DLG392 Artist/Filmmaker Laura Parnes talks about her own adolescence.

DLG392 Artist/Filmmaker Laura Parnes talks about her own adolescence.

Laura Parnes [https://www.lauraparnes.com/] is an extremely accomplished filmmaker and artist . (Scroll down for bio—impressive!!) One of the themes in Laura Parnes's work is female adolescence. Here's a quote from an interview with her in ⁠FEMEXFILM Archive⁠ [https://sites.google.com/ucsc.edu/femexfilmarchive/filmmaker-index/laura-parnes]: "A really big focus of the work is the romantic vision of a teen peering in on a culture that they haven’t personally participated in and how this holds potential for criticality. But, it’s really tempered by a desire to gain status, power, and agency. " Bearing that in mind, I wanted to find out about Laura's own upbringing and teen years and how that has influenced her work. It turns out there were about two years in Laura's life that were filled with older friends and drugs. After that she chose to put her energy into art, got accepted to Tyler Art School and the rest is history. Art history to be specific. Laura's work has been clearly ahead of it's time as well as an influence on the period we are living in today. Gen Z has picked up on one of her films from 2017, No Is Yes, [https://vimeo.com/80128793] depicting two teen girls with a crush on a rockstar they kill accidentally and then mutilate. Clips of it have gone viral on Tik Tok. Please check out her work, if you're not familiar, on her website [https://www.lauraparnes.com/]and Vimeo. [https://vimeo.com/user4599759] BIO:     Laura Parnes’ critically acclaimed films and installations fuse comedy with pathos to probe social and political trauma. Informed by traditions and genres in narrative film, video art and queer theater, her work blurs the lines between conventions of storytelling and experimentation. The performers in her projects are often part of a diverse community of artists and musicians, many of whom are responsible for the rich underground scene in NYC, and who have shaped and affected other mainstream art cultures. Laura Parnes has screened and exhibited her work widely in the US and internationally, including: The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; The Institute of Contemporary Art University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; The International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece., LOOP Festival, Barcelona, Spain; Light Industry, Brooklyn, NY; Kusthalle Winterhur, Switzerland; Overgaden- Institute for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen, Denmark; iMOCA, Indianapolis, IN; Cinematexas, Austin, TX; Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania; Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Whitney Museum of American Art (1997 Whitney Biennial), NY; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand; PSI Contemporary Art Center MoMA, NY; Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, FL; and Brooklyn Museum, NY. Her solo exhibitions include Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY; Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY; Human Resources, LA, CA; Fitzroy Gallery, NYC, NY; LAXArt, LA, CA; Alma Enterprises, London, UK; Locust Projects, Miami, FL; Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, LA, CA; Participant Inc, NYC, NY and Deitch Projects, NYC, NY. She has had solo screenings at The MoMA, NYC, NY; The Kitchen, NYC, NY; MoMA PS1, LIC, NY; NYCATE 10-year Anniversary, presented by the School of Art Institute of Chicago and Video Data Bank, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL; Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; Vtape, Toronto, Canada; and in a two-person screening at The MoMA, NYC, NY. She was presented by Participant Inc. in a two-person exhibition at No Soul for Sale at X Initiative, NYC, NY.      Parnes is a 2021 MacDowell Fellow [https://www.macdowell.org/artists/laura-parnes], a 2019 Yaddo Artist in Residence, a 2019 Wave Farm Media Arts Awardee, a 2016 Creative Capital Awardee [https://creative-capital.org/artists/laura-parnes/], a 2014 NYFA recipient, a 2013 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow [http://www.gf.org/dev.gf.org/fellows/laura-parnes/] and has lectured as a visiting artist at numerous institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University and UCLA. She has participated in panels at Yale University, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and MoMA PS1.

DLG404_Art Writer Sarah Cascone's Next Chapter

Subscribe to Sarah Cascone's Newsletter [https://sarahcascone.com/about/] to keep up with art and culture!!! Sarah Cascone [https://sarahcascone.com/] is a widely known and highly respected art writer with a sharp, curious eye and the writing talent to bring her discoveries to life. She was part of the original team that launched ArtNet News [https://news.artnet.com/] in 2014, where she wrote or co-wrote nearly 6,000 articles. Her work has also appeared in The Art Newspaper, Art in America, Hyperallergic, Interview, and other publications. There are so many reasons to appreciate Sarah's work, but for me, it's the way she uncovers some of the best and most innovative art and culture found anywhere. Frankly, I was honored to have Sarah on the show. Her Instagram farewell post about leaving Artnet captures her feelings about this moment of change better than I could — and since we discuss it on the show, I wanted to share a bit of it here. In her post (@sarahecascone, May 3), Sarah described the past two weeks as unlike anything she'd experienced before, and noted that her last day at Artnet News was April 16. She wrote about feeling a complex mix of emotions — grief, sadness, anger, and resentment, but also relief, hope, and excitement for what's next. She spoke with pride about helping launch Artnet News into a trusted, authoritative voice in the art world almost overnight, and reflected warmly on the many colleagues — now close friends — she'd worked alongside since 2014. Sarah's experience has relevance for a lot of us these days, and I was fascinated to hear how she plans to move forward — with a mix of exploration and practical next steps. For someone as accomplished as Sarah, it was genuinely insightful to hear what's next. She already has her own newsletter — sign up here [https://sarahcascone.com/about/] — or you can follow her brand-new Cultured Magazine column, The Overlook, [https://www.culturedmag.com/@/sarah-cascone/] where, as I mentioned, she delivers the gems she uncovers straight to you. Relevant Episode Links: * https://sarahcascone.com/2026/06/why-is-kanye-west-at-art-basel-he-bankrolled-vanessa-beecrofts-new-film/ [https://sarahcascone.com/2026/06/why-is-kanye-west-at-art-basel-he-bankrolled-vanessa-beecrofts-new-film/] * https://thegraymarket.substack.com/p/what-happened-inside-the-artsy-artnet [https://thegraymarket.substack.com/p/what-happened-inside-the-artsy-artnet] 8.2.26

DLG403 Comedian Katerra Borkowski became an adult at a young age.

Katerra Borkowski is an amazingly talented and hardworking comedian, writer and improviser. Katerra’s background is an outlier in the comedy community: she was brought up in foster homes and then eventually got adopted by a white family (she's black) in high school. Resilience people! This is what resilience looks like! I do think that Katerra has some major internal resources: brains and motivation. She also had some encouragement even though her father committed suicide when she was an infant and her mother had serious emotional struggles. Her mother drilled into Katerra that even though Katerra was in this situation with her, that she needed to do better than that. Katerra also had a great shrink from middle school through high school that helped her understand that she'd been failed by adults and where she was in life now was not her fault. Here’s a quote by Katerra from our session: “I mean to credit to my birth mom It was like one of the few things she did right, which is she didn't sugarcoat our situation. So, she was like, she was like, Katerra, I want you to be better than me. I don't I don't want you to struggle and like go through welfare. I don't want you to struggle and like be on public assistance.” BIO: Comedian, Creator, Co-producer, and co-host of @squirtnationpod [https://www.instagram.com/squirtnationpod/], co-producer of @sketchmic.nyc [https://www.instagram.com/sketchmic.nyc/], Comedian. Actor. Writer. Retired poet. Instagram: @katerraborkowskicomedy [https://www.instagram.com/katerraborkowskicomedy/] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@katerraborkowski5846 Katerra is an amazing comdian, writer and improviser. Katerra is an outlyer in the comedy community: she was brought up in foster homes and then eventually got adopted by a white family (she's black) in high school. Resiliance people! This is what it looks like! I do think that Katerra has some major internal rescources: brains and motivation. She also had some encouragement even though her father committed suicide when she was an infant and her mother had serious emotional struggles. Her mother drilled into Katerra that even though Katerra was in this situation with her, you, Katerra ,are better than this situation and you need to do better. Katerra also had a great shrink from Middle school through high school that helped her understand that she'd been failed by adults and where she was in life at the moment was not her fault.

DLG402 Nao Matsumoto talks about being an artist and the rollercoaster of an art career.

Nao Matsumoto [https://naomatsumoto.com/]had a dreamlike ascension as an artist in his 20's, but eventually a lack of sales for his very-expensive-to-make work stalled, so did gallery representation along with it. Today Nao is a a successful wood worker + fabricator, happily married father of 2children 7+9, with an artist wife, Lori and a shared art gallery, Lorimoto. [https://www.lorimoto.com/] We talk about his art practice today, how hiis fabrication feeds him and the long-term affects of his foray into the gallery world. If you want to hear an authentic view of the real ups and downs a professional artist in the art world, Nao shares his experience without hesitation. Check out more about Nao HERE. [https://naomatsumoto.com/] Here's the video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPzvshzOgp8]of me interviewing Nao about his sculpture of cheese that made him a star as well as a hero of the children at the Scope Art Fair 2006. You can also see a very young Eric Doeringer [https://www.ericdoeringer.com/]/selling his "bootlegs" as well.

DLG401 D Nancy Slotkin has a new RFB radio show, DATING CAFE, starting June 21, 3pm!

I was so excited to have brand new Radio Free Brooklyn host, Nancy Slotnick on the show! She's starting a new show, Dating Cafe, Tuesdays, 3-4pm.. Her goal is getting people off the apps to meet IRL. And have a blast doing it!! https://www.cablight.com/about-me BIO: Facilitating Human Connection by means of Breaking Bread Together. Earlier in my career I was the founder and GM of a dating-cafe. Yes, an actual brick and mortar cafe where the dates would happen, and an app that accompanied it. We spawned a lot of marriages and even got on Oprah. I still hear stories of people who found love there- that's the best. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/08/nyregion/personal-ads-draw-love-parched-to-mainly-coffee-bar.html