Opinion
Berkeley's Giant Bonsai Trees
BERKELEY, California — Berkeley's unusually large population of giant Bonsai-like trees has caught my attention since moving from Brooklyn. Why are they here and what do they mean?
Opinion
Opinion
Should Museums Exhibit Bad Art?
BBC Arts Editor and former Tate director Will Gompertz has a piece in the Wall Street Journal this week advocating a curious proposal: museums, he says, should mount shows of bad art.
Opinion
An Escape Pod for the 1%
Wes Heiss’s presentation of "Chariot" at Vox Populi, an artist-run gallery in Philly, is a modest proposal for an uber-wealthy escape pod. Offering all the trappings of a trade show, Heiss’s exhibition convincingly makes a case for protecting oneself from a plebeian demise.
Opinion
Spectacular Living Pictures
Yesterday on my rounds of Chelsea, I stumbled upon three amazing photographs on the walls of Andrew Edlin gallery. Included as part of Collectors of Skies, a wonderfully eclectic if somewhat theoretically abstract group show, each is a photograph of thousands of soldiers brought together to form a l
Opinion
Painted Pigeons: Political Commentary or Pop Street Art?
BERKELEY, California — Artists Julius von Bismark and Julien Charriere have teamed up to create a hilarious installation first in Venice and now in Copenhagen entitled, "Some Pigeons Are More Equal than Others" (2012). The performative work exists on multiple levels: a hanging sculpture (pictured be
Opinion
Vote Picasso for Minister of Art!
CHICAGO — When my wife was completing her mail-in voter ballot for the upcoming US elections, something on the instruction leaflet caught my eye.
Opinion
Designers Give Us 30 Reasons to Re-elect Obama
As if you needed any more: 30 Reasons is a series of campaign posters presenting arguments for the re-election of our incumbent president created by independent designers from across the United States.
Opinion
VIDEO: Ai Weiwei Goes Gangnam Style
With this one, the title pretty much says it all. Ai Weiwei's entire studio has participated in a remake of South Korean rapper PSY's epic global pop hit "Gangnam Style."
Opinion
The Failures (and Some Successes) of Jeffrey Deitch in LA
The insular art world likes its public follies almost as much as Hollywood. We're constantly looking for the latest slip-up, the misspoken press statement or flubbed exhibition. That's why the trials and travails of Jeffrey Deitch as the director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art have be
Opinion
Why You Should Read Sarah Thornton's Top 10 Reasons Not To Write About the Art Market
This doesn't happen very often. It's highly unusual for someone in an industry to critique its inner workings.
Opinion
Required Reading
This week, the difficulty of selling stolen paintings, what art forgers paint in their down time, Picasso's 17 year old lover, the "meaning" of hotels, the state of political art, the lives of the 1%, and more.
Opinion
A Subway Platform Becomes a Front Porch
I've always enjoyed riding the subway impossible distances — out to Coney Island, say, or the Far Rockaways — largely because the cityscape and the scenery change so much along the way. Traveling out to the ends of various lines transports you away from the New York City you know.