Art
Artists of the African Diaspora Cast Off the Legacy of Displacement
A solitary figure standing against the far wall of the gallery, Sable Elyse Smith says: “My father was a drug dealer and loved me.”
Review
Art
At Home with Vilhelm Hammershøi
The room is quiet. We stand on the fringes, in the shadows, divided from the softly luminous space that’s momentarily brought into the light.
Art
Two Decades of Life in Prison Drilled into Ostrich Eggs
Beginning in his early twenties, Gil Batle spent two decades in and out of five California prisons, mostly for fraud and forgery of documents from IDs to checks and credit cards.
Art
Tate Modern’s Absorbing but Haphazard Look at Global Pop Art
LONDON — The World Goes Pop is an exhilarating collection filled with fizzing energy, so its curatorial messiness can be forgiven.
Art
Composing a Symphony of War with Instruments and Everyday Objects
What does war sound like? For Samson Young, it’s calm, somewhat foreboding — human, organic, often silent but with bursts of technological noise.
Art
Olafur Eliasson's Sundial of Melting Icebergs Clocks In at Half-Past Wasteful
PARIS — In the aftermath of November’s terrorist attacks and the ruling Socialist Party’s meltdown following a strong first-round showing for Marine Le Pen’s far-right Front National party, I glummly went to the Place du Panthéon to see Ice Watch Paris, an exhibition of melting icebergs by Danish re
Art
The Postmodern Political Art of 1990s Mexico City
PHILADELPHIA — In the wake of major governmental ineffectiveness following a massive earthquake in 1985, artists in Mexico City began building a vibrant DIY arts movement and searching for less traditional modes of expression.
Art
Digital Distractions: Designing a Subway and Pruning a Tree
For December, we've got a psychedelic plane ride tribute to a man who died in a crash, a paper craft city, subway line design, and tree pruning (it's fun!).
Art
Utopian Mirror Ball Sculptures at Paris Climate Conference Are Full of Hot Air
PARIS — The balls of Aerocene hang high above Solutions COP21, floating over ecocidal disaster-mongers as they sleepwalk visitors towards a total surveillance state.
Art
On Staten Island, an Artist Floats New Ideas for Life Jackets
Surfing along New York Harbor on the Staten Island Ferry, a fairly tranquil experience were it not for the tourists snapchatting the Statue of Liberty, can still cause a bit of anxiety.
Art
The Female Body Concealed and Revealed with Minimal Marks
CHICAGO — In a show of works on paper at a new Chicago artist-run space, Cultivator, painter Anne Harris depicts the female body in a way that brings to mind writer Christine Alic’s phrase “the contested landscape of the female gaze.”
Art
The 19th-Century Affordable Artworks That Were the Original Carnival Game Prizes
MEMPHIS — Chalkware was one of the earliest affordable arts available to a large population in the United States.