Art
Pratt MFA Photographers Turn Landscapes into Critiques of Power
The students put their own spins on landscape photography to coax out questions of race, power, sexuality, and sustainability.
Reviews
Art
Lauren Lee McCarthy Swaps Stories of Saliva and Surveillance
Bodily Autonomy takes advantage of humor and hyperbole to demonstrate a very real world in which biosurveillance is prevalent overtly and covertly.
Art
Yinka Shonibare’s Patterns of Decolonization
In a gallery such as Serpentine, defined by both Britishness and blue-chip status in the art world, how much can categories be suspended?
Books
The Anti-Spectacle of the Black Avant-Garde
Aliyyah Abdur-Rahman’s Millennial Style considers the political utility of Black abstraction and related forms to refute false narratives of progress.
Art
Ecological Crisis Echoes Through the Church of San Lorenzo
Restor(y)ing Oceania provides a powerful sense of the devastation faced by Pacific Islanders — and the ecosystems that may soon be lost.
Art
What Do Dolphins and Stress Balls Have in Common?
At Hunter College’s MFA thesis show in Manhattan, six artists decode modern life through unusual, surprising, and joyful installations.
Art
In Venice, Art Bears Witness to Chaos
What role can art play in helping us understand a time of great chaos and what role can national pavilions play in a time when nation states are ever present?
Film
Half a Century of American Culture Through the Lens of One Photographer
James Hamilton’s career conveniently mirrors the changing fortunes of journalism as an industry.
Art
ArtCenter MFAs Find New Beginnings in Past Technology
Artworks by the students feel delightfully provisional, like statements of intent toward unrealized future creations — but no less meaningful.
Books
This Art Book Is About You!
Much has been written about artists, curators, and art historians. Oskar Bätschmann’s The Art Public: A Short History is dedicated to the spectators on the other side.
Art
The Animal Wonderland of Les Lalanne
Blending zoomorphic elements with a fanciful aesthetic, the artist duo’s functional animal sculptures evoked a sense of wonder and enchantment.
Books
A New Keith Haring Biography Leaves Out Half the Story
Radiant is a bountiful source of information about the late queer artist’s life and career, but it says oddly little about his art and its enduring legacy.