Edge of Reason

Curators Hamza Walker of The Brick in LA and Henriette Huldisch of the Walker in Minneapolis join Alexis Lowry to explore how art persists among censorship and political divide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Frances Morris and Jamieson Webster reflect on Louise Bourgeois’s explorations of memory and the body, considering how her art renders private experience into collective meaning and deep emotional presence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Firelei Báez and novelist Danticat discuss resistance as care and creativity, reflecting on how art reshapes struggle into resilience, reframes scarcity as abundance, and reclaims erased histories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

María Berrío and journalist Siddhartha Mitter reflect on Soliloquy of the Wounded Earth, tracing how myth, memory, and resilience converge in Berrío's first New York exhibition in nearly a decade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anj Smith and curator Zoé Whitley frame the world within as a space of ambiguity and imagination, where art resists certainty, asks for patience, and nurtures deeper forms of reflection and connection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uman and novelist Nicole Dennis-Benn explore metamorphosis as a journey of becoming—confronting fear, loss, and resilience while revealing how painting and writing open space for reinvention and self-discovery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for a live talk with the iconic Annie Leibovitz and Amy Sherald. In this special episode, they discuss the power of process in bringing vulnerability and intuition together, revealing the humanity behind their art. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, artist Camille Henrot and author Melissa Febos explore how relationships reveal the dynamics of control and connection. Henrot discusses how caregiving, education, and societal structures inform her creative process, while Febos reflects on her experiences as a dominatrix and the liberating process of writing about attachment. Together they consider how art can untangle the contra...

In this episode, artist Glenn Ligon and multi-hyphenate Solange Knowles discuss what it means to create—and live—with multiplicity. Ligon reflects on his career-long evolution into an artist who challenges perceptions of race, language, and history, while Knowles traces her path as a musician, performer, and curator. Together they explore the power of collective experience, artistic risk, and embr...

In this episode, artist Mika Rottenberg and theoretical physicist Dr. Felix Flicker search for the intersection between art and science, inviting us to rediscover the beauty of the world around us.  Rottenberg shares how her work transforms familiar materials to highlight the connection between humans and their environment, while Dr. Flicker discusses the properties of common objects and the ways...

In this episode, artist Charles Gaines and fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner explore how art can bridge the gap between what we perceive and what is real, prompting us to question our relationship with truth. Gaines’s conceptual systems challenge the notion of a singular truth, while Bonner’s fashion designs reveal the layers of identity and history embedded in her work. How do subjective interp...

In this episode, artist Gary Simmons and “Surviving R. Kelly” filmmaker dream hampton examine personal and collective memory, what we choose to remember, and what we choose to forget.  Simmons reflects on how cultural memory—particularly through race and erasure—has influenced his work, from his iconic chalkboard drawings to his installations that blur the lines between representation and abstract...

Liberty: A principle emphasizing freedom, autonomy, and the inherent rights of individuals. In this episode, artist Lorna Simpson and poet and scholar Dr. Elizabeth Alexander question the nature of individual rights, autonomy, and separate the idea of "liberty" from "freedom" via Simpson's evocative representations of race, gender, and identity and Alexander's celebrated poetic insights. Learn mor...

Inquiry: The spirit of questioning, exploring, and seeking to understand, rather than merely accept, established truths.   In this episode, artist Pipilotti Rist and MOCA curator Anna Katz unearth the dynamic relationship between nature, technology, and the human experience. Image Credit: Pipilotti Rist, Twin concept pictures, 2023 © Pipilotti Rist. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Learn mo...

Progress: the belief in constant societal advancement through reason, knowledge, and education.   In this episode, artist Thomas J Price and renowned scholar Steven Pinker discuss the challenges of defining human advancement and the importance of measuring both tangible and intangible progress. Image Credit: Installation view, ‘Thomas J Price, Untitled (Icon) Series,’ 2017 © Thomas J Price. Courte...

Individualism: The idea that each person possesses a distinctive and autonomous self that is able to develop within society.    In this episode, artist Christina Quarles and Xicana writer Cherríe Moraga navigate the conundrum of individual identity, revealing the profound intersections and deviations that shape our understanding of who we are. Image Credit: Christina Quarles, (And Tell Me Today's...

Humanism: the value and agency of human beings while recognizing the relationship between the human experience, evolution, and extinction.   In this episode, artist Nicolas Party and researcher Thomas Moynihan explore their mutual interest in human agency, the arbitrary circumstances of planetary civilization—and dinosaurs! Image Credit: Nicolas Party, Portrait with a Donkey (detail), 2023 © Nicol...

Reason: The application of logic to understand the world and reach greater conclusions. In this episode, artist Allison Katz and Nuar Alsadir of "Couples Therapy" ponder the uses and limitations of rational thought as a way to understand ourselves, touching on the seen and unseen forces that shape our identity. Image Credit: Allison Katz, The Cockfather (detail), 2021 © Allison Katz. Courtesy the...