Seen

Painter Suzy Spence spent 35 years making work in New York before trading the city for a sprawling Vermont studio - and she never stopped being radical. In this conversation, we dig into her summer show at the Bundy Museum, the feminist politics woven into equestrian imagery, and why the best paintings should be, in her words, hopefully indescribable.

Explore Suzy's work: https://suzyspence.com/
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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.

This week on Have You Seen?, Carrie sits down with photographer Anastasia Samoylova - a Russian-born, Miami-based artist who has spent 15 years building one of the most distinctive bodies of work in contemporary photography, largely by refusing to be intimidated by anything.
They talk about Ana's project pairing her contemporary Florida images with Walker Evans's archive, which landed her a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. About what it means to photograph a place that owes its entire identity to images of itself. About publishing as a woman in a field that is still overwhelmingly male. And about the simple but radical approach that has opened almost every door in her career: just ask, and have no expectations about the answer.
Explore Ana's work: https://www.anasamoylova.com/
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.

Damian Elwes spends years researching each painting, piecing together fragments of photographs and historical evidence to recreate the exact studios where masterpieces were made. He's probably the only person alive who's visited every Picasso studio and every Matisse studio. And he sometimes teaches art historians things they don't know about the artists they study.
In this conversation, we explore his reluctant journey from Harvard playwriting student to forensic art historian, the detective work behind each painting, and what he's discovered about Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Yayoi Kusama, Damien Hirst, and more.
These aren't just paintings of rooms—they're portraits of creativity itself.

Artists Discussed:Pablo Picasso | Henri Matisse | Frida Kahlo | Jean-Michel Basquiat | Damien Hirst | Yayoi Kusama | David Hockney | Rose Wylie | Keith Haring | Georgia O'Keeffe | Donald Judd
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 (⁠⁠⁠https://seen.art⁠⁠⁠).
Join our free newsletter and become an art insider:⁠⁠⁠ https://mailchi.mp/seen/waitlist⁠
If you want to connect with us between episodes, follow us on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/watchseenart⁠⁠⁠.

Syd Carpenter has spent fifty years expanding what clay can hold and now she's expanding beyond clay altogether. With a major retrospective at the Woodmere Art Museum and three additional exhibitions on view, Carpenter is having the kind of moment most artists dream of. But talk to her for five minutes and you realize she's not looking back. She's still inventing.
In this episode, Syd talks about choosing art over medicine, the teacher who gave her space to become herself, why she rejects the idea that her identity gives her a special connection to clay, and how her garden has quietly shaped everything she makes. She's funny, direct, and deeply generous and her story is exactly the kind of thing you want to hear right now.
Explore Syd's recent exhibitions:
https://www.sju.edu/maguire-art-museum/exhibitions/syd-carpenter
https://www.ursinus.edu/live/profiles/10435-syd-carpenter
https://woodmereartmuseum.org/experience/exhibitions/planting-in-place-time-and-memory
Join our free newsletter and become an art insider:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠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.

This week, Carrie is joined by Dan Webb, a Seattle-based woodcarver whose work has been astonishing her for 20 years. Dan creates sculptures that seem impossible: hands emerging from raw timber, Mylar balloons carved from wood that say "I love you" and actually mean it, gestures frozen in material older than nations.
We discuss his fifth exhibition at Greg Kucera Gallery, "Yespalier," and explore why he's dedicated himself to an ancient craft in a contemporary art world, what it means to carve through 300-year-old trees, and how he finds beauty and agency within the structures that constrain us.
Represented by Greg Kucera Gallery, Dan's work is in collections including the Smithsonian, Seattle Art Museum, and Tacoma Art Museum.
If you've ever wondered whether contemporary art can be both technically masterful and conceptually profound, both beautiful and meaningful—this conversation is for you.

Join our free newsletter and become an art insider:⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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.