M. Freddy: Hi Kasia! During my last interview with Aaron Wilder, he highly recommended speaking with you. I know you are taking part in an artist residency at the Elf School of the Arts in Hayesville, North Carolina, so thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today. Kasia, I am incredibly envious of the amazing sunshine and lakeside view you have over there in the middle of Winter.

M: For those who are not yet familiar with Kasia’s work, Kasia is the Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She has exhibited internationally, including at Gallery Olivier Waltman in Paris, Superposition Gallery in Los Angeles, and the NYFA-sponsored Immigrant Artist Biennial (TIAB). She is also the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, such as the Paul-Louis Weiller Sculpture Award from the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France, and the European Cultural Foundation R&D Grant for Projects in Public Spaces.

M: You have had an incredible career. Can you tell us more about your path into the arts?

Kasia Ozga: I have always made art and am really lucky to have grown up in a family of architects and interior designers that supported my interests when I was young. I’ve always been drawn to art as a method to create dialogues between disciplines and points of view. As an undergrad, I did a combined degree program with a Studio Art BFA from the Museum School and a BA in International Relations from Tufts University. Afterwards, I moved abroad because I was hungry to learn more about different approaches to making. Even though I work across media, my practice is grounded in the physicality and presence of sculpture. While living in France, I began producing temporary and permanent public art, after working on a series of large-scale environmental art projects in woven willow wicker in Poland, France, and in the Ukraine. Simultaneously, I developed a studio practice invested in materializing ecologies; I explore what functional objects, including packaging, garments, and tools, reveal about labor and power in our environments.

M: It is fascinating to hear about your family’s work in architecture. Site specificity is one of the key elements in your work. Do you see a relationship between your background in architecture and the site specific works you do today?

K: I was surrounded by blueprints and constantly touring construction sites, primarily for residential homes, from a young age. I appreciated the notion of a space as a work-in-progress; something that could be transformed (and transformative!) for its inhabitants. When I began making and writing about public art more frequently, I became interested in exploring how such artworks occupy spaces and create opportunities for different interpretations of the same site. I am interested in what conflict about public art reveals about viewers’ relationships to their bodies, historical time, and shared space.

M: I love that you have worked on a lot of site-specific pieces in the US and France. The art world can be quite different across the Atlantic Ocean, what is your experience like navigating those differences?

K: I really began my career with short-term environmental projects with relatively modest budgets in Europe. The culture sector there had particularly strong support for temporary public art and environmental art through residencies and exhibitions geared towards emerging artists and I was able to leverage relationships in Poland, France, and in the US into unique exhibition opportunities. While some of the formal mechanisms (calls for art and requests for proposals, etc.) are similar from one place to another, my communication skills in different languages and appreciation of cultural differences have enabled me to work successfully on projects in many countries.

M: Can you tell me more about your upcoming exhibitions? What is next for you?

K: I currently have work in the group show, Belonging, at the A.D. Gallery in Pembroke, NC and am looking forward to a solo exhibition this Spring at the Central Gallery at Revolution Mill in Greensboro, NC which will open on 04/09. I am also working on a large outdoor public commission for the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, MA, entitled “We the People” which will be on display starting in June of this year!

M: Exciting projects ahead. I always ask this question before we wrap up — is there someone you know who would make a great interviewee?

K: There are so many! Katie Hargrave makes research-based work related to public lands and policies that govern how we access them. I’m really drawn to her material choices and the stories she tells through her work. Brittany M. Søndberg is an artist currently working in North Carolina who makes these large airy abstract steel sculptures in public places and whose recent work I really admire! Naomi J. Falk makes parachute-like textile installations that explore the materiality of the medium in a really interesting way. R Kauff is a former colleague of mine at Oberlin College whose practice is grounded in print, but who also makes really exciting sculptural installations that alter and extend everyday objects.

M: Amazing, thank you so much for bringing attention to their work.

Kasia Ozga

My large-scale installations and sculptures are derived from cutting, breaking, gluing, carving, and sewing materials that reveal the many layers of our relationships to our environment and one another.

Inspired by Arte Povera, and Feminist and Site-specific art, my work blends the everyday with the uncanny. From photographs of human skin printed on vinyl to a tablecloth quilted from blue workwear, I’m always exploring how solid forms evoke movement and raising questions about how we live today.

I’ve always been intrigued by what connects people to a place; I was born in Poland, raised in the Midwest, and spent over a decade living and studying in France, and the movement of goods, from production and consumerism to waste and decay, is a recurring theme in my work.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to explore these themes thanks to numerous awards, fellowships and residencies, including most recently the North Carolina Arts Council Artist Support Grant, the Aide Individuelle à la Création Grant, DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and the Fondation Charles Oulmont Prize and residencies at the Elf School of the Arts (NC), Eden Summer Institute, and CLEA Val du Sambre.

I live in Greensboro, NC with my family, where I’m currently an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at UNCG.

https://kasiaozga.com/

M. Freddy: It is so wonderful to have you here with us, Aaron. You have had an incredible career as a curator and an interdisciplinary artist.

M: For those who are not yet familiar with Aaron’s work, his 2025 solo exhibition Contact Traces was featured by New York Magazine, Whitehot Magazine, and Hyperallergic. He is the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Roswell Museum in New Mexico, and has served on many juries including the New York Foundation for the Arts’ Medical Emergency Grant.

M: Can you tell us about some of the defining moments in your career, and how that has led you to the work you are doing now?

Aaron Wilder: I have the foundation of a self-taught artist and I made my very first painting as an entry for a college scholarship. I got second place and not very much money, but it made me rethink the possibilities of art. I studied art history in college, but I had internalized messaging from childhood that art isn’t a practical vocation, so I pursued work in other fields. On the side, I briefly operated a studio and gallery in downtown Phoenix in 2009. While short-lived, it was fun. Years later, I found myself miserable where I had ended up career-wise and at 30 I made the decision to take a hard left turn and off I went to art school in San Francisco.

M: I love the way your work explores the intersections of art and impact. Can you tell me more about that?

A: What I appreciate most about art is its potential for our imagining of the future we want to live in. I have found that questions are often more valuable than answers. I am interested in art opening space for critical thinking and dialogue. Impact for me moves in many directions: outside impact on me, my impact on others, and impacts between individuals and structures. Some of my work is subtle and some is outright political. There’s plenty of space for divergent artistic strategies and certainly no shortage of issues on which artists engage the world.

M: The intersections of art and impact can be challenging and nuanced. What are some of the artists, artworks, programs, or institutions that are pushing boundaries?

A: I feel that right now almost any art is radical. There’s a total governmental assault on funding for the arts, on free speech, and on the vast majority of lived experiences given form and voice. It floors me that saying anything in support of Palestinians having the right to live is still considered hate speech by many. I think any artist using the resources available to them to subvert repression is even more important than a famous artist, powerful institution, etc. doing the same. I’ve been reading a lot of work by French philosopher Jacques Rancière recently. One quote of his I find empowering: “every situation can be cracked open from the inside, reconfigured in a different regime of perception and signification. To reconfigure the landscape of what can be seen and what can be thought is to alter the field of the possible”.

M: How do you see the future of art and impact? Do you have any advice for readers?

A: There’s impact on art and the art of impact. It’s a continuous circuit. In my opinion, the future is here. Art possesses both the necessity and the capacity to resist, thwart, and deflect external threats to its own and our existence. I recently curated the exhibition “Unstable Language,” which explored the myriad ways artists use their art to understand and respond to harmful narratives and abuses of power. My advice is simply to remember that you have value, your voice matters, and doing something, as small as it may seem, is always better than doing nothing.

M: Do you have any thoughts on who we should interview next and why?

A: Kasia Ozga is a Polish/French/American sculptor and installation artist living in North Carolina whose work was included in the exhibition “Unstable Language” I recently curated. Her practice is very thoughtful and she’s conscious of the lives of human bodies, the lives of the materials with which she works, and the lives of systemic forces. In my view, her work is as beautiful and poetic as it is resonant and urgent. I wasn’t familiar with her work before the show, but I plan to keep an eye on her practice going forward. If interested, here’s a short, recorded conversation I had with her during the exhibition:

M: Fascinating work! Thank you so much for your time today. I will be sure to reach out to Kasia.

Aaron Wilder is a curator and interdisciplinary artist who blurs boundaries between the analog and the digital, the public and the private, and the unassuming and the instigative. He uses his own experiences and sense of identity as a lens through which he explores the introspective and social processes of contemporary culture. Through an analytical deconstruction of these processes, his artistic approach is akin to that of an anthropologist, sociologist, and psychologist combined. Originally from Arizona, Wilder has also lived in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, and France and currently resides in Roswell, New Mexico. With the experience of being a self-taught artist since 2002, Wilder received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2017. He has exhibited his art extensively across the United States. Wilder became an artist member of Amos Eno Gallery in New York in 2020.

https://www.aaronwilder.com/

About the Magazine

Visible is an experimental, open-ended magazine. From personal to systemic challenges, creatives share the invisible parts of their lives — and offer hope for change. Philosophical and theoretical discourse are welcomed but not required. These are the stories from the makers on the vanguard of culture.

About the 2025 Visible Mag Contemporary Art Essay Prize

Writers play a critical role in the art and culture ecosystem. They help us make sense of who we are, how we live, and the goals we aspire to. The 2025 Visible Mag Contemporary Art Essay Prize looks for unexpected insights on art and culture today. In line with the Magazine’s experimental nature, we are happy to accept short essays that reference photography in any way for this year’s prize.

The Essay Prize is a celebration of the diverse perspectives in the arts. You are welcome to address the topic of the Prize from any perspective, such as economic, financial, sociological, historical, political, anthropological, anecdotal, legal, conservation, critical, cultural, Science, Technology, and Society (STS), and transdisciplinary.

Eligibility

• The ideal essay for the Prize is around 500 - 1000 words, with no more than 1500 words all inclusive. A strong essay will present a coherent argument in an accessible, personable voice to a general audience.

• Essays already published or offered for publication elsewhere (whether in print or digital e.g. websites or social media) are not eligible.

• Footnotes are not supported by the submission form.

• There is no age or education requirement.

Submission Materials

• Personal details (name, email address, a link to your profile e.g. personal website or Linkedin profile)

• Essay (title, body, and optional PDF addendum)

• You are welcome to upload an optional PDF addendum for images, diagrams, graphics, or illustrations. Please clearly identify the author of each graphic in the caption. From a publishing perspective, it would be helpful if you hold the copyright to any graphics included in the addendum.

• Submission form: https://visible.fillout.com/t/u7jtCfLXmKus

Timeline and Awards

• Submissions are due 31 December 2025. We will announce the shortlist and invite shortlisted authors for an interview to discuss their essays with the jury in January 2026. The finalists and winner of the Essay Prize will be announced around March 2026.

• Essays by the finalists and winner of the Essay Prize will be published by Visible.

• The winner of the Essay Prize will be awarded membership to Visible’s Founding Patron program.

Fees

You are welcome to submit as many essay entries as you would like. The first entry is pay-what-you-can. You may select 0 GBP at checkout to submit your first entry to the Essay Prize for free. Each additional entry is 15 GBP.

Jury

The Essay Prize is adjudicated by the founding editor of Visible Mag, M. Freddy. Author of 5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy, he has been an advocate for the idea of culture as critical infrastructure and presented at venues including MIT, Boards Impact Forum, as well as the United Nations. He currently co-directs the Center for Global Agenda (CGA) and directs the Venture Strategy Group (VSG) at Unbuilt Labs, serves as an Expert at UNESCO, and mentors at the Yale University Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking. As part of his contemporary art practice, he draws, conducts instant film photoshoots, co-organizes the “Instant Film as Contemporary Art Monthly Series”, and edits Visible Mag. He holds a B.F.A. from the Parsons School of Design as well as an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. He was a Departmental Visiting Student at the University of Oxford, and a student of James Romberger, an artist in the East Village canon alongside Basquiat, Wojnarowicz, and McGinley.

https://Studio.MFreddy.com

Sponsors

There is no monetary award for the 2025 Essay Prize. If you would like to sponsor the Prize, consider becoming one of our Founding Patrons! For bespoke options such as sponsoring a new program, focal area, or essay series, we encourage you to reach out to Contact@MFreddy.com.

Questions

Please email Contact@MFreddy.com.

Photography has been around for two centuries, and for most of that time, we accepted photography as evidence. Berger, in his seminal text Ways of Seeing first published in 1972, went as far as to say that photography offers “a direct testimony about the world […] more precise and richer than literature”. As the old adage goes, seeing is believing. Not surprisingly, a large part of our first event titled “New Beginnings” in the Instant Film as Contemporary Art Monthly Series questioned the role of photography as evidence in the age of AI — is what we see in photographs… real?

Contrary to popular belief, there has been a history of photo tampering, or shall we say “taking creative liberties” since the 19th century. The iconic portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln by the table is ironically composited circa 1865, with Lincoln’s head and the Southern politician Calhoun’s body. A more recent pre-Photoshop example includes Oprah’s head on Ann-Margaret’s body for the cover of the 1989 TV Guide. Photoshop’s public release in 1990 has pushed us to question the use of photographs as evidence, and AI generated images have pushed us further still.

To question the validity of photographs as evidence is deeply unsettling. They look very real and there is important photojournalism work going on around the world. But as we imagine the next step in this media’s evolution when we are surrounded by fake news and AI generated images, it feels inevitable to ask — what if we no longer accept photographs as evidence in our everyday lives? What if we let go of this “burden of representation”, as Tagg charmingly calls it? Could AI be accidental tools of empowerment that disrupt the surveillance state? What does the future of photography look like?

Photography could be art. Baudelaire would be thrilled to hear that photography today does not simply offer a “trivial” mirror of reality. One chooses to undertake the photography process when images can easily be generated with AI. In an earlier article “Why Polaroids?”, I argued that instant film creates meaning for those who are present during the photo-taking process. To question photographs as evidence in the age of AI does not deny them of the abstract truths they hold. We would not go to a museum and ask if the paintings are a 100% literal representation of reality. Nevertheless, we can ask: what is true in these artworks?

Photography has its place in the world of art. It matches the pace of our modern lives and captures the fleeting moments that elude painters. The ubiquity of photography should not discount it as art, the same way a child wielding a paintbrush today does not devalue the paintings sold at auction houses. Benjamin, author of “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, would argue that reproductions detached from the context of the original lack “aura”. I believe he would find an abundance of aura in instant film photography as it produces one-of-one artefacts.

Theorizing instant film as contemporary art offers a foundation to cross disciplinary boundaries from photography to the histories and theories of art. I look forward to building on this with you at the next workshop from the Instant Film as Contemporary Art Monthly Series. A heartfelt thank you for your participation and support. A warm welcome to all to our second free online event from the series “Telling Stories” featuring artist and professor James Romberger. Registration for general admission is available here: https://instant-film-as-contemporary-art-2.eventbrite.com/

For sponsorship, press, and other inquiries, please email MFreddy.studio@gmail.com

M. Freddy

M. Freddy is a contemporary artist and researcher on systems change. Author of 5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy, he has been an advocate for the idea of culture as critical infrastructure and presented at venues including MIT, Boards Impact Forum, as well as the United Nations. He currently co-directs the Center for Global Agenda (CGA) and directs the Venture Strategy Group (VSG) at Unbuilt Labs, serves as an Expert at UNESCO, and mentors at the Yale University Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking. As part of his contemporary art practice, he draws, conducts instant film photoshoots, co-organizes the “Instant Film as Contemporary Art Monthly Series”, and edits Visible Mag. He holds a B.F.A. from the Parsons School of Design as well as an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. He was also a Departmental Visiting Student at the University of Oxford. https://studio.mfreddy.com/polaroid-photoshoots

I started taking polaroids because of my dog. In 10 years when I look back at his polaroids I would probably cry. At a time when we see so many digital and AI generated images everyday, polaroids feel real. They can be framed and staged, but the moment they capture nevertheless existed. I love to sit together and talk while a polaroid develops, then review the image together with the people I photograph. There is something quite magical about seeing the image emerge — I have even had people take videos of the development process. To be sure, I photograph with Fujifilm Instax Square and I do not take photographs digitally to be printed on “polaroid printers”. I use polaroid here to refer to instant film generally.

As a former fashion week photographer, I have photographed a lot of supermodels digitally, including Bella, Gigi Hadid, and models who graced the covers of Vogue magazine. I understand the appeal of digital. They photograph well in a wider range of lighting conditions, they produce higher resolution images which can be scaled up for huge commercial prints, they are more beginner-friendly, and they let you click-click-click away until you get that perfect shot.

Photography is quickly changing with AI. Despite the Photoshop liquify “face-shaping” tool and other retouching techniques in the past decades, digital photography had some semblance to reality. That no longer holds with AI’s rapidly advancing capabilities. However little a claim digital photography has to documenting reality, our confidence has been shaken further.

Some fashion brands have already started to adopt AI generated images, and Vogue magazine faced backlash a few weeks ago for featuring an AI generated model in an advertisement by the fashion house Guess. There is a lot I can say about why I dislike this trend: it displaces models, hair stylists, makeup artists, and photographers; it does not showcase the tailoring; it uses vast amounts of fresh water to create the AI-generated image… Yet commercial interests are likely to take precedence over these concerns.

Where does that leave photography and photographers? What is our relationship with photographs? Who are our photographs for? I co-curate the Instant Film as Contemporary Art Monthly Series to explore these questions. To relate instant film to contemporary art is to imagine it as a deeply emotional, intentional, and personal medium. They can still be shared with people around the world once scanned, but the emphasis is on creating meaning for those who are present during the instant film process. There will always be a place for digital photography. It is not “dead”. It is just no longer the focus of my contemporary art practice.

In my “Letter from the Founding Editor” for Visible, I said I liked that the magazine is honest about creatives’ desire to be seen and the financial rewards of being seen. It is important to be honest here too: commercial interests are one of the drivers of photography just as they are for contemporary art. One can even argue that low cost image-making gave rise to photography’s popularization in the first place.

Instant film is commercially viable. Find a good scanner and you can put instant film photographs on billboards. Show the client your photographs during the shoot and take the guesswork out of 35mm / medium-format film. Instant film in this case is not just the work-in-progress to support analogue film, the instant film process is the deliverable. Having someone to bear witness to moments in your life — even the moments that appear mundane in our ever-changing world, is quite a joy.

To be intentional with instant film is not easy. It is technically demanding and it requires a lot of light. That said, a decent instant film camera is still a fraction of the cost of DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. I do wish a company would produce instant film with healthier chemicals. But there is room for photographers here and room for personal, creative expression. I have found the instant film community incredibly welcoming. I hope you will too. I cannot wait to hear more about your work.

M. Freddy

M. Freddy is a contemporary artist and researcher on systems change. Author of 5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy, he has been an advocate for the idea of culture as critical infrastructure and presented at venues including MIT, Boards Impact Forum, as well as the United Nations. He currently co-directs the Center for Global Agenda (CGA) and directs the Venture Strategy Group (VSG) at Unbuilt Labs, serves as an Expert at UNESCO, and mentors at the Yale University Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking. As part of his contemporary art practice, he draws, conducts instant film photoshoots, co-organizes the “Instant Film as Contemporary Art Monthly Series”, and edits Visible Mag. He holds a B.F.A. from the Parsons School of Design as well as an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. He was also a Departmental Visiting Student at the University of Oxford.

https://studio.mfreddy.com/polaroid-photoshoots

After studying at the Parsons School of Design in New York, I worked in tech and research. I wanted to return part-time to my contemporary art practice when my book tour for 5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy came to a close. Visible, a Magazine by M. Freddy started as a way to connect experimental creatives with cultural insiders.

Launching a culture magazine was not entirely unexpected. For better or worse, everyone at Parsons considered themselves a bit of a taste maker. I was also a fashion week photographer during my Parsons days and photographed supermodels including Gigi and Bella Hadid. I saw the glamour and the “pit” (the photographers’ pit) of culture journalism. Still, I didn’t think an indie magazine could make it commercially until recently.

I started co-directing the Center for Global Agenda at Unbuilt Labs with Marguerite Van Cook around 2020. A friend of David Hershkovits (founding co-editor-in-chief of Paper magazine) and the late Walter Robinson (founding editor of Artnet magazine), Marguerite spoke about the legendary magazines’ humble beginnings. The iconic Paper began as an elegantly designed sixteen-page foldout.

These stories take us outside our bubbles. Creatives often tell the stories that hit the hardest — they question underlying assumptions about modern life and imagine blueprints for a way forward. In my research on system-wide transformation methods for sustainable development, I made the case for culture as critical infrastructure. Cultural spaces enable people to contest norms’ interpretations and adapt. It is my hope that Visible will offer such a space.

Every founding editor has a signature editorial style. My style is quite “photographic”. I enjoy interviewing creatives. I set the scene, frame the questions, and give the other person space to be themselves. Visible is experimental and open-ended. It reflects the many different voices of the modern cultural insider. At board meetings, casual coffee chats, artist get-togethers, michelin-starred dinners, couture week, the cozy corner spot…

I love the title Visible. It is honest about creatives’ desire to be seen and the financial rewards of being seen. It challenges the landscape of cultural criticism by prioritizing the voices of the makers. Most important of all — an interview at Visible allows creatives to shape their own narratives and write their own histories.

I cannot wait to hear what you share.

M. Freddy

Founding Editor, Visible

A Magazine by M. Freddy — Interviews with Creatives and Contemporary Artists

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About the Magazine

Visible is an experimental, open-ended magazine. From personal to systemic challenges, creatives share the invisible parts of their lives — and offer hope for change. Philosophical and theoretical discourse are welcomed but not required. These are the stories from the makers on the vanguard of culture.

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Interview and Publication Process

1. After your application, we will respond within 2 weeks if the story is a good fit.

2. We will schedule a 30-minute virtual coffee chat with you to discuss the story.

3. It typically takes a week for us to deliberate. If we decide to move forward with your story, we will extend an offer for an interview and share a few interview questions based on our coffee chat. You are welcome to answer as many or as few questions as you choose. We typically recommend writing 100 words per interview question, with a total word count of 300-500 words.

4. Please share your first draft via Google Doc when you are ready. We will offer editorial suggestions where appropriate. Please see our editorial policies for more information on the editing process.

5. Once we confirm the final draft with you, we will let you know when the article will be available online on Substack, Medium for SEO (https://medium.com/@mfreddy.studio), and Instagram (@MFreddy.studio). We will also ask for a portrait to be published with the interview. We encourage you to promote your interview via your own email lists, social media, and any other innovative techniques you wish to adopt.

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To Apply

Simply email the following to Contact@MFreddy.com:

1. Your name

2. A link to your creative profile e.g. personal website

3. A few sentences (~50 words) about the story you would like to tell

By submitting an application, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to our Terms (https://MFreddy.com/terms-and-conditions), including our Terms and Conditions of Content Submission (https://www.visible-mag.com/p/terms-and-conditions-of-content-submission). Please note, we may publish content including the images you send in print.

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Founding Editor

M. Freddy is a contemporary artist who explores the quiet brilliance of subcultures and their roles in social change. Author of the critically acclaimed 5 Ideas from Global Diplomacy, he has spoken at venues including MIT, Boards Impact Forum, and the United Nations. He has a background in tech and currently serves as a mentor at the Yale University Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking.

The artist alias of Marvin Cheung, M. Freddy holds a B.F.A. from the Parsons School of Design in New York, and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. He was a Departmental Visiting Student at the University of Oxford, and a student of James Romberger, an artist in the East Village canon alongside Basquiat, Wojnarowicz, and McGinley. He was advised by MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Lauren Redniss at Parsons.

https://MFreddy.com

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