Spanish curator, art historian, writer and currently the director of the Art Gender Nature Institute at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel, Chus Martinez talks about reimagining the exhibition public space, the transformative role of art in society and being a woman in her field of work.

It’s a pleasure to welcome Chus Martinez to the show and to listen to her enriching thoughts, opinions, and experiences as a woman in the very pit of the artworld. She talks about how she reimagines and innovates the exhibition space as a curator, art’s powerful impact in driving social change, and being a woman in the art world.

We also discuss the mindset of artists working collaboratively versus this false idea of “the genius”, the experience of being immersed in the art education world, and the gradual coming back of man into cohabitation with nature.


Conversation Highlights:

Reimagining how to organize exhibitions
The impact of art on society
The gradual reconnection of man with nature
Chus’s experience being in the world of art education
Being a woman, and also a mother in the art world

A conversation with Chus Martinez

Raw and Radical is an inspirational movement, resource, and community for women who want to be creative and live a creative life, but who feel alone and struggle to claim the time and space they need to fully realize their potential. 

Through conversations with creative and artistic women who are striving to live bold, authentic, creatively-fulfilling lives, I explore the themes of identity, vulnerability, authenticity, loneliness, alienation, discrimination, inspiration, empowerment, and social change. These themes are reinforced through a growing online community and the Raw and Radical product line offered through the website.

As a young career-oriented woman and later as a mother, I struggled to find time to make art and be the artist I knew I was supposed to be. During that time, I often wished that I had a “biography in the making” to reference—a resource that wasn’t just a retrospective of someone’s artistic success, but that delved deeply into the struggles and challenges they faced as creative women and maintaining a creative practice.

The Raw and Radical platform is that present-day biography, exploring the raw underbelly of what it means to be a woman in the arts, connecting women through their “lowlight” instead of “highlight” reels so that they can live more authentically, boldly, and unapologetically, stepping into their creative power and becoming a force for personal, community, and global change.

A conversation with Chus Martinez

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