Artist Claire Valdez Is Ready for Congress
The New York State assembly member talks politics and painting in a Hyperallergic interview.
"Why are you doing this to yourself?" That was Hyperallergic Editor-in-Chief Hakim Bishara's first question for Claire Valdez — the artist and New York State assembly member running for Congress. Her answer touches on something all our readers will be familiar with: the need to create a more affordable life for artists. Read Bishara’s interview with Valdez, where she talks about union organizing, her faith in the working class, and making paintings of the night sky.
Also in NYC, we report on the new director of the Whitney ISP, who inherits a controversy-ridden program marred by the cancellation of an artwork about Palestinian mourning.
Plus, Christopher Myers’s Flatbush subway mosaics, shows to see in the Bay Area, Aruna d’Souza on Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince in Venice, and more.
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
Claire Valdez Wants to Be Your Artist in Congress
After getting a Democratic Socialist Muslim mayor and winning its first NBA championship in 53 years, New York’s next big surprise could be a congresswoman who started out as an artist and art worker.
New York State Assembly Member Claire Valdez, a union organizer at heart, is running for New York’s 7th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives. Valdez stands for abolishing ICE, taxing the rich, Medicare and unions for all, universal rent control, and a free Palestine. We talked about Valdez’s life as a painter, her political origin story, and her plans for Congress, if she makes it there. | Hakim Bishara
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News
- Arts advocacy groups are sounding the alarm after a congressional subcommittee last week approved a budget proposal that would eliminate the Department of Education’s only dedicated arts grant program.
- The Whitney Museum of American Art appoints Soyoung Yoon as the new director of its Independent Study Program following a year-long suspension of the fellowship.
From Our Critics
“Helter Skelter” Can’t Look America in the Eye
Richard Prince and Arthur Jafa’s exhibition at the Fondazione Prada cannot face the racial implications of its conceit. | Aruna D’Souza
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Divination, Mark Making, Boxing, & Drawing: “Tracey Rose” at Ruby City
Opening June 6 in San Antonio, Texas, “Tracey Rose” offers viewers an intimate look at the artist’s groundbreaking multidisciplinary practice including performance and drawings.
Guides
10 Art Shows to See in the Bay Area This Summer
Demetri Broxton beads an ancestral path, Mildred Howard gets an overdue retrospective, 14 galleries share one space, Diedrick Brackens tends a garden, and more. | Max Blue
Read MoreFeatures
Kaleidoscopic Subway Mosaics Celebrate Flatbush’s Theater History
At the Church Avenue station, Christopher Myers’s glass-tiled panels explore the rich legacy of vaudeville and Afro-Caribbean carnival culture. | Aaron Short
Read MoreMember Comment
Yanska on "Processing the Unbearable, Imagining the Radical"
From the Archive
The Queer History of Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain
Artist Emma Stebbins may have modeled her 1873 bronze angel for the popular landmark after her partner, actor Charlotte Cushman. | Isa Farfan
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