Exhibitionistas: Notes on Art

Ready to plunge into the depths of art history to resurface with weird art fair histories from Prehistory, the Aztecs to today? Which is a way of asking: is the compulsion to buy rare goods and exemplary artefacts immemorial? How have we evolved into the format of the art fair? Art fairs seem to defy romantic visions of creativity: artists: the art wonderment necessary to free oneself from convent...

Can poetry provide clues to questions raised by contemporary art? Art sets the world in motion, sparks changes which we’re not always equipped to absorb, and even understand. Luís de Camões, the great Portuguese Renaissance poet wrote beautifully about art and change… and life. Our host, contemporary art writer and curator Joana P. R. Neves picks a poem per episode in this special series. Did you...

There are many definitions of art but what if skill took us deeper into an embodied understanding of contemporary art? Claiming that “my kid could do this” at the museum, if taken seriously, reveals expectations and misconceptions  about visual arts that our host, Joana P. R. Neves uncovers in the first part of this artist conversation episode.  Did you enjoy the episode? Think about supporting Ex...

Biography enlightens the work of an artist but, in rare occasions, it can obliterate it. A polemic curatorial choice in Ana Mendieta's exhibition at Tate Modern illustrates this puzzling question. This unexpected curatorial twist may lean into anti-feminism if we stay on the surface of the discourse. Dive into it with our host Joana P. R. Neves, a curator and an art writer.  What decision did...

What if weaving released untold stories? And how does textile art with such narrative yet abstract powers fit into contemporary art and its traditionally European systems? Joana’s conversation with contemporary artist Paula do Prado takes unexpected turns and spreads across at least 3 different continents–if not more. What influence did the lost language of the Charrúa people and her Uruguayan pas...

There are pockets of creativity in our everyday life. The embodied art of READING ALOUD is an overlooked source of joy, containing so many aspects that contemporary art and artists explore in their practice... Performance, drawing, text, breathing patterns... It all starts with Joana P. R. Neves, our host, asking what the body can do by itself, or with very little assistance, inspired by the last...

What does the artist’s body do? No one pushes us to ask this more than the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta. Her excavated silhouettes in the landscape, where her body would at times lie, covered with petals or feathers, are but one of the actions and rituals that she performed during her short career. What did occur in her own body? Community? Communion? What was the origin and the purpose of h...

We have great news! We're an Award Winning Podcast–Women Who Podcast award in the LGBTQIA+ category Bonus Episode: Le Guin / Indigenous History / Lao Tzu / and more... What was Ursula K. Le Guin's favourite book, and what did it uncover about the revered author's world-building and family legacy? Did you enjoy the episode? Leave a small donation: https://buymeacoffee.com/exhibitioni...

How and why do art and Summer join forces? Art, and visual arts especially, show imminent change–but so does Summer and its ideal of creative flow. How did–or did not–art speak of the climate emergency, gender policing, the war–in short, of loss? What role does this hot and luscious season play in the hubris of conquest, or the black hole of grief? Art curator and writer Joana P. R. Neves, our hos...

Writer Rachel Cusk asked: "Can a Woman who is an Artist Ever Just Be an Artist?" (NYT). Our host Joana, your favourite contemporary art writer and curator, turns this  question of gender and skill on its head: can men be (good) artists? Cusk's book "Parade" (2024) is this Art & Literature episode book of choice to tackle the issue. Can art and life be a continuous flow...

Art criticism is vanishing from mainstream media, but here's the uncomfortable question: does art and culture still need critics? Our host, Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer, examines why critics are leaving big outlets without being replaced—and what this means for art criticism, artistic quality assessment, curatorial etiquette, and the future of art evaluation itself. What is art c...

Can art rescue us from the empty one-liners of self-help? How do we find long-lasting, meditative explorations of life? Might Exhibitionistas’ art questions lead us to wonderment? And what is wonderment?  Welcome to the Art Wonderment Manifesto, by art curator and writer Joana P. R. Neves – an examination of art wisdom with contemporary artists, ancestral philosophies and modernist poetry you didn...

Is art wonderment possible through a copy of an artwork? As an art curator and writer, our host is often faced with printed or digital art portfolios – does this art digital hygiene go against art etiquette?  Small donations are great! "Buys us a book": https://buymeacoffee.com/exhibitionista This ‘art anxiety’ is reinforced by the concept, coined by the German thinker Walter Benjamin, o...

Is digital media preventing us from accessing the most exciting part of culture? In this final hiatus special, explore the unacknowledged difference between wonder and wander—and why curators and gallery-goers alike need digital hygiene. We dig into Wordsworth's poetry, Agnes Martin's meditative minimalism, and real art etiquette, plus the night my performance went viral and Snoop Dogg r...

🔎 Does obscurity lead to creative freedom? Why do I ask? Because of a single sentence in Chris Kraus' book I Love Dick, simply stating that once we accept obscurity, we can do what we want... 📙 This book is a ride through the literary world of the 1990s from the perspective of "the wife of"; it's an exploration of visual art through the perspective of obscurity, complexity an...

🔎 How do we spot a masterpiece? Can we really know if the art we’re looking at is any good? Which is to say, how do we recognize talent? And is pleasure a real indicator of artistic greatness? ⚒️ Are there any identifying tools that may fit the unique shape of a new work of art? Spotting great art may be trickier but more exciting than we think. We look into Proust, specifically into one of the m...

Is there a dark side to creativity ? Might it even be necessary? Are artists visionaries ? Or is the future contained in the present, and if so, what will you do about it ? As a an art writer and curator , Joana P. R. Neves , the host, steps back from her job, and steps into the questions it stimulates, about art and life, creativity and philosophy. And what better tools to explore the point were...

Your host, writer and curator Joana P. R. Neves, challenges you to explore the mystery of a missing paragraph in Virginia Woolf's 'The Mark on the Wall', and its significance for creative pursuits. You're about to dwell on the flow of consciousness as creative flow – the art of mastering and letting go simultaneously. How do we create? How to we get to that special place where...

ART TOPIC is is an exploration of a topic through visual arts or vice-versa. Hosted by Joana P. R. Neves, this episode is an experiment in opposing writing to oral communication. It also engages with queer lives at the height of modernism, the notion of genius and its patriarchal tendencies, as well as the intriguing, unique couple of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Discover Joana's text...

ART BOOK CLUB is a segment where a guest suggests a book which was not written with visual arts in mind and yet is a source of inspiration, guidance and / or creativity for their work. Hosted by Joana P. R. Neves, this episode welcomes visual artist Laisul Hoque. How can a work of fiction influence the work of an artist? Can a visual arts practice be illuminated by storytelling? How can art practi...

You're bound to get an art education with our guest, curator Sarah Carrington! Our art talk with her explores her work as director of the Public Art Trail in East London The Line, as well as the joys of producing visual arts projects and supporting artistic commissions for an urban space full of wildlife and industrial areas, away from the capital's most overcrowded areas. Art Insider  i...

For some, colour is subjective, for others it's vital. In visual arts, is it a universal idea or a local material? As far as art themes go, this one leads to a world of possibilities. Curator Joana P. R. Neves welcomes María Castro Jímenez, whose Substack page " Pigments, Colours & Other Stories " reveals new pathways into art history, art making and creativity. Perfect for arti...

What if a visual artist’s favourite tool revealed their underlying art themes and intrinsic creative processes? Hosted by Joana P. R. Neves. Guests: Ana María Caballero and Alexandra Jabre. This segment is as much: ​an art education as ​an introduction to art critique, by empowering you ​with art tips ​art techniques we seldom talk about. My Art Tools is a segment associating two art talks where a...

A part of our work and leisure is spent online and so is our art. Posted on social media and even made with the help of AI, LLMs, and more, creative initiatives and art objects may now also live in online art spaces. Is an art podcast to be confused with it? What are the joys and dangers of real art spaces becoming virtual ones? Or is the danger elsewhere, and the art education potentially everywh...

Have you ever been under the irresistible spell of an art work? Art Story  is a shorter episode exploring an art work, an artist, an exhibition or even a concept through a proudly subjective narrative.  Narrated by: the host, Joana P. R. Neves Joana explores an aesthetic shock involving a tongue twister and a photography by Roni Horn in a busy art fair. Maybe you’ll jump into the flow, maybe you’l...