Lessons From a Children’s Art Teacher
Amy Sherald’s solo show breaks attendance records, remembering artists we lost this week, and an exhibition proves critical theory doesn’t have to be a snore.
The world is in desperate need of sensitive, caring art teachers who are as eager to learn as they are to instruct, and Mónica Palma is a shimmering example of just such a teacher. The Mexican-born, Brooklyn-based artist and educator reflects today on the lessons she learned from teaching art to young children.
As some of the hundreds of children at ICE's horrific Dilley detention center in Texas share testimonies this week, I can't stop thinking about one clay workshop she organized for children who had recently migrated from Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. They immediately associated the clay with the dangerous crossing through the jungle to reach the United States. As an educator, Palma followed their lead and allowed the clay to become a medium for working, kneading, and processing memory. "The children were holding two stories in their bodies: one that narrated a harrowing experience, another that cultivated fantasy and joy," she writes.
—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor
Teaching Children Taught Me How to Be an Artist
"When I stopped and studied the way children were using their mouths, I was mesmerized," writes Palma, whose work beautifully explores language, lineage, and memory, often through the use of her own body and mouth. She observed that bites, sounds, licks, and tastings were her students' way of processing and interacting with their surroundings in a way language cannot. It struck her as a principle she could borrow as an artist: "I took that intimacy and revelation with me and brought it into my art."
Vilcek Foundation Awards Five Immigrants $250,000 for Fashion Documentation
Tanya Meléndez-Escalante, Diego Bendezu, Jalan and Jibril Durimel, and Natalie Nudell received the 2026 Vilcek Prizes in Fashion & Culture for their contributions to fashion representation.
News
- Amy Sherald's exhibition American Sublime made headlines last year after the National Gallery of Art reportedly attempted to censor her painting of a Black trans woman. Now, with 63,000 visitors and counting, it's the best-attended show in the history of the Baltimore Museum of Art.
- Photographer Jerry McMillan, a stalwart of the LA art scene and pioneer of photo-sculpture, died on Tuesday at age 89.
- Debra Wimpfheimer was named executive director of the Queens Museum, succeeding Sally Tallant, who held the position for seven years.
From Our Critics
A Surprisingly Enjoyable Show About Critical Theory
Echo Delay Reverb’s exploration of the influence of French critical theory on American art finds inspiration in diasporic thinkers like Frantz Fanon and Aimé Césaire. | Cat Dawson
Naoto Nakagawa 2026 Is on View at KAPOW
The Lower East Side gallery presents new works by an artist who has shown in major US museums since the 1960s. The exhibition is open through February 22.
Art Problems
Should I Sell My Work to People Whose Politics I Hate?
In an art market flush with conservative collectors, it might seem challenging to avoid selling work to patrons with abhorrent politics. But art advice columnist Paddy Johnson explains that artists have more agency than they think to do the right thing. "You might need sales to survive, but any given collector is usually replaceable," she writes in the latest Art Problems.
In Memoriam
Remembering Ted Berger, Christopher White, and Hudson Talbott
This week, we honor a devoted patron of the arts, the director of the Ashmolean, and a beloved children’s book illustrator.
Member Comment
Tati on Adam Broomberg's “Israel’s Plan to Artwash Genocide at the Venice Biennale":
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From the Archive
Arewà Basit on Her Amy Sherald Portrait and Alchemizing Trans Joy
“How people are perceiving me is not my business,” the performance artist and model told Hyperallergic. “What I can do to make the world a better place is my business.” | Ridikkuluz
