Art from the Outside Amitha Raman and Will Palley

This episode, we are hugely excited to be joined by the artist Igshaan Adams.

Born in Bonteheuwel, a suburb in Cape Town, South Africa in 1982, Igshaan draws upon his background to contest racial, sexual and religious boundaries. This intersectional topography remains visible throughout his practice. Speaking about his work, Igshaan has said: "I’m interested in the personal stories recorded on the surface. What is recorded is not necessarily always a factual account but can be what is imagined – a combination of myth-making and meaning-making."

Igshaan has had solo exhibitions around the world, including at The Art Institute of Chicago, the Hayward Gallery in London, and the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, just to name a few. Plus, this June, we can look forward to a new solo exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield (which, as someone from the UK, Will is especially excited about).

Igshaan has also participated in numerous international group shows, including the Islamic Arts Biennale (2023) in Jeddah, the Venice Biennale, and – where Will had the pleasure of getting to meet Igshaan in person, the São Paulo Bienal. He is also included in the show Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art at the Barbican Gallery in London. It will run from the 13th of February to the 26th of May 2024.

Igshaan is represented by blank projects, Thomas Dane Gallery, and Casey Kaplan.

https://blankprojects.com/Igshaan-Adams

https://www.thomasdanegallery.com/artists/363-igshaan-adams/profile/

https://caseykaplangallery.com/artists/igshaan-adams/

This episode we are thrilled to be joined by the trailblazing artist Shahzia Sikander.

Originally from Lahore, Pakistan; Sikander works across a variety of media including: paintings, video, and most recently, sculpture.

She is best known for subverting Central and South-Asian manuscript painting traditions and launching the form known today as neo-miniature.

Sikander earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National College of Arts in Lahore; and a Master of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design.

Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California; the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, in New York and Abu Dhabi - among many others.

In addition, Sikander is the recipient of numerous honors including the Pollock Prize for Creativity, the Asia Society Award for Significant Contribution to Contemporary Art, and a MacArthur Fellowship - just to name a few

Enjoy!!

Some artists, poets, and writers discussed in this episode:


Fahmida Riaz
Adrienne Rich
Solmaz Sharif
Robin Coste Lewis
Maya Angelou
Audre Lorde
Angela Carter
Rebecca Solnit
bell hooks
Bashir Ahmad
William Kentridge

You can learn more about Shahzia's residency at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute here.

https://zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/alan-kanzer-artist-residence

Shahzia is represented by Sean Kelly gallery.

https://www.skny.com/artists/shahzia-sikander

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram!

https://www.instagram.com/artfromtheoutsidepodcast/

This episode we are thrilled to be joined by the artist P Staff. 

Born in Bognor Regis in the UK and now living and working between Los Angeles and London, P’s work draws from a wide-ranging assortment of inspirations, materials, and settings to emphasize the processes by which bodies – especially those of people who are queer, trans, or disabled – are controlled by society. 

P works across multiple media, including installation, film, and poetry. In their 2019 installation On Venus at the Serpentine Gallery in London, P used mirrored floors, yellow lights, and warped footage to explore the exchange between bodies, ecosystems, and institutions from a queer and trans perspective. P went on to present a version of this work at the Venice Biennale last year.

And in their exhibition this summer at the Kunsthalle Basel titled In Ecstasy (or alternatively In Ekstase), P used materials including electric nets, architectural interventions, and holograms to consider how bodies are disciplined in a society defined by capitalism and its brutality. 

Among a host of venues worldwide, P has had solo exhibitions at institutions including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Chisenhale Gallery, London (which is actually run by Zoe Whitley, a guest from Season 1 of Art from the Outside).



Some artists and thinkers discussed in this episode:


Yvonne Rainer
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
Nina Hagen
Candice Lin
Johanna Burton
Justin Vivian Bond
Jackson Pollock
Nikita Gale
Tishan Hsu
Tracey Emin
Rachel Cusk
Tiona Nekkia McClodden
Ashley James, Ph.D

P is represented by Commonwealth and Council in the United States and Galerie Sultana in Europe.

https://commonwealthandcouncil.com/us/patrick-staff/biography

https://galeriesultana.com/artists/p-staff

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram. Enjoy!

https://www.instagram.com/artfromtheoutsidepodcast/

This episode we are hugely excited to be joined by the artist Tiona Nekkia McClodden!

Tiona is a visual artist, filmmaker, and curator whose work explores and critiques issues at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and social commentary. 

Born in Blytheville, Arkansas and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Tiona weaves narratives through archives, memories and objects, integral to her past and present, that shape her broader practice. 

In 2022, Tiona’s exhibitions at The Shed and 52 Walker alongside her year-long installation at MoMA in New York, garnered significant acclaim, prompting The New York Times to identify Teeona as “one of the most singular artists of our aesthetically rich, free-range time.”

Her work have been shown at Kunsthalle Basel, the Institute of Contemporary Art-Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art (New York); the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York) ; the New Museum (New York); Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) – Berlin, among many others.

And, just in September, Tiona opened up the installation Tiona Nekkia McClodden: Play Me Home at the Baltimore Museum.

Some artists and institutions discussed in this episode:


Chryssa
Jacob Lawrence
Brad Johnson (American, 1952–2011)
Barbara Hammer
Steve McQueen
Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Conceptual Fade, Philadelphia
Whitney Museum, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York
52 Walker, New York

Tiona is represented globally by White Cube gallery.

https://www.whitecube.com/artists/tiona-nekkia-mcclodden

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram. Enjoy!

https://www.instagram.com/artfromtheoutsidepodcast/

SPECIAL BONUS EPISODE!!

In this special episode, we host a conversation with artist John Edmonds and Guggenheim curator Dr. Ashley James and to discuss the Guggenheim's new exhibition, Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility.



The exhibition presents works of art that feature partially obscured or hidden figures, thus positioning them at the “edge of visibility.” In this art context, the common phrase going dark is understood as a tactic whereby artists visually conceal the body to explore a key tension in contemporary society: the desire to be seen and the desire to be hidden from sight.



Among a host of incredible artists, Going Dark also includes two Art from the Outside guests: Ming Smith from Season 3, and Tiona Nekkia McClodden, an upcoming Season 4 guest.



The exhibition is on view at the Guggenheim New York from October 20, 2023 - April 7, 2024. The museum is located at 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10128 (Between 88th and 89th Streets).

https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/going-dark-the-contemporary-figure-at-the-edge-of-visibility

Welcome to season 4 of Art from the Outside!



This episode we are thrilled to kick off the season with the artist Zadie Xa. Born in Vancouver in 1983 and now based in London, Zadie has developed an expansive practice that addresses the nature of diasporic identities, global histories, familial legacies and interspecies communication. Working across painting, sculpture, textile production, and performance, she draws upon her Korean heritage as she seeks to elevate narratives that have been erased or repressed by the West and occupying powers.

Her work has been presented at venues around the world, such as the Whitechapel Gallery in London, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada and Tramway, Glasgow, Scotland. In 2019, Zadie was invited to contribute to the performance program at the 58th Venice Biennale, which was also curated by Ralph Rugoff and Aaron Cezar - another Art from the Outside guest.

In July Zadie opened the exhibition Nine Tailed Tall Tales: Trickster, Mongrel, Beast at Space K Seoul, South Korea.

Some artists discussed in this episode:


Benito Mayor Vallejo
Ice Cube
Mykki Blanco
Azealia Banks

For images, artworks, and more behind the scenes goodness, follow @artfromtheoutsidepodcast on Instagram. Enjoy!

https://www.instagram.com/artfromtheoutsidepodcast/