Creative types are an untapped group of exciting potential political candidates who are equipped with the lived and professional experience that would benefit public service and policy.
Art and Politics
The New Urgency of Jacob Lawrence
The discussion used MoMA’s current Jacob Lawrence exhibition as a jumping-off point for considering a plethora of intersections between art, politics, and social justice.
After a Call for Change, Artists Respond
What kind of painting do you make in the face of the killing of an unarmed civilian by a police officer? What type of drawing sums up the pain of more than a century of institutional racism?
Crossing Brooklyn, Without Leaving the Safe Parts
Let’s begin with the obvious: to attempt a comprehensive exhibition of contemporary art from across Brooklyn would be not only impossible but foolish, a kind of Tower of Babel of artistic practice. And so the Brooklyn Museum’s eagerly awaited Crossing Brooklyn is not a sweeping survey but a tight, thematic show, focused mostly on one specific type of art making manifest throughout the borough.
#BlackLivesMatter vs #ArtBasel
MIAMI BEACH — Unsurprisingly, the best expression of the cognitive dissonance I’m once again feeling — living simultaneously in the real world and the art world, which feel so frustratingly far apart — comes in the form of a tweet.
I Am Joe Scanlan
Now that the Whitney Biennial is over and the critical debate around it has subsided, I feel it’s time to put this project to rest: I created Joe Scanlan.
Sydney Biennale Cuts Ties with Transfield as Chairman Resigns (UPDATED)
The Biennale of Sydney will end its relationship with major sponsor Transfield Holdings, and Biennale Chairman Luca Belgiorno-Nettis has resigned, the Guardian reports. The moves come in response to a growing boycott of the exhibition over its link with Transfield.
Whitney Biennial 2014: Where Have All the Politics Gone?
The 2014 Whitney Biennial has many things: oversized ceramics, big abstract and figurative paintings, experimental jazz, videos of people having sex, and bead curtains. What it doesn’t have all that much of is politics.
NYC Sculpture Park Places Fence Around ‘Controversial’ Artwork [UPDATED]
A work on view in Socrates Sculpture Park’s Emerging Artist Fellowship exhibition has been surrounded by a tall wood fence after some Queens residents complained that it was lewd and inappropriate, the New York Times reports.
Pussy Riot Members Could Be Freed Under Russian Amnesty Bill
The Russian Parliament has passed an amnesty bill that should send the two members of Pussy Riot still serving prison sentences home, the AP reports.
Reexamining Picasso’s Politics
Legend has it that Pablo Picasso was a lifelong Communist. But, as it turns out, it was more complicated than that.
A Preliminary Art Readers’ Guide to the NYC Mayoral Race
After 12 long years filled with bike lanes and billion-dollar developments, the Bloomberg era is finally drawing to a close. Next Tuesday in the primaries, New Yorkers will take their first steps toward choosing a new mayor. Here’s our guide to how the candidates measure up in terms of the arts.