Subtext and Discourse | Art World Podcast

Dr. Susan Bright is an Australian/British curator currently based in London. She has a specialisation in lens-based arts and contemporary visual culture with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary and international programming. She was a curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London before deciding to work independently in the early 2000s. Her professional life has brought her to live in London, New York and Paris where she has worked with many institutions on a wide range of projects. These include: Tate, Barbican, The Royal Academy, The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Saint Louis Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, and The New York Public Library.

Interview with Susan Bright recorded by Michael Dooney on 3. November 2021 in London, UK.

Portrait photo supplied by interviewee

NOTES

• Full episode transcript (online soon)

• Official: https://susanbright.net/

• Michael Dooney
  

• Official: http://www.michaeldooney.net/

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc: https://pod.link/1475402385

• Official: http://www.jarvisdooney.com/

Michael Barnett is the art features writer for STATE-F22 magazine and special projects lead at Arts Bermondsey Project Space Gallery SE1. Cultural live interviewer for private views and events. Salon organiser for ARTPARTY & KARMA BASEMENT. Radio & TV work and Curator Exhibitions at Sea Spirit of Discovery Saga.

Interview with Michael Barnett recorded by Michael Dooney on 2. November 2021 in London, UK.

NOTES

• Full episode transcript (online soon)

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-barnett-8b87a52b/

• Official: https://www.state-media.com/

• Official: https://project-space.london/

• Michael Dooney
  

• Official: http://www.michaeldooney.net/

• Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc: https://pod.link/1475402385

• Official: http://www.jarvisdooney.com/

Kerem Asfuroglu is a lighting designer, graphic artist and the founder of Dark Source - a lighting design studio driven by social and environmental values.

Following his graduation from Wismar University - Architectural Lighting Design MA in 2010, Asfuroglu has worked at Speirs+Major as a senior member of the creative team for almost 8 years. He worked on a diverse range of projects which include Battersea Power Station and Covent Garden Masterplans, Shakespeare's New Place, Medius House and City Point.

He won several awards including Red Dot, Vox Juventa, PLDC, LAMP and Future of Urban Lighting. He was awarded with the title of Dark Sky Defender by the IDA in 2017 for his works advocating the importance of darkness. He currently works on the Presteigne Dark Sky Masterplan in Wales. His graphic art has been commissioned by Penguin Random House, British Astronomical Association and published in Arc Magazine since 2013.

Interview with Kerem Asfuroglu recorded by Michael Dooney on 2. November 2021 in Hyde Park, London.

NOTES

• Full episode transcript (online soon)

• Official: https://www.dark-source.com/

• Interview in ARC Magazine

Saul Robbins is interested in the ways people interact within their surroundings and the psychological dynamics of intimacy. His photographs are motivated by observations of human behaviour and personal experience, especially those related to loss, unity, failure, and the latent potential residing in traditional photographic materials and personal history. Robbins is best known for “Initial Intake”, which examines the empty chairs of Manhattan-based psychotherapy professionals from their clients’ perspective; “How Can I Help? – An Artful Dialogue”, a pop-up office into which he invites strangers to speak with him about anything they wish for free and in complete confidence. Robbins is also the father of a young boy and since 2012 has created several series of abstract “photographic drawings” and sculptures made from physically altered chromogenic paper and chemistry in response to his desire and struggles to start a family, including: “Where’s My Happy Ending?;” “Chemical Peels;” “Fertile Gestures;” and a new series of traditional photographs.

Exhibitions include The Bolinas Museum, Blue Sky Gallery, Busters, Deutsche Haus at NYU, chashama (Windows Installation), Griffin Museum, Humble Arts, ICP, KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO, Lilac Arts, MASQUELIBROS Artist Book Fair, Lilac Arts, Massachusetts General Hospital, MICA, Museum of Fine Arts – Houston, New Orleans Photo Alliance, Ost Gallery, Moscow, Pelican Bomb, Portland Art Museum, The Educational Alliance, Philoctetes Center, Skirball Center, Mark Woolley Gallery, White Gallery (PSU), and others. His photographs have been published in Aufbau, Berlin Tagesspiegel, CPW Quarterly, D - La Repubblica, Dummy, More, The New York Times, Real Simple, TAM, and Wired, among others.

Grants and awards include The Covenant Foundation Ignition Grant, Sony World Photography Awards (Finalist), U.S. Embassy, Tblisi, GE, AJPA Rockower, Gunk Foundation, and New York Foundation for the Arts. Curatorial projects include Intervening Histories, OFF_Festival, Bratislava (2015), Projecting Freedom: Cinematic Interpretations of the Haggadah (2010), Regarding Intimacy (2007), and No Live Girls, Peep Show 28 (2002). Robbins was awarded a NICA Stipendium from Berlin's Hoch Schule der Kunste in 1998, and received his MFA from Hunter College (CUNY) in 1999, where he studied with Roy DeCarava, Mark Feldstein, Juan Sanchez, and Thomas Weaver. He teaches photography in New York City and has been leading Master Workshops internationally, helping photographers and artists to incorporate communication and professional development strategies into their creative practice.

Interview with Saul Robbins recorded by Michael Dooney on 14. May 2021 between Berlin and New York via Squadcast.

Portrait photo by Matthew J. Bernuca

NOTES

• Full episode transcript (online soon)

• Official: https://www.saulrobbins.com/

Jessica Backhaus was born in Cuxhaven, Germany in 1970 and grew up in an artistic family. At the age of sixteen, she moved to Paris, where she later studied photography and visual communications. Here she met Gisele Freund in 1992, who became her mentor. In 1995 her passion for photography drew her to New York, where she assisted photographers, pursued her own projects and lived until 2009.

Jessica Backhaus is regarded as one of the most distinguished voices in contemporary photography in Germany today. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, MARTa Herford and the Kunsthalle Erfurt. To date, she has ten publications to her name; Jesus and the Cherries, 2005, What Still Remains, 2008, One Day in November, 2008, I Wanted to See the World, 2010, One day – 10 photographers, 2010, Once, still and forever, 2012, Six degrees of freedom, 2015, A TRILOGY, 2017, Far away but close, 2019 and Cut Outs, 2021. All books are published by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg except Far away but close that was published by Another Place Press, Scotland.Her work is also featured in the book: Women Photographers by Boris Friedewald (Prestel Verlag 2014 and 2018).

Her photographs are in many prominent art collections including Taunus Sparkasse, Germany, Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Germany, ING Art Collection, Belgium, Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA and the Margulies Collection, Miami, USA.

Jessica Backhaus is represented by Robert Morat Galerie in Berlin, Galerie Anja Knoess in Cologne, Petra Becker/ International Art Bridge in Meggen, Robert Klein Gallery in Boston, Bridgette Mayer Gallery in Philadelphia, MiCamera Gallery in Milan, Carlos Carvalho ARTE CONTEMPORÂNEA in Lisbon and Wouter van Leeuwen Gallery in Amsterdam.

Interview with Jessica Backhaus recorded by Michael Dooney on 21. May 2021 in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin.

NOTES

• Full episode transcript (online soon)

• Official: http://jessicabackhaus.com/

• Photo book from Kehrer Verlag

• Paris Photo with Robert Morat

Valerie von Meiss is the founder of The Curve a private project space and nomadic gallery in Berlin which has a focus on contemporary collage.

the Curve is a private art space and nomadic gallery exclusively dedicated to the exhibition and promotion of contemporary collage art. Young emerging as well as established artists are given a platform here. Founded 2017 in the hallway of a private apartment in Berlin Mitte, the Curve regularly takes over pop-up spaces and believes in collaborations beyond the traditional gallery landscape.

Interview with Valerie von Meiss recorded by Michael Dooney on 11. June 2021 at The Curve, Berlin.

NOTES

• Full episode transcript (online soon)

• Official: https://thecurveberlin.com/ (scroll down for newsletter subscription)

• Book: https://gestalten.com/products/age-of-collage-3

• Video about Justine's work and process: https://vimeo.com/552753597

Elena Feijoo is the founder and managing director of the Berlin based art gallery Exgirlfriend EGF UG & the non-profit art studio building/art service provider Human Esthetic Resources HER gUG.

Exgirlfriend is a contemporary art gallery showcasing experimental works from emerging artists, and HER is a studio complex and non-profit art service provider. Elena Feijoo is the majority shareholder of both businesses and currently manages all aspects of their daily operations.

Interview with Elena Feijoo recorded by Michael Dooney on 18. May 2021 in Friedrichshain, Berlin.

NOTES

• Full episode transcript (online soon)

• Official: Exgirlfriendberlin.com

• Official: HERcontemporary.com

• Google Image search results...

• Official Website

Gallerist Pierre-André Podbielski, the founder of Podbielski Contemporary, describes himself a citizen of the world.

Of Polish and German descent (father was Prussian raised in Berlin, mother Polish raised in Vienna), born in Geneva and bearing an Australian passport, he is fluent in English, French, German and Italian.

A qualified architect (Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris), a passionate collector, he has become an art dealer and an active partner of Galleria Rubin from 2001 to 2009 - his main area of expertise was abstract painting, photography and site specific commissions.

His participation in numerous fairs (Art Cologne, Artefiera Bologna, Miart, Preview Berlin, Scope Miami) has allowed him to establish a qualified network of contacts among artists, galleries, curators and collectors. In order to best consolidate such acquired experience and face new challenges, he has launched Podbielski Contemporary in Summer 2011 in Berlin.

Interview with Pierre-André Podbielski recorded by Michael Dooney on 9. May 2021 between Berlin and Milan via Squadcast.

NOTES

• Full Episode Transcript (online soon)

• Official: https://podbielskicontemporary.com

• Alfredo Jaar

• The Wall

• ARTE FIERE, Bologna

Anne Schwanz co-founded OFFICE IMPART together with Johanna Neuschäffer in 2018. She studied art and art history at Caspar David Friedrich Institute, Greifswald University and after graduating in 2004 worked at Galerie EIGEN + ART until 2018.

OFFICE IMPART is a gallery, but one that hardly corresponds to the standard definition of a gallery. One of the many impacts of the digital age that is key to the presentation of art is a new understanding of space as a multidimensional structure that can be linked in all directions. (read more)

Interview with Anne Schwanz recorded by Michael Dooney on 23. November 2020 at OFFICE IMPART Berlin.

NOTES

• Full Episode Transcript (online soon)

• Official - https://officeimpart.com/

Felix Hoffmann, has been the chief curator of the C/O Berlin Foundation since 2005. He studied art history and cultural studies in Vienna and Berlin and worked at the Photo Museum in Munich, the Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden and the Museum Folkwang in Essen.

C/O Berlin is a charitable foundation that presents a cultural program with an international standing. The exhibition venue for photography and visual media shows works by renowned artists, promotes emerging talents and accompanies children, teenagers and adults on their journeys of discovery through our visual culture.

Interview with Felix Hoffmann recorded by Michael Dooney on 10. November 2020 at C/O Berlin.

• Full Episode Transcript (online soon)

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