Art
Tricks and Trade of 19th-Century Magic in Houdini's Digitized Scrapbooks
Through the recently digitized scrapbooks of Harry Houdini, you can be transported to the world of 19th-century magic, an era of deception and curiosity about the unknown.
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Whitney Biennial 2014: Michelle Grabner on the Fourth Floor
During the opening remarks for the 2014 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Chief Curator Donna de Salvo said that this year's exhibition was "one biennial with three distinct points of view," so we've decided to explore that diversity in perspectives with three separate photo essays of the Biennial — one per
Art
Two Mythological Creatures Rise from the Castoffs of China's Construction
The myth of the phoenix casting itself into the flames only to rise up stronger is powerful and monumental, with reverberations of self-sacrifice, destruction, hope, and regeneration. In an installation in the nave of Manhattan's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Chinese artist Xu Bing has realized
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Sparkling in the Shadow of Ab-Ex
One of the more intriguing and underappreciated of American art movements is the group called the Indian Space Painters. Seeking an innately American response to Cubism and Surrealism, artists such as Steve Wheeler, Peter Busa, and Robert Barrell began in the late 1930s to combine elements of Native
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A Tiny Red House for the Homeless
One of the hardest steps in surmounting homelessness is in the transition from a shelter to a permanent home, and while many ideas for pop-up temporary housing are manifested in designer dreams, few of those architectural solutions have found widespread implementation.
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'Space Heater' at Harbor Gallery
It wasn’t technically on the list for Beat Nite, but the door was open and the color palette drew me in: orange-y reds, pinkish purples and lavender, warm, welcoming blues and turquoise. The artworks in Space Heater, the group show currently on view at Harbor Gallery, match incredibly well — not usu
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The Academy Award Goes to the Corporate Selfie
PORTLAND, Oregon — The 2014 Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres knows a selfie moment when she sees it. In her second year orchestrating celebrity moments the selfie makes its move into Hollywood in a way that's far more serious than James Franco's self-involved ponderings or Justin Bieber's epic adolescenc
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Rediscovering a Jazz-Age Modernist
Through subtle portraiture and roaring scenes of the Jazz Age, painter Archibald J. Motley Jr. chronicled the diversity and dynamism of the African-American community during the early decades of the 20th century.
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Mel Chin's Media Hacks and Conceptual Beauty
NEW ORLEANS — Considering that one of Mel Chin's most audacious works appeared before an audience of millions on network television over a two-year period, it's curious that he's not more of a household name.
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Brief Interventions with Hideous Men
Oscar Wilde was suspicious of men in suits. He once famously remarked that "with an evening coat and a white tie, even a stock broker can gain a reputation for being civilized."
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Thomas McEvilley: And Autumnstruck We Would Not Hear the Song
Everyone talks about working outside the box but most of us don’t even know what box we’re boxed in by so we box ourselves in all the more. The work of Thomas McEvilley not only shows the imaginary fly the way out of actual fly bottles but also shows that preposterous insect how to get back in.
Art
Receivers and Transmitters: Michelle Segre’s Recent Sculpture
In Michelle Segre’s sculpture “Self-Reflexive Narcissistic Supernova” (2013), a mushroom cap — made of wax and five feet in diameter — lies on its side in a provocative position evoking a horn, ear, and vagina — a form that receives and/or transmits.