How Dayanita Singh Got Into Venice’s Archives
Also, why would a Romano-Egyptian take Homer into the afterlife?
When the State Archives of Venice opened to the public as an exhibition venue for the first time in its history last week, artist Dayanita Singh wasn’t sure whether people would come. "We couldn't afford PR," she shared with Hyperallergic Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian, noting how she mounted her “photo-pillars” without institutional funding, relying instead on the "friendship economy.” Lo and behold, visitors did come, a testament to Singh’s singular approach to image-making and the living archive. Watch and read Vartanian’s interview with the artist and glimpse into her latest show.
Don’t miss the latest installment of Beer With a Painter with cartoonist-turned-painter Keith Mayerson, and keep an eye out for Hyperallergic’s coverage of NYC’s art fairs coming very soon.
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
How Dayanita Singh Organized a Major Show in Venice Without Institutional Funding
Unmoored from the anchors of deep pockets that often hinder imagination, the artist brought her images of archival documents to an unusual venue in the Italian city. | Hrag Vartanian
Maine College of Art & Design Presents the 2026 MFA Thesis Exhibition
This exhibition showcases the culmination of the graduate candidates’ work in the Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art program at MECA&D.
News
- Rare early Basquiat works from the precipice of the artist's career are included in the upcoming Brooklyn exhibition Our Friend, Jean.
- Hundreds lambast Trump's $7.5 million plan to whitewash the Eisenhower Executive Office Building’s granite exterior.
- Archeologists discovered a papyrus with lines from Homer's Iliad buried with mummified remains in the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus.
Artists Up Close
Maia Chao Performs the Museum
She approaches the museum less as a neutral space than as a structure that quietly trains behavior and participation. | Clara Maria Apostolatos
Beer With a Painter: Keith Mayerson
“I wanted to rip the mask off the signifier and just deal with the signified,” said the cartoonist-turned-painter who depicts a cosmology of American identity and activism. | Jennifer Samet
The Bennett Prize Opens Fifth Call for Entries
Women figurative realist painters can enter to win $75,000 and a traveling solo exhibition. Applications are open through September 19.
Member Comment
Antonio C. Cuyler on Paddy Johnson's "WTF Is an A-Corp?"
From the Archive
The Larger-Than-Life Art of Tamara de Lempicka
Marrying synthetic Cubism with 16th-century Italian Mannerism and the sensuality of Jean-Dominique Ingres, the artist’s work and life seem made for the silver screen. | Bridget Quinn
