If Artists Mapped the World
Three shows unravel the politics of cartography. Also, why does a new Messi statue look like … that?
Can artists counter-map the world? Today, Venezuelan writer Clara Maria Apostolatos explores how artists subvert the fraught practices of cartography from the inside out. As relief efforts following last week’s deadly earthquakes lay bare the politics of intervention in Latin America, Apostolatos draws our attention to the quietly rebellious work of Venezuelan conceptual artist Claudio Perna, Chicano artist Sandy Rodriguez, and Dominican artist Firelei Báez, who embrace maps as a way to destabilize the truths we think we know.
Meanwhile, in Upstate New York, artist Steel Stillman and many others mourn the closure of Nancy Shaver’s beloved store, and Taliesin Thomas catches up with the artists who participated in Upstate Art Weekend — from an art show in a stable to a protest exhibition comprised entirely of chairs.
Further down the river, New York City showed out for Pride as virulent legislation takes aim at trans and queer communities. Photographer Arielle Shannon captured some of the intimate, joyous moments at the sweltering parade through Manhattan.
Finally, a new sculpture of soccer legend Lionel Messi has landed in Argentina. It’s phallic, it’s 85 feet tall, and, as Staff Writer Rhea Nayyar explains, it’s the subject of some truly incredible memes. I’ll let you see them for yourself.
—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor
The Artists Countermapping the World
Maps appear objective, yet they are built from choices that frame a particular view of the world. They are doubly instructional in the knowledge they share and in the ways they orient the viewer, offering a surface on which land appears ordered, bounded, and knowable. A run of recent exhibitions in New York of the works of late Venezuelan conceptual artist Claudio Perna, Chicano artist Sandy Rodriguez, and Dominican artist Firelei Báez brings that charged surface into focus across generations of artists who take up cartography’s capacity for orientation and put it to work otherwise: turning maps from tools of classification into frameworks for examining movement, memory, and power. | Clara Maria Apostolatos
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Lucid Perturbations: The Sewn Drawings and Books of China Marks
This exhibition at Zane Bennett Contemporary Art marks the first major solo exhibition of the artist’s hypnagogic artworks.
News
- The world's tallest Lionel Messi statue was unveiled in the Patagonian town of Cutral Có. Featuring a crotch-level and rather phallic World Cup trophy, the sculpture immediately caused a stir online.
- A Texas tattoo artist has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for moving a box of political pamphlets and zines featuring “anti-government and anti-Trump sentiments,” prompting outrage from First Amendment advocates.
Photo Essay
See Photos From a Sweltering, Joyous NYC Pride March
I joined more than 75,000 marchers and one million spectators on Sunday, June 28, to document the parade on Stonewall’s 57th anniversary. | Arielle Shannon
Read MoreUpstate New York
At Upstate Art Weekend, Cars and Barns Are Galleries
During the seventh annual event, hundreds of artists proved that art has never been confined to “white cube” galleries. | Taliesin Thomas
Read MoreNancy Shaver’s Beloved Store in Hudson to Close After 30 Years
For many, Henry is a lot more than just another Upstate New York antiques shop. | Steel Stillman
Read MoreMember Comment
If you, dear reader, support artist resale royalties, please write your own Representatives and Senators. Our elected officials most easily grasp what matters to us when we tell them.
Jozanne Rabyor on “Who Will Fight for Artists’ Rights in Congress?”
From the Archive
Did Auguste Rodin Steal From Camille Claudel?
What went so wrong that the brilliant sculptor’s work became so little known? Simply put, she entered Rodin’s studio. | Mary Sherman
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