> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Talking Art With Rama Duwaji - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/talking-art-with-rama-duwaji/ - Published: 2026-04-16T10:00:11.000Z - Updated: 2026-04-16T10:00:13.000Z - Description: The artist and NYC first lady sits for an exclusive interview with our editor-in-chief. Plus: Who’s behind the posters calling to boycott the Met Gala? - Author: Hyperallergic - Tags: Daily Newsletter, Newsletter On a damp New York Citymorning last week, I visited Gracie Mansion for an exclusive interview with artist and First Lady Rama Duwaji in her studio. We talked about her art practice and political life while surrounded by her drawings and ceramics. I hope you enjoy reading this interview, through which I learned moreabout Duwaji's life story and got a better sense of who she is as a person and an artist. Also in New York: Who'sbehind the guerrillaposters across the city calling for a boycott ofthe Jeff Bezos-sponsored Met Gala? *—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief* --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/Rama-Duwaji-04152026-Newsletter.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/in-the-studio-with-rama-duwaji/) Artist Rama Duwaji in her studio in New York (photo Dahlia Dandashi) ### [In the Studio With Rama Duwaji](https://hyperallergic.com/in-the-studio-with-rama-duwaji/) Surrounded by her drawings and ceramics, we discussed her evolving art practice and new life as NYC first lady. | Hakim Bishara --- SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/bennet-prize.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/the-bennett-prize-opens-fifth-call-for-entries/) ****The Bennett Prize Opens Fifth Call for Entries** Women figurative realist painters can enter to win $75,000 and a traveling solo exhibition. Applications are open through September 19. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/the-bennett-prize-opens-fifth-call-for-entries/) --- ## News [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/bezoz-gala-newsletter-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/boycott-the-bezos-met-gala-posters-emerge-across-nyc/) A poster spotted in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (photo **Hyperallergic*) - “Boycott the Bezos Met Gala” [**posters emerge across NYC**](https://hyperallergic.com/boycott-the-bezos-met-gala-posters-emerge-across-nyc/) to protest the sponsors of this year’s event, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchéz, targeting Amazon’s alleged worker exploitation and links to ICE. - The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum [**launched a digital catalogue raisonné**](https://hyperallergic.com/georgia-okeeffe-museum-launches-digital-catalogue-raisonne/). Anyone can now browse through over 2,000 works by the artist, including paintings, handwritten letters, and early sketches. --- SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/Sore-Throat--2023---Detail--by-Bugarin---Castle.-Film.-Courtesy-the-artists-1.png)](https://hyperallergic.com/conductor-is-new-yorks-first-art-fair-committed-to-the-global-majority/) ****CONDUCTOR Is New York’s First Art Fair Committed to the Global Majority** From April 30 to May 3, discover 27 galleries and 17 special projects spotlighting artists from across the world at Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/conductor-is-new-yorks-first-art-fair-committed-to-the-global-majority/) --- ## In Memoriam [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/in-memorium-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/remembering-pearl-fryar-siri-aurdal-and-frank-stack/) Pearl Fryar (photo Jonathan Newton / **The Washington Post* via Getty Images) ### [Remembering Pearl Fryar, Siri Aurdal, and Frank Stack](https://hyperallergic.com/remembering-pearl-fryar-siri-aurdal-and-frank-stack/) This week, we honor a self-taught topiary artist, a mainstay of ’60s Scandinavian art, and author of what may be the first underground comic. --- ## Books [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/Untitled-7-1.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/inside-a-black-panther-family-album/) “Home in Hydra, November 1970, Algiers” from Kathleen Cleaver’s family album (© Kathleen Neal Cleaver Archive; photo John Stephens, courtesy Kathleen Neal Cleaver Archive) ### [Inside a Black Panther Family Album](https://hyperallergic.com/inside-a-black-panther-family-album/) Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver’s family album depicts aspirational homemaking in diaspora, capturing the tension between rest and motion as they navigated exile with their children. | Leigh Raiford --- Featured opportunity ****Tulsa Artist Fellowship** Tulsa Artist Fellowship offers three years of funding, housing, and studio space to create meaningful work in Tulsa’s vibrant arts community. Applications open April 7, 2026. Deadline: May 7, 2026, at 6pm (CT) | [tulsaartistfellowship.org](https://www.tulsaartistfellowship.org/award?ref=hyperallergic.com) See more in [this month’s list of opportunities](https://hyperallergic.com/opportunities-april-2026/) for artists, writers, and art workers! --- ## Member Comment Holly Wong on Paddy Johnson “[Art Problems: Do I Need to Go to Art Fairs?](https://hyperallergic.com/art-problems-do-i-need-to-go-to-art-fairs/)" I love this statement "The real value of art fairs isn’t networking — it’s information. Knowledge of the scene helps you make better decisions and expands your social currency." I appreciate the adjustment in thinking here that I am going for information. It lowers the stakes and allows me to be in learning mode and to be receptive to what is around me vs. focusing on what is lacking in my own career or "climbing." Point very well taken not to spend tons of money on the expensive fairs but to focus on more satellite fairs where I can make connections that are more realistic for me and see work relevant to my practice. --- ## From the Archive [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/04/archive-post-newsletter.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/tracing-the-peacock-chair-history-from-manila-to-nashville/) Blair Stapp, “Huey Newton, Black Panther Minister of Defense” (1968), lithographic ink on paper with linen backing (image public domain via the Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture) ### [Tracing the Peacock Chair’s History From Manila to Nashville](https://hyperallergic.com/tracing-the-peacock-chair-history-from-manila-to-nashville/) A complex web of stories encourages us to reimagine the political weight of an unassuming remnant of craft tradition, born of incarcerated labor in the Philippines. | alejandro t. acierto