerne; White Box in New York City; ArtForum Berlin and Art Basel Miami Beach. His work has been reviewed in Flash Art International, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, LA Weekly, Artweek, and Art Review. He has also been a producer for KPFK Radio, where he is regularly featured in discussion about art and social issues.

Oculus, Pablo, and Papa Smurf 2019

Monolith(ic) 2019

Seema Yasmin is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, medical doctor, professor and author. She is director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative,  clinical assistant professor in Stanford University’s Department of Medicine, and visiting professor at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA where she teaches crisis management and communications.

Yasmin was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news in 2017 with a team from The Dallas Morning News for coverage of a mass shooting. She is the recipient of two awards from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Her reporting appears in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, WIRED, Scientific American, and other outlets. She is a medical analyst for CNN and a correspondent for Conde Nast Entertainment.

Yasmin is a fiction fellow of the Kundiman and Tin House writing workshops. Her poems and short stories have been published in literary magazines and anthologies including The BreakBeat Poets Vol 3: Halal If You Hear Me, New Moons: Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims, The Georgia Review, The Literary Review, Foundry, The Los Angeles Review, and others. Her writing has earned awards and residencies from the Millay Colony for the Arts, the Mid Atlantic Arts Council, Hedgebrook, and others.

After training in medicine at the University of Cambridge, Yasmin served as an officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she investigated outbreaks in prisons, hospitals, reservations and other settings; principal investigator for a number of epidemiologic studies; and deployed as strategic advisor to foreign ministries of health. She trained in journalism at the University of Toronto and worked as a staff writer at The Dallas Morning News covering Ebola’s arrival in Texas.

Her scholarly work focuses on the spread of health misinformation and disinformation, the growth of medical and news deserts, and the impact on public health. She teaches creative nonfiction including health and science journalism, global health storytelling, practicing medicine with empathy and compassion, and advanced clinical communication skills.

Her unique combination of expertise in epidemics, science communication and journalism has been called upon by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, the Aspen Ideas Festival and the Skoll World Forum.

Ingrid Berthon-Moine is a French visual artist based in London. Multi disciplinary artist, her work examines the construction of identity and its behavioural consequences in our society. She graduated from a Master of Fine Art at Goldsmiths University in London in 2017. In 2020, she created the online project @lackitlikeit where she interviews womxn, who work in various fields of the artistic and creative industries, on their notion of lack.

Berthon-Moine has exhibited in various group shows at venues including ‘Drawing Biennial’ at Drawing Room (2021), ‘Return to The Body’ Chalton Gallery (2020), ‘Blame The Algorithm’ Stadtmuseum München, Germany (2019), ‘Material Gestures’ Art Licks Weekend (2019), ‘Playground’ Världskultur Museerna, Sweden (2018), Espace Temoin, ‘Solitudes Molles Sous la Lumière Bleue’ Geneva, Switzerland (2018), ‘You Tear Us’ Kelder Projects, solo show, London (2018), ‘We All Have a Problem With Representation’ The Showroom (2016) and the ‘Feminist Practice in Dialogue’ ICA, London (2015).

Wank, 2020. Watercolour. 27.5 x 35.5 cm

Comiiiiiiiiiiiing, 2020. Watercolour. 27.5 x 35.5 cm

Ingrid Berthon-Moine, Thingy 1-9: Rocio Chacon

Looking At a Lack of Perspective: Thierry Bal

In her performances, sculptures, photographic works and video installations Margret Wibmer explores relations between bodies, objects and spaces. Using ambiguity and the principle of chance as a methodology to deconstruct internalized processes, norms and values deeply embedded within our societies, she creates transient ‘realities’ that explore new strategies for connecting us with the world and with others. This becomes particularly apparent in her participatory performances such as Relay where she uses choreographic elements, sound and textile props to engage the public as co-generators in her work. She frequently collaborates with dancers, composers and writers.

Margret Wibmer was born in Lienz, Austria. After her studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, she spent a large part of the 1980s in New York where she worked as assistant for Sol Lewitt together with Kazuko Miyamoto. Since her first exhibition at Fashion Moda in the South Bronx, she has exhibited and performed internationally in venues such as Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2016, 2017), RMIT Design Hub in Melbourne (2015), Oude Kerk Amsterdam (2014, 2019), Ishikawa Nishida Kitaro Museum of Philosophy in Japan (2013); KAI 10 – Arthena Foundation in Düsseldorf (2012), Kunstpavillon Innsbruck (2006). Her works have been featured in publications such Sony Style Magazine and Vestoy, monographies have been published by Kerber Verlag (2010) and VfmK – Verlag für Moderne Kunst (2020). She has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Mondriaan Fonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds / Tijlfonds, Land Tirol, Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts and Culture among others. Her work is included in private and public collections in Europe and beyond. She lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and is currently teaching online at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore.

The upcoming exhibition mentioned: Hella Berend, Margret Wibmer, ‘Intrinsic Oddity’ at LABOR Ebertplatz in Cologne, curated by Marion Scharmann. Opening during DC Open 3 – 5 September, 2021.

The book mentioned in the interview: Don’t cross the bridge before you get to the river Francis Alÿs, exhibition catalog with essays by Kazuhiko Yoshizaki and Yukie Kamiya

Margret Wibmer The walze 2017 Fine art print on Hahnemühle paper 80 x 64 cm (31 x 25 inches) Ed.5 + 1 AP

Margret Wibmer Exchange in Orbit 2012 Archival pigment print on Baryta paper mounted on dibond. In boxframe with museumglas or diasec. 100 x 110 cm (39 x 43 inches) Ed. 5 + 1 AP

left: Margret Wibmer A day in July 2005 Fabric, metal, wood 139 x 20 x 18 cm (55 x 8 x 7 inches) Unique right: Margret Wibmer Breathe – dreams may follow 2020/2021 Fabric, aluminum Installations view: 300 x 170

Mandy Morrison, Ridgewood, Queens, NY 2021

Mandy Morrison’s process explores how the body projects itself in varying contexts.  Her  particular  focus is on physicality; its expression, and how it’s capacity for agency and mobilization is affected by colonized or corporatized structures.

With a practice that straddles between Baltimore and New York, she generates projects that link capital and control with the politics of movement. Her interest derives from a body’s meaning, in having different forms of entitlement to public, private and mediated space. Over the years, her collaborative efforts with video and performance engage with architectural environments and include, dancers, youth groups, and local community participants. Her works have been performed, exhibited and screened internationally at festivals, galleries and museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Dixon Place (NYC), the Kunstlerhaus e.V., Hamburg, CINESONIKA in Vancouver, and the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture in Baltimore.

Grants, fellowships and residencies include the Illinois Arts Council, the New York State Council on the Arts, Wexner Center for the Arts, and the Sacatar Institute in Bahia, Brazil. A distinguished educator she has been faculty at Pratt Institute and Rutgers University, and a visiting artist at Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston, and SUNY Oswego.

In the summer of 2021 she is performing with other artists in the work of Maja Bekan (Netherlands/Serbia) in “Hold It Together (We Have Each Other)” at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, NY developed over 2020 during Covid.

She is a 2021 recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from the Tree of Life Foundation.

The book mentioned in the interview is Underland: A Deep Time Journey, by Robert Macfarlane.

Housekeeping (Video Still) 2018 Single-channel video installation with audio Dimensions: 9’5” x 16′ Duration: 01:46 (loop)

Spirits of Promise and Loss, 2020 (Installation view) Six-channel video installation with audio Dimensions: 4’ x 40’ Duration: 02:31 (loop)

Photo by Michelle Äärlaht

Alias Trate is a London-based outsider artist, working under a pseudonym that refers to the human traits he paints.

He employs a haunting childlike aesthetic to chronicle stark elements of the human condition through traceable brush strokes and distorted physical forms. His evocative canvases marry lightness of colour and form with the gravity of existential interrogation; ontological questions of being, becoming and existence are recurring themes.

The signature on his figurative works is derived from a reimagined coin of Antonius Pius, the adoptive father of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman philosopher king. The coin displays a crowned, faceless bust encircled by the Latin inscriptions Fortem, Immortalem and MCMLXXIV. Having painted in private for over two decades, Alias Trate launched his public debut in 2019 with two solo shows, Emotive Brutes and Unwanted Children, both exhibited at Trate Studios in London. In 2020, his works featured in the virtual exhibition Technicolour Malaise and then in the solo show entitled Zeus’ Bastards at 15 Bateman Street in London. In the spring of 2021, his works featured in a drone-led interactive gallery, entitled The Dionysian Kid, curated by Belgian born curator and academic Tim Goossens, Associate Director at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York.

His work is held in private collections in England, Mexico, the US, France, the UAE and the UK.

The book mentioned in the interview is Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.

Zeus' Batards

Gentle Depravity, 2021, Oil On Canvas, 60cm x 40cm

Lynn Herring at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art

Born in Chicago to a working-class family, Lynn Herring came to New York in her 20’s to pursue a career as an advertising art director and to develop her studio practice as a visual artist in the city that produced many of the contemporary artists that inspired her.

Living in the NYC metropolitan area gave Lynn the opportunity to study at the School of Visual Arts while working at her advertising job. She ended up taking a break from her advertising career and graduated from SVA with honors in 2008 with a BFA in Sculpture.

After graduating from the School of Visual Arts, Lynn began showing her video installations at a funky little gallery on the Lower East Side and had the remarkable opportunity to show her videos in the Pera Museum in Istanbul, Turkey before her eventual move to the Hudson Valley.

Upon arriving in Kingston, NY in 2016, Herring found studio space in Kingston’s Brush Factory. Here was an amazing 100-year old industrial space filled with artists and entrepreneurs quietly living and making their work.

Herring’s studio work is influenced by her work in the advertising industry where bold simple imagery and witty short headline copy is used to execute complex strategies. Her sculpture and print work have a hard-edged and clean graphic aesthetic on the one hand and a wonky cartoon-like form and line quality on the other hand. It is as if Donald Judd and Dr. Seuss collided with each other.

Her most recent work is a reengineered Tic Tac Toe game designed to “Make America Relate Again”. Created with organic crooked-shaped, brightly-colored wood Xs and Os and using a more complicated wonky-shaped game board, Herring’s game is an object used to help many different kinds of people to connect for a playful and sane moment in this time of cultural and political toxicity.

Her interest in minimalism, contemporary culture, social psychology, spirituality, play and humor inform Herring’s work.

Herring has been exhibiting her work since 2005 and has been included in several juried shows including the Pera Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, the WAAM museum in Woodstock, NY, the Visual Arts Gallery in Chelsea and at Wired Gallery in High Falls, NY.

Herring recently completed her MFA studies with honors at SUNY New Paltz in a multi-disciplinary program with a concentration in printmaking and sculpture. She is now taking her XOX game on the road. So, keep on the lookout for her in your local diner, coffee shop, park, gallery or museum. You never know where she may pop up to play a game with you.

Click here to learn about her show that was mentioned in the interview.

The book mentioned in the interview was Slaughter House-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

XOX! Share the Love®, multi-media social art installation at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz

XOX! Share the Love®, social and public art piece with artists (from left to right) Michael Asbill, Lynn Herring and Maxine Leu on the campus of SUNY New Paltz

Promotional image for the Brattleboro, VT events listed below: Lynn Herring Retrospective at CX Silver Gallery Brattleboro VT August 5 through September 5, 2021 814 Western Ave. Brattleboro VT Contact: Adam Silver, CX Silver Gallery [email protected] XOX! Share the Love at Brattleboro Museum and Art Center - Brattleboro VT Saturday, August 6 from 5-8pm Artist's talk and discussion at 6pm 10 Vernon St. Brattleboro VT XOX! Share the Love at Brooks Memorial Library - Brattleboro VT Saturday August 7, from 2-5pm Artist's talk and discussion at 3pm 224 Main St. Brattleboro VT

Susan L. Aberth is the Edith C. Blum Professor of the Art History and Visual Culture Program at Bard College. She received her M.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and her Ph.D. from the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

In addition to her 2004 book Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art (Lund Humphries), forthcoming is  Leonora Carrington: The Tarot (Fulgur Press, 2020) co-authored with Mexican curator Tere Arcq.  She has contributed to Surrealism and Magic, Guggenheim Venice (2021); Seeking the Marvelous: Ithell Colquhoun, British Women and Surrealism (Fulgur Press, 2021), Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist (Phoenix Art Museum, 2019), Juanita Guccione: Otherwhere (Napa Valley Museum, 2019), Surrealism, Occultism and Politics: In Search of the Marvelous (Routledge Press, 2018), Leonora Carrington: Cuentos Magicos (Museo de Arte Moderno & INBA, Mexico City, 2018), Unpacking: The Marciano Collection (Delmonico Books, Prestel, 2017), and Leonora Carrington and the International Avant-Garde (Manchester University Press, 2017), as well as to Abraxas: International Journal of Esoteric Studies, Black Mirror, and Journal of Surrealism of the Americas.

A painting (Necromancer) using The Magician tarot imagery, oil on canvas