Talks

VoCA Talk: Tory Fair

VoCA Talks is a series of public programs featuring artists and their collaborators in conversation about the challenges and rewards inherent in making, showing, and preserving contemporary art.

Transcripts of past VoCA Talks are available upon request. Please direct all queries to margaret@voca.network.


Recent Talks

A painting by artist Peter Jemison

G. Peter Jemison, All Indians Don’t Live West of the Mississippi, 1987, Mixed Media on Paper. Courtesy of the Artist and K Art Gallery.

On Sunday, September 10, 2023, we hosted a VoCA Talk between artist G. Peter Jemison (Seneca Nation (Heron Clan)) and curator and VoCA Board Member Andrea R. Hanley (Navajo). This event, held at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, featured a live conversation and audience Q&A, and was the inaugural program in our Native Voices series, supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

This program was recorded; the video will be made available online later this winter, so stay tuned!

 

Subscribe to our Newsletter for announcements about all upcoming programs.

Past Talks

Artists

Artist Vito Acconci speaks with conservator Steven O’Banion about the reconstruction of Way Station I, Acconci’s first permanent site-specific sculpture and, retrospectively, one which clearly marks a significant transition from his temporary installations to his permanent architectural work. (Middlebury College Museum of Art, 2013)

On the occasion of his 2017 multimedia exhibition, “Future People,” at the Rebuild Foundation, artist Derrick Adams spoke with curator Chad Alligood about his arts practice and the experience of incorporating elements from the Stony Island Arts Bank archive into his work. (Stony Island Arts Bank, Chicago, 2017)

Artist Sonia Almeida speaks with art historian Gloria Sutton about her hinged paintings, tapestries, recent exhibitions, and book projects which draw on techniques of printmaking and the history of textiles. (Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Boston, 2018)

VoCA Talk coming soon!

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, artist Jaime Davidovich speaks with conservator Steven O’Banion about living and working in downtown Manhattan as a painter in the late 1960s, his experimental “tape paintings,” and his introduction to the medium of videotape, which led to him use cable television as a conduit for video art. (Fales Library, NYU, 2016)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, artist Blane De St. Croix speaks with curator Robin Clark about how his work engages topics including the geopolitical landscape, border issues, climate change, pollution, land erosion, and preservation. (Cabinet Magazine, Brooklyn, 2016)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, artist Lesley Dill and curator Robin Clark explore the ways that Dill’s work interweaves, sutures, and unfolds the territories of language and visual art. (Pen+Brush, NYC, 2019)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, artist and activist Marcos Dimas speaks with fellow artist Jonathan Allen about his art practice, advocacy work, and founding Taller Boricua, The Puerto Rican Workshop, Inc., in 1970. (Julia de Burgos Art Center, NY, 2017)

Artist Leonardo Drew sits down with Rebecca Hart, Polly and Mark Addison Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Denver Art Museum, to discuss his dynamic large-scale sculptural installations. (Denver Art Museum, 2016)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, conservator Jennifer Hickey interviews Gwen Fabricant about her trajectory as an artist and many of the themes and aesthetic concerns that have shaped her creative practice, such as her preoccupation with light, nature, and the passage of time. (Fales Library, NYU, 2017)

Artist Tory Fair speaks with curator Jen Mergel about how Fair’s research and interviews with artists presented in the 1996 exhibition More Than Minimal: Feminism and Abstraction in the ‘70s at the Rose Art Museum inspired her latest work—and her embrace of the archive as a generative force. (Boston Center for the Arts, 2019)

Artist Dell Marie Hamilton speaks with curator Sam Toabe about the many layers of material and meaning that comprise a selection of her drawings, photography, performance, video, and multimedia installations. In this Talk, Hamilton breaks down the stages of her artistic process and her studio practice, walks through various iterations of her seminal performance work, Blues/Blank/Black (2018), and pays homage to the scholars and mentors who helped shape her voice. (Boston Center for the Arts, 2021)

A virtual program hosted in partnership with Boston Center for the Arts featuring a live conversation and audience Q&A with artist Dell Marie Hamilton, curator Sam Toabe, and conservator Jennifer Hickey. (2021)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, artist Mildred Howard sits down in her studio with Director and CEO of the Oakland Museum of California Lori Fogarty to trace the close connection between Howard’s personal history and the continual evolution of her work, from growing up in South Berkeley to her large-scale public sculptures and ongoing exploration of themes including migration, shelter, family, and notions of home. (Oakland, 2020)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, artist Arlan Huang sits down with fellow artist Beth Krebs and curator Robin Clark to discuss his practice and the emotional and physical process of documenting over forty years of his artwork. (Joan Mitchell Foundation, NYC, 2015)

This discussion featuring artists and CALL Legacy Specialists Lehna Huie and Beth Krebs in conversation with curator Christie Mitchell reflects upon each artist’s own work, as well as the intergenerational collaboration fostered by the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s CALL program. (Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 2019)

VoCA Talk coming soon!

This discussion featuring artists and CALL Legacy Specialists Lehna Huie and Beth Krebs in conversation with curator Christie Mitchell reflects upon each artist’s own work, as well as the intergenerational collaboration fostered by the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s CALL program. (Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 2019)

Artist and Legacy Specialist Beth Krebs joined CALL artist Arlan Huang and curator Robin Clark to discuss Huang’s practice and the experience of documenting his life’s work. (Joan Mitchell Foundation, NYC, 2015)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, abstract artist Ted Kurahara sits down with fellow CALL Artist Arlan Huang to discuss the arc of Kurahara’s artistic practice alongside his many inspirations, including the Golden Section, European painting traditions, Haiku poetry, and personal narrative. (Joan Mitchell Foundation, NYC, 2019)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, artist Henrietta Mantooth gives a compelling interview with conservator Jennifer Hickey at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) about her work and the issues of racial inequity and mass incarceration. (Museum of the City of New York, 2016)

VoCA Talk coming soon!

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, abstract painter Mario Martinez sits down with conservator Steven O’Banion to reground his work within his cultural background as a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe from Penjamo, Arizona and provide insight into his working process and approach. (National Museum of the American Indian, NY, 2017)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, artist Otto Neals sits down at his home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, with Jonathan Allen to discuss his life and prolific career as a painter, sculptor, and printmaker in New York City. (2015)

This panel discussion features artist-archivists Antonia Perez, Julia Rooney, and Rose Nestler in conversation with conservator Kendra Roth. After brief presentations by each of the artists, the panel considers issues pertaining their work and how the artist’s voice can play a role in shaping her own legacy. (Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 2018)

Should activist and/or situation-specific performance art be re-performed? Can images, video, and critical reviews adequately convey the experiences of those who witness performance works? What is the role of the archive? For this discussion, artist Lorraine O’Grady is joined by moderator Glenn Wharton, archivist Lisa Darms, and curator Thomas J. Lax. (Fales Library, NYU, 2013)

Artist Sarah Oppenheimer speaks with curator Robin Clark about her architectural interventions and explores some of the challenges inherent in producing, presenting, and documenting her installation-based work. (Brooklyn Museum, 2015)

This panel discussion features artist-archivists Antonia Perez, Julia Rooney, and Rose Nestler in conversation with conservator Kendra Roth. After brief presentations by each of the artists, the panel considers issues pertaining their work and how the artist’s voice can play a role in shaping her own legacy. (Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 2018)

This VoCA Talk features artist Daniela Rivera in conversation with curator Leah Triplett Harrington. Filmed in Rivera’s studio, the two discuss seven distinct bodies of Rivera’s work alongside earlier sketches. Suggesting that drawing is the connective tissue of her work, this Talk explores how Rivera’s practice relates to the body and, therefore, themes of vulnerability, visibility, and materiality. (Daniela Rivera’s Studio, Boston, 2020)

A virtual program hosted in partnership with Boston Center for the Arts featuring a conversation between artist Daniela Rivera, curator Leah Triplett Harrington, and conservator Narayan Khandekar. (2021)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, artist Freddy Rodríguez sits down with Yasmeen Siddiqui to discuss the threads between the numerous and seemingly disparate bodies of Rodríguez’ work, including his Vestment paintings, early geometric abstractions, Cimarron series, expressive paintings made via an artistic process he calls “creative destruction,” and his fascination with the history of gold. (Flushing, New York, 2020)

This panel discussion features artist-archivists Antonia Perez, Julia Rooney, and Rose Nestler in conversation with conservator Kendra Roth. After brief presentations by each of the artists, the panel considers issues pertaining their work and how the artist’s voice can play a role in shaping her own legacy. (Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 2018)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, eco-artist Christy Rupp speaks with Jonathan Allen about how her work studies the impact of economics on the environment, exploring topics such as the commodification of natural resources, climate chaos, plastic pollution, and invisible feedback from the planet. (The 8th Floor, NYC, 2018)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, contemporary painter Tara Sabharwal speaks with curator Robin Clark about her experience as an international artist traveling between India, London, and New York, and her shift away from the figurative toward abstraction. (Fales Library, NYU, 2017)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, artist Juan Sánchez speaks with conservator Jennifer Hickey about his many sources of inspiration, past and current work, as well as his life-long commitment to activism. (Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY, 2015)

In advance of his 2015 CALL/VoCA Talk, Sánchez spent an afternoon walking through his solo exhibition at the BRIC Arts and Media House in Brooklyn with conservator Jennifer Hickey, discussing how the body of work explores his identity and Puerto Rican heritage through a variety of media. (BRIC, Brooklyn, 2015)

VoCA Talk coming soon!

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, acclaimed conceptual and textile artist Mimi Smith speaks with curator Christie Mitchell about her oeuvre and the experience of documenting her life’s work. (Joan Mitchell Foundation, NYC, 2015)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, artist Gladys Triana speaks with conservator Ruth del Fresno-Guillem about her art, family, travels, and many artistic influences, from Diego Rivera and Goya to Beethoven. (Julia De Burgos Art Center, NYC, 2020)

VoCA collaborated with the Guggenheim Museum and the Getty Conservation Institute for a film screening of “From Start to Finish: The Story of Gray Column,” a 30-minute documentary that recounts the remarkable story behind the making of De Wain Valentine’s Gray Column. Following the screening, conservator Tom Learner spoke with Valentine about the creation of this monumental work of art and his thoughts on approaches to its conservation. (Guggenheim Museum, 2013)

Artist Marie Watt speaks with oral historian James Lancel McElhinney about how her work draws from history, biography, protofeminism, and Indigenous principles, and uses materials that are conceptually attached to narrative: in particular, exploring the stories connected with commonplace woolen blankets, cedar, and iron. (Denver Art Museum, 2016)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, artist Emmett Wigglesworth speaks with curator Christie Mitchell about his prolific career as a muralist, painter, sculptor, fabric designer, and poet in New York City. (Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Queens, 2016)

VoCA Talk coming soon!

Interviewers

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, Jonathan Allen speaks with eco-artist Christy Rupp about how her work studies the impact of economics on the environment, exploring topics such as the commodification of natural resources, climate chaos, plastic pollution, and invisible feedback from the planet. (The 8th Floor, NYC, 2018)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, Jonathan Allen interviews artist and activist Marcos Dimas about his art practice, advocacy work, and founding Taller Boricua, The Puerto Rican Workshop, Inc., in 1970. (Julia de Burgos Art Center, NYC, 2017)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, Jonathan Allen sits down with artist Otto Neals at his home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, to discuss his life and prolific career as a painter, sculptor, and printmaker in New York City. (2015)

On the occasion of his 2017 multimedia exhibition, “Future People,” at the Rebuild Foundation, artist Derrick Adams spoke with curator Chad Alligood about his arts practice and the experience of incorporating elements from the Stony Island Arts Bank archive into his work. (Stony Island Arts Bank, Chicago, 2017)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, curator Robin Clark and artist Lesley Dill explore the ways that Dill’s work interweaves, sutures, and unfolds the territories of language and visual art. (Pen+Brush, NYC, 2019)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, curator Robin Clark speaks with contemporary painter Tara Sabharwal about her experience as an international artist traveling between India, London, and New York, and her shift away from the figurative toward abstraction. (Fales Library, NYU, 2017)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, curator Robin Clark speaks with artist Blane De St. Croix about how his work engages topics including the geopolitical landscape, border issues, climate change, pollution, land erosion, and preservation. (Cabinet Magazine, Brooklyn, 2016)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, curator Robin Clark spoke with artist Arlan Huang and Legacy Specialist Beth Krebs to discuss Huang’s practice and the emotional and physical process of documenting over forty years of his artwork. (Joan Mitchell Foundation, NYC, 2015)

Curator Robin Clark speaks with artist Sarah Oppenheimer about her architectural interventions and explores some of the challenges inherent in producing, presenting, and documenting her installation-based work. (Brooklyn Museum, 2015)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, conservator Ruth del Fresno-Guillem speaks with artist Gladys Triana about her artwork, family, travels, and many artistic influences, from Diego Rivera and Goya to Beethoven. (Julia De Burgos Art Center, NYC, 2020)

VoCA Talk coming soon!

VoCA Talk coming soon!

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, Director and CEO of the Oakland Museum of California Lori Fogarty sits down with artist Mildred Howard in her studio to trace the close connection between Howard’s personal history and the continual evolution of her work, from growing up in South Berkeley to her large-scale public sculptures and ongoing exploration of themes including migration, shelter, family, and notions of home. (Oakland, 2020)

VoCA Talk coming soon!

VoCA Talk coming soon!

Rebecca Hart, Polly and Mark Addison Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Denver Art Museum, speaks with artist Leonardo Drew about his dynamic large-scale sculptural installations. (Denver Art Museum, 2016)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, conservator Jennifer Hickey interviews Gwen Fabricant about her trajectory as an artist and many of the themes and aesthetic concerns that have shaped her creative practice, such as her preoccupation with light, nature, and the passage of time. (Fales Library, NYU, 2017)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, conservator Jennifer Hickey speaks with artist Henrietta Mantooth about her work and the issues of racial inequity and mass incarceration. (Museum of the City of New York, 2016)

In advance of his 2015 CALL/VoCA Talk, Juan Sánchez spent an afternoon walking through his solo exhibition at the BRIC Arts and Media House in Brooklyn with Conservator Jennifer Hickey, discussing how the body of work explores his identity and Puerto Rican heritage through a variety of media. (BRIC, Brooklyn, 2015)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, conservator Jennifer Hickey speaks with artist Juan Sánchez about his many sources of inspiration, past and current work, as well as his life-long commitment to activism. (Bronx Museum of the Arts, 2015)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, Arlan Huang interviews abstract artist Ted Kurahara about the arc of Kurahara’s artistic practice alongside his many inspirations, including the Golden Section, European painting traditions, Haiku poetry, and personal narrative. (Joan Mitchell Foundation, NYC, 2018)

Following a screening of “From Start to Finish: The Story of Gray Column,” a 30-minute documentary that recounts the remarkable story behind the making of De Wain Valentine’s Gray Column, conservator Tom Learner speaks with Valentine about the creation of this monumental work of art and his thoughts on approaches to its conservation. (Guggenheim Museum, NY, 2013)

Oral historian James Lancel McElhinney speaks with artist Marie Watt about the ways her work draws from history, biography, protofeminism, and Indigenous principles, and uses materials that are conceptually attached to narrative: in particular, exploring the stories connected with commonplace woolen blankets, cedar, and iron. (Denver Art Museum, 2016)

Curator Jen Mergel speaks with artist Tory Fair about how Fair’s research and interviews with artists presented in the 1996 exhibition More Than Minimal: Feminism and Abstraction in the ‘70s at the Rose Art Museum inspired her latest work—and her embrace of the archive as a generative force. (Boston Center for the Arts, 2019)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, Christie Mitchell moderates a discussion with artists and CALL Legacy Specialists Lehna Huie and Beth Krebs. (Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 2019)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, Christie Mitchell speaks with artist Emmett Wigglesworth about his prolific career as a muralist, painter, sculptor, fabric designer, and poet in New York City. (Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Queens, 2016)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, Christie Mitchell interviews artist Mimi Smith about her oeuvre and the experience of documenting her life’s work. (Joan Mitchell Foundation, NYC, 2015)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, conservator Steven O’Banion speaks with abstract painter Mario Martinez, regrounding Martinez’s work within his cultural background as a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe from Penjamo, Arizona, while providing thoughtful insight into his working process and approach. (National Museum of the American Indian, NY, 2017)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talk series, conservator Steven O’Banion interviews artist Jaime Davidovich about living and working in downtown Manhattan as a painter in the late 1960s, his experimental “tape paintings,” and his introduction to the medium of videotape, which led to him use cable television as a conduit for video art. (Fales Library, NYU, 2016)

Conservator Steven O’Banion speaks with artist Vito Acconci about the reconstruction of Way Station I, Acconci’s first permanent site-specific sculpture and, retrospectively, one which clearly marks a significant transition from his temporary installations to his permanent architectural work. (Middlebury College Museum of Art, 2013)

Conservator Kendra Roth moderates a panel discussion with artist-archivists Antonia Perez, Julia Rooney, and Rose Nestler. After brief presentations by each of the artists, the group considers issues pertaining their work and how the artist’s voice can play a role in shaping her own legacy. (Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 2018)

As part of our ongoing CALL/VoCA Talks series, Yasmeen Siddiqui sits down with artist Freddy Rodríguez to discuss the threads between the numerous and seemingly disparate bodies of Rodríguez’ work, including his Vestment paintings, early geometric abstractions, Cimarron series, expressive paintings made via an artistic process he calls “creative destruction,” and his fascination with the history of gold. (Flushing, New York, 2020)

Art historian Gloria Sutton speaks with artist Sonia Almeida about her hinged paintings, tapestries, recent exhibitions, and book projects which draw on techniques of printmaking and the history of textiles. (Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Boston, 2018)

Curator Sam Toabe speaks with artist Dell Marie Hamilton about the many layers of material and meaning that comprise a selection of her drawings, photography, performance, video, and multimedia installations. Hamilton breaks down the stages of her artistic process and her studio practice, walks through various iterations of her seminal performance work, Blues/Blank/Black (2018), and pays homage to the scholars and mentors who helped shape her voice. (Boston Center for the Arts, 2021)

A virtual program hosted in partnership with Boston Center for the Arts featuring a live conversation and audience Q&A with artist Dell Marie Hamilton, curator Sam Toabe, and conservator Jennifer Hickey. (2021)

Curator Leah Triplett Harrington speaks with artist Daniela Rivera about seven distinct bodies of Rivera’s work alongside earlier sketches. Suggesting that drawing is the connective tissue of her work, this Talk explores how Rivera’s practice relates to the body and, therefore, themes of vulnerability, visibility, and materiality. (Daniela Rivera’s Studio, Boston, 2020)

A virtual program hosted in partnership with Boston Center for the Arts featuring a conversation between artist Daniela Rivera, curator Leah Triplett Harrington, and conservator Narayan Khandekar. (2021)

Should activist and/or situation-specific performance art be re-performed? Can images, video, and critical reviews adequately convey the experiences of those who witness performance works? What is the role of the archive? For this discussion, moderated by Glenn Wharton, artist Lorraine O’Grady is joined by archivist Lisa Darms and curator Thomas J. Lax. (Fales Library, NYU, 2013)