The new documentary Moments Like This Never Last explores how Snow’s bad boy performance became a trap for him.
William Powhida
William Powhida is a G-E-N-I-U-S and habitual critic of the art world. Powhida lives in Bushwick, has a studio in Williamsburg, and exhibits in Chelsea. His home online is here.
Posted inArt
Cowards, Autocrats, and Other Traitors
The stunning candor of George W. Bush’s new paintings establishes his reputation as a 21st-Century Goya, capable of uncovering the humanity in monsters.
Posted inArt
Various Dismal Futures
At the time I made this drawing in July, I was using existing narratives of future dysfunction to begin to consider the unthinkable.
Posted inOpinion
This Is Not Parody. Fuck Trump.
Right-wing political activists tried to fool a Brooklyn gallery into showing their pro-Trump art; they screamed censorship when they were found out. What is this really all about?
Posted inBooks
It’s the Political Economy, Stupid: The Global Financial Crisis in Art and Theory
It’s the Political Economy, Stupid is alternately a depressing, frustrating, and inspiring call to action for the left in the face of the diminishing economic and social returns of global capitalism.
Posted inArt
What Is the Labor of Art Writing? (Part 2)
At one point, Arts & Labor member Blithe Riley, who was in the audience at the round table, made a comment about “freaking out a little.” This highlighted the disconnect between the political and social aspirations of Arts & Labor and the general role of art critics for me.
Posted inArt
What Is the Labor of Art Writing? (Part 1)
Last Thursday night at Housing Works Bookstore, Occupy Wall Street affinity group Arts & Labor organized a panel of New York art writers to discuss the labor of art criticism. Village Voice and New York Times critic Martha Schwendener opened the round table with the question, “What is the labor of writing?” Schwendener and Arts and Labor proposed a discussion about the working conditions of art criticism in an effort to dispel some prevailing myths, which she framed as power, authority, and allure. She then started things off with an open question to the panel about how they became art critics.
Posted inOpinion
Why You Should Read Sarah Thornton’s Top 10 Reasons Not To Write About the Art Market
This doesn’t happen very often. It’s highly unusual for someone in an industry to critique its inner workings.
Posted inArt
Artist Payments at NYC Nonprofits, By the Numbers
As a supplement to “Why Are (Most) Artists (So Fucking) Poor?” here is some of the data from the 2010 W.A.G.E. survey of payments received by artists who exhibited with nonprofit art institutions in New York City between 2005 and 2010.
Posted inArt
Why Are (Most) Artists (So Fucking) Poor?
On Friday evening W.A.G.E. presented the results of its 2010 survey of payments received by artists who exhibited with nonprofit art institutions in New York City between 2005 and 2010. The survey found that 58% of artists who responded received “no form of payment.”
Posted inArt
Dispatch from Sheboygan: Week Three
On Wednesday evening at 6 pm CST I was standing in a domestic violence shelter introducing my project “Everyone We’ve Never Met from Memory and Imagination” to a group of about twenty women. They listened politely as I showed them drawings of people like Gene Simmons, Brittany Spears (Snarling, head shaved), 1950s Elvis vs Vegas Elvis, Martha Stewart, Oprah and shared some of the memories other people had written about the subjects. After I finished the introduction, I passed out some brainstorming worksheets. One woman completed her list almost immediately.