SAN SALVADOR — It is one week after the general elections in El Salvador that split the winning left party from the right by a margin of 6,300 votes — less than 1% percent of the total — electing ex-guerilla commander Salvador Sánchez Cerén president. Tensions in the country are high, and even more so within the nation’s community of artists, who are rallying to defend Víctor “Crack” Rodríguez, who is facing up to six years in prison for a performance piece.
Claire Breukel
Claire Breukel is a South Africa-born contemporary art curator and writer. Her interest is in contemporary art that falls outside of conventional modes of exhibition, and often affiliated with “developing” regions. She lives and works in New York and Miami.
An Eco-Friendly Villa in Costa Rica Encourages Sustainable Art Practice
SOUTHERN ZONE, Costa Rica — I’m staying in the blue room. It is my honeymoon and we have travelled four hours from the San José airport to a magnificent rainforest hideaway. Monte Azul dubs itself as an eco-lodge that combines culture and conservation. This ecolodge — which comprises four “casitas” for a total of eight guests, a restaurant, an art gallery, an artist studio, and miles of endless river and forest that is its preserve — was built with art as its primary driving force. But what do art and sustainability have in common?
Environment and Object and Their Role in Recent African Art
Despite being the exhibition catalogue of an exhibition that originated at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Environment and Object: Recent African Art is seen by its’ editors as an independent document.
A Surprisingly Coherent Art Fair in Upstate New York
A few of the locals intermingled with the art world of New York City and Miami in the huge Barn-like building of Basilica Hudson on the outskirts of the town where NADA held its 2012 Hudson art fair. The vibe is relaxed — detached from the frenzied energy of New York art gatherings — stirring genuine curiosity about the objects that lay throughout the Main Hall.
Giving an Artistic Voice to a Neighborhood, Northside Art Attempts Many Conversations
As the official group exhibition of the Northside Art Festival, Many Conversations was a multilayered dialogue between 26 artists who either live or work in North Brooklyn. Curated by Peter Gynd, the show aimed to formally introduce the local community of artists to each other and to their audience, in order to create exchange and encourage interaction.
Political Pressure Censors Artwork And Creates Unexpected Spectacle
I feel naïve to have thought that art offered one of the only scared spaces to be freely expressive. Two weeks ago, I wrote a post that attempted to diplomatically depict the controversial saga that has unfolded over artist Brett Murray’s “The Spear”, a Communist propaganda style portrayal of South African president Jacob Zuma with his penis hanging out from his zipper.
The South African President vs The Painting: A Saga in Many Parts
A painting by Brett Murray of the South African President has caused outrage among the ANC faithful but the subsequent acts of vandalism raise questions for which there are no easy answers.
A Critical Discussion on the Art of Video Gaming
It’s a sunny Friday morning in midtown Manhattan, and at the education building of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the second day of the conference “Critical Play — The Game as an Art Form” begins its debates. I’m no video gaming expert, but with 50 other physical attendees and many more over live stream, I vow to learn how video games can be better understood within an art context, as they’ve been the new art frontier for some time.
From Car Hoods to Vajazzling
South African artist Frances Goodman doesn’t apologize about much when it comes to art.
Kinetic Mexico City
MEXICO CITY —Despite its relaxed façade, Mexico City is encircled with a buzz of dynamic activity added to by the bustle of its formidable traffic jams.
Marfa to Vegas: The Good, Bad and Ugly
A road trip that encounters all kinds of art from Marfa to El Paso to Vegas.
Popularizing Contemporary Art in San Salvador
A look at the emerging art scene in San Salvador, El Salvador.