Music
K-Pop Conquers the World
I.U., Day6, Ignito, and Lovelyz release new albums that run from exhausting to simply perfect.
Weekend
Art
The Heavy Metal Symbolism of the Salon Rose+Croix
A show of Symbolist paintings at the Guggenheim makes it clear that 19th-century France had an infinitely more interesting fin-de-siècle flip-out than we did in the 20th.
Art
Required Reading
This week, we're image-heavy as we explore the first modernist house in New York City, Google Streetview goes inside the International Space Station, fish farms from the sky, a Beyoncé wax figure that looks like Lindsay Lohan, and more.
Art
Weekend Words: Eight
"When you are eight years old, nothing is any of your business."
Books
Object Permanence: The Role of Curators and Cultural Institutions
Voorhies’s book is partly a series of case studies on watershed shows of the last fifty years — shows that, in his view, “relie[d] upon and utilize[d] the exhibition form and art’s critical potential within that form.”
Books
Mary Ruefle’s Sage Advice on How to Keep Your Eyes Open While Sleeping
This is a book you want to read slowly, to savor both for what it says and how Ruefle says it.
Art
Hair and Mushrooms, Gnarly Paint and Smooth Pours
Two artist couples that are good friends have an exhibition and show together for the first time. That seems to me as good a reason as any to have a show.
Art
Driving Out of Trumpland
Pictures of an expedition from Louisville, Kentucky, to New York, looking for the shift from red to blue.
Interview
A Collection of Poetry Interviews Is a Work of Poetry Itself
Modern poets talk about the Poetry Project, a vital forum in which political ideologies fueled exchanges and spurred literary movements.
Music
Kendrick Lamar Goes Back to Bangers
Tonally, Damn is Lamar’s definitive album, refining his craft down to its quintessence.
Art
Preserving Dieter Roth's Ephemeral Art
There’s a discrepancy between Roth’s relationship with his art — so much of which was never meant to last — and its reception by an art establishment that has canonized the late artist.
Art
Required Reading
This week, the Venice Biennale's photo problem, the importance of Jimmie Durham's claim to Cherokee heritage, the politics of fire, the state of queerness, dissecting Munch's "The Scream," and more.