Frank Prattle with Zefrey Throwell

Cecily Brown (artist)

Cecily Brown is one of the most startling and amazing painters living today. She has traversed the terrain from left, right to center; dealing with eroticism, motion, suggestion, and dicing colors like a surgeon handles a tricky bypass. I caught up with her in her studio in Manhattan and we chatted about everything from her new book, to how she came to New York, to recent changes in her work, to her ingenious 3-deep stocked book shelf, to the secret code of her paintings, and what she considers to be her biggest regret in painting.

Don’t miss out on this one, you’ll hate yourself for not listening!

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Serge Onnen (artist) and Joao Ribas (curator at The Drawing Center)

Drawings on Writing is the new dynamite book organized by Amsterdam based artist Serge Onnen.  Onnen investigates the fascinating breakdown of words as they become drawings and the fickle line as they approach the netherworld of meaning/meaninglessness.

The book includes samples of one of the most ecclectic mixes I have ever seen: Sherlock Holmes, the CIA, Napoleon Bonaparte, Gustave Flaubert, Earle Brown, the Shakers, Trisha Brown, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and even Roland Barthes makes a cameo.

Also, Joao Ribas, the curator of The Drawing Center, sits in and gives his witty and intelligent commentary about the book, life, and all the things in between.

A must listen!

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“Fusion meets Function”

Deep in the heart of the financial district there is something abuzz and it isn’t the sound of another Wall St. titan collapsing, it’s the sound of Central Asia taking the U.S. by storm. Curator and organizer Emilia Salieva from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan was in New York working with the amazing people at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council as well as the terrific organization CEC Arts Link.

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I had a chance to catch up with her at the LMCC and talk about her upcoming experimental “Fusion” festival that will be happening in Bishkek in 2010. Listen along as she relates stories of contemporary art in Central Asia, living under Soviet rule, tourism in a place most have never heard of, and tons more!

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Anne Pasternak (President and Artistic Director of Creative Time) and
Nato Thompson (Curator at Creative Time)

This is a behind the scenes peek into one of the most smoking hot button issues going today: Democracy. In all it’s varied plumage, people are yelling about it in the streets, slumped over the bar watching it on TV, arguing about it at work and crying about it on Wall street.

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Nato Thompson and Anne Pasternak give the lowdown on Creative Time’s latest hit show entitled “Democracy In America: The National Campaign” at the Park Ave Armory in New York City.  Encompassing such artists as the Yes Men, Trevor Paglen, Martha Rosler, InCubate, Red76, Chris Sollars, and many more, this show is an in depth and piercing investigation of the state of this fine yet finicky country as it goes through yet another pang of rebirth.

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Thomas Beard (Light Industry) and Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus (LoVid)
(as well as the lovely Rama and Dlisah)

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Thomas Beard, co-founder of Light Industry, the fabulous new venue for film and electronic art in Brooklyn, met up with Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus of the amazing art duo LoVid, and they rocked the damn house. From the intersection of analog and digital, to the nature of the glitch or the fritz, to audience participation, to the true love of Sci-fi, this is some hot talk right here.
Listen and learn!

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Zora Ezawa and Kota Ezawa (artists)

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Kota Ezawa has got to be one of the more intriguing figures in contemporary art today. Soft spoken, yet with a light in in his eyes and funny as hell, Ezawa is certainly one of the best interviews I’ve had the pleasure of doing in quite sometime. From Prince, to the Boss, to Koons, to OJ Simpson, to whether or not the emotions of the viewer matter to the artist, and back to Prince, this one is not to be missed.

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Golden Guns Investigations (Courtenay Finn and Kate Phillimore)

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Darin Klein (artist and programs director at the Hammer Museum)

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Anne Colvin (Tart and Skank Bloc Bologna)

Hot damn!
New Langton Arts hosted a hit parade of independent publishers. They call it “Book It!” and it’s got some of the hottest talent on the west coast. A one day book fair that was at once intimate as well as informative and fun, here’s a list of some of the guests:

Booklyn
Alejandro Cesarco
Veronica de Jesus
Leo Estevez
Dexter Sinister
Gallery 16
Golden Guns Investigations
InterReview Journal
Darin Klein
Zoey Kroll
Material Press
Rebecca Miller
Kottie Paloma
Airyka Rockefeller
Skank Bloc Bologna
Roddy Schrock
Silverman Gallery
James K. Tantum
Whitehot Magazine

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I went around and talked to a few people and put them together in a little sampler for you.
Enjoy.

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Alex Donis (artist)

Alex Donis is hands down one of the funniest artists working today. In addition to this (which counts for a hell of a lot in my book) he also happens to make fantastic work. Listen along as Alex tells the story of being censored in L.A., pretending to be a janitor at his own show, the current skinny on the justice system and much much more.

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Jens Hoffmann (director of the Wattis Institute) and Renny Pritikin (director of the Nelson Gallery)

These two titans of knowledge come together in a bunker style basement in the belly of California College of the Arts. A dynamite conversation where they address everything from the trials of running a gallery connected to a school, to who curates better: artists or art historians, to John Cage, to missed opportunities in the theater.
Excellent stuff

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James Gobel (painter), and Steve Zavattero (Partner at Marx & Zavattero)

Internationally acclaimed painter, James Gobel, sits down with Steve Zavattero, co-partners of one of San Francisco’s hottest galleries Marx & Zavattero. These two tear it up! From fat lumberjack bears, to the fineries of felt, to the madness of revamping a business, to one of my favorites… Lil’ Kim.

Mmmmm…. got to get on this one.

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Richard Kamler (artist, activist, educator, and curator) and Rigo23 (artist and activist)

Rigo23 and Richard Kamler, two top knotch artist/activists operating in the bay area met up at San Francisco State University’s Fine Art Gallery and told the tale of modern prison culture. They are both included in a hit show there called Criminal: Art and Criminal Justice in America. Listen along as they speak of everything from death row at San Quentin, to modern censorship, to school security, police states, and the sound of lions roaring.

Smokin!

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Zefrey Throwell (yours truly), Susanne Cockrell (artist and professor), Liz Thomas (Matrix curator at Berkeley Art Museum) and Ted Purves (artist and professor)

Artists Susanne Cockrell and Ted Purves jump in the mix with the new Matrix curator for the Berkeley Art Museum, Liz Thomas. These three are unstoppable! Conversationally relaxed and quick as a diamond whip, the three of them toss around such topics as preserved food stuffs, the nature of lemons, the bastards of the private world, revisioning museums,  and of course the big one of them all, DEATH.
If you miss this interview, consider yourself officially uninformed.

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Matt Gonzalez (human rights attorney and Nader’s vice presidential running mate) and Catharine Clark (Catharine Clark Gallery)

Catharine Clark, a cutting edge gallerist with a taste for the controversial, matches up with Matt Gonzalez who is a human rights attorney and just announced his vice president candidacy to run with Nader in 2008. These two take on public land, private galleries, the mighty JPG, and of course politics politics politics. This is an excellent interview, a must listen.

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Jocelyn Saidenberg (writer) and Margaret Tedesco (artist)

Jocelyn Saidenberg, a gifted poet, writer, and archivist here in San Francisco goes up against one of my favorite people in the whole world, Margaret Tedesco, who is an artist, teacher, curator, and happens to run the hottest new space in San Francisco called 2nd Floor Projects. Listen to these two talk about the nature of collecting, communal burrows, the trials and tribulations of the “Stacks”, and the flak that archivists across the globe take so that we may thumb idly.

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Julian Myers (Professor, Art Historian, and Writer) and Dominic Willsdon (Curator of Education and Public Programs at SFMOMA)

Julian Myers, a man of many talents and Dominic Willsdon, similarly inclined towards greatness, meet up for a duel to beat all duels! Nothing is sacred as they discuss the true nature of the museum, adult education, what makes the perfect teacher, and they even throw Thomas Crow in there.
You’ve got to be listening to this, it is a must.

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Lynn Marie Kirby (artist) and Chris Cobb (artist)

If ever there were a match made in radio heaven, it is these two. Both of these artists are making some of the most robust and vital work I have laid eyes on and who knew that they were a perfect conversational fit to boot!? They get down and dirty French style, got to hear it!

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Julio César Morales (artist and co-founder/curator of Queens Nails Annex) and Hou Hanru  (Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at San Francisco Art Institute)

Hou Hanru is one of the most prominent curators operating in the world today, he just finished curating the 10th Istanbul Biennial and is on to other projects. Julio César Morales is one of the best artists coming out of the bay area at this time and I commonly refer to him as the man with the most projects rollin. Hanru included Julio into the Istanbul Biennial, listen along and hear how goddamn amazing it was.

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Kate Eilertsen (interim visual arts director at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts), Joyce Grimm (co-director of Triple Base Gallery) and Courtney Fink (executive director of Southern Exposure)

If you want to know who runs the show in San Francisco, who is the wizard behind the curtain pulling strings and making the wheels run, well… it’s these three ladies. Each of them plays an integral role in three of the top institutions in the bay area. Joyce Grimm mediates as Kate Eilertsen and Courtney Fink lay down the law. Listen along to hear the voices behind the power!

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Jill Miller (artist) and Anuradha Vikram (Programs Director at Headlands Center for the Arts)

Artist Jill Miller shook up the San Francisco art world recently with her hit show at 2nd Floor Projects called “Collectors”.  This spicy expose detailed 5 of the top collectors in San Francisco over the past 6 months and even used some footage found here on the Frank Prattle site to flesh out her research. Anuradha Vikram is the dynamic programs director out at the Headlands, listen to these two cover tons of ground, from surveillance to porn to cupcakes to fetish to Bob Shimshak, you name it, it’s in this interview.

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Tucker Nichols (artist) and Anne Colvin (artist and co-founder/curator TART)

Tucker Nichols an amazing artist who is well known for his large and clever window texts, met up with Anne Colvin an equally compelling video-based artist and the two of them rocked the damn house! Listen and learn…

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