Performance
Singing the Struggles of Trans People in the American South
On the surface, the new musical Southern Comfort has all the trappings of a conventional family drama.
Review
Art
The Disorienting Power of Al Held's Black-and-White Paintings
In 1967, the angel of ambiguity rescued Al Held from the burly heaviness of his body and the formalist ideology of his thinking.
Art
Tracing Tradition in a Survey of Six Iranian Artists
Felix Gonzalez-Torres once made the argument that all art is political, even an artist’s choice to focus on the purely aesthetic.
Art
A New Hong Kong Museum Confronts the Difficult History of Chinese Contemporary Art (Part 1)
HONG KONG — The M+ Sigg Collection, thought to be the most thorough and important collection of contemporary Chinese art in the world, consists of 1,510 art objects produced by 375 artists spanning 1974 to 2010.
Art
Florida, Bob Ross, and a Collaborative, Conceptual Art Journey
DETROIT — Painter and art instructor Bob Ross, host of the legendary public access show The Joy of Painting, was known to say, “There is no such thing as a mistake, only happy accidents.”
Art
Returning “Topless Cellist” Charlotte Moorman to Her Rightful Place in the Avant-Garde
EVANSTON, Ill. — A Feast of Astonishments: Charlotte Moorman and the Avant-Garde, 1960s–1980s, currently on view at the Northwestern University’s Block Museum, is a masterful (if only slightly overwhelming) orchestration of original artworks and archival materials that examines the legacy of avant-g
Art
Drawing the Invisible Shapes of Energy
It's difficult to find spaces of tranquility in downtown Manhattan, much less in Soho, but Louise Despont has created an immersive and meditative space in the Drawing Center that invites you to slow down and shut out the noise of the city.
Art
Two Artists Use Pharmacological Aesthetics to Show Capitalism’s Sickness
MOSCOW — Is there an intrinsic relationship between individual addictions and mechanisms of collective control? Critic and theorist Boris Kliushnikov seems to think so.
Art
A Sprawling Show of Artists as Social Critics
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Spanning several media, much of the work in Us Is Them makes social commentary from the perspective of underrepresented populations. Notably, the show features some of the biggest names in contemporary African-American art, bringing the focus on the fraught nature of black existence
Art
Contemporary and Historic Ledger Art Joined in a Seamless Native Narrative
Too often museums exhibit indigenous art of the United States as artifacts made by ghosts, even though many of these traditions are still inspiring contemporary creators.
Art
Three Museums Come Together to Tell a History of African American Art
MUSKEGON, Mich. — Common Ground, the Muskegon Museum of Art’s current exhibition of African American art, combines works from three regional Michigan collections: the Muskegon museum, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, and the Flint Institute of Arts.
Art
A Biennial on a Bus Examines the Leisure and Labor of Travel
"There are no rules on this bus."