Film
In Vox Lux, Pop Music Is a Shield Against Contemporary Horrors
Natalie Portman stars as a pop star who survived a school shooting in director Brady Corbet's new film about the desensitizing powers of idol worship.
Review
Art
My Memories of Watching Roz Chast Draw in Junior High
The future New Yorker cartoonist sat in front of me in class at Brooklyn’s Ditmas Junior High School. She was the class brain, and loved to draw.
Art
How Fascism Complicates the Beauty of Italian Postwar Photography
NeoRealismo: The New Image in Italy, 1932–1960 presents an intricate survey on how photography changed (or didn't) during Italy's transition from Fascism to democratic capitalism.
Art
Photographs of Beirut’s Abandoned Houses, Decades After the Civil War
For seven years, Gregory Buchakjian has surveyed and photographed Beirut’s deserted buildings, memorializing a vanishing urban landscape and the lives that intersected with it.
Art
Leaving Cynicism Aside to Take a Fresh Look at Detroit
For Ryan Standfest to give off a defeatist vibe in the face of adversity is nothing new, but for him to use humor as a coping mechanism rather than a distancing device is refreshing.
Art
A Visual Alphabet for an Oral Language from the Ivory Coast
The Bété people did not have a writing system for their spoken language, so Frédéric Bruly Bouabré created one and used it to describe the scenes in his artworks.
Art
Jeffrey Gibson’s Futurist Gaze
In a word, Gibson’s work is anticipatory — imagining who we humans might become when we truly begin to fill out the contours of our expansive humanity.
Art
When "Outliers" and "Outsiders" Are No Longer Useful Categories in Art
Inherent in the show Outliers and American Vanguard Art is a kind of subtle hierarchy among artists, even if the curator has tried to delimit its force.
Art
Stories of an Assyrian King and What Became of His Empire
A new exhibition at the British Museum underscores the material remains associated with the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, and their display alludes to Britain’s long and fraught history with Iraq.
Art
The Late Robert Morris’s Final, Political Exhibition
Morris, who died last week, left us with this intelligent, stimulating, and typically open-ended show.
Art
The Potent Realism of Robert Pruitt’s Black Portraiture
Pruitt unexpectedly makes draftsmanship feel relevant, even urgent.
Art
The 2018 Turner Prize Focuses on Video Art in Political Times
The 2018 edition of the provocative prize is dedicated to digital art, exploring queer identity, racial violence, and the Israel-Palestine conflict through video art.