Fresh Art International

In Kassel, Germany, Cathy Byrd joins documenta(13) artist Marcos Lutyens for a Hypnotic Session in the Reflection Room . Based in Los Angeles, the London-born intermedia artist works with other artists and curators to develop events and exhibits that reflect his research into the mind and the unconscious. Marcos collaborated with artist, curator and writer Raimundas Malašauskas and smell researche...

In Kassel, Germany, Cathy Byrd meets Swiss artist Christian Philipp Müller to talk about Swiss Chard Ferry , his project for documenta (13). Christian lives in Berlin and Kassel, where since 2011, he's been Dean at the School of Art and Design . He has a history with the international exhibition, having participated in documenta 10 (1997) and is known for his interest in connecting art with the cu...

In the Netherlands, we travel to Den Hague to record with Australian musician and composer Kate Moore at home. We're here to learn more about the new music she invents for international performances. Kate’s ensemble RPM Electro brings their Handmade Homegrown concert to The Hague's Theater Dakota in November 2012. This is not our first encounter with Kate Moore. We met for the first tim...

On a spring 2012 road trip in the American Southwest, we drive through the desert to Marfa, home of the Chinati Foundation, a museum designed by artist Donald Judd to present art in conversation with the surrounding landscape. We stop to explore Ballroom Marfa, where then director Fairfax Dorn and project manager Melissa McDonnell sit down with us to talk about the genesis of the contemporary art...

Cathy Byrd connects by Skype with artist Jason Forrest. Aka DJ DonnaSummer, the laptop musician has been based in Berlin for the past eight of years with his artist wife Jennifer Ray. Jason talks about how he became part of an international music scene and introduces his new platform: Network Awesome. Sound Editor: Leo Madriz Special Audio featured in this order: "New Religion" from The Everything...

On Skype, we connect with London-based curator Helena Reckitt about the artists she selected to participate in Nuit Blanche Toronto 2012. Each year, the citywide Nuit Blanche event brings more than a million people out onto the streets from dusk to dawn for temporal art experiences. Projects in “Once More, With Feeling,” her sector of the legendary art event, will animate notions of re...

Connecting on Skype with American-born artist Jennifer Ray, we trace her creative path from North Carolina to Germany. Based in Berlin for eight of years with her husband and music producer Jason Forrest, Jen talks about life, recent exhibitions, and her new book. Sound Editor: Leo Madriz  Special Audio  Jen Ray,  Double Action, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, 2010   Related Episodes...

One hot summer day in Texas, we visit the studios of Leslie Hewitt, Jacco Olivier, and Mike Osborne, current artists in residence at Artpace San Antonio. The projects they created are on view in the Artpace galleries through September 2012. Sound Editor: Leo Madriz Special Audio: Soundtrack of a video project by Juan Miguel Ramos titled Yo Vendo Unos Ojos Negros, 2012 Related Episode: On the Rise&...

In San Antonio, we meet scholar, writer, and curator Sarah Lewia to talk about issues and ideas that inform her curatorial practice. Sarah's latest project involved selecting artists Leslie Hewitt, Jacco Olivier and Mike Osborne for the Artpace San Antonio's International Artists in Residence program. Active internationally, Sarah has held positions at the Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern...

Under the 7th Street bridge in East Austin, we meet Andrew Danzinger, creator of the then-anonymous red swing project. Andrew invented his spatial intervention as an undergraduate while studying architecture at the University of Texas, Austin. Since 2007, his open-source project has grown to encompass a volunteer corps whose members have installed close to 200 swings in the U.S. and abroad. Andrew...

In East Austin, Tolly Moseley in Austin shares the facets of her creative practice. A book publicist by day, Tolly spends evenings writing for her blog. She’s also a passionate aerial silks dancer who keeps a vivid blue silk hanging from a tree outside her back door. Earlier this year, Tolly started producing and hosting a series of webisodes for "Austin Eavesdropper TV" in which she intervi...

In Barcelona with Carolina Grau, an independent curator from Spain, we talk about her projects in London, Madrid, Lisbon, Sao Paulo and Paris. Carolina describes what she learned as a project manager for artists Rachel Whiteread and Juan Muñoz, her curatorial residencies, the evolution of her work with Martin Creed (Cubitt Gallery and Tate Modern, London; Sala Alcalá, Madrid),&n...

In Austin, Texas, we meet independent curator Christopher Eamon at Lora Reynolds Gallery to talk about his latest exhibition project, Manscape:  on view in the gallery through August 11, 2012. Christopher explains how he discovered the artists whose work was featured in Rearview Mirror: New Art from Central and Eastern Europe (2011) at The Power Plant, Toronto, and talks about the challenges...

On the phone with art collector Charles Guice, we talk about his passion for contemporary art and his commitment to participate in the international scene. Pivotal in the careers of leading contemporary artists, including Hank Willis Thomas and Carrie Mae Weems,  Charles represents some exceptional talent, including Max Esteban and Erika Diettes, artists featured in Buenos Aires' Festiva...

In East Austin, we meet the truly creative archictect Jack Sanders in his studio. From Cleburne, Texas, Jack studied at Auburn University and the University of Texas in Austin before he founded his company Design Build Adventure. Hear Jack talk about his muse Sam Mockbee and the Rural Studio experience that inspired Jack's commitment to slow architecture, storytelling and dreaming. Sound Editor: L...

In Lubbock, Texas, we meet with students who participated in Land Arts of the American West, an experiential course that Chris Taylor designed for Texas Tech University. A road trip of some 6,000 miles culminated in the exhibition on view in a cavernous warehouse space. Students who share stories in this episode: Alexander Bingham, Luis Bustamante III, Will Cotton, Winston Holloway, Richard Klaja,...

Cathy Byrd connects on skype with Sasha Dees , an independent curator/producer/consultant who lives and works between Amsterdam and New York. In the Netherlands, Sasha curates the residency program Open Ateliers in the area of Amsterdam known as Zuidoost. In the U.S., Sasha is the producer of a roving video performance project with Sietske Tjallingii, the protagonist in Miss T - My American Dream...

This episode features conversations with five current participants in the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program . Established in 1967 by artist and art collector Don Anderson , the program offers visual artists the unique opportunity to spend a year concentrating on their work. The voices you'll hear are those of Sarah Bostwick , Jon-Paul Villegas , Brian Kluge , Corwin Levi (aka RadioSebastian), an...

In Spain, we meet Navid Nuur, an Iranian-born artist based in the Netherlands. Navid was invited to present Hocus Focus, his first solo exhibition at Matadero Madrid, an art center developed on the former site of the city’s main livestock market and slaughterhouse. The artist who loves to experiment gives us a tour of his exhibition and talks about the painting project he presented in Switzerland...

We connect with jazz pianist/composer Jason Moran by phone about his upcoming performance project in New York. The MacArthur Fellow and artistic adviser for jazz at the Kennedy Center talks about when he first started improvising, how he collaborates with contemporary artists, and what unfolded during Bleed, the suite of events he curated with his wife Alicia Hall Moran during their 2012 residency...

In Austin, Texas, we go backstage with seminal video and performance artist Joan Jonas to talk about how context influences each presentation of The Shape, The Scent, The Feel of Things, a project commissioned by Dia Beacon in 2004. Joan considers the evolution of her transmedia process since the 1960s and the inspiration she gets from working with jazz improvisor Jason Moran. Joan's collaborator...

In Barcelona, we meet creatives at the intersection of contemporary art and food. Iranian-born Mariam Shambayati talks about her multi-media art project Moulinex-Me and the conceptual dinner parties she stages in the Food Cultura Museum. The anti-museum's founders Montse Guillén and Antoni Miralda have mixed art and food around the world for decades. They introduce their most recent collabo...

In this episode, we take you to Barcelona, to meet a couple of creative nomads from the Netherlands. Artist Iris Tonies and writer Arnout Krediet live on their boat in Port Veil, Barcelona, with their two children. They talk about how they made themselves at home, founded Estudio Nómada and began animating the local art scene. The last week in May, they'll be projecting films on the mainsail of th...

Cathy Byrd talks on the phone with Franklin Sirmans, curator of contemporary art at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Their conversation considers the essential role of public art at LACMA, covers the latest news on Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass installation and previews upcoming LACMA exhibitions to feature the Broad Collection (2012) and the work of Noah Purifoy (2014). Recently appoin...

In Marfa, Texas, we sit down in their living room with Jennifer Lane and David Hollander to learn more about a film festival they designed for this cultural outpost. Professional filmmakers, Jennifer and David lived in Los Angeles for a dozen years before they fell in love with Marfa and made West Texas their home. The two talk about why they created CineMarfa and introduce some of the films featu...