Art
In Praise of Painting's Ambiguity
The literalism of 1960s Formalism has been replaced by an insistence on the factual, which leaves little room for the imagination or for speculation.
John Yau
John Yau is an award winning poet, critic, curator, and publisher of Black Square Editions. He has published over 50 books of poetry, fiction, and art criticism.
Art
Sculptures on the Cusp of Language
Even as some of her works evoke functional objects, Christina Tenaglia is not interested in parody or citation. Their formal strength sets them in their own domain.
Art
Suburban Visions to Make Your Skin Crawl
Amy Bennett gives us just enough tantalizing visual details to enthrall and mystify, without becoming heavy-handed.
Art
Robert Rauschenberg and the Men on the Moon
Rauschenberg was among the artists invited by NASA to attend the launch of Apollo 11, the spaceflight that landed two Americans on the moon 50 years ago this month.
Art
How T.C. Cannon Redefined American Indian Identity
Cannon's art is not about identity politics, but the layers and contradictions of self-representation in a society that valorizes assimilation and whiteness.
Books
The Unreality of Everyday Life
What makes Ha Seong-nan's Flowers of Mold so powerful is her ability to reveal the almost imperceptible slippage between actual events and the protagonists' perceptions.
Art
Dana Powell and the Pleasures of Restraint
Do not mistake small size of Powell’s paintings for modesty; she wants to draw us in, to make works that can sustain close looking.
Art
Out of Vietnam, Drawings of Displacement and Repression
In Hà Ninh Pham’s drawings, a building could be a prison or a torture chamber, but there is nothing about the edifices that might indicate their function.
Art
Mark Greenwold Looks in the Mirror and Does Not Flinch
Greenwold takes us down the rabbit hole into that place where fear and trembling preside.
Art
The Joan Mitchell You’ve Never Seen
Highly analytical, Mitchell was a master of setting off one form or color against another, advancing the idea that a painting can be made of separate but layered and entangled parts.
Books
A Poet Yearning for Knowledge
Ron Padgett’s poems make me gnash my teeth.
Art
Mosaics of Motherboards, Keyboards, and Wire
Ethiopian artist Elias Sime makes wall sculptures from castoff computer parts that evoke the toxic dumping of these materials around the world.