A viral encounter with a bronze sculpture put our host, Madison Beale, in touch with the incomparable interdisciplinary artist Patricia Cronin this year. Today on the Artalogue, Beale sits down down with Cronin to discuss her career trajectory from humble beginnings to a global art world presence as multidisciplinary feminist artist behind Memorial to a Marriage and Shrine for Girls to unpack how a work of art can carry both intimacy and insurgency.

Patricia traces her path from a Catholic childhood through the 1990s culture wars, with erotic Polaroids interrogating power, authorship and voyeurism. That same insistence on lived perspective inspired later works, like the three-ton neoclassical embrace installed on her own burial plot to answer legal and physical absence in public space, and three quiet altars in Venice layered with fabrics that invite viewers to better understand how the patriarchy harms us all.

Beale and Cronin also face the present head-on: executive orders scaring museum programs into deplatforming artists, show cancellations rippling through the arts in the United States, and the subtler danger of self-censorship in the studio. Cronin shares a clear path for resisting authoritarianism, matching skills to message and building communities that outlast regimes.

Patricia Cronin is an interdisciplinary feminist artist that examines issues of gender, sexuality, and social justice. Major bodies of work focus on the international human rights of LGBTQ+ persons, women, and girls, including “Memorial To A Marriage”, the world’s first Marriage Equality monument. Cronin’s work has been exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions at institutions including the Tampa Museum of Art, The FLAG Art Foundation, the 56th Venice Biennale, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Academy in Rome. She has also participated in significant group exhibitions around the world and received various prestigious awards and fellowships. Cronin’s works is collected by numerous museums, including Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, National Gallery of Art, Perez Art Museum Miami, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Tampa Museum of Art, and Woodlawn Cemetery. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

If this conversation moves you, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves art and justice, and leave a review with the artwork that changed your life. Your stories help others find us and keep this community growing.

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Barbara Cole turned a newsroom fashion job into a decades-long photography practice. In this new episode of the Artalogue, Madison chats with the award winning photographer Barbara Cole about her unorthodox journey to the dark room.

Cole's first memories of art were at the theatre, which makes sense when you look at her gorgeous and theatrical photographs. She was initially inspired by the British artist Sarah Moon and the painterly way she conceived her photographs. From there she learned by doing: running lights off generators, hand-painting prints, collaging archival imagery, and eventually mastering a practice that treats film and digital as complementary tools.

Cole shares more about Impermanence, her new show with Bau-Xi gallery. black-and-white underwater series shot through the surface with a Rolleiflex while a summer storm tried to drown the set. The result is a study in blur, breath, and transition with figures suspended in dreamy, watery underworlds. Cole worked with a young designer to create outfits specifically for this shoot. As well as creative peaks, we talk about some creative troughs: fear between projects, the discipline of shooting without expectation and mental health struggles.

If you’re chasing a singular voice, this conversation delivers practical insight: how to find honest gesture, why gear isn’t always the answer, and how finding your own style through experimentation can create a timeless look.

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We all knew the art market slowed slow down, but we didn't realize the rules were being rewritten, too. Advisor, curator, and reporter Elisa Carollo joins Madison Beale on The Artalogue today to discuss the most important questions arising in the art market today.:Will there be more gallery shut downs? How are galleries adapting in a post-boom, post-digital art market? What can the next generation dealers do to keep their heads above water? Today, we connect the dots between prices, context, and staying power.

We start with Elisa’s journey navigating secondary and primary markets, curation, and daily reporting, and how that unique vantage point helps Carollo understand what moves value in contemporary and ultra‑contemporary art. She breaks down the pandemic’s fast‑track effect on emerging artists, why rapid price spikes can backfire, and how institutional recognition, biennials, and critical writing broaden demand beyond a handful of bidders.

The conversation then turns to the gallery crunch: mounting fair schedules, rising rents, thin teams, and the danger of overgrowth. Carollo explores how dealers these days believe that community is driving more sustainable sales. We also spotlight hopeful momentum, from the Studio Museum in Harlem’s reopening to Venice’s next chapter, and revisit the Malta Biennial as a model for site‑specific, context‑rich curation that builds meaning as well as markets in places less frequented by the art world's usual travel circuit.

Carollo offers grounded advice for aspiring art writers: be present in the industry, wear different hats, and ask better questions. If you care about how artworks earn their place (and keep it) this conversation is your field guide to an art world under renovation.

Subscribe to The Artalogue, share with a friend who collects or curates, and leave a review telling me what part of the market you want explored next!

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Can Artificial Intelligence be art? And if yes, can it be good?

Today on the Artalogue, Madison Beale sits down with artist Jake Elwes to discuss their art practice, as an early adopter of A.I., using it to challenge how we think about the world and technology through their artwork. Elwes does't separate art and tech, instead they use it as an innovative and generative medium. Elwes creates diffusion models that transform faces, words, and gestures into code. Bias, embedded into the datasets and diffusion models that are being used by almost everyone in our world, becomes something you can see when the work breaks down.

We discuss some of their works, like a diffusion‑driven interpretation of Sontag’s Against Interpretation. The Zizi Show, which has been the art work that introduced Madison to Elwes' work, “queers the dataset” by creating a unique data set with consenting and compensated drag performs, making moving images that transform into drag kings, queens, monsters and things that dance and lip-sync. The result is a cabaret that prompts us to think about bias, consent, and what it means to make art with tools that reflect us back in troubled but revealing ways.

Elwes and Beale talk about decolonizing data, art, tech and the problems that arise in the gaps between. We compare US and UK art education, unpack how normativity creeps into “perfect” generated images, and explore how far we can take Artificial Intelligence in the art world. The thread tying it all together is intention: tools are powerful, but human voice is the point. If you care about AI, art, drag, ethics, or how culture could absorb new technology without losing soul, this conversation offers a sharp, hopeful starting point for deeper thinking.

Follow Jake on Instagram @jakelwes and check out their website.

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Step behind the scenes of Reel Pride, Canada's longest-running 2SLGBTQIA+ film festival, as Madison sits down with festival president Ray Desautels and marketing director Greg Klassen at Manitoba's Theatre for Young People. This fascinating conversation reveals how a dedicated team of volunteers brings dozens of authentic queer stories to Winnipeg screens each year.

From its humble beginnings in 1985 when LGBTQ+ representation was limited to stereotypical characters, Reel Pride has evolved into a multi-faceted celebration of queer cinema. "We want movies based on our lifestyle," explains Desautels, emphasizing their focus on stories where queerness is central, not incidental.

The conversation takes a compelling turn as we explore how the festival navigates today's increasingly tense political climate. "We're not going to be pushed back into the closet," Desautels states reflecting this year's theme: "Projecting Pride: Loud and Proud." Both guests provide thoughtful perspectives on the festival's evolution, from simply showing films to creating community spaces through art exhibitions, short film showcases, and social gatherings. They highlight international standouts like "Odd Fish" from Iceland and "Some Nights I Feel Like Walking" from the Philippines, showcasing how the festival brings global queer perspectives to Canadian audiences.

Whether you're a film enthusiast, an aspiring filmmaker, or simply curious about Winnipeg's vibrant queer arts scene, this episode offers valuable insights into how cultural festivals can adapt, survive, and thrive across four decades. Discover why Reel Pride remains relevant after 40 years and how it continues to create essential space for authentic queer storytelling. Check out the festival this weekend at the Gas Station Arts Centre and Canada's Museum for Human Rights!

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Bria Fernandes' unique visual language speaks volumes about the things left unsaid. The Ottawa-born-Winnipeg-based figurative painter creates work that explores the nuanced experiences of Black womanhood, identity formation, and the minutia of everyday life. Just hours before the opening of her first hometown solo exhibition at Gallery 1CO3, Bria sits down to share the creative journey behind her new show "Things Left Unsaid."

Bria reveals how her artistic practice has evolved from her earliest memories painting children's bedrooms to exhibiting internationally. The conversation uncovers a methodical creator who meticulously plans both her figures and backgrounds, refusing to treat any element of her composition as an afterthought.

What emerges most vividly is Bria's current artistic evolution, like the recent fusion of her elements in her mural work with her fine art practice. Where these two creative expressions once remained separate worlds, she now deliberately incorporates the graphic, illustrative elements from her public art into her oil paintings. The result is a vibrant new direction represented by "Step Aside Slash," the exhibition's centrepiece that Bria describes as something that pushed her towards a new artistic direction.

The discussion provides a deep and meaningful meditation on the realities of being a living artist beyond technique, to explore supporting oneself, periods of instability and the inevitable comparison with peers. Her advice for emerging artists rings with practicality: say yes to opportunities, build connections despite introversion, and avoid alienating jargon.

Join us for this intimate conversation with an artist whose work invites us into moments of introspection, capturing the human experience. Follow Bria's journey as she continues to develop her distinctive visual language, one that speaks volumes about what often remains unsaid.

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Jacob Trouba's artistic practice couldn't be more connected to his day job as an NHL defenseman. When the Anaheim Ducks player (and former New York Ranger and Winnipeg Jet) starts painting, he's not leaving hockey behind. He's channelling his skills into a unique visual language.

"I think it's kind of a unique way of mark making that's special to me and ties into hockey," Trouba explains, describing how his approach clicked when he began viewing painting as mark-making rather than trying to create a representational image. Inspired by artists like Yves Klein, Trouba uses his body as the primary tool, incorporating the physical movements of hockey into his artistic process. The result is dynamic and apstract, capturing the energy and movement of the sport.

Trouba's artistic journey began unexpectedly during summers in New York while his wife completed her medical residency. What started as curiosity about what makes art "good or bad" evolved into a genuine passion. Now, he visits museums and galleries in cities across North America on the road during the NHL season, constantly expanding his artistic education. This dual identity as professional athlete and emerging artist culminated in his first gallery show at Harper's in New York .

Beyond his personal practice, Trouba and his wife founded the Trouba Creative Expressions Art Program, working with adults with epilepsy to experience the therapeutic benefits of painting. "To see the excitement that they all had about the pieces they made and just how proud they were... I think that struck both of us as pretty special," he shares. Trouba exemplifies how seemingly different worlds can meaningfully intersect. Maybe art and sport aren't so different after all.

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What determines who gets memorialized in our public spaces? Why do some histories endure while others are erased? Dan Hicks, professor of contemporary archaeology at Oxford University and curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, answer these questions today on the Artalogue.

In today's episode, we talk about Hicks' new book, Every Monument Will Fall, his research and how he navigates complex histories of colonialism and cultural heritage from within the institution. Every Monument Will Fall examines our memory culture: who we choose to remember through monuments and museum collections, and whose stories remain untold. Hicks challenges the notion that removing colonial monuments constitutes "erasing history," arguing instead that it creates space for different memories to emerge. "To shift a memory culture isn't to cancel history," he notes. "It's actually to decide that we want, as a society, to remember somebody else."

Particularly eye-opening is Hicks' critique of major museums' lack of transparency about their collections. We chat about some museums poor record keeping, some with millions of objects (including human remains) hidden away in storage and undocumented. On the politics surrounding restitution, he asks of museums, "how can you be looking after something if you don't even have a list of what you've got?" This powerful conversation forces us to confront the uncomfortable truths about whose heritage we preserve and whose we neglect.

Whether you're interested in museums, public history, or how societies remember and forget, this episode offers profound insights into how we might reimagine our memory culture for the 21st century. It packs a lot in just 25 minutes - prepare to learn! Follow Dan Hicks on social media @ProfDanHicks and discover his books "The Brutish Museums" and the forthcoming "Every Monument Will Fall."

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