episode 39: coolin with Jayvn Solomon
cool WIP
This is a first. We are sitting down with Jayvn Solomon, the FIRST EVER Creative Strategist for the City of St. Louis. We’re talkin’ effecting change, solving puzzles, Loutopia, designing place, systems architecture, the high school question, the lore of the county, carving out the space you want in the world, dodging nouns, public art, humility, wayfinding, Dunbar’s number, and codifying art and creative placemaking as legitimate vehicles for changing the way we leverage and interact with civic systems. We’re so grateful to Jayvn for this conversation, for being...
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cool WIP episode 38: coolin with Cami Cruz Thomas
cool WIP
An absolute force. We are sitting down with one of the most powerful storytellers in St. Louis, Cami Cruz Thomas, producer, director, advocate and owner of the film production company My Friends and I. We’re talkin’ Red Brick, Blue Tarp, 90 second love letters, visual brain worms, poetry as process, grit, surrendering to the thing inside that wants to be heard, cross-country, Red Bull, freedom in the night to try something new, leaps of faith, mutual aid, leadership, dual citizenship across St. Louis, the Ferguson uprising, Ferdinand’s Guide to Grief, the people’s response to the May...
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cool WIP episode 37: coolin with James McAnally
cool WIP
It’s Coyote Time. We are sitting down with one of St. Louis’s most influential figures… a man-of-many-hyphens, James McAnally, the executive director of Counterpublic. We’re talkin’ triennials, Coyote Time, punk houses, building institutions, defects of character, St. Louis as the bullion cube of America, critics in crisis, the origins of Counterpublic, Sugar Loaf mound, public relations, bread and puppets, mechanisms of scaling, Circus of Life, vernacular academia [who is she?], burn-out, programming the Mississippi River, creative capital, The Luminary, places that bring you joy,...
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cool WIP episode 36: coolin with Sam Hamilton
cool WIP
WE ARE SO BACK! New season... new co-host... Kalaija Mallery <3 We’re talkin’ Sam’s latest exhibition "To Avoid Drowning, Become the Ocean," opera, Kenny G, gold, high lines vs. low lines, drum kits in a waterfall, recycled water, finding the benevolent corners of the internet, tiny traveling organs, Beech Street, brief stints as pop artists, Areteroa, New Zealand, collaborating at The Luminary, how the ocean is literally inside all of us, artists as civic leaders, and the introduction of our new cohost for the season, the one and only Kalaija Mallery. Buckle up... we're just getting...
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cool WIP episode 35: coolin with Midwest Art Quarterly aka Troy Sherman
cool WIP
THE MAQ IS BACK! Surprise surprise… Troy Sherman, Curator at University Galleries of Illinois State University aka the founder, editor, and writer of St. Louis’ most controversial critical compendium Midwest Art Quarterly is live and in the studio. We’re talkin’ Cape Cod, curation, Captain Beef Heart, Rolling Stone, post-modernists in recovery, crises of faith, art writing vs. criticism, Regina George, and anonymity. Oh… and of course… The theory behind the critical journal Midwest Art Quarterly, the void in actual critique, access to language, getting other people to...
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cool WIP episode 34: coolin with Betsy Zeitler-Ellison
cool WIP
RUN RUN RUN! To hear our SEASON FOUR opener, Betsy Zeitler-Ellison This episode is getting released just as Betsy’s first solo exhibition RUN RUN RUN closes at Monaco, so ICYMI… we're talkin art goths, pre-JUULs, New Dark Ages, HTML, rabbit pelts, a grand unified theory of pain, AI image generators, karaoke clubs, gray-hounds, the way in which representation recognizes the dissonance caused by experience, the fracturing of a once-whole “self” into parallel “selves,” the potency of transforming cleaved identities into literal familiars which function as characters in the narratives...
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cool WIP episode 33: coolin with Nathaniel C. Praska
cool WIP
BUT WAIT there’s more! We have a special returning guest joining Nathaniel - just 4 U! We’re talkin’ Nathaniel's latest show of large scale paintings Like a Pile of Mud on view at the Bunker in Silico, Young Dolph, white trash aesthetics, trading punk for plein aire painting, fire, mark making, erasure, band names, the residency conundrum, how one man’s painting practice is another’s anxiety nightmare, the Madonna and Child, oil markers, the best ways to honestly represent complicated and conflicting emotions, figuration, dollar-store machetes, smoking and the absence of...
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cool WIP episode 32: coolin with Emily Mueller
cool WIP
Granny getchur square because we’re makin paaaaaper with practicing artist Emily Mueller! We’re talkin’ sad girls, couture crochet, Ferris Bueller vs. Risky Business, the catch-22 of the female gaze, meditation, avocado egg-tempura, big sweaters, elbow length gloves, summersaults, reacting to critique, and how shifting mediums altered Mueller’s relationship with making — ultimately leading to a deftly disguised practice that navigates the complexities of the body, mark making, image making, and language. Find Emily at @ferris_muellerz
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cool WIP episode 31: coolin' with Kalan Strauss
cool WIP
Great walls of fire! We’re coolin’ with the director of The Latent Space / master of mediums, practicing artist Kalan Strauss. We’re talkin’ Los Angeles, manifesting, Lucky the Three Legged Dog, art on the blockchain, purple disco balls, Mike Talayna’s Jukebox and Pizza Open Until 3 AM (now closed), Hollywood, soap operas, and how Strauss’ expansive, diverse practice challenges the veracity of the images presented to us. Currently splitting time between LA and Chicago, Strauss embodies openness, curiosity, and a comfort with being malleable. His artistic and curatorial practices...
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cool WIP episode 30: coolin with Esther Ruiz
cool WIP
Welcome to Esthercom!!! Anything is possible with the neon queen… the incredible Brooklyn based sculptor Esther Ruiz. She traveled ACROSS THE COUNTRY to come cool with us for the opening of her site specific solo show Hall of Exits, at Monaco - organized by our very own, Nick Schleicher. We’re talking Turrel, Space Opera Suzukis, the glory days of American Apparel, electric gooey rib cages, and the way in which Ruiz’s neon sculptures use the process of distillation and the seductive power of reduction to create pseudo-spiritual objects designed to invoke mystical, meditative...
info_outlineIt's szn 2 episode 2 and we are coolin' it down with some SOFT serve. This week co-founders Brittany Jasin and Ariana Velazquez share how the courage to be vulnerable sparked one of the best designed qtrly publications in the game: SOFT. They take us through what it's like to self-publish, create a community around empathy and strength, and remain true to your mission and merch, all at the same time.
Follow them @soft.qtrly and order the Spring issue on www.softqtrly.com.
@ariianapearl
@britjasin