The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Woody De Othello, Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country

Episode No. 742 features artist Woody De Othello, and artists Jason Garcia, Michael Namingha, and curator Bess Murphy. The Pérez Art Museum Miami is presenting "Woody De Othello: coming forth by day," [https://www.pamm.org/en/exhibition/woody-de-othello-coming-forth-by-day/] a presentation of new ceramic and wood sculptures, tiled wall works, and a large-scale bronze, all of which explore the primordial relationship between body, earth, and spirit. The exhibition was organized by Jennifer Inacio with the support of Fabiana A. Sotillo. It is on view in Miami through June 28 after which it will travel to the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, University of California, Davis. De Othello's [http://woodyothello.com/] sculpture, painting, and drawing often investigate the still life genre. His previous institutional solo exhibition was at The Bowes Museum in the UK. Museums that have featured his work in group shows include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Seattle Art Museum, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The Whitney Museum of American Art included him in its 2022 biennial. Later this year, his work will be featured in a Public Art Fund solo presentation [https://www.publicartfund.org/exhibitions/view/upcoming-2026-exhibitions/] in Brooklyn's Brooklyn Bridge Park. He is an artist trustee of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Garcia and Murphy are the co-curators of "Tewa Nangeh/Tewa Country" [https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/exhibitions/tewa-nangeh-tewa-country/] at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. Namingha is among the 13 artists in the exhibition, 12 of whom are from the six Tewa Pueblos of northern New Mexico (Nambé, Ohkay Owingeh, Pojoaque, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, and Tesuque). "Tewa Nangeh" presents the work of Tewa artists while highlighting O'Keeffe's erasure of Tewa people. It is on view through September 7. Garcia's work is in the collection of museums such as the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Namingha's [https://www.michaelnamingha.com/] work is also on view through April 5 at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe in "Essential Elements: Art, Environment, and Indigenous Futures." [https://www.indianartsandculture.org/current?&eventID=6970] The El Paso Museum of Art and the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe have featured solo exhibitions of his work; he's been in group shows at museums such as the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. Instagram: Woody De Othello [https://www.instagram.com/woodyothello/], Jason Garcia [https://www.instagram.com/okuu.pin.studio/], Michael Namingha [https://www.instagram.com/mnamingha/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks] Air date: January 22, 2026.

Robert Therrien, Gabriella Nugent

Episode No. 741 features curator Ed Schad and critic Gabriella Nugent. Schad is the curator of "Robert Therrien: This is a Story" [https://www.thebroad.org/art/special-exhibitions/robert-therrien-story] at The Broad in Los Angeles. The retrospective presents Therrien's meditations on scale and material, while revealing Therrien's repeatedly mined vocabulary of forms and symbols. The exhibition is on view through April 5. The Broad published a fine catalogue to accompany the show. Amazon [https://amzn.to/4jGC3ep] and Bookshop [https://bookshop.org/p/books/robert-therrien-this-is-a-story-darby-english/0a8fd986fc658e6d?ean=9781636811819&next=t] offer it for $50-55. Nugent [https://gabriellanugent.com/] is a London-based art historian and curator who routinely publishes essays in Burlington Contemporary and Art Monthly. She particularly discusses her recent essay "On the problem of artists' biographies in exhibitions," [https://contemporary.burlington.org.uk/articles/articles/on-the-problem-of-artists-biographies-in-exhibitions] which was published in Burlington Contemporary in December 2025. Instagram: Ed Schad [https://www.instagram.com/icallitoranges/], Gabriella Nugent [https://www.instagram.com/gabriellanugent/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks/] Air date: January 15, 2026.

Firelei Báez, Black photojournalism

Episode No. 740 features artist Firelei Báez and curators Charlene Foggie-Barnett and Dan Leers. The MCA Chicago is presenting "Firelei Báez," [https://visit.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/firelei-baez-2/] the first North American mid-career survey of the artist's paintings and installations. Báez's work often explores the legacies of colonialism across the American and the African diaspora, in the Caribbean, and beyond. Her works are often explosively colorful and use complex and layered materials, including archival material and paint, to unsettle fixed categories and historical events. The exhibition was curated by Eva Respini with Tessa Bachi Haas; the MCA Chicago presentation was organized by Carla Acevedo-Yates with Cecelia González Godino and Iris Colburn. It is on view through May 31. A catalogue was published by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston in association with DelMonico Books. It is available from Amazon [https://amzn.to/3YZePGS] and Bookshop [https://bookshop.org/p/books/firelei-b-ez-daniella-rose-king/683afab2be51174e?ean=9781636811253&next=t] for $36-56. Institutions that have previously presented major Báez exhibitions include the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, The Momentary in Bentonville, Ark., the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Pérez Art Museum Miami. Foggie-Barnett and Leers are the co-curators of "Black Photojournalism" [https://carnegieart.org/exhibition/black-photojournalism/] at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. The exhibition presents work by nearly 60 photographers chronicling historic events and daily life in the United States between 1945 and 1984. The exhibition was designed by David Hartt. It is on view through January 19, before traveling to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth. An excellent catalogue was published by the Carnegie. Amazon [https://amzn.to/3N7zHJA] and Bookshop [https://bookshop.org/p/books/black-photojournalism-deborah-willis/1b1f93379e2fe32b?ean=9780880390767&next=t] offer it for about $60. In addition to the video below, the CMOA has produced an outstanding podcast series [https://carnegieart.org/black-photojournalism-podcast/] to accompany the show. Instagram: Firelei Báez [https://www.instagram.com/fireleibaez/], Charlene Foggie-Barnett [https://www.instagram.com/oldfoggie5/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks/]

Holiday clips: Dara Birnbaum

Episode No. 739 is a holiday clips episode featuring artist Dara Birnbaum. Birnbaum, a pioneering titan of video art, passed away this year at 78. "Her work is now displayed in museum collections around the world as the example of feminist video art," wrote curator and critic Karen Archey in an Artforum obituary. [https://www.artforum.com/columns/dara-birnbaum-obituary-karen-archey-1234733717/] Birnbaum's work often included pointedly feminist critiques of mass media, including of entertainment and journalism. Retrospectives of her work include "The Dark Matter of Media Light" at SMAK, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent, Belgium, and at the Serralves Foundation in Porto, Portugal, and "Dara Birnbaum Retrospective exhibition" at the Kunsthalle Wien in Austria and at the Norrtalje Konsthall in Sweden. Several of the Birnbaums discussed on this program are available online, including: * Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman [http://ubu.com/film/birnbaum_technology.html] (1978-79); * Kiss The Girls: Make Them Cry [http://www.vdb.org/titles/kiss-girls-make-them-cry] (1979) (clip); * Canon: Taking to the Street [http://www.vdb.org/titles/canon-taking-street] (1990) (clip); and * Walkthrough of Psalm 29(30) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65PdO4Dyf58] (2016) at Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris. This program was recorded in 2017 when Dara Birnbaum's Local TV News Analysis (1980), which Birnbaum made with Dan Graham, was included in "Breaking News: Turning the Lens on Mass Media," [http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/breaking_news/index.html] at the J. Paul Getty Museum. The exhibition examined how artists have used newspapers, magazines and televised news programs to consider media, news and the messages included therein. The exhibition was curated by Arpad Kovacs. Air date: January 1, 2026.

Holiday clips: Wafaa Bilal

Episode No. 738 is a holiday clips episode featuring artist Wafaa Bilal. Earlier this year the MCA Chicago presented "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. 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 2015 Venice Biennale. For images, please see Episode No. 704. [https://manpodcast.com/portfolio/no-704-wafaa-bilal/] Instagram: Wafaa Bilal [https://www.instagram.com/wafaabilal/], Tyler Green. [https://www.instagram.com/tylergreenbooks/]