Exhibitionistas: Notes on Contemporary Art and Life

Biography enlightens the work of an artist but, in rare occasions, it can obliterate it. A polemic curatorial choice in Ana Mendieta's exhibition at Tate Modern illustrates this puzzling question. This unexpected curatorial twist may lean into anti-feminism if we stay on the surface of the discourse. Dive into it with our host Joana P. R. Neves, a curator and an art writer.  What decision did Valentina Umansky and Michael Wellen, the curators of the show make, and what third person, instrumental in delivering the work, helped them? 
To tell or not to tell? 
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Have you ever wondered what it's like to curate a big, blockbuster exhibition? If you have, this episode is for you. It unveils certain ethics of curatorial work, an extremely important aspects of the job, especially when the artist is no longer alive.
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Jingle: "Wunder", experimental poem by Joana P. R. Neves.
Did the episode stir Art Wonderment memories? Share them via text or voice message.
Support the show
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats. 
READ JOANA'S TEXTS:
Joana on Substack: https://joanaprneves.substack.com
Where you find the Exhibitionistas Files, our Newsletter: ...

What if weaving released untold stories? And how does textile art with such narrative yet abstract powers fit into contemporary art and its traditionally European systems? Joana’s conversation with contemporary artist Paula do Prado takes unexpected turns and spreads across at least 3 different continents–if not more. What influence did the lost language of the Charrúa people and her Uruguayan past and lineage have on her work? Or, rather, is it even possible to locate the intuitive, dreamt and compulsive patterns and figures that emerge from her fingers, without any preconceived sketches or pre-established patterns? 
Did you enjoy the episode? Think about supporting Exhibitionistas by leaving a small donation: https://buymeacoffee.com/exhibitionista
This episode is a partnership with Worlding, a non-profit co-founded by our host, Joana P. R. Neves, in Elephant and Castle, London. Paula do Prado’s Residency is a proposal by Adelaide Bannerman / Never Done. The artist’s residency is supported by Creative Australia.
Paula do Prado is represented by Station Australia and is current a studio resident at Artspace, Woolloomoloo. Following her Worlding residency, Paula will hold her first institutional show as part of the Artspace x Art Gallery of New South Wales Co-Commission as part of the Contemporary Arts Project Space, Art Gallery of New South Wales 28 November 2026 to 14 February 2027. See more https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/paula-do-prado/
To know more about Worlding, visit the website: www.worldingproject.com/
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Resources:
Conversation between Paula do Prado and Mónica Michelena: https://vimeo.com/835732257?fl=pl&fe=sh (Spanish)
Paula do Prado’s website (art / projects / workshops): www.studiodoprado.com

Jingle: "Wunder", experimental poem by Joana P. R. Neves.
Did the episode stir Art Wonderment memories? Share them via text or voice message.
Support the show
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats. 
READ JOANA'S TEXTS:
Joana on Substack: https://joanaprneves.substack.com
Where you find the Exhibitionistas Files, our Newsletter: ...

There are pockets of creativity in our everyday life. The embodied art of READING ALOUD is an overlooked source of joy, containing so many aspects that contemporary art and artists explore in their practice... Performance, drawing, text, breathing patterns... It all starts with Joana P. R. Neves, our host, asking what the body can do by itself, or with very little assistance, inspired by the last episode dedicated to artist Ana Mendieta. This is also our way of introducing the upcoming bonus mini-series POEM DELIVERY SERVICE, a poem-per-episode... with a twist.
Mentions of: #anthonymccall #eteladnan #emilydickinson #gerhardrichter #rebeccahorn #jimjarmush and more...

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Sound residencies
WORLDING SOUNDINGS RESIDENCY TICKETS: https://tinyurl.com/52yjtu2r
WORLDING SOUNDINGS JAM TICKETS: https://tinyurl.com/yey2sdyrFind out more about WORLDING: https://www.worldingproject.com/

Jingle: "Wunder", experimental poem by Joana P. R. Neves.
Did the episode stir Art Wonderment memories? Share them via text or voice message.
Support the show
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats. 
READ JOANA'S TEXTS:
Joana on Substack: https://joanaprneves.substack.com
Where you find the Exhibitionistas Files, our Newsletter: ...

What does the artist’s body do? No one pushes us to ask this more than the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta. Her excavated silhouettes in the landscape, where her body would at times lie, covered with petals or feathers, are but one of the actions and rituals that she performed during her short career. What did occur in her own body? Community? Communion? What was the origin and the purpose of her embodied art? And what is the medium for this kind of art, happening in and with the body of the artist?  
Did you enjoy the episode? Think about supporting Exhibitionistas by leaving a small donation: https://buymeacoffee.com/exhibitionista
Celebrated for being a visionary eco-feminist, an activist against violence women, Ana Mendieta’s work is often obliterated by the sensationalism around it. The exhibition at Tate Modern feels like meeting the artist for the first time. For more info: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/ana-mendieta 
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Art Etiquette Segment guest: 
Esther Stanford, is the co-host of award winning podcast Limited Time Only (with Susie Riddell, WINNER: ‘BEST COMEDY MOMENT’ International Women In Podcast Awards 2025 sponsored by BBC SOUNDS), she is a sketch and TV writer. You can find her on Instagram, on YouTube, March House, a channel she has just launched where you can also find her podcast Conversations with Creatives. Or simply her website: ww.estherstanford.co.uk. 
Soon: Bonus – full length Art Etiquette episodes.
Segment: Brainstorm in a Teacup:
Come for the art, stay for the creative writing segment, where Joana reads short texts from her notebooks exposing her inner thoughts and unexpected fictional / poetic / non-fiction / flash writing.
Jingle: "Wunder", experimental poem by Joana P. R. Neves.
Did the episode stir Art Wonderment memories? Share them via text or voice message.
Support the show
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats. 
READ JOANA'S TEXTS:
Joana on Substack: https://joanaprneves.substack.com
Where you find the Exhibitionistas Files, our Newsletter: ...

We have great news! We're an Award Winning Podcast–Women Who Podcast award in the LGBTQIA+ category
Bonus Episode: Le Guin / Indigenous History / Lao Tzu / and more...
What was Ursula K. Le Guin's favourite book, and what did it uncover about the revered author's world-building and family legacy?
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When she was a guest on the podcast, art Curator Catherine Li brought in a revelation about Ursula K. Le Guin's favourite book, tied in with her family's history, which didn’t make it to the final cut. Here it is for you, as a little end of Summer bonus, while we prepare the rentrée with panache.
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This reminded our host, art curator and writer Joana P. R. Neves, about a traumatic episode in Le Guin's family and close peer circle, which reflects indigenous trauma and the hidden history of the USA that was certainly crucial for Le Guin's worldview. 
For a tiered support for less than 1£ / 1€, go to Patreon–exclusive content coming up soon: https://www.patreon.com/c/exhibitionistaspodcast/membership
With a short reading from the The Wave in the Mind, Le Guin's collection of essays about writing, reading and more, and of the Tao Te Ching / text 48, translated by Le Guin.
Become a member of Art Thinkosaurus on Substack and expand your Exhibitionistas experience with Joana's writing: https://joanaprneves.substack.com/subscribe
[Unpublished segment of Joana's conversation with art curator Catherine Li around the writer Ursula K' Le Guin's seminal text The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction with a few quick curiosities that shed a different light on the science fiction author.]
SAFE PRACTICE OF *ART WONDERMENT* GUARANTEED WITH EXHIBITIONISTAS.
LINKS:
Catherine Li's episode: 
APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/exhibitionistas-notes-on-contemporary-art-and-life/id1727615833?i=1000734364234
YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/N97yd5t3pFY?si=i5kLWV6dXO5NPRic
Award winning episode with Gemma Rolls Bentley and E-J Scott:
APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/exhibitionistas-notes-on-contemporary-art-and-life/id1727615833?i=1000719853150
YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/RQvmgEXMAlQ?si=gu3fJlVPiPRDgSCN
Jingle: "Wunder", experimental poem by Joana P. R. Neves.
Did the episode stir Art Wonderment memories? Share them via text or voice message.
Support the show
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats. 
READ JOANA'S TEXTS:
Joana on Substack: https://joanaprneves.substack.com
Where you find the Exhibitionistas Files, our Newsletter: ...