Sun Ra’s stanzas are riddles against passive reading.
Author Archives: Alex Jen
Alex Jen is a writer and curator based in Chicago.
Posted inArt
The Beautiful Peculiarity of Leidy Churchman’s Paintings
Churchman seems to be painting as a way to better comprehend his subjects; the canvases feel like dedications, striving to embody someone or something’s true nature.
Posted inArt
The Music at the Intersection Between Two Cultures
The Moon Represents My Heart looks at Chinese American musicians who picked up the culture they lost and re-shaped it into something new.
Posted inArt
Fragmented Sculptures Evoke the Gaps of Memory
Looking at each of Cayetano Ferrer’s works is like waiting for a photograph to come into focus, or retelling an old story and making up bits for the parts you’ve forgotten.
Posted inArt
The Poetry of Eileen Myles’s Intimate, Imperfect Instagram Photos
Myles’s photographs don’t feel precious at all, though there is something relentlessly intimate in their flat-footed irreverence.
Posted inArt
The New Menil Drawing Institute Is Perfect for a Medium So Intimate
The building, which opened this past weekend, appears to mirror the experimental, process-driven practice of drawing.
Posted inArt
Jack Whitten’s Deeply Personal Portraits and Paintings
Whitten’s paintings pay homage to his influences, including artists and close family. He thought of his works as “gifts” — personal dedications that reveal his subjects’ nuances and edges.
Posted inArt
Awe-Inspiring Portraits of Chicano Men that Resist Typecasting
Harry Gamboa Jr. started this series in 1991, after hearing an announcement on his car radio that warned: “Be on the lookout for a Chicano male. He is dangerous.”
Posted inArt
LA Artists and Nightlife Personalities Make Garments that Sparkle with Ingenuity
Rafa Esparza and other local artists have been making garments at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and recently showcased them in a parade in the city’s fashion district.
Posted inArt
Zoe Leonard Transcends Time at the Whitney Museum
A survey show at the Whitney Museum of American Art asserts ideas about the collapse of time in spaces natural and constructed.
Posted inArt
How the Nebulous Internet Has Influenced Art Since 1989
A large survey exhibition comprehensively traces the internet’s influence on artistic practice since 1989, uneasily and unexpectedly revealing how it can subsume both the art and its viewing contexts.
Posted inArt
Getting Comfortable with Sexy and Silly Art
SEX, an exhibition at Chicago’s Lawrence & Clark gallery, challenged me to reckon with the cultural inheritance of my Taiwanese American upbringing.