Liss LaFleur’s work is at once in your face and delicate, choosing a mode of seduction that utilizes pastiche to lure the viewer in with a hint of familiarity — then jolting them into a world that questions the status quo.
Author Archives: Erin Joyce
Erin Joyce (b. 1987) has worked as an independent curator and journalist in New York, London, Dubai, Dallas, Santa Fe, and throughout Arizona and California since 2010. Her focus as a scholar and curator is on contemporary Indigenous North American art, as well as contemporary Middle Eastern and North African art, with sub focuses on inquiry based practice and social justice. Erin has served as a consultant for SXSW, was the Special Projects Editor at GOOD Magazine, and served as the inaugural art editor for Aslan Media Inc. Erin is also a contributor to Hyperallergic, Salon, Gnovis Journal, SHFT, Canvas Magazine, and content writer for the Modern Art Iraq Archive. Erin holds a Bachelor of Arts in the History of Art from the University of North Texas, studied contemporary art at Sotheby's Institute of Art London, and a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Johns Hopkins University. Her exhibitions have received critical acclaim in such publications and media outlets as NPR, Hyperallergic, Queens Chronicle, The Art Newspaper, and The New York Times. Erin joined the Heard Museum in the fall of 2017 as the Fine Arts Curator.
Native American Artists Envision a Sublime Apocalypse
SANTA FE — An Evening Redness in the West explores the landscape of an apocalyptic world, investigating the doom of end times but also their promise of a new beginning.
The Perks and Problems of Santa Fe’s Indian Market
SANTA FE, NM — Indian Market is a fixture of the Santa Fe community. Founded in 1922 by the Museum of New Mexico, the market brings over 150,000 people to Santa Fe each year to view the work of over 1,100 Native American and First Nations artists.
Glimpses of a Pastoral Dystopia
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Comprised of Kade Twist, Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martínez, and Nathan Young, the artist collective Postcommodity is an interdisciplinary group.
Traditional Craft Meets Conflict in Afghan War Rugs
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — War and conflict have long had a role in the production of art.
The Teddy Bears and Soda Cans of Clare Graham
LOS ANGELES — The term “craft,” especially in the context of the art world, is tricky. Who decides what’s art and what’s craft, and is there a hierarchy between the two? Happily, an exhibition sometimes comes along to further blur the line, as is the case with Clare Graham & MorYork: The Answer is Yes at the Craft and Folk Art Museum.
A Traditional Native Practice, Given Modern Form
SANTA FE — There are many facets to our identities and how we construct and define ourselves; one of the most integral is language.
Celebrating Supercute: Hello Kitty Gets a Retrospective
LOS ANGELES — The retrospective: it’s standard fare in the museum world, a survey of an artist’s work over some stretch of her career. In Los Angeles, however, I’m not sure if there’s such a thing as “standard fare.”
At SITE Santa Fe, Landscapes Unsettled and in Motion
SANTA FE — Unsettled Landscapes, the first installment of SITElines, SITE Santa Fe’s reimagined model for how biennials are conceived, curated, and structured, is a conglomeration of art from the Americas.
The Life and Death of an Exhibition
LOS ANGELES — It’s a rare opportunity to be present at the birth of an exhibition as well as the death of one. It affords the prospect of seeing how the same group of artworks can shift greatly in meaning, beauty, and cohesion based on the varying location and curation of an exhibition.
Revisiting Steve McQueen’s Early Work
LOS ANGELES — In a city whose name is synonymous with the motion picture industry, it’s common for the worlds of film and art to collide. It’s less common, however, for them to collide in a way that’s critical and not simply flirting with the idea of celebrity.
A First Look at the New SITE Santa Fe Biennial
SANTA FE — At this point it’s hard to keep track of which type of art event there are more of: art fairs or biennials. There are art fairs that look like biennials, biennials that look like art fairs, triennials, pop-ups, and everything in between. But the trope of the biennial has long been a fixture in the art world.