Epis. 337: Art & Politics- how can they co-exist? The Conversation's 14th Virtual Cafe

<p><!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>n the 14^th installment of the podcast’s Virtual Café, we take as our prompt a Dec. <a href= "https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/arts/design/paint-the-protest-exhibition.html?smid=url-share"> review by NYTimes art critic Holland Cotter</a> about politics in art:</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>About 10 artists in the Virtual Café (including past guests Ianna Frisby of <em>Art Advice</em> and William Powhida) talk about art and politics, including successful examples of political art; the nimbleness of capitalism to absorb all things protest; the challenges and failures of artists to organize, particularly artist unions; the question of whether artwork being in a gallery is neutered, in terms of its political/social power; virtue signaling in art, particularly political art; Theaster Gates as a strong example of an artist changing a community, and of socially engaged art; the importance of the rhetoric around so-called political art (including the good side of the word ‘didactic'); the lack of transparency in galleries reporting where their donations to (political) causes are allocated; and how to take political art to the people, as opposed to through the gallery system.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --></p>