Seen

Painter Suzy Spence spent 35 years making work in New York before trading the city for a sprawling Vermont studio - and she never stopped being radical. In this conversation, we dig into her summer show at the Bundy Museum, the feminist politics woven into equestrian imagery, and why the best paintings should be, in her words, hopefully indescribable.

Explore Suzy's work: https://suzyspence.com/

Join our free art newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/seen/waitlist⁠⁠

If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/watchseenart⁠⁠

About the Have You Seen? series:

The ⁠Have You Seen? Series⁠ is all about talking to emerging and mid-career artists about their journey to now.

Curious about how an artist got to where they are or indeed why they chose art in the first place? Then this series is for you. Join us as we speak to emerging and mid-career artists across the globe. Don’t worry, there’s no hiding behind art speak here, or pretending that being an artist is a bowl of cherries. We’re here to hear it all, straight from the source.

This week on Have You Seen?, Carrie sits down with photographer Anastasia Samoylova - a Russian-born, Miami-based artist who has spent 15 years building one of the most distinctive bodies of work in contemporary photography, largely by refusing to be intimidated by anything.

They talk about Ana's project pairing her contemporary Florida images with Walker Evans's archive, which landed her a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. About what it means to photograph a place that owes its entire identity to images of itself. About publishing as a woman in a field that is still overwhelmingly male. And about the simple but radical approach that has opened almost every door in her career: just ask, and have no expectations about the answer.

Explore Ana's work: https://www.anasamoylova.com/

Join our free art newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/seen/waitlist⁠

If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://www.instagram.com/watchseenart⁠

About the Have You Seen? series:

The ⁠Have You Seen? Series⁠ is all about talking to emerging and mid-career artists about their journey to now.

Curious about how an artist got to where they are or indeed why they chose art in the first place? Then this series is for you. Join us as we speak to emerging and mid-career artists across the globe. Don’t worry, there’s no hiding behind art speak here, or pretending that being an artist is a bowl of cherries. We’re here to hear it all, straight from the source.

Damian Elwes spends years researching each painting, piecing together fragments of photographs and historical evidence to recreate the exact studios where masterpieces were made. He's probably the only person alive who's visited every Picasso studio and every Matisse studio. And he sometimes teaches art historians things they don't know about the artists they study.

In this conversation, we explore his reluctant journey from Harvard playwriting student to forensic art historian, the detective work behind each painting, and what he's discovered about Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Yayoi Kusama, Damien Hirst, and more.

These aren't just paintings of rooms—they're portraits of creativity itself.

Artists Discussed:Pablo Picasso | Henri Matisse | Frida Kahlo | Jean-Michel Basquiat | Damien Hirst | Yayoi Kusama | David Hockney | Rose Wylie | Keith Haring | Georgia O'Keeffe | Donald Judd

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Seen podcast. Liked what you heard? Get early access to these episodes and a ton of other great art content by becoming a member of Seen at seen.art (⁠⁠⁠https://seen.art⁠⁠⁠).

Join our free newsletter and become an art insider:⁠⁠⁠ https://mailchi.mp/seen/waitlist⁠

If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/watchseenart⁠⁠⁠.

Syd Carpenter has spent fifty years expanding what clay can hold and now she's expanding beyond clay altogether. With a major retrospective at the Woodmere Art Museum and three additional exhibitions on view, Carpenter is having the kind of moment most artists dream of. But talk to her for five minutes and you realize she's not looking back. She's still inventing.

In this episode, Syd talks about choosing art over medicine, the teacher who gave her space to become herself, why she rejects the idea that her identity gives her a special connection to clay, and how her garden has quietly shaped everything she makes. She's funny, direct, and deeply generous and her story is exactly the kind of thing you want to hear right now.

Explore Syd's recent exhibitions:

https://www.sju.edu/maguire-art-museum/exhibitions/syd-carpenter

https://www.ursinus.edu/live/profiles/10435-syd-carpenter

https://woodmereartmuseum.org/experience/exhibitions/planting-in-place-time-and-memory

Join our free newsletter and become an art insider:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/seen/waitlist

If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/watchseenart

About the Have You Seen? series:

The ⁠Have You Seen? Series⁠ is all about talking to emerging and mid-career artists about their journey to now.

Curious about how an artist got to where they are or indeed why they chose art in the first place? Then this series is for you. Join us as we speak to emerging and mid-career artists across the globe. Don’t worry, there’s no hiding behind art speak here, or pretending that being an artist is a bowl of cherries. We’re here to hear it all, straight from the source.

This week, Carrie is joined by Dan Webb, a Seattle-based woodcarver whose work has been astonishing her for 20 years. Dan creates sculptures that seem impossible: hands emerging from raw timber, Mylar balloons carved from wood that say "I love you" and actually mean it, gestures frozen in material older than nations.

We discuss his fifth exhibition at Greg Kucera Gallery, "Yespalier," and explore why he's dedicated himself to an ancient craft in a contemporary art world, what it means to carve through 300-year-old trees, and how he finds beauty and agency within the structures that constrain us.

Represented by Greg Kucera Gallery, Dan's work is in collections including the Smithsonian, Seattle Art Museum, and Tacoma Art Museum.

If you've ever wondered whether contemporary art can be both technically masterful and conceptually profound, both beautiful and meaningful—this conversation is for you.

Join our free newsletter and become an art insider:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://mailchi.mp/seen/waitlist⁠⁠⁠

If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/watchseenart⁠⁠⁠⁠.

About the Have You Seen? series:

The ⁠Have You Seen? Series⁠ is all about talking to emerging and mid-career artists about their journey to now.

Curious about how an artist got to where they are or indeed why they chose art in the first place? Then this series is for you. Join us as we speak to emerging and mid-career artists across the globe. Don’t worry, there’s no hiding behind art speak here, or pretending that being an artist is a bowl of cherries. We’re here to hear it all, straight from the source.

Artist and LA resident Richelle Rich joins Carrie to debrief on what turned out to be a landmark week for art in Los Angeles. Fresh from days of fairs, openings, and yes, a lot of driving, Richelle gives us her honest account of Frieze LA and the constellation of events that surround it.

They talk about why this year felt so different from last year's emotionally charged, post-wildfire edition; what it means for LA to transform, however briefly, into a truly international art city; and whether the energy of one extraordinary week can carry a creative community through the other fifty-one.

Richelle shares the works that stopped her in her tracks: a quietly devastating Gillian Wearing self-portrait, a tower of broken pencil points that took real courage to show at a fair, and a series of abstract paintings that made a noisy room go still. She also makes the case for why art fairs, commerce and all, are ultimately good for artists and reveals the one thing she bought.

Plus: the new fairs shaking up the LA art week calendar, why Butter might be the most radical fair model in America right now, the impossible choices that come with navigating a city the size of LA, and what Frieze still needs to do better.

One word for Frieze LA this year? Richelle doesn't hesitate: joy.

Join our free art newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://mailchi.mp/seen/waitlist

If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/watchseenart⁠⁠⁠⁠.

About the Have You Seen? series:

The ⁠Have You Seen? Series⁠ is all about talking to emerging and mid-career artists about their journey to now.

Curious about how an artist got to where they are or indeed why they chose art in the first place? Then this series is for you. Join us as we speak to emerging and mid-career artists across the globe. Don’t worry, there’s no hiding behind art speak here, or pretending that being an artist is a bowl of cherries. We’re here to hear it all, straight from the source.

Shop Harold Feinstein Estate Prints: https://www.carrie-scott.com/shop?category=Harold+Feinstein

Carrie sits down with Judith Thompson as she shares the intimate story of her husband, legendary photographer Harold Feinstein - a man who didn't just capture beauty, he taught people how to see it and live it.

While his contemporaries focused on grit, Harold turned his lens toward joy. His philosophy? "When your mouth drops open, click the shutter." His teaching? "Your life is your canvas." His key word? "Yes."

From their serendipitous meeting through astrology to preserving his legacy after his death in 2015, Judith reveals the man behind iconic images of Coney Island, intimate family moments, and stunning flower portraits.

Discover why Harold's work continues finding new audiences daily, why his students call him a "life teacher," and how creativity itself can be an act of liberation.

Guest: Judith Thompson, Director of the Harold Feinstein Archive

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Seen podcast.

Liked what you heard? Get early access to these episodes and a ton of other great art content by becoming a member of Seen at seen.art.

If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram, @watchseenart.

About Behind The Seen

TheBehind The Seen Series brings on art world professionals of all sorts to give you insight into what the art world is really like. Curious what it’s like being a gallerist, an art critic or a curator? Then this series is for you.

Artist Laurie Frick makes portraits without faces. Instead, she transforms personal data into tactile artworks made from wool felt, leather, and sandblasted glass. A former tech executive who spent 20 years in Silicon Valley, Frick has been tracking herself obsessively—sleep patterns, location data, heart rate—since the early 2000s. In this conversation, she shares her radical vision: that surveillance could become a tool for self-knowledge, what Google executives told her when she pitched them this idea, and why medieval Sienese art holds the key to understanding our data-saturated future.

Explore Laurie's work: https://www.lauriefrick.com/

Join our free newsletter and become an art insider:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://mailchi.mp/seen/waitlist⁠⁠⁠

If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/watchseenart⁠⁠⁠⁠.

About the Have You Seen? series:

The ⁠Have You Seen? Series⁠ is all about talking to emerging and mid-career artists about their journey to now.

Curious about how an artist got to where they are or indeed why they chose art in the first place? Then this series is for you. Join us as we speak to emerging and mid-career artists across the globe. Don’t worry, there’s no hiding behind art speak here, or pretending that being an artist is a bowl of cherries. We’re here to hear it all, straight from the source.

Sponsored by Arthur Analytics.

Join for free: https://www.arthuranalytics.com/seenart

What happens when someone from finance marries into an art collecting family and decides the industry desperately needs better infrastructure? You get Arthur Analytics—the platform that's consolidating auction data, exhibition histories, gallery sales, and art fair previews into what can only be described as the art world's Bloomberg terminal.

In this conversation, Carrie sits down with James Crichton, founder of Arthur Analytics. James isn't trying to make art more like finance. He's trying to make information more accessible so collectors feel confident, advisors work more efficiently, and galleries can reach buyers without paying 20% commissions.

Whether you're a collector, advisor, dealer, or just art-curious, this conversation will change how you think about art market data.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Seen podcast.

Liked what you heard? Get early access to these episodes and a ton of other great art content by becoming a member of Seen at seen.art.

If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram, @watchseenart.

About Behind The Seen

TheBehind The Seen Series brings on art world professionals of all sorts to give you insight into what the art world is really like. Curious what it’s like being a gallerist, an art critic or a curator? Then this series is for you.

Art advisor Tina Corinteli joins Carrie from Doha to give us the unfiltered take on Art Basel's experimental new format. No traditional booths. Museum-style flow. All costs covered. Sounds dreamy, right?

Tina breaks down what really happened: the stunning presentations (Sadie Coles!), the sales situation (complicated), and whether galleries would return if Basel wasn't footing the bill. Plus, she reveals what this fair was actually designed to do—and spoiler: it's not about moving inventory.

Highlights include a never-before-seen Alex Katz selling for $3.6M, epic desert installations, and Tina's brutally honest quick-fire round where she calls it "glamorous" and "symbolic" in the same breath.

If you've been curious about what's happening with Art Basel Qatar, this is the conversation you need to hear.

Join our free newsletter and become an art insider:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://mailchi.mp/seen/waitlist

If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/watchseenart⁠⁠⁠⁠.

About the Have You Seen? series:

The ⁠Have You Seen? Series⁠ is all about talking to emerging and mid-career artists about their journey to now.

Curious about how an artist got to where they are or indeed why they chose art in the first place? Then this series is for you. Join us as we speak to emerging and mid-career artists across the globe. Don’t worry, there’s no hiding behind art speak here, or pretending that being an artist is a bowl of cherries. We’re here to hear it all, straight from the source.