Artists Among Us

In celebration of the exhibition Edges of Ailey, Matthew Rushing, the interim Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, takes us back to his first time seeing the company perform at the Wiltern Theater at twelve-years-old. Matthew discusses the memories of his mother taking him to see the performance, the experience of sitting in the front row, and the profound impact this moment had on the course of his life.

In celebration of the exhibition Edges of Ailey, artist Mickalene Thomas recalls her first encounter with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and the influence it has had on her life and work. Thomas created the work Revelation, a portrait of Katherine Dunham, specifically for the exhibition. In this minisode, Thomas shares an experience of seeing Revelations performed by the AILEY company for the first time in New York in 1995. Thomas also describes moments of overlap between the language of dance and her art practice, and what any artist can take away from Alvin Ailey’s work.

In this episode, photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe talks about documenting the Gullah Geechee people of Daufuskie Island. Over a five-year period, the photographs reveal a change over Daufuskie as developers and Hurricane David make their way to these last Gullah Islands.More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/jeanne-moutoussamy-ashe-last-gullah-islands

In this minisode, exhibition curator Adrienne Edwards describes the new Edges of Ailey “extravaganza” dedicated to the life, dances, and enduring legacy of the legendary artist and choreographer, Alvin Ailey. Through an immersive eighteen-screen video installation, illuminating archival materials, an ambitious performance program, and wide-ranging artworks by eighty-two visual artists, Edges of Ailey explores a titan of modern dance whose impact reverberates across media and time, and whose beloved company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, remains a global cultural force to this day. Edwards takes us through her impetus and vision for the show and some of the discoveries she made along the way.More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/edges-of-ailey The Ailey Performances: https://whitney.org/AileyPerformances

Associate Curator Jennie Goldstein discusses how Day Clean, a painting by Eldzier Cortor (1916–2015), recently found its way into the Whitney's collection. She describes Cortor's interest in depicting Black American life in the South and how he drew influences from his travels to the Caribbean, African Art, European Surrealism, and American Realism.More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/collection-1900-to-1965  See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/collection/works/67747

In this minisode, teens from the Whitney's Youth Insights Leaders program interview 2024 Biennial artist Holly Herndon. The conversation explores how the artist's identity and creative process are influenced by artificial intelligence (AI). They talk about the ethical use of AI, if AI can elicit an emotional response to art, and the evolution of the art world to include machine learning models as an art form. Visit the Whitney's portal to Internet and new media art, artport, to enter Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst: xhairymutantx, a project that focuses on training data behind AI models, opening new possibilities for its use.Explore xhairymutantx: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/xhairymutantx More about the Biennial: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennialKnow a teen who might be interested in the Whitney’s programs? Learn more and apply now: https://whitney.org/education/teens/youth-insights

In this minisode, teens from the Whitney's Youth Insights Leaders program interview 2024 Biennial artist Kiyan Williams. Williams has two artworks in the 2024 Whitney Biennial: a large sculpture of a neoclassical building made of brown soil that appears to be sinking into the ground, and a shiny chrome sculpture depicting the gay rights activist Marsha P. Johnson. The teens talk to Williams about what the sculptures mean especially when seen together and at this particular moment in time. More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennialKnow a teen who might be interested in the Whitney’s programs? Learn more and apply now: https://whitney.org/education/teens/youth-insights See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial?section=66

Today we hear from five artists who together form the collective People Who Stutter Create. For their contribution to the 2024 Biennial, the group mobilized the Whitney’s exhibition billboard at 95 Horatio Street, across the street from the Museum and the south end of the High Line. The artists, all of whom stutter, created a public artwork that celebrates the transformational space of dysfluency, a term that can encompass stuttering and other communication differences. In this minisode, we hear from all five artists about their artwork titled Stuttering Can Create Time.More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennialSee the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/people-who-stutter-create

Today we hear from Maja Ruznic about one of her two paintings in the Biennial. She talks about finding beauty in sadness, her path to becoming the artist she is today, and the restorative power of awe. More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennialSee the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial?section=53#exhibition-feature

In this minisode, we hear from Cannupa Hanska Luger about his Biennial artwork that takes the form of a tipi inverted and hung from the ceiling of the gallery. But Luger lets us know that, "The tipi is not upside down. The tipi is actually in the right positioning, in right relationship, in a right way in the world if the world isn't as upside down as it is presently." More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennialSee the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial?section=37#exhibition-feature

In this minisode, we hear from 2024 Whitney Biennial artist Dala Nasser. Her work is titled Adonis River and she made it along the banks of that river, now called the Abraham River on Mount Lebanon north of Beirut. The work tells the ever-evolving story of that place and its namesake.More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennialSee the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial?section=40#exhibition-feature 

This spring and summer we’ll be sitting down with 2024 Whitney Biennial artists to talk about their work and what it means to be making art in the present unfolding moment. In this minisode, we hear from Eamon Ore-Giron about his series Talking Shit in which he reimagines deities from ancient Peruvian and Mexican cultures in a contemporary context to explore the idea of a living ancestral past. More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial?section=45#exhibition-feature

Two works by artist Kambui Olujimi are currently on view in the exhibition Inheritance, open through February. Olujimi made Hart Island Crew and Your King Is on Fire in 2020 during lockdown and both paintings describe tumultuous moments familiar to us all. We sat down with Olujimi to hear more about these emotive works.More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/inheritanceSee the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/collection/works/64950 and https://whitney.org/collection/works/65005 

"There's an urgency in her work. There's a rhythm that exists in her drawings and sculptures that I'm really attracted to as well." On the occasion of Ruth Asawa Through Line we chatted with Virginia Overton about what she finds so inspiring about Asawa's work. She speaks about two pieces: a print made from the body of a fish, and an ink drawing showing the cross-section of a redwood tree. More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/ruth-asawa-through-line See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/asawa-fish and https://whitney.org/asawa-redwood

Sadie Barnette joins us in the galleries to discuss her multimedia artwork Family Tree II, currently on view in Inheritance through February 2024. The piece is a holographic vinyl upholstered couch in front of a constellation of framed images. “It's really a self-portrait as a relational way of being,” she says, “who I am based on who I am from and who I am in relation to.”More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/inheritance 

On the occasion of her Whitney exhibition and as part of the Whitney's public programming, artist Ilana Savdie invited writer Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties and In the Dream House, to discuss their respective practices. In this excerpt from that program Savdie and Machdo discuss their overlapping interests, from power dynamics mediated through the body to trickery as a form of resistance. The conversation is moderated by Whitney Curator Marcela Guerrero and the exhibition Ilana Savdie: Radical Contractions is on view through November 5, 2023.  More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/ilanasavdie

On the occasion of Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith we spoke to Greil Marcus, acclaimed music author, journalist, and critic, about the reverberations felt around the world after the 1952 release of Harry Smith's highly influential multivolume Anthology of American Folk Music. "It was a sensibility—this set that Harry Smith created—that was passed on to people. Where it said to them, 'There's more in this music. There's more in this country than you ever imagined, so seek and ye shall find.'"More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/harry-smith 

"The maps that I've been doing, I see them as landscapes and they all tell stories." Hear from artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (b. 1940, citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) on the occasion of her Whitney retrospective, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map on view through August 13, 2023.More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/jaune-quick-to-see-smith  

El barrio que hoy ocupa el Whitney fue en su día un lugar de encuentro y creación de comunidad queer. Este miniepisodio rinde homenaje a los lugares donde las personas que buscaban la libertad sexual se reunían para relacionarse, relajarse, salir de fiesta y organizarse. Miniepisodio invitado: Camilo Godoy, Educador del Whitney.Para más información sobre la historia queer del Meatpacking District, consulte la audioguía completa: https://whitney.org/audio-guides/94 

The neighborhood that the Whitney now occupies once provided a place to find and create queer community. This minisode pays tribute to the sites where people seeking sexual freedom once gathered to connect, relax, party, and organize. Minisode guest: Camilo Godoy, Whitney Educator.For more about the queer history of the Meatpacking District, check out the full audio tour: https://whitney.org/audio-guides/94 

“They are watching, they show us, they embody, they personify the inanimate that our modern culture often forgets is constantly witnessing us.” In this minisode Rose B. Simpson discusses Counterculture, five watchful figures on view on the Whitney's Floor 5 terrace. Minisode guest: Rose B. Simpson.View these artworks and access the transcript of this conversation on the Whitney's audio guide: https://whitney.org/audio-guides/90 

"The earliest computer interfaces always had blackness as a sort of basis of what could be done on a computer." In this minisode American Artist considers the inception of the computer interface and asks how that origin story has shaped computation today. For whom were computers created? What purpose do they serve? Minisode guest: American Artist. View Mother of All Demos III and access the transcript of the conversation: https://whitney.org/collection/works/65698 

Is Day’s End (2014–21) an anti-monument for our time? In this episode, we return to the sculpture itself: how it makes meaning, how it fits into the surrounding environment, and what public art tells us about freedom and power. Hosted by Carrie Mae Weems. Episode guests (in order of appearance): Glenn Ligon, Kellie Jones, Tom Finkelpearl, Mabel O. Wilson, Adam Weinberg, Ken Lum, An-My Lê, Guy Nordenson, Catherine Seavitt, Elegance Bratton, Stefanie Rivera, Curtis Zunigha. 

Anchored in the Gansevoort Peninsula and reaching out into the Hudson River, Day’s End (2014–21) was designed to be permanent. But for hundreds of years, the site has been in constant flux. In this episode, architects, environmentalists, Lenape elders, and artists inform some of the ways in which the many people connected to this place endeavor to keep it alive. Hosted by Carrie Mae Weems. Episode guests (in order of appearance): Luc Sante, Catherine Seavitt, Adam Weinberg, Jessamyn Fiore, Laura Harris, Kellie Jones, Glenn Ligon, Bernice Rosenzweig, Eric Sanderson, Paul Gallay, Pete Malinowski, Curtis Zunigha, George Stonefish, Alan Michelson, Guy Nordenson, Bill T. Jones. 

A vibrant Queer community inhabited Manhattan’s Meatpacking District when Gordon Matta-Clark created a sculpture by carving into Pier 52 on the Hudson River. This episode recalls a golden age when sex, art, and creativity converged on the waterfront in the years prior to the AIDS crisis in New York City. Hosted by Carrie Mae Weems. Episode guests (in order of appearance): Andrew Berman, Betsy Sussler, Efrain Gonzalez, Paul Gallay, Jonathan Weinberg, Laura Harris, Egyptt LaBeija, Tom Finklepearl, Glenn Ligon, Randal Wilcox, archival recording of Alvin Baltrop, Luc Sante, Elegance Bratton, Stefanie Rivera, Catherine Seavitt. 

How did the artist Gordon Matta-Clark transform a dilapidated shipping pier into a “cathedral of light”? In this episode, we trace the decline of Manhattan’s formerly flourishing meat markets and waterfront industries. Amid the decay, Matta-Clark spotted the potential for beauty. Hosted by Carrie Mae Weems. Episode guests (in order of appearance): Betsy Sussler, Jonathan Weinberg, Jane Crawford, Andrew Berman, Tom Finkelpearl, Adam Weinberg, Laura Harris, Florent Morellet, Catherine Seavitt, Glenn Ligon, Jessamyn Fiore, John Jobaggy, Alan Michelson, George Stonefish, Curtis Zunigha, Eric Sanderson, Luc Sante. 

Our inaugural episode introduces David Hammons’s Day’s End (2014–21). As we discuss the project’s origins and site-specific nature, the layered social and cultural histories of the site begin to unfold. Hosted by Carrie Mae Weems. Episode guests (in order of appearance): Bill T. Jones, Glenn Ligon, Adam Weinberg, Tom Finkelpearl, Kellie Jones, Luc Sante, Guy Nordenson, Catherine Seavitt, Betsy Sussler. 

The Whitney Museum of American Art presents Artists Among Us, a podcast about American art and culture. In keeping with the Whitney’s mission, collection, and programming, Artists Among Us considers the complexities and contradictions that have shaped the United States we experience today. Hosted by Carrie Mae Weems. Episode guests (in order of appearance): Kellie Jones, Glenn Ligon, Curtis Zunigha, John Jobaggy, Efrain Gonzalez, Catherine Seavitt.