Film
The Comic Absurdity of the Atomic Threat
The documentary The Atomic Cafe dissects how American Cold War propaganda directed the country's culture into putting a cheerful, upbeat face on possible apocalypse.
Review
Art
Masks and Rural Life in Gauri Gill's Art
Through paper mâché maskes made by traditional artists in west-central India, Gauri Gill creates a series of stunning photographs on display at MoMA PS1.
Art
Nevin Aladağ, Kimsooja, and Nari Ward Create Visual Metaphors for Migration, Exile, and Belonging
Three artists tackle notions of blended culture and identity in Worlds Otherwise Hidden at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
Art
Searching for Humor in America's Machismo Freefall
Laugh Back's comedic timing is so regrettably tardy that its punchlines about Trumpism and American masculinity fail to land.
Books
Formal Feelings: Anne Waldman's Poetry Explores Feminist Traditions
In Trickster Feminism, Waldman employs a range of poetic forms including chant, the blues refrain, and the prose poem.
Books
Donna Stonecipher, Global Flaneur
With Donna Stonecipher’s work, you never know what the next sentence is going to tell.
Art
Painting in The Age of Anxiety
I have an innate distrust of work that has a whiff of nostalgia drifting off its surface, whether it is for Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, or, further back, Albert Pinkham Ryder.
Art
A Master of the Flesh and Painter of the Soul
Ivan Albright represents a deeply transcendent, even Platonic, idea of the soul, although one could be forgiven for missing it among the mercilessly unglamorous bodies of his figures.
Art
Photography in Search of the Real
Real Worlds invites viewers to consider photography not just as documentation of myriad moments but as a means to more deeply understand lives and interpersonal relationships in Western cities.
Books
Who Really Owns the Elgin Marbles?
However we judge Lord Elgin’s original acquisition of the Parthenon sculptures, it’s easy to wonder whether the Turkish rulers legitimately had the right to allow him to dispose of these artworks.
Art
The Sweet Chaos of the Bay Area's Artistic Heritage
Way Bay visualizes the currents of unbridled creativity that have coursed and flowed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area over the last two centuries.
Books
A Photographer Follows the Urban Migration of China's Rural Trees
In Forest, photographer Yan Wang Preston documents the big business of relocating mature rural trees to the new urban centers of China.