What’s My Thesis?

In this episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza is joined by artist Lauren Goldenberg Longoria for a conversation that traverses personal memory, studio practice, and the tender labor of transformation. Known for her materially rich works that fuse paper, performance, and poetic intuition, Goldenberg Longoria speaks candidly about the healing logic of her process—and the quiet revolutions that can occur thro...

In this candid and moving conversation, host Javier Proenza sits down with Los Angeles-based artist Dena Novak, whose sculptural paintings and ceramics challenge the rigid codes of minimalism through what she calls “aggressive feminism.” Drawing from a rich personal archive of experience—one shaped by Orthodox Judaism, motherhood, neurodivergence, and trauma—Novak’s work reimagines historically male-dominated art hist...

Diana Taylor: A practice where research and materiality meet. Presented by What's My Thesis? in partnership with DON’T LOOK Projects

In this illuminating live conversation recorded at DON’T LOOK Projects, UK-based artist Diana Taylor joins host Javier Proenza (What’s My Thesis?) for a deeply textured discussion around her first solo show in the United States, Flotsam and Jetsam. Organized by DON’T LOOK...

In this episode, artist and community advocate Corey La Rue. traces his relationship to the land, labor, and survival—from a near-death experience that altered the course of his life, to his ongoing advocacy for California’s agricultural workers and displaced communities.

Raised in the Bay Area in California, La Rue shares his early exposure to fieldwork through family ties to migrant labor. These firsth...

Dreams in Migrations: AAPI Identity, Diaspora, and Resistance in Contemporary Art

In this special live episode of What's My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza moderates a closing panel discussion at BG Gallery for Dreams in Migrations—the third annual AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) exhibition curated by artist and organizer Sung-Hee Son. This timely conversation assembles a multigenerational roster of artists whose pr...

Queer Landscapes, Dual Lives, and the Art of Looking Closely with J. Carino

Painter J. Carino joins What’s My Thesis? for a candid conversation on the formation of a deeply personal visual language—one that straddles autobiography, queer identity, and reportage practice. Known for his emotionally resonant paintings that combine landscape, figure, and storytelling, Carino reflects on a unique career that ...

Strategic Generosity: Collecting, Curating, and Championing Emerging Artists with Leslie Fram

In this galvanizing episode of What's My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza is joined by Leslie Fram—collector, curator, marketing strategist, MFA educator, and tireless champion of emerging talent—for a sweeping conversation that summons the urgent need for innovation as well as entrepreneurial literacy among artists...

Astrology, Embodiment, and the Myth of Power: A Conversation with Alystair Rogers

In this episode of What's My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza is joined by artist Alystair Rogers for a searching, radically honest exploration of transformation—personal, political, and astrological. Traversing terrains of gender, spirituality, social critique, and visual language, Rogers shares the deeply embodied trajectory that led to his MFA thesis: ...

Building Gene’s Dispensary: Community, Curation, and Creating New Art Spaces in Los Angeles with Keith J Varadi

In this wide-ranging conversation on What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza welcomes artist, curator, and writer Keith J. Varadi, founder of Gene’s Dispensary, for an illuminating discussion on forging alternative pathways in the contemporary art world. Through candid reflection, Varadi shares their journey from painting ...

In this intimate conversation hosted at Don’t Look Projects for her solo show By the Company They Keep, the Chenhung Chen traces a path from formative memories of classroom murals in Taiwan to a tactile, spiritually inflected sculptural practice rooted in the poetics of material and memory. Drawing on a lifetime of cross-cultural experience—born in Taiwan, educated in New York at the School of Visual Arts, and now based in Californ...

This week on What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza is joined in-person by multidisciplinary artist Gerald Collins, whose practice illuminates the intersection of architecture, chromotherapy, and community. Based in Detroit, Collins returns to the show for a candid and expansive conversation that moves through memory, material, and meaning with striking clarity. Spanning topics from childhood sketchbooks to large-scale light instal...

In this episode of What's My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza is joined by Liz Hirsch, co-director of 839—an artist-run house gallery in Los Angeles that reimagines what a commercial art space can look and feel like. Located in a 1920's bungalow, 839 is part of a growing network of intimate, artist-centered spaces shaping the future of exhibition-making in L.A. With a background in academia, curatorial work, and community organizing, H...

Queer Spectacle, Polaroid Realities, and the Art of Wrestling with Identity with Christopher Anthony Velasco

In this illuminating episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza welcomes artist and educator Christopher Anthony Velasco—a polymath of performative personas, analog photography, and speculative queer mythologies. Known for his immersive character work and deep engagement with the aesthetics of subversion, Velasco brin...

In this episode of the podcast, host Javier Proenza is joined by Rhett Baruch, founder of the contemporary art space Rhett Baruch Gallery, for a candid conversation that moves fluidly between car culture and curatorial strategy—touching on everything from VTEC engines and flat-plane V8s to the architecture of gallery identity in Los Angeles.

Baruch discusses his unconventional journey from car enthusiast to gallerist, tracing how...

"Worldbuilding Through Memory and Myth: Elias Hernandez on Storytelling, Surrealism, and the Legacy of Conflict"

In this immersive episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza welcomes artist and educator Elias Hernandez, whose deeply narrative visual practice draws from Latin American surrealism, video game aesthetics, and inherited stories of displacement and resilience. A recent MFA graduate from USC and collaborator with c...

Episode Title: “Sanctuary in Practice: Art, Advocacy, and Survival with Dalia Palacios”

In this luminous and profoundly intimate episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza is joined by teaching artist and community advocate Dalia Palacios, whose multidisciplinary practice and lived experience offer a compelling meditation on resilience, displacement, motherhood, and the transformative power of art.

Palacios, born and raised ...

Art as Infrastructure: A Conversation on Social Practice, Community, and the Evolving Role of Nonprofit Art Spaces in Los Angeles An interview with Pranay Reddy, Director of LA Artcore

In this compelling episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza sits down with Pranay Reddy, the director of LA Artcore, for a far-reaching conversation that explores the role of nonprofit art spaces as vital community infrastructure in Los Ang...

Spiritual Kinship, Artist-Run Futures, and Burning the Art World Down (Gently) - Cat Gunn

In this episode of What’s My Thesis, Javier Proenza welcomes Cat Gunn—artist, curator, and co-organizer of Other Places Art Fair South (OPAF South)—for a wide-ranging conversation on community, creative identity, and the radical possibilities within artist-run spaces.

Rooted in their early relationship to art and shaped by their current role i...

Art Criticism, Political Engagement, and the Role of Discontent with Elwyn Palmerton What’s My Thesis? Podcast | Hosted by Javier Proenza

In this incisive and far-ranging episode of What’s My Thesis?, host Javier Proenza welcomes artist and writer Elwyn Palmerton for a wide-reaching dialogue that explores the intersections of contemporary art, cultural criticism, and local political activism. From Palmerton’s formative years navig...