The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Episode No. 751 features artist Kahlil Robert Irving and curator Rebecca Head Trautmann.
Irving is included in "Monuments," at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The exhibition juxtaposes decommissioned Lost Cause monuments with artworks that address the histories the Lost Cause aimed to whitewash. "Monuments" features two Irvings: New Nation (States) Battle of Manassas - 2014, 2024-25; and Viewfinder, 2024 which address the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri and its aftermath. The exhibition, which is on view through May 3, was curated by Hamza Walker, Kara Walker, and Bennett Simpson with Hannah Burstein and Paula Kroll. The museum says that a catalogue is forthcoming.
Irving has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and at the Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis; he's been featured in group exhibitions at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass., the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and more. He was also a guest on Episode No. 591 in 2023.
Trautmann is the curator of "Water's Edge: The Art of Truman Lowe" at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. "Water's Edge" is the first career-length survey of Hoocąk (Ho-Chunk) artist. It is on view through January 1, 2027. Smithsonian Books published a catalogue of the exhibition; Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $33-37.
Instagram: Kahlil Robert Irving, Tyler Green.
Air date: March 26, 2026.

Episode No. 750 (!!!) is a clips episode featuring artist Jo Ann Callis.
Starting in the early 1970s, Callis has constructed both black-and-white and color photographs that consider, sex, sexuality, pleasure and more pleasure. This program was taped in 2014 when Aperture published "Other Rooms," a book of Callis' investigations of the nude body and sexuality, mostly from the mid-1970s. Last year Luhz Press published "Jo Ann Callis - Dish Trick," featuring Callis pictures that explores the emotions latent in the objects of the home. Luhz lists it at $45; Amazon offers it for $80.
Callis is a leading feminist artist and one of the most important photographers of her generation. In 2009 the J. Paul Getty Museum presented a retrospective of her work titled "Woman Twirling." Callises are in the permanent collection of museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Air date: March 19, 2026.

Episode No. 749 features curator Mari Carmen Ramírez and Isabelle Frances McGuire.
Ramírez is the curator of "Frida: The Making of an Icon" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The exhibition reveals how Frida Kahlo went from virtually unknown to mainstream audiences at the time of her death in 1954 to becoming famed as both an artist and as a kind of celebrity icon. Among the factors it identifies are North American geopolitics, the role of culture in the promotion of nationhood, tourism, and international trade, and more. "Frida" features more than 30 works by Kahlo and 120 more by five generations of artists she inspired. It is on view at the MFAH through May 17. A fascinating catalogue was published by the MFAH in association with Yale University Press. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for about $60.
McGuire is included in the 2026 biennial exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The show was curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer with Beatriz Cifuentes and Carina Martinez. It's on view through August 23. This segment was taped when McGuire was included in the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's "Descending the Staircase" exhibition in 2024. McGuire is a Chicago-based artist whose work considers the body and how our understanding of it can be filtered by video games, film, animatronics, and other technologies. The 2024 MCA Chicago exhibition marked her first inclusion in a museum exhibition; since then McGuire has shown at Artist's Space, New York, and at the Renaissance Society, Chicago. For images see Episode No. 648.
Instagram: Isabelle Frances McGuire, Tyler Green.

Episode No. 748 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curators Shawnya L. Harris and Jeffrey Richmond-Moll.
Harris and Richmond-Moll are the curators of "Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone" at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass. The exhibition presents the life and work of nineteenth-century Black and Indigenous sculptor Edmonia Lewis in the context of her contemporaries and artists she may have influenced. The exhibition is on view through June 7. A valuable catalogue was published by the Peabody Essex Museum and Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $50-55.
Episode No. 748 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curators Shawnya L. Harris and Jeffrey Richmond-Moll.
Harris and Richmond-Moll are the curators of "Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone" at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass. The exhibition presents the life and work of nineteenth-century Black and Indigenous sculptor Edmonia Lewis in the context of her contemporaries and artists she may have influenced. The exhibition is on view through June 7. A valuable catalogue was published by the Peabody Essex Museum and Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $50-55.
As discussed on the program:
Gisela Torres, Reverie and Slumber, 2020.
Instagram: Jeffrey Richmond-Moll, Tyler Green.
Air date: March 5, 2026.

Episode No. 747 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Bethany Collins and curator Edouard Kopp.
Collins is included in "Monuments," at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The exhibition juxtaposes decommissioned Lost Cause monuments with commissioned artworks that address the histories the Lost Cause aimed to whitewash. Collins' contribution to the project is Love is dangerous (2024-25), a sculptural installation that remakes the base of the Stonewall Jackson monument that was installed in Charlottesville, Virginia. The exhibition, which is on view through May 3, was curated by Hamza Walker, Kara Walker, and Bennett Simpson with Hannah Burstein and Paula Kroll. The museum says that a catalogue is forthcoming.
On March 5 the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver opens "Bethany Collins: The Deluge," a presentation of Collins works that each address -- and navigate -- an existential storm. Across several media, Collins addresses major literary works such as Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and Sophocles' Antigone -- and the US songbook too. The exhibition was curated by Leilani Lynch and is on view through July 5.
Among the many museums presenting solo exhibitions of Collins' work are the Seattle Art Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass., the Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis, the Van Every and Smith Galleries at Davidson College, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University.
Edouard Kopp is the curator of "Wall Drawing Series: Gladys Nilsson" at the Menil Drawing Institute, Houston. The site-specific exhibition features an enormous Nilsson drawing that features fantastical, hybrid beings surrounding one monumental figure engaged in the act of drawing. It's on view through August 9. Nilsson's work has been the subject of dozens of exhibitions, including a 1973 solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her work is in the collection of museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Instagram: Bethany Collins, Tyler Green.