Friday Heaters Podcast

On this week's episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we're joined by Los Angeles-based artist Kristopher Raos, whose bold, colorful paintings transform familiar imagery from everyday American life into something entirely unexpected.

Growing up in Bakersfield, Kristopher found his creative footing through music and graffiti before discovering contemporary art and developing his distinctive approach to painting. We dig into his fascination with discarded objects, corporate logos, and the possibilities of color, along with the painstaking process behind his richly layered, shaped canvases.

Kristopher also opens up about his unconventional path into the art...

On this week's episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we're joined by Los Angeles-born artist and sculptor Kelly Wall, whose inventive work transforms familiar objects into something entirely unexpected. Fresh off her inclusion in the Hammer Museum's Made in L.A. biennial, with work also appearing at Rockefeller Center, Kelly walks us through her unconventional approach to materials, her love of glass, and the creative process behind her intricate sculptural works.

We dig into her interactive penny press, Wistful Thinking, and Everything Must Go, an ambitious installation that transformed an abandoned Westwood newsstand into a glowing sunset...

This week on Friday Heaters, we're joined by Los Angeles based artist Elliott Hundley, whose extraordinary three-dimensional collages bring together photography, painting, sculpture, and thousands of carefully placed pins.

With a new exhibition at Regen Projects, Elliott takes us inside his creative world, where ancient Greek tragedies, personal memories, and everyday materials come together in unexpected ways. We explore the origins of his signature pin-covered works, why he never starts with a plan, and how decades of small experiments have shaped his remarkable practice.

The conversation also gets personal. Elliott reflects on his...

On this week’s episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we’re joined by curator Diana Nawi, whose career has taken her from institutions including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and Pérez Art Museum Miami to co-curating Prospect New Orleans and Made in L.A. 2023 at the Hammer Museum. Now back in Los Angeles, Diana is a curator of contemporary art at LACMA.

We talk about what a curator actually does, how Diana found her way into the field, and why so much of her career has been shaped by relationships, curiosity, and what she describes as le...

On this week’s episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast🔥 we’re joined by Simon Brewer and Nathalie Martin, the duo behind Brewer Martin, a new Los Angeles gallery opening this fall.

As young gallerists representing the next generation of LA’s art scene, Simon and Nathalie are stepping in at a moment when much of the art world is talking about contraction, gallery closures, and what isn’t working. We talk about what it actually means to run a gallery today, what they learned working alongside established gallerists, and why they see this moment of c...

On this week’s episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we’re joined by Pablo José Ramírez, curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, fresh off the run of his exhibition 'Several Eternities in a Day'.

Pablo breaks down what a curator actually does, from developing an idea and selecting artists, to navigating the complicated machinery behind a major museum exhibition. We dig into the show’s focus on living and natural materials, why audiences shouldn’t feel pressure to “understand” contemporary art, and his approach to presenting artists from different cultures without reduci...

This week on the Friday Heaters podcast, I'm joined by artist, producer, painter, and creative force Benn The Good—also known as Benny Cassette, and Benedetto. He has built a career that spans music, visual art, and culture, collaborating with artists including Kanye West, Rick Rubin, John Legend, Daft Punk, and many more, while continuing to develop his own distinct voice across multiple creative disciplines.

I've wanted to have Benny on the podcast for a long time. We've been neighbors for years, referring to ourselves as "sacred neighbors”, and some of my favorite conversations happ...

On this week’s episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we sit down with painter, Tidawhitney Lek, to talk about the path from working art jobs in Los Angeles to fully committing to her own painting practice. Tida reflects on growing up in Long Beach in a Cambodian family shaped by the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge, and how those experiences eventually found their way into her work through family narratives, domestic spaces, memory, and identity.

We discuss the moment she quit working side jobs, surviving the uncertainty of the early years, and how a series of st...

On this episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we sit down with Emma Webster ahead of her major New York show with Petzel. She breaks down her process, from handmade sculptures and real-world digital scans to VR-built landscapes, painting and how it all comes together into something that feels both real and surreal.

We talk about play, failure, risk, and the less visible side of building an art career, along with bigger ideas around technology, nature, and what it means to create entirely new worlds.

On this episode of the Friday Heaters podcast, we sit down with Abby Pucker—founder of the arts organization Gertie, headquartered in Chicago—and a close friend who’s building something we deeply believe in.

Abby shares her path from Sotheby’s and UTA to returning home to Chicago to build Gertie—a platform rethinking how the art world can work by blending exhibitions, membership, and community into a more sustainable model.

We get into the guts it takes to bet on your city, building outside of New York and LA, an...

On this week’s episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we sit down with Joe Parmer, co-owner of Custom Art Surfaces (CAS), the Los Angeles–based fabrication shop behind many of the canvases and painting surfaces used by today’s leading contemporary artists.

Joe takes us inside a part of the art world that rarely gets talked about—the physical foundation of a painting. From stretcher bars and substrates to gesso and surface preparation, we break down what actually goes into building a canvas, and why those decisions matter as an artist’s career and market...

On this week’s episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we sit down with Meredith Bayse and Adam Moskowitz, owners of the art gallery Moskowitz Bayse, to talk about what it really looks like to run a gallery as a husband-and-wife team—the balance, the dynamics, and the shared vision behind it.

Built from the ground up, Moskowitz Bayse has created a space that feels both approachable and serious—welcoming to first-time visitors while still serving seasoned art patrons.

We get into the realities of art fairs for smaller galler...

On this episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we sit down with artist Kate Mosher Hall, fresh off her presentation with Hoffman Donahue Gallery at Art Basel Paris. Kate speaks candidly about the realities of being a working artist today — from listening closely to collectors and audiences to her openness to adjusting aspects of her practice based on what resonates, what sells, and what people respond to most.

Beyond the studio, we talk about the routines that keep her grounded — the greatness of cycling, saunas, and cold plunges. We also dive into her early days...

On this episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we sit down with Kibum Kim, co-director of Commonwealth and Council in Koreatown, Los Angeles. Fresh off Art Basel Miami, Kibum reflected on the fair and larger questions in the contemporary art industry.

We discussed the challenges of presenting complex artwork in today’s attention economy, the role of the gallerists as cultural gatekeepers, and why expanding the art world shouldn’t mean simplifying it.

Alongside co-director Young Chung, Kibum has built Commonwealth and Council around community, solidarity, and equitable artist supp...

On this episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we sit down with painter Lauren Quin, whose abstract, sensual, otherworldly canvases have quickly made her one of the most sought-after young artists in contemporary art.

Lauren’s paintings are boldly colorful and beautiful — but they don’t let you off easy. There’s a rawness to them. A guttural physicality. She carves into paint, prints across surfaces, and pulls tube-like marks through her compositions to create a visual language that feels entirely her own.

We talk about her rapid ascent after gr...

On this episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, we’re joined by Bridget Donahue and Hannah Hoffman, the powerhouse duo behind Hoffman Donahue Gallery. At a time when the contemporary art world is facing major shifts — with galleries closing and traditional models being questioned — Bridget and Hannah are charting a bold new path forward.

After years of running respected galleries on opposite coasts (New York and Los Angeles), the two merged their programs in late summer 2025, combining their rosters and reimagining what a bi-coastal gallery can be. The result is a dynamic new chapter for th...

Today’s guest on the Friday Heaters Podcast🔥is contemporary artist, Kara Joslyn.  In the contemporary art world where many people shy away from telling it how it is, Kara isn’t afraid to rock the boat.  Her clarity and candor are refreshingly real. 

We explored her early life influences growing up in Southern California, the interplay between fashion and art, getting goth and working in black-and-white painting, her studio practice, and the tough questions about who gets to call themselves an artist.  Some hot takes and some art world heat🔥

Next up on the Friday Heaters Podcast🔥 we sit down with art advisor Alex Rojas to break down what art advising really looks like behind the scenes. From navigating the market to building meaningful, long-term collections, Alex walks us through the strategy, nuance, and instincts it takes to be great at this job. She’s young, sharp, savvy and already making serious moves in the art world. If you’ve ever wondered what an art advisor does—or questioned whether you need one—this episode will make you a believer. It definitely did for us🔥

Welcome to the very first episode of the Friday Heaters Podcast, and we’re coming out of the gate hot🔥  For our debut, we sit down with the incomparable Max Hooper Schneider—an artist whose work and worldview refuse to fit neatly into any box.

Max’s practice collides landscape architecture with death metal energy, melting Barbies, copper-plated lasagna, and eerie underwater sea creatures. It’s raw, strange, playful, and deeply intentional—much like Max himself. He’s not trying to relate to anybody, not chasing trends, and not watering anything down. He’s doing it his way, full stop...