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.
Review
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.
Art
Elderly Models Camouflage With Nature in These Folklore-Inspired Photographs
In Norwegian-Finnish artist duo Karoline Hjorth and Riitta Ikonen's Norse mythology-inspired photographs there's a beauty in old stories, old places, and old people.
Art
An Artist Honors the Overlooked Activism of Black Women
Helina Metaferia's exhibition By Way of Revolution connects histories of protest movements and acknowledges the overlooked labor of women within them.
Art
Six Local Artists Grapple with the Specter of Detroit’s Manufacturing Heritage
An ambiguity between adaptation and transformation hangs over this large exhibition.
Books
How Painting Survives in the Digital Era
In her new book, The Love of Painting: Genealogy of a Success Medium, critic Isabelle Graw ruminates on how painting remains omnipresent within the contemporary capitalist system and digital economy.
Film
Films that Explore How Resentment Shapes Us
On Resentment, a film series opening at BAM on March 20, probes the question: "How does resentment channel our attentions and efforts, and to what ends?"
Film
Hans Op de Beeck Stages Silence
A whimsical fantasia constitutes the film's emotional and intellectual core.
Books
When Will Ralph Eugene Meatyard Get the Retrospective He Deserves?
Meatyard’s use of masks, shadows, abandoned houses, and figures in motion open up a deep and multi-layered place of feeling that we have yet to fully address.