Book Review
Jonathan Lethem’s Alternative Life as an Artist
In a new book, the novelist and essayist writes in parallel to, rather than directly about, art.
Reviews
Book Review
Serenading Entwined Lineages of Black Art and Music
Organized around the five components of a song, Nikki A. Greene dissects a lineage of sonic resonance and visual aesthetics in Grime, Glitter, and Glass.
Performance
An Artist Possessed by Her Alter-Ego
In Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! performance artist Alina Troyano asks: Where does one identity start and the other end? Can they even be separated?
Art
Danny Moynihan’s Landscapes Look Back at Us
His paintings are invitingly impenetrable, even as they stir up all sorts of associations, from mythological beginnings to rampant lust and greed.
Art
Lynn Hershman Leeson Predicted Our Digital Hellscape
The video art pioneer has been warning us from the start that the more advanced digital tech becomes, the more vigilant we must all be against its lurid seductions.
Art
Art That Rides the Radio Waves to Resistance
In Broken Boxes artists share stories about their lives and experiences instead of relying solely on institutional didactics to “explain” what their work is about.
Art
Tove Jansson Found Refuge in Play
Finnish artist Tove Jansson’s childlike worlds are not pure escapism, but rather an expression of a state in which joy and fear are allowed to coexist.
Book Review
Asian America’s Unofficial Photographer Laureate
Corky Lee’s Asian America is a stunning glimpse into the fight for racial justice over the last half-century — one many Americans haven’t seen.
Film
Social Bonds May Save Our Lives
Join or Die is part of a cresting wave of cultural production circling around the intertwined issues of loneliness, divisiveness, and our political right turn.
Art
In Los Angeles, Queer Sci-Fi Is a Universe Unto Itself
A visually enthralling show lays bare the links between science fiction and the occult, realms where being begins from a place of transgression.
Art
Chicago’s History of Radical Art Pedagogy
Two concurrent shows focused on the radical social and political possibilities of progressive art education in Chicago ask: Who is art really for?
Art
An Indigenous Modernist Artist Finally Gets Her Due
An exhibition at The Met celebrates the work of self-taught artist Mary Sully, who neither exhibited nor profited from her work during her lifetime.