Today, Joey speaks with Laurie Fendrich. Laurie is an abstract painter, art critic, and professor emerita of fine arts and art history at Hofstra University. They discuss her essay How Critical Thinking Sabotages Painting, the broken state of critique, the impact of identity politics on fine arts education, and other topics.

Fendrich is originally from Paterson, NJ, and studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Aside from Hofstra she has taught at the University of Houston, the University of Southern California, the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been featured in distinguished solo and group exhibitions at the Armory Show, the Painting Center in NYC, the National Academy of Design, and with American Abstract Artists (AAA). She has received multiple fellowships, including with the Brown Foundation, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Fendrich has also written art criticism, as well as commentary on art history and fine arts education, for various academic publications and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Laurie and her work can be found on Instagram @lauriefendrich and her website.

Correction: During the discussion Joey incorrectly refers to the African-American artist Simone Leigh, who showed at the American Pavillion during the 2022 Venice Biennale, as Simone Biles.