By The Way: A Contemporary Art News Podcast

Daniel Birnbaum, Director of Moderna Museet in Stockholm leaves to join the virtual reality company Acute Art based in London. Eric and Ando discuss the future of VR technology in art and the role it already has played.

We are also announcing that Cultural Bandwidth has invited 4 new podcasts to the platform. The Artword, The Conversation (Art Podcast), Art Attack W/ Lizy Dastin and Justin Bua, and the Danish language podcast Lydkunst. Find out more and links to the podcasts on Cultural Bandwidth.

Recently, the artist Anish Kapoor filed a lawsuit against the NRA over the use one of his most famous work in a recruitment campaign. For our long time listeners, I think you might find it Eric and Ando’s opinions on the story surprising. And as always, send us your opinion to the stories that we cover here at By The Way. 

Back with a vengeance is By The Way with episode #13 “52 & They Art All Against You”.  On this episode listen to Eric Wall and Ando discuss what may become the largest US public art project ever. The political Super Pac For Freedoms launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kick Starter to fund 52 billboards by major contemporary artists as a “get out to vote” initiative ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections. Listen in on their conversation as I think it might surprise the you where Eric and Ando stand regarding the project. 

We follow up on a few stories in this By The Way Mini-episode titled Returned, Removed, and Yippee Ki Yay MotherFucker.  

 The first topic is a follow up from BTW #1 - Thievery, when Ando and I discussed the smuggling of Iraqi artifacts by the American…

By The Way: A Contemporary Art News Podcast is back with episode #12 “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”

Join Eric Wall and Ando again as they discuss the basis' of the lawsuit that accuses Jeff Koons and Gagosian Gallery of running a "Ponzi-like scheme". We talk a little about how editions are produced, the difference between…

On this Mini-episode of By The Way: A Contemporary Art News Podcast Eric talks about Postmasters Gallery NYC and their recent Patreon campaign strategy. He has his doubts, but what do you think? 

By The Way, also wants to give a shout out to The Conversation Art Podcast, as Jenny Danielsson, our co-host from episode #11 Los Angeles and Shrinkage In The Art Market was interviewed. They are making a great podcast and you all should go take a listen. 

By The Way, welcomes guest Jenny Danielsson from the Danielsson & Carlson podcast.  

Jenny shares the news about the recent firing of Helen Molesworth at Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Arts. Jenny and Eric then speculate what might have led to the firing. In the second news story, Eric shares the most recent “health report” of the art market by USB and Art Basel. Are the big galleries and collectors really all that good for the art market?

Let us know what you think. Why was Helen Molesworth fired? And what is your assessment of the health of the art market?

News from the art world does not stop when we are unable to bring it to you on By The Way: A Contemporary Art News Podcast. Many of the stories that we discuss on BTW continue to evolve after the release of an episode. Those of us here at Cultural Bandwidth have decided to introduce By The Way Mini-episodes. These are short episodes that will update all you the listeners on all those stories. 

It’s episode 10!

Barack and Michelle Obama’s National Portraits were revealed and the gossipy side of the internet was a buzz. On this episode, Ando and Eric discuss the good, the bad, and crazy surrounding these two interesting paintings. They dive into the history of The National Portrait Gallery at The Smithsonian, and the other Contemporary artists represented in the collection. A bizarre and racist interpretation of the Barack’s painting by the Alt-Right. The most important is topic though is who should be commissioned Donald Trump’s portrait?

Eric and Ando take a trip around the world in this episode. Iranian contemporary art gallerist is facing a jail time, corporal punishment, and confiscation of their assets for their involvement in the art world. We discuss street artist Invader, and his tasteless placement of his works in the country of Bhutan. We first spoke about Invader in BTW episode #1 - Thievery.  Lastly, we discuss a legal case in France, where Facebook is being charged with limiting the freedom of expression of a school teacher. The teacher charges that Facebook deleted his account when he posted Gustave Courbet’s The Origin of the World (1866).
 

Today Eric and Ando blaze through 4 topics. Pussy Riot seeks asylum in Sweden, and the Guggenheim offers Donald Trump a golden toilet by Maurizio Cattelan. Topics become a little more serious when they bring up Nan Goldin and the opioid crisis in the US. Goldin calls on her fellow artists and art institutions to resist the Sackler Family and Purdue Pharma. And what would be an episode BTW without...

Is the Contemporary art world growing or shrinking? Are there more or less opportunities for artists today than in past decades? What is the future gallery model? In this episode Eric and Ando talk about the mega-art dealer David Zwirner expanding global empire. And how over recent years the mid-level galleries have been closing their doors. The closure of these...

How could we not talk about this most recent Christie’s contemporary art auction.  The record breaking painting "by" Leonardo da Vinci titled Salvator Mundi sold for $450,312,500.  We aren’t talking about the obvious talking points, instead we go deeper into the painting’s history. It all plays out like Dan Brown novel. Yes, the guy who used to own Salvator Mundi was imprisoned in the 1990’s for...

It finally has come to Eric and Ando talking about Instagram. Take about 5 minutes to watch the video clip in the links below to get a better understanding of what we are discussing today. 

Audiences are more comfortable viewing and buying art via their phones than ever before. Why would there not be curators creating exhibitions with that interaction in mind. A trend of “MADE-FOR-INSTAGRAM” exhibitions are trying to change the way...

Pressure from outside the art world, threats of violence, and an online petition nearing a million people have compelled the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York to remove several artworks from an exhibition. Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World is the title of the exhibition. The cause of the firestorm came when animal rights activists, such as Peta became aware of 3 art works. These 3 works could be misunderstood as...

Well dOCUMENTA happened to pop up again in the news for this episode. Ando actually heard about this story too!

One of the most prestigious art exhibitions, dOCUMENTA (15) is on the brink bankruptcy. We try to unravel how that could have happened. Who is to blame? The curators, a local politician, and poor management. The future of dOCUMENTA is...

A bit of change up on this episode of By The Way, as Eric and Ando  talk about Sam Durant’s sculpture titled Scaffold. Originally created by Sam Durant for dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany, the work has since been purchased by the Walker Art Center, USA. The story does not end there. We hope you listen to hear about why some people say ‘That's a...

On the inaugural episode of By The Way Eric presents Ando with 2 news stories. The first story is about the craft store giant Hobby Lobby smuggling Middle Eastern artifacts into the US. In our second story we discuss the stolen works by street artist Invaders in the daylight on the streets of Paris. No wonder people are stealing them when the can reach...