Art
Cao Fei’s Science Fiction Fever Dreams
In Blueprints, Cao works primarily as an anthropologist of sorts, creating a space where the past and the future are not so easily demarcated.
Reviews
Film
When a Common Language Can't Keep Lovers Connected
Isabel Sandoval writes, directs, and stars in Lingua Franca, a drama about a trans immigrant from the Philippines trying to avoid deportation.
Books
Can We Unlearn Imperialism? Ariella Azoulay Offers Methods and Lessons
In Potential History, the violence of photography saturates the very idea of European “progress,” resonating from Palestine to the Congo to Black America.
Film
Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You Is a Brilliant Meditation on Consent
Chronicling a young writer’s experience in the aftermath of a sexual assault, the series captures the pain, absurdity, and murkiness of rape culture, refusing to ever tie a neat bow.
Music
Pop Blasts Away
Head-banging new music by 100 Gecs, Amnesia Scanner, Haru Nemuri, and Machine Girl.
Books
Erudite Poems That Playfully Rework the Conventions of Life Writing
German writer Heinrich von Kleist serves as a starting point for Matthew Fink's exploration of the Western canon's gossipy underside.
Art
Anne Neely's Ethical Abstractions
Neely has created paintings that respond to some of the major issues of the day: climate change, environmental water loss, and immigration.
Art
Léon Spilliaert's Nocturnal Visions
Spilliaert saw his hometown of Ostend, Belgium, as a kind of liminal space between the outside and his interior world.
Art
A Powerful Debut
As a young Asian American painter, Susan Chen knows what she is up against and is consciously pushing back.
Art
An Artist’s Vision Centers Indigenous Narratives and Spaces
In Red Exit, Andrea Carlson’s motifs celebrate the spaces Native people create for themselves.
Film
Inventor Nikola Tesla Gets a Suitably Unusual Biopic
Tesla is less “the story of Tesla” and more a dialogue with the audience about the infamously eccentric figure.
Film
A Celebration of Black, Brown, and Indigenous Stories
The BlackStar Film Festival consistently resists forces that try to define culture in majoritarian terms.