Studio Noize: Black Art Podcast

Katharen Wiese returns to the Noize! We love returning guests on Studio Noize especially when they reach new milestones in life that we can celebrate. Kat was admitted into the Yale MFA program for fall 2022! We discuss how she feels and what she is looking forward to in this amazing new journey she’s starting. Kat tells us her thoughts on graduate school for artists, what attracted her to the program and how she plans on interacting in this storied institution. We discuss her latest solo show, I Made the Corn Rows: Portraits of Black Nebraskans, the podcast she created that accompanies it, the Black ID’s podcast, and her feature in Pressing Matters magazine issue 18. Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 139 topics include:

starting MFA at Yale

the experience of graduate school/school for art

new solo show, I Made the Corn Rows

feature in Pressing Matters magazine

Black IDs podcast

the intersections of diverse backgrounds

research in Kat’s art practice

how to approach a painting and printmaking

Katharen Wiese (b. 1995, Lincoln, Nebraska) is an artist and a community arts organizer living and working in the historic Everett Neighborhood of Lincoln, NE. She holds a B.F.A. in Studio Art from The University of Nebraska at Lincoln (2018). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions across the state including the Museum of Nebraska Art (2021), Kiechel Fine Art (2020), Lux Center for the Arts (2020), Tugboat Gallery (2019), the Prairie Arts Center (2017), and many more. Her work is a part of the Nebraska History Museum collection and the Thomas P. Coleman print collection at the Sheldon Museum of Art. She was a 2018 nominee for the University of Nebraska Vreeland Howard Award and a four-time award winner of the Kimmel Harding Scholarship for Emerging Arts (2014-2018). Wiese has curated art shows across the state for the past four years with an emphasis on sharing the work of artists of color. Wiese views building an art historical cannon that decentralizes patriarchy and white supremacy as her central work as an artist-curator. Wiese's work analyzes the relationship between power and Blackness related to art history, colorism within media representation, and multiracial individuals. Wiese uses found materials and portraiture to make evident the relationship between identity formation and the material world.

See More: www.katwiese.com + Katharen Wiese IG @katharen.wiese

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It’s a special episode of Studio Noize as your boy JBarber, does his man on the street interviews at the East Point Better Block Street Festival. Black Art In America is opening up a brand new headquarters in East Point, GA, and part of that comes with a commitment to be a part of the community. Najee Dorsey, founder of Black art in America, pulled up with a tent, some art, and two artists live painting at the Street Festival. I talked with the folks there and you get a sense of the excitement from the neighborhood, the community leaders, and the artists about how much it means to have the BAIA headquarters, and art in general, be a part of the East Point vibe. Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 138 topics include:

the new Black Art In America Gallery

the value of art in the community

how to improve communities

living in East Point

migration

paying homage to the artists that came before us

BLACK ART IN AMERICA™ (BAIA) is a leading online portal and network focused on African-American Art with visitors from over 100 countries visiting our site each month and about half a million visitors to our social media pages for Black Art In America™, Garden Art for the Soul, Everythang Black and Do You Basel?™. Black Art In America™, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter comprise our online virtual network and resource. BAIA amplifies thought-provoking commentary on today’s visual arts news from a variety of perspectives, including breaking news, gallery meet-ups, market trends, and profiling leading (and emerging) Black visual artists in the country. In addition, BAIA offers stories about collecting and provides a eNewsletter that helps art enthusiasts worldwide keep up to date on the changing and forever evolving Black visual arts market.

See More: www.blackartinamerica.com/ + Black Art In America IG @blackartinamerica_

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We all would want to be in class with Virginia-based artist Clayton Singleton. Clayton joins the Studio Noize fam and has a wide-ranging discussion about his colorful layered artwork, the art community in the Virginia area and the fantastic way that he approaches teaching. He tells us some great childhood stories that feed into reoccurring themes in his work. We talk about his use of adinkra symbols and how he balances his personal work and ideas with his robust portrait commission work. It’s another great conversation on the Noize. Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 137 topics include:

the Virginia art community

adinkra symbols/meaning

teaching with passion

taking care of family

doing portrait commissions

the business of art

the Soul Finger Project at Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center

“You sense what people call passion” when you are around Clayton Singleton. This Virginia resident’s blend of verbal and visual art inspires, motivates and educates. In addition to once being a member of the Hampton Roads National Poetry Slam Team, he has been noted in many publications ranging from The Virginian Pilot to Time magazine.   

Clayton has created public art, won numerous awards, and produced several solo and group shows including Walking on Paper at ArtWorks gallery, Recent Works: ART INSTALLATION PERFORMANCE at SONO gallery and LOOK BEYOND at d’ART Center @The Selden, which benefited The Autism Society of Tidewater. The Virginia Opera commissioned Clayton to design sets for Porgy and Bess and Freedom’s Journey.   ​Clayton has served as a member of Norfolk's All-City Teaching Team, The d'ART Center Board of Directors and Norfolk Arts Commission. 

In addition to helping rewrite Norfolk's art curriculum, he produced solo exhibitions DEFINING BEAUTY at The Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, CULTURAL SHIFT at The James Wise Gallery at Norfolk State University, LOVE OF THE GAME at The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum and VALEDICTORIAN which consists of paintings, mixed media and video; an extension of the group show Looking Both Ways: Roots in African American Art at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center. Moreover, Singleton exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, The Chrysler Museum of Art and has co-curated regional group exhibitions such as NOW: African-American Artists in Tidewater. Most recently he produced a solo exhibition FUTURE LOVE PARADISE which toured for two years beginning at Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center and ended at his alma mater Virginia Wesleyan University.

See More: www.claytonsingleton.com + Clayton Singleton IG @claytonsingletonartist

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The one and only Milton “510” Bowens joins the podcast to talk about the inspiration behind his signature mixed media work. Milton has been making his painting for over 30 years and still has a big passion for what he does. He’s developed an unmistakable style with his collage paintings. He talks about the professor that inspired him, how he gathers his images, uses text in art to make a statement, and how he uses his work to educate and not just decorate. Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 136 topics include:

how he got the “510” moniker

using Black icons in artwork

Basquiat’s influence in art

using symbols and text in art

being a Black artist

why Milton makes art for the people

Born and raised in Oakland, Calif., Milton Bowens is the fifth boy of ten children and also the youngest of the ten, that’s the origin of his unique signature Milton 510. Milton’s artistic promise began at the age of five with nothing more than a few pencils and cut-up brown paper bags stapled together and used as sketch paper, thanks to his mother’s ingenuity of making the best of lean times. Milton never lost sight of his humble roots. Discreetly placed on many of his collage works is a piece or strip of brown paper bag a subtle reminder it doesn’t take much to spark creativity. Years later, Milton’s formal art education took off while he attended the Renaissance Art School in Oakland during his junior and senior high school years. Milton is a nationally recognized artist and activist, who has been creating powerful work for the past 20 years. With his unique brand of mixed media paintings, enveloping the viewer as witness, participant, and long-lost relatives. They become reflections on family, life and culture. Having one of his jazz collections “Afro-Classical” was used as a part of a course study on the Harlem Renaissance at Cornell University since 2009. His work was recently featured in Transitions Magazine which is published by Harvard University. Milton 510’s art sparks conversation on art, history, and the times in which we live today his work promises to be as direct, open, and honest as artistically possible. In 2010 Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson appointed Milton as the Arts and Education Spokes Person for Sacramento’s Any Given Child partnership with the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts Washington D.C.

See More: www.milton510.com + Milton Bowens IG @milton510

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LA based artist Carla Jay Harris joins the Studio Noize fam! Carla makes intricate and layered digital art using a unique process to build her narratives. She walks us through her process of creating a series like A Season in the Wilderness which is currently on display at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History. Carla talks about the importance of a process, weaving narratives that let viewers into the story, and making space for her creative work by maintaining her 9 to 5. We’re back with another great episode of the Noize! Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 135 topics include:

digital composite art

putting together a series

traditional vs digital photography

working with a gallery

having a job as an artist

crafting abstract narratives

exploring materials

Born in Indianapolis, IN, but raised traveling the world as the child of a military officer, Carla Jay Harris’s social and artistic development was impacted tremendously by the geopolitical and natural environments she encountered. She fervently believes that physical and physiological space has a fundamental, lasting impact on personal identity. While the environment around us is constantly evolving, photography has the power to capture a place or a moment—transforming a flicker in time into a lasting, appreciable statement. Harris’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the California African American Museum, CA; the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, CA; the Southern, Charleston, SC; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; and the Museum of Fine Arts Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. She has been the beneficiary of several grants and fellowships, including the Hoyt Scholarship, Resnick Fellowship, and a grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance. Harris completed undergraduate coursework at the School of Visual Arts in New York, received her Bachelor’s degree with distinction from the University of Virginia, and her MFA from UCLA in 2015. She lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

See More: www.carlajayharris.com + Carla Jay Harris IG @carlajayharris

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LaToya Hobbs returns to Studio Noize! LaToya has been on an amazing run with her latest work since her last time on the podcast. We catch back up with her in hearing all about her exciting show and successes including the phenomenal Carving Time installation that is currently on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art through April 3. She talks about how she was inspired by Kerry James Marshall to create Carving time and all the levels to this amazing piece. We. talk about how much her work has changed, leaning into what she does, and some of her work with Black Women of Print. Warning we get into all the printmaking nitty-gritty and you know your boy JBarber loves that. Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 134 topics include:

developing as an artist

importance of drawing

Carving TIme installation

tackling a big project

artistic influence

Kerry James Marshall

Elizabeth Catlett

Black Women of Print

Black family and legacy

LaToya M. Hobbs is an artist, wife, and mother of two from Little Rock, AR who is currently living and working in Baltimore, MD. She received her BA in Painting from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and MFA in Printmaking from Purdue University. 

LaToya’s work deals with figurative imagery that addresses the ideas of beauty, cultural identity, and womanhood as they relate to women of the African Diaspora.  She creates a fluid and symbiotic relationship between her printmaking and painting practice producing works that are marked by texture, color, and bold patterns.

Her exhibition record includes several national and international exhibits in locations such as the National Art Gallery of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia, Prizm Art Fair, Miami, FL, the Community Folk Arts Center in Syracuse, NY, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL and the Sophia Wananmaker Galleries in San Jose, Costa Rica among others.

See More: www.latoyamhobbs.com + LaToya Hobbs IG @latoyahobbs

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Studio Noize bringing in the big guns to discuss the wide world of Black art. In episode 133 we talk to the curator, writer, and cultural historian TK Smith about his work creating and explaining the context in which Black art is produced. We get into his curatorial practice which includes shows at the Zuckerman Museum of Art in Kennesaw, GA, and the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia. Tk has written for Art In America, the Monument Lab Bulletin, and Art Papers. He tells us how he reviews shows and what were some of his favorite shows he’s seen recently including the Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse previously on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. Its an in-depth conversation with one of the bright young thinkers in contemporary Black art. Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 133 topics include:

Curating and institutions

the importance of networking

curating shows

Looming Chaos by Zipporah Camille Thompson

the Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse

writing exhibition reviews

exploring the meaning of monuments

Smith’s curatorial projects include Roland Ayers: Calligraphy of Dreams at the Woodmere Museum of Art in Philadelphia, PA. (2021), the 2021 Atlanta Biennial exhibition Virtual Remains at the Atlanta Contemporary in Atlanta, GA. (2021), and Zipporah Camille Thompson: Looming Chaos at the Zuckerman Museum of Art in Kennesaw, GA. (2020).

His writing has been published in Art in America, the Monument Lab Bulletin, and ART PAPERS, where he is a contributing editor. In 2021 he was invited to be the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Vashon Artist Residency and, most recently, he was a 2022 recipient of an Andy Warhol Writers Grant.

Smith is a doctoral student in the History of American Civilization program at the University of Delaware, where he researches art, material culture, and the built environment. He received his Master of Arts in American Studies and his Bachelor of Arts in English and African American Studies, with a certificate in Creative Writing from Saint Louis University.

See More: www.tksmith106.com + TK Smith IG @tksmith106

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Welcome back public theologian, writer, and activist Dr. Christena Cleveland to the Noize! Christena’ new book God Is A Black Woman is out now and she returns to the podcast to talk about it. We talk about her journey finding the Black Madonnas, the revelations that come from accepting her sacredness, and how art and theology intersect with our spiritual beliefs. We talk more about her love for art and some of her favorite creators. Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 132 topics include:

God Is A Black Women book

Black Madonnas in France

spirituality and art

overcoming programmed beliefs

Delita Martin

Harmonia Rosales

accepting your sacredness

Christena Cleveland, Ph.D. is a social psychologist, public theologian, author, and activist. She is the founder and director of the Center for Justice + Renewal as well as its sister organization, Sacred Folk, which creates resources to stimulate people’s spiritual imaginations and support their journeys toward liberation. An award-winning researcher and former professor at Duke University’s Divinity School, Christena lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

See More: www.christenacleveland.com + Dr Christena Cleveland IG @christenacleveland

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Studio Noize goes live! Painter and artist Demetri Burke called on your boy JBarber to moderate his artist talk for his solo exhibition, And Then We Heard Thunder, at Mint Gallery in Atlanta. The crowd was great and you get to hear Demetri talk about his work in a strong way. We discuss pieces hanging in the show, his process of creating this body of work, and how he’s developing and growing as an artist. Demetri gave some great insights into the work, his interacting with his various mentors like Charly Palmer and Arturo Lindsay, and transitioning out of undergrad into the art world. Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 131 topics include:

Mint Leap Year artist residency

the process of painting

the value of mentorship

creating a solo exhibition

being the subject of a painting

learning the art business

Demetri Burke is a young artist recently receiving their BFA Degree in Studio Art, Magna Cum Laude, from Georgia State University and is currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. His latest highlight includes being featured in the 3rd annual AXA Art Prize Juried Exhibition held in New York Academy of Art, juried by Ian Alteveer, Lauren Haynes, Brett Littman and Eugenie Tsai. He uses mixed media, including charcoal, oil paint, and found images, to express narratives of identity and culture on canvas. Abstraction, montage and realistic rendering are key parts in his creation process.

See More: www.dmtriburke.com + Demetri Burkee IG @demetri.stefan

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Studio Noize welcomes oil painter Rae Denise to the fam! Rae creates wonderful fantasy portraits that blend cultures, mythologies, and narratives. We talk with her about her recent solo show Sisters of Twine and Gold, how she approaches building her audience and exploring new concepts outside of the world we know. Rae shares her process and talks about her switch from digital to physical painting. It’s a great conversation with an amazing young artist Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 130 topics include:

digital art vs physical art

oil painting

creating characters

Sisters of Twine and Gold

celebrating Black women in visual art

details in painting

Rae Denise bio

“I am a painter and illustrator, residing in Chicago, IL. I spent most of my career freelancing, illustrating children’s books, and producing portraits with a blend of royalty and fantasy. Recently, I have decided that I am more fulfilled and secure in working for myself full time to reach my desired goals. Now, I have more time to paint, explore, and bring my passion projects to fruition.

My artwork collectively is a collaboration between my memories, daydreams, and inspirations. I love working with Oils; it gives me the freedom to manipulate and communicate with an array of methods while bridging my love of diverse themes and styles.

My practice now solely focuses on amplifying my voice through a series of works infused with fantasy, enriched with culture, and celebrated with nature.'“

See More: https://www.raedenise.com + Rae Denise IG @_rae.denise_

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