This episode is your guidebook to our 2025 First Friday Exhibition series. Today, NOT REAL ART Editor-in-Chief Morgan Laurens joins the podcast to share the first half of this year’s exhibition schedule, beginning with January's exploration of figurative art, Out of Body: New Narratives in Figurative Art.

In February, Pantone 2025: Mocha Mousse showcased pieces that embody comfort and warmth. March celebrates craft artists from Western North Carolina, created in partnership with ArtsvilleUSA, to support those affected by Hurricane Helene. 

April highlights under-recognized emerging artists, while May features exhibitions on creatures, both real and imagined. Finally, the June exhibition focuses on Midwestern iconography, spotlighting artists from between New York and Chicago.

Curated by Morgan Laurens and former New York gallerist Kirsten Bengtson-Lydoukis, the First Friday Exhibition series supports an array of talented artists who submitted work to our biennial grant.

ArtsvilleUSA

First Friday Exhibitions

Full 2025 Exhibition Schedule

Morgan Laurens

NOT REAL ART

NOT REAL ART Artist Grant

For more information, please visit https://notrealart.com/first-friday-exhibitions-2025

Foreign.

Greetings and salutations, my creative brothers and sisters.

Welcome to Not Real Art, the podcast where we talk to the world's most creative people.

I am your host.

Faithful, trusty, loyal, tireless, relentless host.

Sourdough coming at you from Crew West Studio in Los Angeles.

Man, do we have a different show for you today.

You know, this year we're deciding to change things up a bit and go live before we drop a podcast.

So we're going to go live on our YouTube channel once a week.

We'll go live on our Instagram channel once a week.

We're going to use that content and package it up into our podcast episodes that will drop, you know, a week or two after the live stream.

So if you're here watching the live stream, you're hearing it first.

If you're listening to the podcast, you're hearing it just a little bit, a little bit after the fact.

But the information's always going to be relevant and interesting and creative, of course, and always try to make it as valuable and as useful as possible.

So today, today we figured, well, you know, it's basically the top of the new year, although it feels like it's, you know, six months in already, given the, the, the, the, the, the, the.

All the adventures, all the craziness that's happening in the world today.

So it is just February 5th here in Los Angeles.

And so we wanted to use this podcast, since we're in the top of the year, to.

To really talk about the year ahead and all the great, good, healthy stuff we have for you planned on the notrealart blog, nautilart.com and we want to talk about specifically our first Friday's exhibitions, which drop.

Can you guess?

Can you guess when they drop?

You're right.

First Fridays of every month, we curate a new online exhibition featuring amazing artists from coast to coast.

And that really special editorial programming is brought to you by two invaluable team members, our editor in chief, Morgan Lawrence, and our dear.

Hey, Morgan's in the house, people.

I'm actually right here.

You don't have to talk about me while I'm in the same room.

You know, it's funny because I was in the zone.

I'm used to recording right, and not going live.

And you're sitting.

Sitting right here, which is very funny that I.

This is like, not so.

But we're going to introduce you formally in one second.

I'm so glad that you're as busy as you are.

But we also want to give a shout out to Kirsten and by the way, I'll let you do that.

So you don't curate the first Friday's exhibitions alone.

You work with our dear, dear friend and colleague Kirsten.

So shout out to Kirsten.

Yes, Kirsten does.

Well, we trade off on the exhibitions, so it's not such a heavy lift for us, but we always support each other.

Like the February exhibition coming up I curated.

But Kirsten supports me in the curation as I support her.

Yes, we, we.

It takes a village, it takes a team.

We are, we are a team.

We are a community.

And Kirsten Bingston, by the way, we keep calling her Kirsten because we don't often refer to her last name, but.

No, I don't know her last name.

Is our comrade in arms here as we seek to curate and produce these amazing online exhibitions the first Friday of every month.

First Friday exhibitions.

And of course, you know, Morgan, we, as you very well know, you know, in Q3 of the year prior, the Q4, you know, the year prior, we start thinking about, you know, you know, New Year's coming up.

We want, we want to curate some amazing shows.

We've got 12 months, 12 shows.

What are we going to curate?

What do we want to do in the year ahead?

And the shows that are currently happening were, you know, obviously we've in January's already been hung, so to speak, and is live on the website.

Speak.

We have February now among us and that's dropping.

It has dropped brand new.

It hasn't, it hasn't dropped yet.

It's going to be Friday.

Sorry.

Yeah, yeah, I'm just the, I'm just the boss.

What do I know?

And, you know, just, I guess I'll.

Morgan, January 3rd, we dropped out of Body New Narratives and Figurative Art, which was gorgeous and amazing and I think.

Curated by Kirsten.

Yeah.

Yes.

Kirsten curated that one.

The first exhibition of the year.

And what struck you about that show, Morgan, that really, you know, that you.

That stood out to you?

Well, first, before we get into all of this, I want to say that these exhibitions are a way for us to really kind of celebrate and honor the artists who have applied for our grant.

The Not Real Art Artist grant.

Yes.

Yes.

So all the artists who appear in these exhibitions throughout the year are artists who have, you know, graciously applied for our grant, you know, some multiple times.

And, you know, although we would.

We would love to give a prize to everybody we had.

How many people did we have apply last year?

It was a lot.

Yes.

Well done.

That's a lot of applications.

A lot.

There was so much good work submitted last year.

And so, yes, of course we would love to give a prize to everyone, but, you know, we can't always do that.

And so we look for other ways to, you know, honor this.

This artwork that we see that we love so much.

Well, that's.

At the risk of putting too fine a point on it.

I mean, you know, we want people to get value and get utility and get, you know, get something out of it, whether they win or not.

Right.

And the grant.

Right, the grant.

If you.

If you receive our grant, if you're chosen to receive our Grant, you get $2,000 cash, no strings attached.

You get, you know, thousands more in pr, marketing, and, you know, support.

You know, we have you on the podcast we feature on our blog.

You become part of our family and our community, and there's special, you know, kind of opportunities that pop up, but for those hundreds and thousands of artists that may not actually receive the grant, you know, we want them to get something out of their efforts, and that something involves, you know, them being a part of our larger community in our database and available to us for special features and editorial stories, like the first Friday's program that you curate.

And these applicants create the pool.

Right, from which we select and curate the shows.

Yeah, exactly.

And it's so much fun because you get to look through all of this artwork.

And of course, the exhibitions are themed throughout the year by the month, so it's really fun trying to find these artworks that, you know, kind of fit into the theme in various ways.

And so, with that said, I think, you know, let's jump into the first exhibition, which, as you mentioned, Kirsten curated.

And how to embody new narratives and figurative art.

This was our figurative show, and the figure is always a huge, you know, theme in art.

It has always been.

And so, like, year by year, we want to keep looking at that and seeing how people's, you know, ideas of the human body are changing.

So it was really nice to see these kind of, like, there's a lot of.

What I notice is that there's a lot of works that sort of are contemplating the.

Almost like, you know, humans merging with tech merging with AI, like, almost in a cyborg type of way.

And it's not always.

It's not always negative.

It's the singularity, Morgan.

We.

We.

We.

We will be.

We will be merged.

The singularity is near.

When is it coming?

I'm still waiting for my flying car, which I was promised.

I'm a lot.

I'm a lot older than you, Morgan.

But, you know, just waiting for my flying hoverboard.

Where is that?

Where's my hoverboard?

Back to the future, you know, please.

So, yes, so, so much to complain about.

But Anyway, that was January 3rd, and that show is on.

On the.

Online right now.

So it's online.

Go to our.

Go to notrealart.com our exhibitions page.

It should be the top featured exhibition there.

Some great stuff there.

Absolutely, yeah.

Well, then, of course, you know, that brings us to February.

This Friday, first Friday of the month, we're dropping a new show.

And that show is what, Morgan?

That show is called Mocha Moose, because we are, you know, piggybacking off of Pantone's Color of the Year.

I was looking.

Yep, Pantone Colors of the year 25.

Yes, last year.

Last year was Peach Fuzz, and we.

Should have done a show for Peach Fuzzy.

Oh, we didn't.

We did a show for.

Viva Magenta, I think they were called.

They always give it a fun name.

Like, I think the first one was, like, maybe this wasn't the first one, but they had one called, like, Very Perry, like, for Periwinkle.

So, you know, somebody is sitting back there, like, having a grand old time, naming these.

Right, These colors, you know, so.

So we got Mocha Moose this year, and that exhibition is.

I curated that one, and that one's going out this Friday, actually, on the seventh.

Nice.

Please tune in for that.

It's going to be.

I'm going to say the word.

Sumptuous.

Sumptuous.

Ooh, sounds expensive.

Well, I.

Yes, well, you know, maybe it is.

But the show is free, people.

You can.

You can access it to it for free, but.

But you will.

You're getting much more than what you're paying.

Yeah, these are.

These are.

These are virtual shows.

Totally free.

But, yeah, well, and I'm.

I'm thinking not even just food, but, like, fabric.

There's a piece in there with this, like, really gorgeous, like, brown, like, velvet coat.

So, you know, I'm thinking in terms of, like, you know, textures, things that we could, you know, maybe touch or smell.

Not actually smell, but you get what I'm saying?

Like, we think we could smell it.

I think we could taste it.

Yes.

Yes.

I love it.

I love it.

Y.

So that's.

So that's.

This February.

This Friday, people.

February 7th.

That's.

That's this Friday.

And.

Yeah.

Sorry, sorry, I don't mean to interrupt, but before we move on to the rest of the shows, I do want to say that part of the programming with the exhibitions is that for these exhibitions, we also choose artists, a select number of artists in the exhibitions to interview.

And we've got some really great ones coming up in February.

We've got one with.

Let's see.

I'm thinking we've got one with Pedro.

I want to say his last name is Gomes.

I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that the right way.

Okay.

But he's an illustrator who lives in London.

We've got.

Let's see, one coming up with Jess Bros, who's an oil painter.

Let's see, we've got one coming up with Edie Nadelhaft, who does these really amazing, like, huge, like, Iris paintings.

And then if you look at them from the side, there's this sort of bubble dome coming out from it.

So you have to see the detail.

Like, you have to see it, like, from the side.

So we're really excited about some of these interviews that are coming up with these artists, too.

Oh, that's great.

I mean, that just speaks to the talent we have, you know, among us.

I mean, whether they receive our grants or not.

These.

So many of the artists at our orbit are just so talented and at various stages of their career, either they're more established or more emerging, whatever.

But so much talent in our, in our, in our world here.

And that just sounds like a huge, you know, that artist sounds amazing.

Yeah.

Oh, I want to give out a shout out to Claire Krueger too, because we're also doing an interview with her and she does these kind of like, they're called land sandwiches and they're like rocks, but she makes them out of like textiles and paper and stuff.

Fascinating.

So, all right, that's, that's February.

Good to know, Good to know.

Wait.

So much to look forward to.

So, all right, so we're going to try to go quick because I know we wanted to keep this a half hour and we're at 16 minutes in, so we're just trying to, we're being really transparent with our audience.

This, this is our first live stream.

This is a whole new way that we're going to start our, our production of our podcast.

So we're, you know, we're, we're making this up as we go.

We're building the plane as we try to fly it.

We're learning a lot here.

So we're, we're, you know, we're, we're going to check our time and keep, keep moving here.

So on March 7th, the first Friday of March, March 7th, we've got Western North Carolina Crafts, W NC Crafts.

And for those people who don't know this, we do a lot of work in Asheville, Western North Carolina and Nashville, North Carolina.

We have a platform that we call Artsville usa which you know, like, not relart.

Helps really shine a light on the amazing talent specifically in Western North Carolina.

And our, our, our, our sister company, you know, artsville USA.com please go check out those incredible artists.

It's, you know, if Naullard is more national in scope or international scope, Artsville USA is hyper local.

We love Western North Carolina.

We love supporting those artists there.

And so please check them out.

And so we thought we'd do a show first Friday's exhibition sort of collaborating in partnership and complementing and you know, together.

Compliment.

Collaborating.

What am I trying to say?

And so tell us about the, the March 7th show, Morgan with the Western Atlantic Craft.

So for those of you who don't know, March is actually National Craft Crafts Month.

And so that's why we're doing this one in March.

And yes, like our sister organization, Artsville usa, where I'm also the editor, you know, we, we focus on western North Carolina, where crafts are huge.

Like that's.

What do you say, Scott?

It's the, the capital of contemporary craft.

Well, I think, yeah, Western North Carolina is.

Is an art region that is idiosyncratic.

It's very unique, singular.

Yes.

Very single.

That's a good word for it.

Yeah.

Yes.

I visited for the first time last summer and I was just blown away by the whole thing.

So anyway, yes, we're doing this show in partnership with Art School usa.

So the show will appear on their website as well as ours.

And there's also actually this is exciting.

So if you're in Asheville, western North Carolina, please try to stop by.

But we're also doing a live exhibition counterpart to the virtual exhibition, which is kind of exciting because it's always nice to see things in person.

Yes.

You know, it's always nicer to see things in person.

So they will.

There will be.

I'm very excited that there's going to be a live component to that exhibition.

But of course you can still join, enjoy it online if you can't make it in person.

And we have got like, we've got everything curated for that show, but I'm keeping the list of artists very hush hush and tight for right now because I want it to be.

We love secrets.

I want it to be.

I want it to be a little bit of a secret.

I want it to be a little bit of a mystery.

But like all of the works in the show are craft, which means, I mean that.

That's a nebulous term.

A little bit.

But generally speaking, we're going for three dimensional works of art, you know, maybe, maybe paper, some collage, that sort of thing.

But generally speaking, it's going to be very, very craft.

Heavy sculpture, glass, that sort of thing.

Books, even got some paper books in there that I'm pretty excited about.

But that's all I'm going to say.

Well, that sounds good.

I love the mystery.

Much to anticipate it is spring themed.

I.

I will say that too.

That.

And it's also kind of like we had this idea of.

Well, and for those of you who also don't know this, a hurricane just hit Asheville and western North Carolina last year and it really impacted the region in ways that they're going to be.

You know, trying to bounce back from billion ways.

Yes.

It'll be a, it'll be decade, you.

Know, back to the area to some $58 billion in damage.

Horrible.

Absolutely.

So yes, people support artists in western North Carolina.

They need us now.

More than ever.

Yeah.

We're, you know, the hope is coming back to the area.

It seems like, you know, people are working really hard to kind of make up for what was lost.

Build back better, as they say.

Build back better.

That's right.

That's right.

All right, all right, let's keep moving.

Moving on.

April 4th, first Friday of April.

April 4th.

The show is Ones to Watch.

Ones to Watch.

The.

The description says, according to our blog, it says, you know, showcases under recognized artists who demonstrate significant potential across various mediums.

While there is no universally accepted definition of an emerging artist, Not Relaurd interprets the term broadly to include any artist who identifies with it.

So tell us about Ones to Watch.

These are the young guns coming up, so to speak, right?

They're not.

I mean, yeah, so to speak.

They're.

But like, I wouldn't say it's necessarily contingent on age.

You know, you could be an emergency.

I mean, Grandma Moses, when did she get started painting?

Right, that's right.

She was like, in her 50s maybe.

I think so.

Yeah.

But I get that, like, they're young.

Painting makes you look 20.

That's like.

Right, sorry, sorry.

Yeah.

No, no, no.

So, yeah, I mean, we.

It is a bit nebulous, you know, to define the.

The term emerging.

But, you know, I think part of it is, you know, they have to self identify with it because, you know, we're not in the business of placing labels on people when they don't feel comfortable with it.

So I'm thinking of somebody who's like, early in their career, though, no matter what age they are, and that they, you know, could probably, you know, maybe use a boost.

Maybe they've never been in a show before.

You know, maybe they've only been in like one show.

Maybe they're still in school.

You know, in terms of sports parlance, it sounds like we're talking about rookies.

You know what I mean?

It's like.

It's like these are.

They haven't been to the big game yet.

They haven't been to the super bowl yet.

Maybe, but a few wins here and.

There, you know, but we're trying to give them another win.

We're trying to give them another win.

I love it.

I love it.

All right, so I'll be doing that one too.

Wants to watch.

In April.

May 2nd.

First Friday in May.

May 2nd.

We have creatures mythical to mundane from simulated cave paintings and a classic oil of Moby Dick.

To ceramic dog figurines and a shimmering 3D animation of a horse.

Our May exhibition focuses on creatures real and imagined.

As spring revives the landscape and sounds of crickets and birds fill the air, our artists turn their attention to pterodactyls, fire breathing dragons, swarms of insects, digitally rendered jellyfish, and pampered household pets.

Wow, we got a, we got a lot of life this one, eh?

Yeah.

So Kirsten is going to do this one and I'm a little bit jealous because it sounds amazing and I personally been through like, you know, many, many of the works and I can think of, you know, probably five right now that fit into that show, you know, so there's a lot, there's a lot of richness in that category.

But again, this is Kirsten's show, so I don't know exactly what she's got planned for.

I'm excited to see it.

All right, so here's the thing.

So me too, by the way.

I'm super excited.

So here's the thing.

We're gonna, we're gonna change this up in mid flow because we, our, our plan, our plan was to go through all 12 months and I'm looking at the clock and I'm realizing we got like four minutes.

And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna, we're only gonna go, we're gonna go to June.

We're gonna go six months.

We're gonna talk about the first six months of the, of the year and I'm going to encourage everybody.

If you're curious about what we're doing the back six for Q3 and 4, go to the website notrelart.com.

look at our blog.

Read.

There's an article that will tell you all about the first Friday's exhibitions.

Please go check that out.

I will tell you that, you know, the titles are interesting like July's H2O, August versus every emotion all at Once.

September is Left Behind.

October is Witch Hunt.

Ooh, Halloween.

November is of course surprise holiday show which is of course timely.

Can't believe we're talking about the holidays already.

And then December works on paper, which, which will be fabulous.

So, so yeah.

So little teaser, please go read about these on the website.

But June, June will end with June.

June is June 6th.

First Friday, June 6th.

And we're doing a show which I know is near and dear to your heart, Morgan and mine as Midwesterners.

Minute.

Midwest nice.

Midwest Nice is the show.

Tell us about Midwest nice.

Okay, so Midwest nice is it?

Well, it's an expression for people who don't know about, like, how people in the Midwest are.

They also say Minnesota nice or, like, Ohio nice or whatever.

And Scott and I are both from the Midwest.

Scott is from Chicago.

Well, outside of Chicago.

Right outside Chicago, man.

I was born in.

I was born in Gary, Indiana.

I was born in this.

Oh, that's right.

That's right.

In the same hospital as Michael Jackson.

And that's dance, so.

Well, I've never seen you dance, so I'm gonna have to take your word on that.

Oh, yeah, it's.

It's.

It's something to see, let me tell you.

Um, and yes.

So just outside Chicago, Northwest Indiana, some people have called it the armpit of the nation.

And, you know, maybe they're right.

I can tell you it was a great place to grow up.

I'm so grateful to be for the Midwest.

And I know you're in Ohio.

You're a Midwest human as well.

And that's why we get along so well.

One of the reasons why we get along so well.

And we're just, you know, hey, we're just simple people from the Midwest.

I mean, what do we know?

We're just trying to be good.

No, no.

Midwest are weird.

That's.

That's right.

That's right.

That's right.

People from the Midwest are weird.

Have you ever seen Gummo?

Gummo.

I haven't seen Gummoe.

What's going.

You haven't seen Gummoe?

Well, you have to see it, first of all, and just know that that movie was supposed to be based on the town next to where I grew up in Ohio.

Okay.

Okay.

And a kid takes.

I can't remember.

I need to see it again.

But it is the weirdest movie you ever.

You've ever seen.

Okay.

It's a Harmony Corinne.

It's a Harmony Corinne movie.

Send me a link or send me a text because I want to see that.

So tell us about Midwest Nights.

Tell us about the show.

Yeah.

So the artists in Midwest Nice.

Are going to be from the Midwest, you know, a lot.

Who would guess?

But, you know, in coverage of the arts, it, you know, it tends to coalesce on, you know, either side of the, you know, the states, the coasts.

And the middle, which is huge, tends to get forgotten about a little bit, especially in the more rural areas.

And so this is a way to, like, you know, experience some of that stuff that, you know, might get overlooked just because, you know, they're not in LA or New York.

Yeah, well, true story.

I was at a dinner of some Hollywood, you know, executives.

And they, you know, initially were quite nice and welcoming.

And the guy next to me, the, you know, a couple of guys next to me, very Hollywood, very L.

A says to me, say, oh, you're new in town, where are you from?

And I said, oh, I'm from Chicago.

And they said, oh, the flyover city.

And I said, what do you, what do you, what do you mean flyover city?

They said, well, you know, you fly over Chicago to get from L.

A to New York and back.

I looked at him and I said, keep flying over.

We don't want you keep flying over.

And you know, so, so that was that.

That's, that's so.

Yes, we want to show love to the flyover states.

We want to show love to our home, our homeland of the Midwest.

And first of all, Chicago is amazing and have, has amazing food and art there.

Oh, it's a world class city.

And these assholes that know, of course later, you know, they would come to realize because the secret at that time is to add Obama, you know, wasn't a president yet.

And, and, and, and so, you know, Chicago was still kind of a best kept secret in some ways, but not anymore.

People know.

Oh, okay.

Well, I used to live there for like a year.

So I mean it's cold but there's stuff to do there.

It's great city, lots of art.

I went actually went to the art school there and the museum.

Mm, unbelievable.

Yeah.

Be lievable.

And they now have a new modern, like contemporary wing.

Unbelievable.

It's, it's so good.

But yeah, that's Midwest.

Nice.

There'll be more to come on that.

But I'm very, that one is near and dear to my heart.

Yes, excellent.

Me too, me too.

And I'm thrilled.

I can't wait.

So you heard it here first, people.

Be sure to go to notrealart.com, check out the first Friday's exhibitions.

Check out last month's out of body.

It's going to be some sumptuous, I hear sumptuous.

And in all the exciting shows coming up, WNC crafts ones to watch creatures mythical to mundane in Midwest.

Nice.

And go to our website to check all this out.

Morgan Lawrence, you are so busy and so much going on.

You do such an incredible job keeping the trains running on time here at Not Relard.

And I'm so, so grateful that you took time out of your busy schedule to come and play live stream with us.

This was, this was our first ever live scream.

Yep, that's a, you know, we'll see how it goes.

But this, I think, was a fantastic.

Once we actually got it going and, and hooked it up, I think it's gone pretty well.

It's been a lot of fun for me.

I hope you've enjoyed yourself.

Thank you for coming.

Always enjoy conversation with you, Scott.

Oh, you know all the right things to say.

I appreciate you so much more than you.

And I tell you what, thank you for having me, everybody, for tuning in.

Be sure you can watch us on our YouTube channel if you want to watch this crazy video.

But of course you can if you're listening to us on the podcast.

Thanks for tuning in and be sure to, to to subscribe and like and share all the, the love that you can give us.

We appreciate because really, at the end of the day, we, we want to promote these artists and let the world know how much great talents out there.

So without further ado, I guess that's it.

We'll wrap up.

Morgan, thanks so much.

Over and out.

Thanks, Scott.

Bye.