About Art

Jean Jullien is a French graphic artist living and working in Paris. His practice ranges from painting and illustration to photography, video, costume, installations, books, posters and clothing to create a coherent yet eclectic body of work. In this episode he and Zuckerman talk about his clan and his mother’s iconic hairstyle, describing versus telling, what is enough, how to judge cultural...

Hank Willis Thomas is a conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media, and popular culture. His work is included in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art. His collaborative projects include  Question Bridge: Black Males ,  In Se...

Tom Sachs’s sculptures, often recreations of modern icons using everyday materials, are conspicuously handmade; lovingly cobbled together from plywood, resin, steel, and ceramic. The scars and imperfections in the sculptures tell the story of how it came into being and remove it from the realm of miraculous conception. His studio team of ten, functions like a teaching hospital or cult, that worshi...

JiaJia Fei is a digital strategist and founder of the first digital agency for art. She and Zuckerman discussed being an evening person, access to free art museums, how to find your own information, the future of funding and philanthropy and access to techpreneurs, how art can exist for the screen, and what could be their shared Kurt Vonnegut epitaph.

Richard Betts passed the Court of Master Sommeliers’ Masters Exam on the first attempt, the ninth person ever to do so. He co-founded the wine labels Betts & Scholl in 2003 and Scarpetta in 2006 and founded Sombra Mezcal in 2006. Today, Richard spends his time guiding Astral Tequila, and his newest wine project “An Approach To Relaxation.” Richard is the New York Times best-selling author of “...

Amy Cappellazzo is Chairman of the Fine Art division of Sotheby’s. Prior to accepting the position, Cappellazzo founded Art Agency, Partners with Allan Schwartzman, which in January of 2016 Sotheby’s acquired in a groundbreaking deal. Cappellazzo previously served as a market leader in the field of contemporary art at Christie’s, where she rose to the post of Chairman of Post-War & Contemporar...

Dennis Scholl is a filmmaker, winemaker, collector, entrepreneur, and artist advocate. In this episode he and Zuckerman talk about him being an obsessive guy, “ going country” and sacred Aboriginal lands, the mistake of not valuing artists, how it feels to live with art placed by other people, and why opening the aperture is key to a meaningful and joyful life!

Gary Simmons uses chalk as his main medium, utilizing the traces and ghost like effects of the chalk to portray compelling messages involving racial stereotypes. Throughout his conversation with Zuckerman, they touch on his athletic past, the intricacies of his 50 foot mural at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, and why he helped dig a trench for Robert Irwin, along with other compelling tales of his you...

Kathy DeMarco VanCleve is the author of books Never Caught, The Difference Between You and Me, and Drizzle, numerous screen plays, and on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode, she and Zuckerman speak about poetry, where glory is found, the importance of being kind, death, cancer, and parenting.

With his paintings, Richard Phillips is a master of seduction – he plays upon the complex web of human obsessions with sexuality, politics, power, and death.   He uses classical painterly techniques to make things and people you have seen before look and feel unfamiliar and mean something different. We discussed the first art car to win at Le Mans, what it feels like to unintentiona...

Sarah Thornton is a sociologist who writes about art, design and people. Formerly the chief art market correspondent for  The Economist , Thornton is the author of three critically acclaimed books and many influential articles. A Canadian who went to the UK on a prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship, Thornton was hailed as “Britain’s hippest academic.” Now based in San Francisco, Thornton is b...

Musically Rufus Wainwright has collaborated with artists including Elton John, David Byrne, Boy George, Joni Mitchell, Pet Shop Boys and producer Mark Ronson among others. In addition to being a celebrated contemporary pop singer, Rufus has made a name for himself in the classical world. Heidi visited Rufus at his LA home and they talked about what soothes his soul, a cultural movement to turn off...

Over a 25 year period Tim Blum and Jeff Poe have fostered the careers of artists such as Takashi Murakami, Mark Grotjahn, Henry Taylor, and so many others. In this episode Zuckerman and Blum talk about the first work of art they each bought—in the same year for the same price! —Ram Das, death, and how we all are just walking each other home.

Rich Roll is a dad, athlete, and author of Finding Ultra. He also hosts the long running, super interesting, and widely popular Rich Roll podcast. In this episode he and Zuckerman talk about existential crises, alcoholism and ambition, the value of solitude, wisdom, and what art is.

Zuckerman describes Seth Price as “undeniably one of the coolest people I have ever met!“ She curated his solo museum exhibition, No Technique, which closes at the Aspen Art Museum on March 1, 2020. In this episode they converse about the allure of being unavailable, the power of defocused thinking, creating a sound track for artists, #menswear, and skin. Price in addition to making paintings has...

Christina Quarles engages with the world from a position that is multiply situated.  As a Queer, cis-woman born to a black father and a white mother, her project is informed by her daily experience with ambiguity and seeks to dismantle assumptions.  We talked about finding beauty where others might not notice, the impact of our ancestors, and the importance of slowing down and doing less...

John Hickenlooper recently spent six months running for President of the United States of America.  He served two terms as Mayor of Denver, followed by two terms as Governor of Colorado.  He is a craft brewer and occasional banjo player and is currently running for U.S. Senate in Colorado.  In this episode, he and Heidi talk about the importance of silence in holding a space for oth...

Helen Molesworth is a Los Angeles-based writer and curator. She recently released “Recording Artists,” a podcast series in conjunction with the Getty and she is the curator-in-residence at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center. We talked about why it’s a great thing when works of art make you cry, personal and institutional legacy, and where the divine or faith shows up in art.

In this episode, Heidi speaks with painter Mary Weatherford known for radical, elusive paintings where her canvases are affixed and sometimes juxtaposed with working neon light. They talk about the most annoying questions Mary repeatedly gets asked as well as why making her paintings involves getting her feet dirty, their mutual admiration for artist Alan Shields, scoliosis, and what it means...

In this inaugural episode, Heidi speaks with long-time friend Lance Armstrong about his support of, and friendships with, a wide variety of contemporary artists from Raymond Pettibone to Ed Ruscha, and how art made his life better during times of widely-publicized, great duress. They also talk about humor, decision-making, and the best idea that Lance ever had!