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The Artist's Real Intentions: A Comic Strip
Artist Lauren Purje has a humorous — and spot on — take on what many artists may possibly intend.
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At the Intersection of Art and Factory Work
LOS ANGELES — The image of the Chinese manufacturing plant is quickly becoming a 21st century icon of production, just as the car plants of Fordism were in the 20th century and Victorian coal mines were during the Industrial Revolution. They're frequently portrayed as sites of high efficiency, but r
Art
Are Residencies Relevant? An Exploration in Nature
Often the role of an artist is simply to disrupt and create a perceptual shift. This past April, I was invited to participate in a residency program where the studios were on the outskirts of a small town, scattered among a forest. The residency promoted its relationship between artists, nature and
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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Out of the Blue: Philip Glass, Robert Wilson and “Einstein on the Beach”
Of all the celebrations honoring Philip Glass on his 75th birthday, the exhibition Robert Wilson/Philip Glass: Einstein on the Beach at the Morgan Library & Museum is probably the most modest, but it is one of the most magical. It is also arguably the most in keeping with the stripped-down aesthetic
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Flying Blind: de Kooning’s “Closed-Eye” Drawings
There are 24 charcoal drawings now on display at the Museum of Modern Art that Willem de Kooning did with his eyes closed. This was not an uncommon thing for de Kooning, who often liked to close his eyes, or avert his eyes, or use them to watch TV while he drew. This may sound like a gimmick, or som
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Visiting the Reykjavik Art Museum's Hafnarhus
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — There are three main buildings that comprise the Reykjavik Art Museum but because of my limited time in the Icelandic capital, I chose to visit Hafnarhu, as it houses the most contemporary selection of all three. The building from the outside is rather bland, except for the awni