Art Sense

A conversation with British artist Sarah Ball on the eve of her first solo show in New York at Stephen Friedman Gallery. The conversation explores the evolution of her images, the growing scale of her work, her refined surfaces and the inspirations for her ambiguously complicated portraits. The new exhibition, titled “Tilted”, features large scale paintings which explore notions of dandyism in the 21st century.

https://www.stephenfriedman.com/exhibitions/184-sarah-ball-tilted-new-york/

https://www.sarah-ball.co.uk/

A conversation with Tony Karman, Founder, President and Director of EXPO CHICAGO. One of the top international art fairs, EXPO CHICAGO has become a key date on the art fair calendar by welcoming collectors, curators and museum directors from around the globe to Chicago’s Navy Pier during the second week of April. In 2023, Frieze acquired the art fair along with the Armory Show with no plans for rebranding either. In the conversation, Tony talks about what makes EXPO CHICAGO unique, the strength of the Chicago arts community and the logistical challenges of executing an event of its size and scope.

Art Sense welcomes back professor, entrepreneur and author Magnus Resch to discuss his latest book “How to Collect Art”. In his latest work, Resch provides a detailed playbook for aspiring art collectors who are eager to start a collection, but have little or no knowledge of galleries, auctions, art fairs or art advisors.

A conversation with artist James Welling whose most recent photographs will be featured in an exhibition titled Thought Objects at David Zwirner’s 533 West 19th Street location in New York January 11 - February 10. Welling has long challenged traditional ideas of what photography can be. In this latest work, he continues this pursuit by utilizing digital tools in unconventional ways to create works that avoid categorization.

https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/2024/james-welling-thought-objects/press-release

https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/james-welling

https://jameswelling.net/

A conversation with author Paul Thomas Murphy about his new book “Falling Rocket: James Whistler, John Ruskin, and the Battle for Modern Art”. The subject of the book is a landmark libel suit from 1878 that pitted the artist Whistler versus the most authoritative art critic of his time. Ruskin had taken issue with a number of groundbreaking Whistler paintings which captured London by night, claiming them devoid of artistic merit and Whistler a fraud. The book illuminates the decade leading up to the trial, the events of the litigation, and the aftermath of the jury’s judgment.

https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Rocket-Whistler-Ruskin-Battle/dp/1639364919

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Falling-Rocket/Paul-Thomas-Murphy/9781639364916

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1540370.Paul_Thomas_Murphy

A conversation with renowned Spanish sculptor Cristina Iglesias. Iglesias is known for her immersive and poetic installations that blend organic forms with architectural elements to create spaces that invite viewers to engage with notions of memory and imagination. Her latest exhibit, titled Ellipsis, is up now through January 27 at Marian Goodman’s Los Angeles gallery.

https://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/538-cristina-iglesias-ellipsis/

https://cristinaiglesias.com/

A panel discussion Craig led on December 12, 2023 which was hosted by the National Arts Club. The topic of the discussion was “The Art of Digital Manipulation”. In particular, the use of large data sets and custom programs in the development of fine art and the ever-evolving influence of artificial intelligence. Craig was lucky to be joined by pioneering artist Jason Salavon who has spent decades working in the field of generative art and the use of complex systems of data mining to create works that are an uncanny reflection of our society.

The National Arts Club

Jason Salavon

A conversation with documentary filmmaker Sophie Chahinian whose Artist Profile Archive features one-on-one conversations and footage from the studios of some of the most iconic artists of our time, including the likes of David Salle, Yinka Shonibare, Charles Gaines and Shirin Neshat.

https://www.theartistprofilearchive.com/

Lita Albuquerque
Alice Aycock
Troy Brauntuch
Chuck Close
Eric Fischl
Charles Gaines
April Gornik
Dan Graham
Alexandra Grant
David Hepher
Sheree Hovsepian
Virginia Jaramillo
Jon Kessler
Robert Longo
Ed Moses
Shirin Neshat
Arcmanoro Niles
Angel Otero
Carol Peligian
Alexis Rockman
David Salle
Bastienne Schmidt
Joel Shapiro
Peter Shelton
Peter Shire
Yinka Shonibare
Gary Simmons
Ned Smyth
Marnie Weber
James Welling
Letha Wilson
Manoucher Yektai

A conversation with artist Samuel Levi Jones. Jones’ work addresses the lack of African American representation in a variety of historical texts by deconstructing and reconstructing such books into large-scale canvases. In addition to painting and sculpture, Jones has been working to create a space for reconciliation, unity, and cross-cultural understanding in his childhood hometown of Marion, Indiana which is still dealing with the impact of a lynching which occurred over 90 years ago.

https://www.samuellevijones.com/

https://www.galerielelong.com/artists/samuel-levi-jones

https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/exhibitions/dress-rehearsal-chicago-architecture-biennial-2023

A conversation with Pace Gallery CEO Marc Glimcher about the gallery’s current Picasso exhibit which honors the artist on the 50th anniversary of his passing. The exhibit, titled “Picasso: 14 Sketchbooks”, is just that - fourteen sketchbooks that provide unrivaled insights into the development of iconic Picasso artworks over a period of nearly sixty years.

https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/picasso-14-sketchbooks/

https://www.fabarte.org/es/

A conversation with Silvia Karman Cubiñá, Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach. As Miami Beach’s contemporary art museum, The Bass organizes exhibits for its historical art deco building by collaborating with leading artists from around the world on commissioned additions to its collection. As The Bass approaches its 60th anniversary, Silvia takes time to outline what makes The Bass unique, the opportunities the museum has to engage with its community and plans for a new structure.

https://thebass.org/

https://www.instagram.com/TheBassMoA/

A conversation with artist Derek Fordjour about his paintings, sculptures and installations that raise questions of race, identity, and inequality. Derek discusses the journey from his youth as the son of immigrants in Memphis to the inner sanctum of the art world. He also talks about his new show titled "SCORE" opening November 10 at Petzel Gallery in New York. Like his 2020 "SELF MUST DIE" exhibit at Petzel, "SCORE" transforms the exhibit space and utilizes performance to push the bounds of what we think of as a gallery exhibit.

https://www.petzel.com/exhibitions/derek-fordjour2

https://www.instagram.com/fordjourstudio/?hl=en

A conversation with legendary guerrilla poster artist Robbie Conal about decades of activism by the dark of night. Conal’s signature style combines grotesque and satirical grayscale portraits of U.S. political figures paired with clever, hard-hitting text. His poster’s have become part of the American urban landscape and the original paintings that serve as the basis for the prints have found homes in some of the country’s most prized collections. His latest exhibition titled “Raw: Work in Process” is up now through November 4 at Track 16 Gallery in downtown Los Angeles.

https://www.track16.com/robbie-conal-raw-work-in-process

https://robbieconal.myshopify.com/

A conversation with artist Sarah Cunnningham about her vibrant paintings that teeter on the edge of landscape and abstraction. Sarah recently wrapped up her first solo show at Lisson Gallery in London. That exhibition titled "The Crystal Forest" utilizes saturated colors and bold brushstrokes to invite viewers into spaces inspired by ecology, literature and a sense of interconnectedness.

https://www.lissongallery.com/artists/sarah-cunningham

A conversation with artist Tomashi Jackson to discuss her life, her career, and her latest exhibit, up now at Night Gallery in Los Angeles. The conversation is a little longer than the usual episode, but well worth the listen. Jackson makes work that layers site-specific materials and imagery to make paintings that speak on many different levels. In our conversation, she takes time to share the lessons she's learned on the winding road that's taken her from South Central LA to destinations worldwide, while gathering degrees from Cooper Union, MIT, Yale and a summer spent at Skowhegan.

https://www.nightgallery.ca/exhibitions/tomashi-jackson2

https://mcadenver.org/exhibitions/tomashi-jackson

A conversation with artist William Monk about his artistic journey and his latest work. The conversation touches on the significance of scale, his use of repetition, how one defines a landscape, and his most recent exhibition “West of Nowhere” which just wrapped up at Pace Gallery in Los Angeles.

https://www.williammonk.com/

https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/william-monk-west-of-nowhere/

In April of this year, the Museums of Tomorrow Roundtable brought nearly two dozen museum directors from around the world together in Silicon Valley to discuss the evolving role of technology in museums. As dialogs between museum directors and technology leaders in Silicon Valley evolved, it became apparent that planning for the use of artificial intelligence had become a critical need.

On today’s episode, I’m honored to be joined by four museum executives who are an active part of these conversations about the future of museums:

Thomas P Campbell
Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
https://www.famsf.org/

Seb Chan
Director & CEO at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne, Australia
https://www.acmi.net.au/

Amanda de la Garza
Director General of Visual Arts at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and head of its University Museum of Contemporary Art
https://muac.unam.mx/acerca-de-nosotros?lang=en

Suhanya Raffel
Museum Director, M+, Hong Kong
https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/

A conversation with artist Stefan Brüggemann about his artistic journey, the power of words, truth vs. fiction, and his latest show titled “White Noise” up now through January 14th of next year at Hauser & Wirth’s 901 East 3rd Street location in downtown Los Angeles. Later in the conversation, Stefan and I are joined by Sebastien Montabonel whose digital platform The Island has collaborated with Brüggemann to create on-chain artworks that leverage aspects of conceptual and generative art.

https://www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-exhibitions/41874-stefan-bruggemann-white-noise/

https://www.theisland.io/projects/stefan-bruggemann

http://www.stefanbruggemann.com/

A conversation with Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Diva Zumaya about the new exhibit “The World Made Wondrous: The Dutch Collector’s Cabinet and the Politics of Possession” on display now through March 3rd of next year. Zumaya, who is the Assistant Curator, European Painting and Sculpture at LACMA, has brought together over 300 objects for the exhibit, including paintings, prints, sculptures, precious stones, shells, and taxidermy in order to recreate a fictive 17th-century Dutch collector’s cabinet. The result is a dialog about the political and colonial histories of European collecting practices in the 17th century which highlights problematic policies, beliefs and visual representations.

https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/world-made-wondrous-dutch-collectors-cabinet-and-politics-possession

A conversation with artist and author Edmund de Waal. De Waal’s artwork is characterized by large collections of his handmade pottery which are carefully arranged within specially-designed vitrines, while his books, like his New York Times Bestseller “The Hare with Amber Eyes”, examine the past through the personal stories that objects can tell. Themes of origin, belonging, memory, and legacy permeate all of his work.

https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2023/edmund-de-waal-this-must-be-the-place/

https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2023/to-light-and-then-return-edmund-de-waal-and-sally-mann/

https://www.edmunddewaal.com/