The Art Career

Brooklyn artist Mr. StarCity joins The Art Career Podcast.
A multidisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture, poetry, music, and film, Mr. StarCity’s practice centers on expressive figurative painting and deeply personal storytelling. His works often emerge from poetry and lived experience, exploring themes of love, healing, and the complexities of the human condition.
Originally gaining recognition through murals and public works, his practice has expanded into a powerful studio output across canvas and mixed media, with paintings that feel both intimate and mythic in their emotional intensity.
His work has been exhibited internationally and featured in publications including Juxtapoz, Hyperallergic, InStyle, and Vogue.

Follow Mr. StarCity: https://www.instagram.com/mrstarcity/
Follow Emily McElwreath on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@emilymcelwreath_art⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠theartcareer.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more episodes and resources  
If you loved this episode, tag ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@theartcareer ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and share your favorite insight on IG stories! Don’t forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps more creatives discover the show. 
Sound Engineer and Production: Josh Craig
Creative Direction: Nina Yankovic

With Melissa Auf der Maur’s new memoir coming out this month, we’re revisiting our conversation on the podcast.
From Hole and Smashing Pumpkins to founding Basilica Hudson, Melissa reflects on art, music, and the strange alchemy of the ’90s music world.
NYT Article
Pre-Order memoir: https://www.xmadmx.com/#book

Follow Emily McElwreath on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@emilymcelwreath_art⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠theartcareer.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more episodes and resources  
If you loved this episode, tag ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@theartcareer ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and share your favorite insight on IG stories! Don’t forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps more creatives discover the show. 
Sound Engineer and Production: Josh Craig
Creative Direction: Nina Yankovic

This week on The Art Career Podcast, Emily sit's down with Nick Thune.
Known for his sharp, offbeat humor and unique narrative voice, Thune has built a loyal following through multiple stand-up specials, late-night appearances on The Tonight Show, Conan, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, as well as roles in film and television including Dave Made a Maze, Knocked Up, Venom, FX’s Legit, and Netflix’s Love.
In recent years, Thune has expanded his creative practice into the visual arts, producing a body of work that reflects the same irreverent, observational tone that defines his comedy. His fine art blends text, minimal forms, and conceptual humor to explore themes of identity, absurdity, and human contradiction. His visual work debuted at SPRING/BREAK Art Show and continues to evolve across painting, mixed media, and print editions.
In this conversation, we discuss how his visual practice operates alongside his work in comedy, what it means to pursue multiple creative disciplines with equal seriousness, and how both the studio and the stage have shaped his approach to storytelling. We also talk about sobriety, fatherhood, sustainability, and building a life that can hold both the studio and the stage.
Follow Nick
Nick's Website
Nick's Limited Edition Print
Follow Emily McElwreath on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@emilymcelwreath_art⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠theartcareer.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more episodes and resources  
If you loved this episode, tag ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@theartcareer ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and share your favorite insight on IG stories! Don’t forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps more creatives discover the show. 
Sound Engineer and Production: Josh Craig
Creative Direction: Nina Yankovic

This week on The Art Career Podcast, Emily McElwreath speaks with Rachel Fine, Executive Director of Yale Schwarzman Center.
Recorded on-site at Yale, this conversation explores what it means to build cultural infrastructure within a major institution today — from developing artistic partnerships and stewarding creative communities to expanding access and engagement across disciplines.
Together, they discuss Rachel’s leadership journey from the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts to Yale, and the evolving role of university-based cultural centers as spaces where art, performance, wellness, and community converge.
As Yale Schwarzman Center continues to grow as a commons for university life and a hub for creative exchange, this episode offers insight into how institutional vision can shape meaningful, artist-centered programming at scale.
About Rachel Fine: Rachel Fine joined Yale Schwarzman Center as Executive Director in October 2022, following her tenure as Executive Director and CEO of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. There, she played a key role in establishing The Wallis as a major cultural institution, building dynamic artistic partnerships, advancing initiatives around equity and access, and leading a $55 million campaign that more than doubled the organization’s endowment. A concert pianist by training, Fine studied at the Eastman School of Music and the University of California, Irvine, and later attended Yale for graduate work in musicology. Prior to The Wallis, she served as Executive Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles Children’s Chorus. Her broader leadership experience includes roles with the Aspen Music Festival, Santa Fe Opera, The Juilliard School, and the DeVos Institute of Arts Management.
About Yale Schwarzman Center: Yale Schwarzman Center is a commons for university life where art, culinary, and wellness experiences converge to build bridges, nurture creativity, and foster kinship and belonging. Through unexpected connections and collaborations, and inspired by the Center's architecture, artists and members of the Yale and New Haven communities engage with creativity through programming that ranges from the intimate to the grand.
Follow Yale Schwarzman Center: HERE
Website: https://schwarzman.yale.edu
Follow Emily McElwreath on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@emilymcelwreath_art⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠theartcareer.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more episodes and resources  
If you loved this episode, tag ⁠⁠⁠⁠@theartcareer ⁠⁠⁠⁠and share your favorite insight on IG stories! Don’t forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps more creatives discover the show. 
Sound Engineer and Production: Josh Craig
Creative Direction: Nina Yankovic

On Season 8, episode 4 of The Art Career Podcast, Emily sits down with Dr. Ace Lehner to discuss trans visual culture, the politics of representation, and so much more
Their conversation explores how images construct identity, how institutions shape visibility, and what it means to challenge dominant frameworks of seeing. As both a scholar and an artist, Ace brings depth, clarity, and lived insight to questions that sit at the center of contemporary culture.
Emily and Ace talk about photography, authorship, power, and the responsibility that comes with representation - and why rewriting visual narratives isn’t just theoretical, but necessary.
Recorded at: Creative Legion in Hudson, NY
Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Dr. Ace Lehner is an interdisciplinary visual culture scholar and artist whose work focuses on trans and queer visual culture, race and representation, photography, performance, and modern and contemporary art. Their writing has appeared in leading journals including Art Journal, Visual Studies, Cultural Politics, and Media-N, among others. Lehner recently guest edited the first-ever issue of Art Journal dedicated to trans visual culture and is currently developing a book project, Trans Representations: Decolonizing Visual Theory in Contemporary Photography, based on their award-winning dissertation research.

Lehner’s artistic practice spans photography, installation, and performance, examining the relationship between representation and identity.  Their project Barbershop: The Art of Queer Failure has been presented in solo exhibitions at Brewer Harris projects and Practice Gallery, as well as in group exhibitions at the Fleming Museum and the Wassaic Project with additional exhibitions at institutions, including the International Center of Photography, El Museo del Barrio, and SOMArts. 
A recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the College Art Association Professional Development Fellowship, Lehner has delivered public talks and organized conference panels internationally. They have worked in museum education for over two decades and pioneered the first Queer Tours at the Museum of Modern Art. Lehner is currently a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at the University of Vermont.
Dr Ace Lehner's Website: http://ace-lehner.com
Follow Ace: https://www.instagram.com/ace_lehner_projects
Follow Emily McElwreath on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@emilymcelwreath_art⁠⁠⁠⁠
Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠theartcareer.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more episodes and resources  
If you loved this episode, tag ⁠⁠⁠@theartcareer ⁠⁠⁠and share your favorite insight on IG stories! Don’t forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it helps more creatives discover the show. 
Sound Engineer and Production: Josh Craig
Creative Direction: Nina Yankovic