Art Talks at Brand, formerly titled Art Talk Tuesday, is a monthly conversation that invites contemporary artists to discuss their work and the issues surrounding it, followed by a moderated Q&A with Brand staff member, artist, and writer Jennifer Remenchik. Artists are selected to reflect the diversity of the art scene of the greater Los Angeles area.
The series is sponsored by the Brand Associates and is free and open to the public.
September 19, 7:00 PM | Kira Maria Shewfelt
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Kira Maria Shewfelt is a painter based in Los Angeles. Taking influence from literary genres of Magical Realism and Romanticism, her painting explores the physical-spiritual connections of contemporary life in saturated chroma, high touch movement and gestures, and subjects that portray intimate, athletic, and existential motifs, often set within the natural world. Shewfelt cultivates a visual language, equal parts personal and symbolic, engaging her imagery’s open relationship to a shared and often communal narrative. She invites romance and fantasy into the work as politically inclusive gestures, with a history of connecting self and other, and reimagining stasis. Shewfelt’s paintings are often about love. Her work can be found in the collection of AMOCA Wales and private collections internationally.
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Image: Kira Maria Shewfelt. The Sanctuary, oil on linen, (Diptych, each 55 x 83 x 1.5 inch panels), 2023-24. Photo credit: Zachary Ruddell. Image courtesy of the artist.
October 3, 7:00 PM | Amie Sillah
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Amie Sillah is a visual artist born in The Bronx, NY, now living and working in Los Angeles. Sillah’s practice is lens-based and includes sculpture, performance, and video work. Her work centers on her family’s lived experiences immigrating from The Gambia to New York, and her relationship with photography as a medium to explore the complexities and diversities of Black diasporic life. Currently, in her practice, Sillah centers on topics of memory, performance, and erasure as an act of care. Sillah has presented her work at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and has shown at thematic group exhibitions at the New Wight Gallery (2024), Black Box Gallery (2023), and the Black Image Center (2023).
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Image: Amie Sillah, I Hope To See You One Day (three), 40 x 40 x 1.5 inches, archival inkjet print & wooden frame. Image courtesy of the artist.
October 17, 7:00 PM | Edgar Bryan
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Edgar Bryan is a Los Angeles based artist focused primarily on painting and artist-book making. He has a decades-long track record of showing his work in prestigious galleries and museums across various cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Berlin. In his 30-year artistic journey, Bryan continually works to renew and redefine his connection with painting. Through extensive experimentation with diverse techniques, themes, and materials, he has discovered an enduring significance in the medium. Themes such as masculine vulnerability, the embodiment of "the fool" from Commedia dell'arte, and self-portraiture have remained constant throughout his practice. He firmly believes in the power of vulnerability in art and actively expresses it through his choice of imagery, medium, and technique. Bryan’s studio is a haven for experimentation, producing numerous studies and exploring new materials and techniques for each body of work. Beyond painting, he has ventured into creating handmade artist books, ceramic collaborations, and silkscreened posters.
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Image: Edgar Bryan. Bucatini Fugue, 2020, Oil and acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist.
November 7, 7:00 PM | Carrie Cook
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Carrie Cook was born in Nashville, TN, and she currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Through a rigorous process of mining her archive, Cook’s practice explores the psychological territory of memory, ecstasy and grief. Circling poetic everyday moments into a mystical narrative, the works create a symbolic visual language. The works seek to reassess the tradition of surrealism and employ the symbolism of ancient art history and Eastern and Western religious traditions. Resulting in large scale works on canvas as well as intimate icon-like paintings on panel. Cook’s work has been exhibited at Best Western in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Goldfinch Gallery in Chicago, Baik Gallery, Seoul, CFHILL, Stockholm, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, Make Room, Los Angeles, Tyler Park Presents, Los Angeles, Below Grand, New York, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, and Blaffer Museum of Art, Houston and featured in publications such as Bat City Review, Art Maze Magazine and Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles. 
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Image: Carrie Cook. Two Tables, 2024, oil on canvas, 33" x 44 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Brand staff member and program moderator Jennifer Remenchik is an artist and writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited in several institutions and galleries, including No Gallery, VIVO Media Arts Centre, HILDE, basement projects, Industry Lab, and The Contemporary Austin, among others. She is a regular contributor to Hyperallergic and has written for CurateLA, BOMB Magazine, and Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles. Remenchik began art talks at Brand Library & Art Center to showcase artists who reflect the diversity of the art scene of the greater Los Angeles area.