Ryan Wong

Post image for Charming Stuff: Danh Vo and Martin Wong

What is it about the personal collection on display that is so appealing, so instantly resonant? Danh Vo, the artist best known for his conceptual sculpture series We the People (detail), has presented in the exhibition I M U U R 2 some 4,000 objects from the home of Martin Wong.

Continue Reading →

Essays

An Artist Creates the Ruins of America

by Ryan Wong on December 7, 2012

Post image for An Artist Creates the Ruins of America

Danh Vo’s objects are unremarkable without history. We can debate until Miami freezes about over the place of artworks that don’t do much visually, that make references so opaque you have to a) be a specialist or b) have the work explained to you by an outside aid. Vo’s challenges to our assumptions about art are as frustrating as they are exciting.

Continue Reading →
Post image for Steve McQueen at the Art Institute of Chicago or How To Install Moving Images

At the Art Institute of Chicago’s Steve McQueen exhibition, I saw something unusual: museum-goers spending time — minutes of it! — watching moving images. In an otherwise bustling museum, the visitors in these rooms were silent and enthralled.

Continue Reading →

Books

Art Cannot Provide a Way Out

by Ryan Wong on August 1, 2012

Post image for Art Cannot Provide a Way Out

In 2006, art historian Claire Bishop lit a fire under the collective seat of the art world with her Artforum piece “The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents.” It set off — as much as any essay in the hermetic and staid world of contemporary art theory can — an uproar. Her new book takes it a step further.

Continue Reading →
Post image for A Billion Hits and Counting: Asian Americans and YouTube

Young Asian Americans dominate a great swath of the messy territory called YouTube, holding their own against the well-funded and famous. This fact makes two major points: there is a great pool of Asian Americans who, against the grain of “model minority” professionalism, need an outlet for humor and creative expression. Perhaps more importantly, these numbers prove the existence of a huge audience, largely Asian American, who want to see the experiences and talents of Asian people in popular media.

Continue Reading →
Post image for GIF Free or Die Hard at The New York Times

The New York Times Arts section celebrated Independence Day with an ode to the Statue of Liberty by dance critic Alastair Macaulay. Being a lyrical article the photo editors must have wanted to create an equally lyrical visual effect. So they decided to make three animated GIFs.

Continue Reading →
Post image for Gallery Girls: Cutting Throats, Getting Paid

The advertisement for the new Bravo TV show Gallery Girls is titled “The Cutthroat World of Gallery Girls.” The two-minute preview promises the approved dose of unapologetic reality TV narcissism. Lucky us.

Continue Reading →