Cold Crit

Heyyyy, long time no see! Sorry for the unexpected absence. We decided to do this stupid thing where we got really busy and then moved across the country. But now we’re back with a new episode! Our entertainment correspondent Chris Scott (of Layers and Lairs) joins us to take a look at the 2023 art heist film “Inside”, starring Willem Dafoe, and only Willem Dafoe. coldcrit.art patreon.com/coldcrit

Some of y'all are being really mean to Adrien Brody about his art! The Oscar-winning actor is getting absolutely roasted for his glittery Marilyn Monroe painting that sold for half a million at a Cannes charity auction, so we decided to learn more about Brody's decade-long art career. Follow us from his debut at a non-Lululemon-sponsored Art Basel Miami show to his present-day solo exhbiti...

This episode is super late because we went on a spontaneous road trip across about half of the United States, which it turns out is a big country! But anyway, it’s time for another open studios! We report "LIVE" (two months ago) from EXPO — Chicago’s biggest art fair. Plus, we follow up on the aftermath of some art-related disasters, check in on Justin Sun after Trump’s crypto dinner, an...

Ah crap, Donald Trump is back in office and things aren't looking so great for the arts in the good ol' USA—that is, unless you're a figurative sculpture artist or your primary mode of inquiry is about the Declaration of Independence. In that case, this could be a golden age for your career and you should definitely come be a guest on the show! This week we're focusing on the gutti...

To hear the rest of this episode join us for free on our Patreon. We've got a new segment! Welcome to Open Studios! In these research-light, subscriber-only episodes, we're covering updates, corrections/omissions, and things we've been researching/thinking/talking about, reading, and looking at. Our theme music is by Layers in Lairs.

Okay, tell me if you've heard this one before. Two Chrises walk into an art gallery. One of them eats a banana right off the wall. The other says, "That's a $6.2 million banana!" Oh you have? Well apparently not everyone has, since it's the punchline of Meta Ray-Ban's second Super Bowl commercial of 2025. Don't worry, we move on quickly from there. Life's too short to discuss that dumb banana art...

Super Bowl? More like superbly weird ad! Meta Ray-Ban's two-part commercial for 2025’s big game follows the Chrises (Hemsworth & Pratt) as they fumble through Kris’s (Jenner) private gallery. The AI glasses promise to give the wearer an art history education, but the gallery scene turns out to be little more than a backdrop for pratfalls (Pratt falls? Huh? Is that anything?) and an opportu...

Final reminder! We’re changing our name! We will be Cold Crit starting with our next episode. You begged for it, and now here it is! We’ve got Luigi Mangione part two! When Mangione got the perp walk treatment of Hannibal Lecter, we asked ourselves, “What do neo-classical paintings of the French Revolution, photos of arrests at BLM protests, and Abu Ghraib all have in common?” And then we decided...

Important : We're changing our name ! Expect our new name, Cold Crit, to replace our current name sometime in the coming weeks. We’re back from our holiday break! You might remember when long, long ago in the year 2024 a healthcare CEO was shot in Manhattan. The alleged perpetrator, Luigi Mangione, didn't just become a viral sensation - he sparked an unprecedented collision of meme culture and rel...

Surprise! Didn’t expect to see us again this year, did you? We were lying about that whole "holiday break" thing. After episode 9 we couldn't resist following up on the weird and shady goings on of crypto billionaire Justin Sun from the past week. From ID-required banana giveaways to suspicious crypto dealings with Trump's crypto scheme, we follow the money through an ever-deepening maze of questi...

When soup-throwing activists, incompetent art thieves, and a shady crypto bro walk into an art market... you get fall 2024's greatest hits. Join us as we explore how a $6.24M banana, some rain-soaked Warhols, and an NFT museum in the metaverse nobody wants perfectly capture the absurd state of contemporary art. Theme music by Layers in Lairs Instagram: @untitledartpod Support us on Patreon: patreo...

Art gets really dangerous in part two of our “Velvet Buzzsaw” episode! Deceased artist Vetril Dease is on a haunted rampage, taking down icy gallery owners, ambitious assistants, and feared critics. We’re diving into real-life killer art and creepy art history secrets alongside looking at work from artists like Anish Kapoor, Bruce Nauman, Lynda Benglis, Gustav Klimt, and Nam June Paik. Plus, a sto...

Happy spooky season! In part one of our Velvet Buzzsaw episode, we’re joined by Chris Scott from Layers in Lairs to explore this 2019 “horror” film where Final Destination meets the Los Angeles art scene. Take a haunted gallery tour through works by Félix González-Torres, Jordan Wolfson, Anish Kapoor, Michael Heizer, Bruce Nauman, George Bellows, Eric Fischl, and Annika Ström—while we ponder the u...

We're back with part two of Problemista ! This week we’re looking at work by artists Danielle De Jesus, Shellyne Rodriguez, Doug Henders, Pablo Picasso, Johannes Vermeer, Andy Warhol (YES HIM AGAIN), Banksy, and Ron English. Grab your emotional support cactus, flip on your phone's flashlight, and join us for this episode as we try to figure out if you have to tip your robot bellhop (and if so... i...

We're diving into A24's Problemista , where MC Escher meets the U.S. immigration system in the tale of Alejandro (Julio Torres), an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador turned NYC art world intern. We'll unpack everything from the cultural significance of eggs in art to the Venice Biennale. Along the way, we'll explore works by Nicole Eisenman, Justin Liam O'Brien, Bobby Dohe...

2024 Paris Olympics, Opening Ceremony: LGBTQ+ folks dare to... stand on a bridge? Gasp! Conservative meltdown ensues over imaginary Last Supper mockery. We're here this week armed with the knowledge of more than three paintings to unpack this "scandal." Featuring religious art from old masters to modern blasphemers like Jan van Bijlert, Jacopo Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, David LaChap...

Hello, 911? A gallery in the Hamptons is selling artwork made from Justin Timberlake's recent mugshot! In this episode, we cover the nasty (bad) history of mugshots, why publishing them is an exploitative practice that is as uniquely American as a festering bag of garbage on a New York City street corner. We look at the recent work inspired by Timberlake's Driving While Idiot arrest plus h...

We enjoyed making our first episode so much we decided to make another! In our second episode on Broad City we’re looking at work by Crys Yin, Katharina Fritsch, Takashi Murakami, Eva and Franco Mattes, Jeff Koons, and even more Danny McDonald. We somehow keep finding ways to talk about the Wall Street Bull, try to figure out if KAWS is or isn’t like balls, and finally get to the bottom of exactly...

Welcome to episode one! We explain why we even bothered to make this podcast before taking a look at the art world through the eyes of Abbi Jacobson in the hit Comedy Central television show Broad City. Digressions include discussions of Jim Carry and his mangoes, the Wall Street bull covered in dildos being ridden by a shirtless Vladimir Putin, what you call the large flat Gardettos. We wind up d...