Interviews From Yale Radio / Artists, Curators And More

Esther Sibiude: The Song of Dirt Stammers our Tongue performance at the Kitchen at Westbeth on June 16, 2023. Credit: Rebecca Smeyne for The Kitchen Esther Sibiude is a visual artist, writer, and harpist working in New York. She studied Fine Arts at the Universität der Künste Berlin from 2009-2014. She currently has a show of new drawings at Entrance Gallery in New York City. In complement to her visual art practice she writes radio dramas and curates compilations of poetry and music for radio. Recent performances that she has written, directed and played harp in include “The Song of Dirt Stammers Our Tongue” a live staged radio operetta performed at the Kitchen last month, and “Esra” a live staged adaptation of a radio drama, performed in the panorama of New York City at the Queens Museum. Esther Sibiude’s music ensemble includes a violist, cellist, vocalist, an organist who plays the synthesizer, and herself on the harp. 'One morning of all the mornings in the world, existence and its problematic a

David Bordett (b. 1991, Shenandoah Valley, VA) is an interdisciplinary sculptor whose work critically examines American lore, half truths, and false promise, casinos and class struggle, road side attractions and exploitation, the optimism of the post war 20th century and the ideologies of control that are at work always in aesthetics. Objects and environments operate as catalysts of fantasy, creating a zone of simultaneous horror and seduction that reveals through popular cultural forms our collective desires, aspersions, and fears. He received his BFA from the VCU Department of Sculpture and Extended Media, and MFA from the Yale Sculpture Department. For now, he maintains no permanent residence and continues to drive his 1999 Toyota Tacoma that at the time of writing shows over 330,000 miles on its odometer. Lower Than Below (even the bluest sky changes hue at night) 2021 hand made excavator bucket: steel, aluminum, plywood, adhesive, fasteners, paint, water, aquatic flora (Collaboration - David Bordett a

Susan Vecsey adapts the Color Field technique of pouring paint to create a personal language of abstraction, rooted in the natural world and the human experience of it. In a distinctive process that includes plein-air charcoal drawing, pastel and color studies, and multiple pours of liquefied oil on a surface of raw Belgian linen, she builds compositions in luminous tonal combinations that evoke the optical effects of sea, light, and air. Inspired by the landscapes of eastern Long Island, Vecsey’s paintings evoke not just a place, but it’s very atmosphere. Born in New Jersey in 1971, Vecsey earned her B.A. from Barnard College and her M.F.A. from the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, where she studied with Graham Nickson. She has had solo exhibitions at Greenville County Museum in South Carolina, John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor, Tayloe Piggott Gallery in Jackson Hole, and Berry Campbell Gallery in New York, among other venues. She lives and works in Manhattan and East Ham

Diana Copperwhite (b. 1969, Ireland) lives and works in Dublin and New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Driven by Distraction, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2016), Depend on the Morning Sun, Thomas Jaeckal Gallery, New York (2016) and A Million and One Things Under the Sun, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin (2015). Selected group exhibitions include Last Picture Show w/Mary Heilmann, Chris Ofili, Danny Rolph, Vanessa Jackson, Elio Rodriguez, Jill Levine, Rebecca Smith, Thomas Jaeckel Gallery, New York (2017) and Virtú, inc. Picasso, Giacometti, Henry Moore, Elizabeth Magill and Sean Scully at the Hunt Museum, Limerick, Ireland (2017). Copperwhite’s work is held in numerous public and private collections including: the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Arts Council of Ireland, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Office of Public Works, Contemporary Irish Art Society, Highlanes Municipal Art Gallery, Mariehamn Stadbiblioteque, Aland (Finland), Dublin Institute of Technology and The President of Ireland. TRAPDOOR, 2022, Oil

Bjørn Friborg by Joe Kramm Bjørn Friborg is a Danish glass artist based in Denmark. Friborg challenges traditional methods of glass-making with a physically demanding approach that stretches the limits of both the material and technique. His technique is not a means to an end but a performance, as he fearlessly punches, penetrates, manipulates, and ruptures the molten substance to achieve otherworldly and sublimely beautiful results. Friborg’s movements are a tour de force reflective of his mastery. Friborg starts each artwork by blowing a large object that is then penetrated with a mass of silver nitrate-based glass poured on top. The molten nitrate-based glass sculpts the shape, freezes, and becomes an artwork. This process is described as “A blast of energy… all that power that you channel into the material gives it the expression.” Says Friborg. “That’s what it contains, and that’s what I mean when I say that I’m just trying to find the maximum of honesty that it just has. I’m just trying to push myself t

Tom Duncan’s love for sculpture began at age 4 when he was given a clay set by his aunt. Born in Scotland in 1939 just before World War II broke out, he moved with his mother and brother to New York City shortly after the war ended. Much of Duncan’s artwork reflects memories of his childhood during the war. He is an original tenant at Westbeth, where his three daughters, Rachel, Gwynne, and Jane, grew up. In his Westbeth studio, he has created mixed media pieces like Dedicated to Coney Island and Portrait of Tom with a Migraine Headache, each of which took some twenty-five years to complete. Tom Duncan (b. 1939) The Execution of Private Slovik, 2009 mixed media 74 x 21.5 x 12.5 inches Tom Duncan (b. 1939) 5 Catholic High School Girls ..., 2001 Mixed media 37 x 22 x 1.5 inches Tom Duncan (b. 1939) Portrait of Tom with a Migraine Headache, 2013 Mixed media 128.75 x 61.5 inches

Julia Felsenthal (b. 1983) is a painter and writer working in Brooklyn and Cape Cod. Born and raised in Chicago, she studied English at Yale University and has written extensively about art and culture for T: the New York Times Style Magazine and Vogue. A lifelong painter, Felsenthal turned her focus to making art full time while living on Cape Cod during the Covid pandemic. Her water paintings emerged from the eeriness and anxiety of that time, and have evolved to reflect the ways that small permutations of the quotidian can become endlessly captivating and sublime. Her work has been exhibited in Brooklyn, NY and across the outer Cape, as well as on Block Island, in Woodstock, NY, and in Seattle, Washington. Felsenthal’s debut solo exhibition with JDJ is on view June 8 through July 21st, 2023. Julia Felsenthal, Ghost Sea in Azurite and Terre Verte, 2023, Watercolor and gouache on paper, 12 x 9 in (30.5 x 22.9 cm) Julia Felsenthal, Dancing Chop, 2022, Watercolor and gouache on paper, 16 x 12 in (40.6 x 30.

portrait by Emma Dove Amy Winstanley (b. 1983, Dumfries, UK) is based in Glasgow, UK. She is currently having a solo show, Lost Hap, at Margot Samel in New York. She received a BA (Hons) in Sculpture from the Edinburgh College of Art (2005) and an MA from the Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam (2019). Recent solo exhibitions include: Moral Limb, Stallan-Brand, Glasgow, UK (2021); Grief Bruise, Lunchtime Gallery, Glasgow, UK (2021); Inscapes, AndCollective Gallery, Bridge of Allen, UK (2016); and Interconnections, Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, UK (2015). Recent group exhibitions include: Strangers, Rongwrong, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2022); tangible/intangible, The Haberdashery, Glasgow, UK (2022); Potluck, Gallery 17717, Seoul, South Korea (2021); To All Our Absent Dialogues, Warbling Collective, London, UK (2020); Surge, Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (2017); Fugue Lounge, Neverneverland, De Punt, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2018); Surge, Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (2017); Every word left unspoken

Kristen Sanders (b. 1989, California) lives and works in St. Paul, MN. She received a BA from the University of California Davis, and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Solo and two person exhibitions include Dreamsong, Minneapolis, MN, St. Cloud State University, St Cloud, MN, Kathryn Brennan Gallery, New York, NY, Step Sister, New York, NY, Sadie Halie Projects, Minneapolis, MN, and Sediment Arts, Richmond, VA. Group exhibitions include Good Mother, Los Angeles, Night Club, Minneapolis, MN, Hair & Nails, Minneapolis, MN, O’Flaherty’s, New York, NY, Monti 8, Latina, Italy, Moosey Art, London, UK, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ, The Quarter Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, Left Field, Los Osos, CA, H.G. Inn, Chicago, IL, White Columns, New York, NY, and Patrick Parrish Gallery, NY. Residencies include The Maple Terrace, Brooklyn, Lacuna Gallery, Minneapolis, David Wurtzel Travel Scholarship, Florence, Italy,

photo: Matthew Leifheit Rachel Stern (b. 1989, NYC) is a photographer whose work considers the intersection of beauty and power. Her photo-based installations turn to the tableaux and the proscenium creating dialogue between the histories and uses of kitsch and leftist aesthetics. Using materials culled from strip malls and thrift stores she creates images which ask art and visual culture to enter into a discourse of accessibility and, in the spirit of ‘bread and roses’,  demand immediate access to beauty. Her work images a world that might be, built out of the world that is. It is a kitsch paradise, a queer-washed history, and an attempt at hope. She received her BFA in Photography and the History of Art and Visual Culture in 2011 from the Rhode Island School of Design, attended Skowhegan in 2014, and graduated from Columbia University in 2016 with an MFA in Visual Arts. She has exhibited her work at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Baxter St., Brandies University Kniznick Gallery, Ortega Y Gasset Project,

image credit: Star Montana rafa esparza (b. 1981, Los Angeles; lives and works in Los Angeles) received a BA from University of California, Los Angeles in 2011. Solo exhibitions have been held at Artists Space, New York (2023); Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles (2021); MASS MoCA, North Adams (2019); ArtPace, San Antonio (2018); and Ballroom Marfa (2017). Selected group exhibitions have been held at Commonwealth and Council, Mexico City (2022); Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson (2022); Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston (2020); San Diego Art Institute (2019); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017); and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016). esparza is a recipient of a Pérez Prize (2022), Latinx Artist Fellowship (2021), Lucas Artist Fellowship (2020), Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2017), Art Matters Foundation Grant (2014), and California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2014). He has participated in residencies at Artpace San Antonio (2018) and Wanlass A

Hulda Guzman in the studio, 2023 Hulda Guzmán (b. 1984, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) depicts her tropical surroundings as she explores perspective and reality. Situated between Impressionistic landscape, psychological autobiography, Mexican muralism, Caribbean folk traditions, endearing comedy, and magical realism, Guzmán’s work engenders an emphatic compassion for the united forces of the living, celebrated through the act of painting. Guzmán received a BA from Altos de Chavón School of Design in the Dominican Republic and went on to study photography and mural painting at the National School of Visual Arts, Mexico. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; Dallas Museum of Art, TX; Denver Art Museum, CO; He Art Museum (HEM), Guangdong, CN; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), CA; Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), C

Fatemeh Burnes is an artist, educator, curator, and activist based in Los Angeles. Classically trained in Persian art and verse, Burnes also studied biology, modern Persian poetry, and western artistic practice – including painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, art history, and exhibition design – in Iran, Europe, and ultimately in California, where she received her BFA and MFA in art and art history.. Since 1992 she has exhibited her own work nationally and internationally, curated over 100 exhibitions, and authored numerous publications. Burnes’s painting and photography focus on nature and human nature by looking at modern events and tragedies, both ecological and social, and how those events manifest in contemporary life. Some of her most current work highlights environmental and identity issues, specifically in the context of her experiences as an immigrant and as a woman. "Goddess of Discord," 2023, oil, handmade paper, and spray paint on canvas, 72" x 96" "Tower of Pride," 2023, oil, pigment,

Li Wang (b. 1995) is a New York-based painter, born in Beijing, China. Li holds a Bachelor of Arts from The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, where he studied Stage Design. He graduated from the Columbia University School of the Arts' MFA program in 2022. Wang is a finalist of the AXA Art Prize and the New American Paintings competition. He is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and the Columbia University Dean's Project Grant. In 2023, his solo exhibitions were held at Fragment gallery (New York, USA) and NADA New York. Li Wang, After bathing, 2022, oil o canvas, 48 x 50 in Li Wang, Carousel, 2022, oil on canvas, 58 x 70 in Li Wang, Tao in my studio, 2022, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 in

Elzie Williams III (American, b. 1993) holds an MFA in sculpture from Columbia University School of the Arts, New York (2022), and a BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York (2015). They are the first recipient of the Solomon B. Hayden Fellowship, administered through Columbia University, NY. The award was founded to support diverse voices in art by Lisson Gallery, Clearing Gallery, and artist Hugh Hayden in honor of Hayden’s late father, Solomon B. Hayden who was a math teacher.  Williams’ work was included in Eponymous with Dominic Palarachio and Bat-Ami Rivlin, M 2 3, New York (2021); and on view with Lyn Lui at François Ghebaly, New York (2021). Recent exhibitions include Arrangements in Black at Phillips, New York (2022); exhibitions at Clearing in Brooklyn and Los Angeles (2022); Half Gallery, New York (2022); Thierry Goldberg, New York (2023); as well as MZ.25 (My Condolences), an exhibition by Monsieur Zohore at M+B, Los Angeles (2023); and The School of Visual Arts (

Raymond Saá in his studio Raymond Saá is a Cuban-American artist born in New Orleans and raised in Miami. He graduated from the New World School of the Arts in 1991, received his B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1995, and studied at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf in 1996. In 1997, he earned an M.F.A. from Parsons School of Design. Selected exhibitions include White Columns, the Islip Museum, Wave Hill, the Museum of Art Puerto Rico, and El Museo del Barrio. Saá received a 2019 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, in addition to awards from Public Art for Public Schools, the Pollack Krasner Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and New Jersey Fellowship in Art. The artist lives and works in New Jersey. The Blue Bird, 2023 Raymond Saá Morgan Lehman Gallery 'The Blue Bird' series, 2023 Size: 30 x 24 in Medium: gouache collage on sewn paper 'The Blue Bird' series, 2023 Size: 30 x 24 in Medium: gouache collage on sewn paper 'The Blue Bird' series, 2023 Size: 30 x 24

Artist Anthony James and his first exhibition in the region entitled Light at Opera Gallery in DIFC.Antonie Robertson/The National Anthony James (b. 1974) is a London-born, Los Angeles-based artist who graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design with a degree in painting. James is known for his monumental sculptures and installations that embrace Minimalism, Transcendentalism and Light & Space. In the winter of 2023, James became the first and only visual artist to have work exhibited on all seven continents when he installed one of his stainless steel, glass, and LED Portals at White Desert’s base camp in Antarctica near the South Pole. “In my practice I’m trying to give a visual demonstration of the infinite or the divinity inside us all,” says James. “If you’re seeing and experiencing this ever-expanding cosmos, hopefully that’s a window to explore this underlying law of nature, this inner light.”

Masako Miki (b. 1973, Osaka, Japan) is a multimedia artist whose work ranges installation and large-scale sculpture, printmaking, watercolor and felting. A native of Japan, she now lives and works in Berkeley, CA. Her work frequently explores the idea of synthesis—manipulating contradicting spatial elements to suggest a disoriented context and space. The artist bases her narrative on her own experiences of becoming bicultural in the United States at the age of eighteen. Strongly influenced by craft and folk art of different cultures, she remains close to her ancestral traditions, frequently considering motifs and ideologies that arise from her association with Buddhism, Shintoism, and traditional Japanese folklore. The artist’s practice is further rooted in the belief that art can foster social contexts in which contemporary and universally relevant mythologies and social narratives can be generated—replacing or fixing harmful misconceptions and mythologies of the past that have previously sparked social inju

Destiny Haven Trujillo (b. 1994, New Mexico, United States) received her BFA in 2016 from the University of New Mexico. In 2022, she had a solo exhibition with Smoke the Moon in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. DIMIN is excited to present Devoraste, a neon diary of the vivid exploits of Destiny Haven Trujillo. For her first solo exhibition in New York, Trujillo embodies the manic charm of her daily life, offering a voyeuristic glimpse into the contemporary vie boheme. The title of the show, “Devoraste”, is derived from the Spanish aphorism meant to convey the concept of unabashed queer self-expression, with the literal translation “you ate that!”. For Trujillo, devoraste references the celebration of pride she conveys in her paintings –colorful bacchanals teeming with joy. At its core, the work addresses sexual identity and fluidity. The acceptance she has found in the queer community is tantamount in importance to the artist personally as it is to her artistic concept. Appro

Omaha-born, New York-based artist Tim Brawner produces a practice of painting that mines the space between the uncanny and the grotesque. Seeking to produce in the viewer a compelling affect of unease, Brawner utilizes the idiom of illustration to render images of alienation, through the purposeful bricolage of disparate representational elements. In each work, a persistently fine, monochromatic, painterly execution meets the artist’s formal drafting process of drawing and montage in order to achieve what Brawner terms a pathos of ‘weirdness’: a form of defamiliarization which is also a seduction, an entreat, into a strange representational space nonetheless evoking trepidation and dread. These visual chimeras undermine the spectators’ traditional binary frames of reference, eliding at once those of conservative Western Christian morality and those of liberal secular paradigms of Enlightened empathy. As the artist intones, this ‘weirding’ is “part of the drama of the work; it is an ontological struggle [of an