The public talk brings Alex Ehmer into conversation with invited guest artists Martin Miller and Alice Barreras, moderated by Meghan Smith. Moving between the Bay Area and New York, the discussion considers the realities of building an artistic practice across different communities, institutions, and local art ecosystems, with attention to questions of devotion, discipline, transformation, and sustaining a practice over time.

/Meghan Smith is an independent curator, writer, and arts worker based in Brooklyn, NY. She previously served as the LYRA Foundation Curator at ICA San Francisco, where she produced commission-based exhibitions with artists including David Antonio Cruz, Masako Miki, Maryam Yousif, Hayv Kahraman, and Patrick Martinez. She has also held curatorial and leadership roles at the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, CCA PLAySPACE Gallery, and Second Street Gallery. Smith holds a BA from the University of Virginia and an MA from California College of the Arts.

/Martin Miller is a sculptor whose practice engages material, form, and the expanded possibilities of sculpture. He studied at San Francisco Art Institute, where his work developed in dialogue with the New Genres program, and later continued his graduate studies at Hunter College. His work has been exhibited in spaces across the United States.

/Alice Barreras is a painter and member of the Uncool Gallery cohort whose practice is connected to the broader Bay Area arts community. She received her BA in Art from UC Santa Cruz. Her work brings painting into conversation with questions of materiality, image-making, and the networks of exchange that develop between artists and artistic communities.