Art
Lorna Simpson's Cut-Up Portraits Evoke the Complexity of Identity
Composed of photographs culled from vintage Ebony magazines, the faces in these collages are reconstructed into new selves.
Reviews
Art
The Moral Complexity of War Games
An-My Lê is a Vietnamese-born photographer who has portrayed — and participated in — re-enactments of the Vietnam War.
Art
Nature as Filtered Through a Screen
How do we experience eco-art online and what might it suggest about the nature of the digital gallery experience?
Art
The White Melting Pot
The work of Jiha Moon and Stephanie H. Shih is both aesthetic and political, a commentary on assimilation as a process in which one’s national origin is not forgotten or erased.
Art
Ying Li’s Ecstatic Landscapes
Li had to reinvent herself as a gestural painter in her 30s, after years of painting traditional ink-wash landscapes and Soviet-style propaganda.
Film
Spike Lee’s Latest Is a Thorny Portrait of Black Masculinity and Generational Trauma
While Da 5 Bloods has its weaknesses, it hits the nail on the head with its portrayal of the complicated nature of Blackness and brotherhood.
Film
An Essential Watchlist of Groundbreaking Black Documentaries
These films illustrate both the undeniable threat of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy and the incomparable strength of Blackness.
Books
John Cage, Forager of Music and Mushrooms
No matter how much one knows about the artist or mycology, John Cage: A Mycological Foray surprises with its ode to continuous wonder.
Music
Reflections of America in Rap
Four new rap releases reflect the divided state of the nation.
Books
Memoir as the Fragments of Memory
When Michel Leiris died in 1990 at age 89 he was a canonical figure in France, mainly for having remade the genre of memoir in his own image.
Art
Hauntingly Beautiful Photos for an Anxious Moment
On Instagram, Kana Hashimoto’s images of nocturnal Tokyo unwittingly capture the odd feeling of time itself as the coronavirus pandemic drags on.
Books
Bernadette Mayer Evokes the Banality and Urgency of the Quotidian
In Memory, the poet shapes a new visual and textual language that explores the simmering possibilities of consciousness.