Alicia Eler is a cultural critic and arts reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune and author of "The Selfie Generation: How Our Self-Images Are Changing Our Notions of Privacy, Sex, Consent, and Culture" (2017).
Art
CHICAGO, Illinois — Walking down an urban Chicago street on a quiet Sunday afternoon, I noticed a gathering of greenery nestled in the crack of a sidewalk jutting up against a cement wall. These small moments of nature poking through the urban landscape reveal themselves when we are not paying atten
Art
CHICAGO — Instead of saying to yourself, "There's an app for that," repeat after me: "There's an emoji for that." In our technology-inundated world of constantly being glued to the glowing screens of our iPhones and Androids, more apps are not the answer to our first-world problems. What we need is
Art
In an ideal social media universe, Facebook users would feel comfortable enough to openly tell all of their friends whether or not they’re organ donors, what they're up to this weekend, and if they are in a relationship, single, or looking. There would be no Facebook stalkers or strange friend reque
Art
CHICAGO — Given that most of us labor in virtual space these days and our work requires little more than a desk, a computer, and a keyboard to get done, why do we stick to such outmoded concepts as cubicles and cafeterias? A current exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Outdoor Office: Jon
News
CHICAGO — Fairytales are make-believe until a country's Catholic Church decides to protest them. Ukranian-Canadian artist Taras Polataiko's experimental performance artwork "Sleeping Beauty," a modern-day retelling of the titular fairytale restaged at the National Museum of Art Ukraine from August 2
Art
CHICAGO — I’d cruise slick Chicago boy bodies at the infamous bathhouse Steamworks if I were a cisboy, or at least marginally passable as an effeminate dude. Suffice it to say that my gender isn’t welcome amidst the mist of those showers. My desire for dick instead led me to The Great Refusal: Takin
Art
CHICAGO — The excitement and buzz around Expo Chicago, the Windy City's resurgence into the international art world, felt deafening. Practically every artist in the city who knew how to handle art was in some way involved with the fair. Newcity newspaper, the city's #1 alt-weekly, published "Chicago
Interview
Lady Gaga hosted the last big party of fashion week on September 14 by creating “Sleeping With Gaga,” a performance that has uncomfortable similarities with Canadian-Ukranian artist Taras Polataiko's recent Sleeping Beauty. After drawing a lot of international press and attention, his modern-day fai
Art
On September 5, the first Sleeping Beauty in Polataiko’s Ukrainian exhibition awoke to a kiss from another woman.