Afleveringen
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Urgent Matter founder and editor Adam Schrader and longtime friend Colton Crews â a Texas-based everyman and musician with the bands Burning Slow and American Sycamore â return for a loose, lightly edited run through the week's art news, trading artspeak for direct, skeptical takes.
The episode opens with Icelandair's "Really Bad Photographer" contest, an open call built on the premise that even a hopeless shooter can't make Iceland look bad. Adam walks through the winning entries â blurry, grainy, thumb-in-the-frame disasters â and the prize behind them: $50,000 and a 10-day trip to shoot the country for the airline.
From there, they turn to the first official dual portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama, Njideka Akunyili Crosby's "The Obamas: Springing Forth," unveiled at the new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. The conversation circles a thornier question about the gap between an "official" portrait and an authorized one, and how a former president's legacy gets curated. A brief detour lands on A.I. artist Refik Anadol and his new museum.
The episode also digs into a call for vinyl on the Lower East Side, where artist Pablo Helguera and the Clemente Soto VĂ©lez Cultural & Educational Center are gathering donated and loaned record collections for Fonoteca, a public listening archive of Latin American and Latinx music tied to the exhibition Historias Reveladas. Adam and Colton weigh what a pile of donated records reveals about a community â and Adam shares how a past Helguera project surfaced a letter linked to SimĂłn BolĂvar.
Cold Take is a weekly podcast from Urgent Matter built around direct, lightly edited conversations about the art world's biggest stories, stripped of artspeak and institutional PR language.
Read Urgent Matter: https://www.urgentmatter.press
Follow Urgent Matter:
Instagram: @urgent.matter
X: @TheUrgentMatter
Colton Crews:
American Sycamore
Burning Slow
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Adam Schrader and Colton Crews run through a strange week in art-world news, starting with the Vagina Museumâs repeatedly stolen MILF magnet and what museums can do when visitors turn an exhibit into an accidental gift-shop opportunity.
They then discuss artist Wylandâs lawsuit over the destruction of his longtime Dallas whale mural, weighing public art, property rights and FIFAâs role in the World Cup-related repainting.
The episode also looks at a dropped Miami Beach case involving an artist arrested after using washable chalk paint outside Art Basel Miami Beach with his young daughter.
Finally, Adam explains how website-tracking software revealed unexplained changes to MoMAâs trustee list, including the removal and reappearance of Sharon Percy Rockefellerâs name, Daniel S. Och remaining off the list, and Leon Black still appearing as a trustee.
Read Urgent Matter: â https://www.urgentmatter.pressâ
Follow Urgent Matter:
Instagram: @urgent.matter
X: @TheUrgentMatter
Colton Crews:
American Sycamore
Burning Slow
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Adam Schrader and Colton Crews return for another loose, mildly prepared episode of Cold Take, the Urgent Matter podcast about art-world news, lawsuits, crime, culture and whatever else.
This week, Adam talks through Urgent Matterâs recent FOIA work, an NPR interview tied to his reporting on a censored UNT show, Giles Duleyâs thoughts on war photography, and an artist in Gaza making work amid devastation.
Then the episode turns toward the stranger corners of the art world: the Brent Sikkema murder case, A.I. colorization of an Ansel Adams photograph, and the Robert Indiana dispute involving a so-called ghost-signature machine.
Read Urgent Matter: â â https://www.urgentmatter.pressâ â
Follow Urgent Matter:
Instagram: @urgent.matter
X: @TheUrgentMatter
Colton Crews:
â American Sycamoreâ
â Burning Slowâ
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In the third episode of Cold Take, Urgent Matter founder and editor Adam Schrader is joined again by longtime friend Colton Crews for a loose, skeptical conversation about art, public records, censorship and propaganda.
The episode opens with a New York reading room filled with printed copies of the Epstein files â a project Adam and Colton discuss as part archive, part political provocation and part art installation.
From there, they turn to Tim Makepeaceâs NASA-inspired museum show in Washington, D.C., and the question of what happens when artists are given access to federal science programs.
The conversation then moves to a Long Island student who reached a $125,000 settlement after her pro-Palestinian parking-space artwork was painted over by school officials. Adam and Colton use the case to talk about how small acts of censorship can become much larger stories once institutions try to make them disappear.
They also revisit Urgent Matterâs reporting on the canceled Marka27 exhibition at the University of North Texas, where public records showed administrators worried about political âbarking from Austinâ before the show was called off.
The episode closes with the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Artâs âArt and Warâ exhibition, which features American anti-war works by artists including Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist as Iranian cultural institutions use art in wartime messaging.
Cold Take is a weekly podcast from Urgent Matter built around direct, lightly edited conversations about the art worldâs biggest stories, stripped of artspeak and institutional PR language.
Read Urgent Matter: â â https://www.urgentmatter.pressâ â
Follow Urgent Matter:
Instagram: @urgent.matter
X: @TheUrgentMatter
Colton Crews:
â American Sycamoreâ
â Burning Slowâ
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In the second episode of Cold Take, Urgent Matter founder and editor Adam Schrader once again records from the front seat of his car while his kids sleep, joined by longtime friend Colton Crews for a loose, skeptical breakdown of the weekâs art news.
The episode opens at the Venice Biennale, where geopolitical tensions and cultural backlash continue to collide. After Iranâs withdrawal from this yearâs exhibition and ongoing criticism surrounding the participation of Russia and Israel, Adam and Colton discuss the broader question of whether anyone outside the art world actually understandsâor even cares aboutâthe biennale system at all.
From there, they turn to Detroit, where an artist is suing the city after officials demolished part of his museum complex, allegedly destroying 33 murals in the process.
The episode also digs into the resignation of longtime Bard College president Leon Botstein following the release of an independent report examining his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Other topics include bizarre language used in a Justice Department filing tied to the White House East Wing lawsuit, and new developments in the alleged murder-for-hire plot surrounding the killing of dealer Brent Sikkema. The episode closes with a story from Las Vegas about sculptures allegedly stolen from a community arts studio serving children.
Cold Take is a weekly podcast from Urgent Matter built around direct, lightly edited conversations about the art worldâs biggest stories, stripped of artspeak and institutional PR language.
For more document-driven reporting behind these headlines, visit urgentmatter.press.
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In the debut episode of Cold Take, Urgent Matter founder and editor Adam Schrader records from the front seat of his car while his kids are asleep, joined by his longtime friend Colton Crews for a raw, lightly edited breakdown of the weekâs art news.
Framed as an âeverymanâ perspective, Texas-based Coltonâan outsider to the New York art worldâreacts in real time as Adam walks through the headlines.
The conversation starts in Italy, where a tourist was arrested after climbing a 500-year-old statue on a pre-wedding dare, sparking questions about cultural heritage, enforcement, and what actually counts as âdamage.â
From there, they turn to Taiwan, where a prominent artistâs rape conviction has led to the rescinding of a national arts awardâraising questions about merit, punishment, and whether institutions can separate the work from the person.
The episode also takes on a âmuseum that doesnât existâ opening an exhibition in Tribeca, a razor-thin museum union vote in Connecticut, and the ongoing wave of protest actions inside cultural institutions.
This episode launches a weekly series that trades artspeak for direct, sometimes skeptical, takes on the art worldâs biggest stories.
For the full, document-driven reporting behind these headlines, visit www.urgentmatter.press.
