This year’s biennial was a mash-up of claims and interests that played out in four exhibitions grouped under one umbrella.
Daily Archives: June 2, 2017
The Racist Caricatures of African Soldiers that Soothed French Colonial Anxieties
With a Weapon and a Grin, a new book by Stephan Likosky, traces the iconography used to infantilize African soldiers who fought in the French army during World War I.
Generate Absurd Descriptions for Fictional Artworks
Isabel Kim’s delightful Infinite Artwork Simulator is “a tongue-in-cheek artwork description generator” based on Mira Schor’s musings on “Recipe Art.”
Laughing at the Jokes on Ancient Greek Vases
An exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum showcases the vessels of the so-called Berlin Painter, highlighting the oft-overlooked comedy in Greek ceramics.
A Book Festival in Miami’s Little Haiti Seeks to Empower the Community
The Little Haiti Book Festival, now in its fifth year, is an homage to Haiti’s culture and historical legacy, both past and present.
A Field of Lavender Nourished by Trump’s Tweets
A subterranean field of lavender, planted by Martin Roth in Midtown Manhattan, is nurtured by lights that are largely controlled by the President’s tweets.
A Weeklong Performance Festival Devoted to Surprise
From dance and stand-up comedy to rap and performance art, Movement Research’s spring festival — titled “surprise! surprise(!) surprise/! surprise” — offers a bit of everything from an impressive range of performers.
A Playboy Bunny Navigates the Politics of Dystopia
In a video and performance, artist Monet Clark uses the character of a Playboy Bunny to navigate the Anthropocene, a situation of political pitfalls and environmental catastrophe.
Paintings About the Intersection of Architecture and White Privilege
The emphasis in this series of paintings by Chris Barnard is to highlight the role of institutions of privilege in the perpetuation of racial violence in the United States.
Bringing Canonical Thinkers to Bear on 21st-Century Life
In a new genre-defying book, Jasmine Dreame Wagner subjects her life to critical scrutiny with the help of philosophers, theorists, and artists.
Making Art in Apocalyptic Times
An event at JACK presented five performances dealing with what it means to make art in an age of crisis.
Art Movements
This week in art news: Sam Durant and members of the Dakota Nation agreed to ceremonially burn his Walker Art Center sculpture, activists demanded the removal of a Confederate monument in St. Louis, and the diocese of Málaga chastised street artist Space Invader.