Primary Market Podcast

n this episode of the Primary Market Podcast , Topper Luciani sits down with rising painter Joe Yonke for an honest conversation about becoming a professional artist in today’s contemporary art world. Joe shares how he went from studying business at Penn State to selling paintings full-time, relocating from Miami to New York City, and preparing to work alongside established painter Eric Foss. Alon...

In this episode, Topper sits down with Nicole Reber — real estate agent, reformed poet, and passionate art collector based in Los Angeles. Nicole shares her journey from growing up in Ventura County and studying at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, to backpacking Europe and stumbling into the New York art scene. She talks about how artist trades sparked her collection, what it means to catch an artist...

In Episode 12 of the Primary Market Podcast, Topper sits down with artist Mike Shultis for an unfiltered conversation on what it really takes to make it in the art world. From tagging trains in Albuquerque to studying at Yale, Mike breaks down his unconventional journey—living in his studio, stealing sandwiches to survive, and pushing his work to the edge both physically and conceptually. They div...

In Episode 11 of the Primary Market Podcast , Topper Luciani sits down with Los Angeles–based painter Jeremy Shockley to explore the realities of building a life in art. Jeremy grew up in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, drawing on walls and floors before attending a specialized arts program and later studying at Winthrop University. After college, he moved to New York City, where he worked with le...

In Episode 10 of Primary Market Podcast , Topper Luciani sits down with painter Jared Buschang for his first-ever podcast appearance. After studying photography in New York and assisting artists in Spain, Jared pivoted fully into painting — eventually relocating to Cartagena, Colombia, where he’s spent the last decade building an art career completely outside the traditional gallery structure. In...

In this wide-ranging conversation, Topper sits down with Matty Mo—aka The Most Famous Artist —to unpack what it really means to be an artist in the 21st century. From childhood reinvention and Stanford-era status games to advertising psychology, market manipulation, and the delusions of the fine art world, Matty offers an unfiltered look at how art, money, power, and identity collide. The episode...

In this episode of Primary Market Podcast , artist Erik Sommer traces his path from playing drums in Duluth, Minnesota to becoming a New York–based painter, sculptor, and curator whose work explores impermanence, decay, and control over time. Sommer discusses his unconventional art education—shaped more by museums, studios, and the city itself than formal training—along with his early experiments...

Episode 7 spotlights Taylor Morrison (@weopen) , an emerging force in contemporary art discourse whose unfiltered critiques routinely draw more traction and eyeballs than many of the art market’s most canonized critics. From a basement painting studio in upstate New York to the global stage of Instagram, Morrison represents a new era in which the internet is leveling the playing field—allowing a s...

In this episode, Topper sits down with painter Kiki Valdés , whose journey through the art world has been anything but linear. Born to Cuban parents and raised between Miami and New Jersey, Kiki discovered drawing as a refuge—an early lifeline in classrooms where he struggled to read but excelled at making images that spoke louder than words. Kiki shares how comic books, cartoons, and the chaos of...

In this episode of Primary Market , Topper Luciani sits down with Aidan Thomas and Devora Kaye , founders of the Macedonia Institute , one of the most unique and influential artist residencies in the U.S. They share how a chance upstate house purchase turned into a decade-long project hosting over 150 artists , building a print studio, fostering community, and creating a pressure-free environment...

In Episode 4 of Primary Market , host Topper Luciani sits down with Freddy Husbands , a Minneapolis-based artist whose mesmerizing works of intricate line drawings explore labor, flow, and the sacred in repetition. From his early years at an art-focused middle school to his experiments with massive hand-drawn works using Micron pens, Freddy reflects on: * The spiritual and mathematical resonance o...

In this episode of Primary Market , host Topper Luciani sits down with Los Angeles artist Brendan Donnelly — a cult-favorite creator known for blending subculture, nostalgia, and dark humor into fine art. The two explore Brendan’s journey from skateboarding and punk shows in 1990s Connecticut to his Hollywood-inspired exhibitions. They discuss: * How album art, Nirvana, and ’90s skate culture shap...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit primarymarket.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit primarymarket.substack.com