Episodes
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with Troy Lamarr Chew II, a talented painter with an ongoing exhibition at San Francisco's Altman Siegel gallery. Troy pursued his passion for art, eventually studying at the California College of the Arts and receiving a prestigious residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts. His recent work explores invisibility, inspired by his time as an Uber driver. His work can be seen in notable museums and galleries. Troy discusses his artistic journey, influences, and unique approach to language and representation in his art.
About Artist Troy Lamarr Chew II :
Troy Lamarr Chew II explores the legacy of the African Diaspora and its reverberations throughout American culture. His work looks methodically at systems of coded communication and how this is translated and mistranslated both within the Diaspora and the mainstream.
Chewâs rich artistic visual language draws inspiration largely from Black culture and its history. A highly skilled realist, inspired by European painting techniques, Chew uses these art historical traditions to reframe their exclusion of Blackness. In his Out the Mud series, hand dyed and sewn cloths from West Africa are replicated in a trompe lâoeil fashion, their patterns âtornâ away to reveal portrayals of contemporary Black culture and resistance. In another series, Slanguage, the artist paints Flemish style vanitas picturing everyday objects, coded in hip-hop lexicon. His Three Crowns series explores the social history of cosmetic dentistry and the use of grills in hip-hop culture. The artistâs lush and luminous oil paintings embody the energy of this infinitely re-mixed yet deeply rooted genre.
In 2020, Chew was awarded the prestigious Tournesol Residency at Headlands Center for the Arts after becoming a Graduate Fellow from California College of the Arts, San Francisco in 2018. Solo exhibitions include The Roof is on Fire, Altman Siegel, San Francisco, CA (2022), Yadadamean, CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA (2020); Fuck the Kingâs Horses and all the Kingâs Men, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2020); WWJZD, Cushion Works, San Francisco, CA (2019) and Stunt 101, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2019). Recent group exhibitions include Walk Against the Wind, Micki Meng and Parker Gallery, New York, NY (2023); The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (2023); Imperfect Paradise, Barbati Gallery, Venice, Italy (2023); Continuum, presented by the Kinsey African American Art & History Collection and Residency Art Gallery at Sofi Stadium, Inglewood, CA (2022-2023); I Yield My Time. Fuck You!, Altman Siegel, San Francisco (2020); California Winter, organized in collaboration with Hannah Hoffman at Kristina Kite Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2019), Vanguard Revisited, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA (2019), Graduation, Good Mother Gallery, Oakland, CA (2019) and Black Now(here), Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA (2018). His work is included in the collections of the Kadist Foundation and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
See more of Troy's work at the Altman Siegel Gallery HERE.
Follow Troy on Instagram: @troylamarrchewthesecond
Troy at the Parker Gallery CLICK HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily features a conversation with writer and art historian Bridget Quinn. Bridget discusses her latest book 'Portrait of a Woman,' which delves into the life of Adelaide Le BĂ©liard, a pioneering 18th-century artist. She shares her journey of discovering Adelaide's work, her challenges in a male-dominated Royal Academy, and her rivalry with Marie Antoinette's painter, Elisabeth VigĂ©e Le Brun. The episode also includes an exploration of how art and letters were used to reconstruct Adelaideâs story and a touching discussion of how Bridget's own experiences shaped her writing. This episode highlights essential themes of art, feminism, rivalry, and the force of Adelaide's will against significant odds.
About Author Bridget Quinn:
Bridget Quinn is author of the books She Votes: How U.S. Women Won Suffrage, and What Happened Next, an Amazon Editorsâ pick for Best History books 2020, and the award-winning Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order), an Amazon pick for Best Art & Photography Books 2017 and a 2018 Amelia Bloomer List selection of recommended feminist literature from the American Library Association. Translated into four languages, in 2018 Broad Strokes was a national finalist for best art book of the year in Ukraine. NPRâs Susan Stamberg calls it âa terrific essay collectionâ with âspunky attitudinal, SMART writing,â marking the second time âattitudinalâ has been used about her work (first: Kirkus 1996). Her current book is Portrait of a Woman: Art, Rivalry & Revolution in the Life of AdĂ©laĂŻde Labille-Guiard, more than thirty years in the making.
Raised on the high plains of Montana with six brothers, two sisters, a devout and sporty mother and a WWII Marine-turned-lawyer father, in a home surrounded by cows and nuclear missile silos, sheâs lived since in Norway, New York, Oregon and California. Sheâs taught art history, history and writing for more than two decades; worked in museums and for galleries and private collections; worked at climbing gyms on both coasts, and was a researcher for the first several ESPN X Games, covering rock climbing, ice climbing, BMX freestyle and downhill mountain biking.
A graduate of New York Universityâs Institute of Fine Arts and a regular contributor to online arts magazine Hyperallergic, sheâs a nationally sought-after speaker on women and art. She is a contributing editor to On the Seawall, and the former co-host of The GrottoPod: Writers on Writing. An avid sports fan and Iron(wo)man triathlete, her Narrative magazine essay âAt Swim, Two Girlsâ was included in The Best American Sports Writing 2013. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family, dogs, and hella bikes.
Visit Bridget's Website: BridgetQuinnAuthor.com
Follow on Instagram: @BQuinnterest
Learn more about and purchase Portrait of a Woman - CLICK HERE
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Missing episodes?
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
This week, Emily features photographer Chloe Sherman, who shares her journey from Portland to San Francisco and her role in capturing the queer community of the 90s. Chloe's work, which portrays a time when the city's rents were affordable and its social spots thriving, has been exhibited internationally and highlighted in a well-received book. The episode also details how Chloe's daughter's social media efforts during the pandemic brought greater visibility to her art. The conversation delves into Chloe's inspirations, daily routines, and creative influences, with a mention of her show 'Renegades' at the Leica store in San Francisco.
About Artist Chloe Sherman:
Chloe Sherman (b. 1969, New York) is a San Francisco-based fine art photographer known for her vibrant portraits of queer life in San Francisco during the 1990s. As a vehement visual chronicler, Sherman captures an intimacy and vibrancy that brings a unique subculture to life, even decades later.
Sherman received her degree in fine art photography from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1999, during which time she began documenting a generation of young self-identified Queers. The community became family, and she reveled in their collective creativity, support, pride, and their strident defiance of cultural norms. This was the catalyst for an entire body of work that would go on to be recognized and shown internationally.
Shermanâs photographs, all shot on 35mm film, offer a window into an era of defiance, freedom, resilience, and tenderness, shedding light on the energy of San Francisco at a time when it was brimming with possibility. Her images are a throughline, anchoring viewers to a moment in Queer history and immortalizing moments of gender experimentation and joy.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at FÂł Freiraum fĂŒr Fotografie (Berlin), Schlomer Haus Gallery (San Francisco), Kunsthalle NĂŒrnberg (Nuremberg), Leica San Francisco, and The Diego Rivera Gallery (San Francisco). She has been published extensively in Nothing But the Girl (ed. Susie Bright and Jill Posner; 1996), RESEARCH: Angry Women in Rock (Juno Books; 1996), Out In America (Viking Press; 1994), Rolling Stone Magazine, Interview Magazine, Deneuve, the Advocate, and the New Yorker. Shermanâs work is a part of the permanent collections at The National Gallery of Art, SF MOMA, and those of private collectors. In 2023, Hatje Cantz Verlag published a monograph of her work, Renegades: San Francisco â 1990s.
Visit Chloe's Website: ChloeShermanStudio.com
Follow Chloe on Instagram: @ChloeDSherman
Learn more about her Renegades exhibit at Leica Store San Francisco, CLICK HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with painter Amrita Singhal, known for her vibrant oil paintings and the Rama Prayer mural in Berkeley. Amrita discusses her background, growing up in a culturally rich city in India, and how her former career as a tax lawyer enriched her artistic practice. After leaving law due to health issues, Amrita pursued painting, finding her voice in oil paints. Her work often explores themes of spirituality, with influences from Giotto and Matisse, and she creates immersive virtual reality experiences based on spiritual practices. Amrita also shares her inspirations and favorite places in the Bay Area.
About Artist Amrita Singal:
Amrita Singhal is based in Berkeley, California. She had the good fortune to study drawing and art history with the brilliant and reclusive painter Louise Smith who was a contemporary of the Bay Area Abstract Expressionists (Diebenkorn, Park, Bischoff et al.) and a one time student of Hans Hoffman, Erle Loran and Margaret Peterson OâHagan. Two of Amritaâs paintings are in the permanent collection of the UC Berkeley Art Museum (BAM). She has painted a Berkeley Public Works Art mural for Meyer Sound and regularly exhibits her work in solo and juried group shows. Amrita is currently producing one of her painting series in virtual reality and as an immersive exhibit.
Visit Amrita's Website: AmritaSinghal.com
Follow on Instagram: @AmritaSinghalStudio
CLICK HERE to check out the Rama Mural in Berkeley.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with Sculptor & Fiberworks Center founder Gyöngy Laky...Ging shares her incredible journey from being a refugee from Hungary to becoming a pivotal figure in textile arts. She talks about her initial inspiration, work at Fiberworks Center, and a teaching stint at UC Davis. Ging also discusses how her experiences and background influenced her unique approach to textiles, incorporating natural materials and cultural anthropology insights. The episode concludes with Ging reflecting on her artistic milestones and the significant impact of the Bay Area's creative environment.
About Artist Gyöngy Laky:
Gyöngy Laky's sculptural forms are exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States. Internationally, her work has been included in exhibitions in Canada, Denmark, Sweden, England, Holland, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Italy, Columbia, Philippines, Japan and China. Laky has participated in the US Federal Art in Embassies Program in Bangkok, Thailand; NATO, Brussels, Belgium; and Poland. In addition to one-person exhibitions in the U.S., she has had solo exhibitions in England, Denmark, Hungary and Spain. She is also known for her outdoor site-specific installations which have occurred in the US, Canada, England, France, Austria, Bulgaria and Italy.
A past recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, Award of Distinction, 11th International Triennial of Tapestry, Central Museum of Textiles, Lodz, Poland; and Award for Artistic Excellence, Women in the Arts, The Womenâs Foundation, San Francisco, CA, Laky was also one of the first textile artists to be commissioned by the Federal Art-in-Architecture Program. Her work is in many permanent collections including the San Francisco MOMA, The Smithsonianâs Renwick Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Oakland Museum, the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu and others (see âCollectionsâ).
In 2002-03, she was one of a team of three to develop a comprehensive Arts Master Plan for the new state-of-the-art, US Federal Food and Drug Administration campus being built in Maryland. In 2003, a book, âPortfolio Series: Gyöngy Laky,â was published by Telos Arts Publishing, UK, and the Bancroft Library at UC, Berkeley, released her oral history. Her personal papers are in the Smithsonian Institutionâs Archives of American Art, Washington, DC. Lakyâs art has appeared in numerous books, magazines and catalogs in the US and abroad. April 2008, the New York Times Magazine commissioned her to create titles for its environmental issue (the titles received an award from the Type Directors Club).
Laky was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1944 and emigrated to the United States as a small child. She graduated from Carmel High School and completed undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley (1967-1971). Postgraduate work followed with the UC Professional Studies Program in India. Upon her return, she founded the internationally recognized Fiberworks, Center for the Textile Arts, in Berkeley, with accredited undergraduate and graduate programs. As of 2005, Laky is Professor Emeritus of UC, Davis, (chair, Dept of Art mid-1990s). She joined the faculty at UCD in 1978 and soon after initiated establishing the independent Department of Environmental Design. In the early 1990âs she developed a graduate program.
Visit Gyöngy's Website: GyongyLaky.com
Follow on Instagram: @Gyongy.Laky
For more about Fiberworks Center for Textile Arts, CLICK HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with Ceramic Sculptor Wanxin Zhang...Wanxin discusses his journey from studying art in China, his move to America, and the influence of prominent Bay Area artists on his work. He shares how artists like Robert Arneson and Viola Frey helped shift his perception of ceramics from craft to fine art. Wanxin's sculptures, which blend historical references with contemporary culture, are showcased in several prestigious museums and galleries. He recounts his early inspiration from his mother and the pivotal moment he decided to move to the U.S. Wanxin also talks about how changing his medium from metal to clay allowed him to express his identity and cultural heritage more profoundly.
About Artist Wanxin Zhang:
Wanxin Zhang was born and educated in China. He graduated from the prestigious LuXun Academy of Fine Art in Sculpture in 1985. In 1992, after Zhang established his art career as a sculptor in China, he relocated to San Francisco with his family and received his Master in Fine Arts from the Academy of Art University. Zhang had been on the faculty of the Academy of Art University, Department of Art Practice at University of California, Berkeley and California College of The Art in Oakland, and the San Francisco Art Institute.
Zhang's sculptures represent a marriage between historical references and a contemporary cultural context; they carry messages of social and political commentary. His work is deeply influenced by the Bay Area figurative movement and artists such at Peter Voulkos and Stephen De Staebler. As a studio sculptor and educator, Zhang was the first place recipient of the Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant in 2006 and the Joan Mitchell Grant in 2004. His sculptures have been shown in San Francisco, Santa Fe, Miami, Seattle, Palm Desert and New York City. In 2007, his pieces were part of the 22nd UBE Sculpture Biennial in Japan; in 2008, his sculpture was selected by the Taipei Ceramics Biennial in Taiwan; and in 2013, he was part of the Da Tong's 2nd International Sculpture Biennial in China. Zhang had his first solo art museum show at the University of Wyoming Art Museum in 2006, with solo museum exhibitions following at the Arizona State University Art Museum, Boise Art Museum in Idaho, Fresno Art Museum in California, The Alden B. Dow Museum of Science & Art in Michigan, Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington, and Holter Museum of Art in Montana. His works have been selected to be included in Confrontational Ceramics by Judith Schwartz, and can be found in major art magazines such as "Art News," "Art in America," "Sculpture," and "American Ceramics." Zhang has many public collections, and his private collectors are located both nationally and internationally. In 2012, the San Francisco Chronicle picked Zhang's exhibition at the Richmond Art Center to be one of the Top 10 Exhibitions in the San Francisco Bay Area.Visit Wanxin's Website: WanxinZhang.com
Follow Wanxin on Instagram: @WxZhang25
For more about M is for Water at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa, CLICK HERE.
For more about the Spirit House exhibition at Stanford University, CLICK HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
This week, we're taking an end of Summer break and revisitng a 2022 interview with Oakland painter Esteban Samayoa. Esteban shares his artistic journey starting from childhood, his growth in Oakland, and his diverse body of work. The discussion covers exhibitions featuring outdoor charcoal drawings, vibrant color paintings reflecting his Mexican and Guatemalan heritage, and installations exploring his recent conversion to Islam. Esteban emphasizes breaking barriers for artists of color, portraying community life, and highlighting the beauty of family and friends in his art. Emily also mentions the upcoming episodes and exhibitions featuring various artists.
About Artist Esteban Samayoa:
Esteban Raheem Abdul Raheem Samayoa grew up in Sacramento and started drawing when he was three years old. His only formal art class was at Sacramento City College, where a teacher showed him how to use charcoal, which became his favorite medium.
A few years ago, to push himself, Esteban moved to Oakland. One gallery offered him a show, then another, and now he has a solo show at Pt 2 gallery, Ainât No Dogs in Heaven.
Visit Esteban's Work and Pt.2 Gallery by CLICKING HERE.
Follow Esteban on Instagram: @wulffvnky
Follow Pt.2 Gallery on Instagram: @pt.2gallery
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with BAMPFA Chief Curator Margot Norton.
In this Episode, Margot discusses her background, including her move from New York to Berkeley and her previous roles at the Whitney Museum and the New Museum. She describes an upcoming exhibition titled 'To Exalt the Ephemeral,' which focuses on impermanent art. She shares the transformative potential of museums, her inspiration from artists like PepĂłn Osorio and Eva Hesse, and her experience working with UC Berkeley students. The exhibition highlights experimental materials, memory, photography, and ends with a video installation by Joan Jonas. Then of course, "Three Questions" with Margot sharing her curatorial career and inspirations.
About Curator Margot Norton:
Margot Norton is the Chief Curator at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA). She is formerly the Allen and Lola Goldring Senior Curator at the New Museum, New York. She organized the 2021 New Museum Triennial Soft Water Hard Stone, co-curated with Jamillah James. Norton joined the New Museum in 2011 and has worked on a number of exhibitions, curating and cocurating presentations by Carmen Argote, Diedrick Brackens, Sarah Lucas, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Pipilotti Rist, Mika Rottenberg, BĂĄrbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca, and Kaari Upson, among others. In 2017, she curated the Eighth Sequences Real Time Art Festival in Reykjavik, Iceland, and the Georgian Pavillion at the 2019 Venice Biennale with artist Anna K.E.. Before she joined the New Museum in 2011, Norton worked as a curatorial assistant at the Whitney Museum, New York. She has contributed to and edited numerous publications and exhibition catalogues, and regularly lectures on contemporary art and curating. She holds an MA in Curatorial Studies from Columbia University, New York.
Find more from Margot HERE.
Follow Margot on Instagram: @MargotNorton
To learn more about BAMPFA's Exhibit, "To Exalt the Ephemeral" CLICK HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily is a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
On this Episode, Emily chats with Alma Landeta, an artist whose work centers on queer and trans representation. Alma shares their background, including their education at the Maryland Institute, their move to Oakland, and current residency at the Palo Alto Art Center. They discuss their unique approach to portraiture, aiming to build a reflective relationship with their subjects. The episode also highlights Almaâs involvement in the LGBTQAI+ community through various projects, including a mural at the San Francisco LGBT center and a show at the Bakersfield Museum of Art. Alma reflects on their inspirations, upbringing, and the significant impact of an influential college teacher. Alma also shares insights on their journey towards embracing their identity as an artist and how they aim to provide hope and comfort to marginalized communities through their work.
About Artist Alma Landeta:
Alma Landeta (they/them) is a mixed-race, Cuban American, queer multidisciplinary artist and educator whose work seeks to build community through the exploration of intersectional identities. They make art about the importance of bodily autonomy for queer and trans people through drawings, paintings, and installations.
Landeta received a Masters of Arts from MICA. They have shown work nationally and internationally through solo exhibitions, group shows, and artist residencies. Alma was the 2022 Homebody Fellow at Ma's House, and 2020-2022 Latinx Teaching Artist Fellow at Root Division. They sit on the Board of Directors as Studio Artist Representative for Root Division.
Visit Alma's Website: StudioLandeta.com
Follow Alma on Instagram: @Alma.Landeta
For more info on Alma's exhibits: Resonantly Me and the 2024 King Artist Residency
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
In this episode, Emily chats with south asian multidisciplinary artist Suchitra Mattai. Suchitra, born in Guyana and now based in Los Angeles, discusses her journey and the influences behind her artwork. She details her move from a background in statistics to a career in art, highlighting how her work addresses themes of memory, labor, migration, and colonization. Suchitra shares insights about her solo exhibit, 'She Walked in Reverse and Found Their Songs' at ICA San Francisco, which explores her ancestorsâ forced migration and personal history through installations made of used saris. The episode also includes discussion about how she combines different materials to tell stories and reconcile her multicultural experiences. Additionally, Suchitra talks about the impactful art pieces and places that inspire her creative process.
About Artist Suchitra Mattai:
Suchitra is a multi-disciplinary Guyanese American artist of South Asian descent. She received an MFA in painting and drawing and an MA in South Asian art from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Recent projects include group exhibitions at the MCA Chicago, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the MCA Denver, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and the Sharjah Biennial 14 and solo exhibitions at the Boise Museum of Art , Roberts Projects, and Kavi Gupta Gallery. Upcoming projects include solo exhibitions at the ICA San Francisco (San Francisco), the Tampa Museum of Art (Tampa, FL) , the National Museum for Women in the Arts (Washington, DC) and Socrates Sculpture Park (NYC, NY). Her works are represented in collections which include Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, the Nasher Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Tampa Museum of Art, the Joselyn Museum, the Tia Collection, the Perez Collection, the Shah Garg collection, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
Visit Suchitra's Website: SuchitraMattaiArt.com
Follow on Instagram: @SuchitraMattaiStudio
For more about her exhibit, "She Walked In Reverse And Found Their Songs" at the ICA San Francisco, CLICK HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
This Episode, Emily chats with Los Angeles based sculptor & printmaker, Alison Saar. She was visiting the Bay Area recently working with Arion Press on their recent production of Octavia Butler's Kindred.
They dive Alison's artistic journey, influences, and her recent project illustrating Octavia Butler's 'Kindred' for Arian Press. Alison reflects on her upbringing in a creatively rich environment, heavily influenced by her artist parents, Betty and Richard Saar. She discusses her techniques, particularly her affinity for woodcuts and linoleum blocks, and the importance of texture in her work. The conversation also touches on Saar's interest in African and Indigenous art, her spiritual connections, and significant influences such as Elizabeth Catlett. The episode concludes with insights into Saar's favorite creatively inspiring places in Los Angeles and her experience of continuously making art from a young age.
About Artist Alison Saar:
Alison credits her mother, acclaimed collagist and assemblage artist Betye Saar, with exposing her to metaphysical and spiritual traditions. Assisting her father, Richard Saar, a painter and art conservator, in his restoration shop inspired her learning and curiosity about other cultures.
Saar studied studio art and art history at Scripps College in Claremont, California, receiving a BA in art history in 1978. In 1981 she earned her MFA from the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. In 1983, Saar became an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, incorporating found objects from the city environment. Saar completed another residency in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1985, which augmented her urban style with Southwest Native American and Mexican influences.
Saarâs style encompasses a multitude of personal, artistic, and cultural references that reflect the plurality of her own experiences. Her sculptures, installations, and prints incorporate found objects including rough-hewn wood, old tin ceiling panels, nails, shards of pottery, glass, and urban detritus. The resulting figures and objects become powerful totems exploring issues of gender, race, heritage, and history. Saarâs art is included in museums and private collections across the U.S.
Visit Alison on the web by CLICKING HERE.
Follow Alison on Instagram: @Alison_Saar
Learn more about her Kindred project with Arion Press HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily features a conversation with Oakland based painter Héctor Muñoz-Guzmån. Hector discusses his life and artistic journey, including his upbringing in Berkeley, education at Parsons School of Design and Rhode Island School of Design, and the challenges he faced with his health. He shares insights into his artwork, including his first solo show 'Tocando Tierra' in Los Angeles, which represents men in his life and himself at different stages. Hector also talks about his experiences teaching at Creative Growth in Oakland, working on a mural with artist William Scott at SFMOMA, and his forthcoming studies in the MFA program at UC Berkeley. The episode highlights Hector's deep connection to his culture and community, and how these influences shape his artwork.
About Artist Héctor Muñoz-Guzmån:
Hector spent his foundation year at The Parsons School of Design and a year in The Rhode Island School of Designâs painting department. He was a finalist for the Tournesol Award at The Headlands Art Center and has received the Berkeley Individual Artist Grant. His work has been exhibited at Fall River MoCA, Bureau Gallery, Movimiento De Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA), Good Mother Studio, and Part 2 Gallery. He published an art book with Sming Sming Books. He works as an artist instructor for William E. Scott. He currently lives in Oakland, CA.
HĂ©ctorâs work has been published in Juxtapoz, 48 Hills, Mousse Magazine and Graphite Journal âPOCKETâ at the Hammer Museum.
To learn more about and purchase his book, Brown Eyes From Russell Street, CLICK HERE.
For more about his exhibit in Los Angeles, Tocando Tierra, CLICK HERE.
Follow on Instagram: @HectorFMunoz
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with NorCal based artist Tucker Nichols as he shares stories about his spontaneous move to Taiwan, where he immersed himself in a vibrant artistic community. He discusses his extensive body of work, including children's books and the initiative 'Flowers for Sick People.' He reflects on his background, including his motherâs influence and his intense study of East Asian art. Tucker's journey includes struggling with Crohn's disease and a career shift to become a full-time artist, supported by his wife. He talks about influential works and places, emphasizing his lifelong passion for art. The podcast concludes with three thought-provoking questions Emily asks every guest.
About Artist Tucker Nichols:
Tucker Nichols is an artist based in Northern California. His work has been featured at the Drawing Center in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Denver Art Museum, Den Frie Museum in Copenhagen, and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. A show of his sculpture, Almost Everything On The Table, was recently on view at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. He is currently an Artist Trustee at SFMOMA.
His drawings have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, McSweeney's, The Thing Quarterly, and the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times. He is co-author of the books, Crabtree (with Jon Nichols) and This Bridge Will Not Be Gray (with Dave Eggers). Flowers for Things I Donât Know How to Say was released in March 2024. Flowers for Sick People, his ongoing multimedia project, can be viewed here.
Visit Tucker's Website: TuckerNichols.com
Follow Tucker on Instagram: @TuckerNichols
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
--
CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with artist and floral designer Tasha Stimage, as they discuss her artistic journey, from her childhood experiences with nature to her current projects and inspirations. Emily highlights her creative process, experiences during the pandemic, and her upcoming installation at the Presidio Tunnel Tops.
About Artist Tosha Stimage:
Tosha Stimage is an Oakland-based multi-disciplinary artist who uses a variety of art mediums to examine how we create language. Her paintings, collages, installations, and floral sculptures âuse experimentation to re-contextualize physical material and histories with fresh perspectives,â she shared.
As the founder of SAINTFLORA, a full-service floral design company specializing in âunconventional flower experiencesâ, Tosha is also a local entrepreneur and the third and final artist within the Presidioâs Public Art Mentorship Program. In July 2024 Tosha will create and install a large-scale art installation to transform the space between the Presidio Transit Center and the enclosed Picnic Pavilion at Presidio Tunnel Tops.
âFlowers put us back in the âcircleâ and connect us to labor, land, and each other,â Tosha shared. âIâm incredibly excited to explore the flora of the Presidio and use it to spark curiosity and fresh perspectives. Nature provides an accessible and inclusive entry way for dialogue around complex social and environmental topics.â
Visit Tosha's Website: ToshaStimage.com
Support Tosha's Floral Shop: SaintFlora.com
Follow Tosha on Instagram: @SaintFloraCo
Learn More about her upcoming installation at The Presidio Tunnel Tops by CLICKING HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
--
CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with Pacifica based artist Saif Azouz, discussing his journey in art, inspiration from nature and literature, his current exhibition 'Cost of Living', and his reflections on boundaries and displacement. Saif's experience with art, his use of materials, and his perspectives on creativity and community are highlighted throughout the episode.
About Artist Saif Azzuz :
Saif Azzuz is a Libyan-Yurok artist who resides in Pacifica, CA. He received a Bachelorâs Degree in Painting and Drawing from the California College of the Arts in 2013. Azzuz has a forthcoming solo exhibition at Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, TX in 2025 and has exhibited widely in the bay area including exhibitions at 1599dt Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Adobe Books, San Francisco, CA; Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA; Galerie Julien Cadet, Paris, FR; ICA SF, San Francisco, CA; Pt.2 Gallery, Oakland, CA; Ever Gold [Projects], San Francisco, CA; NIAD, Oakland, CA; Rule Gallery, Denver, CO; Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY; Jack Barrett, New York, NY and K Art, Buffalo, NY. Azzuz is a 2022 SFMOMA SECA Award finalist and has participated in the Clarion Alley Mural Project and the Facebook Artist in Residence program.
Selected public collections include de Young Museum - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Facebook, Menlo Park, CA; Gochman Family Collection, NY; KADIST, San Francisco, CA; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; Rennie Museum, Vancouver, Canada; Stanford Health Care Art Collection, Menlo Park, CA; UBS Art Collection, New York, NY; and University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, MN.
Learn more about Saif, CLICK HERE.
Follow on Instagram: @SaifAzzuz
Check out Saif's current exhibit "Cost of Living" HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
--
CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with filipina-american interdisciplinary artist Charlene Tan.
In this Episode, Charlene shares her background, inspiration, and creative process behind her exhibition, Warp/Weft which pays homage to her Filipino heritage. It discusses her use of traditional Filipino materials like mung beans and ube, the personal connections embedded in her artwork, and the viewers' responses. Charlene's journey as an artist, from childhood to her current exhibitions, is also highlighted, along with insights into the labor-intensive nature of her work, family influences, and the supportive community that has shaped her artistic path.
About Artist Charlene Tan:
Charlene Tan is an interdisciplinary artist, whose work is thematically focused on the immigrant diaspora and its repercussions, post-assimilation identity, and anthropological investigations of nationalism and cultural heritage. Her work is inspired by her Filipina-Chinese-American identity, reconnecting her artistic cultural heritage of tribal weaving patterns of the Philippines. Using found images by means of digital scanning, these images are edited to pair down to the essence of the pattern.
Once free of scale and color, Tan retraces the patterns to attempt to create a muscle memory of a cultural expression that was once commonplace with her ancestors. Her work has been included in solo and group exhibitions in the US, and is part of several private collections. She holds a BA History and Theory of Contemporary Art with a focus on New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. Born in Houston, TX, she lived in the Philippines before moving to San Francisco for her education and work, and is currently a visiting artist at Minnesota Street Project studios.
Follow Charlene on Instagram: @Char.Art.Tan
Learn more about Charlene's art at the Warp/Weft exhibit at re.riddle by CLICKING HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
--
CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with textile artist Maria Guzman Capron, as she discusses her journey from painting to textiles, influences from her multicultural background, her innovative textile design for the San Francisco Ballet, and her mission to incorporate craft into contemporary art.
About Artist Maria Guzman Capron:
Maria A. GuzmĂĄn Capron was born in Italy to Colombian and Peruvian parents. She received her MFA from California College of the Arts in 2015 and her BFA from the University of Houston in 2004. Select solo exhibitions include The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; the Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA; Texas State Galleries, San Marcos, TX and Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Select group exhibitions include Boston University, Boston, MA; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA; Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA; The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA; Public Gallery, London, UK; NIAD Art Center, Richmond, CA; CULT Aimee Friberg Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA; Deli Gallery in Brooklyn, NY; and Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art, Buffalo, NY. Her works have been written about in Hyperallergic, Variable West, Bomb Magazine, and Art in America.
Capronâs work is in the collection of the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, the Jorge M. PĂ©rez, Miami, FL, and the Speed Museum, Louisville, KY. As a 2022 recipient of SFMOMAâs SECA Award, her exhibition Respira Hondo was presented at SFMOMA through May 2023.
For more about Maria, CLICK HERE.
Follow Maria on Instagram: @MariaGuzmanCapron
Learn more about Maria's Scenic Curtain at the SF Ballet HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
--
CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with Iranian born artist and current UC Davis professor Shiva Ahmadi.
About Artist Shiva Ahmadi:
Shiva Ahmadiâs practice borrows from the artistic traditions of Iran and the Middle East to critically examine global political tensions and social concerns. Having come of age in the tumultuous years following the Iranian Revolution and subsequent Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, Ahmadi moved to the United States in 1998, and has been based in California since 2015.
Ahmadi works across a variety of media, including watercolor painting, sculpture, and video animation; consistent through her pieces are the ornate patterns and vibrant colors drawn from Persian, Indian and Middle Eastern art. In her carefully illustrated worlds, formal beauty complicates global legacies of violence and oppression. These playful fantasy realms are upon closer inspection macabre theaters of politics and war: watercolor paint bloodies the canvas, and sinister global machinations play out in abstracted landscapes populated by faceless figures and dominated by oil refineries and labyrinthine pipelines.
Shiva Ahmadi studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI; Wayne State University, Detroit, MI; and Azad University, Tehran, Iran. In addition to recent solo exhibitions at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA (2017) and Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (2014), her work has been included in major group shows including Home Land Security, For-Site Foundation, San Francisco, CA (2016); Fireflies in the Night Take Wing, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Athens, Greece; and Global/Local 1960-2015: Six Artists from Iran, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NY (all 2016); Catastrophe and the Power of Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2018); and Revolution Generations, Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar. Her work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Asia Society Museum, New York, NY; Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NY; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; Farjam Collection, Dubai, UAE; TDIC Corporate Collection, Abu Dhabi, UAE; and the private collection of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, among others.
In 2016, Ahmadi was awarded the âAnonymous Was A Womanâ Award and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Shiva Ahmadi, a new monograph of her work, was published by Skira in Spring 2017. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art at University of California Davis.
Visit Shiva's Website: ShivaAhmadiStudio.com
Follow Shiva on Instagram: @ShivaAhmadi_Studio
For more on her current exhibit at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, CLICK HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with art curator and art historian Maymanah Farhat.
About Curator Maymanah Farhat:
Maymanah Farhatâs art historical research and curatorial work focus on underrepresented artists and forgotten art scenes. Since 2005, she has written widely on twentieth and twenty-first century art, contributing essays and chapters to edited volumes, artist monographs, and museum and gallery catalogs. She has written for such publications as Brooklyn Rail, Art Journal, Journal of Middle East Womenâs Studies, Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, Vogue Arabia, Harperâs Bazaar Arabia, Art + Auction, and Apollo. She has presented her research at New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Law School, University of Minnesota, the University of Amsterdam, Johns Hopkins University, and UniversitĂ Caâ Foscari, Venice, Italy, among other institutions.
Farhat has curated exhibitions throughout the U.S. and abroad, notably at the San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco Center for the Book, Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland, the Center for Book Arts in Manhattan, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Arab American National Museum, Virginia Commonwealth University Gallery in Doha, Qatar, Art Dubai, and Beirut Exhibition Center.
Farhat has been included among Foreign Policyâs annual list of 100 Leading Global Thinkers in recognition of her scholarship on Syrian art after the uprising (2014) and honored by the Arab America Foundation as one of 40 Arab Americans under the age of 40 who have made significant contributions to the Arab American community (2020). She holds a BA in the History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a MA in Museum Administration from St. Johnâs University, New York.
Visit Maymanah's Website: MaymanahFarhat.com
Follow on Instagram: @Maymanah2.0
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with Iraqi born, Los Angeles based artist Hayv Kahraman...
About Artist Hayv Kahraman:
Hayv Kahraman was born in Baghdad, Iraq 1981, now lives and works in Los Angeles. A vocabulary of narrative, memory and dynamics of non-fixity found in diasporic cultures are the essence of her visual language and the product of her experience as an Iraqi refugee/come émigré. The body as object and subject have a central role in her painting practice as she compositely embodies the artist herself and a collective.
Kahramanâs recent solo exhibitions include; âActs of Reparationâ, CAM St Louis; âAudible Inaudibleâ, Joslyn Museum of Art, Omaha; âSound Woundsâ, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; âGendering Memories of Iraq- a Collective Performanceâ which has been staged at CAM St Louis, Birmingham Museum of Art, Nelson-Atkins museum of art and Duke University; âReweaving Migrant Inscriptionsâ Jack Shainman, New York; âAudible Inaudibleâ, The Third Line gallery, Dubai; âHow Iraqi are you?â, Jack Shainman, New York. Recent group exhibitions include: âNo Manâs Land: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collectionâ, Miami; âUNREALISM: Presented by Larry Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitchâ, Miami Design District; âJune: A Painting Showâ, Sadie Coles HQ, London. Hayv was shortlisted for the 2011 Jameel Prize at the Victoria and Albert Museum and has received the award âExcellence in Cultural Creativityâ, Global Thinkers Forum.
Visit Hayv's Website: HayvKahraman.com
Follow Hayv on Instagram: @HayvKahraman
For more on Hayv's exhibition, "Look Me In The Eyes" at the ICA San Francisco, CLICK HERE.
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Womenâs Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
--
CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 LicenseThe Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com
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