Books
Reader’s Diary: Bernadette Mayer’s 'Sonnets'
My editors asked me for notes on books I’d been reading — about three hundred words. I’ve already figured out that it’s not in me to be quite that concise.
Reviews
Art
Mark Greenwold’s Passion for Details
In Mark Greenwold's pencil drawing “Josie” (2015), at least three people and an oversized cat are gathered in a room under what looks like a skylight. A bespectacled man on the drawing’s right-hand side is wearing boxer shorts and a t-shirt, his erect penis poking through his shorts.
Art
Tripping Out: The Upended Landscapes of Shara Hughes
For her solo debut at Marlborough Chelsea, Shara Hughes presents eight near-dizzying kaleidoscopic paintings of landscapes and oceans.
Art
A Painter's Progress: Monique Mouton’s Rough Edges
Deceptively casual and casually deceptive, Monique Mouton’s abstract paintings at Bridget Donahue on the Lower East Side are simple statements wrought from a density of decision-making, starting with the often irregular shape she chooses as a surface.
Film
An Ojibway Prophecy Reimagined on Film
What does it mean to be Ojibway now, in 2016?
Art
At a Generally Flat Art on Paper Fair, Some Cutting Works
“My kid could do that” is the world’s most clichéd dismissal of Modern art.
Art
Dreamscapes for the 21st Century at the Volta Art Fair
Plunge into dreams at Volta NY 2016.
Art
In a New Location, the Independent Art Fair Feels Like Home
After spending six years in Chelsea, the Independent Art Fair has found a new home in Tribeca, in the incredibly sleek Spring Studios, usually host to fashion-related events.
Art
The Politics of Being a Parent in the Art World
The Let Down Reflex is essential viewing for anyone engaged with issues of caring economies, so-called “women’s work,” or the question of living wages for the art world’s service workers.
Art
Paula Modersohn-Becker's Simplified Forms and Complicated Life
“For somewhere an old enmity exists between our life and that great work we do,” wrote Rainer Maria Rilke in “Requiem for a Friend,” a eulogy for painter Paula Modersohn-Becker, who died following childbirth at age 31.
Art
Dazzle or Distress Your Patron in a Sculpture-Building Game
Somewhere after the 10th waving, severed arm that I added to my masterpiece in Super Sculptor!, my patron's response switched from joy to horror.
Art
Familiar Names but Unexpected Finds at the ADAA Art Show
There's often no rhyme or reason to the selection of art in individual booths at fairs — other than, of course, a gallery's aim to sell well.