hyperallergic

Welcome to another insightful episode of "The Truth in This Art." Join our host, Rob Lee, as he converses with Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Hyperallergic, a forum for playful, serious, and radical perspectives on art and culture in the world today.

In this engaging episode, we explore:

• Hrag's personal journey as an art critic, curator, and lecturer.
• The inception and evolution of Hyperallergic.
• Hrag's reflections on his artistic identity and his creative influences.
• The significance of diversity of opinion and truth in art and journalism.
• The intersection of art and activism.
• The impact of chance encounters and luck in shaping careers.
• The changing landscape of writing and journalism within the art world.
• Strategies to make art more accessible to those who feel alienated by it.
• The importance of downtime and play in fostering creativity.

Get ready to dive into a stimulating conversation that traverses art, culture, and politics, offering an insider's perspective on the realities shaping these domains.

Don't forget to share your thoughts on this episode using #thetruthinthisart, and consider leaving us a review and subscribing to ensure you never miss an episode. Thank you for tuning in!

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This program is supported (in part) by a grant from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.

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Original music by Daniel Alexis Music with additional music from Chipzard.

Episode illustration by Alley Kid Art.

About "The Truth In This Art"

"The Truth In This Art," hosted by Rob Lee, is a podcast that explores the essence of creativity and its community impact, amplifying artists' voices and their profound stories.

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Last year, we published a dossier of statements by leading scholars supporting the fight of Tamara Lanier to reclaim the daguerreotypes of her ancestors from the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. Lanier, who lives in Norwich, Connecticut, had long heard stories through her family about an ancestor named Papa Renty, a learned man from Africa who was enslaved and brought to the United States under inhumane conditions. Those stories about Renty were important to her family and to the memory of their heritage that they kept alive. 

Then one day, Lanier discovered that there were photographs of her relative, and they were deposited at Harvard University because of a 19th-century racist academic named Louis Agassiz. Agassiz had commissioned them to "prove" his White Supremacist ideas about race and they lay in a trunk at the Peabody Museum until a researcher resurfaced them in the 1970s.

In this podcast, I speak to Lanier about the continuing fight to reclaim her family heritage by asking Harvard to accept her right to the ownership of the images. She discusses a fascinating visit to the home of descendants of the Taylor family, enslavers who claimed Lanier's ancestors as property, and some surprising discoveries she made along the way.

This is a must-hear episode, and I would highly recommend reading Valentina Di Liscia's excellent article, which was part of our special dossier, that summarizes the history of the court case and the larger fight to "Free Renty."

Lanier has also allowed us reproduce some of the photographs she took at the Taylor family home, which includes various items of furniture created by her ancestors when they were enslaved.

Related Links:

• The Continuing Fight to #FreeRenty
• Legal Precedents or Reparations? Lawsuit Against Harvard May Decide Who Owns Images of Enslaved People

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Tim Kang started his career as a software engineer for Deutsche Bank and invested a year of savings in Ethereum in early 2016, and let’s just say it’s paying off. The North Carolina native, who is known online as “illestrater,” is now a digital art collector and purchased works by Murat Pak and Beeple before all the recent auction sales and press coverage propelled them into the spotlight. 

He’s founded other artist platforms, including CUE Music and Universe.XYZ, and his latest organization, Sevens Foundation, is offering “Sevens Genesis Grants” for emerging and underrepresented artists to mint their first NFT. Kang calls himself a “champion of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ artists” in the NFT space.

I spoke to him to learn more about his interest in NFTs and collecting digital assets and his thoughts on the future of the field. 

This is a continuation of a series of podcasts we’re publishing on the evolving terrain of NFTs and their impact on artists and the arts community.

The music for this episode is “Autowave” by Kelly Moran from the album Ultraviolet, which is available from Warp Records.

Subscribe to Hyperallergic on Apple Podcasts, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

Since she first emerged into the spotlight in the 1990s, artist Shahzia Sikander has forged her own path with artworks that meld traditional manuscript illumination and calligraphy techniques with visual innovations that seem to transform into an alchemical universe of awe, wonder, and intimacy. 

Her current exhibition at Sean Kelly gallery, her first in a decade, includes three animation works and continues to push ink, gouache, and mosaic to new heights in her art. There, she is also displaying her first bronze sculpture.

In this conversation, Sikander joins me in the Hyperallergic studio to talk about making art through the pandemic, what she wants her art to do, and her hopes for a new post-pandemic art world.

The music in this episode is “Animal” by Radiochaser. 

Subscribe to Hyperallergic’s Podcast on iTunes, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

We can’t believe it’s been four years since the 2016 US Election, and here we are again. I’m joined this episode by the Hyperallergic news team — news editor Jasmine Weber, and reporters Valentina Di Liscia and Hakim Bishara — to discuss the stories we reported on over the last six months. These include a look at Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s records on the arts; various mural and poster projects that have engaged local communities; the decision of some museums not to serve as polling places; and other news of note.

It’s election day, so we hope all those who can will vote.

The music featured in this episode is “Wink Wink” by Teddi Gold.

Subscribe to Hyperallergic’s Podcast on iTunes, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

A few weeks ago, artist Sam Durant released a long essay about his work, "Scaffold," which reflects on the project that dominated art world headlines. Originally commissioned for documenta (13) — the influential quinquennial exhibition in Kassel, Germany — in 2012, it wasn't until "Scaffold" was installed in the Walker Art Center's sculpture park in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, that it was met with protests by the local Dakota community.

That event was a lightning rod for a national conversation about appropriation, racism, and the role of artists, museums, curators, and others in those conversation. I invited Durant to join me on the podcast to discuss the reason he wrote this so many years after the fact and what he thinks the lessons are.

The music featured in this episode is the track “California Life” by Radiochaser.

Subscribe to the Hyperallergic Podcast on Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

Hyperallergic news editor Jasmine Weber and reporter Valentina Di Liscia joined me to parse the latest PPP loan news and discuss the list of beneficiaries.

Previously, we reported on galleries, museums, and nonprofits in New York and Los Angeles that received loans, and noted that the world’s most exclusive art galleries received millions of dollars of taxpayer money. In this conversation we offer some additional details and thoughts about the news.

We also discuss the evolving discussion around the blurring of faces in protest photographs, following a statement issued by ICP Center Blackness Now on the need for guidelines for protest photographers. Photographer Dawoud Bey offered his thoughts in the comments of the post we published, which has extended the conversation. We share our thoughts on the topic.

The music for this episode is “The One” by The Wayves.

Hyperallergic is continuing to cover the biggest stories in the art community during the pandemic. Subscribe to our daily newsletter to stay up to date.

Subscribe to Hyperallergic’s Podcast on iTunes, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

Last week, Hyperallergic published a five-part series, titled The Danger Epidemic in Art Handling, on the realities facing art handlers in the United States. The story generated a lot of debate and shocked many who were never forced to think about the conditions workers are forced to endure when assembling and transporting art of all types.

This conversation with Hyperallergic Senior Writer Zachary Small and Associate News Editor Jasmine Weber explores the contours of the topic, the difficulties of reporting on contentious art world issues, and how investigative reporting is crucial for change. We also discuss the Sotheby's lockout of art handlers, which we covered extensively in 2011 and 2012.

A special thanks to Peter Gabriel's Real World Records for allowing us to play a special live track by world music legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The label is celebrating its 30th anniversary of Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records and they marked the occasion by announcing the release of a previously unheard recording by the legendary qawwali singer. The recording includes Khan’s performance at WOMAD Festival in 1985, which was the first time the singer had performed in front of a mainly non-Asian audience. As a longtime fan of Khan's genius, I'm honored to include his music in this episode.

This and more in the current episode of Hyperallergic’s Art Movements podcast.

Subscribe to Hyperallergic’s Art Movements on iTunes, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

Most of our earliest experiences of art are forged at museums. In this episode artist Kent Monkman recounts his own youth visiting institutions that didn’t reflect the lived reality around him and his Cree community in Winnipeg. 

Since those formative years, Monkman has become an important voice in contemporary art who challenges the histories told inside the hallowed halls of museums, pushing them to reflect the complexity of the world around them. He is an artist who teaches us to imagine the world we want to see, one that refuses to erase the stories of pain, but instead uses them to portray the power of resilience and future possibilities.

This is the first in a four-part series by Hyperallergic in conjunction with the Gardiner Museum and its Community Art Space, a platform for experimentation and socially-engaged art. The series explores the role of museums, ceramics, and the stories they tell.

A special thanks to Brooklyn-based musician SunSon for providing the music to this episode, and you can check out his website sunson.band. You can also follow him on Facebook or Instagram.

During this special Pride Month, I knew we'd all need the wisdom of artist Nayland Blake, who is a leader in the field of queer representation and art, but that is one of his many talents as an artist, activist, educator, and innovator.

This episode, I talk to Blake to learn about their experiences growing up biracial and queer in New York, going to school in Southern California, their formative years in San Francisco, and their return to New York. They also school me on kink.

A special thanks to Twig Twig for the music to this week’s episode. You can listen to that and more at twigtwig.bandcamp.com and other streaming services.

This episode is sponsored by Swann Auction Galleries.

Swann’s first ever “Pride Sale,” a curated auction of material related to the LGBTQ+ experience and the gay rights movement, takes place on June 20, 2019. A corresponding exhibition of works on offer will run from June 15 through the sale.

When news that Michael Rakowitz withdrew from the 2019 Whitney Biennial was published by the New York Times on February 25, people wondered why the Iraqi-American artist decided to sit out the biannual art event.

Later, in April, when the Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything opened at the Jewish Museum, many people noticed that Rakowitz's work about the renowned Canadian crooner’s relationship with Zionism and Israel — which appeared in the original exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal — wasn’t there. Why?

Rakowitz talks to me about the controversies with both exhibitions and his thoughts on museums and power. He also reads his 2015 letter to Leonard Cohen, which he mailed to the singer a year before the legend died.

And, as a special treat, the music in this podcast is performed by Rakowitz himself.

A business and financial literacy conference, the Art World Conference is gathering together 50 speakers for panel discussions, conversations, and in-depth workshops addressing many of the challenges faced by visual artists and arts professionals who work closely with artists. The multi-day event is the brainchild of Dexter Wimberly and Heather Bhandari, two veterans of the art field who bring decades of expertise to the table.

I invited Dexter and Heather to the studio to talk about the changing currents of the art community and their own visions for a more empowered and exciting art world. We discuss the lingering myths that continue to plague art professionals, and new ways forward.

The music in this podcast was provided by Providence-based band Strawberry Generation. Check them out on Spotify, Apple Music, Facebook and Instagram. They are currently working on their first full-length album, to be released later in the year. They’re also getting ready to tour for the first time this summer, playing at the Indietracks festival in the UK.

In our inaugural episode, we discuss the top art news headlines from the week, including how New Yorkers can use their library cards to visit 33 of the city’s museums, an unlikely museum in Thailand, how a Stolen Arab Art exhibition is exactly as advertised, and I talk to emoji activist Jennifer 8 Lee and journalist Zachary Small.

Our guest this week is renowned journalist Jennifer 8 Lee. Not only is she a successful author (Fortune Cookie Chronicles) and film producer (The Search for General Tso), but Lee is a driving force behind Emojination, the people’s voice of the Emoji Consortium. We talk to her about how she helped bring the dumpling emoji 🥟 into the world.

Then we talk to Hyperallergic’s Zachary Small, who tells us about the four queer performance festivals happening in New York this month.

Hyperallergic travels to Cairo to see one of the new wave of exhibitions that are reintroducing Egyptian modern art, particularly related to the Art and Liberty group (often referred to as Egyptian Surrealism), to a wider audience.

Artists Marilyn Minter and Xaviera Simmons both have solo shows up in New York this month. We invited them to chat with Hyperallergic's editor-in-chief Hrag Vartanian about sex, art, gender inequality, Planned Parenthood, and the election.

Hyperallergic's Editor-in-chief Hrag Vartanian speaks to mega-collector Don Rubell of the Rubell Family Collection about decades of collecting and establishing one of the biggest collections of contemporary art in the world.

In the Oceti Sakowin Camp at Stadning Rock, North Dakota, there is a prominent art tent area. Dozens of artists and volunteers are silkscreening and producing work among the thousands of waterprotectors and their allies, which have arrived to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from crossing the Missouri River. Among those artists is Standing Rock native Cannupa Hanska Luger and three of his friends, Jesse Hazelit, Raven Chacon, and Dylan McLaughlin. Hyperallergic spoke to the friends to discuss what is going on at Standing Rock and what role art plays.

Native American women grapple with the highest rates of sexual violence in the United States and two Native American artists, Rebecca Nagle and Graci Horne, have traveled to Standing Rock to create a Healing Tent and to work on their Monument Quilt project, which addresses sexual violence.

Hyperallergic traveled to Oceti Sekowin Camp at Standing Rock, where thousands of water protectors and their allies are trying to stop the multi-billionaire dollar Dakota Access Pipeline, which is being pushed by the government and major oil companies. We talk to artists about why they’re there and what they are doing to listen, learn, inspire, and heal.

Curator and art historian Kellie Jones is the guest for our latest episode. A 2016 McArthur Fellow, Jones is a lifelong New Yorker and an associate professor at Columbia University. She spoke to Hyperallergic about her work, life, and the evolving world of contemporary art. Photo: John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation