Born and raised in Pennsylvania, the 97-year-old Pittsburgh-based artist and sculptor Thaddeus Mosley has a deep and enduring obsession with wood. In his late 20s, he began to use the material for art, carving sculptures in his basement studio, and with his sculpture-making now spanning 70 years, his enduring dedication to his craft is practically unparalleled. Represented by Karma gallery since 2019, Mosley has only now, in the past decade or so, begun to receive the international recognition and attention he has long deserved. In his hands, wood sings; he shapes and carves trees into striking abstract forms that often appear as if they’re levitating while honoring and preserving their organic, natural character. As with the work of his two main influences, Constantin Brâncuși and Isamu Noguchi, Mosley, too, strives to make sculptures that, in his words, beyond today, “will be interesting in a hundred tomorrows.”

On the episode, he talks about the language that poetry, music, and sculpture all share; his early years as a sports writer for a local newspaper; and his life-transforming relationship with the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.

Special thanks to our Season 9 presenting sponsor, L’École, School of Jewelry Arts.

Show notes:

Thaddeus Mosley

[4:13] Sam Gilliam

[17:24] Carnegie Museum

[21:08] Carnegie International

[21:08] Leon Arkus

[21:08] “Thaddeus Mosley: Forest”

[21:08] “Inheritance”

[24:20] Isamu Noguchi

[27:53] Constantin Brâncuși

[28:28] University of Pittsburgh

[28:28] Martha Graham

[46:15] Floyd Bennett Field

[46:23] Ebony magazine

[46:23] Sepia magazine

[46:23] Jet magazine

[46:23] Pittsburgh Courier

[54:34] John Coltrane

[51:37] Li Bo

[51:37] Dylan Thomas

[56:21] Bernard Leach

[57:45] Langston Hughes

[57:45] Countee Cullen

[57:45] Harriet Tubman

[57:45] Fannie Lou Hamer

[57:45] “The Long-Legged Bait”

[57:45] “Air Step - for Fayard and Harold Nicholas”

[57:45] The Nicholas Brothers

Most widely recognized for his paintings that rigorously combine spray paint, stenciled geometric forms, and brushstrokes, the Brooklyn-based artist Adam Pendleton is also known for his “Black Dada” framework, an ever-evolving philosophy that investigates various relationships between Blackness, abstraction, and the avant-garde. Many will recognize Pendleton’s work from “Who Is Queen?,” his 2021 solo exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, which he has said was his way of “trying to overwhelm the museum.” This is a natural position for him: His works in and of themselves are often overwhelming. At once political and spiritual, they provoke deep introspection and consideration, practically demanding viewers to look, and then look again.

On this episode, he discusses the elusive, multifarious nature of “Black Dada”; “An Abstraction,” his upcoming exhibition at Pace Gallery in New York (on view from May 3–August 16); painting as a kind of technology; and why, for him, jazz is indefinable.

Special thanks to our Season 9 presenting sponsor, L’École, School of Jewelry Arts.

Show notes:

Adam Pendleton

[05:00] Joan Retallack

[05:00] Pasts, Futures, and Aftermaths

[05:22] “Becoming Imperceptible”

[07:41] Ishmael Houston-Jones

[07:41] Joan Jonas

[07:41] Lorraine O’Grady

[07:41] Yvonne Rainer

[07:41] Jack Halberstam

[14:26] Fred Moten

[05:22] “Who Is Queen?”

[23:50] Hugo Ball’s Dada Manifesto

[23:50] Amiri Baraka’s “Black Dada Nihilismus”

[31:14] Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

[31:14] “System of Display”

[31:14] “Reading Dante”

[34:40] “Adam Pendleton” at Pace Gallery

[34:40] “An Abstraction” at Pace Gallery

[34:40] Arlene Shechet

[34:40] “Adam Pendleton x Arlene Shechet”

[40:30] “Blackness, White, and Light” at MUMOK

[45:07] “Twenty-One Love Poems” by Audrienne Rich

[50:40] “Occupy Time” by Jason Adams

[56:04] “What It Is I Think I’m Doing Anyhow” by Toni Cade Bambara

[57:13] “Some Thoughts on a Constellation of Things Seen and Felt” by Adrienne Edwards

The cheeky, happy-go-lucky spirit of the British fashion designer Paul Smith can be felt across everything he does, from his own clothing designs to his multifarious collaborations—Maharam textiles, Mini cars, Burton snowboards, and a suite at the Brown’s Hotel in London among them. Though Smith may run a business with expert tailoring and a mastery of color at its core, everything he creates seems to suggest, with a wink, “Don’t take yourself too seriously.” Beyond designing clothes, Smith also serves as a mentor to the next generation of designers. In 2020, he launched Paul Smith’s Foundation, through which he helps guide young creatives as they develop their careers. Fifty-four years into his business, which opened its first store in Nottingham, England, in 1970, Smith now operates shops in more than 70 countries around the world, from New York and Los Angeles to Paris and Hong Kong.

On this episode, he discusses his deep, 40-plus-year engagement with the country of Japan; his long-view approach to building a business that transcends time; his ever-growing collection of rabbit ephemera; and the metamorphic impact of music and humor on his life and work.

Special thanks to our Season 9 presenting sponsor, L’École, School of Jewelry Arts.

Show notes:

[3:31] Paul Smith

[6:33] Rei Kawakubo

[12:55] Elle Decor Japan

[21:41] Deyan Sudjic

[21:41] John Hegarty

[23:48] Paul Smith’s Foundation

[24:00] Studio Smithfield Fashion Residency

[24:00] John Galliano

[24:00] Alexander McQueen

[24:22] Jony Ive

[31:30] Bauhaus

[34:50] Beeston Road Club

[40:30] The Mini Strip

[48:24] Paul Smith Nottingham Store

[53:30] Maharam collaboration

[53:30] Burton collaboration

[53:30] The Rolling Stones

[54:19] Brown’s Hotel Sir Paul Smith Suite

[54:39] David Bowie

[54:39] Patti Smith

[54:39] Eric Clapton

[54:39] Jimmy Page

[1:01:57] Jean-Luc Godard