Art
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young AI
An LED display loops a message in Lawrence Lek's installation, which prompts the question “inside the game, can anybody tell the difference between art and the world?”
Review
Books
A Compendium of Places with Sad Names, from Despair Island to Mount Hopeless
For Triste Tropique, Topographies of Sadness, Damien Rudd sought out the world's glummest-sounding spaces.
Art
Painterly Visions of Being All Too Human
At best, All Too Human shows well known artists at an intriguing new angle and revisits lesser known names, but at worst makes some perplexing curatorial choices which defy its own set of rules, stretching relevance through some optimistic inclusions.
Art
Looking Back on William Hawkins, the Outsider Artist Who Became Wildly Popular in His 80s
There is this sense, in looking at Hawkins's bold and humorous paintings, of returning to something one has always known.
Art
Deciphering Inka Essenhigh’s Blurred Visions
Essenhigh reveals a freedom that resonates with all manner of fusion: of figure and design, of abstraction and narrative, of sentiment and humor, and more generally, of ambitious painting with a readable narrative.
Art
Maren Hassinger’s Poetic Gestures for Dealing with the Painful Past and Present
"If you are of African descent and your ancestors were part of the slave trade, you have issues which are alive today.”
Art
Tripping Across the Lines Between Physical and Virtual Reality with Laurie Anderson
Spending time in Laurie Anderson's “The Chalkroom” reminded me of Terry Gilliam’s film, Time Bandits, where what seems like an endless landscape is revealed to be a mirror when someone breaks it.
Art
Columbia University MFA Students Put on a Strong Thesis Show Despite Department Woes
Students of the 2018 MFA class are presenting strong work at the Wallach Art Gallery, many of them building large installations around their pieces.
Art
Casting Sculptures from the Human Body's Natural Voids
The connection to between Lauren Kalman’s specific body and the process she has undergone to produce these objects is laid out in graphic terms.
Art
The Dark, Unruly Brilliance of a Master of Art Informel
Jean Fautrier was a subtle, solitary, strange, serene, and even severe French painter who experienced a good deal of suspension in his saw-tooth-shaped career.
Art
An Imagined Feminist Art School in the Amazon Jungle
Mariángeles Soto-Díaz has created a detailed archive for this imaginary school, which centers indigenous and feminist perspectives.
Film
How and Why Art Became "Degenerate" in Nazi Germany
Narrated in Italian by actor Toni Servillo and directed by Claudio Poli, the film somewhat drowsily recounts the madness of the Nazi’s quest to first sanitize, and then steal the art of Europe.