How do you make a living as an artist when the big platforms price your work at zero? How do you get your big break when all the institutions that used to discover young artists have been decimated by the tech monopolies? In this episode, I talk to essayist and critic William Deresiewicz about his book, The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech. BILL'S WEBSITE billderesiewicz.com WORKS CITED -Deresiewicz, William. The Death...

In this conversation with Paris-based painter Thomas Agrinier, we discuss his dynamic figurative paintings—which mix a powerful classicism with contemporary textural and cartoon-like effects—as well as the experience of splitting your time between the computer and your body, and the need for optimism in life and politics. WHERE TO SEE THOMAS’ WORK -Instagram: @thomas.agrinier -Website: www.thomasagrinier.com MUSIC -Theme music and consultation: Georgina Rossi,...

On a recent walk to the Museo de Bellas Artes in protest-ravaged Santiago de Chile, I try to respond to all the work I see through the lens of this question: who does art speak to? WORKS CITED -Berger, John. “Revolutionary Undoing: On Max Raphael’s The Demands of Art.” In Landscapes: John Berger on Art, edited by Tom Overton, Reprint edition. London ; New York: Verso, 2018. -Lescaze, Zoë. “An Artist Who Disavows the Possibility of Individual Agency.” The New York Times, November 12,...

Can art really create political change? What are the conditions that make this possible if and when it happens? What are the social ingredients that make for good art scenes? ...and what the hell was up with the DNC last year? In a sobering interview, Ben Davis, National Art Critic for ArtNet News and self-avowed Marxist, reminds us to be realistic about art's ability to change a world it is only one small part of—but also to rid ourselves of the expectation that to be good, art must change...

They receive about as much training as olympic athletes, and yet very few people have a sense of what life looks like for classical musicians today. This interview with Chilean-American violist Georgina Rossi covers a lot of ground: the nuts and bolts of a career in classical music, how society defines and compensates artistic labor, and simple things we as listeners can do to support the musicians that we love. Interwoven throughout the interview are excerpts from Georgina’s new album...

There’s a sense that the problem with a lot of political art is that it fails to get outside of its own bubble. After all, it’s no secret that the people that go to museums and galleries are mostly liberal, well-educated, and probably agree with much of what the artist has to say. But does that really mean that we want the same things? This episode argues that, far from preaching to the choir, political art in the gallery or museum is speaking to exactly the right audience. The people that go...

As we become more aware of the existential threat of climate change, it can feel like the economy is a runaway engine driving us toward extinction. We know that something is wrong, but we don’t know how to stop the momentum of this extractive economy that seems to have a will of its own. Episode 10 explores two alternatives to this vision of extinction—Post-scarcity and Degrowth—two optimistic attempts to unthink the economic orthodoxy that threatens our world. This is part 3 of a three-part...

After the horrific killing of George Floyd by the police that were meant to protect and to serve him, mass demonstrations have pushed the conversation around police brutality to what is hopefully a new turning point in the United States. But the conversation around making reparations to black Americans for centuries of unpaid labor, stolen property, loss of life and emotional trauma remains as elusive as ever. In this episode, I step out of my depth to offer a personal opinion as a citizen...

Why is it that, despite the fact that technology has made it easier and cheaper to make and distribute your own films than ever before, being an independent filmmaker has become no easier than it ever was? In this episode, I talk to my friend, the filmmaker Charles Davis, about the life and times of today's independent filmmakers. ABOUT CHARLES Charles Davis is an independent filmmaker and head of Chunkle Freaky's Movies, an independent film company that makes low budget weirdo films...

It is clear that Covid-19 is an event of historic proportions, but what does that really mean? What do we mean when we say that an event "shaped the course of history," and how much history is there really left to shape? Episode 7 dives into one of my favorite books of all time, Less Than Nothing, Slavoj Žižek's gutsy attempt to rehabilitate Hegel for the contemporary age. Recorded on lockdown during the coronavirus outbreak in New York, this is part 2 of a three-part episode exploring our...

With climate change, inequality, and Covid-19 raging just outside our windows, it can sometimes feel like we live in a world without a future. How did we get here? And how do we get back out? How do we reinstate the future if we no longer believe in progress? Recorded on lockdown during the coronavirus outbreak in New York, this is part 1 of a two-part episode exploring our society's tacit belief in the "the end of history," and what we can do to shed this politically-charged and dangerous...

It’s common knowledge that today, there is no unifying theme or essence to contemporary art. Having finally broken all of its own rules, the story goes that art is now free to be anything it wants to be. But while this idea is generally accepted, is it really true? Episode 5 argues that there is a common element to contemporary art today—a certain mode of production or attitude which it borrows from the worldview of marketing and branding. WORKS CITED -Danto, Arthur C. After the End of...

Why is it that most of the galleries out there are chasing the same small group of elite collectors? In this interview with Maddie Boucher, the former head of Artsy's Art Genome Project, Episode 4 asks why life is tough for small galleries—and what we the 99% can do to start thinking of ourselves as people who can collect art and support the artists that we love. Learn more about Maddie and her work at: madeleineboucher.com MUSIC -Theme music and musical consultation: Georgina Rossi,...

How does the wealth gap impact artists' ability to relate to one another? Episode 2, Part I explores how concentrations of capital at the top of the market affect inter-relationships between working artists. WORKS CITED -Levin, Yuval. The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left. New York: Basic Books, 2014. -Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor W. Adorno. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Edited by Gunzelin Schmid Noerr. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. 1 edition....

Why does being an artist increasingly feel like sending your blood, sweat and tears into the void? Episode 2, Part I explores how concentrations of capital at the top of the market make life hard for working artists on a macro, systemic level. WORKS CITED -Marx, Karl. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Edited by Frederick Engels. Translated by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling. Revised edition. Modern Library, 1906, p. 686. -Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. Translated by...

What is the difference between a space and a venue? Episode 1 explores what space is, and why it is crucial to working artists. WORKS CITED -Fusco, Coco. SVA Art Practice Lunchtime Lecture Series. New York, n.d. https://vimeo.com/292362674. -Bishop, Claire. “Palace in Plunderland.” Artforum, Slant, September 2018. -Richter, Hans. Dada: Art and Anti-Art. Reprint edition. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1997. -Thornton, Sarah. Seven Days in the Art World. W. W. Norton & Company,...