News
Octogenarian Restorer Says the Priest Knew What She Was Doing
The caper of the octogenarian restorer continues! And it keeps getting better and better … we'll call this episode: The Priest Knew!
Latest
News
Why Doesn't the UK Want Charles Saatchi's Art Collection?
Well, here's a conundrum you don't face everyday: famed art collector Charles Saatchi wants to donate his collection of contemporary work to his home country, the UK, but they don't seem to want it. (First-world problems!)
Art
Art Rx
This week, a handful of openings and open studios, the Ai Weiwei documentary, old-timey fun at Coney Island and free pet portraits.
Opinion
Exclusive: Octogenarian Restorer Strikes Again!
Remember the infamous 80 year old who "restored" the 19th C. fresco in a Spanish church? Some may think it's a joke, but we think she's a genius. We invited The Punk Restorer™ — we thought she needed rebranding — to shuck away her attempts to restore minor works and tackle masterpieces instead.
Art
Unexpected Sounds of Protest
Sharon Hayes can be a difficult artist to like. Her work often centers around "speech acts," which the wall text in her current exhibition at the Whitney defines as "when speech functions not only as communication but as action." Just beyond that text is an example: a barren area containing only a b
News
Some Italian Americans Call Columbus Project "Disrespectful"
Some of us are really excited about the Public Art Fund's upcoming project Discovering Columbus, for which Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi will construct a living room around the statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Circle. A living room six stories above the street, mind you, bringing visitors no
Art
Midwestern Futurism: The Endangered Legacy of an Avant-garde Architect
"Architect Bruce Goff, one of the few US architects whom Frank Lloyd Wright considers creative, scorns houses that are ‘boxes with little holes'.” So starts a 1951 Life Magazine article on the Ford House in Aurora, Illinois, one of Goff's many astounding and imaginative designs that are some of the
Opinion
Lessons in Radical Art Restoration: What Not to Do 101
In what can only be described as an art conservation nightmare, a 19th C. church fresco in the town of Borja, Spain, by painter Elías García Martínez has been radically "restored" by an octogenarian neighbor.
Art
Skin Deep: Angelica Dass’s Human Pantone Photographs
Humanity’s almost laughable fascination with lighter or darker skins is scrutinized under the camera’s lens by Brazilian photographer Angelica Dass, who has taken over 150 photographs of men and women and matched them — using a 11x11 pixel swatch from their faces — with their corresponding Pantone c
Art
Don't Fuck With My Online Branding
As more of our identities are placed online, what problems may potentially arise? Authorship and branding have never been harder to control.
Art
Three Painting Shows in Chicago
CHICAGO — I had a strong urge to see some painting last weekend, so I decided to see what was showing at some of the commercial gallery spaces in the River North area of Chicago. With the El tracks running overhead, and the solid red-brick ex-industrial buildings, this district is similar in look an
Books
Wisdom Testicles and the Messy Process of Collaboration
At first glance, the exterior of Wisdom Testicles, a collection of collaborative works on paper by three artistic schoolmates, looks to be a relatively unassuming artist book. Setting aside its confusing title for a moment, it has the well-crafted and unique appearance of a handmade book. Smallish i