Art
The Need for More Complex Exhibitions on Lesbian Visual Culture
I was excited to see Lesbian Matters — as we truly are in desperate need of exhibitions dealing with lesbian visual culture — but I was saddened by its lack of complexity.
Review
Art
Enter Thierry Mugler's Seductive World of Counter-Culture Fashions
What does the French designers back catalogue say about his tendency to clothe celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Cardi B?
Art
Erasing the Binaries that Attempt to Contain Our Bodies
The body glistens. It is naked. It is torqued so that the face faces one bearing and the belly and genitalia faces the opposite. The translucent surface that skins the figure gleams wet.
Books
Layering Vintage Slides to Create Strange New Narratives
Artist Ian Trask delved into a collection of thousands of 35mm slide photographs to juxtapose the found imagery into surreal scenes.
Art
Photographs Enliven the Public and Historic Spaces of an Indian City
This year's Chennai Photo Biennale is spread across the city, with many heritage sites providing layered historical contexts and compelling physical backdrops.
Books
Why Landscape Painting Is Thriving in the 21st Century
Art critic Barry Schwabsky's new book presents a global survey of contemporary landscape painting.
Film
A New Film Charts the Spread of “Ferrante Fever”
What accounts for the wild success of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels? In a 70-minute film, literary luminaries from the US and Italy survey the mysterious author's cultural impact.
Books
America's Racist War on Drugs Explored in Comics
Philadelphia cartoonist Box Brown examines marijuana — where it came from, its life in the US, and, importantly, the breathless national campaign to demonize a certain segment of its users.
Film
A Rare Opportunity to See a Movie Written by Jean-Paul Sartre
Rarely seen and essentially inaccessible to those based in the US, 1947's Les jeux sont faits is getting a not-to-be-missed screening in Los Angeles.
Books
A New Biography Paints a Colorful Portrait of Bauhaus Founder Walter Gropius
In Walter Gropius: Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus, author Fiona MacCarthy attempts to debunk the myth that the German pioneer of modernist architecture is somehow an unsexy subject for biographical study.
Art
Dazzlingly Morbid, Hand-Painted Film Posters from 1980s Ghana
The often surreal or disturbing posters were commissioned by mobile video clubs to advertise roving screenings.
Art
Using Humor, Food, and Femininity, Bobby Baker Creates an Art of Domesticity
Baker's work utilizes food, families, and femininity to tell stories about women's imposed invisibility, and turns them into artwork.