Happy 2025 and Season 6 of ARTifacts! In this episode, Marisa interviews French, visual artist Aurélie Brown. Growing up, Aurélie was influenced by the lush landscapes and food culture in Normandy. After moving to California, Aurélie found her creative voice by doing the 100 Day Project where she painted one work every day for 100 days. She turned her passion into a business, and always encourages setting aside time for the things you love. 

Follow @aureliebrownart

Check out her website at https://www.aureliebrownart.com

Aurélie Brown: The Color Storyteller

Artists Tacita Dean and Ilana Harris-Babou

Tacita Dean, Ilana Harris-Babou

On January 31, Film at Lincoln Center opened a landmark new retrospective titled Frederick Wiseman: An American Institution. The series showcases new 4K restorations of over thirty of the filmmaker’s works, which together form a monumental survey of modern American life—with a frequent focus on the intersections of individuals and institutions. Wiseman just turned 95 on New Year’s Day, and the FLC series comes on the heels of similar retrospectives in Chicago, Portland, Maine, and Vancouver—with more planned for Paris, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Boston, and beyond.

How does one even begin to consider a body of work so sprawling, so rigorous, and so significant? For today’s episode, Film Comment hosted a “Wiseman Potluck,” where each guest was tasked with bringing one film that especially resonates with them to the discussion. Film Comment Editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish were joined by Andrew Katzenstein, the author of a terrific new essay on Wiseman for the New York Review of Books; Genevieve Yue, who interviewed the legendary filmmaker for the Film Comment Letter in 2022; and FC‘s very own Michael Blair. The group covered the films Central Park (1990), At Berkeley (2013), Basic Training (1971), Aspen (1991), Blind (1986), and more, and reflected on Wiseman’s politics of observation and striking eye for beauty.

The Mains:

Central Park (3:30)

At Berkeley (17:30)

Law and Order + Basic Training (23:10)

Aspen (35:20)

Blind (47:31)

Some Desserts:

The Store (1983)

Un Couple (2022)

Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (2023)

The Frederick Wiseman Potluck, with Andrew Katzenstein, Genevieve Yue, and Michael Blair

In this episode, Marisa interviews visual artist Emma Kathleen Hepburn Ferrer. Growing up in both America and Europe, Emma took ballet and drawing classes. She refined her painting technique at the Florence Academy of Art, and found her creative voice in an MFA program at Central Saint Martins. Now living in Italy, Emma’s surroundings of nature, religion, and hunting culture inspired her first solo exhibition, “The Scapegoat.” Originating from a biblical myth, Emma’s retelling begs the question, “what is the scapegoat of our society?” Like her grandmother, Audrey Hepburn, Emma approaches art as service and works to capture empathy. 

Follow Emma @ekhferrer

Check out her website at https://www.emmaferrer.com

Emma Kathleen Hepburn Ferrer: The Legacy of Empathy

Artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, curator Ken Myers.

Cannupa Hanska Luger, Painting with Silk

The Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 2, bringing a strange and wonderful year in cinema—and an awards race filled with surprises and scandals—to an end. Will Emilia Perez win prizes despite the controversy surrounding its lead actress? Will Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan beat Adrien Brody as a brutalist architect in the Best Actor category? Will Oscar voters penalize films for using too much AI?

We don’t have all the answers to these pressing questions but, as usual, we do have a lot of opinions and (probably inaccurate) predictions. To sound those out, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute joined Los Angeles Review of Books editors Eric Newman and Paul Thompson on their Radio Hour program to hotly debate the relative merits of Anora, Nickel Boys, Conclave, A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist, and other films vying for a statuette or two on Sunday.

Oscars 2025 Preview with The Los Angeles Review of Books

Curators Natalie Dupêcher and Leigh Arnold.

Joe Overstreet, Haegue Yang

R.I.P.

Today’s episode marks another entry in our New Releases series, where we dig into the latest titles opening in theaters and offer recommendations on what’s worth seeking out and what’s better left skipped. With so many worthy films to choose from lately, Film Comment’s Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited critic Tim Grierson (Los Angeles Times, Screendaily, and elsewhere) to help us whittle down the selection.

Tim starts things off with a brief report from the South by Southwest festival in Austin, which he’s currently attending. The trio then digs into some of the buzziest titles out right now—including Mark Anthony Green’s Opus (7:38) and Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 (19:00)—before showing some love for a couple smaller, but still unmissable movies: Alain Guiradie’s Misericordia (41:30) and Carson Lund’s Eephus (51:46).

New Releases, with Tim Grierson

Curator Sarah Humphreville and author Marisa Anne Bass.

Gertrude Abercrombie, The Monument's End

Artist Alex Da Corte, curator Mark Castro. 

Alex Da Corte, Oaxacan prints

Art is everywhere and with it comes the often unseen and unheard voices who make it happen. Join host, Marisa Dickens, as she interviews all types of artists who share their works, processes, and passions. Every artist leaves a little part of themselves in their work…it’s their ARTifact!

Aurélie Brown: The Color Storyteller

ARTifacts Podcast

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