Seen

Carrie first encountered Suzannah Sinclair's work twenty-some odd years ago - Playboy pinups painted on wood, seductive and complicated and genuinely risky - and put her work in a show about women looking at women. Then they lost touch. This episode is the final part of their reunion.
Suzannah is a painter's painter who built a real career in New York and Boston before leaving it all for rural Maine, two kids, and a ten-by-twelve studio. She's had gallery representation and lost it. She's been in Artforum and New American Paintings and the Swedish press. She made $127 last year. She has never stopped painting.
In this second part of their conversation, Suzannah talks about where the Playboy paintings actually came from (a professor who challenged her to prove she could draw), why she eventually walked away from them, what happened to her career after she had children, the question she got asked constantly that she's still not over (do you still paint?), her egg tempera practice, her publishing imprint Sinclair's Garage, and what it means to be a mid-career artist who is, in her words, ready for rediscovery.
Honest, funny, and completely unfiltered. This is what a twenty-year art career actually looks like.

Explore Suzannah's work: https://suzannahsinclair.com/home.html
Join our free art newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/seen/waitlist⁠
If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://www.instagram.com/watchseenart⁠
About the Have You Seen? series:
The ⁠Have You Seen? Series⁠ is all about talking to emerging and mid-career artists about their journey to now.
Curious about how an artist got to where they are or indeed why they chose art in the first place? Then this series is for you. Join us as we speak to emerging and mid-career artists across the globe. Don’t worry, there’s no hiding behind art speak here, or pretending that being an artist is a bowl of cherries. We’re here to hear it all, straight from the source.

Twenty years ago, Suzannah Sinclair was one of the most talked-about young painters around - making seductive, complicated paintings of Playboy pinups on wood that had the art world paying attention. Then she left New York, moved deep into rural Maine, had children, lost her gallery representation, and largely disappeared from the conversation.
But she never stopped painting.
In this two-part conversation, Carrie catches up with Suzannah after two decades — talking about the early work and why it started with a pile of her friend's brothers' Playboys, the galleries that closed, the years of silence, what it feels like to be asked over and over if you still make work, and where she is now: painting small luminous egg tempera pieces of her own life, running an artist book publishing imprint called Sinclair's Garage, and ready - very ready - for rediscovery.
This is an honest conversation about what a twenty-year career actually looks like. Not the highlight reel. The whole thing.
Explore Suzannah's work: https://suzannahsinclair.com/home.html
Join our free art newsletter:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/seen/waitlist⁠
If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://www.instagram.com/watchseenart⁠
About the Have You Seen? series:
The ⁠Have You Seen? Series⁠ is all about talking to emerging and mid-career artists about their journey to now.
Curious about how an artist got to where they are or indeed why they chose art in the first place? Then this series is for you. Join us as we speak to emerging and mid-career artists across the globe. Don’t worry, there’s no hiding behind art speak here, or pretending that being an artist is a bowl of cherries. We’re here to hear it all, straight from the source.

What if exhibiting at an art fair was completely free? That's the question Ryan Stanier - founder of The Other Art Fair - decided to actually answer.
After 100 editions and a decade-plus of watching artists get squeezed by rising costs, Ryan stepped away, and then launched Fair Play Art Fair: 70 carefully selected artists, zero booth fees, £20 visitor tickets, and a revenue model that only works if the art sells.
In this episode of Behind the Seen, Carrie and Ryan get into the full story: how The Other Art Fair began in a Covent Garden pop-up, what made him sell it, what Jerry Saltz got right about the art fair economy, and why Fair Play will feature a performance piece where visitors are invited to remove their clothes and sit for six artists in a greenhouse.

Fair Play Art Fair takes place in October at One Marylebone during Frieze Week.
Applications and tickets: https://fairplayartfair.com

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Seen podcast.
Liked what you heard? Get early access to these episodes and a ton of other great art content by becoming a member of Seen at seen.art.
If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram, @watchseenart.
About Behind The Seen
The Behind The Seen Series brings on art world professionals of all sorts to give you insight into what the art world is really like. Curious what it’s like being a gallerist, an art critic or a curator? Then this series is for you.

Download Avant Arte's New Generation Report: https://avantarte.com/insights/articles/new-generation-survey-2026
This year’s findings show that younger collectors are becoming an increasingly active economic and philanthropic force, spending meaningfully on artworks, visiting museums frequently, and demonstrating a growing appetite to financially support institutions.

Mazdak Sanii didn't grow up in the art world. He grew up practicing French horn six hours a day, writing his dissertation on Derrida, and eventually co-founding Boiler Room - the live music platform that brought intimate underground gigs to millions of global viewers. So how did he end up as the CEO of Avant Arte, one of the most consequential platforms in contemporary art today?
In this episode, Mazdak walks us through the eight-year journey of building a platform that has now worked with 250 artists on 750 projects — from Anish Kapoor's first silkscreen print to Tschabalala Self's first public sculpture in London. We talk about the merger with fine art print studio Make-Ready, the mission to bring first-time buyers into the art market (40% of their LACMA x Ed Ruscha buyers had never collected before), and what it actually means to be a "creative marketplace" rather than a gallery, a tech startup, or a hype machine.
This is a conversation about access without dilution, culture without gatekeeping, and why the most interesting thing happening in the art world right now might be the thing you haven't heard of yet.
Explore Avant Arte's collaborations: https://avantarte.com/
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Seen podcast.
Liked what you heard? Get early access to these episodes and a ton of other great art content by becoming a member of Seen at seen.art.
If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram, @watchseenart.
About Behind The Seen
The Behind The Seen Series brings on art world professionals of all sorts to give you insight into what the art world is really like. Curious what it’s like being a gallerist, an art critic or a curator? Then this series is for you.

Jonathan Schwartz is the founder of Atelier 4, one of the most trusted names in art handling and shipping worldwide. But his entry into the business was less than auspicious - he answered an ad to drive art cross-country despite not really being a driver, worked for what he calls "a pirate outfit," and came home from vacation to find maggots in the sink.
That was 36 years ago.
Since founding Atelier 4 in 1989, Jonathan has built a company known for handling the art world's most precious and challenging works - from Kerry James Marshall paintings he installed in the '90s to the Magna Carta itself.
Carrie and Jonathan talks about the Olympic-level logistics of art handling, why the name Atelier 4 is partly a joke about art world pretension, what happens when artwork components suddenly appear on endangered species lists, and why his favorite art handlers don't necessarily love art - they just need good hand-eye coordination and solid work ethic.
This conversation pulls back the curtain on the invisible infrastructure that keeps the art world moving, told by someone who's done everything from cutting stretcher bars to navigating international customs law, and who somehow maintains both deep reverence for the work and a healthy sense of absurdity about the whole enterprise.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Seen podcast.
Liked what you heard? Get early access to these episodes and a ton of other great art content by becoming a member of Seen at seen.art.
If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram, @watchseenart.
About Behind The Seen
The Behind The Seen Series brings on art world professionals of all sorts to give you insight into what the art world is really like. Curious what it’s like being a gallerist, an art critic or a curator? Then this series is for you.