Ashley Bickerton makes sculpture, assemblages and painting-like objects that reference the grotesqueness of commodification and consumerism. Ashley talks about how a work of art can hold contrasting meanings, avoiding typecasting and being fluid with his artistic language, pacing an art career and gallery relationships as business arrangements--not friendships, operating on the edge of the contemporary art world, how a harmonious homelife allows him to flourish in the studio, being diagnosed...

Spencer Lewis makes abstract paintings that are an explosion of mark-making, smears, caked up textures, and tangles of color. Spencer talks about using raw and low-pressure materials, being spastic and aggressive with his first set of gestures, the exchanges between art and sports, working intuitively and “no move” painting, artists as opportunists, pictorial organization and disorganization, studio visit strategies, and the emotional resonance and chase of making a satisfying painting.

Leslie Diuguid is a printmaker and the founder, owner and operator of DuGood Press—the first and only Black Female owned fine-art screen printing business in New York City. Leslie talks about how her family’s history is embedded into her work and outlook, pivoting from printing business cards and apparel to fine-art editions, amplifying an artist’s voice and ideas through printmaking, the process of dissecting images into layers and individual colors, “winging it" and learning on the fly,...

Jim Drain is a multi-disciplinary artist that makes other-worldly sculpture, furniture, and installation-based works. He is also one of the original founders of Fort Thunder--the influential live/work/performance space in Providence, Rhode Island during the 90’s, and a member of Forcefield—the celebrated noise band and artist collective. Jim talks about the stories that can surround a work of art, the presence of family imbedded in his work, knitting as method for unification and the...

Rodrigo Valenzuela makes photographs, video and installation-based works that consider the value of labor, the language of modernist architecture, and the inefficiency of bureaucracy. Rodrigo talks about how ideas are born out of his process and making, poetic formalism as a layer in his work, getting out of his own way and second guessing as a healthy thought exercise, reading as a key part of his practice, and how friendships and support systems can strengthen an artist’s work. This episode...

Phil Sanders is a master printer, educator, author and artist, and is the founder and director of PS Marlow—a fine art publisher and creative services consultancy based in Asheville, North Carolina. Phil has worked with celebrated artists like Elizabeth Murray, Jasper Johns, Helen Frankenthaler and Chakaia Booker among many others. Phil talks about his new book Prints and Their Makers, learning about the emotional impact of color while collaborating with painter Wayne Thiebaud, the...

Nikita Gale makes sculpture and installation-based work that explores the exchanges and barriers between audience and performer. Nikita talks about how artwork can influence group behavior, protest and dissent as performance, research as a way to pull out ideas, noise and silence as social and political positions, the similarities between studio visits and dating, maintenance and mind-body awareness, and art as an open invitation.

Curtis Talwst Santiago is a multi-disciplinary artist that makes sculpture, drawings and paintings, performance and video. Curtis talks about pivoting from music to visual art, navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, his recent show Can’t I Alter at The Drawing Center in New York, genetic trauma and ancestry as concepts, intuition as an important tool, the complexities of Kanye West, honesty during studio visits and learning to be patient with the process of making art.

Susan Bee makes energetic oil paintings that feature a mix of female figures in fantastical landscapes, art historical references, geometric abstraction and pictorial invention—all serving as iconic flashpoints for current social and personal struggles. Susan talks about symbolism and being inspired by romance and poetry, inserting herself into someone else’s narrative, how images can represent sound, surrendering meaning and embracing ambiguity, vulnerability during studio visits, the self...

Libby Rothfeld makes conceptually driven sculpture that combines found objects, photography and drawing, and built wood structures that are often covered with banal hardware store tiles and kitchen counter laminate. Libby talks about the varied ingredients in her studio practice, subdued and faded color palettes as suggestions of time, an interest in the peripheral of our world, formality as feeling, figure skating and the collisions between taste, choice and identity.

Graham Collins makes sculpture and paintings that often combine complex structures, minimalism and material exploration. Graham talks about his approach to making and how different bodies of work connect and disconnect, thriving off of deadlines, being skeptical of art as a healthy exercise, allowing for fun in studio, small versus big galleries, green smoothies as placebo, how feelings aren’t facts, a desire for meaning to be visible and artist’s as the drivers of culture.

Joshua Abelow makes abstract paintings that feature a mix of geometric patterns, angular bursts, and stick figures that awkwardly vibrate up and through the picture plane. Josh talks about balancing broadness and specificity in his work, his writing and the futility of artist statements, his curatorial project and exhibition space “Freddy”, the value of maintaining a routine, and the similarities between making a mixtape and making a painting.

Erin M. Riley is a fiber-based artist that makes large scale, hand woven tapestries that depict still lives of forlorn objects, scenes of intimacy and self-portraiture. Erin talks about women expressing masculinity through art, selfies as a form of existence, her source material, ritual and the physicality of process, code words as privacy, slowing down and looking, and art as a fundamental survival mechanism.

Jennie Jieun Lee makes ceramic sculpture covered with luscious layers of glaze, and wall works that combine assemblage, drawing and painting. Jennie talks about graduate school as a way to check ego and stretch the brain, otherness and an immigrant’s ear, emotions as appraisals of intelligence, collapsing boundaries between craft and fine art, her glazing strategies, and personal fulfillment through service and art making.

Eric White makes representational oil paintings that often depict cinematic scenes and unsettling but graceful interactions between people and objects. Eric talks about film as an influence and using reference material, finding ideas in dream states, sleep and painting as obsession, the perverse satisfaction of using tiny brushes, and enjoying all the variables and challenges of making a good painting.

Hilary Pecis makes vibrant acrylic paintings that depict still lives, landscapes and domestic interior spaces. Hilary talks about the benefits and challenges of a home studio, translating camera phone photos into dynamic paintings, looking for opportunities to try different types of mark-making and visual vocabularies, throwing a pie at Renoir, her takeaways from working in a contemporary art gallery and the importance of keeping ego in check.

Sophie Stone makes work that shifts between painting, sculpture, and domestic floor rugs. Sophie talks about the state of ambiguity in her work, allowing materials to use their own muscles, her installation at NADA House on Governor’s Island, stains as gesture and grungy versus polished surfaces, frustration leading to revelation, letting go in studio, and reinterpreting decorative art and beauty.

Sarah Zapata makes textile-based installations and sculpture. Sarah talks about research, reading and writing as important parts of her process, her sculpture at NADA House on Governor’s Island in New York City, the contentious history of stripes in textiles, writing foot erotica, time as currency, her connection to Evangelicalism, guilt as a driving force and exchanges between craft and contemporary art.

Heather Hubbs is the Executive Director of The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), a non-profit membership organization for art galleries and alternative art spaces. Heather talks about NADA’s history and curatorial vision, the NADA House exhibit on Governor’s Island in NYC, where NADA fits within the landscape of contemporary art fairs, the impact of arts-based social media and online platforms, and a forthcoming NADA fair in Chicago.