About Art

Artist Refik Anadol joins Heidi Zuckerman for a conversation about art, nature, memory, imagination, and the new forms of creativity made possible through technology. Refik describes data as an artistic material—a way of giving form to memories and information that would otherwise remain invisible. He and Heidi talk about his early fascination with computers, his desire to make the invisible visib...

Ryan Stanier joins Heidi Zuckerman for a conversation about access, permission, play, and what happens when we question the ways people have traditionally encountered art. Ryan founded The Other Art Fair after watching artist friends struggle to find meaningful opportunities to show and sell their work. After 15 years and 100 fairs, he stepped away and eventually began asking what he would do diff...

Artist Rashid Johnson joins Heidi Zuckerman for a deeply personal conversation shaped by their long friendship and history of collaboration. They talk about the difference between doing and being, and Rashid’s growing belief in the importance of becoming what he calls a “pauser”—someone willing to make room for patience, reflection, and even idleness in a culture that continually rewards action. R...

Chloë Catán is the founder and artistic director of the Lassonde Art Trail, a public art experience set within the landscape of Toronto’s new island and waterfront park. In this episode of About Art, Heidi Zuckerman and Chloë discuss the origins of the trail and what it means to build art into people’s everyday lives. They explore the relationship between art and landscape, the possibilities and c...

Heidi Zuckerman speaks with artist Danielle McKinney, whose intimate paintings depict women absorbed in moments of reflection, rest, reading, music, and contemplation. Richly atmospheric and emotionally resonant, McKinney’s work draws on photography, film, literature, music, and memory while leaving space for viewers to bring their own stories to each painting. In their conversation, Heidi and Dan...

Zanele Muholi is a South African visual activist, photographer, and artist whose work documents and celebrates the lives of Black queer and trans people in South Africa and beyond. Through portraiture, self-portraiture, and an ever-expanding visual archive, Muholi creates images that honor identity, memory, community, and belonging while challenging histories of exclusion and invisibility. This ep...

What if the divisions we see in the world are not actually there? In this episode of  About Art , Heidi Zuckerman speaks with artist Mariko Mori as part of a special six-part series presented in collaboration with the Aspen Art Fair. For more than three decades, Mori has created sculptures, installations, and immersive environments that bring together ideas we often consider separately: science an...

What does it mean to understand ourselves as existing somewhere between the planet and the cosmos? In this episode of  About Art , Heidi Zuckerman speaks with artist Lita Albuquerque as part of a special series created in collaboration with the Aspen Art Fair. For more than five decades, Albuquerque has explored our relationship to the Earth, the cosmos, time, color, consciousness, and the natural...

Patrick Martinez is a Los Angeles-based artist whose paintings, sculptures, and neon works transform the visual language of the city into layered reflections on memory, community, history, and belonging. Drawing on graffiti, signage, architecture, and everyday materials, his practice reveals the stories embedded in the urban landscape while asking us to look more closely at the world around us. In...

In this special live episode of  About Art , recorded in Aspen as part of a collaboration with the Aspen Art Fair, Heidi Zuckerman speaks with artist, architect, designer, inventor, and educator Ronald Rael. Raised on a sheep and cattle ranch in southern Colorado, Ronald comes from a family that has lived in the region for seven generations. His work brings that history into conversation with the...

For more than four decades, Lily van der Stokker has challenged conventional ideas about beauty, decoration, humor, and value. Through her wall paintings, drawings, and installations, she embraces qualities that have often been dismissed as decorative or feminine, asking us to reconsider what we take seriously—and why. In this episode of  About Art , Heidi Zuckerman and Lily discuss joy, beauty, f...

Sabrina Rudin is the founder of Spring Cafe Aspen and the author of  Healthy with a Side of Happy , a cookbook that combines recipes, personal stories, and practical guidance for creating a healthier, more intentional life. What began with one café has grown into a broader platform centered on nourishment, community, entrepreneurship, and the everyday choices that shape how we live. In this episod...

This week on  About Art , Heidi Zuckerman speaks with artist Tavares Strachan. Born in Nassau, Bahamas, Strachan works across sculpture, installation, painting, performance, and research-based practice. His ambitious projects draw from history, science, exploration, and cultural memory to illuminate stories that have been overlooked or omitted from dominant historical narratives. His work has been...

Bart van der Heide is Director of Museion in Bolzano, Italy. Before joining Museion, Bart held leadership and curatorial positions at institutions including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Kunstverein München. Throughout his career, he has championed museums as places where contemporary art, civic life, and community come together. This conversation explores museums as spaces of imagination, be...

This week on About Art, Heidi Zuckerman speaks with actor, writer, and artist Lisa Edelstein and artist Robert Russell. Recorded as they celebrate their collaborative exhibition  Palace in Time  at the Skirball Cultural Center, this conversation explores partnership, artistic practice, Jewish ritual, memory, storytelling, and the ways we create meaning through the objects, relationships, and tradi...

Daisy Murray Holman is Executive Director of the Artists Legacy Foundation. She and Zuckerman explore the often unseen work of supporting artists beyond the present tense: archives, artists’ estates, preservation, catalogues raisonnés, and the emotional and structural care required to sustain artistic legacies over time. Murray Holman also reflects on the legacy of her mother, painter Elizabeth Mu...

This week on About Art, Heidi Zuckerman speaks with artist Jennifer Guidi. This episode was recorded live before an audience at the Orange County Museum of Art in conjunction with  And so it is. , Guidi's solo exhibition curated by Heidi Zuckerman. Born in Redondo Beach, California, Guidi received a BFA from Boston University and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work...

This week on About Art, Heidi Zuckerman speaks with Diane Brown, founder of RxART. For more than twenty-five years, Diane has worked at the intersection of contemporary art and healthcare, commissioning leading artists to create projects for hospitals and medical facilities across the United States. Through RxART, artists including Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Rashid Johnson, Laura Owens, Rob Pru...

Ann Grinstein and Suzanne Felsen are co-directors and co-owners of Gemini G.E.L., one of the most influential artists’ workshops and publishers in the world. Founded in Los Angeles in 1966 by Stanley Grinstein, Sidney Felsen, and master printer Ken Tyler, Gemini G.E.L. has collaborated with generations of artists including Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Serra, David H...

This week on About Art, Heidi Zuckerman speaks with Susan Taylor, Director of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Since 2010, Susan has led NOMA through a period of transformation, growth, and institutional reflection, expanding the museum’s engagement with artists, audiences, education, and community while helping shape conversations around what museums can and should be today. In this conversation, t...

Anna-Maria is the Director of the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki, part of the Finnish National Gallery and one of the leading institutions dedicated to Finnish art from the 19th century to today. Previously the museum’s chief curator, she has organized major international exhibitions and is known for her scholarship on Nordic art, women artists, symbolism, and cultural history. In this conversatio...

This week on About Art, Heidi Zuckerman answers questions submitted by listeners. Together, the questions became a conversation about creativity, collecting, burnout, beauty, confidence, museums, meaning, and how to live a more artful life. Some questions are practical. Some are philosophical. Some are deeply personal. This episode reflects the curiosity, thoughtfulness, and emotional intelligence...

What does it mean to live a meaningful life—and how do we know what truly matters? In this episode of  About Art , Heidi Zuckerman is joined by artist Hank Willis Thomas and curator Rujeko Hockley for a deeply personal and expansive conversation about attention, time, and the choices that shape a life. Beginning from a place of reflection—on family, career, illness, and change—they explore how pri...

Jewel is a multi-platinum singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist whose work has reached millions. Over the course of her career, she has continually expanded her creative practice—moving between music, writing, and visual art, with a focus on authenticity, emotional truth, and self-expression. In this conversation, we move beyond any single medium. We talk about what it means to make something...

What does it mean to write about the art world from the inside? In this episode of  About Art , Heidi Zuckerman is joined by writer and critic James Cahill to discuss his novel  The Violet Hour  and the psychological complexity of the contemporary art world. Drawing on his experience as both an art historian and gallery insider, Cahill reflects on the strange paradox of the art world—where even th...