Books
The Little-Seen World of Demolition Derbies
The shirtless, sweating men splayed across and against car hoods and dashboards in Derby convey a sense of bonded brotherhood and physical intimacy.
Review
Film
Good Madam Is a South African Horror Film Haunted by Whiteness
Jenna Cato Bass’s film is a reckoning both for her and all the clueless white children who never thought about the Black women who served them.
Art
Joan Mitchell, a Brilliant Painter and Contrarian at Heart
If painting was Mitchell’s sickness, it was also her salvation.
Art
An Artist's Embroideries Reflect the Complexity and Interconnectedness of Queer New York
What struck me most about LJ Robert's Carry You With Me is the way in which it depicts some of the complexity of queer New York.
Art
Faced With a Complex Sense of Home, Jagdeep Raina Turns to Art
“I’ve always felt that home is a fraught place which is constantly going through ruptures,” says Jagdeep Raina.
Film
New Anthony Fauci Documentary Shows Why His Hero Image Is Flawed
Fauci is not quite a hagiography of “America’s doctor,” but it comes close. It ignores or twists the flaws in his responses to both AIDS and COVID-19.
Art
An Exhibition That Helps Us Rethink Our Relationship to Facebook
The main aim of the show is to offer a creative, clever perspective on the reasons behind the alienated and addicted relationship we sustain with social media platforms.
Books
A History of Motherhood Through Design
Designing Motherhood includes over 100 objects spanning medical devices to depictions of laboring women in films.
Art
Cloaked in Power and the Tutored Gaze, the Medici Portraits at the Met
My sense is that people come to this museum and this show wanting to learn other histories by having their way of looking tutored and trained.
Art
A Group Exhibition in Iceland Trades Local Character for International Appeal
Many of the works in Iðavöllur are big and chock-full of issues and socially engaged ideas, like so much art elsewhere.
Film
As a Mockumentary About Celebrity, Nowhere Inn Just Bores
In this film about stardom, the viewer has nowhere to appreciate and connect with the characters and concepts.
Art
The Democracy of Abstraction
Thomas Nozkowski believed that each person’s experience of the everyday was fundamentally unique and set out to honor that in his work.