Books
Barry Schwabsky Values the Viewer in His New Book of Essays
In The Observer Effect: On Contemporary Painting, Schwabsky’s readable and often chirpy essays philosophically examine what painting is and can become through an observer’s encounter.
Review
Art
How a Team of Curators Is Reorienting Western Expectations Around Chinese Art and Identity
For the Allure of Matter exhibition the curators propose "Material Art" as a useful, retroactive designation of art that has existed in China since the 1980s and continues today.
Film
A Portrait of Imelda Marcos, the Notorious Wife of a Filipino Dictator
Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield talks to Hyperallergic about her documentary The Kingmaker.
Books
A Kuwaiti Artist Photographs Women in the Intimate Sanctuary of Their Bedrooms
With her latest photography book, Maha Alasaker offers an authentic glimpse into the daily lives of Kuwaiti women, untainted by orientalist prejudice.
Art
An Artist Paints Love and Life in Maputo, Mozambique
Drawn from archival photographs, memories, and imagination, Cassi Namoda's family portraits emanate warmth and comfort.
Film
A New Film Series Teases Out the Complex History of Black Heroines On Screen
“Each film in the series, in its own way, provides a more authentic connection to Black women's expression, stories and experiences,” said Dara Ojugbele, one of the curators of the two-week program at MoMA.
Art
An Artist Finds Inspiration in a Novel Suppressed Under Stalin
Irena Haiduk materializes the fictional spaces in Mikhail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, imbuing them with her own imagination and creating the alternative realities Bulgakov’s Stalinist government so feared.
Art
Juanita McNeely's Paintings Bare Pain and Resilience In Equal Measure
Looking at McNeely’s work through the lens of pain is almost inevitable, but it was a feat of strength for McNeely to paint some of these canvases at all, as doctors insisted she would never work at such a scale again.
Film
Bernie Sanders's Little-known Time as a Filmmaker
During the '70s and '80s, Sanders produced educational materials about labor issues and history. In 1979, he directed a short documentary about his political hero, which is available on YouTube.
Art
An Artist Examines Immigration Through Traces Left Behind
Jessica Segall’s work displays the physical vestiges of asylum-seekers’ journeys, but with no real evidence of the individual.
Art
Searching for a City’s Spirit at the Lahore Biennale
Amid works by international artists and local projects focused on other Pakistani cities, I kept wondering where is Lahore?
Music
The Electronic Symphonies of Video Game Scores
I haven’t played the game Death Stranding, but I know one thing: The score, composed by Ludvig Forssell for prepared piano, synthesizer, and found percussion, is beautiful.