Episode No. 568 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features curators Anthony Graham and Brian Piper.

Graham is the curator of the retrospective “Alexis Smith: The American Way.” Across Smith’s career she has used collage and installation to explore how we are shaped by the culture and media around us.  The exhibition is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s new La Jolla building through January 29, 2023. The excellent exhibition catalogue was published by Scala. Indiebound and Amazon offer it for about $50.

Piper discusses his exhibition “Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers,” which is at the New Orleans Museum of Art through January 8, 2023. The show examines how Black photographers have worked to produce beautiful portraits, while also engaging in a range of other photographic work. “Called to the Camera” also reveals how Black studio photographers engaged movements such as pictorialism, modernism, and abstraction. The museum will publish the exhibition catalogue later this year; Amazon offers it for $50.

Instagram: Anthony Graham, Brian Piper, Tyler Green.

Air date: September 22, 2022.