Today’s guest is someone who quite literally lives between worlds—both geographically and creatively.

Leslie Moody Castro is an independent art curator and writer who splits her time between Austin, Texas, and Mexico City, a rhythm she’s kept for over twenty years. Her practice is deeply rooted in movement, collaboration, and conversation—whether across borders, between disciplines, or within communities.

For nearly two decades, Leslie has produced and curated projects across Mexico and the United States, always with an eye toward creating spaces for dialogue and exchange. She’s the co-founder of Unlisted Projects Residency and Co-Lab Projects, a unique, artist-run nonprofit in Austin dedicated to experimental and collaborative art. (Fun fact: Co-Lab is housed inside five massive concrete culverts)—those structures that usually carry water underground—gifted by a neighboring concrete factory. Leslie, and partner Sean Gaulager, along with their team transformed the concrete culverts into an imaginative and unconventional exhibition space on an acre of Texas land).

In 2022, she was both the inaugural curatorial fellow at New Mexico State University and curator-in-residence at Casa Otro in Mexico. Her work has earned two National Endowment for the Arts grants and a State Department fellowship for her research on borders.

Leslie’s global perspective is also shaped by residencies from Estonia to Tepoztlán, from Miami to Mexico City. She’s curated several major biennials, including the 2018 Texas Biennial, the 2021 Amarillo Museum Biennial, and most recently, the 2024 Aurora Biennial. From 2021 to 2024, she was also the guest editor of Glasstire, Texas’s leading online arts magazine.

She’s the founder of AtravesArte, a platform dedicated to transborder art practices—and she’ll be the first to tell you: Mariachi makes everything better.

I have never met an artist as exuberant as Dahlia Dreszer. She is so passionate about her work that she throws concerts, discussions, and special speaking engagements just to gather important collectors together with like-minded people. She recently built an immersive environmental experience in the gallery, Green Space, in Miami. The title of the show, “Bringing the Outside In,” is all about transforming elaborate garden installations in domestic spaces. It was amazing. Visitors felt like they were sitting in the Garden of Eden, or some sort of unspoiled paradise. They were surrounded by large-scale garden photographs featuring complex arrangements of flowers, ancestral textiles, and cultural artifacts. The compositions were rich with information, color, and detail that bleed to the edges of the frame. Dahlia is very inventive finding the most beautiful flowers for her walk-through arrangements. Many are picked after they are discarded from weddings or other super celebrations. You must also listen to this podcast to learn how she preserves them and revives their brilliant colors. Don’t miss the part where she tells you how she incorporates artificial intelligence into her exhibits and what future designs may look like. Dahlia is just a bundle of energy, inside and out.

Dave Ross is living a life in the art world that most people would love to have. He went from a top-ranking Wall Street analyst to a promising abstract painter who is receiving very positive reviews from collectors. My husband and I bought two paintings from Dave that we adore, one of them is an absolute favorite.

Dave is what I call a free spirit who believes in the art of the possible. He surrounds himself with people who are as adventurous as he is and believes in the power of positive energy.

Lots of folks call Dave a polymath. He is also a mentor to many, a philanthropist, and writer. A long-time art collector and patron of artists, Dave now has his own studio practice in Miami, FL, USA. He also serves on the Ubuntu Council for the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP), the Global Council of Zeitz MOCAA, and on the Board of Directors for The Fountainhead Arts.