The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Episode No. 704 features artist Wafaa Bilal. The MCA Chicago is presenting "Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me," [https://visit.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/wafaa-bilal-indulge-me/] the first major survey of Bilal's [https://wafaabilal.com/] work. Across his genres-busting career, the Iraqi-American Bilal has made performances, sculptures and related digital presentations that have interrogated the United States' relationship with and conduct within Iraq, the Middle East, and broader geopolitics. Bilal's work also investigates the notion of cultural cannibalism, the ways in which the culture of one people may be used, disassembled, and consumed by another. "Indulge Me" was curated by Bana Kattan, and is on view in Chicago through October 19. An invaluable catalogue was published by the MCA. Amazon [https://amzn.to/42VvgWz] and Bookshop [https://bookshop.org/p/books/wafaa-bilal-indulge-me/b0ddb112a83649ef?ean=9781636811574&next=t] offer it for $20-32. Bilal's work is in the collections of museums as unalike as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art Qatar. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah UAE; the Art Gallery at NYU Abu Dhabi; and the 32015 Venice Biennale. Instagram: Wafaa Bilal [https://www.instagram.com/wafaabilal/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks/]

Episode No. 703 features artist Dakota Mace and curator Claire Howard. SITE Santa Fe is showing "Dakota Mace: DAHODIYINII—SACRED PLACES," [https://www.sitesantafe.org/en/exhibitions/dakota-mace/] an investigation of an atrocity during which the United States expelled the Diné people from Dinétah, their ancestral homeland, and forced them to march as many as 400 miles to the Bosque Redondo in central-eastern New Mexico, where they were forced to remain in a concentration camp from 1864-68. The exhibition is organized into themes such as memory, land, and the stars; with each section of the show considering Diné cosmology. The exhibition, which is on view through May 19, was curated by Brandee Caoba. Mace [https://www.dakotamace.com/] is also featured in "Smoke in Our Hair: Native Memory and Unsettled Time" [https://www.hrm.org/exhibitions/smoke-in-our-hair/] at the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY. The exhibition examines how Native artists have explored memory and time, including how the past is continually remembered and reimagined. It was curated by Sháńdíín Brown and will remain on view through August 31, 2025. "Smoke in Our Hair" features previous MAN Podcast guests such as Saif Azzuz [https://manpodcast.com/portfolio/no-638-saif-azzuz-maryam-taghavi/], Teresa Baker [https://manpodcast.com/portfolio/no-627-erica-mahinay-teresa-baker/], and Andrea Carlson. [https://manpodcast.com/portfolio/no-677-andrea-carlson/] Series of Mace's work discussed on the program and presented in full on her website include: * Dahodiyinii [https://www.dakotamace.com/dahodiyinii]; * Distorted Landscapes [https://www.dakotamace.com/distorted-landscapes]; * Łichíí (Red) Series [https://www.dakotamace.com/ichii]; and * Akágí (Skin) [https://brucesilverstein.com/artists/234-dakota-mace/series/akagi-%28skin%29/]. Host Tyler Green mentions two books on the program: * Hardship, Greed, and Sorrow: An Officer's Photo Album of 1866 New Mexico Territory [https://amzn.to/4cNTAOD], by Daniel Kosharek and Deborah Romanek, with a forward by Jennifer Nez Dennetdale; * Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache [https://amzn.to/4lDkfBA], by Keith Basso. Howard is the curator of one section of "In Creative Harmony: Three Artistic Partnerships" [https://blantonmuseum.org/exhibition/in-creative-harmony-three-artistic-partnerships/] an exhibition that considers artistic discourse, at the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin. Howard's section considers the relationship between Arshile Gorky and Isamu Noguchi. Other sections present dialogue between Nora Naranjo Morse and her daughter Eliza Naranjo Morse and José Guadalupe Posada and Artemio Rodríguez. It's on view through July 20. Instagram: Dakota Mace [https://www.instagram.com/dmaceart/], Claire Howard [https://www.instagram.com/lunar_asparagus/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks/]

Episode No. 702 is a holiday weekend clips episode featuring artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles is presenting "María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold" [https://www.getty.edu/exhibitions/campos-pons/] through May 4. It is the first multimedia survey of Campos-Pons’ work in 17 years. The exhibition spotlights Campos-Pons’ photography, installation, and performance-based practices, which typically address global histories of enslavement, indentured labor, motherhood, and migration — and how their impacts continue into the present. It was curated by Carmen Hermo and Mazie Harris with Jenée-Daria Strand. It is accompanied by a catalogue published by the Getty and the Brooklyn Museum. Amazon [https://amzn.to/4azEae4] and Bookshop [https://bookshop.org/p/books/maria-magdalena-campos-pons-behold-carmen-hermo/20045033?ean=9781606068588] offer it for $33-42. This program was taped on the occasion of the exhibition's presentation at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in 2024. For images, please see Episode No. 656. [https://manpodcast.com/portfolio/no-656-maria-magdalena-campos-pons-early-southern-quilts/]

Episode No. 701 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curator Scott Allan, and curators Will Hansen and River Ian Kerstetter. With Gloria Groom and Paul Perrin, Allan is the co-curator of "Gustave Caillebotte: Painting Men" [https://www.getty.edu/exhibitions/caillebotte/] at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. The exhibition, which is on view through May 25, looks at how Caillebotte's interest in male subjects significantly distinguishes him from his impressionist colleagues. A fine exhibition catalogue was published by the Getty. Amazon [https://amzn.to/3EenVZL] and Bookshop [https://bookshop.org/p/books/gustave-caillebotte-painting-men-scott-allan/21428756?ean=9781606069448&next=t] offer it for about $50-58. Hansen and Kerstetter are the curators of "Native Pop!" [https://www.newberry.org/calendar/native-pop] at the Newberry Library, Chicago. "Native Pop" examines how Indigenous people, and art by and of them, are central to the story of our popular culture. The exhibition is on view through July 19. Instagram: Scott Allan [https://www.instagram.com/scallan75/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks/]

Episode No. 700 (!) features artist Tarrah Krajnak and curator Jennifer Raab. Krajnak is featured in two exhibitions on opposite sides of the United States. At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Krajnak is featured in "Around Group f.64: Legacies and Counterhistories in Bay Area Photography" [https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/around-group-f-64-legacies-and-counterhistories-in-bay-area-photography/] through July 13. The exhibition was curated by Shana Lopes, Erin O’Toole, and Delphine Sims, with Sally Katz and Alex Landry. At the International Center of Photography, New York, Kraynak's work is included in "To Conjure: New Archives in Recent Photography." [https://www.icp.org/exhibitions/to-conjure-new-archives-in-recent-photography] Organized by Sara Ickow, Keisha Scarville, and Elisabeth Sherman, the exhibition presents the ways in which seven photographers are reimagining what an archive can be, or might look like. A third US exhibition of Krajnak's work opens April 16 [https://fryemuseum.org/exhibitions/boren-banner-series-tarrah-krajnak] at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle. It will be curated by Georgia Erger. Krajnak [https://tarrahkrajnak.com/] works between photography, performance, and poetry. Krajnak, who was born in Peru to an Indigenous mother and who was raised by a transracial US family, often interrogates photography standards and finds that they have limited women, and furthered the violent loss of Native land, lives, and rights. She has won most major photography prizes; her work is in the collections of museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Tate Modern, London; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; and the Museum Ludwig, Cologne. Raab is the author of "Relics of War: The History of a Photograph" [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179971/relics-of-war] from Princeton University Press. It examines a photograph made by Clara Barton and published by Matthew Brady that features relics from the notorious Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia. "Relics of War" traces how the photograph was a central part of Barton's work of addressing mass death and related grief. Amazon [https://amzn.to/4i8Xq64] and Bookshop [https://bookshop.org/p/books/relics-of-war-the-history-of-a-photograph-jennifer-raab/20921987?ean=9780691179971&next=t] offer it for $42-59. Instagram: Tarrah Krajnak [https://www.instagram.com/tarrahkrajnak_studio/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks]