Akari Uragami

Episode 448 / Akari Uragami is a Japanese multi-disciplinary artist whose work delves into the essence of human existence as a living organism. Her artistic expression, primarily through oil paintings and soft sculptures crafted from natural materials and textiles, offers a profound exploration of what human is. Akari earned her bachelor's degree in textiles from Musashino Art University, where she immersed herself in the art of traditional Japanese dyeing techniques. Her dedication earned her the Outstanding Graduate Award, and this deep connection to tradition subtly informs her practice. Her work has been showcased in exhibitions and projects across Japan, Korea, the USA, and Mexico, connecting with audiences far and wide. She has also completed a number of public murals across Japan and abroad including Tokyo, Kobe and Manchester (UK).

Episode 447 / Aaron Glasson (b Auckland, 1983) is a New Zealand born multi-disciplinary artist based in Mexico, City. Since completing a Bachelor's degree in Art and Design at the Auckland University of Technology in 2005 he has been exhibiting and creating public art works internationally. His diverse portfolio consists of participatory installations, paintings, drawings, sculpture, architecture, assemblage, murals and film. Though working in a diverse array of mediums Aaron has developed an abstract visual language that unifies his practice as a whole. His paintings rooted in geometry but inspired by time spent in the wilderness offer glimpses into micro and macro environments. Similar forms are applied to large scale interactive site-specific installations that encourage viewer engagement and participation as well as functional objects that explore arts practical potential outside of traditional contexts. Aaron has worked as an artist extensively within numerous environmentalism efforts, community organizations and educational institutions, using his art as tool for connection and learning. His art has been in group exhibitions at the East Hawaii Museum of Contemporary Art, the Oceanside Museum of Art, Heron Arts, Maia Contemporary, Goodmother Gallery, Spoke Art, the Straat Museum along with solo exhibitions at ICA San Diego, Swish Projects, Louis Buhl & Co, Maia Contemporary  and Curators Cube.

Episode 446 / Christopher Daharsh is an artist who was born in 1990 in Omaha, Nebraska. He received a BFA in Painting and Art History from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2012. Christopher has attended a number of residencies since then, including two yearlong residencies from the Charlotte Street Foundation (Kansas City, Missouri), Art Farm (Marquette, Nebraska), the Factatory (Lyon, France), Hayama Residency (Hayama, Japan) and Goldey House (Huletts Landing, NY).  Recently Christopher has shown work at Haw Contemporary (Kansas City), the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Overland Park, Kansas), Mother (Beacon, NY), Capsule Bikini (Lyon, France), Les Limbes (St. Etienne, France), Deanna Evans (NYC), New Collectors (NYC), Underdonk (Brooklyn), My Pet Ram (NYC), Picture Theory (NYC) and Koki Arts (Tokyo, Japan).  He currently lives and works in Queens.

Episode 445 / Henry Ward is an artist, writer, and educator living in London. He works primarily as a painter, but also makes drawings and small sculptures. He is interested in exploring the language of paint by investigating the threshold between abstraction and representation.  He was shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize in 2018, 2019 and 2022, and longlisted for the Contemporary British Painting Prize 2021. He was included in the inaugural “The Football Art Prize” in 2022. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions. The first substantial publication about his work, “Shed Paintings – Henry Ward”, was published in February 2021 by Hato Press and features 101 works on paper and an essay by Ben Street.  He is the Director for Freelands Foundation and launched the Freelands Painting Prize in 2020. Previously he was Head of Education at Southbank Centre and worked in a variety of roles at Welling School, a Specialist Visual Arts College, where he led on the school’s specialism. In 2002 he established the alTURNERtive Prize, an annual award celebrating outstanding student practice. In 2011 he founded the biannual arts and education periodical, æ. He is a visiting lecturer at UK art schools including Bath Spa University, University of Brighton, Manchester School of Art, Plymouth College of Art and Wolverhampton School of Art, and a mentor on the Turps Art School Correspondence and off-site courses. He has written and lectured widely on the arts and education, with a particular focus on teaching as an artistic practice. He was an advisor for Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin from 2018-21 and curated a two day event, “Assembly”, investigating approaches to public engagement in 2018 and a follow up, “Assembly II” in 2021.  In 2023 he undertook a residency at the Albers Foundation in Connecticut.

Episode 444 / Larry Madrigal is a Mexican-American painter based in Phoenix, Arizona. Originally from Los Angeles, where his parents stayed after migrating from Mexico, Madrigal spent many of his early summers in Colima where his extended family lives. In 1998, during his elementary years, his family left California and moved to Phoenix where they remain to this day. Madrigal studied at Arizona state University and received his BFA in 2017. During this time, he developed a skill for traditional figurative and portrait painting through his close relationship with emeritus professor, Jerry Schutte, and his wife Anne Schutte. Jerry’s strong knowledge of figurative and landscape painting combined with Anne’s masterful sense of abstraction and gesture were significant influences. After graduation Madrigal continued in portraiture for several years culminating in his first museum group exhibition “Body Language: Figuration in Modern and Contemporary Art” at the Tucson Museum of Art in 2016. In 2017, Madrigal returned to ASU for his MFA. Besides this new venture, he and his wife decided to start a family, and his daughter was born two weeks before the start of the program. Madrigal’s initial artistic ambitions were thwarted by the new and urgent demands of parenthood. He inevitably found himself paying close attention to daily rhythms with more profound questions. Finally after two years of resisting, he eventually surrendered to this calling and moved towards a focus on the quotidian. The commonplace became his arena for painting, a strong move away from the current focus on identity politics prevalent in academia at that time.This newly found obsession with the mundane led Madrigal on a quest to rehabilitate the genre in it’s purest form. His work would now be marked by “a suspension and celebration of the precariousness by which our most mundane daily rituals are balanced on a precipice just above total anarchy.” — Ben Lee Ritchie Handler, Global Director Nicodim Gallery. During his MFA Madrigal was a three-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Artist Grant and a finalist in the AXA XL Art Prize. Six months after graduation in 2020, Madrigal had his first solo exhibition, “Scattered Daydream” at Nicodim Gallery in Los Angeles. Since then, he has had solo shows in New York, Los Angeles, Bucharest, and Madrid (Forthcoming), along with group shows in Paris, Tokyo, and Tel Aviv. Madrigal’s paintings have continued to focus on the relatable nature of the human experience from his earnest and contemplative perspective, adopting a sincere attitude towards figuration, with a touch of darkness and humor.He currently lives in Phoenix Arizona with his wife and two kids, and works out of his downtown studio.

Episode 443 / ANDREW SIM (b. 1987, Glasgow) lives and works in New York. They work across drawing and painting, often utilising their favoured medium of pastel in large-scale figurative pieces. Sim’s practice borrows from their everyday experience to inflect various motifs – werewolves, sunflowers, horses, and trees, amongst other items – with elements of autobiography, anthropomorphizing natural subjects and creating new characters to convey their relationship to Queerness, culture and identity. Andrew has shown at The Modern Institute, Karma, NY, Margot Samel, Summerhall in Edinburgh, Anton Kern and other venues. Andrew’s work has been covered in The Scotsman, The New York Times, Art Observed and more. 

Episode 442 / Elizabeth Englander (b.1988, Boston, MA) lives and works in New York, NY. She received her BFA from The Rhode Island School of Design in 2011 and her MFA from Hunter College in 2019. Recent solo exhibitions include: House of Gaga, Guadalajara (2023), Liste Art Fair Basel, solo presentation with Theta (2023); Theta, New York (2022); Smart Objects, Los Angeles (2021); From the Desk of Lucy Bull, Los Angeles (2019). Group exhibitions have been held at: White Columns, New York (2023); Lomex, New York, (2022); What Pipeline, Detroit (2022); Theta, New York (2021); Smart Objects, Los Angeles (2021); Night Gallery, Los Angeles (2021); Safe Gallery, Brooklyn (2019); and Muzeum Ikon, Warsaw, PL (2018).Elizabeth Englander: Eminem Buddhism, Vol. 3 at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CTApril 7 - October 20, 2024Aldrich show up until Oct 27th!

Episode 441 / Colleen Barry is an artist and painter who grew up in NYC whose studio is based out of Brooklyn, NY. She studied art at the National Academy of Design in NYC and has had shows at venues such as Fredericks and Freiser (2023), The Sotheby’s Institute (2023), Nathalie Karg Gallery (2023), The Library Street Collective (2024), James Fuentes Gallery (2024), and 81 Leonard Gallery (2024). She had a solo booth in Spring Break Art Show in 2022. Also in 2022 she had a duo NYC DEBUT exhibition with artist Will St. John entitled RIDE THE TIGER hosted by Joanne Tucker and Adam Driver at CAELUM GALLERY in Chelsea. She also exhibited internationally at Art Brussels with EveryDay Gallery Antwerp (2023). She will have a solo show at Half Gallery Annex in March 2025 and one at Ambar Quijano in September of next year as well.  She  took part in the Alma Shapiro Prize residency at the American Academy in Rome and also serves as the director of Drawing at the Grand Central Atelier. 

Episode 440 / Jess Valice is a Los Angeles-based artist born in 1996 in Los Angeles, California, who studied art in grade school but went on to pursue an education in neuroscience at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC). After three years into her education, she decided to end her path in science to pursue painting. Self-taught, Jess Valice now showcases her work with various galleries including Carl Kostyal Gallery (London, Milan, Sweden) and Stems Gallery (Paris, Brussels). 

Episode 439 / This week we are reissuing a conversation with artist and musician Hisham Akira Bharoocha. Hisham will be performing live music this Saturday at 2pm at the opening of my survey show “You Could Feel the Sky” at the Williamsburg Biannual at 333 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Come join us for live music, Grimm Ales and work that I have made over the last 25 years. I will be screening animations that have never been shown before icluding music videos for Poolside, Fourtet, Flying Lotus and more. It will also be the first time I am exhibiting graphite drawings in my entire career. It’s free, open to the public and a fun 1-5pm daytime opening on Armory weekend. Hope you can make it there. Here’s a coversation from a few years back of Hisham and I talking about art, music and more.