Curator on the Go Podcast

Michael Findlay is a director of Acquavella Galleries in New York. His career began in 1964, when he became a pioneer of SoHo's legendary gallery scene, presenting the first solo exhibitions of many then unknown artists who went on to become household names. He is the author of The Value of Art and Seeing Slowly (both published by Prestel). His new book, Portrait of the Art Dealer as a Young Man: New York in the Sixties, is an evocative and exciting journey through the 1960's New York as an art dealer makes a career of emphasizing the importance of lived experience of art over its pursuit of financial gain, while launching the U.S. careers of some of the most sought-after artists of the late twentieth century. Learn more about the podcast here.

Anna Holmes holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours from Queen's University, majoring in Art History and History. While undertaking her undergraduate studies, Anna volunteered and worked at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, acting as both a Curatorial Assistant and Collections Assistant, enriching her knowledge of research procedures, cataloguing, acquisitions and art handling. What began as a curiosity about the art auction industry developed into a career choice which Anna explored through internships at respected Toronto houses and with further advanced study, Anna pursued a Masters degree in Art, Style and Design, Art World Practice, with Christie's Education in London, England, earning her MLitt degree from the University of Glasgow. Anna's professional background includes fifteen years of experience in the Canadian auction world, working with various Toronto firms and receiving mentorship from recognized experts in the Canadian Art auction industry. When she is not focusing on her professional responsibilities, Anna enjoys keeping current with cultural activities, including the theatre, music, and dance. Among other arts-related organizations, she is a member of the Women's Art Association of Canada. Learn more about Cowley Abbott Auctioneers here. Learn more about the podcast here.

Alex Farkas is the founder and gallery director of UGallery. Alex enjoyed a small-town childhood in the old mining town of Jerome, Arizona - there were more ghosts than residents and the arts community thrived. It was his mother's ceramic studio and gallery that first nurtured Alex's taste in art. He spent his early years carving wood sculptures, exploring abandoned buildings, and avoiding the rattlesnakes and centipedes under every rock. At the University of Arizona, Alex loved studying art history and sculpture, and he also enrolled in the Entrepreneurship program. It was here he realized he could combine the two worlds of art and business. After graduating in 2006, Alex launched UGallery using his entire savings. After a few years, he packed up a truck and moved to San Francisco to join its vibrant art market. After almost 15 years in San Francisco, he moved to Amsterdam where he runs the business today. Alex has curated the UGallery portfolio since its inception, hosted booths at the New York Affordable Art Fair for over 8 years, and seen UGallery featured in dozens of publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, and TechCrunch. Learn about UGallery. Learn about the podcast.

Judith Tatar is a Founder & Creative Director of Tatar Art Projects (TAP) - a global art consulting firm that connects clients to its community through artwork. TAP curates art programs that amplify diverse voices in visual art and its representatives of the communities they serve. Integral to a successful art program; whether hospitality, corporate or public, is that it enriches the experience for the viewer and maximizes return for the clients' investment by unlocking the value of storytelling through visual art. Learn more about Tatar Art Projects here. Learn more about the podcast and podcast host here.

Carrie Scott is an American/English curator, art historian, TV presenter and art writer living in London. Over the past 16 years she has worked with numerous galleries, businesses, collectors and artists worldwide. While at the University of Washington, Seattle doing a Master's in Art History, Scott was noted curator of the Hedreen Gallery at Seattle University's Lee Center, and Director of the James Harris Gallery also in Seattle, Washington. While working with James Harris she curated the first solo show of Rashid Johnson's work outside of Chicago. From there she went on to be Director of Nicole Klagsbrun gallery in New York. In 2009, Scott launched her own business Carrie Scott & Partners, an art consultancy and curatorial endeavour that could exist beyond the walls of the traditional gallery. Learn more about Carrie Scott at https://www.carrie-scott.com/. Learn more about the podcast and podcast host at https://curatoronthego.com/podcast/.

Gemma Rolls-Bentley is a curator, creative consultant & writer who has been at the forefront of contemporary art for nearly two decades. Curating exhibitions and building art collections internationally, her curatorial practice amplifies the work of female and queer artists and provides a platform for art that explores LGBTQIA+ identity. Her debut book Queer Art: From Canvas to Club, and the Spaces Between is being published by Quarto in May 2024. Most recently she curated 'A Million Candles: Illuminating Queer Love & Life' at the London Art Fair. In 2023 she curated the group exhibition 'Dreaming of Home' at Leslie Lohman Museum of Art in NYC and the Tom of Finland Art & Culture Festival in London. She curated the Brighton Beacon Collection, the largest permanent display of queer art in the UK. Gemma is a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art and has taught at numerous institutions including Goldsmiths and Glasgow School of Art. She co-chairs the board of trustees for the charity Queercircle and sits on the Courtauld Association Committee. Learn more about Gemma Rolls-Bentley here. Learn more about the podcast and podcast host here.

Canadian artist Bibiana Hooper lives in the beautiful Okanagan, British Columbia. She moved with her family from the city a decade ago to live in the country with expansive views of vineyards, orchards, lakes, mountains and sky. As a self-taught artist, she began exploring her skills in 2018 when she joined a collective art gallery. Bibiana's art practice is all about capturing the beauty of flowers and landscapes through a contemporary and poetic brush stroke. Her passion for nature shines through her with the flow and organic elements in everything she creates. Bibiana paints in her home studio and she's also an integral part of the Naramata Art Group. You can find her artwork hanging in galleries and private homes all around the world. Learn more about the artist here. Learn more abou thte podcast here.

Claire Crawford (née Gaulin-Brown) is an artist and illustrator living and working in San Francisco, California. Claire uses surrealism and abstract tools to inquire about nature culture dualism as a place to imagine a post anthropocentric world. Learn more abou the artist here. Learn more about the podcast here.

Jodi Miller is a contemporary Canadian impressionist painter whose landscapes explore our sense of belonging and how we interact with our natural environment. She is a veteran of the Royal Canadian Air Force, following a 20 year career as an aerospace engineer working in aircraft maintenance and project management. Jodi pivoted to become a full-time artist in 2015, returning to the prairies where she grew up on a family farm. She now finds inspiration in the vast land and skies. Jodi paints in response to her time in nature and her work represents optimism where the artist sees metaphorical life journeys in the many paths carved out in nature. Jodi's work has been recognized for "capturing Canadian identity through landscape" and she has been named one of "28 Contemporary Canadian Artists You Need to Know" by Create Magazine. Her work has been requested at shows across Canada and is held in private collections world-wide. Learn more about Jodi Miller here. Learn more about the podcast here.

Andrew Wang is a Toronto based mixed media artist. He has a non-traditional background, coming from two decades in engineering and business. He left this career 6 years ago to pursue art and has developed into a professional artist showing in galleries, art fairs and public art installations. Andrew uses meticulously folded origami objects to create large scale assemblages. He tells stories of individual journeys and migrations of previous generations. With his unique background, he draws on science and mathematics for his compositions and metaphors. Fluid dynamics, planetary motion and weather patterns are often seen in his work. Learn more about the artist. Learn more about the podcast. I also want to share a new exciting art podcast called In/Tension. In/Tension, produced by Toronto-based The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, is a limited podcast series of intimate, thought-provoking and accessible conversations with emerging, mid-career, and established contemporary visual artists across Canada. Detailing the ideas, inspirations and experiences that fuel their art, In/Tension aims to shed light on the breadth of the Canadian contemporary art scene and provide a platform for diverse artistic voices to dive deep into their creative intentions. Learn more here.

Carol Loeb is a Canadian acrylic and mixed media artist who has always been fascinated with nature and our relationship to it. Carol's main subject is the landscape, both rural and urban. She works mainly in acrylics, usually blocking in dark and mid-tone areas first then adding thin layers of saturated color to create luminosity and depth. The result is a realism that goes beyond a photographic representation or record of place. In the lead-up to Canada's 150th anniversary, she conceived and executed the Trans-Canada 150 art project, a cross-continental documentation of the Canadian landscape along the Trans-Canada Highway from coast to coast, culminating in a series of 52 studio paintings and a book. More recently, as travel had been restricted by the global pandemic, she has concentrated on industrial and urban landscapes. Learn more about the artist here. Learn more about the podcast here.

Chicago-based visual artist Britni Mara is innately drawn to paint as a medium and has a sensory attachment to the physical push and pull of pigment. Intuition and years of experience guides her work as she seeks a meditative state to curate chaos towards intentional happenstance. She strives to bring a sense of structure to coincidence. Mara finds freedom in gestural energy and peace in the color field interplay which is rooted in post-war abstract expressionist movements. Her original artworks have been sold and shown all over the world. Britni is also deeply passionate about creating platforms for emerging artists to thrive. In 2020, Mara founded the hallway gallery, which is an alternative pop-up style gallery dedicated to showing female and non-binary artists in the Chicago area. The goal is to turn the empty walls of hallways into opportunities and provide support to first-time and upcoming artists.

Toni Hamel describes her work as "an illustrated commentary on human frailties". Rooted in story-telling, her art practice draws from personal experiences and outward observations to create thematic bodies of work that reflect on and interpret the psychological unease of this anthropocentric age. Virtues and vices, the holy and the profane, the good and the bad all share equal weight in her work and supply an infinite source of material for her investigations. Pointing to historical references, popular culture and our current conceptual standing, Hamel's satirical narratives ultimately seem to question our behaviour while alerting us about the repercussions of our current thinking models. Learn more about the artist here. Learn more about the podcast here.