Articles
KANSAS CITY, MO: Linda Lighton PSYCHO CERAMICS
With their blend of surreal retro glamor, sociopolitical and personal commentary, Linda Lighton’s ceramic sculptures command a double take. This veteran artist can make clay do just about anything, and her art has unabashed palpable appeal. But Lighton is also fearless when combining the sensuousness of her materials with controversial subject matter, whether she’s taking aim at environmental pollution, gun violence or sexism. She’s also quite comfortable creating fantastical creatures that exemplify gender fluidity. There’s a reason one of her first solo shows at L’Omega Gallery in Kansas City in the 1980s was titled “Psycho-Ceramics.” “My...
RICHMOND, VA: Diego Sanchez VISUAL INFORMATION
“One of the things I teach my kids is to be playful in their approach,” says painter and teacher Diego Sanchez. This freedom to experiment takes the pressure off and opens up the work in unexpected directions. It’s an attitude that has served Sanchez well in his own practice. Sanchez lives and works around Richmond, Virginia, a city with a vibrant art scene. His story is not just about becoming a successful artist, it’s also an inspiring account of an immigrant starting with nothing and rising up through the ranks of his profession. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Sanchez came to the US in 1980 at the age of 15. His father, a judge, had refused...
LINCOLN, NE: Santiago Cal POLITICS ON PAPER
Santiago Cal is a humble man with a demeanor that challenges traditional Western conceptions of artistic genius. His subtlety and humility are visible in his works, which are usually small or medium-sized carvings of fragile children. His visual narratives don’t hit you over the head. Cal lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, a long way—culturally and geographically—from his country of origin, Belize. Like millions of other people in this hemisphere, Cal has mixed ancestry; his father’s side is of Yucatán Maya heritage. During the Caste Wars—a series of battles led by the Maya against Spanish colonizers—his family fled to Belize to avoid enslavement....
From Mortar To Metaverse CONTEMPORARY COMMERCE
Eth, bit, sol, meta, block chain, bored apes, crypto punks, kitty litter squad, non-fungible, minting, mining, tokenizing, gas fee, hot wallet, cold wallet, generative NFT, destructive NFT, candy machines, early adopters—yes this is English—just not the English of our youth or even the English of a few years ago. This is the contemporary language of commerce and the new verbiage for the art world to understand. If you don’t know what this means, start googling, because the ship has left the dock and you are waving goodbye as everyone else is already on the Open Sea. Even a goofy ape with a hipster hat from a derivative collection can get a...
Pioneering Petra Cortright NFTs Are a No-Brainer
Petra Cortright’s URL, www.petracortright.com, could be considered a work of net art. Practitioners of net art (beginning in the mid-1990s) often used the internet as their medium, sometimes populating their pages with images and data from other websites. Cortright’s home page is a montage of appropriated animated gifs that include twirling roses, dragons, smiley faces, twinkling and spinning globes, as well as a straightforward list of links dating back to 2006 that takes viewers to her myriad projects. While celebrated for her net art, Cortright rose to prominence with a series of YouTube videos where she recorded performances in front of...
