Now an AWARD WINNING PODCAST, Exhibitionistas was born to expand the experience of art into wider spaces of conversation.
It pushes the boundaries of the sound and visual potential of experimental podcasting to convey deep, fascinating experiences of art from the perspective of the artist, the curator, an you, the spectator.
Prompted by a question, each episode follows a surprising path onto an urgent topic, a unique exhibition, a fantastic book, or an artist studio. It reminds you that contemporary art and life are intertwined.
Mid-journey, "Art Etiquette" offers a short break where a new guest surprises Joana with their own question about art. Between a Socratic dialogue and a boozy chinwag.
And finally, to finish the episode with aplomb, comes "Brainstorm in a Teacup" where Joana reads notes from the week's writings, which she has described as "too interesting to miss out on, but too weird to for an episode".
A warning: We don't shy away from philosophy, books in general, reading out loud, pre-history, maverick language or etymology, feelings, stories, uncertainty and art theory.
Joana P. R. Neves is an art writer and curator, co-founder and director of the art & residency space Worlding, and artistic director of Drawing Now Paris.
Paula do Prado, “Tejedora” | What Stories–and Histories–Resurface in Her Textile Art? | Contemporary Artist Interviews
Episode 64
Monday, September 21, 2026 • Duration 01:25:36
What if weaving released untold stories? And how does textile art with such narrative yet abstract powers fit into contemporary art and its traditionally European systems? Joana’s conversation with contemporary artist Paula do Prado takes unexpected turns and spreads across at least 3 different continents–if not more. What influence did the lost language of the Charrúa people and her Uruguayan past and lineage have on her work? Or, rather, is it even possible to locate the intuitive, dreamt and compulsive patterns and figures that emerge from her fingers, without any preconceived sketches or pre-established patterns?
This episode is a partnership with Worlding, a non-profit co-founded by our host, Joana P. R. Neves, in Elephant and Castle, London. Paula do Prado’s Residency is a proposal by Adelaide Bannerman / Never Done. The artist’s residency is supported by Creative Australia.
Paula do Prado is represented by Station Australia and is current a studio resident at Artspace, Woolloomoloo. Following her Worlding residency, Paula will hold her first institutional show as part of the Artspace x Art Gallery of New South Wales Co-Commission as part of the Contemporary Arts Project Space, Art Gallery of New South Wales 28 November 2026 to 14 February 2027. See more https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/paula-do-prado/
To know more about Worlding, visit the website: www.worldingproject.com/
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats.
Bonus Episode – The Embodied Art of Reading Aloud – Poem Delivery Service
Episode 63
Monday, September 14, 2026 • Duration 33:42
There are pockets of creativity in our everyday life. The embodied art of READING ALOUD is an overlooked source of joy, containing so many aspects that contemporary art and artists explore in their practice... Performance, drawing, text, breathing patterns... It all starts with Joana P. R. Neves, our host, asking what the body can do by itself, or with very little assistance, inspired by the last episode dedicated to artist Ana Mendieta. This is also our way of introducing the upcoming bonus mini-series POEM DELIVERY SERVICE, a poem-per-episode... with a twist. Mentions of: #anthonymccall#eteladnan#emilydickinson#gerhardrichter#rebeccahorn#jimjarmush and more...
Ana Mendieta | Earth and Feminist Art Embodied at Tate Modern Exhibition
Episode 62
Tuesday, September 8, 2026 • Duration 01:09:45
What does the artist’s body do? No one pushes us to ask this more than the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta. Her excavated silhouettes in the landscape, where her body would at times lie, covered with petals or feathers, are but one of the actions and rituals that she performed during her short career. What did occur in her own body? Community? Communion? What was the origin and the purpose of her embodied art? And what is the medium for this kind of art, happening in and with the body of the artist?
Celebrated for being a visionary eco-feminist, an activist against violence women, Ana Mendieta’s work is often obliterated by the sensationalism around it. The exhibition at Tate Modern feels like meeting the artist for the first time. For more info: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/ana-mendieta
Esther Stanford, is the co-host of award winning podcast Limited Time Only (with Susie Riddell, WINNER: ‘BEST COMEDY MOMENT’ International Women In Podcast Awards 2025 sponsored by BBC SOUNDS), she is a sketch and TV writer. You can find her on Instagram, on YouTube, March House, a channel she has just launched where you can also find her podcast Conversations with Creatives. Or simply her website: ww.estherstanford.co.uk.
Surprise Bonus Episode | The Way: What Ursula K. Le Guin's Favourite Book Uncovered | Art and Literature Edition
Episode 62
Tuesday, August 25, 2026 • Duration 28:25
We have great news! We're an Award Winning Podcast–Women Who Podcast award in the LGBTQIA+ category
Bonus Episode: Le Guin / Indigenous History / Lao Tzu / and more...
What was Ursula K. Le Guin's favourite book, and what did it uncover about the revered author's world-building and family legacy?
When she was a guest on the podcast, art Curator Catherine Li brought in a revelation about Ursula K. Le Guin's favourite book, tied in with her family's history, which didn’t make it to the final cut. Here it is for you, as a little end of Summer bonus, while we prepare the rentrée with panache.
This reminded our host, art curator and writer Joana P. R. Neves, about a traumatic episode in Le Guin's family and close peer circle, which reflects indigenous trauma and the hidden history of the USA that was certainly crucial for Le Guin's worldview.
For a tiered support for less than 1£ / 1€, go to Patreon–exclusive content coming up soon: https://www.patreon.com/c/exhibitionistaspodcast/membership
With a short reading from the The Wave in the Mind, Le Guin's collection of essays about writing, reading and more, and of the Tao Te Ching / text 48, translated by Le Guin.
Become a member of Art Thinkosaurus on Substack and expand your Exhibitionistas experience with Joana's writing: https://joanaprneves.substack.com/subscribe
[Unpublished segment of Joana's conversation with art curator Catherine Li around the writer Ursula K' Le Guin's seminal text The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction with a few quick curiosities that shed a different light on the science fiction author.]
Creative Flow | The Artifice of Summer in Art and Life | Climate, Desire and Loss
Episode 61
Tuesday, August 11, 2026 • Duration 33:08
How and why do art and Summer join forces? Art, and visual arts especially, show imminent change–but so does Summer and its ideal of creative flow. How did–or did not–art speak of the climate emergency, gender policing, the war–in short, of loss? What role does this hot and luscious season play in the hubris of conquest, or the black hole of grief? Art curator and writer Joana P. R. Neves, our host, reminisces about Agnes Martin and John Cheever, and their opposing ideas of Summer and of creation, touching on two paintings by David Hockney and a poignant text by Luigi Pirandello. Joana loved a text sent to her by its author, Vittorio Zappa, on Substack, that guided the last part of the episode, leading to its denouement.
Is Summer the season of creative flow of life and art making, full of light and sensorial stimuli? Is creativity about desire or meditative art? Or are all these myths, perpetuated by capitalist simplifications? Has art contributed to create them? Or has it always been alerting us to the cruelty of change via Art Wonderment, the art of paradox?
The painting A Bigger Splash, 1967, by David Hockney, is the epitome of hubristic summer. But it hides another painting, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with two figures), 1972, with a far more poignant story: they both tell the extremes of summer, and investigate the very special artifice telling a story of desire, change, loss and healing?
Joana P. R. Neves reads a text by Vittorio Zappa: https://substack.com/@vittoriozappa/p-209760240
Other references include:
The Swimmer, John Cheever, 1964, New Yorker.
Rachel Cusk | Can Men Be (Good) Artists? | Art & Literature edition
Episode 60
Tuesday, July 28, 2026 • Duration 53:27
Writer Rachel Cusk asked: "Can a Woman who is an Artist Ever Just Be an Artist?" (NYT). Our host Joana, your favourite contemporary art writer and curator, turns this question of gender and skill on its head: can men be (good) artists? Cusk's book "Parade" (2024) is this Art & Literature episode book of choice to tackle the issue. Can art and life be a continuous flow for female artists, as it seems to be for male ones?
Joana embarks on an art and feminism quest: is gender a prison? Or is it the forceful power of the patriarchy's creative flow? She is helped by living and fictional contemporary artists and writers, intersectional feminism, and philosophy of art via Vilem Flusser and his "theory of gestures".
Art and Feminism claim to walk hand in hand, but what if the structure of the art system itself was an inheritance of archaic patriarchal systems? The famous artist Georg Baselitz, who passed away this year, is a central figure in Cusk's book "Parade". Was he a product or an instigator of the system? And what is the patriarchal system? How and where does it manifest? And finally, where are modern men now, within this system that seems to block creative flow and artistic expression?
Art Criticism | Does it Still Matter? An Art Curator's Honest Reckoning
Episode 59
Monday, July 13, 2026 • Duration 56:56
Art criticism is vanishing from mainstream media, but here's the uncomfortable question: does art and culture still need critics? Our host, Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer, examines why critics are leaving big outlets without being replaced—and what this means for art criticism, artistic quality assessment, curatorial etiquette, and the future of art evaluation itself. What is art criticism actually for? And where does Joana's feminist critique of critique lead to? And who decides what's good art now? Or, rather, is “good art” the yardstick by which art experiences should be measured?
Joana explores 3 questions in this episode: What is Art Criticism? Who reads it and who or what does art criticism serve? And finally, what is her own relation with it as someone who admittedly is not fond of the genre?
Art question: what can we do to accommodate visitors and make their exhibition experience enjoyable while preserving art etiquette?
Soon: Bonus – full length Art Etiquette episodes.
Segment: Brainstorm in a Teacup:
Come for the art, stay for the creative writing segment, where Joana reads short texts from her notebooks exposing her inner thoughts and odd fictional flash writing.
Art Wonderment Manifesto | ft Lao Tzu, Susanna Inglada, Fernando Pessoa's Best Heteronym
Episode 58
Monday, June 29, 2026 • Duration 45:29
AI is forcing us to define what being human is. So, did our host, an art curator and writer, dare to create a Manifesto? Awkward? Or are we not used to women proclaiming things? How can art–seemingly at the brink of commodification–bear new forms of being human? Or is does it spotlight you, art wanderer? The self-help book "Tiny Experiments " by Anne-Laure Le Cunff sparked this art question: why did it excite such a meditative exploration of the role of art, and its urgent proclamation? Tune in to find out.
What else to do when we live in a society of images, but don't know what they are? In Joana's words: "Art Wonderment is me, howling, in recognition, in celebration, in fear, in respect, in defiance." Read the rest of her text here because a podcast episode is not the same beast as a text. The complete experience combines the two.
With the wonderful Catalan artist Susanna INGLADA; the timeless wisdom of LAO TZU's Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula K. LE GUIN–, the most innovative Portuguese poet, Fernando PESSOA and his mind blowing creation of more than 100 heteronyms (poets he invented with a persona, a life, and their own authored poetry), amongst which the most extreme of them all, Alberto Caeiro.
Art question: why is contemporary art not considered art?
Art Copies v Originals | Is Art Wonderment Possible with a Reproduction of an Art Work?
Episode 57
Monday, June 15, 2026 • Duration 57:28
As an art curator and writer, our host is often faced with printed or digital art portfolios – does this art digital hygiene go against art etiquette? Is art appreciation valid, or even possible through a copy of an art work? Through art images in a book? This issue hides a bigger one: how do you experience art if you live in a country far from the big museums and collections? Our host gets candid and starts with a personal anecdote–she's not always lived in London...
This ‘art anxiety’ is reinforced by the concept, coined by the German thinker Walter Benjamin, of “the aura”, the "here and now of the work of art" understood as a defense of the unique art experiences ‘in the flesh’. The episode relies on his seminal book, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", and asks the following art questions: how does one experience art in spaces where there isn't any? How important is art as an object? If the art object ceases to be important, then what does art become?
What if we’d failed to see what Benjamin alerts us to in his seminal art book "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"? What if mass reproduction of images brought an art liberation? What is preserving the here and now of the aesthetic experience was a form of gatekeeping? And how can we read the concept of aura today?
Time for Digital Hygiene | Why Analog Art Wonderment is Required Online
Episode 56
Monday, June 1, 2026 • Duration 50:07
Art curator, writer and host Joana P. R. Neves, asks the ultimate art question of art questions: could art appreciation be a powerful combination of the analog and the digital? Even stranger: how does it hinge on the meaning of word "wonder" and "wander"? In a nutshell, are we in need of art digital hygiene? Is Art Wonderment the response to the decline of 20th century art criticism? As ever, Joana gets candid and exposes her own journey into the art digital spaces and social digital platforms?
Art and culture go hand in hand in this episode. But what does Wordsworth's poetry have to do with art philosophy? And why is it connecte with Agnes Martin's meditative exploration of life and art? Learn about real art etiquette, plus the night Joana's curated performance went viral and Snoop Dogg reposted it. A new era. A new episode structure. New segments. Your art theory explained through unexpected perspective shifts.
Come for the art, stay for the creative writing segment, where Joana reads short texts from her notebooks exposing her inner thoughts and odd fictional flash writing.
Music by Sarturn.
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Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats.
Come for the art, stay for the creative writing segment, where Joana reads short texts from her notebooks exposing her inner thoughts and unexpected fictional / poetic / non-fiction / flash writing.
Jingle: "Wunder", experimental poem by Joana P. R. Neves.
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats.
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats.
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats.
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats.
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats.
Come for the art, stay for the creative writing–segment, Brainstorm in a Teacup, where Joana reads short texts from her notebooks exposing her inner thoughts and strange fictional flash writing.
Jingle: "Wunder", experimental poem by Joana P. R. Neves.
00:00:00 - Intro: A Different Start + Featured Artist Susanna Inglada 00:02:06 - The Self-Help trap 00:13:36 - Art Wonderment Manifesto 00:19:26 - Art Etiquette with S. Moore: why is contemporary art not considered art? 00:28:25 - Art Wonderment Manifesto – Holding the paradox wit artist Susanna Inglada 00:33:07 - The mysterious life of Portugal’s most intriguing poet, Fernando Pessoa 00:42:06 - Brainstorm in a Teacup 00:43:55 - A message, a rant, a call for voice notes, a see you soon
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats.
Art question: why is contemporary art not considered art?
Soon: Bonus – full length Art Etiquette episodes.
Come for the art, stay for the creative writing–segment, Brainstorm in a Teacup, where Joana reads short texts from her notebooks exposing her inner thoughts and strange fictional flash writing.
Jingle: "Wunder", experimental poem by Joana P. R. Neves.
Interested in Worlding, my art space & residency in London?
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats.
The article where I mention Katy Hessel’s strange Art Self Help Book, Art as Function, Automatic Education, and Self-Care: the Politics of Culture Replaced by the Commodification of Creativity: https://substack.com/@joanaprneves/p-190450394
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats.
