Film
A Mapplethorpe Documentary Favors Contemplation Over Controversy
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s new documentary Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures offers intimate insights into the controversial photographer's life and persona.
Reviews
Books
A Visual Record of Four Centuries of Asylum Care
Mike Jay's book This Way Madness Lies explores society’s approach to mental illness over centuries.
Art
Exhibition in Former Hospital Puts Both Art and Gentrification on Display
Human Condition features work by 80 artists spread over three floors of the former Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center, which is planned for conversion into condos.
Art
The Offstage Art of Brooklyn Drag Queens
An exhibition at the Bureau of General Services — Queer Division highlights the non-drag art of more than a dozen members of the Brooklyn drag queen scene.
Art
Cryptic Deconstructions of Big Data
In Julien Prévieux's solo show at Julius Caesar, the artist asks: what, if anything, can be made of our intense reliance on technology to learn about our world?
Art
Stories of War and Survival Unfold in San Francisco’s Presidio
Homeland Security takes over three decommissioned military bunkers, a church, and the former headquarters of the Nike Missile Program by staging paintings, installations, and social practice projects throughout.
Art
A 1980s Art Experiment on an NYC Pier
From 1983 to '84, David Wojnarowicz and Mike Bidlo took over a decrepit Hudson River pier to create a collaborative and ephemeral alternative art system.
Books
How Rodin Shaped Rilke as a Young Poet
Who knew that Rodin in his 60s met, inspired, and shaped Rilke in his 20s?
Art
Walls that Border on the Absurd
In the hands of artist C.J. Chueca, walls become objects for philosophical inquiry.
Art
The Origins of Manhattan’s Tiny Plot of Precolonial Terrain
Alden Projects on the Lower East Side is marking 50 years since Alan Sonfist proposed reclaiming land in New York City for memorials to lost nature.
Art
Searching for a Global New Feminism
An exhibition attempts to find the new feminism in work by artists from around the world. It falls short of its task but raises some questions worth asking.
Books
An Auteur's Enduring and Confounding Guide to Filmmaking
Robert Bresson's Notes on the Cinematograph, first published in 1975 and about to be reissued by New York Review Books, is not a manifesto or unified theory.