One thing that comes across in the drawings of Rackstraw Downes is the austere, almost monastic life he has lived in order to make art.
John Yau
John Yau has published books of poetry, fiction, and criticism. His latest poetry publications include a book of poems, Further Adventures in Monochrome (Copper Canyon Press, 2012), and the chapbook, Egyptian Sonnets (Rain Taxi, 2012). His most recent monographs are Catherine Murphy (Rizzoli, 2016), the first book on the artist, and Richard Artschwager: Into the Desert (Black Dog Publishing, 2015). He has also written monographs on A. R. Penck, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol. In 1999, he started Black Square Editions, a small press devoted to poetry, fiction, translation, and criticism. He was the Arts Editor for the Brooklyn Rail (2007–2011) before he began writing regularly for Hyperallergic. He is a Professor of Critical Studies at Mason Gross School of the Arts (Rutgers University).
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A “Boobs-Eye View” and Other Perspectives on the Body
In Danica Lundy’s paintings it seems that I can see two places at once, inside and outside my body.
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Jenny Dubnau Captures a Momentary Encounter
With her portraits, Jenny Dubnau seems to be drawn to that psychologically charged instant of the momentary encounter.
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Asako Tabata Paints a World Between Reality and Imagination
The subject running through all of Tabata’s works is the meeting place of one’s inner and outer life, of psychic states and outward responsibility, and the different frictions that can arise in that gap.
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David Diao’s Long Search for Painting’s Many Identities
One key to understanding Diao’s art is that he has long worked with a reductive geometric vocabulary, while always pushing back against any of postmodernism’s reductive narratives.
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Byron Kim Plumbs the Depths of Nature and the Imagination
Despite all we know about the environment and what we are doing to it, Kim arrives at another, less palatable realization: As much as we call the Earth our home, we are strangers here.
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“Creative Seeing” in the Paintings of Elmer Bischoff and Tom Burckhardt
Bischoff and Burckhardt questioned assumptions and conventions regarding abstraction and how we apprehend it. In fact, their questioning is what makes this a fruitful pairing.
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Brenda Goodman’s Fearless Self-Portraits
While I have seen Goodman’s self-portraits numerous times, the unlikely combination of raw pathos and tenderness always stops me in my tracks.
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Walking for Art
The visual stutter of Mary Lum’s artwork invites us to enunciate the staccato repetitions of sounds we hear and see when we walk through the city.
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Hannah Lee’s Dreamlike Realism
Being bowled over by an unknown artist’s first one-person show does not happen often but when it does, it renews your faith that the art world is not just about buzz and hype.
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Robert Gober Looks Into Our Heart of Darkness
In his new works, Gober pulled me into another world, one that was both illuminated by natural light and full of cold shadows.
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Something Is Not Right With The World
Alexi Worth’s paintings demand a double take that allows viewers to look closer and begin dissembling the painting in order to understand what is being looked at.