Contributed by Kari Adelaide Razdow / Moths are weird and macabre. Allison Schulnik, in her animated short MOTH in �Suffering From Realness� at Mass MoCA, fully captures their gothic elegance. The moths rhythmically fan eyespots and morph into something new and magical every few seconds, conjuring a resonant line from Mary Oliver�s poem, Sleeping in the Forest: �By […]
Museum Exhibitions
Hans Haacke’s ethical snark
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / If mid-century art lovers had thought Robert Rauschenberg�s cheeky erasure of Willem de Kooning�s drawing in 1953 was irreverent, they might have revised their definition of the term twenty years later, when Hans Haacke tendered them detailed questionnaires about their backgrounds and attitudes as they […]
Roadtrip: The Clark, MASS MoCA, Bascom Lodge in Western Massachusetts
Contributed by Sharon Butler / Several weeks ago I returned to Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts, where I was an artist-in-residence at Bascom Lodge, the inn at the top of the mountain, in summer 2014. Peter Dudek, a NYC-based sculptor who teaches at Hunter and SVA, has been […]
Eric N. Mack and Vivian Suter: How to fill a space
By Kristen Clevenson / Eric N. Mack‘s exhibition “Lemme walk across the room“ at the Brooklyn Museum and Vivian Suter�s eponymous show at Gladstone Gallery are ostensibly similar. Both artists have completely transformed white cube spaces with thoughtfully hung, colorful, unstretched artworks. Mack�s installation, both commanding and purposeful, remains an assembly of individual […]
Ruth Root: Syntax for a jangled world
Contributed by Jason Andrew / In an exhibition of ten new paintings at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, Ruth Root extends her definition of the medium and her own personal language. Since the late 1990s, through a variety of “painting” materials, Root has charted an independent course through a Formalist-sanctioned medium, often […]
Simone Leigh: Powerfully present
Contributed by Anne Swartz / Simone Leigh�s art, which focuses on the experience of black women, is powerfully present in New York City by way of a major exhibition at the Guggenheim and the monumental bronze sculpture Brick House on the High Line � with several pieces at the 2019 Whitney […]
Zilia S�nchez, surrounded by the sea
Contributed by Katarina Wong / In Zilia S�nchez�s retrospective currently on view at The Phillips Collection, a video shows her on the beach, casting one of her shaped paintings �Soy Isla (I Am an Island)� into the waves. This piece sets the tone for an exceptional exhibition from a fiercely independent artist. Born […]
Hilma af Klint: A timely message from the beyond
Contributed by Emma Stolarski / At the Guggenheim, Hilma af Klint�s paintings present themselves one by one, up the spiral ramp, just as she had dreamt in her sketches over 100 years ago. Her visionary drawing, Paintings for the Temple, was created during a session with her spiritual guides. She led […]
Pregame Painting Report: 2019 Whitney Biennial
The 2019 edition of the Whitney Biennial,�on view�May 17 through September 22, was curated by Whitney Museum�Associate Curator Jane Panetta and Assistant Curator Rujeko Hockley. Each�has experience curating painting into group exhibitions, which means we should see some relevant, maybe thought-provoking,�work on canvas (or related material).�Hockley came to the Whitney […]
Warhol at the Whitney: A provocateur for all seasons
Contributed by Jonathan Stevenson / There are certainly strong generational reasons for the Whitney to mount �Andy Warhol � From A to B and Back Again,� its penetrating current retrospective. It goes almost without saying that Warhol changed art history by melding the commercial and the �fine,� and, in his energized […]