The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Allan Rohan Crite, Gabriele Münter

Episode No. 733 features curators Diana Seave Greenwald and Megan Fontanella. With Christina Michelon, Greenwald is the co-curator of "Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory" at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum [https://www.gardnermuseum.org/allan-rohan-crite-urban-glory] and the Boston Athenaeum. Both presentations are on view through January 19, 2026. (Theodore Landsmark co-curated the ISGM presentation.) The exhibition surveys the career of Boston-based Crite, whose work spotlighted Boston neighborhoods such as Lower Roxbury and the South End, the challenges they faced from gentrification and so-called urban renewal, and Christianity. A fine exhibition catalogue was published by the two institutions. Amazon [https://amzn.to/44hYNLj] and Bookshop [https://bookshop.org/p/books/allan-rohan-crite-neighborhood-liturgy-efeoghene-igor-coleman/4e876926d19b800a?ean=9780691973944&next=t] offer it for $42. Fontanella is the curator of "Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World" [https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/gabriele-munter] at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Across more than 50 paintings and almost 20 photographs, the exhibition survey's Münter's work and finds that it was involved in avant-garde presentations of landscape, still life, and portraiture. Fontanella curated the photography section of the exhibition with Victoria Horrocks. "Contours of a World" is on view through April 26, 2026. A catalogue was published by the Guggenheim. Amazon [https://amzn.to/4i9VewL] and Bookshop [https://bookshop.org/p/books/gabriele-m-nter-contours-of-a-world-dorothy-price/d3f03f8f782404da?ean=9780892075690&next=t] offer it for about $55. Instagram: Diana Seave Greenwald [https://www.instagram.com/dsgreenwald/], Megan Fontanella [https://www.instagram.com/meganfontanella/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks/] Air date: November 20, 2025.

Igshaan Adams, Laura Igoe

Episode No. 732 features artist Igshaan Adams and curator and Jenkintown, Penn. school board-electee Laura Igoe. The Hill Art Foundation, New York is presenting "Igshaan Adams: I've been here all along, I've been waiting" [https://hillartfoundation.org/art/exhibitions/view/igshaan-adams-at-the-hill-art-foundation/] through December 20, 2025. The exhibition features work from the last 15 years of Adams' practice, and emphasizes how his work engages and serves his community. Adams tapestries and sculptures build from weaving traditions to make the routine, even mundane the subject of rich, detailed artworks. On the occasion of the exhibition, the Hill Art Foundation has published this essay [https://hillartfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Adams_Mitter-Essay.pdf] by Siddhartha Mitter. Adams grew up in a Muslim-Christian household in the segregated suburb of Bonteheuwel in apartheid-era South Africa, and employs Bonteheuwel residents and family members in his studio. His work has been the subject of solo shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Art Institute of Chicago; Kunsthalle Zurich, the Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark; and the Hayward Gallery, London. His work is in the permanent collection of museums such as the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, the Tate Modern, London, and Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil. Discussed on the program: * Adams' 2016 exhibition "Oorskot" [https://blankprojects.com/Oorskot] at Blank Projects, Cape Town; and * Adams' 2022 exhibition "Desire Lines" [https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9626/igshaan-adams-desire-lines] at the Art Institute of Chicago. Igoe, the chief curator of the Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Penn. was just elected to the Jenkintown, Penn. school board. Instagram: Igshaan Adams [https://www.instagram.com/igshaan.adams/?hl=en], Laura Igoe [https://www.instagram.com/lauratigoe/?hl=en], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks/?hl=en]

Hew Locke

Episode No. 731 features artist Hew Locke. The Yale Center for British Art is presenting "Hew Locke: Passages," [https://britishart.yale.edu/exhibitions-programs/hew-locke-passages] the first US survey of Locke's [https://hewlocke.net/Homepage2ndsite.html] career. Across sculpture, painting, photography and installations, Locke's work considers colonialism, its power, and the ways in which we respond to colonialism and its impacts. Locke, who is Guyanese-British, particularly focuses on British imperialism and how it was constructed, including through monarchy, trade, and (sometimes forced) migration. The exhibition, which is on view through January 11, 2026, was curated by Martina Droth. The catalogue, which was edited by Droth and Allie Biswas, was published by the YCBA. Bookshop [https://bookshop.org/p/books/hew-locke-passages-asma-naeem/67231c1a97c7a656?ean=9780300284683&next=t] and Amazon [https://amzn.to/47AW7te] offer it for $60-70. In-gallery materials are available here [https://yaleedu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/jackie_gleisner_yale_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fjackie%5Fgleisner%5Fyale%5Fedu%2FDocuments%2FHew%20Locke%20Brochures&ga=1] in both English and Spanish. Locke's work has been featured in solo exhibitions at The British Museum, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Tate Britain, London, the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston, Pérez Art Museum Miami, and more. In addition to the images below, here are links to works and exhibitions discussed on the program: * Hew Locke, Ark [https://www.hewlocke.net/Ark2.html], 1994. * Hew Locke, Menace to Society (series) [https://hewlocke.net/menacetosociety.html], 1999-2001. * Hew Locke, The Nameless [https://hewlocke.net/nameless.html], 2010. * "Hew Locke: what have we here" [https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/hew-locke-what-have-we-here] at the British Museum; * "A Conspiracy of Icons: The Art of Donald Locke," [https://high.org/exhibition/a-conspiracy-of-icons-the-art-of-donald-locke/] at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; and * "The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-War Britain" [https://artsandculture.google.com/story/DAWhyZvGtKdOKA] at the Hayward Gallery, London. Instagram: Hew Locke [https://www.instagram.com/hewdjlocke/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks/] Air date: November 6, 2025.

Barnett Newman

Episode No. 730 features author Amy Newman. Newman is the author of Barnett Newman: Here [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691249186/barnett-newman?srsltid=AfmBOoojOs0BteYxlmHzX2BCJTAYSfq2UQ2XTu234yOihhfxB5SyN0HX] a biography out this week from Princeton University Press. The book presents Newman as devoted to art but initially unsure of what a Newman would be, as a dedicated, almost blindered New Yorker, and as an artist intensely interested in what US art had to contribute to the US national and global project. Amazon [https://amzn.to/4nuPajc] and Bookshop [https://bookshop.org/p/books/barnett-newman-here-amy-newman/bae29ae9fd8f5a9b?ean=9780691249186&next=t] offer Newman for around $40. (It will be available in the UK in January 2026. Amy Newman and Barnett Newman are not related.) Newman is the author of the author of Challenging Art: "Artforum" 1962–1974 and the editor, with Irving Sandler, of Defining Modern Art: Selected Writings of Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Works discussed on the program include: * Black With Yellow (Euclidian Abyss) [https://glasstire.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Fig18_Newman.jpg?x88956], 1946-47; * Onement I [https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79601], 1948; * Two Edges [https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79268], 1948; * Onement VI [https://sothebys-com.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7dfa403/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2000x1742+0+0/resize/2880x2509!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsothebys-brightspot-migration.s3.amazonaws.com%2F00%2Fd0%2Ff3%2Fff33685da8423eca5d471d84fbb9e2ada5563500dd5a28a3cf2e94eb05%2F942n08991-xxxxx.jpg], 1953; * Here I [https://www.menil.org/collection/objects/3314-here-i], 1950; and * Broken Obelisk [https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81555], 1963-69. Instagram: Amy Newman [https://www.instagram.com/amydnewman/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks/]

Justin Favela, David-Jeremiah

Episode No. 729 features artists Justin Favela and David-Jeremiah. The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery is presenting a commission [https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/favela-maize-chapel] from Favela titled Capilla de Maíz (Maize Chapel) through a not-yet determined date. The Favela makes the Renwick's grand salon gallery a fantastical space, complete with shimmering gold-fringed walls and piñata corncobs that highlight the role of maize in North American visual culture. It accompanies "State Fairs: Growing American Craft," [https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/state-fairs] an exhibition that details artists' contribution to the US tradition of state fairs that is on view at the Renwick through September 7, 2026. (The Renwick is temporarily closed because Republicans in the White House and on Capitol Hill have shut down the federal government.) Favela's work typically investigates Mexican or Latin American craft practices, especially cartoneria (more commonly known as piñata making). His work has been the subject of exhibitions at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, the Des Moines Art Center [https://desmoinesartcenter.org/art/exhibitions/justin-favela-central-american/], the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and more. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is presenting "David-Jeremiah: The Fire this Time" [https://www.themodern.org/exhibition/david-jeremiah-fire-time] through November 2. The exhibition presents a group of vertical assemblages of black and other polychromatic paintings on shaped wood that form an installation. The twenty-eight works stand over ten feet tall. The primary configuration surrounds viewers completely before giving way to a final suite of paintings featuring abstract assemblages that include references to fire. The exhibition was curated by Christopher Blay. A catalogue is available from MAMFW. [https://shop.themodern.org/products/david-jeremiah] David-Jeremiah's [https://david-jeremiah.com/] work reflects the artist's experience of Black masculinity in America. Previous David-Jeremiah solo exhibitions have been at the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass., and the Houston Museum of African American Culture; he has participated in group shows at institutions such as Project Row Houses, Houston. In 2020, David-Jeremiah received a Nasher Sculpture Center Artist Grant Award. Instagram: Justin Favela [https://www.instagram.com/favyfav/?hl=en], David-Jeremiah [https://www.instagram.com/davidhyphenjeremiah/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks/]