Alma Allen on Connecting to the Primordial Through Art

For our 150th episode, our latest “site-specific” recording, we visit the self-taught American artist and sculptor Alma Allen inside his family’s Mexico City home to discuss his highest-visibility exhibition yet—his upcoming solo presentation at the U.S. Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale—and how he’s been navigating the public debate and noise around his selection for it. He also talks about his peripatetic path to art-world ascendancy and the hard-to-pin-down nature of his biomorphic, material-forward sculptures.