Art
Samara Golden’s Memento Mori Give Shape to Grief
When experienced as a portrait of the artist’s psyche alone, Upstairs at Steve’s is a piercing representation of individual grief.
Reviews
Art
At Rome’s Quadriennale, Out With the Old and In With Historical Interventions
Fuori proposes a reinterpretation of Italian visual arts from the 1960s to the present day, affording greater prominence to women and young artists.
Film
El Planeta, Amalia Ulman’s Transportive “Comedy About Eviction”
Ulman’s feature debut chronicles a mother-daughter pair in post-recession Spain with a restrained style and hints of amusing deception.
Art
The Contours of Black American Life, According to Gordon Parks
Viewing Parks’s photographs in 2021 offers stark, graceful reminders of the ongoing fight for civil rights.
Film
Alvin Ailey, the Icon and Enigma
Much as the documentary Ailey delights and inspires, it also evokes a sense of wistfulness by privileging the choreographer’s public persona at the expense of Alvin the man.
Art
Lush Yet Crisp: Beatriz Milhazes’s Lively Abstractions
Avenida Paulista, Milhazes’s largest survey to date, offers an engrossing overview of how the artist cross-pollinates painting and printmaking.
Art
Three Artists Illustrate the Expressive Potential of Drawing
In Telling Stories, Robyn O’Neil, Amy Cutler, and Annie Pootoogook showcase the continued utility of this ancient art form to stunning effect.
Art
Imagining the Future Amid Alejandro Cardenas’s Profound, Brooding Canvases
In ALEXANDRIA, bright stripes and zigzags pop against sprawling environments, telegraphing both impressive depth and intense seclusion.
Art
Painting a Portrait Is “Like Falling in Love,” Says Jiab Prachakul
Prachakul paints friends and acquaintances who, like the artist, are part of the Asian diaspora.
Art
Marsha Pels’s Sculptures Offer Little Solace
Pels’s work evokes a blinking unease, posing questions about the nature of power in the arenas of sex, war, and religion.
Art
Updating the Myth of Hercules for the #MeToo Era
In The Trials of the Golden Rat, Patrick Duegaw recasts Hercule’s feats as the troubling behavior of a powerful man, reframing his targets through the guise of powerful women standing up for themselves.
Books
In a New Book About Unions and Financial Capitalism, Lessons for the Arts
"Unions Renewed" explores the changing role of organized labor under financial capitalism. It maps meaningfully onto the arts.