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.
John Yau
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.
Art
Two Women in a Man’s Art World
You are not likely to find the work of Mimi Gross and Marcia Marcus in the permanent collections of any major New York City museum. I find that both predictable and troubling.
Art
How Do Artists Get Into the Whitney Biennial?
I made a spreadsheet to find out what the participants in the Whitney Biennial have in common.
Art
A Disruptor of Race and Sex
In a time when many artists are content to establish one-to-one correspondences between signifier and signified, sign and meaning, Wardell Milan’s ambiguity is refreshing.
Art
George Miyasaki's Non-Western American Painting
In writing about artists of Asian descent I have repeatedly bumped up against codified prejudices in both the art and literary world.
Art
The Secret Paintings of a Hermetic Filmmaker
Jordan Belson wanted the viewer to see only what was in front of his or her face — to scrutinize his paintings from up close.
Art
Discovering an Unknown Sculptor, 30 Years After His Death
During the past decade, many neglected artists have been reconsidered; this cannot be said for Leo Amino.
Art
Excavating the Radical Roots of Abstract Painting
With each new exhibition, it becomes more apparent that Don Voisine is adding his own earned options to the legacy of geometric abstraction.
Art
Minor Master or Master of the Minor?
One reason Joe Brainard made so many small works was to convey that modesty and ambition were not mutually exclusive.
Art
Photographing the Bloody Cost of Resistance
Between 1968 and 1981, when he turned 13, Khiang H. Hei was at or near the epicenter of several catastrophic historical events reverberating across Southeast Asia.