Radio Juxtapoz by The Unibrow
By The Unibrow
167: Nathan Bell
When Nathan Bell announced his latest solo show was to be called "Conversations with Inanimate Objects" and it would showcase a series of what he called "guidance paintings," I was hooked. I've known Nathan for years but mostly as a designer. So being able to speak to him in this context, inside the gallery These Days in downtown LA as the show was coming to a close, was a refreshing moment to have with someone you know and the other side of their brain.
In this conversation of The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast, I speak with Nathan about the journey of these works, from Finland to Mexico and back to Los Angeles, to his latest project in China and exactly what a guidance painting is. We may mention the Detroit Tigers and Timothée Chalamet... the latter by accident, we swear.
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The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 167 was recorded in Los Angeles on June 4th, 2025. Music by Aesop Rock for The Unibrow
166: Salomón Huerta
We kick off Season 20 of The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast with a conversation with Mexican-American, Los Angeles-based painter, Salomón Huerta.
What started as scheduling a conversation with Huerta around the opening of his solo show Stillness, which opened at Harper's in NYC in the spring, and he and I wanting to catch up after Huerta lost his home in Altadena in the fires that ravaged Southern California in January 2025 became another conversation about fires in LA County: just as we click confirmation on our time to meet up, ICE raids throughout LA had put the city into shock, sparking mass protests, National Guard and Marines being brought to the streets to heighten tensions and has left the Mexican-American community in fear.
Not only did Huerta want to talk about the current climate here but his own personal story of being an immigrant to America. Born in Tijuana, Mexico in 1965, his story is one of a meteoric rise in the fine art world (shows at Gagosian in 2001 just as he left UCLA) to soul-searching after his initial success to now creating some of the most personal works to date.
There is so much of Huerta's story I didn't know, so on this episode of the podcast, I speak with him about the creation of his famed "back of head" portraits, the genesis of the gun paintings and how he began to develop the pool and home works he is know for now. And, of course, we talk about LA, how his community is rattled and what that means for him in the future. From a wild story of John Baldessari's sort-of critique of his MFA work, to an upcoming show at Marc Selwyn Fine Art, this is an honest must-listen. —Evan Pricco
The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 166 was recorded in Los Angeles on June 11th, 2025. Music by Aesop Rock for The Unibrow
165: Dan Nadel, author of "Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life"
Author and curator Dan Nadel is a hero of mine and a bit of a renaissance man. He was the publisher of the brilliant and influential PictureBox for decades and was a champion of much of what Juxtapoz was founded on but took it to a whole new level of intricate historical research and creating a voice of record for so many artists who time wasn't given them a needle to etch their name in the vinyl, so to speak. We are talking comic book legends, graphic novelists, outsider artists who might have created some of the most recognizable art of the 20th century that the history books hadn't given the full retrospective for. And Dan was going to do it.
This year in paricular, Dan is busy. From publishing his newest book, Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life on the career and life of the controversial figura that is Robert Crumb, to co-curator for Sixties Surreal, a rethinking survey the art history of the 1960s at the Whitney Museum of American Art (opening September 24, 2025) and Curator-at-Large for Geroge Lucas' new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, we had a lot to catch up on The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast. We talk about undergrround comic's new resurgence into contemporary art, the making of the Crumb biography and the incredibly pivotal moment of KAWS' collection show at the Drawing Center in 2024.
But more than that, I got to speak with someone I admire on his dedication to print, to words, to creating narratives in a world that needs to understand it's visual history. —Evan Pricco
The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 165 was recorded in Los Angeles and Brooklyn on May 14th, 2025.
164: Shyama Golden
"'Too Bad, So Sad, Maybe Next Birth' was a phrase my parents would say whenever something was out of my control and didn’t go exactly according to plan," Shyama Golden wrote on the subject of her new solo show of the same name for PM/AM in London. "It feels to me like a short phrase that embodies the entire human struggle, like Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill." The Los Angeles-based painter has created a universe where reincarnation, generational trauma and suffering (and a sense of humor to cope with it), Sri Lankan folktales and a personal journey through time and the soul's journey through eras. Golden told me she wanted to create a works that spoke of "past lives because this framework challenges the idea of an essential self, a fixed history, and linear progress." And so she is creating her own story, not the next birth, but this birth.
In this conversation from The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast, I spoke with Shyama in LA just before her trip to London, just after her husband, Paul Trillo, showed me an incredible AI-generated film he created with her that will premiere in short form at the PM/AM show but will continue to be worked as a longer work in the future. The show is like a journey through our collective creative output: traditional painting, wood masks co-created with craftsmen in Sri Lanka that harken to centuries past as well as a short film utilizing AI. It's work for the ages, literally.
The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 164 was recorded in Los Angeles on May 2, 2025.
Music by Aesop Rock for The Unibrow.
163: Corita Kent's Legacy with Nellie Scott
The first thing I said to Nellie Scott, Executive Director of the Corita Art Center in downtown Los Angeles that preserves and promotes Corita Kent’s art, teaching, and passion for social justice, was that I wish we didn't need to do this. I wish Corita Kent's work had already done its work, that the world was free of oppression, racism, inequality, chaos and fear. Maybe Nellie and I could just talk about love and a butterfly, the upcoming showing of Kent's work at Andrew Kreps and kaufmann repetto in NYC this month. But the times they are a'changing and oh how they stay the same. The new Corita Art Center opened in March and since, Pope Francis has passed, the structure of democracy in America has been bent to a near breaking point and art has an act of protest and social awareness is struggling to find its footing. So, it's time for Corita Kent once again.
In this conversation on the Radio Juxtapoz podcast produced by the Unibrow, Nellie Scott speaks of the founding of the Center in 1997 and its association with the Immaculate Heart Community, how Corita Kent went from entering the religious order Immaculate Heart of Mary at age 18, to championing civil rights, anti-war activism, and peace, through her unique aesthetic of printmaking. She left the order in 1968 and moved to Boston, where she continued to make work. Her art, and her life, was devoted to finding a deep understanding of the human experience, through teaching and creating. Corita left behind a great legacy that continues to reverberate - at the time of her death in 1986, Corita had created almost 800 serigraph editions and thousands of watercolours, alongside public and private commissions. From Boston to Los Angeles, Corita’s life is a truly inspired story.
The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 163 was recorded at the Corita Art Center in Los Angeles in late April 2025.
Original music by Aesop Rock for Radio Juxtapoz
162: Adele Renault
Adele Renault's studio is an old converted Korean church in Los Angeles. It's a large, fascinating old building just down the road from some of the biggest gallery names in the world like Zwirner, but here, there is a quiet hum of the 10 freeway and a massive painting area that could almost be an old cinema in terms of scale. Here, the Belgian-born artist is far from the rural countryside she grew up in and now in the thick of the concrete landmass that is the sprawl of LA. And here, in these conditions, she is making paintings so precise and photorealistic, so airtight, that she is almost leaning into something abstract. They are stunning and a major moment for the artist as she is set to open her solo show, Things I Can't Unsee, at Good Mother Gallery.
It's the perfect title to a show, and in particular, to the practice she has of documenting her travels via bicycle, running or in a car across LA. Made over the span of 12 months, through a tumultuous time in LA's history, the works are an ode to the city and the constant conversation between nature and cement.
In this conversation on the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, presenting by The Unibrow, Renault talks to Evan Pricco about her growing from graffiti and street work into this new direction, from pigeons to now urban landscapes, how being afforded time is a gift every artist needs and how close to abstraction these works can get up close.
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The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 162 was recorded in Los Angeles in late April 2025.
Studio photo by Pysa (@Pysainhiding)
161: Katie Merz
“No hierarchies are implied.” If you need to know anything about Katie Merz, start with that. The Brooklyn-born and bred artist has been playing on the streets both metaphorically and recently literally, for most of her life. Hierarchies would have got in the way if she let them. Art was all around, or perhaps better stated, it could be all around. For Merz, improvising was the goal, and the ever-evolving canvas that is her home borough gave her the imagination and the thoughtfulness to read and react to the world around her that has now blossomed into a public art career that is also extended into fine art and commercial projects. And this is where we found her.
It was serendipity that at the time we were meeting up with Katie in her Brooklyn studio, she was finalizing her long-awaited collaboration with Simplehuman. The Southern California-brand is famous for their, well, beautifully simple trash can designs and home goods, but there was something rather ideal about pairing an artist to create a design for cans. Ideas come and go in the studio, projects can get thrown away but the function of an artist is to take the everyday object and turn it into art. For Katie, this is in her DNA.
On this episode of The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast, we speak with Katie about the collaboration with Simplehuman but also how she involves spontaneous play into her work, how much growing up with the romantic history of NYC plays into who she is and the process of storytelling with lines.
The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 161 was recorded in Los Angeles and Brooklyn on April 21, 2025. This episode was made possible by Simplehuman and their upcoming capsule collection with Katie Merz.
160: David Altmejd
The serpent has been around for a quite some time. It's biblical stature as the representation of the temptation of the devil to Eve in the Garden of Eden has often been part of Western thought, but the asp was a powerful symbol in ancient Egyptian culture, representing "divine authority of the pharaohs." The serpent has been a protector and mischievous creature, chaotic and a form of order. And this is where we find Montreal-born, LA-based sculpture artist David Altmejd, on the border of chaos and order, restraint and rawness, realism and fantasy. We are in the underworld but also inverting the hierarchy of the world above it all in one.
I spoke with David on the occasion of his solo show, The Serpent, at White Cube Gallery in NYC, a show exploring a theme he had wanted to challenge himself for years and one that brought out a whole new direction and subconscious expression that he plans to explore in future shows and works. On a sunny April morning, I visited David's now almost-empty-but-in-the-process-of-new-ideas studio in Echo Park and found that this was just the time to get the story of where he is at in 2025. David digs himself into quite a personal world when he is making a show, and he told me he is often unprepared or able to speak of his work until it leaves his studio. So here we are.
On this episode of The Uniborw's Radio Juxtapoz podcast, we speak with David Altmejd about feline energy, biology, physical space, the beauty of a sculpture that is almost always in motion, and what The Serpent means to him.
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The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 160 was recorded in Los Angeles on April 7, 2025.
This episode of Radio Juxtapoz is brought to you by the generous support of the Artemizia Foundation, a world class museum of contemporary, graffiti and street art in Bisbee, Arizona.
159: Noelia Towers
Barcelona-born Noelia Towers has been painting a form deconstructing power structures for years now, but it seems like over the last few years her subject matter has received a heightened attention. And importance. Not like a typical activist painter, Noelia is placing herself right in the center of both a personal biography and a universal appeal for action against patriarchy and a prevailing mood across the world of a new form of masculine power structures. I wrote a few months back, "She plays with ideas of myth, both personal and universal, using imagery that creates a feeling of familiarity but abstracted to make you rethink your expectation of memory," and this holds up even more after our conversation.
On this episode of the Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast, Noelia talks to me about her move to Chicago, the traumas she carries with her in her practice today and how her recent show, An Account of Preceding Events at de boer, Los Angeles came quickly and was one of her best experiences in the studio in years.
The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 159 was recorded in New York and Chicago on March 26, 2025.
This episode of Radio Juxtapoz is brought to you by the generous support of the Artemizia Foundation, a world class museum of contemporary, graffiti and street art in Bisbee, Arizona.
158: Mark Whalen
Mark Whalen has been with us for almost 20 years, from the streets of Sydney, Australia to a new life of a sculpture studio in Los Angeles. Now it is time we are with him: after losing his home in the Altadena fire of January 2025, I got in touch with Mark about a visit to The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz, but also to catch up on an immersive, darkly humorous series of works he was creating. It felt like the right time.
In this conversation on the podcast, we find the inspiration behind the world Whalen has created, the stream of consciousness and deeply investigative construction of the sculptures, the materials, the fun, the pain, and how losing his home will inevitably transform the power of the work.
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The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 158 was recorded in Los Angeles on March 14, 2025.
This episode of Radio Juxtapoz is brought to you by the generous support of the Artemizia Foundation, a world class museum of contemporary, graffiti and street art in Bisbee, Arizona.
157: Daniel Gibson
Daniel Gibson is a painter of the California landscape, a visualizer of a certain kind of desert oasis dreamt of in a surreal dream as opposed to a place you have been. But to be honest, I wasn't aware of this fantastical world of desert sun, flora and fauna in Gibson's work; I just wanted it all to be real. I don't think that is important; what is important is that Gibson is capturing an essence of fantasy and freedom, a rural and desert basins, the Imperial Valley of Southeast California.
This is where Daniel grew up, and though he has lived in San Diego and now Los Angeles for years, he takes this childhood daydream of his surroundings with him in some of the most beautifully phantasmagorical paintings being made today.
Gibson's path to a fine art career took many twists and turns, from ArtCenter to graphic design, street posters to working at Levi's. He found himself in the studio of Mary Weatherford, another artist of color bursts and abstractions, where he learned the details of a career artists and the blueprint for dedication. The pandemic allowed him more time in the studio, and when the world was shut away, Gibson developed a body of work that has seen the galleries of Almine Rech, Nazarian / Curcio and new show just about to open at Marquez Art Projects (MAP) in Miami.
In this conversation on The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast, Gibson speaks to Juxtapoz editor Evan Pricco about a semi-retirement set for 2025 (aka, a break from shows to develop new work), growing up near the California-Mexico border, being self-taught at painting, the emotional parts of paintings and what he learned from Weatherford's practice.
The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 157 was recorded in Los Angeles on March 11, 2025. This episode of Radio Juxtapoz is brought to you by the generous support of the Artemizia Foundation, a world class museum of contemporary, graffiti and street art in Bisbee, Arizona.
156: Nehemiah Cisneros
There have been many iterations of the man we know as Nehemiah Cisneros, but right now, in the most moment, he is most himself. If you know Nehemiah, he is a thoughtful, insightful and evolving figure in art who is a filmmaker in a painters' body. We met him as AUGOR, the graffiti writer who took over Los Angles in the late aughts with billboards and walls that were just as influenced by comics, video games and low brow art as it was the history of lettering and monikers. He was fresh air in a scene that was already full of major creative forces: SABER, REVOK, RETNA and the MSK crew members. Cisneros was the young buck making a name, with LA in his blood and something theatric in his vision.
Across a few art schools, going through addiction and his own "trouble" that we mention in this podcast, Cisneros found a new voice in the art departments of Santa Monica City College, Kansas City Art Institute and then an MFA at UCLA. What that voice does is create a vision of his youth in Los Angeles and the aesthetic of a city of narratives, literally in its DNA. Cisneros, even now with a body of work on its way to Josh Lilley in London, has taken a life of influence from film, arcades, city streets, low brow and fine art into a beautiful and often overwhelmingly dense series of paintings.
In this conversation on The Unibrow's Radio Juxtapoz podcast, Evan Pricco and Cisneros talk about life after an MFA, his time working in the arts and studying painting, how Mark Ryden influenced his early years and how now he is looking to Theodore Gericault, Max Ernst, gamer culture and Black Exploitation films for his new works. Off the the "goon cave"...
Radio Juxtapoz' Unibrow podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 156 was recorded in Los Angeles on March 5, 2025 Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
155: Hannah Lupton Reinhard
Hannah Lupton Reinhard's paintings always have a consistency in intent, and yet an interpretation of intention seems to be flexible for some, perhaps even malleable. The theme of moving goal posts to secure your own meaning is rife in modern society, perhaps more so than ever as we all have the unique ability to erase our own history so easily. We all, at the touch of a button, can share and manipulate our opinions, often in an instant. I don't know if we, as a collective, were ready for this, and we are struggling. We are angry. We are confused.
Reinhard has been making paintings about being Jewish since her time at RISD, has explored Jewish "displacement, diaspora, and the weight of inherited identity." In her celebratory work, she speaks of something quite universal: the complex idea of home and, as she notes from the philosopher Judith Butler, "that cohabitation—living among and alongside others—is central to Jewishness itself." As war in the Middle East began to explore, her work was being re-evauluated, her inclusive opinions causing her anger from her community and re-reading of her artwork that was never her intention. It brought out broader conversations about coexistence, and how a proudly Jewish artist can criticize Zionism while remaining as proud of her heritage as ever?
In this conversation on the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, Evan Pricco speaks with Reinhard at Rusha & Co just as her solo show, Are We Here Yet? was opening. They spoke about how the fires in Los Angeles gave her work an extra dimension, finding identity in art school and how she painted through a major shift in her public life and how it caused a uncertainty in her private life.
(Editor's note: Click here to see imagery that connects with the conversation, a gives context for some of Reinhard's older works)
Radio Juxtapoz' Unibrow podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 155 was recorded in Los Angeles on February 12, 2025 Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
154: Jeremy Geddes
It took Melbourne's Jeremy Geddes over 5 years to make his newest solo show, Periphery, for Thinkspace Projects, and it's been over a decade since he last had a show all together. He is a patient man, a man who loves the details, making personal and universal works that are about the human condition in relation to explorations of space, our soul and our relationship the technology all around us. He is an explorer of the smallest details, a painter who doesn't just have the technical skill of past masters from centuries before, but a problem of solver of the self.
So it took him 5 years to make this show, and, while on the plane to Los Angeles in the first week of January, 2025, it took Los Anglees a few hours to be changed forever. Time is fascinating that way; an artist and mother nature have different schedules.
Speaking of schedules, we schedules this conversation with Jeremy a few weeks ago, just before he made his trip to Los Angeles for the solo show at Thinkspace Projects, his first solo show in over a decade and a culmination of work made since 2019. Before the pandemic, to now. Quite a significant moment for him, and for us, a moment to connect with a past cover artist, a vital artist in our history.
As fires were ravaging LA's hills and communities, Jeremy and I had this conversation with heavy hearts. With heavy minds. Past guest of Radio Juxtapoz, featured artists in the magazine, friends, family, colleagues, all lost homes in these fires. Friends, family and colleagues have homes threatened right now, as I recond this. It’s a tragedy, it’s unthinkable, it’s been quite unimaginable.
In this conversation, Jeremy and I speak about that attention to detail, about how he sees the scope of his life finally seeing this show all together and how much of his work isn't informed by science fiction but our need to explore what it is that moves us, no matter how small or how significant. —Evan Pricco
Radio Juxtapoz' Unibrow podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 154 was recorded in Los Angeles on January 10, 2025 Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
153: Umar Rashid
It isn't often we invite a guest to come onto Radio Juxtapoz for a second time, but Umar Rashid is beyond an exception. He's a friend with something to talk about, a new show, yes, The Kingdom of the Two Californias. La Época del Totalitarismo Part 2 at BLUM in Los Angeles... but we are also talking two days after the American election and an artist dedicated to history has something to say. A lot to say.
"This epoch is exhausting," Rashid says, as we explore his own explorations of history and the cacophony of noise of the contemporary. In our wide-ranging conversation, we talk about making art in the midst of history happening around you, how you can tell stories from the past that explain our current and future selves and how much it takes to prepare a body of work that is about a narrative that demands a deeper read. Umar never shies away from telling us how our history is often over-looked, and although that seems simple, it's a plague of humanity to not look back in order to move forward. And art is his language...
Radio Juxtapoz' Unibrow podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 153 was recorded in Los Angeles on November 7, 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
152: Danielle Mckinney
Something that will always exist, regardless of political landscapes and the changing of societal norms, is the need to honor space. Danielle Mckinney knows something about space, and waiting, and watching, and observing. As a photographer she practices these disciplines, and when she began to explore her desire to paint, she found something remarkably powerful: the space for the body to rest. Whether it was a fantasy or a dream, Mckinney's work is a powerful reminder that the art of protest can come in unexpected ways, that sound can reverberate from the quietest of moments and just how much rest and the act of being seen resonates so deeply.
In this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz's Unibrow podcast, Jux editor Evan Pricco speaks to Mckinney the day before the American election of 2024, which envelops the conversation with a bit of realistic uncertainty. Mckinney speaks of her shows in Europe in 2024, listening to Thom Yorke and the Cocteau Twins, her youth in Alabama and Georgia and giving woman of color the space and place to be seen.
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Radio Juxtapoz' Unibrow podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 152was recorded in Los Angeles and New York on November 4, 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
Photo of Danielle Mckinney by Pierre Le Hors, provided by Kunsthal n in Copenhagen
151: Koak
San Francisco's Koak has always been a mystery to us. Yes, of course she is an internationally exhibited painter and the cover of the Juxtapoz Fall 2024 Quarterly in time with her solo show at Perrotin in Paris in September, but that there is something non-era-specific about the work she makes. Timeless get overused, but Koak makes otherworldly paintings that are personal, emotional, universal, environmental and narrative all in one.
In this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz's new Unibrow series, a more raw, uncut version of our podcast, Koak talks to me about her teen years in Santa Cruz, how she thinks of composing her installations in the vein of comic book storytelling, how a very difficult year led to quite a compulsive, painstaking process to make her show in Paris and how an upcoming institutional show in London makes her feel right at home.
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Radio Juxtapoz' Unibrow podcast is hosted by Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 151 was recorded in Los Angeles and San Francisco on October 29, 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
150: Anthony Cudahy
Anthony Cudahy is at an interest time in his life when we spoke for the Radio Juxtapoz podast: he hadn't been in the studio for a bit. And who could blame him? He had concurrent solo shows open at Grimm and Hales in NYC, and his first museum show, Spinneret, had opened Ogunquit Museum of American Art in Maine earlier in the year and was about to open at the Green Family Art Foundation in Dallas the week of our conversation. A break, or at least taking it all in, seemed quite relatable.
And on this episode of Radio Juxtapoz, it does feel like Anthony is thinking about what is next, giving his most recent work and past works a little deeper look, deeper thoughts and really taking note of how the past 5 years of his life have really taking off. He is a painter of stories, of narratives, capturing his husband and friends in fragments that almost take on a life of their own. Maybe that is what it is all about; letting a painting take you somewhere, outside of yourself by of yourself, and just taking you to another place. That is what Anthony is really, really good at that.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 150 was recorded in the NYC in October 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
149: Matt Bollinger
Matt Bollinger's aim is both to define America but also define himself. Okay, okay, that seems like a wide net to throw, and it maybe it even seems simplistic, but there is his contemporary approach to social realistic, Ashcan School style that has made Bollinger one of the most interesting artists working today in painting, drawing and animation that speaks about and creates narratives of midwest America. His characters often show up in different bodies of work, different mediums, as we follow them through recessions and pandemics and aging, and really just life. Originally from Missouri and now working out of upstate New York, this is a time where Bollinger's voice seems as vital as ever.
On this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, we get the band back together, so to speak, where hosts Evan Pricco and Doug Gillen interview Bollinger about his recent body of work shown in London and the state of America through the lens of his characters. On the heels of our conversation with Patrisse Cullors, this could be the beginning of our "state of the union" series of pods.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 149 was recorded in the Los Angeles, Margate and Ithaca in September 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
148: Patrisse Cullors
As a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, and a career as an artist, writer, abolitionist, Patrisse Cullors is one of the most influential figures in contemporary culture of the 21st century. What the Los Angeles-born Cullors has found in art is something quite fascinating in contrast to work as a activist: space to explore the limitations of language and the expansive nature of creating histories in physical form.
I met Cullors at picnic table outside Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown on the occasion of the artist's first solo show with the gallery, "Between the Warp and Weft: Weaving Shields of Strength and Spirituality." That conversation led to this episode of Radio Juxtapoz, where. Cullors and I discussed the expanded world of activism, her history in making art and the influences of Black American artists in her work and where she sees America at now with the looming elections just months away. —Evan Pricco
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 148 was recorded in the Los Angeles in August 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
147: Christian Quin Newell
The first time we encountered the works of London-based Christian Quin Newell was at his stunning Earth altar solo show at Public Gallery. Newell works in an otherworldly realm, dreamscapes if you will (more on this in a second). His newest solo show, The Way, at the same London-based Public Gallery, created what we could say are cosmological paintings, a combination of fictional mysticism, medieval and futuristic at the same time. It's his universe, and we are walking into it.
On this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, we speak to Newell about the characters and universe, his influences and his incredible ability of documenting and then painting his dreams in almost real time.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 147 was recorded in the London in August 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
146: Hannah Wilson
When you open up the Fall 2024 Juxtapoz Quarterly, our colleague Kristin Farr brings up a caveat when looking (or hearing) about the works of Hannah Wilson. "Embedded in this interview is a required watchlist: Motion pictures that catalyze the arresting paintings of Hannah Wilson." What perhaps you need to know is that Wilson's works are dramatic in that they are the in-between moments of film, stills of the often-missed moments of repose and turmoil. Backs of heads, faces turned down, whispers, grimaces, stress. This is the world of Hannah Wilson is investigating.
The Glasgow-based painter has had quite the few years in the public eye, from a solo show at Steve Turner in Los Angeles and residency in Norwich with the team at Moosey and a new feature in our Fall Quarterly. When we asked Wilson how 2024 was going to wrap up, they said "I’ll be continuing my research, watching lots of films and painting what feels good. Also failing, of course, if I’m lucky."
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 146 was recorded in the London in August 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
145: Ken Nwadiogbu
We often said with Juxtapoz that the power of art is to make people feel engaged, feel good and feel ownership over both their community and the world-at-large. Art makes you feel alive, makes you thoughtfully engaged, whether the art challenges you or makes you just have a smile on your face. It's the beauty of it: art allows you to activate yourself.
On the occasion of Ken Nwadiogbu taking part in the River Centre Development at Hellesdon Hospital in Norwich, where he the London-based painter transformed the walls of Hellesdon hospital, we found it a good time to finally get a chance here at Radio Juxtapoz to pay Ken and visit and see what he is up to. With Ken's solo show at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in Berlin on this summer, we had a lot to catch up on with the Nigerian-bon painter.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 145 was recorded in the London in August 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
144: Asbestos
We often ask ourselves how art can heal or make us better understand the world around us. It's the function of art, isn't it? We may not have a universal or agreed upon definition of what art is or means, but we have an understanding that art is an expression of creativity in response to both personal and communal experiences. It's complicated, but good art makes you feel and understand something deeper about the human experience.
On the occasion of "Don’t Forget to Remember," a documentary film by director Ross Killeen that follows the Irish street artist "Asbestos as he and his family learn to navigate his mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and cope with her fading memories," Radio Juxtapoz sits down with the artist to discuss this incredible transformation in his personal life and how this has created a new direction in his artistic life.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 144 was recorded in the UK in August 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
143: Jaime Muñoz
A new season of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast is here, and we start with something that feels quite relevant as we cross-over into the halfway mark of 2024. The concept is this: Truth is a Moving Target, and the artist and exhibition it pertains to is Southern California's Jaime Muñoz who just opened his first solo museum show at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in Los Angeles.
When Jaime makes work, he is thinking about movement, how labor moves through our world, how we get from one place to another, and the illusions that some have about what it means to be labor. I wrote this about Jaime earlier this month prior to the podcast, that he "uses the utilitarian methods to speak about a history of California, immigration, migration, labor commodification and the automobile."
Over the course of this episode, we talk about these ideas and his unique craft of airbrush and ink drawings, through a unique visual collage of the things we see across our commutes and highway landscape and the political truths we tell ourselves in the midst of all of this.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 143 was recorded in Los Angeles at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in July 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
142: DULK
Continuing our series of podcasts from the Crystal Ship festival in Ostend, Belgium, Radio Juxtapoz' Doug Gillen sat down with Spanish muralist and painter DULK to capture the essence of his practice that has long featured wild animals in a new urban context.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 1412was recorded in Ostend in April 2024 during Crystal Ship. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
141: ACHES
Ah, its nice to have a little color talk here on the podcast. Dublin, Irelands' ACHES is a theorist of color. He combines a multitude of ideas and styles into his work, whether graffiti, murals, painting, graphic design, all into an aesthetic that is deservedly his and one of the more unique in the street genre. When you see an ACHES, you know its him.
Now on this occasion we aren't in Dublin or the UK to speak with the artist, but in Hong Kong during Basel Week 2024 and the HK Walls festival. It's always a good time to speak to an artist away from home because you understand a certain idea of perception about their work, and a great conversation usually occurs when you have a little jet lag and hard work going on at the same time. What ACHES describes here is his history and his style that he calls a "subtractive and additive color theory." That's the good stuff.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 141 was recorded in Hong Kong in March 2024 during HK Walls. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
140: Wisam Salsaa of Banksy's Walled Off Hotel in Palestine
It was always as much as an intervention as it was a hotel. When Banksy opened the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem in Palestine in the West Bank in 2017, it was met by both amazement and a bit of shock. In what, in a way, like, "Wait, he opened an actual hotel in the West Bank? By the wall? How did he get that done?" And of course there was the simple: "I want to go. Can I go? Is it safe? I need to go." But there were also more vital questions and anwsers that the hotel offered: what is the history of this region? What is the West's role in this history? The year 2017 was important as it marked the 100 years since the "British took control of Palestine and helped kick start a century of confusion and conflict." And of course in true Banksy fashion, he noted, "At the time of writing there are no special events being planned to mark the occasion." This was a real hotel, with real world implications in a region occupied by Israel with wartime conditions dominating the consciousness of the people there. For Banksy and Walled Off Hotel manager, Wisam Salsaa, this was the opportunity to tell the story of a people, a region and a culture.
After our Israel-Palestine episode at the end of 2023, Radio Juxtapoz wanted to return to the stories of the region but also highlight those who help give Palestinian artists a voice and platform. Wisam, for his years as a tour guide in Bethlehem and now the manager of the Walled Off Hotel (which, of course, is currently closed), helped make Banksy's vision for the hotel come to life and continued to operate it through the following years. In this episode, Jux editor Evan Pricco speaks to Wisam about the creation of the Walled Off, the artistic culture in the West Bank, how street art brought international attention to the region and how Banky changed the way many in the West began to think about its role in the history of Palestine.
You can follow the Walled Off Hotel at @walledoffhotel
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 140 was recorded in May 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
139: Cindy Bernhard
When Cindy Bernhard found the cats she found herself. That is the short summary of the story. During the pandemic, and years of trying to find her artistic voice, Chicago-based Bernhard painted a cat in her work and found that voice, that direction, that narrative, the character that was her but also something so universal. The cats aren't just lying about, they are sleekily wandering beautiful rooms, hiding behind beautiful objects, with candles and purple and the night as the backdrop. They are inquisitive and curious, much like Bernhard herself.
On the eve of her solo show Take Me to Church at Richard Heller Gallery, Radio Juxtapoz sat down with Bernhard to discuss religion, growing up on a farm, a brief move to Los Angeles, finding a home in Chicago and how the cats and the candles made it into her work.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 139 was recorded in Los Angeles and Chicago in April 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
138: FAILE
The thing about FAILE is that they are always trying to take you somewhere you feel like you have been but may have dreamt. Since coming into street art at the pivotal moment of the early 2000s and their various explorations into installation, muralism, nightlife and fine art, you recongnize the world of FAILE even though it's something completely fresh and new. I think of it as the imaginary world you always wanted but could never quite find.
And at the moment they open their new solo show, Don't Stop, at CONTROL Gallery in Los Angeles, Radio Juxtapoz wanted to talk to the duo that is FAILE and discuss what it is they saw and see now as pioneers of street work but also transformative artists who think of place and space and experience in everything they do.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 138 was recorded in Los Angeles and Brooklyn in April 2024. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
137: Katie Green
As these things happen when we are on the road, we met a Canadian in Ostend, Belgium. Radio Juxtapoz was on the road for the annual Crystal Ship and as we love with the mural festivals we get to see the process, the ideas and the creation of so many works from so many different practices. Katie Green creates masks, what she calls "intimate watercolour personas that are eerie and ethereal." On a mural level, this requires participation and something quite unique.
Her project, as she notes on her IG, "is a community driven process which uses handmade masks as a way to build community, find healing, and explore aspects of self. By designing and wearing a mask, invited participants are given the opportunity to present society with an internal, alternate, or imagined part of themselves. The mask creates a safe space—both expressive and anonymous—to share oneself with the outside world."
Like Ostends' beloved James Ensor, "Katie uses masks as a symbol for intrigue. Masks are a passageway between what we perceive on the outside and the mystery of what lies beyond. In Ensor’s work, his masks are unpredictable and we are invited to befriend our own imaginations as we ponder the hidden subjects. In this project masks become an extension of self, where each participant is guided through a curated process that brings them closer to their internal landscape."
So for Crystal Ship, Green worked with the community to create masks, and chose this particular mask as an ode to the city and Ensor's work. And we have her on this episode of Radio Juxtapoz.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 137 was recorded by Gillen in Ostend in April 2024 during Crystal Ship. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
136: Bond Truluv
Hong Kong was the center of the art world a few weeks back, as Basel week set the stage for the prominent art capital to get some much overdue love from the pandemic era shutdowns. Juxtapoz, and mainly Radio Juxtapoz, was there for HK Walls, the esteemed mural fest celebrating its 9th edition with a roster of international and Hong Kong-based painters.
On the occasion, as we always like to make a little time with the artists at a mural festival, we spoke with German-based Bond Truluv, the calligraphic and futurist who transforms walls into alternate universes. He's a portal maker.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 136 was recorded in Hong Kong in March 2024 during HK Walls. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
135: Cathrin Hoffmann
We love when an old friend becomes a new friend all at once. We have known and featured the works of German-artist Cathrin Hoffmann many times through the years and one of the things we love about her practice of going from digital to analog all while keeping the spirit of something from another world. Not alien, but just something beyond human. But, in that, she seems to be capturing the exact innate quality it is to be human. Get it? Got it.
On this episode of Radio Juxtapoz, we catch up with Hoffmann as she takes part in a group show at Christine König Galerie in Vienna and where her ability to create an atmosphere with her paintings and sculptures, side by side, is hitting its stride.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 135 was recorded in London and Hamburg in March 2024 . Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
134: Johanna Bath
The first thing we researched when we came across the paintings of Johanna Bath was this simple declaration "I am madly in love with life." That is a great place to start, because sometimes a painter just needs to love the life they are inspired by. Maybe, in her distorted and almost hazy representations of life and in her fate to become an artist, she finds life just a little more exhilarating.
After seeing the German-born painter's work at Pipeline Contemporay in London and a residency at the Fores Project in 2023 and 2024, Radio Juxtapoz's Doug Gillen sat down with Bath to her about her route to the art world and her lust for life.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 134 was recorded in London in February 2024 . Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
133: Ben Wakeling
On the occasion of his newest solo show, Abstract Figurativism: Loving Fiercely, at BSMT in London's Dalston, Radio Juxtapoz sat down with Ben Wakeling for a special conversation about art, healing, community, loss, grief and love.
As the Artist in Residence of the North London Trust NHS Arts Programme that he helped found, Wakeling collaborates with patients experiencing episodes of mania or psychosis. The beauty of the works lies in both the sublime brushstokes and the channeling of energy, creating something fresh and introspective for abstract painting. You don't want to miss this one.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 133 was recorded in London in February 2024 . Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz // You can buy the SPRING Quarterly now at Shop.Juxtapoz.com
132: Christian Rex van Minnen
Christian Rex van Minnen and I decided to talk on Valentine's Day. He was about to be announced as the cover artist for the SPRING 2024 Juxtapoz Quarterly and, like two old friends should do, we wanted to have a talk on a day where sharing your feelings is a rite of passage. Over the years, the Santa Cruz-based painter and I have had a long history of, you guessed it, long talks, but we haven't spoken since the pandemic started and it felt like it was time for a catch up. His masterful paintings had recently graced the walls of Veta Galerie in Madrid, and there seemed to be a slight evolution of his visual language that I couldn't quite put my finger on. So, let's chat it out.
What we found on this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast is an artist not just in an evolution of his craft but in an evolution of his psyche, his philosophies, his selfhood. I've always felt like Christian was wise beyond his year, a thinker who takes those deeply meditative moments alone in the studio and used them to contemplate the history of painting, the history of the self and man's ability to understand it's own darkness. It's own weaknesses, it's strengths. We didn't talk much about painting on this day (although I got some stories about the gummies), but we did talk about life and how much we each have changed over the last 16 years. —Evan Pricco
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 132 was recorded in Santa Cruz and Los Angeles on February 14, 2024 in Los Angeles. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
131: Ozzie Juarez
Los Angeles is a big place. Sprawling is the description most give it, and that feels so apt once you spend a few days here. It's not a top to bottom type of city, but left to right, almost like a city laid out like a book. A city of narratives and chapters. And right now, there aren't many an artists who seem to be writing a tale quite like Ozzie Juarez. As a painter, curator and incubator, Juarez and his Tlaloc Studios is telling the modern story of LA to not only the rest of the world, but to itself. It's LA about LA; and it's unlike any story being told today.
On this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, Jux editor Evan Pricco sits down with Ozzie days after the opening of one of the most talked about shows of the LA season: his solo OXI-DIOS at Charlie James Gallery. He still feels the buzz, but will soon turn his attention back to his curatorial duties with TRADITIONS at Muzeo down the road in Orange County and taking part in what may be the show of the year, At the Edge of the Sun, opening at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery just in time for Frieze LA. This is where Ozzie is at. Whether its in the blue chip galleries of West LA, Tlaloc in South Central or his own solo show in Chinatown, he is the pulse of LA.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 131 was recorded on January 25, 2024 in Los Angeles. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
130: Kemi Onabulé
We are back in London for the 2nd episode of the 15th season of Radio Juxtapoz with a conversation with British painter, Kemi Onabulé. One of the things that stood out for us and why we wanted to speak with Kemi was this quote she said about her new show, All The Land Is Spoken For, on view now at Sim Smith. "There is so much to enjoy from a tree as a painter, you can paint its skeleton as if it were a body.” This is how 2024 begins.
One of the ideas of this show, and our conversation is the idea of how we all have a desire, or at least many of us, to own the place that we come from. Not just as a place where we live and grew up in, but in terms of ecological and cultural terms. Maybe we don't think about it often enough, but where we come from define us, both personally and how others perceive us; this is how we start to define ourselves and what we make of our life. But what Onabulé talks about is this idea of a game of aesthetics, how we interact with the viewer, what the viewer understands, and the power of a visual.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 130 was produced and recorded in January 2024 by Doug Gillen. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
129: William Cobbing
Welcome to a new season of Radio Juxtapoz. And why not kick off the 15th season with someone who not only pushes the boundaries of a medium but plays a bit on the absurdity that is modern life, contemporary art and the ways we experience both. William Cobbing explores both a physical and digital world with something quite antiquated: clay. He can be both a performance artist and a studio practitioner, playfully using his social media accounts to create interactive "plays" and "scenes" of his art in motion. It's playful, other-worldly, and probably exactly what we need.
In this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, Doug Gillen speaks with Cobbing in England at the end of 2023, just as the British Ceramics Biennial closed and just in time to have him kick off a new season.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 129 was produced and recorded in December by Doug Gillen. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
128: The Israel-Palestine Episode
We close out our 14th season and the 2023 with a special conversation with friends, about the story of the year, the impact it has had on each of their lives and how art can be a conduit to understanding, care and shared humanity.
"The Israel-Palestine Episode" features conversations with two Radio Juxtapoz alums, Israeli artist Know Hope, Palestinian-American artist Saj Issa, as well as Anthropologist and Curator, Dr. Rafael Schacter.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 128 was produced and recorded in November and December by Doug Gillen. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
127: Saimaiyu Akesuk
When you go to Miami each year, you are hoping to discover something new, something fresh, an artist that changes the way you look at the contemporary art landscape. For Radio Juxtapoz, we were able to go North while heading South, where we hosted a live panel conversation with Saimaiyu Akesuk, an Iqaluit born, Kinngait-based artist whose distinctive patterns and oil pastel animal drawings drew the eye of Canada Goose and the Canada Goose Art Collection.
Last week at the Canada Goose pop-up store in Miami's Design District, and in an evolution of its longstanding program, Canada Goose commissioned Saimaiyu to create three new print works, with proceeds from the sales of the works to benefit Inuit artists and communities across Canada. On the occasion,and on this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, Jux editor Evan Pricco spoke with Saimaiyu and Canada Goose Art Collection curator, Natalie MacNamara to discuss Saimaiyu's early influences in her community, her grandfather's lasting impression on her pastel drawings and the inspirations behind her birds and bears.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 127 was recorded on December 7, 2023 at the Canada Goose pop-up in Miami. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
126: Erwin Wurm
It's refreshing to talk to an artist who likes a bit of the absurd. And who bucked the trend of his home country and started making work that blended performance, fashion, sculpture, text, video, theater and interaction that turned him into an internationally acclaimed artist who is known to make fine art out of, well, the absurd moments of daily life. Vienna-based Erwin Wurm comes from a refreshingly old school way of a studio practice that utilizes ideas over function. We might know him for his "fat sculptures" or his one-minute sculptures, and you may know him for fashion shoots for the likes of Hermès, but really, we Wurm is in a league of his own in terms of what conceptual art can be.
On the occasion of his solo museum show, HOT, on view at SCAD MOA, Radio Juxtapoz sat down with Wurm from his home in Vienna to talk about his practice, his history in the Austrian art scene, the fun of one minute sculpture and how having a museum show across the world in Savannah is great opportunity for him to talk about where he plans to go in the future.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 126 was recorded in October 2023 in Los Angeles, Vienna and London. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
125: Tim Conlon
There are just certain artists who know their subject. For Tim Conlon, freight train graffiti is his muse, his subject, his love, his investigation. As a freight graffiti artist himself, Tim took that passion and understanding of the North American railroad system and turned into wonderfully constructed photoreal paintings of graff on trains as well as a series of train set works featuring graffiti pieces. His work is about not only a love of graffiti, but a story of movement, of communication and connection, friendship and the insight to a subculture of America that collect rail ephemera. It's a story of the industrial revolution, but also of the power of moving art.
On this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, Juxtapoz editor Evan Pricco speaks with Tim about his early days in Baltimore, how he got into painting the freights and the culture around painting trains. From taking part in a show at BEYOND THE STREETS in LA this past Fall, as well as big showcases at BTS in London and Shanghai earlier this year and working on Showtime's "Rolling Like Thunder" documentary on freight train graffiti with Roger Gastman, Tim's stories are part of the fabric of American art.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 125 was recorded in October 2023 in Los Angeles. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
124: David Shrigley
There doesn't seem to be anything more 1984 than taking what was one of the most popular selling books of the 21st century and printing an alternative text upon its ashes. There is that wonderful moment in Orwell's masterwork that reads "Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right."
Okay, David Shrigley isn't some mastermind of double-think of mind control, but he is a conceptual artist. And this was his concept: after seeing a campaign gone viral where the Oxfam charity shop in Swansea had asked people to please stop bringing their copies of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" into the shop to resell, Shrigley decided to buy every copy he could of the novel with the purpose of re-printing over it as "1984." The project is called Pulped Fiction.
As we noted earlier this week, fragments of the original novels remain on the paper, with letters and sometimes whole words of Robert Langdon’s adventures appearing on the pages. The typeface was carefully chosen to mirror the type used for The Da Vinci Code’s first edition, while the book’s cover has been repurposed from the card backing and dustjackets of more than 1,250 copies of the hardback special edition.
On this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, we sit down with David to discuss Pulped Fiction, the omnipresent shadow that 1984 continues to have on our world, the irony of erasing a text to reprint atop it, the beauty of charity shops and all things happening in the Shrigley world.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 124 was recorded on October 25, 2023 in Swansea and Los Angeles. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
123: Dada Khanyisa
Okay, okay, okay, Cape Town-based artist Dada Khanyisa isn't a Dadaist, so maybe the title here is misleading. But they are having a solo show currently at the Johannesburg Art Gallery and they are part of the roster of the great Stevenson gallery and they are making work that is both politically astute but also about this ideas of what they say is "going out culture, but also going in culture." So even if it's not Dadaism, it's Dada-ism.
On this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, we sit down with the Cape Town-based artist about imagination versus reality and the trickiness of the balance, tolerance training and the continuing emerging career of one of the brightest stars of South African art today.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 123 was recorded in October 2023 in Margate and Cape Town. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
122: Sara Birns
Let's talk about morphing. Better yet, let's talk about the images and visions that we have that are in-between our reality, like when you snap to focus and there are blurred lines and a bit of a shaky floater in your eyeline. You might see some crazy shit. For Sara Birns, she is a painter of morphing visions and facial structures, things that are recognizably unrecognizable. "I wanted to capture, and realistically reveal the way I interpret the invisible forces that are just beyond the matter our human eyes pick up on," Birns told us a few years ago, and it seems like in a world turned upside down, she is seeing things they way they really are.
On this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, we sit down with Birns in London during Frieze week as the Santa Cruz-based painter was taking a trip abroad. We speak about the value of an object, the way you can see in-between reality and those incredible morphinng faces she captures.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 122 was recorded in October 2023 in London. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
121: Cato
The airbrush is a utilitarian tool. That is the beauty of it. It can be a fine art device, of course, as is the case with so many brilliant studio artists today, but it can also be an everyday tool, customizing cars, painting industrial objects, sign paintings, you name it. And for Cato, the London-based artist who is both in the fine arts and music, the airbrush is a tool to tell a story, a new sort of social realism, where art is both a mode for storytelling but also something deeply foundational.
In this conversation on the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, we head to Peckham in London to sit down with Cato to talk about family support, the airbrush, music, animation, found photography and collaging this all to make his beautiful works together. And in this, there is life, and what he says his deep interest in faces.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 121 was recorded in October 2023 in London. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
120: April Bey
When you walked through the prestigious Armory Show a few weeks ago, April Bey's solo booth with Bahamas-based Tern Gallery, was the standout. The fair itself was quite strong, but there was something about walking into a universe, the April Bey universe, that was transcendental and hypnotic, immersive. Bey is political and poignant, with a sense of humor and harsh social critique that has been honed by both being a professor at Glendale College in California and practicing fine artist with solo and museum shows on the CV. The works are wide-ranging: installation, printmaking, photography, mixed-media, and the Atlantica series has become one of Bey's defining bodies of work.
Bey grew up in The Bahamas, and on this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, Evan Pricco and Doug Gillen speak to Bey about youth, moving to the USA, being educated in the States versus a commonwealth, where their art comes from and how Bey's dad helped create the Atlantica world. There might be a Beyonce story, too.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 120 was recorded in September 2023 in Margate, NYC and Los Angeles. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
119: Shadi Al-Atallah
Shadi Al-Atallah's newest solo show, Fistfight, begins with an excerpt from The Epic of Gilgamesh and seems apt to start right here: “huge arms gripped huge arms, foreheads crashed like wild bulls, the two men staggered, they pitched against houses, the doorposts trembled, the outer walls shook, they careened through the streets, they grappled each other, limbs intertwined, each huge body straining to break free from the other’s embrace. Finally, Gilgamesh threw the wild man and with his right knee pinned him to the ground. His anger left him. He turned away. The contest was over.”
Having met Shadi a few times in London over the last few years, there is a balance between rage, humor, anger, a grip, a pulse and passion their works. The struggles seen in Gilgamesh aren't unlike the struggles we see today, whether it be space, identity, movement or just plain confrontation. Shadi is working with the idea of controlled violence, and I get the sense that they are aware of what the world around them is presenting, the conflicts both internal and external, and finds that through making art, the confronations themselves are just a bit more controlled, more theatric, more epic. As Guts Gallery notes, "Throughout Fistfight, Al-Atallah explores the rigid distinction between the spaces where violence is permitted and the spaces in which it is not."
This interests me as a writer and observer of art, and has always interested me in terms of Shadi's brilliant works on canvas here (and in the past, works on paper). They are controlling historical events, historical sentiments, the past we bring with us into the future. In Fistfight, the conflict feels rather internal, and the feelings individual, and yet there is a universality that is ever so present.
On this episode of Radio Juxtapoz, Doug Gillen speaks with Shadi on the subject of Fistfight, their evolotion in the works and the move from the Middle East to London. —Evan Pricco
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The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 119 was recorded in September 2023 in London. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz
118: Horacio Quiroz
"Everything in our universe has a dual manifestation," says Mexico City born Horacio Quiroz when you just take a gander at this bio. Well, here we go, you know this conversation is going to be a good one. As the artist opened his new solo show, Goddesses of Spoiled Lands, at Annka Kultys Gallery in London, duality of existence is definitely on the mind. In this insightful and revealing conversation, Radio Juxtapoz sat down with Quiroz to discuss the complexities of growing up queer in Mexico, how his work is a balance of almost supernatural explorations with the details of his homeland and the evolving relationship that humans have with nature. The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 118 was recorded in August 2023 in London. Follow us on @radiojuxtapozhttps://www.juxtapoz.com/radio-juxtapoz/https://www.horacioquiroz.com/