Episode No. 427 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artists Sanford Biggers and Michelle Angela Ortiz.
Sanford Biggers‘s work is on view in “Cosmic Rhythm Vibrations,” at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. The exhibition, substantially but not entirely from the Nasher’s collection, considers artworks that engage visual and musical rhythm. It was curated by the Nasher’s Trevor Schoonmaker and will be on view through March 1.
On April 8, the Bronx Museum of Art will originate a major survey of Biggers’s quilts-based work titled “Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch.” Curated by Antonio Sergio Bessa and Andrea Andersson, the exhibition will feature around 80 of the quilt-based works Biggers has made between 2009 and 2019. From the Bronx it will travel to New Orleans and Los Angeles. The excellent forthcoming catalogue will be published by the Bronx Museum of the Arts in association with Yale University Press. Amazon offers it for pre-order for $45.
On the second segment, Michelle Angela Ortiz discusses her work on the occasion of “When Home Won’t Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art” at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. The exhibition was curated by Ruth Erickson and Eva Respini and will be on view through January 26, when it will travel to the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. The strong exhibition catalogue was published by the ICA in association with Yale University Press. Amazon offers it for $37.
Ortiz is a Philadelphia-based artist whose artworks, often made in and for public sites, activate, embolden and advocate for the under-represented. In 2018 she was a fellow at the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and was a Rauschenberg Foundation Artist as Activist fellow.
See documentation and images of “Familias Separadas.”
Air date: January 9, 2020.

Sanford Biggers, Quilt 15 (Harmonics 2), 2012.

Michelle Angela Ortiz, Somos Seres Humanos (We Are Human Beings), 2019.