Art World: Whitehot Magazine with Noah Becker

Noah talks to Mie Iwatsuki. From Jan. 2005 to present, MIE has modeled for master-painter, ALEX KATZ, who produced 10 portraits of her. One of the paintings was featured in ART & ANTIQUE Magazine in Jan. 2006. Another portrait of Mie was purchased by the family of the famous Romanian sculptor, Constantin Brancuci. Fashion theme portraits with Christie Turlington were featured in the exhibition, "FASHION'" in Jan. 2009 at Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery in Paris. The painting, "Homage to Utamaro" became the catalogue cover for Alex Katz's 40 year retrospective museum show which traveled the world in 2009. From 2010 to the present, MIE was photographed by the legendary photographer, Robert Frank. Two of his photographs of Mie were included in the exhibition, “MIE: A Portait by 35 Artists" in January, 2012 at Freight + Volume Gallery in NYC.

Noah talks to major NYC art collector Amy Phelan. She has over 500 works in her collection and many other important pieces of contemporary art. This episode was recorded in NYC a number of years ago.

Noah talks to NY artist Alfredo Martinez about the night his friend broke into Jean-Michael Basquiat’s Great Jones St. Studio.

Noah talks with legendary graffiti artist DELTA 2 was raised in the Spanish Harlem section of Manhattan and became involved in subway painting in the late 1970s. His early observations of IRT Kings such as LEE and BLADE drove him to create his own style. DELTA's subway painting career peaked from the early to mid 1980s. He became well known for his rapid takeovers of the 6 and 4 lines. During this time period DELTA also founded the crew Kings Arrive. During his career he teamed up with writers such as MACK, SWAN, JOEY TDS, SHARP, PART ONE and others. DELTA 2 also experienced success in the international art scene. Beginning in 1984 he painted in more conventional contexts. He participated in a Guillaume Gallozo graffiti art presentation for Valentino's 25th Anniversary in Rome, Italy and displayed and sold paintings throughout Europe. DELTA's current work features traditional aerosol paintings--such as his work at the 2005 NYC Graffiti Hall of Fame--and meticulously detailed line art illustrations and letter explorations. He also continues working on fine art and comercial comissions. More on DELTA 2 in the Future.

Noah talks to Magda Sawon - a contemporary art gallerist and art world figure who founded and owns New York's Postmasters Gallery (with her husband Tamas Banovich), a gallery for young and established contemporary artists, especially those working in new media, in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City. The gallery is considered to be one of the "leading experimental galleries" in New York City.

Natalie White is a provocative and progressive feminist artist who explores her own identity through the lens of a camera, most notably with giant self-portrait Polaroids. In addition to being an artist, she is also a model and has served as the muse for over 25 different artists including Peter Beard, Spencer Tunick, Michael Dwek, Jan Frank, Olivier Zahm, Sean Lennon, and Will Cotton. This interview was done in Brooklyn Heights in March 2020, right at the beginning of Covid. Issa Saliander is the person with the European accent...

c, curator, and author based in Downtown LA. She is the Arts Editor for the L.A. Weekly, and a contributor to Flaunt, Art & Cake, Whitehot Magazine and Artillery. She studied Art History at Vassar College, writes book and catalog essays, curates and juries exhibitions, is a dedicated Instagram photographer and is the author of the experimental novella Zen Psychosis (2020, Griffith Moon). She speaks at galleries, schools, and cultural institutions nationally, and is a member of ArtTable and the LA Press Club, and sits on the Boards of Art Share-LA and the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art, the Advisory Council of Building Bridges Art Exchange, and the Brain Trust of Some Serious Business.

Larry Ossei-Mensah is a Ghanaian-American independent curator and cultural critic who has documented contemporary art happenings for various publications including Uptown and Whitewall Magazine. His writings have profiled some of the most dynamic visual artists working today—Derrick Adams, Mickalene Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Lorna Simpson and street artist JR. As a curator, Ossei-Mensah uses contemporary art and culture as a vehicle to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. He has organized exhibitions at commercial and nonprofit galleries throughout New York City featuring a roster of critically acclaimed emerging and mid-career artists including Firelei Baez, ruby amanze, Hugo McCloud, Brendan Fernandes, and Derek Fordjour to name a few. Ossei-Mensah is also the Co-Founder of ARTNOIR, a global collective of culturalists who design multimodal experiences aimed to engage this generation’s dynamic and diverse creative class. ARTNOIR serves as a tangible extension of Ossei-Mensah’s curatorial vision of “bridging gaps.” ARTNOIR’s inaugural event was a conversation on art and gender justice featuring Wangechi Mutu, Julie Mehretu and Adrienne Edwards. He currently serves as Co-Chair on Russell Simmons’ RUSH Artist Advisory Board, the Guggenheim’s Young Collectors Council, MoMA’s Friends of Education and as juror for the 2016 PULSE Prize.

I met with Frank Stella the second time. The first time was at his studio but the following recording was at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea New York City.