“You know, you’re rather amusingly wrong.” -Terry Pratchett
More often than not, humans are wrong. It’s how we discover some of our greatest leaps forward, how we learn to navigate the complex world in which we live – by being completely, unequivocally wrong. Somewhere along the way, a negative stigma became attached to being wrong. This, in itself, is wrong. Rather, we should revel in our wrongness for how else would we progress? No one who is right all the time can ever evolve – in fact mostly because no one is right all the time and those who claim to be are merely hiding from the truth.
Georg Oskar spoke to us from Oslo, Norway, about his recent show, After the Punch, which ran in November 2022 at JD Malat Gallery. Oskar and his wife moved to Oslo roughly two years ago from Berlin when they felt it was time to change and be closer to friends and Oksar’s family in Iceland. The title of his recent show has more than one meaning. The first is quite literal, referring to an assault Oskar survived at an ATM in Berlin. The other meaning speaks to the intense two years of growth and recovery between the time of the assault and when the show was about to go up. During this time, Oskar says he did a lot of maturing in a short period of time. To hear more about the exhibition of large-scale canvases, listen to the complete interview.
Jodi Hays chatted with us about her recent show at Susan Inglett, The Burden of Wait: Paintings from the New American South. The exhibit gathered together Hays’ works of collage using found materials, including reclaimed cardboard, which she soaks using fabric dye that runs through the corrugated rivulets. Hays considers her larger category of work to be painting, including her collage work under this categorical umbrella. To hear more about this particular show and other aspects of her career, listen to the complete interview.
A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket
Commit to being wrong sometimes.
Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android, please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a shareable format are here. The full archive of interviews is here.
Books to Read
What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. Georg Oskar recently read How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic by Ariel Dorfman, Armand Mattelart and David Kunzle (translator). Jodi Hays is a regular reader of The Brooklyn Rail.
Deadlines:
MacDowell selects around 300 artists across multiple disciplines each year to receive fellowships each year. There are no residency fees and travel grants are available on a needs basis. For more information and to apply for this opportunity, visit the website. Deadline for applications is February 10.
Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis for Aesthetics. He has written six books for artists, most recently Making it in the Art World.