Hrag Vartanian is editor-at-large, founding editor, and co-founder of Hyperallergic.
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]](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/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
News
The New York Observer has a report about the recent New York art auctions and it lists who the author thinks are some of the winners and losers … In other news, BBC announced that China just became the second biggest auction market in the world.
News
On Sunday, Murakami issued a statement [http://ameblo.jp/geisai-net/entry-10830268183.html] in the wake of the devastating Sendai earthquake in Japan asking people to show their support of Japan by tweeting original art with the hashtag, #newday_GEISAI.
![Required Reading [UPDATED]](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/size/w600/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/03/rbkitaj-ashbery-home.jpg)
Opinion
This week on Required Reading … responses by William Powhida and Tom Moody to two Hyperallergic posts, poet Elizabeth Bishop's other art, John Ashbery on R. B. Kitaj, a conservative's opinion on street art, contemporary art as Mannerism and megalomaniac Zahi Hawass interviews himself …
Art
I encountered a street work by artist NohJColey in Williamsburg last week. Like all strong street art pieces, it forced me to stop and look closely. The attention to detail, its use of diverse textures and materials and its complex method of storytelling, which is more impressionistic than narrative
Interview
On February 11, the first major retrospective of the work of the world-renowned Canadian art collective General Idea opened at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris with 300 objects, and I took the opportunity to interview AA Bronson about General Idea and his thoughts on the group.
Opinion
In 1977, a postmodernist theorist wrote that the destruction of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St. Louis was "the day Modern architecture died." The idea was parroted by others as a convenient way to mark the end of something that they wanted to see as a failure, namely Modern architecture. Ente
News
Remember one of Banksy's recent pieces in Southern California titled "This Looks A Bit Like An Elephant," which was removed and is now for sale. Well, according to Vandalog, Tachowa Covington (aka Rollerball) has lived inside the tank for about seven years. He says that he saw Banksy paint the tank
Opinion
Zakka in DUMBO has an assortment of art-related books, materials and other fun things related to J-pop, but I was after the art in the gumball machines at the back of the store. For $3 you get an Old Master … talk about sweet
Art
There are only four days left to support a very unique street art project that will create a multi-faceted street art exhibition at the former Donnell Library on 53rd Street in midtown Manhattan, which is across the street from MoMA. In an era where street art and graffiti is becoming increasingly s