The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Episode No. 763 is a summer clips episode featuring artist Jes Fan. The Yale University Art Gallery is presenting "Jes Fan: Unbounded" through June 28. The exhibition spotlights how Fan makes sculptures that combine elegant abstract forms with an experimental and innovative approach to materials. Fan's sculptures often explore the porousness of identity, and incorporate living matter, such hormones, and fluids, such as glass. Fan's work has been exhibited in the 2024 Whitney Biennial, the 2022 Venice Biennale, the 2021 New Museum Triennial at the New Museum, New York, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, and more. As mentioned on the program: Stills from Fan's 2023 video Palimpsest. Byung-Chul Han's book Saving Beauty. For more images, see Episode No. 658.

Episode No. 761 features artists Denzil Forrester and William Wylie. Forrester is featured in "Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago through September 20. The exhibition explores and expands the visual, political, and spiritual histories of dancehall and reggaetón through contemporary art produced in the Caribbean, New York, London, and beyond. It was curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates with Cecilia González Godino, Iris Colburn, Nolan Jimbo, and nibia pastrana santiago. A catalogue will be published by the museum and DelMonico Books in July. It is available from Bookshop and Amazon for $60-65. The Grenada-born Forrester is best known for paintings that mine London's dub reggae culture and music clubs of the 1980s for subject and verve. The drawings he made in urban dance halls then continue to inform his work. His paintings are full of references to diaspora, the policing of Black people and culture in the UK, and dub reggae music itself. White Columns, New York, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City have presented solo exhibitions of his work in the US; in the UK, Nottingham Contemporary, the Jackson Foundation Gallery, Cornwall have too. His work is in the collection of museums such as the Tate, London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Wylie's new photobook is titled "The Eighty-Eight: Photographs from a Japanese Pilgrimage." It features pictures from Wylie's experience fo the Shikoku Pilgrimage, a trail that vists 88 temples associated with the Buddhist monk Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi) on the island of Shikoku. The book was published by George F. Thompson Publishing in association with the Center for the Study of Place, and features an essay by Pico Iyer. Amazon offers it for about $42. This is Wylie's seventh book. His pictures are in the collection of museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Yale University Art Gallery. Air date: June 4, 2026.

Episode No. 759 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curator Sarah Humphreville. With Eric Crosby, Humphreville is the co-curator of "Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World is a Mystery." The exhibition surveys Abercrombie's synthesis of surrealism, landscape, portraiture and still-life, and is the most comprehensive presentation of the artist's work to date. It is at the Milwaukee Art Museum through July 19. An excellent catalogue was co-published by the Carnegie, Colby, and DelMonico Books. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $50-55. Instagram: Sarah Humphreville, Tyler Green. Air date: May 21, 2026.

Episode No. 757 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features art historian and curator Yve-Alain Bois. Bois is the curator of "Matisse in Vence: The Stations of the Cross," at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The exhibition presents about 80 of the drawings Matisse made for the painted ceramic mural of the Stations of the Cross at the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence. The exhibition reveals how Matisse worked through each of the Stations to arrive at a syncretic, dramatic presentation. Bois was assisted by Alix Agret and Katy Rothkopf. The exhibition, which is on view through June 28, is accompanied by a fascinating, essential catalogue published by Musée Matisse Nice and Bernard Chauveau Publishing. It is available from the BMA for $35. Instagram: Yve-Alain Bois, Tyler Green. Air date: May 7, 2026.

Episode No. 755 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Jess T. Dugan and author D.B. Dowd. Radius Books is publishing "Jess T. Dugan & Charlotte Cotton: Love Pictures," a collaboration featuring Dugan's photographs and conversations with Cotton and members of Cotton's and Dugan's communities, such as Dawoud Bey, Kate Palmer Albers, and Michelle Millar Fisher. Radius, Amazon, and Bookshop offer the two-volume publication for about $75. Dugan is a St. Louis-based artist whose work explores subjects such as personhood, relationship, desire, and love. Their work is in the collection of over 70 museums. The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the University of New Mexico Art Museum are among the institutions that have presented solo exhibitions of Dugan's work. This is Dugan's sixth book. Dowd is the author of "Reading Pictures: A History of Illustration," which was just published by Princeton University Press. "Reading Pictures" details how, for many centuries, illustration has often worked between written, published text and art history to advance ideas and ideologies. Princeton, Amazon, and Bookshop offer it for $52-60. Instagram: Jess T. Dugan, D.B. Dowd, Tyler Green. Air date: April 23, 2026.

Episode No. 753 features artist Delilah Montoya and author Mario T. García. Montoya's work is featured in three major exhibitions around the US this season. The Albuquerque Museum is featuring "Delilah Montoya: Activating Chicana Resistance," the first retrospective of Montoya's forty-year career. The exhibition, which was curated by Josie Lopez, is on view through May 3. A valuable catalogue was published by University of New Mexico Press and the Albuquerque Museum. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $32. Two significant historical group shows also foreground Montoya's work. At the Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Montoya is featured in "Hyphen American: Intersections of Identity." The exhibition, which pointedly rejects increasing right-wing claims that the US is, or should be an ethnostate, presents the many ways identity is presented and interrogated in our art. The excellent exhibition catalogue, which was published in the four languages most commonly spoken in Lincoln (English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Arabic), was published by the museum. "Hyphen American" was curated by Christian Wurst and is on view through July 5. Artists in the exhibition who have been guests on The Modern Art Notes Podcast include Radcliffe Bailey, Binh Danh, Catherine Opie, Alec Soth, and Renée Stout. The Riverside (Calif.) Art Museum and The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture are showing Montoya in "Chicano Camera Culture: A Photographic History, 1966–2026." The exhibition shows how 45 artists have used their camera as a tool of representation, empowerment, and change over the past 60 years. It is the first major survey of Chicano/a/x lens-based image making. "Chicano Camera Culture" was curated by Elizabeth Ferrer. It's on view at the Riverside Art Museum through July 5, and at The Cheech through September 6. The excellent catalogue was published by The Cheech and is distributed by University of Washington Press. It is available from Amazon for $44. Artists in the exhibition who have been guests on The Modern Art Notes Podcast include Christina Fernandez and Ken Gonzales-Day. Montoya is one of the major figures in the development of Chicana art in the United States. Her community-oriented work addresses colonialism, identity, land, feminine power, and justice. It is held by museums such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the New Mexico Museum of Art. García is the author of "Rupert García: The Making of an American Artist, a Testimonio," which was just published by Rutgers University Press. It is the first biography of the Chicano artist Rupert García. The book, which is informed by 50 hours of interviews conducted over 30 years, is illustrated by 80 artworks. It is immediately the major volume on García's career. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $31-33. Instagram: Delilah Montoya, Tyler Green. Air date: April 9, 2026.

Episode No. 751 features artist Kahlil Robert Irving and curator Rebecca Head Trautmann. Irving is included in "Monuments," at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The exhibition juxtaposes decommissioned Lost Cause monuments with artworks that address the histories the Lost Cause aimed to whitewash. "Monuments" features two Irvings: New Nation (States) Battle of Manassas - 2014, 2024-25; and Viewfinder, 2024 which address the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri and its aftermath. The exhibition, which is on view through May 3, was curated by Hamza Walker, Kara Walker, and Bennett Simpson with Hannah Burstein and Paula Kroll. The museum says that a catalogue is forthcoming. Irving has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and at the Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis; he's been featured in group exhibitions at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and more. He was also a guest on Episode No. 591 in 2023. Trautmann is the curator of "Water's Edge: The Art of Truman Lowe" at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. "Water's Edge" is the first career-length survey of Hoocąk (Ho-Chunk) artist. It is on view through January 1, 2027. Smithsonian Books published a catalogue of the exhibition; Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $33-37. Instagram: Kahlil Robert Irving, Tyler Green. Air date: March 26, 2026.

Episode No. 749 features curator Mari Carmen Ramírez and Isabelle Frances McGuire. Ramírez is the curator of "Frida: The Making of an Icon" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The exhibition reveals how Frida Kahlo went from virtually unknown to mainstream audiences at the time of her death in 1954 to becoming famed as both an artist and as a kind of celebrity icon. Among the factors it identifies are North American geopolitics, the role of culture in the promotion of nationhood, tourism, and international trade, and more. "Frida" features more than 30 works by Kahlo and 120 more by five generations of artists she inspired. It is on view at the MFAH through May 17. A fascinating catalogue was published by the MFAH in association with Yale University Press. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $60. McGuire is included in the 2026 biennial exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The show was curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer with Beatriz Cifuentes and Carina Martinez. It's on view through August 23. This segment was taped when McGuire was included in the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's "Descending the Staircase" exhibition in 2024. McGuire is a Chicago-based artist whose work considers the body and how our understanding of it can be filtered by video games, film, animatronics, and other technologies. The 2024 MCA Chicago exhibition marked her first inclusion in a museum exhibition; since then McGuire has shown at Artist's Space, New York, and at the Renaissance Society, Chicago. For images see Episode No. 648. Instagram: Isabelle Frances McGuire, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 747 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Bethany Collins and curator Edouard Kopp. Collins is included in "Monuments," at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The exhibition juxtaposes decommissioned Lost Cause monuments with commissioned artworks that address the histories the Lost Cause aimed to whitewash. Collins' contribution to the project is Love is dangerous (2024-25), a sculptural installation that remakes the base of the Stonewall Jackson monument that was installed in Charlottesville, Virginia. The exhibition, which is on view through May 3, was curated by Hamza Walker, Kara Walker, and Bennett Simpson with Hannah Burstein and Paula Kroll. The museum says that a catalogue is forthcoming. On March 5 the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver opens "Bethany Collins: The Deluge," a presentation of Collins works that each address -- and navigate -- an existential storm. Across several media, Collins addresses major literary works such as Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and Sophocles' Antigone -- and the US songbook too. The exhibition was curated by Leilani Lynch and is on view through July 5. Among the many museums presenting solo exhibitions of Collins' work are the Seattle Art Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass., the Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis, the Van Every and Smith Galleries at Davidson College, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University. Edouard Kopp is the curator of "Wall Drawing Series: Gladys Nilsson" at the Menil Drawing Institute, Houston. The site-specific exhibition features an enormous Nilsson drawing that features fantastical, hybrid beings surrounding one monumental figure engaged in the act of drawing. It's on view through August 9. Nilsson's work has been the subject of dozens of exhibitions, including a 1973 solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her work is in the collection of museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Instagram: Bethany Collins, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 745 is a holiday weekend clips show featuring artist Christina Fernandez. Fernandez is included in "Chicano Camera Culture: A Photographic History, 1966-2026" at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside (Calif.) Art Museum. The exhibition explores the evolution of Chicana/o/x lens-based practices through over 150 pictures made across six decades. The exhibition is on view at both RAM locations, and will remain at The Cheech through September 6, and at RAM's Julia Morgan-designed building through July 5. through It was curated by Elizabeth Ferrer. Concurrently, Fernandez's 2002 Lavanderia #2 is on view in the National Gallery of Art's permanent collection galleries. The NGA holds at least six pictures from the series. This episode was taped in 2023 on the occasion of the Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles' post-renovation-and-expansion debut exhibition "Together in Time: Selections from the Hammer's Contemporary Collection," and as the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth was showing "Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures," a survey of Fernandez's career. For images, see Episode No. 602. Air date: February 12, 2026.

Episode No. 743 features author and art historian William E. Wallace. Wallace is the author of Michelangelo & Titian, which will be published by Princeton University Press on February 3. The book examines what Michelangelo and Titian saw in each other's work, how they spoke to each other in paintings and sculptures, and details their two meetings. Wallace's narrative animates the many relationships with church officials, collectors, and intellectuals that the two men had in common, providing insight into their world and the many ways in which the two artists may have addressed each other in their art. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $19-33. Wallace was previously on Episode No. 439 to discuss Michelangelo, God's Architect. Air date: January 29, 2026.

Episode No. 741 features curator Ed Schad and critic Gabriella Nugent. Schad is the curator of "Robert Therrien: This is a Story" at The Broad in Los Angeles. The retrospective presents Therrien's meditations on scale and material, while revealing Therrien's repeatedly mined vocabulary of forms and symbols. The exhibition is on view through April 5. The Broad published a fine catalogue to accompany the show. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $50-55. Nugent is a London-based art historian and curator who routinely publishes essays in Burlington Contemporary and Art Monthly. She particularly discusses her recent essay "On the problem of artists' biographies in exhibitions," which was published in Burlington Contemporary in December 2025. Instagram: Ed Schad, Gabriella Nugent, Tyler Green. Air date: January 15, 2026.

Episode No. 739 is a holiday clips episode featuring artist Dara Birnbaum. Birnbaum, a pioneering titan of video art, passed away this year at 78. "Her work is now displayed in museum collections around the world as the example of feminist video art," wrote curator and critic Karen Archey in an Artforum obituary. Birnbaum's work often included pointedly feminist critiques of mass media, including of entertainment and journalism. Retrospectives of her work include "The Dark Matter of Media Light" at SMAK, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent, Belgium, and at the Serralves Foundation in Porto, Portugal, and "Dara Birnbaum Retrospective exhibition" at the Kunsthalle Wien in Austria and at the Norrtalje Konsthall in Sweden. Several of the Birnbaums discussed on this program are available online, including: Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (1978-79); Kiss The Girls: Make Them Cry (1979) (clip); Canon: Taking to the Street (1990) (clip); and Walkthrough of Psalm 29(30) (2016) at Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris. This program was recorded in 2017 when Dara Birnbaum's Local TV News Analysis (1980), which Birnbaum made with Dan Graham, was included in "Breaking News: Turning the Lens on Mass Media," at the J. Paul Getty Museum. The exhibition examined how artists have used newspapers, magazines and televised news programs to consider media, news and the messages included therein. The exhibition was curated by Arpad Kovacs. Air date: January 1, 2026.