Art Dealer Diaries Podcast

This podcast with Daniel Akaka, Jr. (or Uncle Danny) is an audio only podcast, but the video version shows the footage I recorded at the King Kamehameha the Great Celebration, which is on June 11th every year in Hawaii. So if you watch it on YouTube, you can see this special event that consists of dancing, music, the decorating of the King Kamehameha statue with hand-made leis, a parade, and all o...

I went to Manaus, Brazil recently and I visited a lot of different places that tried to capture the sense of Manaus and the surrounding area. This included going to Museu Do Indio (Indigenous Museum) and the Palácio Rio Negro (Governors Palace). I also paid a visit to Teatro Amazonas, which is an insanely beautiful opera house that was built in 1897.  One thing I did while I was in Manaus that was...

In this episode of the Art Dealer Diaries, I went down to the Amazon rainforest because I wanted to get to know more about the region and its biodiversity.  While I was down there I went and visited with a man named Michael Rich. Now, Michael was down there to do some fishing and I joined him to be able to see the animals do some fishing myself. I was also as interested in just getting a sense of...

I had David Griffin on today and he's a unique individual in so many ways, not only as an artist but as  a person as well. I'm fortunate to be able to represent David's work. I'm also fortunate to have gotten the time to talk to him and understand the path he took to get where he is today. His story starts in Lubbock, Texas, which is not an area known for its art production of...

I had David Griffin on today and he's a unique individual in so many ways, not only as an artist but as  a person as well. I'm fortunate to be able to represent David's work. I'm also fortunate to have gotten the time to talk to him and understand the path he took to get where he is today. His story starts in Lubbock, Texas, which is not an area known for its art production of...

I had the good fortune to go and interview the Grand Canyon Superintendent, Ed Keable, and at the time, I was also allowed to do a tour of the Kolb House. This is a very special place and the story is amazing. It really is a story made for a movie. In fact, I'm surprised it hasn't been mad into one yet because it tells the story of these brothers that came to Arizona in 1901 and 1902, an...

This is the kind of podcast I enjoy making the most. It's one of those in the perfect location that's just off the cuff. You see, I went to artist Shonto Begay's studio in Flagstaff. We were picking up some paintings, and it was just a great opportunity to spend some time with him talking about his work, his studio, and things that affect his life. It was actually a very moving inte...

I had a very interesting conversation with Ed Keable, who's Superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park. The setting was unbelievable. We literally sat at the Kolb House overlooking the Grand Canyon. Ed was so fascinating though that I could really only focus on his story, and so the canyon just kind of melted away. He's has a very unique position with an immense amount of responsibilit...

I had Wendie Martin on my podcast today, and she's co-owner of International Artist Publishing along with Adolfo Castillo. That's the media group responsible for  magazines such as Western Art Collector, Native American Art, American Art Collector, American Fine Art Magazine, and International Artist. So she's got her hands full.  We talked about her magazines, sure, but we mostly s...

Sometimes you do podcasts not only because you're interested in the person, but you're also interested in just history, right? In this case, it's the history of Skip Andrews, his own personal journey as an artist, as well as his relationship with the iconic Arizona artist, Ed Mell. Skip and Ed were friends in high school and ended up working together in New York City in the late 60&...

In March 2026, the Scottsdale Art week had some discussions which were really informative. I really enjoyed this part of the programming and I wanted to share it with you.  We had a booth there and I gave a lecture on Maynard Dixon and Ed Mell, but there were some other lovely panels/lectures that we recorded, and one of them included Diné weavers, Naiomi and Tyler Glasses. I've been fortunat...

I recently gave a lecture called "Ed Mell: A Closer Look" at the Phoenix Art Museum and I wanted to share it with all of you as an episode of my podcast. It was an interesting  experience for me for two reasons. One, I knew Ed very well as a friend. Two, I represented him for almost 30 years. So with this lecture, I got to think and speak about him how an art historian would. The friends...

I love a podcast that's a little different. Today, Shonto Begay showed up with four new paintings and they're all terrific. One of them however was incredibly important because it explores Shonto's experience at an Indian school and how that affected him. I mean, he's 72 years old and this is something that still affects him to this day and I completely understand why.  You see...

Today's podcast was a panel that I was a part of alongside artists Kim Wiggins, Martin Grelle, and my son, Charles Sublette, moderated by Tim Newton. We talk about Western art, the future of art in general, how the world perceives what we happen to specialize in. With the artists on the panel, we had two different but equally qualified individuals. There was Martin Grelle being on the traditi...

I recently attended and exhibited at Scottsdale Art Week, which was the third week in March. They had a lovely series of lectures, and one of them was with photographer Cara Romero. She's a terrific artist that I have in my personal collection. The Phoenix Art Museum has a big show of her work on display through June 2026 called "Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light)." It's...

This podcast is a very interesting podcast, because we get to talk to Curt Walters about his retrospective exhibition "Curt Walters: Resilience" at Western Spirit: Scottsdale Museum of the West. We walk through the exhibit and hear about his life as he speaks on his magnificent landscape paintings.  Curt was born in 1950 and he lived in Farmington, NM and this is where his artistic journ...

If you didn't get to come to our Thomas Blackshear opening and hear this lecture, well, you're in luck, because we recorded it and it was really a wonderful event. Basically, it was Thomas Blackshear and myself talking about the show "Neon Cowboy Posse, The Ten Most Wanted Plus One," and how the whole series began. Questions like, "what was the impetus to do it?" We t...

When you get to go to an artist's studio, it's literally a sacred place. That's just the best way I can describe it, because it's where creativity begins and ends and inspiration is found there, too. In this case, it was Thomas Blackshear II and his studio.  To be able to see the things that made his career. Seeing the relics that he's held on to in addition to the WIP ear...

I had Jeremy Winborg on and what a wonderful person he is. I really enjoyed our talk. You know, he's just a classic artist in the sense that everything he's done in his life has been related to creating and making art. It might be a genetic thing. His father, Larry C. Winborga, is a well-known illustrator and fine artists and his daughter Swede Winborg is an up-and-comer on the Western A...

This episode of the podcast is a recording of the lecture that Billy Schenck gave to collectors and friends at the Maynard Dixon and Native American Art Museum in early February 2026. The lecture centered around Schenck's prints and the many types of works he's reproduced over the past 55 years. Billy also discusses his iconic career, going into depth about his contemporaries and how he...

I had artistic polymath Joel Oppenheimer on the podcast today who has recently retired from being an art dealer. He was the former president of Oppenheimer Gallery in Chicago, IL with his son David officially taking over last year.  It's a wonderful gallery. There are many different components to Oppenheimer Gallery. One of them is art conservation, which is how I've gotten to know Joel...

I had artistic polymath Joel Oppenheimer on the podcast today who has recently retired from being an art dealer. He was the former president of Oppenheimer Gallery in Chicago, IL with his son David officially taking over last year.  It's a wonderful gallery. There are many different components to Oppenheimer Gallery. One of them is art conservation, which is how I've gotten to know Joel...

So Billy Schenck and I have been working on a two year project. It's a retrospective, a 55-year retrospective, and we did a catalog. This podcast was filmed a year ago at Billy's studio where we talked about this project at length. Now, you get to actually see what we've been working on. To put all this effort in and to get to see them all together is exceptionally gratifying. I&apo...

I had a podcast today with Erika Victor, who's this just unique individual who I had originally met at the Far West show in Austin, Texas. I had followed her on her Instagram because I liked her work. I just thought it was very unique. It has a sensibility that's different from most other people, and that's what I'm looking for in an artist.  Erika came by my gallery in Tucson...

I had a wonderful podcast today with Sean Michael Chavez. If you are anywhere in the Western art world in 2026, you will have heard his name and more than likely seen his artwork.  Chavez  really exploded onto the scene over the last eight years, but like everything good in this world, it took a long time to get there. It definitely didn't happen overnight, though sometimes it might seem that...