Exhibitionistas

Contemporary drawing is one of art's best kept secrets: associated with sound, language and writing, it turns contemporary art into a meditative form of art-making engaging the spectator in a poetic and existential voyage.

The avant-gardes of the 1960s–70s were proliferous in innovative and minimal methods of creativity engaging the breath, the whole body and graphic deconstructions of language. Irma Blank was one of those artists with a subversive take on traditional artistic languages.

Led by Blank's discovery of sound within the daily practice of drawing, this episode is a sonic wandering and a philosophical exploration of the artist's work, engaging with recent technological changes. How can a minimal and poetic practice face such specific issues? What is the role of the artist facing a global net of information which connects us as much as it separates us? And what is the value of communication – and of silence? Irma Blank has taught me that and much more.

Have you ever wondered how artists and curators work together? This episode muses upon the relation between me, a young-ish curator and the artist Irma Blank, who'd reached the age of 80 when we met, along with my co-curator Johana Carrier.

This episode is an excerpt of a lecture given by me on the 3rd of February  2025 at ABK Stuttgart whose title was "The Paper is Impatient", under the invitation of the drawing department, and their teachers Katrin Ströbel and Hanna Hennenkemper.

Music by Sarturn.

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For more information about the artist visit her gallery's website: P420, Bologna, Italy.

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Chapters

00:00 Prologue: A Homage to Irma Blank

02:58 From the Word to the Page: Communication and Silence

07:46 Medium as Message: Baskets and Apples

12:26 Irma Blank: Writing Without Words

17:00 Listen to the Paper: Drawing With Language

22:39 Drawing Rituals: Sounds, Process, Performance and a Higher Realm of the Mind and Body

26:09 Break and Call to Action

If you enjoy Katy Hessel's The Great Women Artists Podcast, this episode is for you. It is centred around the artistic practice of female German artist Irma Blank, who never stopped producing her art, whether it was shown in prestigious events such as the Venice Biennale in 1977, or it wasn't, like when her Radical Writings on canvas were deemed a form of yielding to the 80s trend of the return to painting... whereas Blank was, on the contrary, more militant than ever for her elemental forms of the line and the minimal gesture by deeply engaging with the meditative breath in relation to the line and the colour blue, which for her represented infinity. Blank passed away in 2023, leaving a potent body of work whose incredible energy leaves no spectator or curator indifferent.

A pioneer of experimental cinema, but also conceptual technology (yes, I made this one up), Anthony McCall has built a unique place in the recent history and present of contemporary art. From the UK to the US, from analogue to digital, McCall has created a body of work as playful as it is culturally relevant.

For more information about the exhibition go here.

My co-host is Liberté Nutti, who you can follow here for good tips about modern and contemporary art: @libertenuti.

To know more about her, you can check her website.

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Emily is the co-host of this episode about art, transgression, female desire and the male gaze through photo montage, as cultural commentary and self-exploration.

We re-visit the exhibition "Danger Came Smiling" at Hayward Gallery. A punk goddess whose image was used in the Buzzcocks’ EP Orgasm Addict (1977), Linder is an under-exposed contemporary artist. 99p glue, a scalpel, vintage magazines, and she “travel(s) in time”, to bring back cyber domestic goddesses and anachronistic deepfakes. Her work seems to be at its peak, and always timely, as she enters her 7th decade on earth.

Support us: here.

Check out Linder on social media: @lindersterling.

Listen to Linder's band Ludus.

More about the exhibition here: Hayward Gallery.

Exhibitionistas is a conversational art podcast created by me, visual arts curator and writer, Joana P. R. Neves, as an invitation for everyone to engage with contemporary art. Some episodes are centred around solo exhibitions; others are guest interviews engaging with the real art world beyond sensationalist auction sales and obsolete art review styles; and, finally, I also produce special episodes about chosen art angles.

As an art professional with a 20 year experience in the art world with galleries, museums, artist creative processes, and the art market, I provide access to visual arts from the inside. So, I bring up art theory, art history and professional takes on exhibitions and art-making but, as an art lover, I avoid art jargon. Contemporary visual arts engages with popular culture, life experiences, singular perceptions, as much as with ideas and concepts. Exhibitionistas stands at the intersection of life, theory and art.

I also write essays and short art insights on Substack.

To remain on top of our episodes and to get a glimpse behind the scenes, follow us on our socials:

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Or, alternatively, get in touch by email:  [email protected]

And our Exhibitionistas website.

It might be a bit too early at this stage but if you want to support us, it would be much appreciated. Go to our donation and membership page.

Exhibitionistas is a mix of Ben Luke's A Brush With, The White Pube and Sarah Marshall's You're Wrong About, which are huge inspirations for me as a podcast lover. Big fan.

So if you think someone else might enjoy it too, by all means, share it. Don’t forget to rate and follow Exhibitionistas, it seems trivial but it can make a difference. All kinds of support count, and contribute to more investigation and better episodes.

Thanks to all of those who’ve taken a leap of faith and have become our patrons. From a 5 start review to a substantial donation, Exhibitionistas considers you one of those rare unicorns who support independent journalism.

And finally: I’d also love to start a conversation with you. You can now leave comments on Spotify which is great way to know what you want more of or if you’d like to add something to the topic developed, the artist discussed or simply if you want to leave a note of appreciation. It’s a sad world when only the trolls and the bullies interact with journalists and art critics. So why not bring positivity, ideas, and your own perspective to the digital art village. 

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If Hogarth and Mario Bros had a son, it would be Hardeep Pandhal, the artist whose drawings sprawl on the walls, on paper and on canvas at the Drawing Room until until the 13 April. Half auto-biography, half hybrid character-driven cross-temporal fantasies, one thing is certain, we loved “Inner World”.

If you’re not in London, and you want to know more about the artist, he is represented by Jhaveri Contemporary in Mumbai, who I profusely thank for all the information they sent me.

This time, my two co-hosts, interdisciplinary movement artist Naissa Bjørn and visual artist Constança Saturnino, are YOUNG.  So we have an Gen X versus Gen Z episode. And it’s a delight. 

We talk also talk about: neurodiversity, the spectator experience, drawing, community, aphantasia, dyslexia, synesthesia, contemporary drawing, exhibitions, art galleries.

Follow Naissa, and Naissa's hairdressing business. Follow Constança, and Constança's tattoo business.

We also mention Milo's song An Encyclopedia. Listen here. It's great.

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Alfredo Cramerotti and Auronda Scalera are a curatorial duo specialising in art and technology, dedicated to bridging digital and contemporary art.

We either speak over-enthusiastically about AI or in fear of its impact on creativity. My guests stand somewhat in between, advocating for a better understanding of its potential as a tool which they base upon their experiences with artists. The latter have always been irreverent regarding technologies since pigment was blown onto a hand leaving its mysterious mark on a cave wall… So what happens now, with the metaverse, AI and virtual reality? Are these new exhibition spaces? And how to they affect the existing ones? 

Our discussion took us to lots of places, amongst which the installation created by artist duo Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, THE CALL for the Serpentine, which enabled spectators to interact with an AI who had trained with choirs across the UK; we talk about artists who connect writing with sculpture, performance, and new technologies, such as Ana María Caballero, (who just sold a poem in an online auction of Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions called Natively Digital, for 0.28 Bitcoin or $11,430 at Sotheby’s), and much more. I also mention the great Jan Hopkins, an artist and writer based in Sheffield.

Cramerotti and Scalera both teach at MA IESA University Paris & Kingston University London. They co-curated the Lumen Prize x Sotheby's plus this year and the Art Dubai Digital Section 2024. As a duo, they form the International Selection Committee of the Lumen Prize and work as nominators for the Maxxi-Bvlgari Prize for Digital Art. While co-directing Multiplicity-Art in Digital, an online platform promoting women artists with a focus on diversity and inclusion, they spearhead Web to Verse, a project dedicated to fostering research on the evolution of digital art from the 1960s to the present day.

This multifaceted profile has led them to speak at prestigious events such as the UK House of Lords’ All-Party Parliamentary Group, the House of Beautiful Business, the AI House (during the World Economic Forum), the Riyadh Art Program for the KSA Visual Art Commission. They have worked with the UK Government Art Collection, the British Council Visual Arts Acquisition Committee, the Italian Ministry of Culture for the Italian Council 2022-24 program, and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Art, exhibitions, AI, technology, community, contemporary art, metaverse, digital art, immersive experiences, art criticism.

In this episode, Joana P. R. Neves and co-host Liberté Nuti look back on On Kawara's exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery London, Date Paintings (21 November 2024 to 25 January 2025 ).

To know more about Liberté Nuti:https://www.haerbnuti.com/

Follow her on Instagram: @libertenuti

For more information on the show:https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/2024/on-kawara-london

For more information on On Kawara and One Million Years Foundation:https://www.onemillionyearsfoundation.org/

They explore the life and work of On Kawara, a significant figure in contemporary art known for his repetitive and conceptual Date Paintings (1966 - 2012).

How do you deal with an artist who did everything he could to reduce life to art, and thus preserve life's unique intangibility? How do you experience a series of works dedicated to the obsessive recording of time through craft?

"It was quite the experience"

"On Kawara is a concept, in himself"

"What else do you want?"

Music by Sarturn.

Support us on:https://exhibitionistaspodcast.com/ and go to the DONATE page.