Art
19th century whalers could be at sea for years, and for those months surrounded by the perilous currents of the oceans, boredom was often the biggest danger. One of the art forms that emerged from this sanity-threatening tedium was scrimshaw, a time-enveloping practice of tattooing art onto bones.
Art
CHICAGO — What does it mean, bodily, physically, emotionally, mentally, and perhaps spiritually, to be what Simone de Beauvoir deemed "the second sex," to be a woman and, moreover, to be a mother? These are questions that Chelsea Knight explores in her latest video work "The Breath We Took" (2013),
Art
With the permanent invasion of art fairs into the art world economy like a plague, most galleries, no matter how cutting-edge or avant-garde, seem to believe (whether from actual or perceived necessity) that they must participate in all of the increasingly frequent art fair seasons. This endless str
Art
This year's New York incarnation of the NADA art fair suggested that the gathering of young emerging galleries often characterized as the minor leagues of Frieze and other "major league" art fairs has grown up quite a bit. Yet with maturity comes a tendency towards conservatism, and that was reflect
Art
New York bristles with energy, and what makes it continually captivating for me is that this spirit comes so much from the people and acts of creation that can be just stumbled upon in the street. Last week in the East Village, at the corner of First Avenue and 7th Street, I saw an enthusiastic crow
Books
Before we settle into our plush, faux-velvet seats, share bags of popcorn and watch the latest film about zombies who managed to escape from Pittsburgh and its parking lots, does anyone out there dream of making a movie about Jeffrey Dahmer starring Brad Pitt or James Franco?
Books
“Multiple paper sizes and stocks bound together with a spiral wire and wrapped between thick chipboard covers.” So reads the highly utilitarian description of Ben Jones’ new book in its accompanying press release, but it’s also as good a definition of the different incarnations of “manliness”—the pu
Art
Hypnotherapy, a group show at Kent Fine Art, gives David Lynch fans a chance to revisit the iconic filmmaker’s alarming artwork a year after his solo turn at Jack Tilton. But that's only one, conspicuous though it is, of its strengths. What really matters is the opportunity to experience a museum-qu
Art
Frieze New York is an undeniably nice fair. Even if you generally hate art fairs, or sympathize with the union workers, or a devotee of the Armory Show, you have to admit that Frieze does it right: the spacious, light-filled tent, the excellent food options, the weekend-getaway feel as you board the
Art
French import Cutlog, the latest fair to join the growing clusterfuck surrounding Frieze New York, carries a relaxed and eclectic ethos, one befitting the challenging layout of its Lower East Side venue. According to organizers, 48 galleries, 70% of them international, showed at the Clemente Soto Vé
Art
The after-sundown events for this past weekend's Ideas City from the New Museum may have had the least to do with biennial festival's focus on the future of our urban metropolises, but the NightFest definitely had the greatest visual impact.
Art
Visiting Frieze New York on Randall's Island is like being sucked into a black hole. You get on a ferry (or a bus, or a bike), enter a giant, spacious tent, and then time stops. Or it disappears. Or it slips away. Next thing you know, you stumble out dehydrated and drunk off your speakeasy cocktail