The first draft of this article was entirely different. It was a polemic. A scorched-earth condemnation of art. Ten thousand words. The next wave in a storied line of seismic criticism. As such, I titled it Towards a Number Laocoön (“number” as in more numb, not integer), referencing the ancient Greek sculpture of the suffering priest (Laocoön) who tried to sound the alarm on the Trojan horse,...
Our reporter on the ground works her way through this year’s labyrinthine fair with the help of its most visible symbol: The tote bag. The Printed Matter Art Book Fair goes high and low, and tote bags are its connective tissue. The fair provides a platform for established and emerging independent publishers, scrappy DIY zine makers, and vintage booksellers peddling archival objects. The tote bag...
Last year, I went through a phase of reading early aviation memoirs. The book that started me on this kick was Beryl Markham’s West with the Night, in which the British-Kenyan aviatrix writes about flying over the Sahara in the early 1900s, delivering supplies between remote desert outposts. What interested me about Markham’s adventures wasn’t the records she set (she completed the first...
On the top floor of The Gaylord Apartments, a spare selection of seven new paintings by Magnus Peterson Horner tingles the optic and haptic senses, even when they’re barely paintings, even when they’re barely there at all. Horner paints people as if sensed through...
The delicate line-work in these semi-abstract sea/land/sky-scapes is incredibly controlled, almost to a fault. It doesn’t leave much room for the unexpected. This might be okay except that the overall vocabulary of forms is a bit too constrained. For instance, the...
Friday night director/choreographer Mamie Green (collaborating with writers Stephanie Wambugu, Lily Lady, and Sammy Loren) presented 𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑻𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕𝒚𝒄𝒉, a 30-minute dance/spoken word performance in three consecutive parts, each performed in one of Jeffrey Deitch...
The title “positioner” refers to the photographer’s inclusion of himself in several of these photos as he positions his models, most of which are queer men and women. These are a reflection on studio portraiture as a specific social context. They explore the...
The centerpiece of this show is a carpeted wooden platform, covered with white on blue stars like an American flag. Various Small Fires’ owner, Esther Kim Varet, is running for Congress, and this mini-stage is meant for use by her campaign. What Varet and artist...