The conversation traces the evolution of her artistic practice from painting and production design to concept-driven installation work shaped by ecological concerns, environmental damage, and global interdependence. Petrovic also discusses the influence of performance art, her time in India and engagement with spiritual frameworks, and how these experiences informed her shift toward art as a space for awareness, reflection, and dialogue around shared human conditions.

The conversation examines art as a tool for education and collective questioning, with Galarza reflecting on his work with incarcerated youth, mural practices that preserve oral histories, and the persistence of colonial structures in contemporary life. Throughout, he situates his work within a broader commitment to community, emphasizing the responsibility of artists to engage with systemic injustice while remaining accountable to the histories and territories they inhabit.

The conversation also considers the impact of digital tools and AI on photographic practice, alongside Schaedel's approach to teaching, which emphasizes tactile engagement through prints and photobooks. Throughout, he situates photography as a medium shaped by constraint and grounded in reality, while advocating for independent spaces and publishing as critical frameworks for sustaining artistic communities.

The conversation centers on the expectations placed on Black artists within contemporary art, particularly the pressure toward figuration, and Williams’ turn toward abstraction as both a formal and political strategy. Through work informed by redacted government documents and performative gestures that critique authorship and visibility, he examines the tensions between identity, audience legibility, and artistic autonomy.

The discussion addresses how wealth, collectors, and market forces shape artistic visibility and value, alongside a critique of galleries, art fairs, and institutional power. McReynolds also considers the distinction between underground and unsuccessful practices, the influence of social media on artistic production, and the possibility of maintaining an independent, long-term commitment to making work outside dominant systems.

The conversation expands into a broader reflection on how art is defined and experienced. Muller proposes that art is not determined solely by the artist’s intention but emerges through the experience of the viewer and the cultural context surrounding it. Alongside discussions of art education and institutional hierarchies, he explains how his work combines painting, large-format photography, video-game color palettes, and extended poetic titles to explore nostalgia, generational power, and the material remnants of previous generations.

The conversation also explores Hector’s concept of a “shadow practice,” including her quilting work made from repurposed painting materials, alongside a broader discussion of portraiture’s historical associations with power, representation, and beauty standards. Together, they consider how contemporary artists engage with the legacy of portrait painting while navigating the visual language of digital and internet-based imagery.

The conversation explores how family separation caused by immigration informs her paintings about absence and memory, as well as her path through art school at Pasadena City College and California State University, Long Beach. Ajcip also discusses developing a mixed media painting practice, navigating critiques in art school, and translating personal history into contemporary art.

The conversation explores Mexican and Mexican American identity through migration, colonial history, and cultural syncretism, including reflections on La Malinche, the blending of Indigenous and Catholic cosmologies, and the preservation of ceremonial knowledge. Baltazar also addresses the generational lineage of Chicano artists in Los Angeles, the tension between community-based practices and art institutions, and the role of devotion, memory, and cultural continuity within contemporary artistic work.

Shomaker also discusses her studio practice, including cutting paintings off their stretcher bars and reconfiguring them into sculptural installations, as well as her long-term collaborative projects Perceive Me and Color Response. The episode examines experimentation, adaptability, and the role of collaboration in sustaining artists locally and internationally.

The conversation addresses the Haitian Revolution and its economic aftermath, Western media narratives about Haiti, and the role of spiritual syncretism between Vodou and Catholic imagery in shaping visual culture. Ganthier describes his figurative painting as a form of Black representation that draws from archetype, animation, African masks, and diasporic experience, while also emphasizing the importance of business literacy, contract awareness, and public space as critical dimensions of contemporary art practice.

The conversation explores monumental ceramics, biopolitics, and public space, including Stringer’s engagement with civic spectacle, parade structures, and collective ritual. Drawing on Enlightenment history, architecture, and lived experience, Stringer reflects on her recent MFA thesis work, which centers the viewer’s body within installations addressing armor, metamorphosis, vulnerability, and systems of power.

The conversation also turns to Hemmelgarn’s studio practice, which centers on handmade papermaking using upcycled materials. She discusses how the work emerged from transitions between painting and cyanotype, and how incorporating her late father’s papers shaped a process focused on grief, repair, and reconstruction.

The conversation explores Sherwood’s painting practice, including her long-term engagement with found materials, discarded objects, and containers, as well as earlier work focused on the body, still life, and abstraction. She discusses artist collectives, alternative pathways outside the MFA system, institutional labor, and the ways public art spaces shape access, experimentation, and community within the Los Angeles art landscape.

Velasquez discusses curatorial pacing, group exhibitions as frameworks for career development, and the labor behind gallery work, alongside reflections on collage as a lifelong practice and Afro-diasporic spiritual traditions as discipline rather than aesthetic. The conversation centers self-advocacy, boundaries, and responsibility as essential to sustaining artistic and curatorial practice.

The discussion moves through painting, performance, and installation, with particular attention to Catholic iconography, mestizaje, diaspora, and the contradictions of living in the United States while remaining connected to Ecuador. Stacey also describes his use of fermentation and sourdough as both material and conceptual frameworks, challenging linear notions of time, labor, and artistic process.

The conversation traces her early years moving between Houston, Wisconsin, Taipei, and Boston; her family’s history under Taiwan’s martial-law era; and her transition from environmental science and strategy consulting into art school. Kao explains the cultural and personal significance behind folding 108 origami lotus forms each week for seven weeks—a ritual she adapted into a suspended installation of 756 hand-folded lotus at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.

Kao also speaks about using archival photographs, bamboo prayer-leaf structures, and cyanotype processes to explore grief, family history, and the shifting landscapes of Taiwan and Los Angeles. She offers rare insight into sustaining an installation-based practice through grants, community networks, and long-term professional relationships, while navigating motherhood and the realities of working outside commercial gallery systems.

A pivotal high-school teacher introduced him to portfolio building and ultimately to the CalArts CAP program—a transformational moment that opened a different pathway into art, community, and education. Throughout the episode, Bracamonte reflects on moving from name-based graffiti to narrative, community-oriented mural work; researching Mayan hieroglyphs; and developing a hybrid visual language that holds both ancestral history and futurist possibility.

The discussion expands outward into questions of Latinx identity, diaspora, public art, youth mentorship, and the politics of presence—what it means to show up in spaces that often assume you don’t belong. Bracamonte’s reflections move between personal history and broader frameworks of street culture, muralism, pedagogy, and the ongoing transformation of LA’s art landscape.

This episode offers a direct, unfiltered look at how artistic practices emerge from lived experience, community ties, and the need to create meaning beyond institutional boundaries.

In this episode, she traces her trajectory from photography and printmaking at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia to her later exploration of sculpture and abstraction. The conversation moves through her early life in Pennsylvania’s Mennonite community, her relocation to Los Angeles in the 1990s, and the gradual evolution of her visual language — from figurative painting to material-driven forms that balance fragility and chance.

Witmer also reflects on the changing realities of the art world: the economics of desert living, the value of art school, and the rise of Instagram as both tool and trap for visibility and survival. Along the way, she discusses her fascination with prehistoric art, Utah pictographs, and the enduring human impulse to leave marks in stone and clay.

A grounded, candid conversation about process, persistence, and the quiet negotiations between art, livelihood, and place.

In this conversation, Camarillo reflects on rejecting the label of “artist,” his experience with exploitation in fashion and sweatshops, and the deep political stakes of textiles in shaping both history and everyday life. The dialogue explores craft versus fine art, sustainability, gentrification in Lincoln Heights and El Sereno, and the importance of teaching weaving, dyeing, and self-reliance through Grow Lincoln Heights and his brand Dust of Course.

With a Fulbright in Japan to study indigo farming, Camarillo embodies a practice that is at once monastic, technical, and communal—insisting on fundamentals in a moment dominated by spectacle and commodification.

Her loom-wrapping series transforms discarded weaving tools into sculptural memorials, addressing the histories of labor, invisibility of craft, and Hmong spiritual traditions. This conversation explores how weaving, diaspora, and ritual intersect in contemporary art and the Los Angeles art scene.

The conversation traces his evolution from graffiti to oil painting, his deep engagement with South Central Los Angeles, and the ways he reconstructs the 1992 Los Angeles uprisings through scenes of everyday life. Blending autobiography with collective history, Guevara explores how painting can act as both a historical record and emotional archive, layering his family’s Salvadoran experience with the city’s shifting social landscape.

Host Javier Proenza and Guevara discuss the aesthetics of the working-class home, the ethics of representing trauma, and the enduring influence of Caravaggio, Bay Area Figuration, and documentary photography on his approach to storytelling. What emerges is a portrait of an artist using realism and symbolism to reimagine how communities remember themselves.

Listen for insights on painting, social history, and the emotional terrain of Los Angeles—then see Guevara’s new work on view at Charlie James Gallery, opening October 25.

The conversation delves into his most recent body of work, where Lloyd integrates his own archive of paintings, drawings, and ceramics into AI image generation. By transforming these digital hallucinations into trompe l’oeil abstractions through resin, collage, and material experimentation, he considers how technology can challenge conventional definitions of painting while remaining rooted in physical process.

Other topics include the legacy of CalArts conceptualism, the burdens of postmodern theory and art education, the precarity of mid-level galleries, and the paradox of elitism within the contemporary art market. Throughout, Lloyd emphasizes the importance of generosity, resilience, and longevity in sustaining a life in art.

Listen for insights on:

• Abstract painting and formalist traditions in Los Angeles
  
• The role of AI in contemporary art practices
  
• The realities of the gallery system and art fairs
  
• Postmodernism, art education, and theory fatigue
• Building a career across decades in the art world

Working with wax pastels on plastic vinyl, hand stitching, and large lino cuts, Huizar explores repetition, process, and the archival impulse. Her drawings function as reportage—capturing overlooked city views, everyday details, and the rapid changes of East L.A.

The conversation considers Chicana identity, community studios, and the politics of representation, offering insight into how artists both preserve and reimagine the city.

The conversation traces her early influences—from Francesca Woodman, Diane Arbus, and William Eggleston to mentorship under No Wave photographer Barbara Ess—before moving into immersive installation work and a graduate thesis on trans-corporeality and the porous body. Christ discusses her experiences in institutions such as the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, her role in supporting artists within commercial gallery structures, and the gendered dynamics that continue to shape the field.

Throughout the episode, Christ shares candid insights into navigating the hierarchies of the art world, balancing writing and curating, and the importance of advocating for emerging voices across both editorial and exhibition platforms.

From growing up in a garment factory household to exhibiting at Charlie James Gallery, Campos has shaped a practice that circulates both within galleries and directly to his community, merging economic sustainability with political intent.

🎧 Listen now to hear how Campos’ art collapses past and present into a single visual language of resistance.

#IsraelCampos #LatinxArt #Printmaking #MesoamericanArt #MexicanMuralists #PoliticalArt #LosAngelesArt #ContemporaryArt #WhatsMyThesisPodcast #CharlieJamesGallery #JavierProenza

Born and raised in working-class neighborhoods of Orange County, Castillo’s perspective is deeply rooted in the lived realities of the region—its immigrant histories, economic divides, and the architectural patchwork that defines its suburbs. Trained as a film-based photographer, she has evolved her practice to merge photography, sculpture, and installation, creating works that slow the act of looking and demand sustained engagement. Her use of reclaimed materials and references to site-specific histories reframes the photographic image as an object in dialogue with its environment.

Castillo traces her influences to classic cinema, the New Topographics photographers, and the conceptual rigor she developed in community college and at UCLA. Through these intersecting frameworks, she examines the formal language of geometry, light, and tonality while embedding questions of class, labor, and urban change. From photographing the quiet interventions of working-class residents in limited outdoor spaces, to producing large-scale installations that reference architecture, demolition, and construction, Castillo captures the poetics of transition—whether in a falling roof shingle or the shifting demographics of a neighborhood.

The conversation traverses the sensory memory of California light, the politics of housing and displacement, and the role of critique in art education. Castillo speaks candidly about her commitment to making the work she wants without bending to external pressures, and the importance of artist-to-artist support networks in sustaining a creative practice.

Her current exhibition, The Return, is on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles through August 31, with additional work featured in the group show Back to the Earth at Roberts Projects.

Discover how Jackie Castillo transforms the overlooked corners of Southern California into a visual language of place, memory, and resistance.

Listen now on:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Follow the artist:
Instagram: [@jackiecastillo]
More at: ICA LA

Keywords for SEO: Jackie Castillo artist, Jackie Castillo ICA LA, Southern California photography, working class art, Los Angeles artist interview, New Topographics influence, site-specific installation, contemporary sculpture, California light in art, art and gentrification, Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Roberts Projects.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Ann reflects on growing up as the daughter of a classical inkwash painter and an opera singer, both devoted Buddhist practitioners who observed the Five Precepts, embodying compassion and discipline in daily life—a grounding that continues to shape how calligraphy, voice, and ritual manifest in her exhibitions. Drawing on her time as Associate Curator at Rice University’s Chao Center for Asian Studies, she reflects on how oral histories and immigrant archives shaped her curatorial voice and informed her efforts to platform Asian art beyond the Western gaze.

Together, Ann and Javier unpack the tension between authenticity and market sustainability, the legacy of the literati tradition in Chinese art, and the complicated dynamics of Asian representation within museum and gallery systems. They also explore Ann’s use of feng shui, the five elements, and feminine archetypes—like the goddess Nüwa—as curatorial frameworks that honor the unseen and elevate spiritual intuition over spectacle.

The episode closes with a discussion of “Nüwa’s Garden: A Summer Offering in Clay, Fire, and Water,” Ann’s recent show at Charles Arnoldi Studio in Venice Beach, and its irreverent, ritual-infused closing celebration featuring live performances and feminist mythologies.

Topics Discussed:

• Asian art history beyond Western institutional frameworks
• Literati aesthetics and connoisseurship in Chinese painting
• Feminist mysticism, feng shui, and the unseen in exhibition design
• Spiritual embodiment and curating as a ritual practice
• Challenges of art market sustainability and cultural authenticity
• The evolution of ink-on-paper and gendered aesthetics in East Asian art
• Intersections of performance, memory, and oral history
• a poco art collective’s programming and community

Follow Ann Shi:
a poco art collective – @a.poco.art.collective
Personal account – @annonymous_cynist

🎧 Listen now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Raised in San Diego and based in Los Angeles, Garcia traces her trajectory through California’s UC system, from UCSD to a transformative MFA at UC Irvine. Her sculptural installations—once flamboyant and cartoonish in scale—have given way to more introspective, materially restrained works, driven by the shifting health of her aging parents. A recent series based on her mother’s ever-changing retellings of ancestral folklore evolves into a meditation on storytelling as a haze: unstable, affective, and resistant to conquest. In new work, she confronts her father's long-term cognitive decline following a near-death experience, positioning art as a form of both documentation and private processing.

The conversation moves fluidly through Garcia’s participation in Gallery After Hours (a collaborative curatorial experiment with Amy MacKay), reflections on her return to the Philippines after 24 years, and the psychic legacies of Spanish and American imperialism embedded in Filipino identity. Garcia speaks candidly about her family’s pursuit of Spanish ancestry as a means of aspirational assimilation and the radical shift in consciousness that comes from recontextualizing that lineage within histories of violence and extraction.

With poetic clarity and humility, Garcia frames her work as a refusal of mastery—an intuitive archive that honors contradiction, transformation, and the limits of language. This is an episode about the power of not knowing, and about what it means to hold grief, resistance, and joy in the same gesture.

Topics Covered:

• Intergenerational storytelling and trauma
• Dementia, caregiving, and creative mourning
• Artist-run initiatives and sustainable curation
• Colonial identity in the Filipino diaspora
• Sculpture as performance and interdependency
• The political stakes of abstraction and refusal

Featured Projects and Mentions:

• Gallery After Hours, co-run with Amy MacKay
• Current group exhibition, The Endless Forever at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
• Upcoming two-person show at DMST Atelier with artist Frannie Hemmelgarn (October 4)
• Ten-year anniversary celebration with Amy MacKay (July 19)

Follow Kim Garcia:
📸 Instagram: @kimwantscoffee

—

Subscribe to What’s My Thesis?
📺 YouTube: @WhatsMyThesis
🎧 All platforms: [Podcast Link]
💸 Support the show: [Patreon - $5/month gets you episodes a week early!]

#KimGarcia #FilipinoArtists #DiasporaArt #IntergenerationalTrauma #DementiaCare #ArtistRunSpace #Sculpture #IntuitiveArchive #WhatsMyThesisPodcast #JavierProenza

Trained in traditional printmaking and now immersed in the world of handmade paper, Goldenberg Longoria discusses how she builds meaning through destruction—tearing and pulping paper from past works, using the remnants to seed new ones. Her practice becomes a kind of emotional composting: nothing is discarded, everything is metabolized. Whether she’s embedding hair into a fresh sheet of paper or excavating the boundaries between sculpture and drawing, her work investigates how memory and material collapse into one another.

Throughout the episode, Goldenberg Longoria shares stories of childhood, loss, and creative perseverance, always returning to the primacy of the hand. From squishing “gross things” as a kid to the meditative choreography of the studio, she makes a compelling case for process as a form of knowing—and for art as a space where grief can be held, rather than solved.

This episode offers a rare look at how artists turn vulnerability into methodology, and how even the most fragile materials can carry a resilient kind of weight.

—
🔗 Follow Lauren Goldenberg Longoria: @laurengoldenberglongoria
🎧 Listen on all platforms: whatsmythesis.com
🎥 Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@whatsmythesis
❤️ Support on Patreon: patreon.com/whatsmythesis

#HandmadePaper #ContemporaryArt #LaurenGoldenbergLongoria #WhatsMyThesis #MaterialityInArt #ArtAndGrief #PaperArt #ProcessBasedArt #EmotionalLabor #TactileArt

A recent recipient of the Simon Gad Foundation Award and an MFA candidate at Otis College of Art and Design, Novak shares how a life-altering diagnosis of autism at age 50 reshaped her understanding of herself, her past, and her artistic practice. Her tactile impasto paintings, often described as “candy-colored” and “irresistibly edible,” subvert the pristine aesthetic of artists like John McCracken, replacing “fetish finish” with riotous layers of piped oil paint. As she explains, “The first response people say when they see my work is, ‘I want to touch it. I want to smell it. I want to eat it.’”

The conversation traces Novak’s evolution from a punk activist in Chicago to a ceramicist “boxing with Pollock,” and unpacks her years spent in Orthodox communities in Israel and Los Angeles, where gendered restrictions collided with a creative urgency that could not be contained. Today, her practice is a full-throated reclamation of space—for herself, for disabled artists, and for queer, neurodivergent joy.

Upcoming exhibitions include her MFA thesis show at Otis College (September 2025) and a group exhibition will support the Simon Gad Foundation’s work with disabled artists.

Explore more:
🖼 Shrine NYC – @shrine.nyc
🎓 Otis College of Art and Design – www.otis.edu

In this illuminating live conversation recorded at DON’T LOOK Projects, UK-based artist Diana Taylor joins host Javier Proenza (What’s My Thesis?) for a deeply textured discussion around her first solo show in the United States, Flotsam and Jetsam. Organized by DON’T LOOK Projects in association with SLQS Gallery in London, the exhibition draws on Taylor’s research-intensive practice, exploring time through the fusion of research and materiality. Her work employs a remix logic, echoing Sigmar Polke's 1980s period.

Currently in a short-term fellowship at The Huntington, Taylor speaks about her practice-based research. Her PhD was in collaboration with the William Morris Gallery, where she focused on how historical craft, screen-printing, and reproducibility inform her contemporary approach to painting. With roots in both rural Wiltshire and Cyprus, Taylor's early exposure to English landscape painting, tapestry, and devotional patternwork creates a foundation for her ongoing material inquiries into time, collapse, and visual culture.

The conversation explores:

• Taylor’s use of screenprinting on raw and repurposed canvas as a method of layering digital and analog imagery
• The influence of William Morris, The Divine Comedy by Gustav Doré, Sigmar Polke and 1970s suburban interiors on her visual lexicon
• A meditation on contemporaneity—the feeling of living amidst overlapping temporalities in the age of the internet
• The metaphor of Flotsam and Jetsam as a conceptual frame for image overload, cultural debris, and the residue of civilization
• Her experimental use of digital tools—zooming, pixelation, low-res 3D scanning—not to perfect, but to fail productively.
• Collapsing binaries: nature and culture, craft and tech, chaos and control, digital noise and sacred relic

Also discussed is Taylor’s current work at The Huntington, where she’s engaging with historical plant taxonomies, rare botanical prints, and Morris’s medieval utopian socialism to produce a new body of work and a forthcoming article in The Journal of William Morris Studies.

Flotsam and Jetsam is on view at DON’T LOOK Projects through August 30, 2025. Please email gallery@dontlookprojects.com to schedule a private viewing.

Listen to this episode to uncover:

• Why Taylor considers pixelation and printed crochet as relics of maternal labor and digital memory
• How screenprinting becomes a form of archaeological gesture
• The relationship between digital overstimulation and visual stillness
• Why artists might choose ruin, repetition, or failure as aesthetic strategies in a culture obsessed with optimization

Featured Institutions & Collaborators:
The Huntington Library, William Morris Gallery, DON’T LOOK Projects, SLQS Gallery, What’s My Thesis?

Episode Credits:
Hosted by Javier Proenza
Guest: Diana Taylor
Presented by DON’T LOOK Projects
Podcast: What’s My Thesis?

—

🎧 Listen now and step into the layered, fragmented, hyper-contemporary world of Diana Taylor.
📍 Flotsam and Jetsam runs through August 30 at DON’T LOOK Projects, Los Angeles in association with SLQS Gallery in London.
🔗 Follow Diana on Instagram and learn more at dontlookprojects.com

#DianaTaylor #WhatsMyThesis #DontLookProjects #ContemporaryPainting #WilliamMorris #DigitalCollage #ScreenprintArt #LAArtScene #SLQSGallery #TheHuntington #ArtistResidency #Multitemporality #ArtPodcast #unpainting

Raised in the Bay Area in California, La Rue shares his early exposure to fieldwork through family ties to migrant labor. These firsthand experiences, coupled with his own time working in agriculture, shape his nuanced understanding of the exploitation embedded in the state’s economy. What emerges is a critique rooted not in theory, but in lived knowledge: the food systems that sustain us are built on invisible suffering.

In a conversation that flows between the local and the global, La Rue and Proenza examine the slow violence of gentrification, the complicity of liberal “investment” language, and the way grief and survival are interwoven. La Rue describes the rapid transformation of his Melrose neighborhood—where new development displaces working-class Latino families—and calls for greater grassroots resistance. The episode draws a powerful line from housing precarity to policy indifference to the long, often invisible, labor histories of California.

This is a conversation about who gets to stay, who gets erased, and what it means to fight for the dignity of people and place.

Explore Corey La Rue’s work:
🔗 Instagram: @corey_la_rue

Support the show and access episodes early:
💸 patreon.com/whatsmythesis

Subscribe and share if this story resonates—especially if you’ve felt the pressure of survival, loss, or systemic erasure.

#CoreyLaRue #WhatsMyThesis #AgriculturalWorkers #CaliforniaLabor #LatinxVoices #Gentrification #FarmworkerRights #NearDeathExperience #GriefAndResistance #ArtAndAdvocacy #LAArtScene

In this special live episode of What's My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza moderates a closing panel discussion at BG Gallery for Dreams in Migrations—the third annual AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) exhibition curated by artist and organizer Sung-Hee Son. This timely conversation assembles a multigenerational roster of artists whose practices interrogate identity, memory, imperialism, and the myth of the model minority through distinct formal languages and lived experiences.

Featuring artists Dave Young Kim, Mei Xian Qiu, and others, the episode moves fluidly between personal narrative and structural critique. Kim speaks candidly about growing up Korean American in Los Angeles, navigating ADHD through drawing, and finding community through both art and street culture. He reflects on his work’s deep connection to place—evoking the layered histories of Koreatown through archival images, signage, and symbolic compositions.

Mei Xian Qiu offers a moving account of displacement, spiritual ritual, and postcolonial trauma. Born into Indonesia’s Chinese diaspora, she discusses her early artistic impulse to create “sacred objects” as a means of processing survival and systemic erasure. Her multimedia works—reminiscent of stained glass and batik—expose the mechanisms of propaganda and the cultural inheritance of violence. Her series Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom revisits China’s Hundred Flowers Campaign with a provocative inversion: a mock invasion of the U.S. staged entirely by AAPI artists and academics.

Together, the panelists explore diasporic kinship, cross-cultural solidarity, and the politics of visibility within the art world. Proenza draws compelling parallels between the AAPI and Latinx experiences, from forced assimilation and linguistic loss to state violence and Cold War geopolitics. The conversation challenges the flattening effects of labels like “model minority,” advocating instead for nuance, specificity, and coalition-building.

The episode concludes with reflections on the power of artist collectives, including the Korean American Artists Collective co-founded by Kim, and a roll call of exhibiting artists whose works are transforming the gallery into a space of resistance, celebration, and shared memory.

Featured Artists in the Exhibition:

• Dave Young Kim

• Mei Xian Qiu

• Bryan Ida

• Tia (Otis MFA ‘23)

• Miki Yokoyama

Key Topics:

• AAPI identity in fine art

• Postcolonial trauma and Chinese-Indonesian history

• Korean American experience in L.A.

• Propaganda, memory, and resistance

• The myth of the model minority

• Artist collectives and community organizing

Explore how contemporary AAPI artists are reshaping cultural narratives and reclaiming space through radical aesthetics and collaborative practice.

🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube
📍 Recorded live at BG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
📅 Presented in honor of AAPI Heritage Month

Painter J. Carino joins What’s My Thesis? for a candid conversation on the formation of a deeply personal visual language—one that straddles autobiography, queer identity, and reportage practice. Known for his emotionally resonant paintings that combine landscape, figure, and storytelling, Carino reflects on a unique career that led him to his upcoming solo exhibition Carry It With You at Yossi Milo Gallery in New York, on display from June 26 - August 22.

Carino speaks candidly about the challenges and freedoms of sustaining parallel careers in publishing and contemporary art. He traces his transition from NYU to Parsons, where studies in reportage and drawing from life laid the foundation for his immersive painting practice. From plein air sketches in national parks to nude Zoom drawing sessions during the pandemic, Carino’s shift from illustration to painting allowed for a more intimate, layered exploration of what it means to live a dual life as a queer artist navigating coded and compartmentalized spaces.

The episode delves into the tension between visibility and vulnerability: Carino discusses using a pseudonym to separate his children's book authorship from his painting, and the risks of addressing queerness explicitly in art intended for young audiences. Yet it’s precisely this openness—to complexity, to contradiction, to personal mythologies—that infuses his paintings with emotional depth and political resonance.

Carino’s recent recognition on the cover of New American Paintings (juried by Jerry Saltz) and his upcoming show mark a pivotal moment in his trajectory. His reflections on drawing as survival, the spiritual force of nature, and the layered meanings embedded in his imagery reveal a practice rooted in authenticity, discipline, and deep curiosity.

Featured Topics:
– Drawing as a foundation for painting
– The politics of queer representation in children’s literature
– National parks, plein air practice, and the American landscape
– Eroticism, intimacy, and compartmentalized identity in art

Follow J. Carino on Instagram at @j.carino.art, and explore his upcoming exhibition Carry It With You at Yossi Milo Gallery (@yossimilo) through August 22.

In this galvanizing episode of What's My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza is joined by Leslie Fram—collector, curator, marketing strategist, MFA educator, and tireless champion of emerging talent—for a sweeping conversation that summons the urgent need for innovation as well as entrepreneurial literacy among artists today.

Fram’s multifaceted career is an exercise in forecasting trends.  Formerly a dancer with the NYC Ballet, Fram studied art at Parsons, founded a fashion design company, became the Trends Editor of Cosmopolitan, obtained an MBA from Columbia University, segued into early Internet enterprises…  and eventually arrived in Los Angeles to engage with the city’s emerging art scene.  Fram has cultivated a holistic approach to art, deploying business models from the various industries she has worked in.  Marrying aesthetics with infrastructure, community with commerce, her approach is unique.

Fram speaks candidly about the genesis of her annual MFAs of LA exhibitions, a curatorial endeavor born from her desire to showcase under-recognized artists while removing traditional barriers to entry for collectors. She shares her exhibition experiments in transparency, scale uniformity, collector-artist collaborations and her belief in art’s ability to generate new forms of economic and social engagement. Fram’s insights are consistently bracing, generous, out-of-the-box and solution-oriented.

Listeners will come away with a deeper understanding of how artists can reclaim agency in the marketplace, why building relationships is central to sustainability, and how Fram herself continues to assist emerging artists on their respective trajectories to success.  Through direct mentorship, educating with her strategic marketing workshops, sharing information as a form of gallery-whispering, and many other modes, Fram is always advocating on the artists’ behalf.

Topics covered include:

• The economics of emerging art: why size, pricing and communal experiences matter
• Institutional resistance to business education in art schools: how Fram works around it
• Collectors:  her plans to ensure new collectors enter the marketplace, offering artists more opportunities for sales; understanding that they are artists’ best supporters and how to build authentic relationships with them; perhaps, finding a different name for “collector”
• New models and formats: from artists’ managers to new apps and technologies
• The future: art sales, blockchain royalties, and the power shift away from legacy galleries systems

This episode is a masterclass in strategic vision, offered by someone who has not only built a practice around elevating others, but continues to do so with a rare mix of compassion, clarity and enthusiasm. 

Guest
Leslie Fram
Follow her on Instagram: @lesfram

Host
Javier Proenza

In this episode of What's My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza is joined by artist Alystair Rogers for a searching, radically honest exploration of transformation—personal, political, and astrological. Traversing terrains of gender, spirituality, social critique, and visual language, Rogers shares the deeply embodied trajectory that led to his MFA thesis: an immersive installation confronting capitalism, queerness, and cosmic time.

With the insight of a cultural theorist and the intuition of a mystic, Rogers recounts how early encounters with Scott Cunningham’s Solitary Practitioner and a DIY magical practice laid the groundwork for a conceptual framework rooted in astrology, myth, and critique. From testosterone therapy and shifting social legibility, to trans embodiment and the slow violence of neoliberalism, Rogers discusses the pain and revelation of becoming, with humor and precision.

Their thesis installation—centered around a reclaimed domestic space lit by planetary lamps and anchored by a satirical infomercial titled Sea World: Spiral 'Til You're Free—is a poetic and confrontational meditation on how billionaires might be coaxed into their own undoing. Through this absurdist yet sincere gesture, Rogers dissects the mythologies of power, proposing alternative logics of time, value, and being.

What emerges is a searing, wide-ranging conversation that refuses binaries—between subjectivity and objectivity, spirituality and politics, or critique and care. Rogers makes a compelling case for astrology not as superstition, but as an expansive, generational clock—a way to read time not only in hours or revolutions, but in revolts and revelations.

Topics discussed include:

• Trans identity and the phenomenology of transition

• The astrology of Pluto in Aquarius and its revolutionary implications

• Queer embodiment and the aesthetics of self-determination

• The failures of liberal institutions and the weaponization of speech

• The installation Sea World, capitalist mythology, and speculative resistance

This episode offers a rare convergence of the personal and planetary, blending social analysis with an artist’s pursuit of symbolic coherence. Rogers’s work embodies a form of queer speculative myth-making—one that critiques the world as it is while gesturing toward the one that might be.

—

Guest: Alystair Rogers
Instagram: @alystair.rogers

Host: Javier Proenza
Podcast: What’s My Thesis?
Support the show: Patreon.com/whatsmythesis
Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

#queerart #transartists #astrologyart #MFAthesis #artandpolitics #plutoinaquarius #socialpractice #whatsmythesis #aly stairrogers #artpodcast #decolonizegender #anti-capitalistart

In this wide-ranging conversation on What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza welcomes artist, curator, and writer Keith J. Varadi, founder of Gene’s Dispensary, for an illuminating discussion on forging alternative pathways in the contemporary art world. Through candid reflection, Varadi shares their journey from painting to sound art, music, and ultimately to the establishment of their independent gallery space in Los Angeles—a project that has rapidly become a vibrant hub for creative cross-pollination.

Drawing on years of experience as both a practicing artist and an accomplished curator—with writing credits in Carla, Flash Art, Kaleidoscope, and Los Angeles Review of Books—Varadi discusses how health challenges, a deep commitment to community-building, and a rigorous interdisciplinary ethos led to the creation of Gene’s Dispensary. Operating in the heart of Los Angeles at 2007 Wilshire Boulevard, Unit 820, Gene’s Dispensary takes inspiration from DIY spaces, Black Mountain College, and the inclusive spirit of early L.A. dispensary culture.

Over the course of the episode, Varadi reflects on studying at Rutgers and Virginia Commonwealth University, their experience living in New York and Pittsburgh, and the evolving sense of belonging they found upon relocating to Los Angeles. Topics explored include the challenges and possibilities of starting an art space without institutional funding, building a collector base from scratch, integrating musicians, comedians, and writers into gallery programming, and the nuances of L.A.'s cultural landscape compared to New York.

Highlights include a behind-the-scenes look at Gene’s Dispensary’s chess tournaments, multidisciplinary performances, and the gallery’s mission to dissolve boundaries between visual art and other forms of creative practice. Varadi also offers insight into the gallery’s namesake, paying homage to socialist leader Eugene V. Debs and affirming a commitment to equitable practices within the art market.

Whether you are an artist seeking alternative models of sustainability, a curator interested in community engagement, or simply an art lover curious about the dynamic intersections of creativity in Los Angeles, this episode offers a compelling portrait of persistence, generosity, and invention.

Visit Gene’s Dispensary:
📍 2707 Wilshire Blvd, Unit 820, Los Angeles, CA
📲 Instagram: @genes_dispensary
🌐 Website: genesdispensary.co

Over the course of the episode, she speaks candidly about the lasting impact of calligraphy, the subtle power of Taoist and Confucian thought, and the slow labor of crochet and wire weaving as acts of embodied meditation. Her early engagement with Chinese ink painting, which emphasizes the expressive qualities of line and brushstroke, has evolved into three-dimensional constructions made from recycled electrical wires and cables—materials charged both with literal energy and symbolic resonance.

The conversation explores the artist’s conceptual relationship to “order and chaos,” how her sculptural forms emerge from stream-of-consciousness gestures, and the intuitive logic behind her use of nontraditional materials. She discusses how her experiences as a medical and legal interpreter have revealed the porous boundaries between cultures and languages, underscoring the interconnectedness of all people. Throughout, she emphasizes the importance of embracing contradiction, translating cultural tension into visual rhythm, and honoring what she describes as “the inner world”—a central tenet of her creative methodology.

Themes of hybridity, displacement, and the invisible labor of women recur throughout the dialogue, as the artist describes her attraction to utilitarian crafts like crochet and basketry, her reverence for nature, and her use of everyday materials—paper, staples, hair, and cables—as repositories of lived experience. The result is a body of work that operates like a visual diary: both diaristic and durational, deeply rooted in personal memory and shaped by global histories.

From reflections on the Cultural Revolution and Renaissance painting to the pandemic-era shift toward domestic intimacy, this episode offers a nuanced meditation on what it means to make art across geographies, traditions, and states of being. For Chenhung Chen, to create is to process—an act of digestion as much as construction. “Everything I see, I take in,” she says. “And then it comes out.”

—

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred platform.

🔗 www.whatsmythesis.com
📸 Follow on Instagram: @whatsmythesis
🎧 Support the show for early access: patreon.com/whatsmythesis

#ChenhungChen #ContemporaryArt #FiberArt #AsianDiaspora #CulturalIdentity #MaterialPractice #TaiwaneseArtist #ArtPodcast #DontLookProjects #ByTheCompanyTheyKeep

Learn more about Gerald Collins:

🔗 Instagram: @geraldcollins_

🌐 Website: geraldcollins.co (site redesign in progress)

📺 YouTube: Search “Gerald Collins artist” to find past talks and documentation Support the show:

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⭐️ Leave a 5-star review to help the algorithm shine some light on us.

#GeraldCollins #LightArt #Chromotherapy #DetroitArtists #ContemporaryArtPodcast #SiteSpecificInstallation #Chroma #WhatsMyThesis #JavierProenza #ArtPodcast #CommunityArt

In this illuminating episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza welcomes artist and educator Christopher Anthony Velasco—a polymath of performative personas, analog photography, and speculative queer mythologies. Known for his immersive character work and deep engagement with the aesthetics of subversion, Velasco brings an electrifying mix of vulnerability, irreverence, and narrative dissonance to a conversation that resists containment.

Anchored by his long-running alter ego The Doctor, Velasco charts a performative lineage from backyard wrestling and horror cinema to body horror and experimental drag. His work collapses boundaries between art and entertainment, sincerity and satire, fiction and lived experience—what he terms “the art world as a wrestling ring.” Through characters like Krystal Carrington and Doctor Barbie, Velasco reclaims and retools identity through spectacle, queering archetypes from within.

This episode explores:

• The influence of Japanese wrestling and horror film on Velasco’s photographic performance work

• The metaphysical potential of Polaroids as portals into alternate dimensions

• Drag as worldbuilding and trauma alchemy

• Navigating academia as a queer artist of color—from community college through CalArts and UC Santa Barbara

• Sobriety, creative resilience, and re-emerging with purpose

Velasco speaks candidly about substance use, identity crises, and the emotional minefields of higher education, particularly the lack of institutional support for artists of color. Yet, the episode also brims with humor, warmth, and geeky tangents—from Transformers lore to micro machines, Proenza’s Miami coke-snobbery, and the joys of analog photography.

This conversation is a living archive: disorganized, alive, and expansive. Like Velasco’s art, it makes space for contradiction, chaos, and camp without apology.

Follow Christopher Anthony Velasco on Instagram at @caver83
Check out his podcast with Dakota Noot: Two in the Pinku — a deep dive into queer-coded Japanese cinema and cult classics.

Hosted by Javier Proenza
🎙️ What’s My Thesis? is available on all major podcast platforms.
💥 Subscribe on Patreon for early access: patreon.com/whatsmythesis
📸 Follow the show on Instagram @whatsmythesis

#ChristopherAnthonyVelasco #QueerArt #PerformanceArt #PolaroidPhotography #AnalogArt #DragArtist #BodyHorror #ArtistInterview #WhatsMyThesis #ArtPodcast #TransformersLore #WrestlingArt #LatinxArtists #CalArts #UCSB #ArtistSobriety #DavidZwirnerStyle #ArtAsSpectacle #CampArt

In this episode of the podcast, host Javier Proenza is joined by Rhett Baruch, founder of the contemporary art space Rhett Baruch Gallery, for a candid conversation that moves fluidly between car culture and curatorial strategy—touching on everything from VTEC engines and flat-plane V8s to the architecture of gallery identity in Los Angeles.

Baruch discusses his unconventional journey from car enthusiast to gallerist, tracing how a passion for craftsmanship, aesthetics, and the tactile qualities of objects evolved into a sharp curatorial practice. With no formal background in the art world, Baruch speaks to the DIY spirit that shaped the gallery’s beginnings—from styling vintage design vignettes in his historic Little Bangladesh apartment to leveraging Instagram to cultivate a following of interior designers who would become his first collectors.

Throughout the conversation, Baruch emphasizes materiality, intention, and relationships over trend-chasing or institutional pedigree. His eye for precision, born of a background in automotive performance and design, guides Rhett Baruch Gallery’s focus on high-quality, often hand-built contemporary works—from the sculptural paintings of Cole Seager and Christopher Ríos to the minimalist interventions of Satoshi Okada.

Informed by an understated spirituality and a quiet resistance to conventional art world hierarchies, Baruch’s practice speaks to a broader shift in the collector landscape—one where emerging buyers are invited into the fold through aesthetics, storytelling, and trust.

This episode offers an illuminating look at how one of LA’s most distinct young galleries is redefining what a contemporary art space can be: refined but accessible, rooted in design yet committed to fine art, and always evolving.

Highlights include:

• How Rhett Baruch transitioned from automotive culture to the contemporary art world

• The role of interior designers in seeding a new generation of art collectors

• Rhett Baruch Gallery’s focus on material quality and process-based practices

• Thoughts on the art world’s relationship to faith, aesthetics, and the "white cube" model

• Building credibility without an MFA or institutional affiliation

• Gallery branding, voice, and strategy—from vignettes to vernacular

Featured Artists Mentioned:
Jonathan Todryk, Cole Seager, Christopher Ríos, Edward, Linda Keeler, Satoshi Okada, Laura Walberg

Rhett Baruch Gallery
Website: www.rhettbaruch.com
Instagram: @rhett.baruch.gallery

Listen to the episode on:
Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Patreon (early access)

Subscribe, Rate & Review
If you enjoyed this conversation, please leave us a five-star review, share the episode, and consider joining our Patreon for early access to new episodes.

#ContemporaryArt #ArtPodcast #RhettBaruch #RhettBaruchGallery #LosAngelesArt #EmergingArtists #ArtCollecting #GalleryLife #ArtAndDesign #MaterialityInArt #ArtistInterviews #CarCultureToCurator #ArtWorldInsights

In this immersive episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza welcomes artist and educator Elias Hernandez, whose deeply narrative visual practice draws from Latin American surrealism, video game aesthetics, and inherited stories of displacement and resilience. A recent MFA graduate from USC and collaborator with cult streetwear label Brain Dead, Hernandez charts a complex universe in his paintings—populated by star-bearing knights, sentient castles, and time-traveling wizards—where memory, mythology, and trauma are rendered in fantastical allegory.

Born in Mountain View and raised between the Bay Area and Sunnyvale, Hernandez reflects on a childhood steeped in card games like Magic: The Gathering, which sparked his fascination with visual storytelling. These early interests evolved into a practice that explores “the burden and blessing” of cultural inheritance—from Salvadoran family histories shaped by civil war to folkloric Catholic imagery and Latin American feminist surrealism.

In conversation, Hernandez discusses how drawing, teaching, and game-inspired worldbuilding intersect in his creative process. His paintings act as sequential mythologies—each one building upon the last—presenting a nonlinear, symbolic narrative of a hero's journey infused with biblical allusions, cosmic cults, and archetypes of good and evil. These compositions resist linear interpretation, instead inviting viewers into a slow unfolding of meaning that echoes oral tradition and pre-Columbian storytelling.

As Hernandez explains, his work is not overtly political, yet it is politicized by its very existence within American contemporary art spaces. Drawing from artists like Otto Dix, Diego Rivera, and Leonora Carrington, his practice embodies a transhistorical dialogue where surrealist aesthetics and contemporary iconography converge—memes, murals, and medieval allegory colliding in a uniquely generational vision.

Highlights include:

• How early exposure to fantasy media and tabletop gaming shaped his narrative sensibility

• The role of inherited trauma in the creative act and character development

• Reflections on his time as a bilingual educator in Oakland and the visual languages of immigrant youth

• A detailed breakdown of his fictional universe, including moon-worshipping cults and star-forging armor

• The spiritual dimensions of drawing and ceramics as ritual practices

• Insight into Central American cultural erasure and mythological reimaginings

Hernandez’s work transcends medium and genre, bridging pop culture with ancient cosmology, and positioning painting as a vehicle for complex identity expression and speculative folklore. This episode is an invitation into the mind of a worldbuilder—one who channels collective memory into realms where the past haunts, empowers, and transforms.

Follow Elias Hernandez on Instagram @eliasxhernandez and visit his website at www.eliashernandez.art.

Listen now and subscribe to What’s My Thesis? on your favorite podcast platform.
If you enjoyed this episode, leave a five-star review and support the show on Patreon for early access and bonus content.

#EliasHernandez #LatinArt #SurrealistPainting #WorldbuildingArt #ContemporaryArtPodcast #WhatsMyThesis #ArtAndIdentity #FantasyArt #CivilWarMemory #MagicTheGatheringArt #USCArt #BraindeadCollab

In this luminous and profoundly intimate episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza is joined by teaching artist and community advocate Dalia Palacios, whose multidisciplinary practice and lived experience offer a compelling meditation on resilience, displacement, motherhood, and the transformative power of art.

Palacios, born and raised in Echo Park, Los Angeles, recounts her early creative awakening amid housing insecurity, gentrification, and cultural dislocation. Her trajectory—from riding buses and bicycles across the city, to leading youth art workshops that reflect current gallery exhibitions—unfolds with honesty and urgency. With a voice shaped by community organizing, lived trauma, and poetic resolve, Palacios articulates the many roles she occupies: artist, mother, educator, survivor, and advocate.

A former resident artist at Arts at Blue Roof, Palacios reflects on the pivotal experience of having a dedicated studio for the first time—a moment that catalyzed a deeply collaborative and experimental body of work, incorporating embroidery on paper, recycled materials, sculpture, and storytelling. The residency not only fostered material exploration but also offered a vital container for healing postpartum depression and longstanding mental health challenges exacerbated by the pandemic lockdown.

Throughout the conversation, themes of intergenerational trauma, the stigmatization of mental illness in Latino communities, and the tension between art world access and grassroots engagement are explored with vulnerability and depth. Palacios shares how art has remained her sanctuary from childhood through motherhood, offering a rare continuity of purpose across ever-shifting landscapes.

Highlights include:

• Her work with students at Angel’s Gate Cultural Center and the exhibition Black in Place

• Memories of learning to draw in Tijuana and formative punishment-as-creativity exercises

• Her advocacy against gentrification through graffiti, wheatpasting, and stencil work

• The profound role of community support in her healing journey

• The collaborative joy of working on a public mural with L.A. Commons and artist John Treviño

• Insights into applying for artist residencies as a parent and self-taught practitioner

Palacios’s reflections are a reminder that the act of making art—especially in community—is a radical form of care. Her work speaks to the invisible labor of motherhood, the architecture of survival, and the quiet brilliance of those who create despite the odds.

Follow Dalia Palacios on Instagram @blissone and stay tuned for her forthcoming website.

Keywords: Dalia Palacios, LA artist, teaching artist Los Angeles, postpartum depression art, Arts at Blue Roof, Angel’s Gate Cultural Center, gentrification graffiti, art and healing, Latinx artist mental health, public mural Los Angeles, L.A. Commons, John Treviño, community-based art, artist parent residency, What’s My Thesis podcast.

In this compelling episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza sits down with Pranay Reddy, the director of LA Artcore, for a far-reaching conversation that explores the role of nonprofit art spaces as vital community infrastructure in Los Angeles. With clarity, conviction, and deep sincerity, Reddy offers an unfiltered look at his trajectory from punk and zine culture in suburban Colorado to leading one of the city’s longest-running artist-run institutions.

The conversation traces Reddy’s early exposure to alternative music and DIY media, his education at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and the profound influence of social practice artists on his own sculptural and photographic inquiries. Through personal reflection and institutional critique, Reddy unpacks the realities of inheriting LA Artcore’s legacy and reimagining it for a new generation—one that demands transparency, inclusion, and intentional community-building.

As the city contends with stark inequalities and ongoing housing crises, Reddy’s leadership emphasizes LA Artcore’s position in a broader ecosystem of mutual aid, solidarity, and decolonial cultural work. The discussion touches on the failures of the commercial art fair model, the limitations of traditional museums, and the importance of small-scale, grassroots infrastructures in giving artists room to experiment and be seen.

Reddy shares details about LA Artcore’s upcoming programming, including:

• Naman – A self-titled exhibition by a collective of Philippine X diaspora artists, opening March 15, exploring contemporary identity, historical presence, and visibility.

• Labkhand Olfatmanesh – A powerful installation centered on grief and grounding practices.

• Teamoz – An artist whose research into panda symbolism interrogates the complexities of U.S.–China relations.

• Tokyo Exchange Exhibition – Featuring ten artists from Tokyo, reactivating LA Artcore’s longstanding commitment to international dialogue.

Through it all, Reddy reaffirms his belief that artists are conduits of the communities they live and work in—and that art, at its best, is an infrastructure for care, connection, and change.

Follow LA Artcore
Instagram: @laartcore
Website: laartcore.org

Follow Pranay Reddy
Instagram: @p_reign

—
🎧 For early access and to support independent arts media: patreon.com/whatsmythesis

#LAArtcore #PranayReddy #SocialPracticeArt #NonprofitArtSpaces #ArtistRunInitiatives #DeColonialArt #CommunityArts #PhilippineDiasporaArt #TokyoArtExchange #WhatIsContemporaryArt #WhatsMyThesisPodcast

In this episode of What’s My Thesis, Javier Proenza welcomes Cat Gunn—artist, curator, and co-organizer of Other Places Art Fair South (OPAF South)—for a wide-ranging conversation on community, creative identity, and the radical possibilities within artist-run spaces.

Rooted in their early relationship to art and shaped by their current role in the San Diego-based initiative Harvest and Gather, the dialogue illuminates the power of collaborative curation and experimental presentation. Gunn shares the ethos behind Harvest and Gather’s programming, which includes boundary-pushing moments such as a bonfire where artwork is ceremoniously burned—a powerful gesture of impermanence, intention, and spiritual offering.

As OPAF South emerges as a new chapter of the long-running artist-run platform Other Places Art Fair, Gunn reflects on mentorship, shared resources, and the liberatory potential of decentralized arts infrastructure. With detours through magic, conceptual art, regional aesthetics, and the politics of visibility, Proenza and Gunn discuss what it means to make and sustain art outside of market logic.

Topics include:

• Cat Gunn’s transition from drawing and animation to curation and community-based practice

• The philosophy and provocations behind Harvest and Gather

• How artist-run spaces function as spiritual and political interventions

• San Diego’s evolving art ecosystem and Gunn’s collaboration with MCA on OPAF South

• Queerness, geography, and the differences between art scenes in Baltimore, Miami, L.A., and beyond

• The sustainability of DIY and underground creative labor in a post-pandemic landscape

For those compelled by the invisible architectures of care, resistance, and ritual in contemporary art, this episode offers an inspired look into what’s being built just outside the spotlight.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Support the show on Patreon for early access and bonus content.
Follow Cat Gunn and Harvest and Gather on Instagram: @harvestngather

#CatGunn #WhatsMyThesis #JavierProenza #HarvestAndGather #OPAFSouth #OtherPlacesArtFair #SanDiegoArtScene #ArtistRunSpaces #ContemporaryArt #AlternativeArt #QueerArtists #ArtPodcast #ArtWorld #ConceptualArt #SpiritualArt #ArtBurning #GrassrootsArt #CommunityArt

In this incisive and far-ranging episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza welcomes artist and writer Elwyn Palmerton for a wide-reaching dialogue that explores the intersections of contemporary art, cultural criticism, and local political activism. From Palmerton’s formative years navigating the vibrant New York art scene of the late 1990s to his incisive voice as an art    critic today, the conversation offers a candid and layered portrait of an individual devoted to truth-telling in an increasingly performative cultural landscape.

Key Themes:

• The Making of a Critic: Palmerton recounts his early exposure to the New York gallery circuit while attending NYU, and the pivotal role that grad school writing assignments—especially on the Whitney Biennial—played in forging his critical voice.

• Criticism as Craft and Confrontation: Informed by his deep engagement with art history and frequent gallery visits, Palmerton discusses the value of clear, form-driven analysis versus vague, concept-heavy narratives. He challenges the art world’s aversion to negativity and praises figures like Sean Tatol for maintaining intellectual rigor in the space.

• Art and the Sociopolitical Landscape: The episode delves into Palmerton’s campaign work for progressive city council candidates in Los Angeles, the structural power of real estate and police unions, and the possibilities of social housing as a viable alternative to market-driven development. His experience canvassing neighborhoods offers a grassroots lens into civic life often overlooked in mainstream coverage.

• Digital Disillusionment: The conversation expands into algorithmic culture, censorship, and the numbing effects of digital discourse. Both host and guest reflect on how platforms skew public perception and dilute the impact of genuine political or artistic critique.

• The Importance of Historical Consciousness: Palmerton advocates for more historically-informed criticism, citing influences ranging from Adam Curtis documentaries to post-1945 American painting as essential in contextualizing today’s cultural output.

Quotes to Remember:

“Criticism is about unpacking the experience—describing the thing that moved you, and understanding why.”
— Elwyn Palmerton

“Social media teaches us to perform like, not think critically. But criticism is how we grow.”
— Javier Proenza

Where to Follow Elwyn Palmerton:
Substack: Flowers Grow IRL — elwyn.substack.com
Instagram: @elwynpalmerton

About the Podcast:
What’s My Thesis? is a podcast that examines art, philosophy, and culture through longform, unfiltered conversations. Hosted by artist Javier Proenza, each episode challenges assumptions and invites listeners to engage deeply with creative and intellectual ideas beyond surface-level discourse.

Orange Coast College | Frank M. Doyle Pavilion | Southern California Art Scene

In this milestone episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza sits down with artist, curator, and community-builder Dakota Noot for a special conversation inside an ambitious group exhibition at the Frank M. Doyle Pavilion at Orange Coast College.

As the acting gallery director, Noot reflects on their journey from North Dakota to Southern California, exploring their evolution as both an artist and curator. The discussion unveils the complex networks that shape the region’s art scene and highlights the challenges and triumphs of curating large-scale exhibitions.

🎨 Curating at Scale – The logistics of organizing a multi-artist exhibition featuring some of the most exciting voices in contemporary art.

🚧 Art & Censorship – Noot shares their experience navigating artistic censorship in California, reflecting on how institutions handle politically charged and boundary-pushing work.

🌎 Southern California Art Networks – A deep dive into the relationships between artists across Los Angeles, San Diego, and beyond, and how these connections influence the broader art ecosystem.

🖌️ From Performance to Painting – Noot’s artistic shift from mixed-media works and large-scale cutouts to painting, influenced by Japanese cinema, body horror, and underground aesthetics.

🎙️ The Role of Podcasts in Art Documentation – How What’s My Thesis? has evolved into a living archive, capturing vital conversations with contemporary artists, curators, and thinkers.

This episode is a testament to the power of collaboration and artistic community. With over 250 episodes, What’s My Thesis? remains a crucial platform for in-depth discussions on contemporary art and culture.

📌 Follow Dakota Noot on Instagram: @DakotaNoot
📌 Support the Podcast on Patreon: patreon.com/whatsmythesis

🔹 Listen Now & Subscribe for exclusive artist interviews, curatorial insights, and behind-the-scenes perspectives shaping today’s contemporary art world.

#ContemporaryArt #ArtPodcast #DakotaNoot #WhatsMyThesis #ArtCuration #SouthernCaliforniaArt #ArtistInterview #GalleryDirector #ExhibitionDesign #ArtCommunity

In this deep dive episode of What’s My Thesis, we explore the intricate world of contemporary art galleries, artist representation, and the strategies behind building a sustainable market for emerging artists. Our guest, Tyler Park, founder of Tyler Park Presents, shares invaluable insights from his journey navigating the art world—from his early days as an artist to becoming a gallerist dedicated to elevating emerging talent.

- The Economics of the Art Market – How are prices set for emerging artists? Tyler breaks down pricing strategies, the dangers of overvaluation, and how to ensure sustainable market growth.

- The Role of Galleries in an Artist’s Career – A successful solo show isn’t just about sales. Tyler outlines three critical success factors: visibility, critical discourse, and market interest.

- Institutional Recognition vs. Commercial Success – What’s the impact of museum acquisitions on an artist’s career? How do gallery exhibitions differ from institutional recognition? We discuss how these validations contribute to long-term value.

- Building Collector Relationships – The importance of networking, collaborating with art advisors, and why transparency in the art world is crucial for long-term success.

- The Art World Behind the Scenes – What does it really take to run a gallery solo? Tyler shares the challenges of managing operations, finding the right artists, and balancing the pressures of competition and collaboration in the industry.

Whether you’re an artist looking to navigate the commercial gallery space, a collector interested in understanding how markets are made, or an art enthusiast curious about the behind-the-scenes of running a gallery, this episode is packed with expert insights.

🌐 Website: Tyler Park Presents
📸 Instagram: @tylerpark_presents

🎧 Listen Now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

If you enjoyed this episode, leave us a 5-star review and support the podcast on Patreon for early access and exclusive content.

#ArtMarket #GalleristLife #EmergingArtists #ArtCollectors #ArtWorld #MuseumAcquisitions #TylerParkPresents #ContemporaryArt

We discuss:

🔹 The allure of roadside attractions like Salvation Mountain and the House on the Rock

🔹 The intersection of art and conspiracy, from New Age magazines to "wish machines"

🔹 Growing up in Las Vegas and its influence on creativity and access to counterculture

🔹 The fascination with Area 51, UFOs, and the extraterrestrial highway

🔹 The artistic drive to create immersive worlds, from outsider artists to casino architecture

🔹 A deep dive into alchemy, manifestation devices, and the power of belief If you’ve ever been captivated by the strange, the speculative, or the surreal, this episode is for you. From the neon glow of the Vegas Strip to the high desert mysteries beyond, we explore how geography, history, and myth intertwine in the creative process.

🎨 Follow Mary Sabo:🔗

Website: Marysabo.net 📷

Instagram: @mary_.sabo

🔮 Join the conversation: Have you encountered a bizarre roadside attraction or had a UFO sighting? Drop us a comment or tag us in your stories!

📌 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review!

🔥 Get early access to episodes on Patreon!

patreon.com/whatsmythesis

#Podcast #LasVegas #UFOs #RoadsideAttractions #OutsiderArt #CreativeObsession #ConspiracyCulture #DesertMysticism

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Clarisse’s early life and how being an immigrant shaped her artistic path

• The intense experience of Art Basel and its reflection on Miami’s cultural scene

• How technology, social media, and digital consumption influence contemporary identity and art

• The challenges of sustaining an art career while balancing jobs outside the field

• The importance of artist residencies and alternative career paths in the art world

• Insights into Clarisse’s figurative painting practice and her shift towards film-based imagery

Key Highlights:

• [00:00] Introduction and Clarisse’s background

• [07:00] The Art Basel experience and Miami’s cultural identity

• [17:00] Discovering art as a career path and transitioning from science to painting

• [32:00] The impact of technology on personal identity and perception

• [45:00] Navigating financial sustainability as an artist

• [59:00] The role of artist residencies and career growth

• [1:06:00] Clarisse’s current work and upcoming exhibitions

Upcoming Exhibitions & How to Connect:

• Clarisse has upcoming group and solo exhibitions at Rod Briggs Gallery, Sabbatical in Santa Monica, and potentially the U.S. Fisher Museum.

• Follow Clarisse on Instagram: @clarisse.artist

• Interested in a studio visit? Clarisse is based in Downtown L.A. – reach out via Instagram!

Support the Podcast: If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and leave a comment on YouTube or your preferred podcast platform. Early access and exclusive content are available through our Patreon: Patreon.com/whatsmythesis. Your support helps us continue bringing great conversations to you!

#ArtistInterview #ContemporaryArt #ArtPodcast #ClarisseAbelarde #WhatsMyThesis #ArtBasel #TechnologyAndArt #EmergingArtists #LAArtScene #ArtistResidencies #FigurativeArt

Zeina shares their journey of resilience, from surviving childhood illness and economic instability to navigating the evolving landscape of contemporary art and activism. They reflect on the profound impact of survivor’s guilt, cultural identity, and the responsibility of bearing witness in times of crisis. With a practice rooted in lived experience, Zeina’s work explores everything from public space and urban infrastructure to the erasure of cultural heritage in Palestine and Lebanon**.

This episode touches on:

✔ **Art as a means of survival and self-exploration**\

✔ The impact of disability and economic hardship on mobility\

✔ **The role of sidewalks as a metaphor for access and exclusion**\

✔ Navigating the art world as an educator and activist\

✔ **The destruction of cultural institutions in global conflicts**\

✔ The challenges of speaking truth in an industry that often prioritizes silence

Throughout, Javier and Zeina discuss the emotional weight of witnessing violence and injustice—both personally and politically—and how artists can use their work to build coalitions and create lasting impact.

🔥 This is an episode about perseverance, purpose, and finding ways to keep creating, even when the world is burning.

📢 Follow Zeina Baltagi

📸 Instagram: @garfield_ave

🌐 Website: Zeinabaltagi.com

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Episode Summary: In this compelling episode of What's My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza sits down with community activist and neighborhood council member Fernanda Sanchez for a deep dive into the world of grassroots activism, local politics, and the ongoing fight against gentrification in Los Angeles. Fernanda shares candid insights on the challenges of political engagement, the realities of navigating systemic barriers, and how communities can mobilize to protect their neighborhoods.

The conversation covers the critical intersection of activism and art, the impact of corporate gentrification, and the complexities of working with people across the political spectrum. Fernanda also highlights the importance of documentation in activism, the role of artists in community movements, and the continuous struggle to hold local politicians accountable.

Whether you're an aspiring activist, an artist looking to get involved, or just someone curious about the inner workings of grassroots political engagement, this episode is packed with thought-provoking discussions and actionable takeaways.

Guest Introduction: Fernanda Sanchez is a dedicated community organizer and an elected neighborhood council member in Los Angeles. With years of experience in grassroots activism, Fernanda has been at the forefront of efforts to combat gentrification, advocate for housing justice, and challenge the systemic inequities impacting historically marginalized communities. Her work emphasizes direct action, coalition-building, and the power of local engagement in effecting real change.

Topics Covered:

• The realities of unpaid political work and why true activism requires commitment beyond election cycles.

• How affluent liberals often dominate political discourse and decision-making while sidelining local voices.

• The ongoing struggle against gentrification in Los Angeles and its impact on communities of color.

• Avenue 34: A case study in community resistance against luxury developments built on toxic land.

• The evolving role of artists in political movements and how creative documentation can preserve community narratives.

• Why talking to your neighbors is one of the most radical things you can do.

• The dangers of co-opted political figures and how grassroots movements can remain independent.

• What newcomers to activism should know before jumping into political work.

Notable Quotes:

• "Are you really radical if you're only working with white liberals? You’re not. True activism means building alliances across different perspectives."

• "Gentrification evolves. The businesses that displaced us are now being displaced by corporations. This fight never stops."

• "The system will never allow a ‘good’ politician to thrive. If you’re looking for self-gratification in politics, you’re in for a rude awakening."

• "The most important thing people can do right now? Talk to your neighbors. Organize locally. That’s how we make real change."

Resources & Actionable Steps:

• Follow Fernanda Sanchez on Instagram: [@fernandasanchez] for updates on local activism and ways to get involved.

• Support grassroots efforts in your community by contributing skills—whether you’re an artist, writer, or videographer.

• Participate in local meetings and hold neighborhood councils accountable.

• Stay informed about developments like Avenue 34 and Boyle Heights Town Project by following community-led initiatives.

• Join local efforts to document and resist displacement, whether through art, media, or direct action.

Call to Action: If you enjoyed this conversation, please rate and review What’s My Thesis? on your favorite podcast platform! Subscribe for more in-depth discussions on activism, politics, and culture. If you want to support the podcast, consider joining our Patreon for early episode access and exclusive content.

Stay engaged, stay informed, and most importantly—talk to your neighbors.

#GrassrootsActivism #LocalPolitics #Gentrification #CommunityOrganizing #WhatsMyThesis #PoliticalEngagement #HousingJustice

In this episode, Hiroshi Clark shares his journey as a photographer whose work blends personal history with an exploration of Japanese and American cultural influences. Hiroshi talks about his creative process, the emotional impact of family archives, and the intricacies of his recent art exhibition and publication. We dive into his approach to photography, how he draws inspiration from late 1960s and early 1970s Japanese visual culture, and his unique approach to archival storytelling. Whether discussing the objects that shape our memories or the challenges of balancing art with business, this conversation is a fascinating look into the world of a contemporary photographer forging his own path.

Episode Highlights:

• The Power of Family Archives: Hiroshi explains how personal family photographs, like one of his mother with sparklers, have become crucial to his art practice. The powerful connection between these images and his childhood experiences is central to his work.
• The Influence of Japanese Photography: Hiroshi delves into the visual influences from late 60s and early 70s Japanese photography, specifically its connection to fashion photography for magazines like Vogue. He connects these historical references to his contemporary work, exploring themes of identity and memory.
• The Concept of Space and Display: Hiroshi's recent show, which featured prints from his family archive, was thoughtfully designed to create a sense of immersion within a small space, with viewers "turning around" the exhibition to see different works, each part of an ongoing narrative.
• 85 7 20 – A New Publication: Hiroshi discusses his new book 85 7 20, a publication that accompanies his latest show. Designed by Wyatt Malachy Conlin, the publication features innovative layouts that visually mirror the themes of time and memory found in his photography.
• Navigating the Art World and Business: At the intersection of art and entrepreneurship, Hiroshi shares his views on creating a sustainable art practice. He talks about how balancing side projects, such as his commercial work with Artifax, can support his artistic growth and keep him focused on his creative goals.

Links & Resources:

• Artifacts: Hiroshi’s photo documentation service – [Artifax @artifaxphto]
• Follow Hiroshi Clark on Instagram: [@hiroshi_clark]
• The Fulcrum Press – [thefulcrumpress.com]

Support the Show:

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and share this with your friends. You can also support us by joining our Patreon to get early access to episodes and exclusive content. Your support helps us continue bringing in incredible guests and creating more episodes!

In this episode, photographer Amir Zaki joins Javier Proenza to explore the dramatic shift in art school critiques and how they've evolved from rigorous technical assessments to something much more complex and subjective. As an artist who’s experienced both sides of the critique system, Amir offers a unique perspective on how the traditional model of evaluating art is becoming increasingly obsolete in today’s art world.

Art school critiques, once focused primarily on technical mastery and formal analysis, have undergone a transformation. As art practices have evolved, so too has the way we discuss and assess artwork. For Amir Zaki, the end of traditional critiques signals a larger cultural shift in how we approach creative work. In this conversation, Amir reflects on how critiques today are no longer just about technique—they now center on personal expression, conceptual depth, and the context in which the art is made.

Key Topics Discussed:

• The decline of traditional art school critiques: Why the emphasis on technical skill is giving way to more abstract discussions.
• The growing importance of personal narrative and cultural context in contemporary critiques.
• How the role of the art critic has evolved alongside these shifts.
• The impact of these changes on the education of emerging artists and what it means for the future of art schools.
• Amir Zaki’s own artistic journey and how he’s navigated the changing landscape of critiques throughout his career.

Links & Resources:

• Check out Amir Zaki’s photography and current projects: [Website or Instagram link]
• Explore Amir Zaki’s involvement in the Pacific Standard Time group show at the Culver Arts Center.
• Support the podcast! Subscribe, leave a review, and get early access to episodes via Patreon.

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Artist Deidre Colgan Jones talks about living in different American cities as an Irish woman from Dublin, before we discuss the decision making process I went though collecting items for the treasure hunt she sent me on.

Also I conflate Cuba and Costa Rica, but you can tell I mean Cuba because I reference sugar cane.

also, so as not to drive you crazy, the photographers who's names I can't think of on this episode are Nikki S. Lee, and Roger Fenton.

Corrections:

1. The picture of the nanny was taken by Robert Frank, not Gary Winnogrand. 

We also continue to celebrate Maiden LA, which is a Los Angeles wide artwalk open to anyone who wants to submit a project/event/open studio.