Hrag Vartanian is editor-at-large, founding editor, and co-founder of Hyperallergic.
![Maine Gov Removes Labor Dept Mural for Being Pro-Labor [UPDATE]](/content/images/size/w600/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/03/mainemural-291.jpg)
News
The Portland Press-Herald is reporting that Maine's labor leaders believe their Republican governor's decision to remove a pro-labor mural from the state's Department of Labor is "political payback" and "a spiteful, mean-spirited move by the governor that does nothing to create jobs or improve the M
Art
About a month ago, I went to my home mailbox to retrieve, well, my mail and lamented that all I ever receive via snail mail is bills, solicitations for donations, wedding invitations and junk mail. More interesting or personal mail never comes through snail mail anymore — courier, sometimes, email,
Opinion
For tonight's Triangle Arts Association benefit at Beacon restaurant in midtown Manhattan, artist William Powhida submitted this wry drawing of his thoughts about some of the city's art critics.
Opinion
This week … what makes an artist a professional, taking Rirkrit Tiravanija's relational aesthetics for a joyride, Jan Gossaert at the Nat'l Gallery, post-Katrina New Orleans, a history of title design in cinema, stereoscopic pics as GIFs, Eli Broad's art collection, Google Street View as art & in Ch
News
On March 17, artist Meredith Allen (1964-2011) passed away after a three year battle with cancer. We've reproduced an image from her popular Melting Ice Pops series that, Ed Winkleman (Winkleman Gallery) writes, are "addictively sensuous images [that] became Meredith's break-out series and are inclu
![Should We Kill the Traditional Art Review? [UPDATED w tweets]](/content/images/size/w600/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/03/bushbinladen2-home.jpg)
Art
A few weeks ago, I ran into artist William Powhida who started to tease me that I don't really write many art reviews anymore. I got a little defensive but after thinking about it, I realized he was right. The reason? I have lost faith in the art review as the best way to communicate ideas in and ab
Interview
On Wednesday, I wrote about two painting shows (Kristine Moran & Gianna Commito) that I felt shared an aesthetic connection. Today, I wanted to draw your attention to two sculpture shows on Ludlow Street by two artists who I've been following for years, Joy Curtis and Rachel Beach. Both artists make
News
The Star-Tribune has the story of how Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota purchased a treasure trove of American art accumulated by dance legend Merce Cunningham. The stash "includes at least 150 major objects and perhaps thousands of smaller items," according to the newspaper.
News
Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities has released the final list of the historic objects that have gone missing from the Egyptian Museum since the January 25th revolution began … while in Spain, a museum finds a van Dyck in its basement.
Art
Serendipity often plays a role in gallery going. Occasionally you come across two shows at unrelated galleries that suggest a connection that couldn't possibly have been planned. You could argue such occurences have the makings of a zeitgeist, but sometimes they are simply coincidences that reveal c
Opinion
First, it was blogs [http://hyperallergic.com/17238/everything-is-an-art-fair/], now our bathrooms. I'm guessing Helguera was thinking about The Dependent art fair when he sketched this one. 16 Miles of String has a few good shots of the bathroom installations [http://www.16miles.com/2011/03/depende
![Hitting Graffiti & Street Artists Where it Hurt$ [UPDATE: Smear Arrested]](/content/images/size/w600/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/03/smear-home.jpg)
Opinion
In what may be the most original tactic by a city to deter street artists and graffiti writers from using public space as free advertising, Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich is seeking a court injunction to bar street artist Cristian Gheorghiu from profiting from art bearing his telltale "t