Art
A Gallery Stroll Through Rome
ROME — Mentioning Rome to most people evokes, in no particular order: ancient ruins, stunning palazzi, romantic dinners, and good weather.
Review
Art
From Brooklyn to Russia’s Ural Region, Artists Cross Political and Geographic Borders
Exhibitions generated by independent curators have grown over the past two decades in number and significance.
Performance
A Sultry and Subversive 'Snow White,' with Ball Gags and Pole Dancing
How many times you heard the tale of Snow White? Surely you remember the pole dancing, the wigs made of large birdcages, and the lithe male bodies dusted with gold.
Art
The Bawdy History of Medieval Playing Cards
Playing cards arrived in Europe from Asia sometime in the 14th century, and by 1367 they had their first citywide ban in Bern, Switzerland.
Art
Confronting Homelessness Close to Home, with Help from Martha Rosler
SEATTLE — “Home Prices Bring Smiles, Tears.” “Anti-Homeless Attacks Won’t Solve Problem.” When I saw these headlines running across the Seattle Times and Seattle Weekly newspapers earlier this month, a single sentence flashed through my mind, on repeat: “Housing is a human right.”
Art
Imperialism and Its Discontents at Tate Britain
LONDON — Artist and Empire contains something for everyone, ranging from fierce pride to loathing, as well as everything in between.
Books
Reader’s Diary: Jaimy Gordon’s 'Lord of Misrule'
Jaimy Gordon passed through my field of vision some time in the early 1980s.
Art
More than Meets the Eye
If you see lots of work by different artists, you are going to make your own connections.
Books
Susan Bee and Johanna Drucker Tell the Real Life Stories of Fabulous Females
In the tradition of Lives of the Saints and, even more pointedly, Laura (Riding) Jackson’s Lives of Wives, visual artist Susan Bee and book artist Johanna Drucker have created a wonderful new “picture” book, Fabulas Feminae or fables of women.
Music
Justin Bieber, Sex Panther
The consensus was that this former child star’s career was over; no longer in his target demographic’s age range, he found himself unable to push the same buttons as before, and was prepared to fade, slowly but honorably, from the public spotlight.
Art
Firestarter: Otto Piene’s Elemental Art
The victors and the vanquished approached the development of avant-garde art in the aftermath of World War II in markedly different ways.
Books
The Origins of Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal in a One-Legged Chair
When the TWA Flight Center opened in 1962 at New York's JFK Airport, its swooping form seemed to embody flight itself, with its two white wings rising from the tarmac.