Unibrow Radio

Latest Episodes:

056: Baldur Helgason Oct 30, 2020

Show notes

There is something both immediately recognizable and yet completely original in the paintings of Icelandic-born, Chicago-based artist, Baldur Helgason. For us at Juxtapoz, it's a classic style and such a fascinating new tale to tell in the world of contemporary art. Part comics but also deeply personal, Baldur is part of a new generation of painters who are both satirist and fine artists, what we noted in a feature last year as " sardonic references to modern life with both humor and a haunting hit of foreboding."
But what we learn in episode 056 of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast is how Baldur has broken tradition with the more landscape, ethereal and abstract work of Icelandic painters before him into fresh new territory that combines his childhood and his formative years in San Francisco as an art student and now Chicago-based painter. The last few years have been successful; just this year he has had solo shows in Los Angeles, Iceland and now, currently, in London at Ramp Gallery. We asked about how figurative works fit into the Icelandic art historical lexicon (yes, we asked about trolls), but also how a tiny island country has been able to support and nurture such talent with such a small population. Iceland is, indeed, a special place.
We also spoke to Baldur about how San Francisco shaped him, how COVID and being stuck inside changed his muse (its now his wife) and why he is heading back to Iceland for the foreseeable future. In a year of transitions, Baldur is making one of the biggest moves of all.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 056 was recorded via Skype from Chicago, San Francisco, London, October 20, 2020. Follow Baldur at @baldur_helgason. His solo show, Assortments, is on view at Ramp Gallery in London through November 22, 2020.

055: Arinze Oct 22, 2020

Show notes

In recent weeks, and even in the hours before Radio Juxtapoz got on the phone with our friend and Nigerian-based hyperrealist artist, Arinze Stanley, we were reading and watching as peaceful protests against police brutality in Lagos and other cities had turned to turmoil and chaos as forces began attacking its citizens. In the 24 hours before we recorded this podcast, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) had open-fired on protestors, resulting in death, lockdowns, curfews and more confusion and unrest.
Arinze is supposed to be celebrating a wonderful year. His solo show with Corey Helford Gallery has just opened and his following has grown exponentially since the beginning of 2020. And here we were. Not only did Arinze give us an update on the conditions right now in Lagos, but the history of government violence and social justice protests in Nigeria against SARS, and the complicated past, present and future for Nigerians as they seek reforms.

But, there is his art, and how dramatic it is. There are the technical aspects of being a hyperrealist drawer that can be both awe-inspiring and incredibly vivid. One of the traits that the genre can often lack is humanity; the skill is so apparent that the message is lost. Lagos-based Arinze Stanley is one of the great exceptions to the rules. Humanity is at the core of his work, how one sees the self and others, and as he explains it, his work is as much about the Nigerians understanding Nigerians than it is the rest of the world peeking in.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Arinze tells us of his own personal experiences with SARS, how developing and emerging technology has helped empower the youth of Nigeria, how his hyperreal works have influenced more artists in his country and how his own works have evolved. He give poignant views on America's own issues with race and how it relates to Nigeria, but also a hopeful message of staying in Lagos and completing his goal of participating in, and inspiring, real lasting change.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 055 was recorded via Skype from Lagos, San Francisco, London, October 21, 2020. Follow Arinze at @arinze

054: Super Future Kid Oct 06, 2020

Show notes

A few years ago when we published our first interview with East German-born, London-based painter and almost mythical figure Super Future Kid, our deputy editor Kristin Farr asked the artist what her superpowers were. We will never forget the answer: "To be incredibly childish and yet able to do all the grown up stuff." That has stuck with us. As an artist with the incredible gift of making her paintings look almost digital and yet definitely hand-painted, who has created characters with almost hype-color characteristics and unmistakable details in her presentation, Super Future Kid has carved out one of the most singular and individualistic careers in the art world.
And yet no matter how far she goes and acclaimed she may be, Super Future Kid has a creative energy and sense of wonderment that is infectious. Born in East Germany in the early 1980s, she claims she never saw color until the Wall came down. She says, "I spent the first eight years of my life not knowing that there was a universe of colors, toys and all kinds of fun things waiting for me on the other side of the Wall. I had a great childhood but it got a massive upgrade after November ’89!" This detail is essential in understanding the universe she has created. These characters and colors are an extension of how incredible the impression that cartoons, candy, toys, animations, films had on her at a young age. That sudden culture shock, is, what we learned in this podcast, still a major influence and driving force her work today.
For this episode of Radio Juxtapoz, we spoke with Super Future Kid from her studio in London as she had just sent a new body of work, Seaweed Sunrise, to Hong Kong for a solo show at Over the Influence. Of course, the conversation ranged from the disappointment of not being able to attend her opening, and the challenges that Covid has had on her year. But we also dug deep into her memories of East Germany, how pop-culture surprised and inspired her works, how she was influenced by Neo Rauch and how making work under a moniker has allowed her to be even more creative.

The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 054 was recorded via Skype from San Francisco and London, October 2, 2020. Follow Super Future Kid @superfuturekid

053: Bisa Butler Sep 11, 2020

Show notes

It's a new season here at Radio Juxtapoz, and where we were hoping that Fall would bring back art openings and a sense of normalcy to our already tumultuous year, we are still a bit in flux. This month we released our newest Fall 2020 Quarterly edition with cover artist Bisa Butler, whose phenomenal and critically-acclaimed year has also become a symbol of the transitions Americans have experienced with social activism and social justice this past summer. The murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd have sparked a worldwide movement and moment of reckoning about how society treats people of color and the dominant histories that denied Black Americans a voice for a better future.
With social media and the power of technology helping push new powerful narratives and ways to engage with the BLM movement, we look to one of the most antiquated and handmade of the arts, the quilt, as the centerpiece of this episode. Bisa Butler is a textile artist, whose quilts appear like paintings with their incredible details and patters and almost life-like features. And yet her figures and the stories she tells, from the attire of her characters to an iconic image of Frederick Douglass, are about a re-telling of American history. The people lost to our distant memories or stories never told that helped shape our society and the ways we perceive what it is to be American, Butler is literally re-stitching that history on elegant thread at a time. As Jewels Dodson so eloquently wrote in our cover story, "Bisa Butler’s work has elevated the quilt and innovated the portrait, creating a formidable seat for them at the table of contemporary art. She has brought the black historical narrative and imagery of the past back into focus. At a time where black people’s humanity can be stolen in 8 minutes and 46 seconds and broadcast for all the world to see, Butler’s work is a much needed reminder that the lives of Black people always have and always will matter."
In this conversation, Juxtapoz editor Evan Pricco and Butler discuss how a year of triumph in a year of pain has shaped the artist, how and where she sources her materials, her evolving relationship with textiles, how the pandemic changed her year, how the art world has evolved with more Black artists and just the overwhelming moment of America in transition.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 053 was recorded via Skype from San Francisco and New Jersey, September 7, 2020. Follow Bisa Butler @bisabutler

052: Low Bros Aug 20, 2020

Show notes

As an artist or creative known around the world for a thing—a style, icon, color scheme, character—you may be held or beholden to that aesthetic because of viewer pressure or even financial concerns. Knowing the Low Bros, the Hamburg-based duo (yes, yes, they are, indeed, brothers), they have a particular iconography and body of work that is so instantly recognizable, so sought after for murals, installations and exhibitions that we almost tend to take it for granted. A mixture of clean skate graphics, plays on 3D imagery and broadening scope when it comes to interactive installations, the Low Bros have established themselves as one of Europe's great duos that were born out counter-culture scenes and grown into hallmarks on the evolutions of street art practices.
And yet this summer, as they were preparing their new solo show, CON.TXT, now on view at Urban Spree in Berlin, and with the George Floyd murder dominating the streets of America and moving toward Europe's own social activist and justice narratives and needs for change, the Low Bros began to change the scope of their work. With an instant change to monochromatic images on their social media accounts, the process seeped into their work for CON.TXT. The show became not just the Low Bros own relationship to race and their understanding of their white privilege (and in some cases, our collective lack of understanding) but Germany's own conversations regarding race the Black Lives Matter movement and the evolution of social justice reforms in their home country.
Influenced by the book Exit Racism by Tupoka Ogette and Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility, Low Bros partnered with IDB's (Institute for Non-Discriminatory Education) Josephine Apraku and Jule Bönkost for the exhibition. As the Bros and Urban Spree noted, the partnership served as "an educational starting point, this exhibition aims to amplify and continue the conversation surrounding white privilege and asks questions of how it can be better utilized in institutions, as well as private & public spaces. While the search for answers is ongoing, the artworks aim is to highlight the problems of unchecked whiteness, especially when it is being recognized as a default perspective in society. By debunking the concept of privileges and problems, the context of this exhibition aims to engage whiteness as an ally to the BIPOC community."
Today on Radio Juxtapoz we speak with Low Bros from Berlin as their show was opening, as well as share an in-depth conversation with IDB's Josephine Apraku about the evolution of the show, collaboration and the history of the brothers aesthetic through the years. As 3x Juxtapoz Clubhouse installation participants, the Low Bros are extended family. We are so excited to share their process and new direction on the Radio Juxtapoz podcast.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 052 was recorded via Skype from San Francisco/London/Berlin, August 12, 2020. Follow Low Bros at @lowbros

051: Dan Witz Aug 04, 2020

Show notes

Dan Witz is a pioneer man in so many ways, and has lived so many different lives that speaking with him in any setting that isn't 6 hours would prove to be difficult. He was painting Baroque style realism at Cooper Union in the late 1970s when Neo-Expressionism was becoming the craze, was painting hummingbirds and doing street art in lower Manhattan when graffiti was becoming part of an art mainstream consciousness, was a Punk when Hip Hop was taking over NYC and was painting his iconic "mosh pits" when no one would dare touch realism again. Now in 2020, he is back with political street art, in the belly of the beast in the battleground states with powerful messages about the Trump administrations diabolical policies toward immigrant families at the border between Mexico and the USA. And every step of the way, the Brooklyn-based Witz is ahead of the curve.
His most pit and rave paintings are iconic, his hummingbirds and small scale street art works the same, but what makes Witz such a fascinating interview is not only how long he has been at it, but the multiple genres and mediums he has worked in. From music and photography, street art activism to fine art painting, Witz hasn't shied away from exploring all the avenues of creativity, and discovered an underbelly of Americana in the process.
In the 51st episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, we find Witz at home after trips to the midwest, fresh off his #isitsafe street project and stories to tell. From his research at a Trump rally, to documenting mosh pits with camera in hand and transforming them into beautiful energy on canvas, to seeing the chaos and uncertainty of America this summer to surviving Punk style in Manhattan in the 1980s and 90s, this is one of our favorite podcasts ever.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 051 was recorded via Skype from San Francisco/London/Brooklyn, July 30, 2020. Follow Dan Witz at @danwitzstreetart

050: Maria Qamar Jul 27, 2020

Show notes

It's not everyday you get to celebrate a few milestones on a podcast, but here we are: Radio Juxtapoz not only has its 50th episode to share but our first trip up north to the good people of Toronto, Canada and our guest this week, Maria Qamar, aka Hatecopy. To call us mega-fans of the Toronto-based author and artist is an understatement. That Qamar has taken the comic book cel and transformed it into a bold, Bollywood style, humorous and honest portrayal of Desi culture in the 21st century makes her one of the most unique voices in contemporary art.
As she "virtually" opened her newest solo show, ME, MERASELF & I, with Richard Taittinger in NYC this summer, we decided to finally catch up with the painter to discuss a wide-range of topics, from her career in marketing and advertising, to her first forays into painting and her growing up in a post 9/11 suburb of Toronto that helped shape her content she makes today. Born in Karachi, Pakistan to a Bangladeshi father and Indian mother, Qamar's career has been a modern look at the Desi culture as well as modern look at immigration from Asia to North America. By using the comic book style, her works are personal stories and overarching narratives of contemporary life in one of the most diverse cities in the world in Toronto. By mixing the aesthetics of Roy Lichtenstein paintings and what she has called Indian soap opera style dialogue, her works have continued to bring a new generation of South Asia artists to the forefront and into the contemporary art landscape. And there may have been a K-Pop fan account, a food blog and a best friend call out in this podcast...
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 050 was recorded via Skype from San Francisco/London/Toronto, July 21, 2020. Follow Maria Qamar at @hatecopy

049: Larry Ossei-Mensah Jul 16, 2020

Show notes

Just one look at curator and cultural visionary Larry Ossei-Mensah's "LinkTree" on his Instagram, and you can see the breadth of what the man is working on. And this was supposed to be the year for the "collective pause"! A break! As the co-founder of ARTNOIR and curator of various exhibitions, fundraisers and projects, the Ghanaian-American Mensah is an example of how independent curators and art's organizers can utilize their talents and skill set in a year that has had in the art world curious and wondering what to do next. From the pandemic to the immense spark created by the George Floyd murder, this contemporary art world needs new voices and relentless visionaries, and in many ways, individuals who can break down the almost "fantasy narrative" that is built around a curator. You know, that conversation you have had at a gallery when someone says they are a curator and you want to know what that entails and you want to be one, too. Mensah is the perfect art world navigator for these uncertain times.

In this wide-ranging interview, the Bronx-based Mensah talks to the Radio Juxtapoz podcast about how he got started in curation, his early forays into organizing art shows in Brooklyn and his ambitious projects that he has on display from anywhere to the web pages of Artsy to the halls of MOCAD in Detroit with the recent Peter Williams exhibition. His story is not just about what means to be an art lover with a good idea, but how to tell stories through curation, how to better equip the art world with new vision and voices from artists around the world and how to still be as active as possible as the art world itself goes through a transition. Mensah also talks about his recent foray into making art himself, and how cooking helped him through the earliest months of the pandemic. The conversation is both a blueprint for a younger generation to be involved in the arts, but also how to engage with contemporary art on every level. If you can't travel the world in 2020, you can still globetrot through the arts, and Mensah is the guide.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 049 was recorded via Skype from San Francisco/London/Bronx, July 2, 2020. Follow Larry Ossei-Mensah at @youngglobal

048: Bill Posters Jul 06, 2020

Show notes

Absurdist reality. This is probably the best way to sum up 2020. You put your head down, phone down and take a nap and 20 minutes later you have Kanye West running for president, Donald Trump spending 15 minutes on leather bottom shoes and the twists and turns of a global pandemic that is shifting the way we experience public life. Almost nothing about our life 10 years ago even exists now as we slide further and further into a digital reality, and we ponder what comes with this evolution as we try and make sense of, and experience, truth and reality.
Within our new technological and digital lives is a lot of misunderstanding. How does big tech mine our personal information, what is a deep fake, what are my rights and what are the laws that protect me. One of the artists who is challenging this lack of understanding is British artist, Bill Posters, an activist who spent years on the streets with his "Subvertising" interventions and now famous the world over for Spectre and his series of Deep Fakes that portrayed the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian and others as true-tellers of the 21st Century. As most certainly... they are not. "My work is about raising awareness of human rights and critically interrogating power relations between corporations, governments, people and the artist," Posters told us earlier this year in our Summer 2020 Quarterly. "With deep fakes, you are operating ethically in a difficult space. There are insufficient laws in place to appropriately protect people’s personal data."
In this wide-ranging and engaging conversation, Radio Juxtapoz spoke with Posters to learn how graffiti informed his subversive works on the street in the form of Subvertising and Brandalism, how he began to critique and utilize tech in his practice and the ways that activism can create empowerment in the face of Big Tech. "I also think that deep fakes are the perfect art form for our absurdist reality," Posters says... and he couldn't be any more correct.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 048 was recorded via Skype from San Francisco/London/Manchester, July 2, 2020. Follow Bill Posters @bill_posters_uk

047: Marcus Brutus Jun 17, 2020

Show notes

"It’s important to talk about why I make the paintings I do, and why there is a focus on ensuring that within each painting, the black figure is central," Queens-based painter Marcus Brutus told the Juxtapoz team back in the Spring 2020 Quarterly issue. "However, I don’t want to focus too much on specific histories or specific events because I think it then takes precedence in the conversation around the work. To me, these are really just images of humanity. The only politics about them is the fact that I’ve uniquely used black figures. But they’re just scenes of everyday life, everyday situations."
When we initially became aware of the works of Marcus Brutus, through gallery shows with Harper's Books and their subsequent book/catalog of Brutus' works, The Uhmericans, there was something so quietly elegant and yet so perfectly connected with the issues of social and political turmoil in the United States that we wanted to investigate further. What we found was a self-taught artist who returned home to Maryland after a stint in marketing in NYC and found himself compelled to create figurative paintings that told the story of everyday existence as a person of color in America. Immediately, the subtle storytelling of the paintings caught the attention of the fine art world, and Brutus began to showcase these unique works to a broader audience. In the vein of Jacob Lawrence and a more literal interpretation of Robert Frank's The Americans, Brutus entered a long standing tradition of portraiture, with elements of social realism, in American art.
On this episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast, Juxtapoz editor Evan Pricco speaks with Brutus about the origins of his painting career, these subtle political qualities in his work and how the recent protests around America will affect his paintings. Also, co-hosts Doug Gillen and Pricco speak at length about how the art world has responded to the George Floyd murder.
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 047 was recorded via Skype from San Francisco/London/NYC, June 11, 2020. Follow Marcus Brutus at @marcusjbrutus

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected