From the category archives:

Podcast

The NFT Explain Me with Marina Galperina and Amy Whitaker

by Paddy Johnson and William Powhida on March 9, 2021

Beeple (b. 1981), EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, 2021. Non-fungible token (jpg). 21,069 x 21,069 pixels (319,168,313 bytes). Minted on 16 February 2021. Starting Bid: $100. Hammer price: 6.6 million. Offered as a single lot sale concurrently with First Open. Online, 25 February to 11 March

On this episode of Explain Me we do a deep dive on Non-Fungible Tokens, NFTs, pronounced Nifty, but 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
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
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Explain me With Art Critic Ben Davis: The Year That Wasn’t, Part Two

by Paddy Johnson and William Powhida on December 14, 2020

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: 

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Explain Me With Art Critic Ben Davis: The Year That Wasn’t, Part One

by Paddy Johnson and William Powhida on December 14, 2020

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: 

Baltimore Museum Deaccessioning, two opposing views.

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Explain Me with Andy Adams of FlakPhoto: From Idyllic Photos to The Surveillance State

by Paddy Johnson and William Powhida on November 2, 2020
Image by Andy Adams. via: flakphoto instagram.

Image by Andy Adams. via: FlakPhoto 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 FlakPhoto style, the ethics of documentary photography, and the the postponed Guston show at the Tate.

References and reading:

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Zombie Figuration Isn’t a Thing: A Critical Autopsy with Antwaun Sargent

by Paddy Johnson and William Powhida on August 4, 2020
Jordan Casteel, "Within Reach", New Museum installation view, 2020. Photo: Dario Lasagni

Jordan Casteel, “Within Reach”, New Museum installation view, 2020. Photo: Dario Lasagni

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 limitsListen on Spotify, Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts.

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 

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Institutional failure, Trump’s Agenda, and Meme-Driven Conservative Movements: A Talk with Nayland Blake

by Paddy Johnson and William Powhida on June 29, 2020
Boogaloo Boys

Boogaloo Boys show off posters supporting Trump at a demonstration

Artist Nayland Blake joins the podcast to discuss the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer, mass protests, and the resurgence of COVID as the backdrop for public art and how museums are addressing diversity.  Spearheaded in large part by Blake, we discuss all of these issues  through the lens of what people need and how art makers, art workers and arts institutions answer that need.

We started the conversation with Blake’s recent twitter thread on art criticism.

“Art criticism is the activity of thinking with and through art objects,” they wrote. “If you constantly reach for the same few objects to think with, you stagnate as a critic and simply reinforce your own bias.”

Other relevant links mentioned in the show:

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Revolution for the Family: Heather Bhandari and Nikki Columbus on Pandemic Parenting, Art, and Activism

by Paddy Johnson and William Powhida on May 19, 2020
The Abrons Art Center has paid all their staff and performers during the shutdown.

The Abrons Art Center has paid all their staff and performers during the shutdown.

This week on Explain Me, co-hosts William Powhida and Paddy Johnson talk to arts organizers and activists Heather Bhandari and Nikki Columbus about the challenges for mothers during the pandemic, and the challenges for arts workers seeking to make changes to a system that no longer works for them. 

Of the family-focused topics discussed we take on pandemic screen time for kids (Bhandari describes DinoTrux as terrible for kids, but a necessary evil), what to do if your toddler licks a bodega door, and disrupted schedules that make it impossible to find or look for work and require long and often unusual hours. 

On the subject of organizing we discuss several projects spearheaded by Bhandari and Columbus respectively designed to pave actionable paths for artists. 

Finally we discuss Frieze New York, and contrast their dubious charity efforts during the fair to the more collective NADA art fair model that works towards a sustainable model for everyone. Show links below. 

The Art World Conference 

Forward Union 

Art/Work, Heather Bhandari and Jonathan Melber 

N+1, Free Your Mind, by Claire Bishop and Nikki Columbus

Art+Work+Place, Emergency Session I, Veralist Center

Art+Work+Place, Emergency Session II, Veralist Center

Museum transparency Newsletter (Read about all the layoffs and other bad news that’s happening in the museum world right now—of which there is a ton.)

The Model Model: Ethical Actions by Arts Organizations in the time of COVID-19 (Read about the good news and exemplary work by arts organizations.) 

Obama Commencement Speech

#graduatetogether2020 (twitter hashtag) 

Frieze Art Fair (May 8-15th) 

NADA Fair (May 20-June 21)

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Museum Board Members Fail Moral Challenges, Museum Exhibitions Exceed Expectations

by Paddy Johnson on December 4, 2018
Thumbnail image for Museum Board Members Fail Moral Challenges, Museum Exhibitions Exceed Expectations

Donna DeSalvo assembles some of Andy Warhol’s greatest work for his retrospective at the Whitney Museum, while revelations that Whitney Vice Chair Warren B. Kanders owns a company that sells tear gas used at the border shake museum staff. Soul of a Nation at the Brooklyn Museum looks at the history of political activism, while Jack Waters offers a mix of bag of awe inspiring abject art paired with groan inspiring sculptures and paintings. Jack Whitten at the Metropolitan Museum dazzles, Art and Conspiracy flops, and Amazon is going to drive Queens residents out of their homes.

Listen ——>

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Explain Me: The Case for Taxing The Hell Out of Peter Brant

by Paddy Johnson on July 16, 2018
Thumbnail image for Explain Me: The Case for Taxing The Hell Out of Peter Brant

In this episode of Explain Me William Powhida and Paddy Johnson discuss the horrific business practices of Peter Brant and Interview Magazine, a fundraising campaign at University of North Carolina so misguided that firing is in order, and the latest headscratching Creative Time project. To help us discuss all of this, and how the new tax code will affect artists accountant and painter Hannah Cole joins us.

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Explain Me, Part II: Doug Aitken’s New Era, Worst Show of 2018

by Paddy Johnson on June 7, 2018
Thumbnail image for Explain Me, Part II: Doug Aitken’s New Era, Worst Show of 2018

In Part II of Explain Me, William Powhida and I discuss the difference between relational aesthetics and social practice, the whims of the auction market and the perilous affect it can have on artist careers, and Doug Aitken’s train wreck of a show at 303 Gallery along with a handful of truly remarkable shows. Those shows listed after the jump.

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