Books
When Amazon recommends literary selections I might be interested in, I usually do a quick scan of the offerings, decide I can’t afford to splurge on assorted art books and delete the email. But once in a while something catches my eye. Not too long ago, among the artist bios, museum catalogs and cri
Art
Based on Alejandro Zambra's masterful novella, the film Bonsái is a story of love, plants, death and the literature that seamlessly links them all. Bonsái premiered at Cannes to favorable reviews and took the top prize at the Miami Film Festival earlier this year. Directed by the Chilean Cristián Ji
Opinion
There are two entertaining things about watching YouTube videos. The first is the video itself, whether that be a cat playing a keyboard or a musician singing a new tune. The second is the comments and the amazing amount of likes, dislikes and random jabber that appear, especially beneath the most p
Opinion
Although the majority of his books are already some half a century old, Dr. Seuss remains one of the most beloved children's authors and illustrators in American history. I'd bet that most of us, if asked, could name a Dr. Seuss favorite that made a lasting impression (One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blu
Art
I feel naïve to have thought that art offered one of the only scared spaces to be freely expressive. Two weeks ago, I wrote a post that attempted to diplomatically depict the controversial saga that has unfolded over artist Brett Murray’s “The Spear”, a Communist propaganda style portrayal of South
Opinion
Walking through a Duane Reade the other day looking for a snack, I stumbled across this Keith Haring Baby Bib by Bumkins.
Opinion
This week, the Corcoran Museum considers a move to the 'burbs, Caribbean art in New York, a guide to the Serpentine pavilions, Gavras's "disingenuous, superficial, irresponsible" video for Kanye & Jay-Z and more.
Books
Poems often groan beneath their encumbrances: weighty metaphors, top-heavy conceits. Which is why I like it when Michael O’Brien, in his most recent book Avenue (FloodEditions), writes of a poem being merely “certain words in / a certain order.” This stripped-down formulation courts a charge of bana
Art
I have been a Sven Lukin fan since 1970, when I first saw "Untitled" (1969) in one of the concourses running under the Empire State Plaza in Albany. Made for, and located in, a long recessed area — and playfully hovering between flatness and volume, the pictorial and the sculptural — Lukin’s "Untitl
Performance
On my way to the Joyce SoHo last Wednesday, while thinking about David Gordon’s 50th anniversary — and realizing that, while he has been making work for five decades, I would be seeing it live for the first time that night — I got to wondering: What does Gordon, renowned for resisting any sort of ti
Art
Sue Coe has called the art world “a zipped-up body bag of what they call culture.” Thinking about the troubling and troubled work of this extravagantly gifted artist, I found myself circling back to that statement, which is from a 1996 profile written by Steven Heller for Eye Magazine.
Art
At the moment of their retrospectives, which artist is more popular: Cindy Sherman, now at the MoMA, or Damien Hirst at Tate Modern? Let's see what social media has to say on the topic.