Art
BERKELEY, California — Keeping Time is a large group exhibition at Kala Gallery documenting and exploring creative ways of expressing or marking time from the obvious to the poetic. Although the science of keeping time has fascinated many for centuries, the intensely subjective nature of experientia
Art
In an ideal social media universe, Facebook users would feel comfortable enough to openly tell all of their friends whether or not they’re organ donors, what they're up to this weekend, and if they are in a relationship, single, or looking. There would be no Facebook stalkers or strange friend reque
Performance
Last night and tonight, the Guggenheim is staging two special, performance-like readings of Pablo Picasso’s obscure play, “Desire Caught by the Tail,” as part of the museum’s Works & Process series.
Art
It is one of those impossible questions that each artist answers differently. How much can you put in? And, of course, the obverse, how much can you leave out?
Art
There is something ineffably comforting about To Be a Lady, the exhibition curated by Jason Andrew and subtitled Forty-Five Women in the Arts. The second time I visited the show, on a misty, autumnal afternoon, the light-filled bays at 1285 Avenue of the Americas seemed to lead back to a once intima
Art
I don't actively seek out photographs and films documenting Detroit's decay. Detroit ruin porn could be cast as a useful reminder that no city is invincible, but in recent years the sheer quantity of photographs coming out of Detroit hasn't felt remotely empowering. The images of the destruction are
Art
BERKELEY, California — As the grand finale for SFMoMA's exhibition, Stage Presence, which delved into the theatrical of contemporary art, Rashaad Newsome performed "Shade Compositions" (2005) in Haas Atrium, just inside the museum's entrance, on October 4. "Shade Compositions" has been an ongoing pe
Art
BERKELEY, California — Recently I went on my first visit to the Berkeley Art Museum to see their Barry McGee show. To be honest, I was mostly indifferent to McGee walking into the show, and largely skeptical about graffiti or street artists' role in a museum setting. Although the show convinced me o
Art
CHICAGO — Given that most of us labor in virtual space these days and our work requires little more than a desk, a computer, and a keyboard to get done, why do we stick to such outmoded concepts as cubicles and cafeterias? A current exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Outdoor Office: Jon
Books
Like the ever-present junkies on the TV show “The Wire,” fans of the acclaimed HBO series can never seem to get enough. Legions of viewers stayed glued to the tangled plot over five seasons — and their cravings were stoked for five years more through blogs, behind-the-scenes books, essays, college c
Art
I think it's funny that Patricia Albers's recent and authoritative biography on Joan Mitchell was given the subtitle “Lady Painter.” It's my only guess that Mitchell's lifestyle and her painting were so out of character for the time that the term becomes ironic. The artist was known for her camarade
Art
A cloud of criticism, apology and embarrassment hangs over the oeuvre of Ferdinand Hodler, the prodigiously talented Swiss painter who was born the same year as Vincent van Gogh (1853) and died, like Gustav Klimt, in 1918. Hodler’s work bridges the academic neo-classicism of Jean-Auguste-Dominique I