Unibrow Radio

Before I sat down with the LA Philharmonic to talk about their ghost stories, I found myself thinking about the last time I had been onstage. It was at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, in the museum's beautiful and, at times, rather eerie theater. Many of our usual readers will know that I previously worked at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which includes the Legion of Honor and the de Young Museum. It’s a public secret that the Legion was built on the grounds of a former cemetery that operated from 1868 to 1909. When the city decided to turn the area into the park it is today, families were ordered to remove the graves, many of which were reinterred down the peninsula to Colma, also known as the "City of Souls.” Unfortunately not all of the bodies were removed, something made gruesomely clear during the museum’s seismic renovation in the 1990s. One quick Google search and you will see the remains of the unfortunate souls the city of San Francisco was too cheap to remove. Before the museum was renovated to include its downstairs galleries, the only original underground section of the museum was its divine theater. The circular room was designed in a Louis XVI style, with red velvet seats that glisten beneath an ornate ceiling painted by Spanish painter Julio Vila y Prades. It’s a gorgeous setting for any production, but the times I’d spent in the theater when it's empty often chilled me to the bone. During my time at the museum, there were many a security guard who refused to go into the theater at night, let alone anywhere downstairs at the Legion of Honor. Alas, this conversation is not about the Legion of Honor, but three even more renowned stages: The Hollywood Bowl, The Ford, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Together, these three venues serve as the primary stages for the LA Philharmonic, and present nearly 300 concerts each year. The Bowl and The Ford were built in the 1920s, while Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, opened in 2003. These venues have seen the greatest musicians in the world, from Ella Fitzgerald to The Beatles, retaining the profound energy and emotions that have passed through them. And perhaps, a few lost people who have never seemed to find the exit.On this episode of The Unibrow Radio, we continue our Ghost in the Gallery series, where we look beyond the art inside our beloved cultural institutions, to the things that can’t quite be explained. Today, I speak with Derek Traub, a writer at the LA Philharmonic, about the institution's hallowed halls and strange encounters. At the heart of our conversation is a question that has lingered in the wings for centuries: Why do theaters and concert halls seem to attract so many ghosts?So come along. The performance may be over, but not everyone has left the building. –– Shaquille HeathVisit LAphil.com to see current offerings and performances. 

What a time to be talking to Bea Scaccia. Yes, she was featured in our Issue 01, so we have been familiar and friends for quite some time now. But she is opening a new solo show, Groomed, at Gagosian Gallery in New York, curated by Francesco Bonami, which is certainly a sign that her trajectory in the contemporary art world is that of rocket shooting into the sky. She's big time.But her journey to now is fascinating. From a small village in Italy, to her education and teaching in Rome, the weight of Italian art history forced her to make a change: how does one become a contemporary artist in a culture who's history is the Renaissance? That ain't easy. So she moved to NYC, where she worked in the studios of Jeff Koons and Marilyn Minter, honing her own craft and understanding the heights of contemporary art practices. Now, her own career is the center of her universe, and with a passion for what she calls "Existential Performance," and works spanning painting, drawing and stop-motion animation, the world is literally her stage. This episode is hosted by Evan Pricco of The Unibrow, and you can subscribe to our print edition now. You can also listen on Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your pods, too.

This summer, I was feeling a little down on my time in Los Angeles. I must admit, it comes in waves; some days I love this city and some days I'm wondering how I, one, all, could tolerate a 2-hour, 14 mile commute on a Monday. There are moments where I feel like I wouldn't want to be anywhere on Earth, though. A sunset at the Hollywood Bowl, a morning walk along the ocean, a taco on the side of the road. And, of course, there are the museums, and damn, did the city get two good ones this year: the new Geffen Galleries at LACMA and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. So I love this city again, right now. So when looking at this evolving place, I wanted to talk to author Rosecrans Baldwin about his book, Everything Now: Lessons From the City-State of Los Angeles. With these new institutions, and his deep-dive into the history, neighborhoods and people that make this city such an expansive and confusing narrative, he felt like someone who might have some insight into what I was seeing and feeling. The stories that Baldwin tells are not so much why LA is what it is, but the stories of people who are aren't so much trying to make sense of it, but survive it. I also wanted to share my thoughts on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and what I think the critics get wrong and, to be honest, what is the critics role in deciphering the art that was mostly trying to avoid the critics for so long... This episode is hosted by Evan Pricco of The Unibrow, and you can subscribe to our print edition now.

We are really excited about this one, because the staff never just records our editorial conversations for the world to hear. So that is what we are doing today, as our founder Evan Pricco and editor-at-large Shaquille Heath talk about the Fall 2026 exhibition highlights that has them excited. Our new series is called "Brow To Brow." Evan and Shaq talk about the shows that they missed, the films they watched, the glory of "Widow's Bay," the enjoyment of The Odyssey, diet coke, popcorn, the cultural zeitgeist... really just two old friends catching up and talking about how much they just love looking and talking about art. Some highlights include a lengthy chat about Roy DeCarava's upcoming show at David Zwirner, Ibrahim Mahama at the Fondation Cartier, Azzedine Alaïa: Sculpting Fashion at the Legion of Honor, what we are excited about, what we have learned this summer, what we loved about Matthew Rhys and Hiro Murai... and the upcoming Issue 03 of our print journal... So please, like, subscribe to Unibrow Radio, and enjoy this conversation with Evan Pricco and Shaquille Heath and the "Brow to Brow" series...

Sometimes the best podcasts are the most unexpected ones, and that is what happened in our conversation with the acclaimed painter, Robin F. Williams. What began as an interview for our Issue 03 that will be out in the fall, coinciding with Williams' solo presentation with PPOW Gallery for Frieze London in October, turned into a wide-ranging conversation about serendipity, a bit of magic, a bit of cultural critique, and the solar system aligning over the skies of Columbus, Ohio in 2024. We took a journey... Williams is Ohio-born but now been based in New York for two decades, whose work often explores what they call the “low-brow, nitty-gritty, American stuff” of horror films, social media and pop-culture, but also through the influence of the past masters and European classics. In quite a rewarding experience, Williams felt a shift in their practice after a return home and the 2024 museum survey, “We've Been Expecting You” at the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, where the solar system aligned, literally and figuratively, and a bit of serendipity has brought new energy to the direction of the paintings…At the moment, Williams is in the final stages of completing Act Natural, a new body of work for PPOW that looks at how we confront AI and technology in our lives, and the dichotomies and contradictions in our 21st century human experience. So please, like, subscribe to Unibrow Radio, and enjoy this conversation with Evan Pricco and Robin F. Williams.