Lo-Fi Podcast

In this episode, I talk with my good friend and visual artist Cindy Shih. We touch on a myriad of topics including the effect of the Corona Virus in San Francisco, normalizing your life during these strange times, what the future may hold for artists and much more. 

From her website: 

"Cindy Shih was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Los Angeles with her family at the age of three. She moved to the Bay Area in 2005, and currently resides and works in San Francisco.

Drawing heavily from her early training in Chinese calligraphy, she uses techniques from brush painting, Italian fresco, and landscapes to touch upon issues of gender, race, and power."

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John Wentz

Claudia Rilling is a professional fine artist and teacher residing just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her art is represented by Kim Eagles-Smith Gallery in Mill Valley. Her current work consists mainly of florals, landscapes, and cityscapes. These paintings are based on the relationships of planes, light, and color, placed within carefully constructed compositions.   Originally from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Claudia began studying classical drawing and design at the age of sixteen and dedicated herself to learning these principles. Claudia graduated from Boston University's College of Fine Arts where she further developed her drawing and painting skills. After college, she moved to Philadelphia where she worked full-time for Anthropologie Corporation as the assistant to the art department. Following this, she relocated to San Francisco to obtain her MFA degree in painting from the Academy of Art University. She continues to teach online for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and is an adjunct professor at Pennsylvania College of Art and Design in Lancaster, PA.

In this episode we discuss the Corona Virus Pandemic and its effects on artists, teaching in relation to one’s own studio practice, the power of clarity in painting and more.

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Teaching

Representation

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John Wentz

In this episode, I talk with San Francisco based painter Emilio Villalba. We discuss his new solo show "Back Home," which has been postponed to June 6 at Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco, the evolution of one's work, Alice Neel, what's on his turntable and much more. 

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Interview

Modern Eden

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In this episode, I talk with Barcelona based painter Yula Bas. We talk about the Corona Virus and it's effects on Spain, growing up in Russia, coming back to art after an 11-year hiatus and more.

From her website: Born in Moscow in 1986, Yulia's eclectic artistic journey began at a very early age. From studying with a teacher dedicated to old school academicism as a child, she went on to complete a degree in interior design and architecture. Over the past decade, she has established a successful yacht design studio with her partner, relocating to Barcelona and immersing herself in this unique leviathan realm. Every step and outlet has seen her become more fascinated with the human condition, appreciate the capacity and fragility of each of her mediums – paint and pencil, space and light – and learn more about herself. After a decade dedicated to yacht design, Yulia felt a longing to return to the canvas once again. In many ways an artist reborn, her work harnesses her feelings of vulnerability, her acute awareness of her shifting identity. As she undergoes a metamorphosis of self, so too do her subjects through her honest, incomplete rendering.

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In this episode, I talk with Bay Area-based Illustrator, Graphic Novelist & Teacher Nidhi Chanani. We talk about Nidhi’s journey as an illustrator and serendipitous beginnings as a graphic novelist, comics as a platform for marginalized voices, her upcoming film adaption of her graphic novel ‘Pashmina’ on Netflix and much more.

From her website: Nidhi Chanani is a freelance illustrator, cartoonist and writer. After completing her undergrad literature degree at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Nidhi pursued a career in non-profits. The desire to draw kept pulling her away and in 2008 she enrolled in art school (only to drop out a year later). In 2009 she began completing one illustration every day of the week. She called this Every Day Love and developed her narrative style and voice with three years of daily practice. Thus began her art career and business.

Nidhi was born in Calcutta and raised in suburban southern California. She creates because it makes her happy – with the hope that it can make others happy, too. In April of 2012 she was honored by the Obama Administration as a Champion of Change.

Her debut graphic novel, Pashmina, was released by First Second Books in fall 2017. It received starred reviews in the School Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and was reviewed in the New York Times. In March of 2019, the film adaptation of Pashmina with Netflix was announced. Gurinder Chadha is set to direct.

In 2018, Jasmine’s New Pet, which she wrote, drew and colored released through Dark Horse Comics. Her first bilingual board book, Shubh Raatri Dost/Good Night Friend released in 2019 through Bharat Babies. Her debut picture book, written by Bea Birdsong, I will be fierce, released in April 2019.

She is currently working on her second original graphic novel, Jukebox, with her husband Nick Giordano which is slated for 2021 release. She is an instructor in the Master of Fine Arts, Comics program at the California College of Arts.

Her media appearances include CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 and BBC Radio. Her work has been featured on the Huffington Post, the Women’s March, My Modern Met, Bored Panda and India Times. Nidhi has worked with Disney, ABC, Airbnb, Sony, Microsoft, State Farm Insurance and a variety of other clients. Her non-fiction comics have appeared in the Nib. Everyday Love Art products are sold in retail shops across the country, including the San Francisco International Airport, Books Inc., and Therapy stores.

Nidhi draws and dreams every day with her husband, kid and their attention starved cat in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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In this episode, I talk with Richmond, Virginia based painter Agnes Grochulska. We discuss her relocation from Poland-where she was born-to the United States, taking a long hiatus from art-making to raise a family, the life of Alice Neel and being a female artist and much more.

From her website: Agnes Grochulska is a contemporary realist painter working mainly in oils. She also enjoys creating drawings in graphite and charcoal.

Agnes studied design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland. She currently resides in Richmond, Virginia, and her art can be viewed at the local Eric Schindler Gallery. Since becoming a full -time artist in 2016 her work has been shown among others, at galleries in New York City, Denver, Miami, local galleries in Virginia and abroad.

A solo exhibition of her work took place at Eric Schindler Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, May 2019.

Recent exhibitions include NOMAD St. Moritz, Switzerland with John Wolf, and “New Waves 2020” at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art curated by Susan Thompson, an Associate Curator at the Guggenheim Museum.

Agnes’ work has won several awards and has been published in the Artist’s Magazine, Drawing Magazine, Artists on Art Magazine, and others. Her drawings and paintings have been shown and privately collected throughout the US and Europe, most notably the Del Cerro Family Collection and the DaLuz Collection.

New work can be also found at her regularly updated website, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.

Agnes is interested in a broad spectrum of themes and subjects in her art.  She is drawn to the human subject with all the emotion, meaning, and importance that only the human form can carry. Another idea she likes to explore is the landscape around her, trying to capture the essence of the place.

Her upcoming exhibitions:

* NOMAD St.Moritz curated by John Wolf, Switzerland, February 2020 * New Waves 2020, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, March 20 - August 16, 2020

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Eric Schindler Gallery

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In this episode, I talk with now Berlin-based painter Chris Leib. We chat about being ex-pats in Europe, the meaning of art today, archetypes, religion and much more.  

From his website: Chris Leib is an American fine-artist and graduate of anthropology, renowned for his iconography of Bonobo chimps and astronauts and cosmonauts, often juxtaposed, with exquisite technique and scrupulous attention to detail. Transcending whimsy, his paintings are laden with meaning and intellectual contemplation. Chris’ work explores themes of heroism, human endeavor and the sensitivity of human hopes and ambitions to possible realities of science-fact. His work challenges us to contemplate a collision of science-fiction, reality, and religion, this three-car pile-up viewed from the vantage point of our evolutionary ancestors who have quietly continued to evolve themselves.  -Luke Barrett  

Instagram: @chrisleibart  

https://www.chrisleib.com/   

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In this episode, I talk with Cape Town artist Schalk van der Merwe about growing up in South Africa, his journey to full-time artist, process and scale in his works and much more.

From his website: "Schalk van der Merwe is a multidiscipline, visual artist. Born and bred in Cape Town, he went on to study Graphic Design at CPUT. After his studies and fronting indie rock bands Heavy Petals and Polaroid, Schalk was headhunted to join advertising hot-shop, The Jupiter Drawing Room as a junior art director. He left the advertising industry 15 years later as an International award-winning Art Director and later Creative Director to pursuit his Art.  Schalk’s visceral portraits have a directness about them, yet are underpinned with a tangible fragility. Ambiguous features can morph from immense beauty into utter despair, with hints of the eyes breaking the surface beneath layers of paint, charcoal, turpentine, expressive brush strokes and often the physical DNA from the artists' fingertips. His work explores the concept of taking the mind out of the creative process to allow for more honest expression. His art captures a vast range of emotions and often provokes a strong reaction from the viewer. “My work is not reliant on a cognitive process. I believe overthinking can destroy originality."

IG: @svandermerwe

https://www.svdmstudio.com

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In this episode, I talk with Berlin, Germany based Illustrator and Digital Artist Archan Nair. We discuss his leap from a family business to the arts, digital vs. traditional art, meditation, having no regrets in life and much more.

From his website:  

"Archan Nair is a self- taught visual artist, illustrator and Digital Artist, specializing in mixed media, illustration, and digital art based out of Berlin, Germany. Archan's visual expressions are part of a journey which is really influenced by the mysteries of our existence and how every action, emotion, and our interconnectedness in a universal scale sets of a chain of reactions.. which we experience from the micro to the macro scale."

https://www.archann.net/

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In this episode, I talk with artist Craww (Shaun Friend) about process, beginnings, digital art vs. traditional art and more. 

"Artist and habitual doodler Craww lives and works just outside of Sheffield, on the edge of the Peak District.

His work plays with the beauty to be found in contradictions and ambiguity - life and death, beauty and decay, strength, fragility, the interplay between conflicting and complementing forces of nature. It’s an ongoing exploration of a natural world, where his muses are surrounded by flowing lines and natural forms, and where he works to uncover their ambiguous connections and hidden narratives.

Each piece is a story, or an aspect of an unfolding story that writes itself as he works on it. What has happened? Who are these people? What is their story? He aims to create work that is open to interpretation, asks questions and invites involvement rather than providing answers.

With successful shows in the UK and US, he has found collectors and fans around the world."

http://www.craww.com/about

IG: @craww

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