Shade Podcast closes out 2025 by returning to the Shade Art Review archives. This episode adapts "Oh God It's Frieze Week Again," an article I wrote in October 2023, asking: Who gets to show up in the art world? As Art Basel Miami Beach wraps the year's art fair circuit and we await next week's Turner Prize announcement, I explore the barriers disabled artists and arts workers face during heightened art world moments—from navigating packed art fairs to participating in gallery openings and museum events.

Nnena Kalu's historic Turner Prize nomination—the first learning-disabled artist shortlisted in the prize's 41-year history—raises urgent questions about who the art world has traditionally welcomed into its most prestigious spaces. I reflect on what accessibility actually means.

Featuring thoughts on our right to retreat, the pressure for disabled artists to always be visible and what deep collaboration with disabled and neurodivergent communities could actually look like. What would it look like if retreating was considered an essential part of showing up?

Read the full article at Shade Art Review here. Contact: lou@shadepodcast.co.uk | Instagram: @shade_podcast. Shade is an independent, one-person operation. If this podcast resonates, please share and subscribe.

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I'm reading "Deana Lawson's photography divides critics and I'm here for it" from the Shade Art Review archives, asking questions about critical freedom, backlash culture, and when we lost the ability to be honest about art.

This one asks: when did bland takes become the safest option? And who does this serve?

Questions I'm still asking about art criticism, fear, and the freedom to feel something.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw's essay "The Many Problems with Deana Lawson's Photographs" (Hyperallergic, May 2021): https://hyperallergic.com/the-many-problems-with-deana-lawsons-photographs/

Tina Campt on Deana Lawson (New York Times, 2021): https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/magazine/deana-lawson.html

Tina Campt's book "A Black Gaze" (MIT Press): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Gaze-Artists-Changing-How/dp/0262045877

"What happened to all the anti-racists after Black Lives Matter" (Metro, 2022):https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/13/what-happened-to-all-the-anti-racists-after-black-lives-matter-17172834/

Lou Mensah on star ratings in art criticism (Plaster Magazine, 2025): https://plastermagazine.com/features/star-rating-exhibition-reviews-art-critics/

Read the full piece and more in Shade Art Review: https://shadepodcast.substack.com/

Shade Website

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Shade Podcast is back. After months away, I'm returning to what we were at the beginning—intimate, unedited conversations, just me and you. This episode adapts an article I wrote in February 2024 for Shade Art Review, asking: Where is the Black Nan Goldin? Where is the documentary photography showing Black intimacy—real, unguarded, not staged, celebrated in major exhibitions or published by prominent publishers? 22 years after I viewed Nan Goldin's The Devil's Playground at Whitechapel Gallery, I explore why I haven't seen a Black photographer gain the same recognition for work depicting intimacy with the same unflinching honesty.

This isn't about replicating what Goldin did. It's about wondering why Black artists working in this space haven't emerged to the foreground with the same institutional support. As Black people, we move through the world with vulnerability. Our bodies have been mistreated and misrepresented throughout history. So maybe there's a reason why not all is being revealed.

This article led to an exciting collaboration I'll share more about when I can.

Read the full article at Shade Art Review: https://shadepodcast.substack.com/

Contact: lou@shadepodcast.co.uk | Instagram: @shade_podcast

Shade is an independent, one-person operation. If this resonates, please share and subscribe.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hospital Rooms has been bringing world-class contemporary art into NHS mental healthcare units since 2016. Today, we focus on their most ambitious work to date at Hellesdon Hospital, part of the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. This project embodies both successes and challenges – from the triumph of commissioning fifteen incredible artists to create site-specific works, to the complex realities of working within a healthcare setting that has faced its own struggles in recent years. Joining me are three remarkable individuals who have been integral to the transformation of the Hellesdon spaces: Ken Nwadiogbu, a multidisciplinary artist from Lagos whose journey from civil engineering to fine art has led him to this transformative project, alongside the artist Sarah Dwyer who places drawing at the heart of her practice. We are also joined by Dr. Sophie Bagge, the Lived Experience Lead at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, who brings invaluable perspective as someone with personal and professional insights. Throughout this episode, you'll hear a sound composition by Mark Jennings titled Wards Extended, 2025 - created from recordings made in two psychiatric facilities – one abandoned and awaiting demolition, the other newly built and preparing to open.

Shape, Shift, an exhibition of artworks from this project opens at The Fitzrovia Chapel in London, from March 13-25, 2025.

This episode was supported by Hospital Rooms.

Executive Produced and hosted by Lou Mensah

Shade Podcast Instagram

Music King Henry IV original composition for Shade Podcast by Brian Jackson

Edit & Mix by Tess Davidson

Podcast design Joel Antoine-Wilkinson

Bi-monthly art magazine Shade Art Review

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This series of conversations with art educators, practitioners and makers expands on the ideas presented by Visualise: The Runnymede Trust and Freelands Foundation 2024 report on Race & Inclusion in Secondary School Art Education. In this episode 'The Art of Teaching' we are joined by Shepherd Manyika, an artist and educator based in London. Shepherd graduated from Central Saint Martins with a BA in Fine Art and an MA in Academic Practice in Art, Design and Communications and has since gone on to work and exhibit with Spike Island, Iniva, Camden Arts Centre and Tate. Shepherd joins me today to discuss teaching as an artistic practice.

Freelands Foundation works to broaden access to art education and the visual arts across the UK. They work with teachers and educators to develop diverse and ambitious approaches to art education. Read the report Visualise report here.

Executive producer and host Lou Mensah

Shade Podcast Instagram

Shade Podcast Website

Music King Henry IV original composition for Shade Podcast by Brian Jackson

Edit & Mix by Tess Davidson

Podcast design Joel Antoine-Wilkinson

Shade Art Review

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This series of conversations with art educators, practitioners and makers expands on the ideas presented by Visualise: The Runnymede Trust and Freelands Foundation 2024 report on Race & Inclusion in Secondary School Art Education. In this episode 'Art Outside the Classroom' we are joined by Dr Sadegh Aleahmad, an Iranian-born multi-disciplinary artist, facilitator and lecturer based in London. Sadegh's practice explores dynamics of his diasporic identity by experimenting with mirrors and voice. Today, we discuss Sadegh's art education work beyond the classroom, enabling new ways of thinking, creating and coming together in community.

Freelands Foundation works to broaden access to art education and the visual arts across the UK. They work with teachers and educators to develop diverse and ambitious approaches to art education. Read the report Visualise report here.

Executive producer and host Lou Mensah

Shade Podcast Instagram

Shade Podcast Website

Music King Henry IV original composition for Shade Podcast by Brian Jackson

Edit & Mix Tess Davidson

Editorial support Dale Berning Sawa

Podcast design Joel Antoine-Wilkinson

Shade Art Review

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This series of conversations with art educators, practitioners and makers expands on the ideas presented by Visualise: The Runnymede Trust and Freelands Foundation 2024 report on Race & Inclusion in Secondary School Art Education. In this episode 'Classroom Portraits' we are joined by Exodus Crooks, a Birmingham-based multi-disciplinary artist and educator who works with installation, film-making and text. Through their practice they explore ideas of self-determination, religion and spirituality at the intersection of education, using their role as a teacher to re-imagine Western pedagogy. Exodus has previously exhibited with Iniva, Ikon Gallery and the National Gallery, among others. Today they’ll be joining me to discuss their experience as both an educator and former student, and how we can transform the art curriculum within the classroom.

Freelands Foundation works to broaden access to art education and the visual arts across the UK. They work with teachers and educators to develop diverse and ambitious approaches to art education. Read the report Visualise report here.

Executive producer and host Lou Mensah

Shade Podcast Instagram

Shade Podcast Website

Music King Henry IV original composition for Shade Podcast by Brian Jackson

Edit & Mix by Tess Davidson

Editorial support from Anne Kimunguyi

Podcast design Joel Antoine-Wilkinson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.