Fresh Art International

Maria Alyokhina , a member of the Russian punk performance group  Pussy Riot , talks about the political actions she's been involved in since she and band member  Nadia Tolakonikova  were released from prison in late December 2013. Only days after they were freed, the two artists announced their founding of  Justice Zone , an organization that provides legal support to political prisoners in Russi...

Fresh Art International presents a live podcast event with American artist  Amy Sherald  at  moniquemeloche  gallery in Chicago. Recorded on July 9, 2016, at a moment in American history marked with killings that accentuate deep racial issues in this country, our conversation verges on joy and sadness. The timeless sense of black identity described in Amy Sherald’s figurative paintings reminds us...

Cuban artist Glexis Novoa is one of fifty artists that curator Juan Delgado invited to participate in the public art exhibition Detras del muro, in English, “Behind the wall,” during the 12th Havana Biennial. The poetic project he created with homeless residents occupies the ruins of an abandoned building on the Malecón, a five-mile roadway and promenade that run along Havana's seawall. Titled El...

Finnish artist  Ola Kolehmainen  talks about his large-scale photographs of imperial Turkish architecture from the 16th century. Turkish collector  Ahmet Kocabiyik –chairman of Borusan Holding company and owner of a significant contemporary art collection—made the project possible by commissioning the artist to photograph buildings designed by the great Ottoman architect  Mimar Sinan . Prior to th...

Artist  Franky Cruz  talks about how Miami, and the art space known as  Spinello Projects , became the laboratory for his creation of  Sistema , an uncommon butterfly experience. Sound Editor: Guney Ozsan | Sound Effects: Franky Cruz and Cathy Byrd

American artist  Sanford Biggers  has a lot to say about time and the human condition. We meet in New York where Chicago gallerist  Monique Meloche  is presenting an exhibition of his current projects during the  Armory Show . I’m here to find out more about the ideas behind the work. What's motivating him to radically alter old quilts and African sculptures?

Yvette Mutumba , a curator based in Frankfurt, and  Julia Grosse , an art critic and journalist based in Berlin, talk about how  Contemporary And , the international online art platform they launched three years ago, led to the invitation to curate the  African Perspectives  section at the  2016 Armory Show  in New York. Sound Editor: Guney Ozsan

Cathy Byrd talks about change as a creative opportunity when she makes an appearance at  Creative Mornings/Miami . She recorded this  Fresh Talk  episode with rapt listeners in a secret garden at  Vizcaya Museum and Gardens . Sound Editor: Guney Ozsan | Sound effects: Creative Mornings/Miami

South African artist Athi Patra Ruga talks about the fantastical multi-media performance project that the  Bass Museum of Art  invited him to present on Miami Beach.  Performed with local dancers,  The Future White Women of Azania  addresses human rights issues through a jubilant unveiling ceremony that invites us all to celebrate our true identities. Sound Editor: Guney Ozsan

Rachel Armstrong , scientific curator of the  IDEA Laboratory  in the Azerbaijan Pavilion where the exhibition  Vita Vitale  took place during the  56th Venice Biennale , talks about a set of surprising experiments designed to resolve the island city's environmental challenges. Listen to this conversation to learn about artists, scientists, and architects creating models for living architecture. A...

American dancer and choreographer  Hattie Mae Williams  talks about how the abandoned  Miami Marine Stadium  at the edge of Biscayne Bay has become a mecca for graffiti artists, musicians, dancers, and photographers. Designed by Cuban-born architect  Hilario Candela  and built in 1963 as a venue for powerboat racing, the iconic stadium was an active community gathering place before Hurricane Andre...

Akosua Adoma Owusu , an American filmmaker of Ghanaian descent, talks about her film Kwaku Ananse, a standout project in the 2014 biennial exhibition known as  Prospect New Orleans .  Sound Editor: Kris McConnachie Sound Effects: Courtesy, Akosua Adoma Owusu

Curator Cathy Byrd and architecture historian Sarah Rovang talk about the origins of  Fresh Art International —what sparked the launch of our website, our  Fresh Talk  podcast and our digital guide to contemporary art,  Fresh Art International NOW . Rovang, a PhD Candidate in Brown University’s History of Art and Architecture Department, is a contributing editor for Fresh Art International NOW. So...

Artist  Laurie Anderson  talks about her new film  Heart of a Dog  in this episode recorded at The Wolfsonian museum on Miami Beach. The film brings together everything we love about Anderson’s experimental music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography: in her own voice, with her own artwork, animation and 8mm home video, and a score made of her own compositions, she tells an exquisite, heartbr...

Turkish art collector and hotelier  Ali Güreli  talks about the evolution of  Contemporary Istanbul , the international fair also known as CI. The regional show that Güreli founded  in 2005 has grown to feature 102 galleries from 24 countries. This November, the tenth fair brought 86,000 visitors to Istanbul. Sound Editor: Kris McConnachie | Sound Effects: Contemporary Istanbul

British artist  Oliver Beer  talks about how he explores the acoustical character of  Kiliç Ali Paşa Hamam , a stunning Turkish bath designed more than 400 years ago by the legendary architect Sinan. Inside the hot, steamy, inner chamber of this historic space, a small group of young Turkish opera singers rehearse Beer's composition " Call to Sound ." Their public performance will take place for...

Cuban artist  Felipe Dulzaides  talks about  FD Plays FD , the multi-media installation he created in memory of his father for the  12th Havana Biennial . For more than four decades—before and after Fidel Castro established his revolutionary government in 1959, the highly regarded jazz musician was active on the Cuban music scene. Our conversation takes place in a penthouse apartment of Edificio F...

Artist Joanna Malinowska talks about Halka/Haiti, the panoramic film project she and her partner CT Jasper produced for the Polish Pavilion at the 56th Venice Art Bienniale. Inspired by a little known chapter in Polish history and Werner Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo, they brought the Polish national opera company to the mountain village of Cazale, in Haiti. With Polish performers, and local musician...

In France, renowned sculptor  Anish Kapoor  presents his singular work in two landmark settings—the Dominican convent of  Sainte Marie de la Tourette  and the royal palace of  Versailles . He talks about his experiences during the press preview for  Lyon's 13th Contemporary Art Biennial . Sound Editor: Kris McConnachie

The Studios of Key West  is the latest feature in our series about international  residency program s for artists, writers, and musicians. Director  Jed Dodds , and residents  Josie Sigler ,  Lori Swartz , and  Cara Bonewitz  talk about what it's like to create new work on the legendary island that sits at the southern tip of U.S. Route 1.

French curator  Jérôme Sans  and Chinese artist  Liu Xiaodong  talk about Xiaodong's exhibition  Painting as Shooting  at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Italy. On view for three months during the 56th Venice Art Biennale, the show reveals how Xiaodong approaches his work with the eyes and the storyboard practice of a filmmaker. His daily diary entries, the photos he takes, and the people h...

Peruvian artist  Cesar Cornejo  talks about how his project for the  12th Havana Biennial  expands on a concept he first realized in  Puno , Peru. In Cuba, the project site is a local family's home on the hillside of Casablanca, a neighborhood near the entrance to Havana Harbor. His unique  sculptural intervention  evokes both the family's history and the architectural design of the Guggenheim mus...

Italian artist  Marinella Senatore  is known internationally for producing vivid community performances. In this episode, we talk about how she connected with locals to create the three very different performance projects for the  13th Lyon Biennial  exhibition, La Vie Moderne (Modern Life). Sound Editor: Kris McConnachie

Los Angeles-based artist  Micol Hebron  is inspired by the work of  Carolee Schneemann , a feminist artist that madeart history in 1975 by performing naked to protest gender inequality in the art field. Today, Hebron invites other women artists to spotlight this ongoing concern. Sound Editor: Kris McConnachie

Environmental artist Mary Mattingly talks about  Pull , the project she created with local partners in Havana. Her artist residency is part of  Wild Noise , thefirst in a series of exhibition exchanges between the Bronx Museum of the Arts and the National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana.