ART21

Arts and Music Series / 11 Seasons

Art21 produces features focusing exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists throughout the world, including the Peabody Award-winning biennial series "Art in the Twenty-First Century." Intimate footage allows the viewer to observe the artists at work and watch their process as they transform inspiration into art.

54m

Episode 3 Preview

30s

Four contemporary artists look inside and outside their immediate circles to find emotional connections and build community. This film showcases playful and poignant sculptures, performances, and more. Includes celebrated filmmaker Miranda July.

The Origin Story of the Art Gallery "Just Above Midtown"

1m 17s

Illustrated with archival images from the 70s and 80s, Linda Goode Bryant tells the story of how she realized artists of color were not given the opportunities to exhibit their work at the time and decided to take the initiative to establish the art gallery, Just Above Midtown, which fostered a vibrant artists community and gave artists the space to exchange ideas and experiment with new work.

"Future Ancestral Technologies"

1m 17s

Artist Cannupa Hanska Luger started a series of works called “Future Ancestral Technologies,” rejecting the romantic historical narrative of native people that their culture is ancient and primitive. Through science fiction and speculative fiction presented with sculptures, videos, regalia, and performance, Luger imagines how our culture shifts in the future and what it will mean to be indigenous.

Artist Miranda July Performs At a Gas Station

1m 30s

Artist Miranda July walks through a busy gas station while uncoiling a roll of white ribbon, asking strangers to hold onto a part of it but feel free to let go whenever they need to. The ribbon tangles and wraps around the entire gas station. In the voiceover, July discusses how taking risks is her comfort zone and not being afraid to do so gives her a superpower to work freely.

Christine Sun Kim Explains Her Site-Responsive Project

1m 14s

As a muralist paints artist Christine Sun Kim’s site-responsive project at the Queens Museum, “Time Owes Me Rest Again,” Kim explains the ideas behind the piece. She used echoing motion lines to represent the five words in the title in American Sign Language, conveying the unease and fatigue many felt during the COVID-19 pandemic and the persisting inequity between Deaf and hearing communities.

Artist Tauba Auerbach

1m 20s

Artist Tauba Auerbach is in their studio in New York City, creating drawings with a “knit structure,” sequences of a single gesture woven together on the page, challenging themselves to modify the rules without lifting the marker or draw from a specific part of their body. The trance-like state achieved in these intuitive and spontaneous drawings is the ideal space for the artist to think.

The Unveiling of "The Embrace"

1m 16s

Artist Hank Willis Thomas is at the unveiling of his sculpture, “The Embrace,” a monument celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, in Boston. Through this public artwork, he hopes to inspire people to reflect on the past with care and concern for the future, and continue to give people a sense of pride and connection beyond this lifetime.

Artist Anicka Yi

1m 3s

Artist Anicka Yi runs her studio as if it’s a laboratory, developing hypotheses, testing them in small trials, and bringing in experts to help bring them to life as the idea is refined. Through footage of the studio and the installation leading up to an exhibition, we see the diverse disciplines she draws inspiration from, as well as the wide range of materials she works with.

Guerrilla Girls Engage the Public

1m

Clad in all-black, their faces obscured by oversized gorilla masks, “Frida Kahlo” and “Käthe Kollwitz” take to the streets as Guerrilla Girls to engage the public in their decades-long battle against discrimination in the art world. Animated sequences and archival footage illustrate the artist-activist collective’s fight for equality through posters with bold designs and other creative means.

Artist Alex Da Corte Transforms Into Characters

1m 40s

Artist Alex Da Corte is in his studio in Philadelphia, PA, transforming into characters for a video shoot with the help of his team. In Da Corte's video artworks, he performs while dressed as a wide variety of cultural icons. By spending time with these characters, he hopes to make his mind freer than it is and give depth to icons that are often rendered as flat symbols.

How Artist Rose B. Simpson Brings Her Sculptures to Life

1m 12s

Artist Rose B. Simpson is working on sculptures in her studio in Santa Clara Pueblo, NM. She explains that by using clay that's really thin, she has to be present with the process and finish it the day she starts it. She likes using clay in different colors together in the same piece, not only for the aesthetics but also to pay homage to the fact that we are all made up of many different things.

How Daniel Lind-Ramos Sources Materials for His Sculptures

53s

In his studio in Loíza, Puerto Rico, artist Daniel Lind-Ramos uses found materials to create his sculpture, "María Guabancex," inspired by the artist's experience with Hurricane Maria. Lind-Ramos explains that he often finds materials related to the narrative he's trying to organize and lets the materials activate his imagination.

Artist Amy Sherald's Painting Process

2m 4s

Artist Amy Sherald invites two models into her studio in Jersey City, NJ, to help her visualize her painting, "For love, and for country." Sherald has the models imitating the pose in Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous black-and-white photo "V-J Day in Times Square." The artist explains that taking photographs of models serves as her sketchbook, where she figures out what she wants in her painting.

Extended Preview

3m 32s

Twelve of America's most innovative artists rise to the challenge of our current moment, creating new paintings, sculptures, films, and performances that inspire and heal. Featuring Michelle Obama portraitist Amy Sherald.

Preview: "Borderlands" from Art21 Season 10

30s

See the creative processes of artists Tanya Aguiñiga, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Richard Misrach, and Postcommodity—the last of three new episodes from Season 10 of the Peabody Award-winning "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series. "Borderlands" premieres October 2, 2020 at 10/9c.

Preview: "Beijing" from Art21 Season 10

30s

See the creative processes of artists Guan Xiao, Liu Xiaodong, Song Dong, Xu Bing, and Yin Xiuzhen in "Beijing"—the second of three new episodes from Season 10 of the Peabody Award-winning "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series. "Beijing" premieres September 25, 2020 at 10/9c.

Preview: "London" from Art21 Season 10

30s

See the creative processes of artists John Akomfrah, Phyllida Barlow, Anish Kapoor, and Christian Marclay in "London"—the first of three new episodes from Season 10 of the Peabody Award-winning "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series. "London" premieres September 18, 2020 at 10/9c.

TRAILER: Season 10 of Art in the Twenty-First Century (2020)

1m 30s

Trailer for Season 10 (2020) of the Peabody Award-winning "Art in the Twenty-First Century" television series. Twelve artists and one collective are presented across three episodes, charting artmaking in London, Beijing, and regions around the United States-Mexico border.

Preview: "San Francisco Bay Area" from Art21 Season 9

30s

See the creative processes of artists Creative Growth Art Center, Katy Grannan, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and Stephanie Syjuco in "San Francisco Bay Area"—the last of three new episodes from Season 9 of the "Art in the Twenty-First Century" series. "San Francisco Bay Area" premiered September 28, 2018.

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