Books
The Relics of Victorian Natural History in Eye-Popping Stereoscope
Natural history storerooms are a bit like drowned Noah's Arks, with specimens from every realm of the animal world posthumously preserved.
Review
Art
A History of Detroit Through Its Bricks
DETROIT — Object-oriented ontology suggests that inanimate objects have lives and wider spheres of experience than the ways in which they relate to humans.
Art
The Photographers of 1870s London Who Documented Their Disappearing City
The idea of capturing something in photography before it disappears dates back almost to the dawn of the medium.
Art
A Monumental Critique of Empire, from Napoleonic to Corporate Times
PARIS — Scattered throughout the cavernous nave of the Grand Palais are mountains of shipping containers.
Books
Reader’s Diary: Lorraine Lupo's 'By Way Of'
Cards on the table: I prefer short poems to long ones, slender bodies of work to massive ones. So naturally, I consider the best way to read poetry is not in a book, but in a chapbook.
Music
Esperanza Spalding’s Flow
During the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony in 2011, jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding was awarded Best New Artist, a trophy assumed earmarked for Justin Bieber (who else?), and the scandal that ensued changed the recording industry forever.
Art
Fabricated Galaxies: On Stanley Boxer
Painter Stanley Boxer used the term “manufacture” to describe his process.
Art
And Then There Is Using Whatever Happens: Quentin Morris’s 'Untitled'
When Quentin Morris begins a painting the only thing he knows is that it will be black.
Art
Inclusive, Eclectic, Dazzling: The Paintings of Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann
Mann begins each work with splashes of ink and water across the surface of the paper, prompting a series of painterly moves that invariably lead to extreme, layered, engulfing complexity.
Art
Surreal Sculptures Come to Life in Yeasayer's Trippy New Video
“Where’s my head?” sing Chris Keating and Anand Wilder of psych-pop band Yeasayer in “Silly Me,” a track off their new album Amen & Goodbye.
Art
Sexual and Playful Inflatable Bodies
PHILADELPHIA — Nancy Davidson’s sculptures have a bombastic quality, like an overbearing, gaudily dressed aunt who has just arrived late to a family gathering.
Art
An Evening of Modern Dance in Need of an Authority Figure
I received an invitation to attend a show titled “Authority Figure,” subtitled: “An immersive choreography exploring our relationships to surveillance, big data, and policing as it mingles with our psychology.”