That's what black people are, myths. I come to you as a myth," announces Sun Ra in a scene from Space Is The Place, the marvelously entertaining mixture of blaxploitation, space travel, mysticism and free jazz that screens on one of the many video monitors at the...
In the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, the anonymous unmarked storefront of Mark Bradford’s studio betrays nothing to passersby, but the large white security gate which rolls back to reveal a parking lot at the north east end of the property is an unusual...
Slender, dark-haired Lisa Aslanian speaks softly but with conviction as she shows visitors around her sparsely furnished 1,000-square-foot space, The George Gallery. The venue derives its name from George Sand, a pseudonym for the intrepid 19th-century writer Aurora...
Having redirected his energies over the course of 20 years, from cast-resin sculpture to wall-based works combining painting with steel cables and short lengths of pipe, Peter Soriano has lately dispensed with objects, working on the wall in spray paint and acrylic...
Marat Sade Bohnice records the restaging of Peter Weiss’ 1963 play Marat/Sade. The play imagines that during the Marquis de Sade’s institutionalization in the Charenton Asylum in 1808, he wrote and directed a play about the death of Jean-Paul Marat, a radical during...
Felicitously hung in the former drawing room of a 19th-century castellated Gothic Revival villa, Gaela Erwin’s exhibition of pastels reveals first a mastery of light that both sculpts and dissolves form, patterned after the dramatic innovations of Caravaggio. But far...
“SHE WORLD” invites us to embark on a dark journey through the mingled lives of a group of women of a past generation. Ursula Brookbank’s archive of objects—once belonging to these unrelated women—is installed in deliberate and moving vignettes, creating a collective...
Since its invention, the camera has often acted as an intruder, an interloper or an uninvited guest. Walker Evans photographed subway riders from a camera hidden in his coat. His black-and-white images depict men and women gazing at the camera while immersed in their...
At the core of Rebecca Ripple’s practice is the question of historical authority and traditional truths—who sets the stage for what truth means and how it gets enforced. In past works, she has examined the bounds of Catholicism, the issue of constraining the female...
Two dozen drawings, paintings, constructions and hybrid pieces from 2011-2012 express Tom Dowling's keen knowledge of architecture and art history. These pieces allude specifically to theories of modernism as expressed in early 20th-century architecture and in...
Dear Readers, I didn't get a chance in my last column to talk about art critic Dave Hickey's announcement about being fed up with the art world and "quitting." This is old news by now, but I feel compelled to continue the discussion. When I first read the...
Stating that visual art derives from a “poetic impulse” reduces the experience of looking at a particularly seductive or engaging work of art to a passing mystery, some moment of gloriously inexplicable inspiration that is bound to pass. While the work of Enrique...
The moment the elevator of the Vincent Price Art Museum opens onto the second floor, one is immediately confronted with artist Matt MacFarland’s cartoon sandwich boards, part of a body of work called Steakation (2012). The nearest one depicts a heart-shaped steak with...
One of the largest survey shows of contemporary Canadian art ever produced, "Oh Canada," is the culmination of five-year's research and 400 studio visits by North Adams MASS MoCA curator Denise Markonish. It joins a history of international survey exhibitions of...
Duron Jackson gives us a key to decipher his Blackboard Paintings (2010-2012), the most compelling parts of his installation “Rumination,” the latest of the Brooklyn Museum’s “Raw/Cooked” series. The wall text is that key, informing us that the enigmatic glyphs are...
FOR AN ARTIST, FINDING THE ENTRY POINT to a canvas can be the most confounding part of the creative process. Tomer Aluf, a 35-year-old Israeli who has lived in New York City for the past eight years, uses fictional narratives in which he is the protagonist as his...
NOTWITHSTANDING THE RECENT HURRICANE THAT FLOODED New York City's galleries, the mundane act of pouring four liters of sea water from the nearest shoreline and leaving it to evaporate on the gallery floor creates a profoundly moving effect. Emilie Halpern's...
WHETHER ONE THINKS OF AMANDA ROSS-HO AS A SCULPTOR, A photographer, or more broadly, a conceptual artist, it is clear that she applies a deliberate approach to exploring and controlling a passion for "stuff." Through inventive modes of display—of objects and images...
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