Explain Me

Paddy Johnson and William Powhida

Art Talk. Expect honesty. Expect opinions. And expect freewheeling conversation fueled by camaraderie and a general disappointment with the ways are turning out for us all.

  • 47 minutes 24 seconds
    Defining Contemporary Kitsch: Part 2 of The New York Art Fairs

    What does contemporary kitsch look like? In this episode, Paddy and William use a discussion of the art fairs and New York gallery scene to lead a defining of the term. From its generic definition of objects described to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, to the current nostalgia driving a tasted for recycled art movements, all kitsch lacks in originality. 

    Listen in for the whole conversation. 

     

    THE INDEPENDENT

    Kenny Schachter at Allouche Benias Gallery 

    Renate Druks at The Ranch,

    Olivia Reavey at Helena Anrather

     

    1-54 CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART FAIR

    Sanaa Gateja at 50 Golborne

    WonderBuhle at BKhz Gallery

     

    VOLTA

    Michael Foley

     

    GALLERIES 

    Judith Linhares at PPOW 

    JTT Gallery Anna-Sophie Berger and Sam McKinniss

    Sky Hopinka at Broadway Gallery 

    Paul Mpagi Sepuya at Bortalami 

    Nora Turato at 52 Walker Gallery

     

    ARTICLES

    The Downward Spiral: 59th Venice Biennial by Dean Kissick 

    21 June 2022, 12:00 pm
  • 49 minutes 47 seconds
    What The New York Art Fairs Tell Us About Art

    Art media does a great job at looking forward to art events, yet rarely looks back to reflect on what these happenings say about the cultural moment. In this episode of Explain Me, co-hosts Paddy Johnson and William Powhida do a deep dive into the fairs to discuss the deeply conservative sales landscape we've been sinking into over the past ten years.  

    ARTISTS DISCUSSED

    Carlos Jacanamijoy’s 2020 ab ex painting “Carminos de Luz” at Harper’s

    Laurie Reid’s “Ballast” at Et Al. Gallery

    The Baboon Chair by  Margaux Valengin at Pact

    Paul Gabrelli’s “Everyday Objects” at New Discretions

    Elliot Reed at Anonymous Gallery

    Dan Colen at Gagosian

    Al Freeman at 56 Henry

    Tessa Lynch’s text-based compositions at Patricia Fleming Gallery

    Scott Lyal at Migeul Abbreu Gallery

    Aaron Garber-Maikovska

    Casja von Zeipel’s Celesbian Terrain  

    Kevin McCoy’s corporate-sponsored display of Quantum and some generative artworks by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy. 

    Pedro Reyes, Alex da Corte, Nayland Blake, Alex Katz, Matthew Wong, 

    14 June 2022, 4:07 pm
  • 1 hour 8 minutes
    Whitney Biennial Report: Care and Caution

    We're baaaaack! After a four month break William and Paddy return with some big news about the podcast and an in depth conversation on The Whitney Biennial. We do the full dive here: What are the themes? How is it organized? Is it worth seeing? Is it too cautious? Who are the notable omissions? Why do these omissions matter?  

     

    Artist discussed:

    Cy Gavin

    Rebecca Belmore

    Guadalupe Rosales

    Lucy Raven

    Kandis Williams

    Raven Chacon

    Na Mira

    Alex Da Corte

    Trinh T. Minh-ha

    Coco Fusco

    Dave McKenzie

    Jacky Connolly

    Alfredo Jaar

    WangShui

    Daniel Joseph Martinez

    Jason Rhoades

    Rick Lowe

    Pao Houa Her

    Nayland Blake

    Awilda Sterling-Duprey

    Matt Connors

    Leidy Churchman

    Monica Arreola

    James Little

    Ralph Lemon

    Jane Dickson

    3 May 2022, 12:00 pm
  • 1 hour 29 minutes
    Flux Factory Buys Building, Retains Soul

    How many times have we seen artist-centered communities lose their grass roots identity when they buy property? High profile organizations that have shed their founders vision as they gained visibility such as the New Museum and Meow Wolf serve as cautionary tales. The quality of the work they produce suffers and their poor treatment of employees makes headlines. That's to say nothing of personality-less art complexes like The Shed, which cement the wealth of their funders while meagerly contributing to the city's cultural life.

    But these types of cultural outcomes are a choice and not an inevitable destiny, a reality made clear in this episode's interview with Flux Factory's Nat Roe. In his role as residency Executive Director, Roe recently secured $5 million from the city to purchase the building the organization has been working out of since 2009. Additionally, the organization will now operate a new satellite location, Flux IV, a the 3000 square foot ground floor gallery space on the ground floor of Gotham Point’s South Tower building. At no point in our discussion did we talk about significant changes that needed to be made to Flux's DNA to make this acquisition happen. Rather we talked about the importance of sound proofing their building so they don't disturb the neighbors.

    In the midst of LIC, a homogenized tech-enclave for Manhattan commuters, this grass roots artist organization and residency program will now serve as a permanent beacon of creative energy for the community.

    Can the DCLA support other smaller arts organizations in New York by helping them purchase real estate? Nat Roe gives us the skinny, going full wonk on city policy, while offering a history of Flux Factory and its place in the New York City arts landscape.

      SHOW LINKS   Help Launch Flux Factory's new venue, Flux IV    The Western Queens Community Land Trust—artist Jenny Dubnau is a co-chair of the board.    NY Times Tribeca Art Galleries, June   NY Times Tribeca Art Galleries, October article    How many times have we seen artist-centered arts organizations lose their NYC Club Scene debt? New York Times   Secret Project Robot    NYC Commercial Rent Law 
    23 November 2021, 3:56 am
  • 1 hour 59 minutes
    What Does a Return to the Art World Mean?

    In this episode artist Chloe Bass’s tweet pointing to the hypocrisy of the art world leads to a discussion of labor, the New York art fairs, and unions. 

    We discuss:

    Max Lankin’s observations for ArtForum on the Armory Fair about how the new digs at the Javits Center improve upon the Piers, which were literally falling into the water.  Funny how easy it is to forget that the Javits Center, just two months ago, served as a mass vaccination center, and the year prior a makeshift hospital for COVID victims. Mostly people were just happy to see each other again. 

    Dana Kopel’s piece in the Baffler Magazine, Against Artsploitation, which chronicles the unionization efforts at the New Museum, and the museum executive’s endless gaslighting of employees. 

    The New York Art Fairs. We talk about the art at The Armory Show, The Independent, and Spring Break. The work discussed below: 

     

    THE ARMORY SHOW

    Jeffrey Gibson at Tandem Press
    Wendy Redstar at Sargent’s Daughters
    Tau Lewis at Night Gallery
    Tony Matelli - Maruani Mercier
    Theresa Chromati at The Kravets Wehby Gallery
    Jennifer Bartlett at Locks Gallery
    Kamrooz Aram at Green . Art . Gallery
    Jose Davilas at Sean Kelly
    Sara Greenberger Rafferty at Rachel Uffner
    Susumu Kamijo at Jack Hanley
    Hayley Barker at Shrine
    Dontae Hayes at Mindy Solomon Gallery
    Michael Rakowitz at Jane Lombard

    INDEPENDENT

    Julian Schnabel at Vito Schnabel
    Sedrick Chisom at New American Painting
    Jo Nigoghossian at Broadway Gallery
    Erik Parker at Ross+Kramer
    Amy Feldman at Galerie Eva Presenhuber
    The Ranch

    SPRING BREAK

    Guy Richards Smit 

    Jennifer Catron and Paul Outlaw - curated by Magda Sawon

    Chapel - curated by M. Charlene Stevens with work by Sophie Kahn and Colette Robbins

    Outliars, curated by Elisabeth Smolarz, work by Angie Waller

    Gather Rusted Satellites curated by Amanda Nedham Tristam Lasndwone, Kyle Hittmeirer
    Nicholas Cueva 

    Loren Erdrich

    Willa Wasserman

    James Razko

    Tammie Rubin

    Steve Locke

    21 September 2021, 11:10 pm
  • 1 hour 46 minutes
    Explain Me with Laura Raicovich: Art and Museums in An Age of Protest

    This week hosts William Powhida and Paddy Johnson sit down with curator, writer, and former museum director Laura Raicovich to discuss her new book Culture Strike: Art and Museums in An Age of Protest. We do a deep dive with her not just on the subjects in the book, but her latest project, The Art and Society Census. Relevant links below. 

    • Culture Strike: Art and Museums in An Age of Protest, VERSO
    • The Art and Society Census, HYPERALLERGIC AND THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY
    • Deinstutitional Research Team. (A project William Powhida worked on mentioned in the book.) LINK
    • StrikeMoMA LINK
    • The Whitney Staff letter central to the Kanders' protests. HYPERALLERGIC
    • A good policy-based companion for Laura Raicovich's project. THE PEOPLE'S CULTURAL PLAN
    • A non-profit with a board structure worth promoting as a positive example. RECESS
    • Back story on Laura Raicovich's resignation from the Queens Museum of Art- ARTNET NEWS
    16 July 2021, 12:32 am
  • 1 hour 24 minutes
    The NFT Explain Me with Marina Galperina and Amy Whitaker
    On this episode of Explain Me we do a deep dive on Non-Fungible Tokens, NFTs, pronounced Nifty, by also N-F-T. Joined by guests Marina Galperina, features editor of Gizmodo, and former curator and writer on digital art, and Amy Whitaker, author and assistant professor of visual arts administration, hosts William Powhida and Paddy Johnson navigate the headlines generating news around this new digital currency, the basic definitions, and the potential and dangers it poses to artists.    Timestamped resources   6' 21'' Explain Me's episode Related Utopias: Bitcoin and the Artworld with Kevin McCoy.   7' NFT definitions and the blockchain    13 Do artists need to care?    21' The Guardian features Marina Galperina's Vine Show. 

    26' Beeple Mania and aesthetics discussion - Liberal Jon McNaughton or early digital art maximalism in the style of Cliff Evans and Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung?    40' NFT platforms and markets. Massimo Franceschet and Sparrow Read's The Inconvenient Truth About Secondary Markets, Part II 

    43' Legacy Russell tweets about the toxic white male culture dominating NFT conversation. Follows up with a shout out to QTPOCIA+ and female-identified people engaging NFTs.   44' Who is the face of NFTs? Kenny Schachter. His NFT article on Artnet.    47' Kenny Schachter's "Scam Likely" on Nifty Gateway.

    51' Alternatives - Casey Reese's Artist-to-artist exchange with Bitmark.com, Feral File. Goes live March 19. Also relevant: Reese's Medium article, Collecting Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction 
    57' - NFT and blockchain carbon footprint

    1 hour 10' Reasons for optimism

    1 hour 16' Art pricing and Greg Allen's Facsimile Objects   1 hour 22' Amy Whitaker discusses valuation and commensuration sociological studies   Read and Watch   Amy Whitaker, A New Way To Pay Artists, TEDXfoggybottom Amy Whitaker and Roman Kraussl, Fractional Equity, Blockchain, and the Future of Creative Work, Management Science, July 2020 Amy Whitaker, Art and Blockchain: A Primer, History, and Taxonomy of Blockchain Use Cases in the Arts, Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts. Summer 2019

    Amy Whitaker, Hannah Grannemann, Artists’ Royalties and Performers’ Equity: A Ground-Up Approach to Social Impact Investment in Creative Fields, CMSE Vol 3, no 2, pg 33-51.
    Memo Atkin, The Unreasonable Ecological Cost of #Cryptoart, Dec 14 2020
    Rea McNamara, How Crypto Art Might Offer Artists Increased Autonomy, March 2, 2021

     
    9 March 2021, 11:43 pm
  • 58 minutes 1 second
    Explain Me With Art Critic Ben Davis: The Year That Wasn't, Part Two

     

    Immersive Van Gogh

    In this episode of Explain Me, we continue our conversation with Artnet's National Critic Ben Davis as we take stock of 2020. 

    In this episode: 

    14 December 2020, 8:44 pm
  • 1 hour 34 minutes
    Explain Me with Art Critic Ben Davis: The Year That Wasn't, Part One
    "Immersive Van Gogh"

    In this episode of Explain Me, we take stock of the year in art with Artnet's National Critic Ben Davis.

    What happened in the art world in 2020?  We ask this knowing that we obviously have not seen a lot of art or attended anything remotely like a normal opening. But, a lot happened this year, even if we experienced it all at a distance.

    We know that, with the vaccine slowly rolling out now, the art world will return, but what are the implications of the pandemic for the art world this coming fall and beyond?

    In part one of this episode we discuss: 

    The few upsides of the pandemic.

    Ben Davis on Phillip Guston Show Postponement

    Baltimore Museum Deaccessioning, two opposing views.

    Three Tech Companies Locked in a Battle to Capture Your Attention With the World’s Best Immersive Van Gogh Experience. Brian Boucher, Artnet

    The Boundless Optimism of BTS, Esquire

    14 December 2020, 7:54 pm
  • 2 hours 6 minutes
    Explain Me with Andy Adams of FlakPhoto: From Idyllic Photos to The Surveillance State

    Image via: Andy Adams instagram

    In this episode of Explain Me we talk to Andy Adams (FlakPhoto on instagram), a culture producer and long time digital director. Andy is the founder of FlakPhoto Projects, an international community of photographers that operates in a parallel path to the one Powhida and Johnson come from—the New York based studio and museum world. Andy, William, and Paddy began working online around the same time—2003-2005, so we start our conversation there. We track through the exuberance and possibility we saw online in the early aughts, the economic collapse of the late aughts, and fraught political environment we’re now navigating. Subjects include: The signature Flak Photo style, the ethics of documentary photography, and the the postponed Guston show at the Tate.

     

    References and reading:

    Instagram: @photographersvote #photographersvote

    Two Museums Tried to Sell Art. Only One Caught Grief About it. New York Times

    Guston Can Wait. Nikki Columbus, N+1

    Contra-Internet, Zach Blas, e-flux Journal

     

    2 November 2020, 10:28 pm
  • 2 hours 6 minutes
    Zombie Figuration Isn't a Thing: A Critical Autopsy with Antwaun Sargent

     

    In this episode of Explain Me, critic and curator Antwaun Sargent joins us to discuss the effects of the pandemic and Alex Greenberger's Zombie Figuration, a confusing essay that appeared earlier this month in ARTnews. In the first half hour we discuss the disparate effects of the pandemic and general politics. Then we move on to art, zombies,  race,  and why art has limits

     

    BIOGRAPHY

    Antwaun Sargent is an art critic and a writer who has contributed to The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vice and more, as well as essays to multiple museum publications. His first book, “The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion” (Aperture) is out now. In April he announced a new partnership with Gagosian that will include working on four exhibitions and contributing features to their magazine.  Follow him on Twitter and Instagram

     

    LISTENER ADVISORY: In this episode, Paddy Johnson occasionally repeats Antwaun Sargent's words when his audio cuts out. This leads to periodic moments when Johnson and Sargent speak at the same time. 

     

    LINKS

    EARLY WHITNEY BIENNIAL REVIEWS 

     

    Find us on Spotify, Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts

     

    4 August 2020, 4:29 am
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