About Art

Journalist Charlotte Burns is the founder of Studio Burns, which creates and commissions original editorials and provides strategic advice. She is also the co-founder of the Burns Halperin Report, which analyses equity in museums and the art market. She also produces the weekly podcast "The Art World: What If...?!" for Art& at the New York advisory, Schwartzman&. The second season of the show launches 18 January 2024. Previously the executive editor of In Other Words, a weekly newsletter and podcast (2016-20), she was the US news and Market editor for The Art Newspaper (2009-16) and has written for publications including The Guardian, Cultured and Monocle magazine. Before that she worked for galleries including Anthony d’Offay and Hauser & Wirth. She and Zuckerman discuss podcasting, grace in space, the imagined idea of America, not feeling at home, maternity, having ego leave, living life, how dreams need to evolve, hope and dread, an appetite for conversations, and talking about feelings!

Fred Tomaselli has shown his work in museums, biennials and galleries around the world, including MoMA, MoCA, the MET and SFMoMa. Biennials include the Whitney Biennial, Berlin Biennial, and the Lyon Biennial. Solo museum shows include the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris, The Aspen Art Museum, The Brooklyn Art Museum, and the Orange County Art Museum. Tomaselli is known for his intricate, engulfing images of earthly and cosmic realms made by suspending collage and painted imagery as well as an unorthodox array of real-world materials in thick layers of clear, epoxy resin. These works on wood panels mix snippets of botanical, ornithological and anatomical illustrations cut from books and magazines, prescription pills, medicinal herbs and psychoactive plants with the artist’s own designs. Tomaselli sees his mixture of psychedelic imagery and substances as windows into hallucinatory universes: “It is my ultimate aim to seduce and transport the viewer into the space of these pictures while simultaneously revealing the mechanics of that seduction.”He and Zuckerman discuss a shared love of nature, what art can do, what drugs and birding have in common, the shelf life of art, altering perception and dislocated, settling for oblivion, nocturnal experiences, community, a sample choir, and AI!

Tim Griffin is the Executive Director of the Industry. He joined the organization in June 2023 and continues the organization’s commitment to reimagining art’s relationship with its publics. Previously, Griffin was executive director and chief curator at The Kitchen (2011–2021) where he developed projects across disciplines with artists such as Chantal Akerman, ANOHNI, Charles Atlas, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Joan Jonas, Ralph Lemon, Aki Sasamoto, Wadada Leo Smith, Tyshawn Sorey, and Danh Vo, among others.  On the occasion of The Kitchen’s 50th anniversary, Griffin initiated a capital campaign to renovate its building as a platform for the next generation of artists, raising roughly $22 million. From 2003 to 2010, Griffin was editor of Artforum, organizing special issues on performance; the museum in a contemporary context; art and poetry; and art and commerce. His own writing has appeared in publications from Bomb to Vogue, including catalogue essays on choreographer Maria Hassabi (MoMA, 2016), artist Ralph Lemon (Guggenheim Museum, 2016), and John Baldessari (Tate Modern, 2009). Griffin also edited a volume of selected writings on Wade Guyton (JRP), and has a forthcoming book on artists’ changing engagement with site-specificity (Sternberg Press). In 2015, he was awarded the insignia of chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.He and Zuckerman discuss contemporary opera, popular audiences, how we know what we see, the luxury of clarity, art criticism, proximity, anxiety around popular culture, being in partnership in the art world and rethinking your own habits!

Writer and curator Ebony L. Haynes, originally from Canada, is a Director at David Zwirner gallery in New York and runs 52 Walker. Haynes was a recent visiting curator and critic for Yale School of Fine art in the Painting and Printmaking class of 2021. She also runs an online “school” where free professional practice classes are offered to Black students, world wide.  Prior to joining David Zwirner, Haynes served as director at Martos Gallery and Shoot The Lobster NY & LA, and was responsible for many critically acclaimed exhibitions including Invisible Man, epigenetic, EBSPLOITATION, and The Worst Witch. Haynes sits on the boards of the New Art Dealers Association, and Cassandra Press.She and Zuckerman discuss sliding door moments, the pitching of 52 Walker, good versus great curating, the importance of a true team, approaching studio visits, research based practices, writing by hand, and what she hopes for!

Chicago-based artist Tony Lewis’s practice focuses on the relationship between semiotics and language to confront social and political topics such as race, power, communication, and labor. Lewis creates drawings using graphite, pencil and paper, mediums the artist uses to trace and develop abstract narratives and reflections on the notion of the gestural. By pushing the boundaries of drawing and the possibilities of abstraction, he expands the use of the “material” of language. He currently has a solo exhibition at the Orange County Museum of Art/OCMA.He and Zuckerman discuss labor and work, changing the way you think about making art, saying yes, listening to music on repeat, “keep going,” things that exist outside of art, motivational language, caring enough, nicknames, and the precision of human nature!

American curator Lauren Haynes is Director of Curatorial Affairs and Programs at the Queens Museum. Prior to joining the Queens Museum, Haynes worked at museums across the United States including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Haynes is a specialist in contemporary art by artists of African descent – her curatorial vision aims to challenge traditional narratives and push boundaries within the art world, embracing both established artists and emerging talents, bridging the gap between tradition and innovation. Haynes was a 2018 Center for Curatorial Leadership fellow and a recipient of a 2020 ArtTable New Leadership Award. Since 2022, Haynes has been a member of the board of the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) and AAMC Foundation.She and Zuckerman discuss having work study jobs at college museums, navigating artist interactions and needs, deliberate care, growing and developing a contemporary program, tv as a hobby, dreaming of rest and moments of pause, looking for patterns, and how kids confidently talk about art!

Shigeru Ban is a Pritzker Prize winning architect and humanitarian. Ban has developed a unique style known for its blend of traditional Japanese architecture with elements of American Modernism. One of Ban's notable achievements is his pioneering work in using recycled materials, particularly paper tubes, as building components. He believes that architecture should serve the needs of society, especially in times of crisis. Notable projects include the Paper Dome in Japan, which provided temporary housing after an earthquake, the Cardboard Cathedral in New Zealand, Centre Pompidou-Metz in France, the Japan Pavilion Expo 2000 in Germany, and the Aspen Art Museum. Ban’s architectural practice showcases a harmonious blend of functionality, aesthetics, and environmental consciousness.Ban and Zuckerman discuss humanitarian architecture, using wood, escaping from the influences of our teachers, inside and outside, experience sequencing, looking for problems to solve by design, form finding, not being about style, and humbleness!

Sumayya Vally is the founder and principal of Counterspace, a Johannesburg-based architecture and research studio. Counterspace is committed to developing a design language that acknowledges and resonates with the African continent. In 2019, Counterspace was invited to design the 20th Serpentine Pavilion in London, making Vally the youngest architect ever to win this internationally renowned commission. She recently curated the first Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah. Vally is currently collaborating on the design of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development in Monrovia, Liberia, the first presidential library dedicated to a female head of state, where she will oversee the scenography, pavilions, and exhibition spaces. She and Zuckerman spoke about imagination, fear of design, metaphors of healing, dialogue with place, the first Islamic Arts Biennale, having a life in a city, ingredients of gathering, architecture of ritual, dynamic restoration, everyone is welcome, beauty, gathering and belonging, and having a practice of hope and optimism!

Pritzker Prize-winning American architect and educator Thom Mayne is the founder of Morphosis, an innovative architecture, urbanism, and design collective. Named after the Greek term for ‘to form or be in formation’ – Morphosis has gained recognition for its sustainable designs. Notable projects include the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Emerson College in Los Angeles, New York’s Cooper Union building, and the Orange County Museum of Art. Alongside his architectural practice, Mayne has been actively involved in education and academia, as he played a pivotal role in establishing the Southern California Institute of Architecture. He and Zuckerman spoke about how LA is a midwestern city, the museum as a cultured event, community making, formed architecture, American architects, having a voice, being what you are instead of what you do, license to dream, authentically seeing yourself, being a humanist, and the profound and enduring power of artistic activity!

Sarah Cain, known for playful, abstract paintings and installations, redefines abstraction in feminist terms. Topics include personal relationships with the past, site-specific projects, how color is a tool, engaging with art, lineage of abstract painters, and finding awe in daily life!