The Modern Art Notes Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Episode No. 726 features artist Danielle Joy Mckinney.

The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University is presenting "Danille Mckinney: Tell Me More" through January 4, 2026. The exhibition, Mckinney's first solo presentation in a US museum, spotlights Mckinney's introspective explorations of Black womanhood. It was curated by Gannit Ankori. Concurrently, Galerie Max Hetzler is presenting Mckinney's work in "Second Wind" in London through November 1.

Mckinney has been featured in exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and many more. Her work is in the collection of museums such as the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.

Instagram: Danielle Joy Mckinney, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 725 features curators Philip Brookman and Deborah Willis (and a cameo, of sorts, from artist Anthony Barboza).

Brookman and Willis are the co-curators of "Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-85" at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The exhibition considers photography's engagement with the post-war cultural and aesthetic movement that celebrated Black history, identity, and beauty, and which often influenced the broader civil rights movement of which it was a part. The exhibition features 150 works from photographers and other artists who used photography in their work, such as in collage or assemblage. It is on view through January 11, 2026. An excellent catalogue was published by the NGA In association with Yale University Press. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $60.

Instagram: Philip Brookman, Anthony Barboza, Deborah Willis, Tyler Green.

Air date: September 25, 2025.

Episode No. 716 features curator Eleanor Nairne and artist Francesca Fuchs.

With Wells Fray-Smith, Nairne is the co-curator of "Noah Davis," an eponymous retrospective at the Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles. Davis, who passed away from a rare cancer in 2015 at age 32, was a painter whose work addressed current affairs, every day life, family histories, and architecture. Davis often addressed the subjects that interested him by fusing his interest in art history to his interest in vernacular sources, such as flea market photographs or personal archives. The exhibition is on view through August 31. A catalogue is available from Prestel. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $33-46.

The Menil Collection, Houston is presenting "The Space Between Looking and Loving: Francesca Fuchs and the de Menil House" through November 2. The exhibition starts, as it were, in 1970, when John de Menil wrote to German classical archeologist Dr. Werner Fuchs (1927–2016) seeking to identify the subject of a Roman male torso in his collection. Forty-nine years later, Francesca Fuchs’s discovery of the black-and-white photographs John de Menil sent to her father that depict the marble torso led Fuchs to find the original letter in the museum archives. "The Space Between" presents Fuchs's response to the unanswered letter and familial collection through Fuchs' own paintings, selections from the Menil's collection and archives, and more. The exhibition was curated by Paul R. Davis.

• As mentioned on the program:
• See Francesca Fuchs' letter to John de Menil (also below); and
• Fuchs' 2013 exhibition at Texas Gallery.

Instagram: Francesca Fuchs, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 715 features artist Kandis Williams.

The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis is presenting "Kandis Williams: A Surface," the first survey of Williams' career. The exhibition spotlights how Williams has used collage as a tool of Black feminist resistance, to dismantle entrenched histories and power structures, and to rebuild dominant narratives. The exhibition, which was curated by Taylor Jasper with Laurel Rand-Lewis, is on view through August 24. The exhibition catalogue was published by the Walker. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for around $45.

Williams is also included in "Performance on Paper" at the Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles. It features prints and drawings created at the intersection of music and dance by about twenty artists active from the 1960s to the present. It was curated by Naoko Takahatake with Jennie Waldow, and is on view through August 10.

Williams' previous museum solo exhibition was at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Virginia Commonwealth University. They have been included in group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and in the Hammer Museum's Made in LA biennial.

Instagram: Kandis Williams, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 714 features curator and art historian Jonathan D. Katz and curators Allison Kemmerer and Gordon Wilkins.

With Johnny Willis, Katz is the co-curator of "The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939" at Wrightwood 659, Chicago. The exhibition details the emergence of a significant change in how societies around the world regarded homosexuality in the wake of the coining of the term 'homosexual' in 1869, and the ways in which images have represented a range of identities ever since. It is on view through July 26. The fascinating exhibition catalogue was published by Monacelli. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $70-75.

Kemmerer and Wilkins are the curators of "June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart" at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Mass. The exhibition surveys a 75-year career during which Leaf explored the human experience in works that are layered, whimsical, playful, and sometimes dark. It is on view through July 31. The Addison, the Grey Art Museum, New York University, and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College co-published the exhibition catalogue with Rizzoli. It is available from Amazon and Bookshop for $42-60.

Episode No. 713 is a Fourth of July weekend clips episode featuring artist Carmen Winant.

This episode was taped in 2023 on the occasion of the Minneapolis Institute of Art's presentation of Winant’s “The last safe abortion” through December 31. It features Winant’s assemblages of historical photographs gathered from across the Midwest that detail the work of providing health care to women. That work includes answering phones, presenting training sessions, scheduling appointments, and more. “The last safe abortion” was curated by Casey Riley.

Winant’s work typically explores representations of women through strategies such as collage and installation. Her exhibition credits include the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Sculpture Center, Queens, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, and many venues in Europe.

For images, see Episode No. 621.

Instagram: Carmen Winant, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 712 features artist Julian Hoeber and curator María Elena Ortiz.

Hoeber is included in "Generations: 150 Years of Sculpture" at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas. The exhibition offers a new selection of works from the Nasher collection that offers conversations between works from the past and present.

Hoeber's practice centers perception and searches for ways to exceed and reconcile limits set by binary ideas such as interior and exterior, or psychic and somatic. Paradoxically, he often uses binary systems, such as stereoscopic vision, in his work. His exhibition credits include Desert X 2019, a Hammer Projects show in 2010, and gallery shows in San Francisco, New York, Milan, Los Angeles, London, and more. His work is in the collection of museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Hammer Museum, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. 

Ortiz is the curator of "Feeling Color: Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. "Feeling Color" pairs the work of two Guyanese artists and considers their roles in the history of late-twentieth-century abstract painting. "Feeling Color" is on view through July 27.

Instagram: Julian Hoeber, María Elena Ortiz, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 711 is a summer clips episode featuring artist Patrick Martinez.

Martinez is among the artists showing in the Boston Public Art Triennial, which was developed by Pedro Alonzo, Tess Lukey, and a(n unspecified) curatorial advisory group. Martinez's 2025 Cost of Living may be seen at Boston's Downtown Crossing.

Martinez is a Los Angeles-based painter whose work investigates socio-economic position, immigration, police violence, and civic and cultural loss. He’s had solo shows at museums and kunsthalles such as the ICA San Francisco, the Tucson (Ariz.) Museum of Art, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Vincent Price Art Museums. He’s been in recent group shows at the Riverside (Calif.) Art Museum, The Broad, Los Angeles, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Ark., and El Museo del Barrio, New York. Martinez also operates Mixed Media Editions.

This program was taped in 2024 on the occasion of “Patrick Martinez: Histories” at the Dallas Contemporary. For images, see Episode No. 649.

Instagram: Patrick Martinez, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 710 features curator Timothy Anglin Burgard and artist Tony Lewis.

Burgard is the curator of "Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art" at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The exhibition details how Thiebaud drew ideas from and reimagined European and US artworks both old and new. It is on view through August 17. A superb catalogue was published by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in association with University of California Press. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $54-60.

Lewis is featured in "What drawing can be: four responses" at the Menil Collection's Menil Drawing Institute, Houston. The exhibition, which also offers work by Jillian Conrad, Teresita Fernández, and Constantin Luser, presents ways in which the four artists stretch the boundaries of drawing and offer new ideas of what it can be. It's on view through August 10. The gallery guide is available here.

Lewis’ work examines the relationship between semiotics and language as a means to confront subjects such as race, power, communication, and labor. His solo exhibition credits include the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, and the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University. His work is in the collection of museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Instagram: Tony Lewis, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 709 features author Adrienne L. Childs and curator Iris Moon.

Childs is the author of "Ornamental Blackness: The Black Figure in European Decorative Arts." The book, which was published by Yale University Press, examines the role decorative arts played in the representation of Black people within European visual and material culture. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $44-78.

From the show:

• The exhibition guide to the 2022-23 Henry Moore Institute exhibition "Race, Sexuality and Disorder in Victorian Sculpture," which Childs co-curated.

Moon is the curator of "Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The exhibition is a feminist construction of the story of European porcelain. Chinese porcelain arrived in early modern Europe and led to the emergence of chinoiserie, a decorative style that foregrounded European fantasies about the East and the exotic, as well as about women, sexuality, and race. It is on view through August 17. The exhibition catalogue was published by the Met. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $35.

Instagram: Adrienne Childs, Tyler Green.