Alison Stewart: You're listening to All of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We conclude our art hour with a new art fair in Brooklyn debuting this spring. It's called CONDUCTOR: Art Fair of the Global Majority. Hosted by Powerhouse Arts in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The fair presents individual artists and galleries across the globe. Artists from Africa, Asia, Latin America and more who represent most of the world's population.

It's the latest from Powerhouse Arts, which started in 2023 in a Brooklyn power station and has the hopes to be a place for performances and large scale exhibitions. CONDUCTOR: Art Fair of the Global Majority is from this Thursday, April 30th through Sunday, May 3rd. Eric Shiner, the president of the host organization, Powerhouse Arts, joins us now to give us a preview. Eric, welcome to All of It.

Eric Shiner: Thanks so much for having me, Alison. How are you?

Alison Stewart: I'm doing well. Tell people about Powerhouse Arts for those who haven't heard of it.

Eric Shiner: We are an absolutely massive former factory located right in the heart of Gowanus, the former industrial hub of New York City that has taken a power plant, reimagined it as a factory of art and ideas. We inhabit 170,000 square feet, beautiful space designed by the great Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron. We play host to fabrication workshops, exhibition spaces and so much more.

Alison Stewart: What was behind CONDUCTOR: Art Fair of the Global Majority? What was the idea behind it?

Eric Shiner: As a nonprofit, we're always looking for creative ways not only to support artists in a 360 degree way, but of course to help pay our bills. We realized that the art fair model right now as it stands is very heavily commercial, and we thought, "We could maybe rethink it. How does an art fair actually come to serve artists and artists from around the world?" Adriana Farietta, who was the deputy director of the Armory Show, approached me with this idea of, could we build something that would really support artists and small to medium sized galleries in global majority regions of the world so that we could provide them entree to the epicenter of the art world here in New York City? That's how it was birthed.

Alison Stewart: How many people are going to participate? How many galleries?

Eric Shiner: We have 28 galleries coming from all corners of the globe and 17 artists who are self representing in our special projects section. We have all of our areas covered, and I think it is going to be really a wonderful medley of voices from all areas of the world.

Alison Stewart: Where did you look to find individuals to feature in the show?

Eric Shiner: Adriana and I split it up and went to art fairs and all of these regions that we're looking to cover. We just got to know folks that we'd never met before, in addition to asking folks that we've known throughout our careers to come and participate. We're really excited by how thrilled everyone was to say yes. Despite everything going on in the global political sphere right now.

Alison Stewart: Where are these artists in terms of their careers?

Eric Shiner: That's the wonderful thing about this fair. It will bring those that are just emerging, just starting off their careers, mid career artists and artists that have been in the game for decades. It's going to be really a conversation amongst generations. That's what we're most excited about, to see artists really that are representing the broad swath of what the art world really is.

Alison Stewart: Eric, are there themes that you can point to in the fair?

Eric Shiner: It's not so much based on themes, but what we really wanted to hit was a true idea of pluralism and globalism and also to feature artists that are questioning the status quo. There's a through line of radicality in a lot of the projects that will be featured. Certainly, we feel now is the time to really amplify radical voices.

Alison Stewart: There's a conversation series that's going to happen as well. Tell me about that.

Eric Shiner: 100%. We are hitting so many different areas. We're doing one panel about what collecting artists from the global majority means for US-based collectors and how to do so both ethically and with impact. That will feature great collectors like Komal Shah and Dana Farouki. We'll also have Noah Horowitz, who's the global head of Art Basel, participating on that panel. We're also talking about things like place making and how architecture plays out in these regions of the world. We hope that the academic rigor that we're bringing to these lectures will be as appealing to our audience as the wonderful work that will be on display as well.

Alison Stewart: From April 29th to May 3rd, Powerhouse Arts will host CONDUCTOR: Art Fair of the Global Majority, an art show spotlighting artists and galleries across the world from Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle east, indigenous nations. Eric Shiner, president of Powerhouse Arts, is joining me to preview the art fair. I mentioned all these different places that artists are coming from, but there are some galleries that are here in New York on the Lower east side. PROXYCO. Tell me why PROXYCO felt like a good fit for the show.

Eric Shiner: They were such a perfect fit because they are known not only for representing wonderful artists from Latin America, but they've really become a place of discovery, a place where a collector can go and find not only the new and the radical, but also artists that have been in the game for a long time. They've really become known as that type of gallery where you can go learn about an artist that you maybe never heard of and realize how important their work is to the conversation.

Alison Stewart: PROXYCO is exhibiting Colombian artist Pablo Gomez Uribe, whose work-- I think his work is based-- He's an architect or studies architecture to a degree. Tell us a little bit more about his work.

Eric Shiner: It is very much based in architecture and how architecture and public space become canvases. He hones in very specifically on graffiti and graffiti that has been erased by civic organizations that have deemed graffiti to be a nuisance, something that is a blight on the landscape. He actually records the ghost images of graffiti that has been erased and creates beautiful, beautiful works that are somewhat abstract as a result.

We're very excited because our grand hall where the fair will be is actually covered with the original graffiti that was left behind by the squatter artist who lived in this building in the '90s and the early 2000s. I can't wait to see the dialogue that happens between his work and our very real, very extant graffiti that is still here.

Alison Stewart: That sounds so cool.

Eric Shiner: It is a very cool space. We wanted to make sure that all of the ghosts of this place survived the renovation of this project. It actually creates an authentic environment that is literally surrounded by art and something that's so central to the aesthetics of New York graffiti.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk about O Art Space. It brings together three generations of Pakistani artists. What glimpse does this display offer us in view of Pakistani history?

Eric Shiner: They're hitting three different generations who are approaching art making in such radically different ways. The young artists are, of course, very interested in technology and digital art, and the work that's included will be very centered in that. Whereas the oldest generation of artists are really focused on traditional art making techniques in Pakistan. The dialogue that will resonate between the three levels of generations, I think, will be really resounding.

Obviously, to feature artists from Pakistan right now, which is so on the global stage, is a site of right now political negotiations between the US and Iran. Pakistan itself, of course, is the gateway between South Asia and the Middle East. It has always been a place that is very rife with globalism and international exchange. These artists are definitely going to be showing us how.

Alison Stewart: I have to ask you about Car Trunk Karaoke.

Eric Shiner: Yes, you do.

Alison Stewart: Can people engage with this exhibit? [laughs]

Eric Shiner: They absolutely can. I engaged with it when I went to see Trọng's show at his gallery in Paris a couple of months ago for his solo exhibition opening at Bao Gallery that he works with in Paris. Trọng is an old friend. He used to live here in New York, now lives in Belgium. He has devised an interactive artwork with a commercially available karaoke machine.

The audience can pick up a mic and instead of singing, you will have to recite global news headlines from mainstream news networks. It might be a little bit difficult for some people to reread the headlines that are blaring out in the world right now, which obviously are centered in rather dark topics. We hope that there will be an element of absurdity to it as well that allows one to have fun in so doing.

Alison Stewart: I wanted to ask you about Edra Soto. She's been on this show. She's a Puerto Rican born artist. What do you find interesting about her work?

Eric Shiner: I love her work. We're going to be featuring a series of wall sculptures that are based on the decorative motifs found in railings on stoops, porches, civic buildings across Puerto Rico. They have flourishes and swirls. She's really focusing in on something that is so omnipresent in the physical landscape of Puerto Rico, but analyzing it and rethinking it. It becomes much more than an architectural flourish on the front stoop of your house and all of a sudden becomes an abstract form.

For her, these objects really stand as the portal between public and private, between interior and exterior. They're at thresholds. She's really forcing the viewer to think about what that specific image means as you navigate from one space into another. They're just beautiful sculptures in and of themselves.

Alison Stewart: How do you hope the CONDUCTOR art fair continues to grow in the coming years?

Eric Shiner: We really hope that it will develop into a fully fledged boutique size art fair. One day, 50 or 60 artists and galleries from around the world. We feel right now it's so important to promote international dialogue and exchange in a world where that has become, at least from the administration standpoint, not only less important, but maybe not important at all. We certainly hope that by bringing artists from all over the world to engage in dialogue not only with our audiences in New York, but with each other, we really strengthen cultural exchange and know that artists are always, hopefully, the ones that will lead us out of a dark place into something that looks like a brighter future.

Alison Stewart: The name of the art fair is CONDUCTOR: Art Fair of the Global Majority. It's an art show spotlighting artists and galleries from across the globe. From across the galaxy. My guest has been-

Eric Shiner: That's true.

Alison Stewart: -Eric Shiner, president of Powerhouse Arts. Have a terrific art fair.

Eric Shiner: Thank you. I really appreciate it.

Alison Stewart: That is All of It. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. We'll be meeting back here tomorrow to talk about Earth Day.

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