Everything Is Connected

Light Work

Light Work Presents: Everything Is Connected, created by Folasade Ologundudu is a podcast that shares the interesting and inspiring stories of artists, thought leaders, and critical thinkers on life, work, and a wide range of cultural and social topics. Through engaging content, Ologundudu seeks to inspire listeners to lead their best lives through the transformative power of art and culture. She dives into ideas on art and society across cultures with a focus on diverse communities worldwide. Guests include artists, curators, entrepreneurs, educators, and creatives who are changing the way we think about the art, creativity, and the world. 

  1. 10h ago

    Nancy Dantas: in conversation with Folasade Ologundudu

    In this episode, I speak with Nancy Dantas, curator and art historian, and this year's curator of the modern section at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair.  Dantas shares how her archival research led her to view curating as an act of "active listening," framed by Miriam Makeba’s song "West Wind." She delves into how African modernism challenges Eurocentric categories—drawing inspiration from the 1966 Dakar exhibition "Tendencies and Confrontations"—and emphasizes the importance of understanding modernism through African intellectual and aesthetic frameworks like Sankofa philosophy. This conversation is a reminder that many histories are available to us, just waiting to be discovered.  --------------------------------- Follow & Subscribe  Subscribe on Substack Follow Light Work on Instagram Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel

    Nancy Dantas: in conversation with Folasade Ologundudu

  2. Oct 1

    Touria El Glaoui: in conversation with Folasade Ologundudu

    On this episode, I’m joined by Touria El Glaoui as we discuss 1-54, the Contemporary African Art Fair she founded in 2013.  More than a decade later, Touria explains that she founded the fair in 2013 after seeing exceptional artists across Africa with little presence in Europe or the U.S., and after witnessing the structural hurdles her artist father faced getting institutional support abroad.  She argues the field has moved beyond needing to justify visibility—citing broad audiences and collectors—but now must prioritize permanence: institutional acquisitions, scholarship, archiving, education, curatorial and writing infrastructure, and estate protection so artists enter the canon.  This conversation reminds us that visibility doesn’t equal permanence.  --------------------------------- Follow & Subscribe  Subscribe on Substack Follow Light Work on Instagram Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel

    Touria El Glaoui: in conversation with Folasade Ologundudu

  3. Aug 19

    Zizipho Poswa: in conversation with Folasade Ologundudu

    On this episode, I’m joined by Zizipho Poswa as we discuss the themes, use of materials, and tenets that guide her work and practice as a visual artist and ceramist.  Zizipho discusses her first New York solo exhibition at Southern Guild, titled The Seed, which is called Imbewu in Xhosa, her native language. The show traces the last decade of her career and showcases five distinct bodies of work that reflect on where she’s been as an artist, her continuity and growth, and what lies ahead.  She shares her insights into the critical role women have played in her life, from her own family to the women in her community. Spanning several key components of women's lives, from traditional wedding ceremonies to hairstyles and the concept of mothers carrying children, Zizipho links her womanhood to her training in textiles, and later in clay. In her practice, she draws connections between ritual ceremonies and adornments to create monumental ceramic and bronze works.  This conversation is a tender and thoughtful reflection on the relationships between mothers and daughters, women working and living in community, and the nurturing environments that help creativity develop.  --------------------------------- Follow & Subscribe  Subscribe on Substack Follow Light Work on Instagram Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel

  4. Jul 8

    Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka: in conversation with Folasade Ologundudu

    On this episode I’m joined by Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka as we discuss her latest work on view in the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale.   Alexa is a Japanese-Canadian artist who brings together historical and sustainable craft technologies of her heritage, including hand-papermaking, natural dye, linocut, gyotaku (printing real fish), and washi (Japanese paper).  Her work, taking the form of sewn paper sculpture, large-scale print installation, collaborative performances and wearable washi, addresses contemporary questions of climate change and mental health, informed by a decade of community-engaged projects in Nunavut (high arctic) and lived experience with bipolar.  Our conversation is thoughtful, intimate, and expansive, centering on how art can create spaces for vulnerability, collective healing, and deeper ways of knowing.  --------------------------------- Follow & Subscribe  Subscribe on Substack Follow Light Work on Instagram Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel

  5. Jun 15

    Anina Major: in conversation with Folasade Ologundudu

    On this episode I’m joined by Anina Major. We discuss the themes of identity, migration, and memory present in her work. Discussing her latest works and the context of her practice, we explore the ongoing negotiation between self and place. Drawing from her upbringing in the Bahamas and her life in the United States, Major reflects on craft as a language of memory, the influence of familial knowledge, and the ways displacement can transform both identity and artistic expression.  Her latest exhibition, Tender Seedlings on view at Larkin Durey, is her first in London and explores how identity is formed through movement and transformation. Using the traditional weaving technique, plaiting, taught to her by her late grandmother, Major translates a fragile, portable craft into ceramic form, allowing inherited knowledge to migrate across materials, geographies and time.  Anina Major (she/her) is a visual artist from the Bahamas. Her decision to establish a home contrary to the location in which she was born and raised motivates her to investigate the relationship between self and place as a site of negotiation. By utilizing the vernacular of craft to reclaim experiences and relocate displaced objects, her practice exists at the intersection of nostalgia, and identity. --------------------------------- Follow & Subscribe  Subscribe on Substack Follow Light Work on Instagram Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel

  6. May 18

    FERG: in conversation with Folasade Ologundudu

    Darold Brown — known to the world as Ferg — grew up watching his father build a business, a brand, and a community from the basements of Harlem. In this episode, musician, and all around artist, Ferg reflects on his upbringing in Harlem, the deep influence of his late father’s entrepreneurial spirit, and the world-building ambition that now drives everything he does. From learning to paint on T-shirts in his father’s silk-screen operation to navigating the leap from fashion dreams to rap stardom, Ferg traces the through-line of community, creativity, and culture that has always defined him. But this isn’t just a conversation about music. Instead, Ferg draws connections between Harlem’s competitive spirit and his own creative drive, between the pre-internet era of being outside and the community-centered art practice he is building today — one rooted in the belief that art is, above all, a tool for bringing people together. In this episode Ferg shares: His upbringing as an only child in Harlem and the neighborhood’s deeply competitive, flamboyant cultureHis father’s legacy — from silk-screening T-shirts in basements to running Ferg Apparel on 145th Street — and the lessons he carries from working alongside himAttending Art and Design High School and the community of creatives it introduced him toThe unexpected leap from aspiring fashion designer to rapper, and learning to trust the flow without having all the answersHis current world-building vision — curating spaces, taste, and community the way the great creative directors and brand architects doArtists he’s studying right now, including Ernie Barnes, Kara Walker, Francis Bacon, and BasquiatAnd why, after years of global travel, he’s planting himself in New York this summer — because home is where it’s atAt its core, this conversation is about legacy — what we inherit, what we build, and how the communities that shape us never really leave us, no matter how far we go. Connect with Folasade aka 'Sade' Ologundudu:   Subscribe to the Light Work newsletter Visit Sade’s websiteVisit the Light Work websiteFollow Sade on Instagram  Follow Light Work on InstagramWatch the episodes on YouTubeReview us on Apple Podcasts--------------------------------- Follow & Subscribe  Subscribe on Substack Follow Light Work on Instagram Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel

  7. Apr 29

    Manyaku Mashilo: in conversation with Folasade Ologundudu

    Manyaku Mashilo began as a drawer—using pencil to mimic texture, memory, and feeling—long before painting became her primary language. In this episode, visual artist Manyaku Mashilo reflects on her evolution from fashion design into a multidisciplinary practice rooted in painting, mark-making, and storytelling. Her work moves through texture, memory, and color—building intimate, emotional worlds that center Black womanhood, spirituality, and ancestral lineage.  But this isn’t just a conversation about artistic process. Instead, Manyaku traces the deeper currents beneath her work: memory as a tool for survival, art as a spiritual practice, and the lifelong search for belonging—both within herself and in the communities she builds through her work. In this episode Manyaku shares: Her beginnings in fashion design and how drawing became the foundation of her practiceThe importance of texture as memory, emotion, and cultural markerHer work as a tattoo artist and how mark-making extends onto the bodyThe influence of her grandmothers—one a farmer, the other a spiritual healer—on her practiceArt as a form of ancestral remembrance and spiritual groundingNavigating identity, suppression, and belonging growing up between rural and urban South AfricaBuilding new forms of community through art, including queer Black creative networksAt its core, this conversation is about returning—returning to memory, to lineage, to the textures that hold us. Through Manyaku’s reflections, we see how art becomes more than image-making; it becomes a site of healing, a language for the unsaid, and a way to rebuild belonging in a world that often asks us to forget. If you liked the episode, subscribe to our Substack for more highlights and insights about this episode and Mayaku’s practice.  Connect with Sade:   Subscribe to the Light Work newsletter Visit Sade’s websiteVisit the Light Work websiteFollow Sade on Instagram  Follow Light Work on InstagramWatch the episodes on YouTubeReview us on Apple Podcasts--------------------------------- Follow & Subscribe  Subscribe on Substack Follow Light Work on Instagram Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel

  8. Apr 12

    Demetrius Wilson: in conversation with Folasade Ologundudu

    Demetrius Wilson describes painting as a living exchange—where the canvas responds, shifts, and ultimately becomes something greater than he first imagined.  In this episode, abstract painter Demetrius Wilson reflects on his second solo exhibition at Half Gallery and the evolution of a practice rooted in intuition, movement, and material dialogue. Working at the intersection of environment, memory, and abstraction, Wilson explores how color, scale, and gesture can evoke both personal and collective experience. But this conversation goes beyond painting. Here, Demetrius considers what it means to create in a rapidly changing world—tracing how a 1990s upbringing, spiritual inquiry, and a desire to expand visual language all shape his approach to art-making and meaning. In this episode Demetrius shares: His recent exhibition Light in a Dark Mirror and why it represents his strongest body of work to dateThe idea of painting as a “symbiotic” process—where the work responds and evolves in real timeGrowing up on the East Coast in the 1990s and how that era shapes his perspective and processHis approach to color—using heat, temperature, and contrast to evoke emotional intensityHis relationship to spirituality and how religious ideas subtly surface in his recent workKey artistic influences including Ed Clark, Jack Whitten, Mark Bradford, Cecily Brown, Francis Bacon, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. How scale shifts perception, from expansive canvases to intimate works on paperAt its core, this conversation is about movement—between control and release, past and present, clarity and ambiguity. Through Demetrius Wilson’s reflections, painting emerges as both a physical act and a philosophical inquiry: a space where memory, environment, and emotion collide, and where abstraction becomes a language for navigating a world that is constantly in flux. Connect with Sade:   Subscribe to the Light Work newsletter Visit Sade’s websiteVisit the Light Work websiteFollow Sade on Instagram  Follow Light Work on InstagramWatch the episodes on YouTubeReview us on Apple Podcasts--------------------------------- Follow & Subscribe  Subscribe on Substack Follow Light Work on Instagram Follow Folasade Ologundudu on Instagram YouTube - Subscribe to the Light Work YouTube Channel

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Trailer

5
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13 Ratings

About

Light Work Presents: Everything Is Connected, created by Folasade Ologundudu is a podcast that shares the interesting and inspiring stories of artists, thought leaders, and critical thinkers on life, work, and a wide range of cultural and social topics. Through engaging content, Ologundudu seeks to inspire listeners to lead their best lives through the transformative power of art and culture. She dives into ideas on art and society across cultures with a focus on diverse communities worldwide. Guests include artists, curators, entrepreneurs, educators, and creatives who are changing the way we think about the art, creativity, and the world. 

Information

  • Creator
    Light Work
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    121
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Everything Is Connected
  • Show Website
    Everything Is Connected

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