The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Episode No. 529 is a holiday clips episode with art historian Debra Bricker Balken. Balken is the author of "Arthur Dove: A Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings and Things," a thorough presentation that includes Dove's assemblages. Jessie Sentivan contributed to the book. It contains 537 illustrations, almost all of them in color, of each work Balken was able to identify, find, photograph and document. "Dove" includes a an essay on Dove's work and its critical reception, as well as mini-essays on major works. Many of the materials and images in the book are published for the first time here. It lists for $125 via Indiebound or Amazon. Dove is among the most prominent American modernists of the early twentieth century, a key link between the American nature tradition and abstraction.

Episode No. 312 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Martine Syms and art historian Petra Giloy-Hirtz. Martine Syms is included in "Speech/Acts," a six-artist exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia that examines experimental black poetry and how language has shaped black American experiences. (Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Steffani Jemison, Tony Lewis, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed are the other artists.) The exhibition, which was curated by Meg Onli, will be on view through December 23. The museum's website includes a reading group syllabus, gallery guide, exhibition poster, installation views and more. Syms is an artist and the founder of Dominica Publishing, a press dedicated to exploring blackness in contemporary art and culture. Her work most often uses video, installation and performance to investigate representations of blackness, especially in popular culture. She's been the subject of solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, White Flag Projects in St. Louis, the Camden Arts Centre and the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, Locust Projects in Miami and more. On the second segment, Petra Giloy-Hirtz discusses her recent monograph of Hassel Smith, a major figure in the development of post-war painting in San Francisco. (Amazon offers it for just $20!) As Crocker Art Museum curator discussed with host Tyler Green last week, Smith was a major influence on Richard Diebenkorn. This segment originally aired in 2013. For Smith images, see Episode No. 65, and the Hassel Smith Estate's website. New York's Washburn Gallery will open an exhibition of Smith's work from 1959-62 on November 2.

Episode No. 299 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Glenn Ligon and curator Stephen Brown. Ligon is the curator of "Blue Black" at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis. Informed by the Pulitzer's Ellsworth Kelly wall sculpture Blue Black, the exhibition features more than 50 artworks that use color to address questions related to language, identity and more. The exhibition is on view through October 7. The catalogue of the exhibition is complimentary save the cost of shipping ($7 in the US, $14 abroad).  Ligon is an artist whose 2011 mid-career survey was organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art and traveled to LACMA and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Power Plant in Toronto, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Studio Museum in Harlem.  On the second segment, curator Stephen Brown discusses his exhibition "Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry," which is at The Jewish Museum in New York through September 24. He co-curated  the show with Georgiana Uhlyarik at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The exhibition's catalogue was published by Yale University Press.  

Episode No. 734 is a Thanksgiving weekend clips program featuring artist Aliza Nisenbaum. The Des Moines Art Center is presenting "Aliza Nisenbaum: Día de los Muertos" through January 11, 2026. For the latest iteration of DMAC's annual Día de los Muertos celebration, and as the museum's Toni and Tim Urban International Artist-in-Residence, Nisenbaum created five paintings. The presentation was curated by Beth Gollnick. Earlier this fall, the Obama Presidential Center announced that it had commissioned a mural from Nisenbaum. Titled Reading Circles/ Weaving Dreams/ Seeding Futures, the mural will depict moments of civic life within a public library, offering a living portrait of community in action. This episode was taped in 2021. For images, please see Episode No. 522. Instagram: Aliza Nisenbaum, Tyler Green. Air date: November 26/27, 2025.

Episode No. 733 features curators Diana Seave Greenwald and Megan Fontanella. With Christina Michelon, Greenwald is the co-curator of "Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory" at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Boston Athenaeum. Both presentations are on view through January 19, 2026. (Theodore Landsmark co-curated the ISGM presentation.) The exhibition surveys the career of Boston-based Crite, whose work spotlighted Boston neighborhoods such as Lower Roxbury and the South End, the challenges they faced from gentrification and so-called urban renewal, and Christianity.  A fine exhibition catalogue was published by the two institutions. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $42. Fontanella is the curator of "Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Across more than 50 paintings and almost 20 photographs, the exhibition survey's Münter's work and finds that it was involved in avant-garde presentations of landscape, still life, and portraiture. Fontanella curated the photography section of the exhibition with Victoria Horrocks. "Contours of a World" is on view through April 26, 2026. A catalogue was published by the Guggenheim. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $55. Instagram: Diana Seave Greenwald, Megan Fontanella, Tyler Green. Air date: November 20, 2025.

Episode No. 732 features artist Igshaan Adams and curator and Jenkintown, Penn. school board-electee Laura Igoe. The Hill Art Foundation, New York is presenting "Igshaan Adams: I've been here all along, I've been waiting" through December 20, 2025. The exhibition features work from the last 15 years of Adams' practice, and emphasizes how his work engages and serves his community. Adams tapestries and sculptures build from weaving traditions to make the routine, even mundane the subject of rich, detailed artworks. On the occasion of the exhibition, the Hill Art Foundation has published this essay by Siddhartha Mitter. Adams grew up in a Muslim-Christian household in the segregated suburb of Bonteheuwel in apartheid-era South Africa, and employs Bonteheuwel residents and family members in his studio. His work has been the subject of solo shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Art Institute of Chicago; Kunsthalle Zurich, the Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark; and the Hayward Gallery, London. His work is in the permanent collection of museums such as the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, the Tate Modern, London, and Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil. Discussed on the program: Adams' 2016 exhibition "Oorskot" at Blank Projects, Cape Town; and Adams' 2022 exhibition "Desire Lines" at the Art Institute of Chicago. Igoe, the chief curator of the Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Penn. was just elected to the Jenkintown, Penn. school board. Instagram: Igshaan Adams, Laura Igoe, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 731 features artist Hew Locke. The Yale Center for British Art is presenting "Hew Locke: Passages," the first US survey of Locke's career. Across sculpture, painting, photography and installations, Locke's work considers colonialism, its power, and the ways in which we respond to colonialism and its impacts. Locke, who is Guyanese-British, particularly focuses on British imperialism and how it was constructed, including through monarchy, trade, and (sometimes forced) migration. The exhibition, which is on view through January 11, 2026, was curated by Martina Droth. The catalogue, which was edited by Droth and Allie Biswas, was published by the YCBA. Bookshop and Amazon offer it for $60-70. In-gallery materials are available here in both English and Spanish. Locke's work has been featured in solo exhibitions at The British Museum, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Tate Britain, London, the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston, Pérez Art Museum Miami, and more. In addition to the images below, here are links to works and exhibitions discussed on the program: Hew Locke, Ark, 1994. Hew Locke, Menace to Society (series), 1999-2001. Hew Locke, The Nameless, 2010. "Hew Locke: what have we here" at the British Museum; "A Conspiracy of Icons: The Art of Donald Locke," at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and "The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-War Britain" at the Hayward Gallery, London. Instagram: Hew Locke, Tyler Green. Air date: November 6, 2025.

Episode No. 730 features author Amy Newman. Newman is the author of Barnett Newman: Here a biography out this week from Princeton University Press. The book presents Newman as devoted to art but initially unsure of what a Newman would be, as a dedicated, almost blindered New Yorker, and as an artist intensely interested in what US art had to contribute to the US national and global project. Amazon and Bookshop offer Newman for around $40. (It will be available in the UK in January 2026. Amy Newman and Barnett Newman are not related.) Newman is the author of the author of Challenging Art: "Artforum" 1962–1974 and the editor, with Irving Sandler, of Defining Modern Art: Selected Writings of Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Works discussed on the program include: Black With Yellow (Euclidian Abyss), 1946-47; Onement I, 1948; Two Edges, 1948; Onement VI, 1953; Here I, 1950; and Broken Obelisk, 1963-69. Instagram: Amy Newman, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 729 features artists Justin Favela and David-Jeremiah. The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery is presenting a commission from Favela titled Capilla de Maíz (Maize Chapel) through a not-yet determined date. The Favela makes the Renwick's grand salon gallery a fantastical space, complete with shimmering gold-fringed walls and piñata corncobs that highlight the role of maize in North American visual culture. It accompanies "State Fairs: Growing American Craft," an exhibition that details artists' contribution to the US tradition of state fairs that is on view at the Renwick through September 7, 2026. (The Renwick is temporarily closed because Republicans in the White House and on Capitol Hill have shut down the federal government.) Favela's work typically investigates Mexican or Latin American craft practices, especially cartoneria (more commonly known as piñata making). His work has been the subject of exhibitions at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, the Des Moines Art Center, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and more. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is presenting "David-Jeremiah: The Fire this Time" through November 2. The exhibition presents a group of vertical assemblages of black and other polychromatic paintings on shaped wood that form an installation. The twenty-eight works stand over ten feet tall. The primary configuration surrounds viewers completely before giving way to a final suite of paintings featuring abstract assemblages that include references to fire. The exhibition was curated by Christopher Blay. A catalogue is available from MAMFW. David-Jeremiah's work reflects the artist's experience of Black masculinity in America. Previous David-Jeremiah solo exhibitions have been at the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass., and the Houston Museum of African American Culture; he has participated in group shows at institutions such as Project Row Houses, Houston. In 2020, David-Jeremiah received a Nasher Sculpture Center Artist Grant Award. Instagram: Justin Favela, David-Jeremiah, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 728 features curators Anna Lovatt and Kelly Montana, and artist/curator Pablo Helguera. Lovatt and Montana are the curators of "Lines of Resolution: Drawing at the Advent of Television and Video" at the Menil Drawing Institute, Houston. The exhibition examines the intersection of drawing, television, and video from the late 1950s into the 1980s. "Lines of Resolution" features the work of 25 artists, including Nam June Paik, Howardena Pindell, Sigmar Polke, and Joan Jonas. It is on view through February 8, 2026. A fascinating catalogue was published by the Menil. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $35-40. In addition to the works shown below, works discussed on the program include: Ulrike Rosenbach, Bonnet Drawing, 1972. Catherine Elwes, Two Drawings on Glass, 1978. Along with representatives from the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's curatorial and learning teams, Helguera is the co-curator of "Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera," which is at the MCA through July 5, 2026. The exhibition is the product of questions that Helguera, a New York-based artist and educator, posed to a group of 20 Chicago artists, writers, activists, and educators in the fall of 2024. It's on view through July 5, 2026. In addition to the works shown below, works discussed on the program include: Susan Philipsz, We Shall Be All, 2011.  Public Collectors, QUARANZINE: A printed space for work produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020.  Instagram: Pablo Helguera, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 727 is a holiday weekend clips episode featuring artist Andrea Carlson. The Denver Art Museum just opened "Andrea Carlson: A Constant Sky," a mid-career survey. The exhibition spotlights how Carlson, who is Ojibwe and of European settler descent, creates works that challenge the colonial narratives presented by modern artists, museum collections, and cannibal genre horror films, all in ways that challenge and depart from the US landscape tradition. The exhibition was curated by Dakota Hoska, and will remain on view through February 16, 2026. The exhibition catalogue was published by Scala, Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $30-35. Museums that have featured solo exhibitions of Carlson's work include the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, New York, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Her work is in the collection of museums such as the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Denver Art Museum. She is also the co-founder of the Center for Native Futures in Chicago. This program was taped on the occasion of Carlson's 2024 solo exhibition at the MCA Chicago. For images, please see Episode No. 677. Instagram: Andrea Carlson, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 726 features artist Danielle Joy Mckinney. The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University is presenting "Danille Mckinney: Tell Me More" through January 4, 2026. The exhibition, Mckinney's first solo presentation in a US museum, spotlights Mckinney's introspective explorations of Black womanhood. It was curated by Gannit Ankori. Concurrently, Galerie Max Hetzler is presenting Mckinney's work in "Second Wind" in London through November 1. Mckinney has been featured in exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and many more. Her work is in the collection of museums such as the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Instagram: Danielle Joy Mckinney, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 725 features curators Philip Brookman and Deborah Willis (and a cameo, of sorts, from artist Anthony Barboza). Brookman and Willis are the co-curators of "Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-85" at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The exhibition considers photography's engagement with the post-war cultural and aesthetic movement that celebrated Black history, identity, and beauty, and which often influenced the broader civil rights movement of which it was a part. The exhibition features 150 works from photographers and other artists who used photography in their work, such as in collage or assemblage. It is on view through January 11, 2026. An excellent catalogue was published by the NGA In association with Yale University Press. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $60. Instagram: Philip Brookman, Anthony Barboza, Deborah Willis, Tyler Green. Air date: September 25, 2025.

Episode No. 724 features artist Antony Gormley. It was taped before a live audience at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas. The Nasher is showing "SURVEY: Antony Gormley" through January 4, 2026. The exhibition is the first major museum survey of Gormley's work in the United States. Across sculptures, models, and notebooks, "SURVEY" spans Gormley's career from the 1980s to today. The exhibition extends beyond the Nasher's galleries to include sculptures installed on the rooftops of both the Nasher and skyscrapers in and around downtown Dallas. It was curated by Jed Morse. Gormley is the UK's most honored living sculptor. His works often use the body to address fundamental questions of where humans stand in relation to nature and the cosmos. Major exhibitions of his work have been held at museums and in biennials all over the world. Air date: September 18, 2025.

Episode No. 723 features curator Michelle White and artist Nanette Carter. White is the curator of "Robert Rauschenberg: Fabric Works of the 1970s" at The Menil Collection, Houston. The exhibition considers Rauschenberg's conceptual, expressive use of fabric as a medium through a focus on three groups of works from the 1970s: Venetians (1972-73), Jammers (1975-76), and Hoarfrosts (1974-76). It is on view through March 1, 2026. "Fabric" is accompanied by an excellent catalogue published by the Menil. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $60-65. The Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University is presenting "Nanette Carter: Afro Sentinels" through January 11, 2026. The exhibition features works Carter has made over the last decade, including work from her Cantilevered, Destabilizing, and Shifting Perspectives series, plus new sculptural works commissioned by the Wexner. It was curated by Rebecca Lowery. Carter's abstract collages, produced in Mylar, often engage with contemporary social issues. The Montclair Art Museum presented a retrospective of Carter's career last year. As discussed on the program: Carter's 2021 oral history for the Archives of American Art. Instagram: Michelle White, Nanette Carter, Tyler Green. Air date: September 11, 2025.

Episode No. 722 features museum director and human rights activist Ann Burroughs, and curator Cory Korkow. Burroughs is the director of the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, which has led the museum sector in resisting Trumpism and the rise of fascism in the United States. Even as many US institutions capitulated when the Trump administration demanded a return to racist and white supremacist policies and practices, JANM stood by its diversity and equity foci and programs. Over the summer, armed and often masked  Border Patrol agents conducted what appeared to be an operation aimed at intimidating speakers at a program at the museum's Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, including at a press conference held by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The museum aggressively resisted the federal show of force, drawing lines between illegal federal actions in 1942 and the present. JANM's mission is "to promote understanding and appreciation of America's ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience." Its collections and programs feature art and art's history. The museum holds work by and the archives of artists such as Hisako Hibi, George Hoshida, Estelle Ishigo, Henry Sugimoto, Chikashi Tanaka, Kango Takamura, and Jack Iwata. In addition to leading JANM, Burroughs is the two-time former chairperson of the board of Amnesty International USA, the chair of the Amnesty International Global Assembly, and presently sits on the board of Amnesty International. As mentioned on the program: Burroughs' op-ed for the American Alliance of Museums; and JANM's "History Unpacked" program. Korkow helped lead the Cleveland Museum of Art's acquisition and initial installation of Giambologna's Fata Morgana (ca. 1572), which had been the last of the roughly dozen marble sculptures made by the artist remaining in private hands. Giambologna made the sculpture for installation in a fountain at Bernardo Vecchietti's Villa il Reposo in Bagno a Ripoli, Italy. Instagram: Cory Korkow, Tyler Green. Air date: September 4, 2025.

Episode No. 721 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast is a holiday weekend clips episode featuring artist Saif Azzuz. The Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston, is presenting "Saif Azzuz: Keet Hegehlpa' (the water is rising)," which interrogates the privatization of land, water, and natural resources within settler-colonial systems. Across the exhibition, Azzuz and family members Lulu Thrower, Elizabeth Azzuz, Viola Azzuz, Moya Azzuz, and Colleen Colegrove reference the myths, origin stories, and fabricated tales animating the land now known as Houston. The artists in the exhibition draw upon ecological knowledge to visualize histories of land stewardship and rematriation practices that gesture to Anishinaabe writer Gerald Vizenor's notion of survivance, the fusion of resistance and survival. The exhibition was curated by Erika Mei Chua Holum and will be on view through December 20. Azzuz is a Libyan-Yurok artist based in suburban San Francisco. His work, which often addresses nature, land, and California Native American cultural practices, is in the collections of museums such as the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh. This episode was taped on the occasion of ICA San Francisco's presentation of Azzuz' work in 2024. For images, see Episode No. 638. Instagram: Saif Azzuz, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 720 is a summer clips episode featuring artist Tidawhitney Lek. Lek is among the 30+ artists featured in "Spirit House" at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington. The exhibition considers how 33 contemporary artists of Asian descent challenge the boundary between life and death through art, including how the spiritual relates to diaspora, connections to ancestral homelands, and the experience of feeling present within multiple cultures and multiple geographies. The show's curatorial framework was inspired by spirit houses, small devotional structures found throughout Thailand that provide shelter for the supernatural. "Spirit House" originated at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, and was curated by Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander with Kathryn Cua. It is on view in Seattle through January 11, 2026. An excellent exhibition catalogue, titled "Spirit House: Hauntings in Contemporary Art of the Asian Diaspora," was published by the Cantor and Gregory R. Miller & Co. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $45-50. Lek is a southern California-based, Cambodian-American artist whose work examines narratives surrounding and the daily experiences of a first-generation American born to immigrant parents. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, and she's been featured in the Made in LA biennial at the Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles. Her first museum solo show was at the Long Beach Museum of Art in 2023. Discussed on the program: Martha Rosler's "House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home" series may be viewed on the website of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The work of Amir Fallah and Annie Lapin. Lek's website. Instagram: Tidawhitney Lek, Tyler Green. Air date: August 21, 2025.

Episode No. 719 features curator Laura Katzman. Katzman is the curator of "Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity" at the Jewish Museum, New York. Shahn's first US retrospective in nearly 50 years. The exhibition examines Shahn's progressive commitment to the major issues between the Great Depression and the Vietnam War, as well as his exploration of spirituality and Jewish texts. The exhibition features 175 paintings, mural studies, prints, photographs and more, spotlighting Shahn's skill and vision across media. The exhibition debuted at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, and was adapted by the Jewish Museum. It's on view through October 26. A catalogue was published by Princeton University Press. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $32-42.

Episode No. 718 features artist Masako Miki and artist/curator Katherine Simóne Reynolds. The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco is presenting "Midnight March," a far-ranging presentation of Miki's two-dimensional and three-dimensional practice. The Japanese-born Miki's paintings, sculptures, and installations live between the sacred and the secular. Her often exuberant sculptures are rooted in the blending of Japanese and US cultures. Her previous solo shows have been at museums such as the de Young Museum, San Francisco, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, and the ICA San José. Her work is in the permanent collections of BAMPFA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and more. Reynolds is the curator of "Held Impermanence (Artists Select: Katherine Simóne Reynolds)" at the Clyfford Still Museum, Denver. The exhibition uses the museum's art collection and archive to consider multiple competing desires, including Still's and the desires of art institutions, such as the unknown future museum to which he directed his art and archive be entrusted. Reynolds is an artist and curator who investigates emotional dialects and psychogeographies of Blackness. Her previous exhibitions have been at venues such as SculptureCenter, New York, Counterpublic 2023, St. Louis, and the Stanley Museum of Art, University of Iowa. As mentioned on the program: The CSM's gallery booklet. Instagram: Masako Miki, Tyler Green.