Art
A Conceptual Artist Pays Homage to Surrealist Claude Cahun’s Performance of Identity
A Gillian Wearing exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery puts her work in dialogue with her largely forgotten Surrealist inspiration.
Review
Art
Why Irving Penn’s Portraits Are His Most Compelling Photographs
Irving Penn’s retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art traces his career in fashion and portrait photography from 1943 to 2008.
Books
Eerie Photographs of Solitary Cars in 1970s New York
Cars: New York City, 1974–1976 collects 115 photographs by Langdon Clay of cars both beautiful and battered in the nighttime.
Art
The Political Problems of the Contemporary “Flâneur”
An exhibition at the Barnes Foundation uses the theme of the contemporary flânuer to draw connections to its 19th-century collection, but the concept is deeply muddled.
Art
Paintings that Become More Dynamic When Viewed Through a Screen
It wasn’t until I began to look through the lens of my camera that I started to actually see this show’s form.
Art
Democracy's Dark Side and a Glimmer of Hope in Mark Bradford’s Venice Biennale Show
In the US Pavilion, the artist’s work takes on a new context: wrestling with the hypocrisy of Jeffersonian democracy.
Art
Women Artists Rewrite Myths About Periods
Period., a multimedia exhibition on view at Rojas + Rubensteen Projects, challenges common misconceptions about menstruation and women's bodies.
Art
An Artist Examines the Rise of New European Nationalism
At MoMA PS1, Tomáš Rafa examines the rising tide of xenophobic nationalism in Europe.
Art
Post-Internet Artists Crack Open Our Technological Past
A group show at Paris’s Galerie Charlot uses bygone tools and techniques to explore modern media.
Film
In the Run-Up to Its Return, Revisiting Other Roles by the Actors of Twin Peaks
BAMcinématek's series showcases cast members’ most memorable roles outside the show, crossing decades and genres.
Art
The Lost Sights and Sounds of Storyville, New Orleans’s Red Light District
Through guidebooks and rare artifacts, the New Orleans Historic Collection considers the complicated legacy of Storyville, the city's former red light district.
Film
The Macabre Painter Behind the Alien Movies
With Ridley Scott's prequel Alien: Covenant being released this week, it's worth revisiting the documentary on the painter H.R. Giger, who inspired the series' aesthetic.