Get ready for a podcast on contemporary art, hosted by rising comedy star Abbi Jacobson and featuring curators, artists, and some of your pop culture favorites.
As one-half of the comedic force behind Comedy Central’s “Broad City,” Jacobson plays an artless millennial alongside co-star Ilana Glazer. An aspiring illustrator who toils as a cleaner at an upscale gym, Jacobson’s character careens around New York City with her best friend, always ending up involved in some ridiculous antics.
In real life, Jacobson is a bestselling author and illustrator and has just been tapped by the Museum of Modern Art and WNYC Studios to host a podcast where she and her guests will discuss contemporary art.The Maryland Institute College of Art alum will take the mic on July 10; “A Piece of Work” will feature two episodes per week, airing over the course of five weeks.
She’ll discuss individual works with an impressive roster of guests, from art-world heavyweights Thelma Golden, director and chief curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem; artist Carolee Schneemann; Flavin Judd, son of artist Donald Judd; and artist Jo Baer. She’ll also have input from famous friends like musician Questlove, drag queen impresario RuPaul, and actress Tavi Gevinson.
The podcast phenomenon may not immediately seem applicable to a visual medium, though it is catching on: recent episodes of the BBC’s “Desert Island Discs” and Janet Mock’s “Never Before” have both mined the aesthetic tastes of celebs; art journalist Tyler Green hosts the long-running “Modern Art Notes Podcast.”
As host, Jacobson will take on the questions that bedevil those new to contemporary art, covering topics like appropriation and everyday materials, minimalism, and conceptual art.
Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer of “Broad City” with Questlove. Photo: Stephen Lovekind/Getty Images.
Before she began the web series that would become a cult sensation—launching its fourth season in late August—Jacobson sold illustrated greeting cards as part of AOL’s Artist Initiative and penned two coloring books with witty renderings of New York City and San Francisco landmarks. In her most recent endeavor “Carry This Book,” Jacobson draws what she imagines one would find in the pockets of the art world’s most famous figures: Frida Kahlo packs tweezers, a paintbrush, and flowers; and the ever-elusive Banksy totes night-vision binoculars, Sherwin Williams receipts, and LA parking tickets.
“Carry This Book” by Abbi Jacobson, image courtesy of Penguin Random House.
Episode one will feature a discussion with Ann Temkin, chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, discussing works like Marcel Duchamp’s Readymade Bicycle Wheel (1951) and Meret Oppenheim’s famous furry teacup, Object (1936).