Susan Marie Dopp’s Lacewing
Susan Marie Dopp's Lacewing exhibit at the Roswell Museum is an enchanting collection of abstract, organic sculptures bathed in colored light that both joyfully celebrate life and poignantly meditate on aging and death.
Amy Casey’s Teeter Totter in Hotter Water
Amy Casey's solo exhibition at Chicago's Zg Gallery, Teeter Totter in Hotter Water, is full of paintings that capture our current crises. Her detailed acrylic paintings include exploding buildings, houses falling into the sea, teetering towers that barely stand up, and constructions reclaimed by nature—in environments that one could easily assume are post-apocalyptic.
Where the Earth Meets the Sky Meets the Sky
A while ago now, driving through the outskirts of Las Vegas NM, I came across this artifact in a large, empty field...
A Small, Polychrome Palace
Just down the street, I stumbled on this unique piece of ...art? Graffiti? Visual goodness.
The Power of the Pen
There's something singularly special about a pencil or a pen resting in our hand. It is a direct vehicle to channel our words, drawings, plans, ideas, and any other number of wonders residing in our heads. With that in mind, it's not unusual to see writers' and artists' graves covered in creative implements that visitors have deposited.
Found Painting No. 102.7 (Alexandria, Virginia)
Walking through Alexandria, Virginia's Clermont Natural Park, park, a bit away from the playgrounds and baseball fields, you'll stumble on a singular underpass.
The Beauty of Boxes
Earlier this week, as I struggled to open a package from the mail, I sighed and wished that boxes were better designed. But with it being almost Thanksgiving here in America, I knew the stores would already be full of Christmas wares. And, accordingly, some very interesting boxes!
Malevich Moves!
Untitled by Liubov Popova (1917) / Suprematist Composition (blue rectangle over the red beam) by Kazimir Malevich (1916) / Proun GK by El Lissitzky (c. 1922) Please scroll down after reading this article to view the videos mentioned therein. Part of my joy [...]
Cleveland’s Trapped Tree
Walking through Cleveland this week, I stumbled on "Trapped Tree" in a quiet corner of the city. This unusual moment, until recently hidden by brush deep in the Ohio City neighborhood, became uncovered as a new greenway opened alongside it.
A Paint By (Only) Numbers
Erasure art is a special pleasure. Different from collage, which often assembles things from various sources, the act of making art through erasing depends on the form of the original to (some extent) staying intact. This week, we wondered what would happen if we erased the lines of a paint by number.
An Unfinished Paint by Number
When you wander across an unfinished paint by number for sale, what are you to make of it?
Dan Mills: What’s in a Name? (The Secret Lives of Maps)
Dan Mills is, in addition to being a very talented painter, a wealth of piercing information: 31 states are named after indigenous words, one in 113 people worldwide are displaced from their homes, one in five Syrians are refugees, Maine is the state with the smallest number of incarcerated people per capita in America yet is only the median for this statistic among countries worldwide, and New Hampshire is considered the “most free” state.
Jennie Harbour, Where Have You Gone?
One of the most beautiful and contemporary wonder tale books I’ve seen, My Favourite Book of Fairy Tales, was published near the end of the Golden Age of illustration in 1921. It is illustrated by an exceptionally talented artist, acclaimed in her own lifetime, who history has transformed into an elusive mystery: Jennie Harbour.
Six Books’ Stories with Denise Markonish
MASS MoCA curator Denise Markonish shares her stories of experiences with selected books featuring Nick Cave, Jen Bervin, Mary Ruefle, Barbara Bourland, Carl Belz, J.M. Arms Sheldon, and Camille Flammarion.
Afton Love: Through Rocks
Afton Love’s artwork opens up the possibility of self-examination. “We cannot know the fullness of the rock, but we can strive to know ourselves better and to live a meaningful life,” says Love. “By considering that there are things we do not and will never know, we grasp how small we are, and upon pushing into that idea we realize that we are vast as well.”
Jamie Franklin’s Collection of Self-Taught Art
Jamie Franklin has been the curator at the Bennington Museum in Vermont for almost 15 years. In that time, he has also assembled a personal collection of art from around the world ranging from calligraphic drawings to art created in prisons and psychiatric hospitals—a collection one might label “outsider art.” But Franklin says, “I don't like the term outsider art. There are art worlds; there is no Art World. There are artists working in many contexts, and many never get acclaim.”
An Invitation to Dinner, from Roswell with Love
Tucked away on the outskirts of Roswell, NM, far away from the daily bustle of the alien museum, lies the Roswell Artist in Residence Program. The residency hosts six artists a year and each, near the end of their residency, has a solo exhibition. Each exhibition is followed by a dinner, which is prefaced by a handmade invitation from the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art's Director Nancy Fleming. She has been making these special invitations since 2004, and here is a peek into these small treasures.
Babel’s Bricks: The Power of Play
Remember, as a kid, when you played with wooden blocks, Erector sets, Lincoln Logs, and Legos? Artists have continued to nurture the impulse of putting parts together to make a more wonderful whole. At Gallery 51's latest show, Babel's Bricks, twenty artists playfully interpret the idea of artwork as building block.
John Stezaker & the Not-So-Perfect Marriage
John Stezaker’s surreal, handmade collages—comprised of film stills, publicity portraits, and postcards collected from thrift stores and bookshops—are masterful studies in contradiction. They are familiar and nostalgic, but also unexpected and strange. Like a Coen Brothers film or Flannery O’Connor short story, they walk that compelling line between comedy and tragedy.
A Quest for the Quiet Mind: Can the Art World Make Room for Sincerity?
"There’s nobody living who couldn’t stand all afternoon in front of a waterfall...," wrote Agnes Martin. "Anyone who can sit on a stone in a field awhile can see my painting. Nature is like parting a curtain, you go into it...as you would cross an empty beach to look at [...]
The Perils of Being a Solo Artist: 11 Ways to Find the Support You Need
A Boston street sign that has been hacked by MIT students. (Photo by Alessondra Springmann) I have a confession to make...Asking for help is tough for me. Ditto for collaborating. Yes. I love people. I love being a connector and introducing creative folks to one another. I love [...]
Setting Creative Goals for the New Year? Let Fear Be Your Guide
Bill Viola, Catherine's Room, 2001. Video installation. (Photo © Bill Viola courtesy tate.org) Resolutions It's the New Year, which means that many of us are taking stock of our personal habits, both good and bad, and resolving to do better. But how many things on this year's list [...]
Crystal Bliss: What the Snow Photos of Doug + Mike Starn Teach Us about Originality
Doug + Mike Starn, from the series alleverythingthatisyou, 2006-2007. (Photograph Doug + Mike Starn courtesy dmstarn.com) Doug + Mike Starn, Big Bambú: You Can't, You Don't, and You Won't Stop, 2010. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art Roof Garden (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images North America via [...]
Jem Cohen’s Museum Hours: A Film With Big Ideas and Small Details
Director Jem Cohen and Pieter Brueghel’s 1559 painting There are times when art criticism can illuminate a specific art work---expand on it, put it into context, or communicate details too easily overlooked. But there are other cases when a given art work, film, book, or piece of music [...]
Solid Sound 2013: Wilco’s Music & Art Festival
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco performing at the 2013 Solid Sound Festival at Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts (Photo by Michelle Aldredge) Last weekend around 8,000 festival-goers gathered at Mass MoCA under the supermoon to participate in Wilco's sold-out Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts. Attendees come [...]