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Suzanne Lacy (born 1945) is an internationally known artist, educator, writer, and former public servant. She describes her work, which includes “installations, video, and large-scale performances”, as focusing on “social themes and urban issues.” She also served in the education cabinet of Jerry Brown, then mayor of Oakland, California, and went on to become an arts commissioner for the city.

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This week Brian sits down with Eleanor Hanson and Oliver Wise, the Oakland-based founders of The Present Group, who describe the project as “like a mutual fund that produces art instead of profits.”; A quarterly art subscription project, The Present Group enables a community of subscribers to create a new avenue of support for contemporary artists.

They produce thought-provoking work in a variety of media, and each of the four annual limited editioned art works is paired with an essay contextualizing the edition.

Their goal is to engage art enthusiasts who never thought of themselves as art collectors and to introduce them to the experience and pleasures of owning contemporary art. This is the next installment of the collaboration between Art Practical and Bad At Sports.

An abridged transcript of this interview appears in AP Issue 13. http://www.artpractical.com
Image: David Horvitz. Hermosa Beach, CA, Issue 9, Winter 2009; viewmaster reel, viewer, and Somerset cotton rag paper card. Courtesy of The Present Group.

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This week: Brian and Patricia sat down with Oakland-based artist Michelle Blade on February 20 in her storefront studio, which is also the location of Sight School, the alternative space she created in 2009 to encourage dialogue around the connections between art and life.

It was the day following the opening for her solo exhibition, “Blow As Deep As You Want to Blow,” on view at Triple Base gallery in San Francisco through March 21. Their conversation tackled a range of topics, from the economic realities that perennially plague artists in the Bay Area to the pleasures of walking across a painting.

This is the second collaboration between Art Practical and Bad At Sports. Image: Music from the Mountaintops, 2010 (still). Courtesy of the Artist.