Articulated: Dispatches from the Archives of American Art

From 1942–1946, more than 125,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated at camps throughout the country. This episode traces the lasting consequences of incarceration through the familial and artistic lines of Wendy Maruyama, Mira Nakashima, Frank Okada, and Patti Warashina, while considering how we understand the incarceration within the American experience. Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

From 1942–1946, more than 125,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated at camps throughout the country. Artists including Ruth Asawa, Miyoko Ito, Isamu Noguchi, and Kay Sekimachi were among them, and this episode tracks their experience in the camps and how their lives and work were transformed by a painful chapter of American history. Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Willie Herrón’s murals enrich his East Los Angeles community by preserving history and planting seeds for the future. In this episode, New Mexico-based muralist Nanibah Chacon (Diné) celebrates Herrón’s precedent of recording and amplifying local culture through his work, and she reflects on the power of public art more broadly. Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Artists often help us to break out of the paradigms to which we are knowingly and unknowingly accustomed. In this episode, New York- and Philadelphia-based artist Carolyn Lazard considers Emma Amos’s resistances to white supremacy in the 1960s and Bruce Conner’s disintegration of media’s spectacular thrall in the 1970s as well as the legacies each artist left in their wake. Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

How do we understand our bodies in relation to the earth? In this episode, Columbus, Ohio-based artist Dionne Lee meditates on the wonder and danger of landscape through the work of Jerome Caja and Michelle Stuart, and their understandings of fragility, proneness, and seismic potential. Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

In this episode, San Antonio-based photographer Mari Hernandez considers the social, political, and formal trails blazed by Kathy Vargas, another San Antonio resident. From her encounters with institutional racism and misogyny, to her radical experimentation with photography as a medium, Vargas’s vibrant career and activism have emboldened new generations of artists to expand and serve their communities.  Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

In this episode, Brooklyn-based painter Maia Cruz Palileo navigates Cherokee painter Kay WalkingStick's journey with family, art, and history. From grappling with heritage to creating art that transcends boundaries of all kinds, follow the evolution of WalkingStick's practice along the path she has painted all her own. Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Native Hawaiian lauhala weaver Katherine Kalehuapuakeaula “Lehua” Domingo (1935-) and Hopi ceramicist Al Qöyawayma (1938-) are two elder Indigenous artists and practitioners that each embody lifetimes of experiences through their creative practices. In this episode, guest curator Lehuauakea, a Native Hawaiian artist, draws connections between their work through their shared challenges and celebrations, and how these elements might define the artists’ work as contemporary, traditional, or something else entirely. Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

What does art make happen, and what can art make happen? Artists have adapted a variety of forms to encourage equity and advancement, creating art that serves as a forum for shared experience and growth as they spur new dynamics between creator and audience.This episode explores what feminist social practice has meant for Suzanne Lacy, particularly in her early performance work, and for Juana Alicia in her murals and paintings. Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

Consuelo Jiménez Underwood has blazed her own trail in fiber art, weaving with heritage and healing. Across borders, identities, and time, she creates works that celebrate the natural world and human connection. Learn more about her prolific practice and vivacious activism in this episode. Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated