James Crews’ poetry collection, The Book of What Stays, is full of evocative landscapes and secret lives. There is the old woman in Chernobyl who refuses to leave, ice fishing with Patsy Cline, and the moving poems about artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres.
Liu Bolin, Hiding in the City No.93 -Supermarket No.2, 2010. Photographs by the Chinese artist are on view in Brattleboro, Vermont, through June 23rd. (Photo Courtesy Eli Klein Fine Art © Liu Bolin. Click to Enlarge) The summer art scene in New England presents a special challenge. [...]
Polaroid by Andrei Tarkovsky from the book Instant Light: Tarkovsky Polaroids from Thames and Hudson. “Never try to convey your idea to the audience," said Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, "---it is a thankless and senseless task. Show them life, and they’ll find within themselves the means to [...]
Concrete Sound (Photos courtesy Audra Wolowiec) Last year Gwarlingo readers responded enthusiastically to Mary Ruefle and Jen Bervin's erasure poems. Today's Sunday Poem features another unique project that defies categorization---a collaboration between interdisciplinary artist Audra Wolowiec and poet, critic, and artist Christine Shan Shan Hou. In conjunction with [...]
John Lam and Lia Cirio with pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama in Jirí Kylián's Tar and Feathers (Photo by Rosalie O’Connor courtesy the Boston Ballet) Last week the Boston Ballet kicked off its spring season at the Boston Opera House with three works by Czechoslovakian choreographer Jirí Kylián. Born in Prague, Kylián trained [...]
Last night I came across this quote in my friend's office in Philadelphia. Creating art that resonates or impacting the world around you isn't the result of ambitious ideas or flawless execution. It's the result of doing. Start. Now. You can explore more Gwarlingo posts about the creative process [...]
The wreckage of Rockaway Boardwalk after Sandy (Image via CNN.com) A few months ago I shared Eve Mosher's piece, High Water Line, a public art project in Manhattan and Brooklyn that brought the topic of climate change directly to the city’s residents. Mosher's inventive project showed what [...]
A still from Wim Wenders' Pina (Photo © Neue Road Movies GmbH. A Sundance Selects Release. Click to Enlarge) Timing is everything, particularly in the case of Wim Wenders' film Pina. Wenders, director of the critically acclaimed Wings of Desire and Buena Vista Social Club, first saw Pina [...]
Ai Weiwei with his new book Weiwei-isms, edited by Larry Warsh I didn't expect a publication that has been touted as one of the "Best Art Books of 2012" to stand just six inches tall and contain only two photographs. But as Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's new book [...]
Horace Pippin, Mr. Prejudice, 1943. Oil on canvas, 18 x 14" (Image courtesy of The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Matthew Moore) Last summer I was strolling through the galleries of the new Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, surrounded by the exquisite paintings of Matisse, Modigliani, [...]
Sam Green narrating his live documentary The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston (Photo by Sam Allison) "I live on Earth at present, and I don't know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am [...]
It's Friday and another week has almost come and gone without a mid-week post on Gwarlingo. Apologies to Gwarlingo readers for neglecting everyone but the poets the past 14 days. I've been traveling on business and working on an exciting (arts-related) project down in Philadelphia. While Gwarlingo is my [...]
One of the images from Anthony Sherin's Solo, Piano - N.Y.C. Since creating its controversial pay wall in 2011, The New York Times has continued to explore new ways of merging storytelling with technology. Their recent multi-media piece "Snowfall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek" is an impressive glimpse at [...]
A still from Terry Gilliam's 1968 animation "The Christmas Card" Merry Christmas! This holiday I'm grateful to readers like yourself who have made 2012 such a fulfilling and exciting year. Thank you. I've thoroughly enjoyed connecting with so many of you in person, through email, social media, [...]
Last night a friend and I watched Jean Cocteau's 1946 film La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) for the very first time. Luckily, we were able to see the restored version of this French masterpiece on the big screen. It is hard to remember just how radical [...]
In 2007 artist Eve S. Mosher used beacons and chalk to mark the projected high water line in Brooklyn and Manhattan. (Battery Park photo by Hose Cedeno courtesy highwaterline.org) Artist Eve Mosher in 2007 (Photo courtesy highwaterline.org) "I never wanted this to be [...]
A 1968 poster parodying the Nixon campaign's motto, "Nixon's the one!" (Courtesy the Library of Congress) Election Day is finally here, and I thought it would be fun to explore some of the campaign posters from past presidential elections. All of the posters featured here are in [...]
This drawing may look like a maze or an artist's sketch, but it's actually a musical score created by Emmy-award-winning composer Steve Heitzeg. A few years ago pianist Teresa McCollough received a surprise gift in the mail from Heitzeg: 192 scores titled World Piece. Each score was named for [...]
Julia Jacquette, Blond, Shoulder, 2011. Oil on wood panel. 10 x 7.5 inches (Photo by Jean Vong) It's hard not to be mesmerized by Julia Jacquette 's hypnotic paintings. Their luminous, rich surfaces are intoxicating, and yet there is so much more happening in Jacquette's work than [...]
Tatzu Nishi's public art installation, Discovering Columbus, opened in Manhattan on Thursday. Here Nishi is pictured with Gaetano Russo's 1892 sculpture. (Photo by Tom Powel courtesy the Public Art Fund, NY) Last week I featured Tatzu Nishi's Discovering Columbus on my Don't Miss List for September. Two [...]
Joan Murray (Photo by David Lee) Today's Sunday Poem is a special excerpt from poet Joan Murray's project The Visitor: Poems from the Eastman House. The last time I saw Joan she was working on this series of poems at The MacDowell Colony. I asked Joan to [...]
British Street artist Slinkachu left this miniature "Hanging On" in the streets of Hong Kong. It's one of the many images on view in his New York and London show, Global Model Village. (Photo © Slinkachu courtesy the artist) The invitations, event notices, emails, and review copies [...]
A ballerina by British street artist Banksy (Photo courtesy banksy.co.uk) When Gwarlingo readers give me feedback, I listen. You've been telling me that you'd like to see more articles about process and the challenges of being an artist. I've appreciated your emails and comments. Today, I'm excited [...]
Self-portraits by actor and theatre director André Gregory (Photo courtesy Atlas Theatre Company) We gathered around André Gregory like children eagerly assembling around the librarian for story hour. André perched in a picture window inside Winsome Brown and Claude Arpels' fashionable Tribeca apartment. Behind him, the sun was setting over [...]
Stills from The Clock by Christian Marclay (Photo courtesy arkitipintel.com) (NOTE: This review is from the summer of 2012. Marclay's The Clock is on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City through January 21, 2013, with a special 24-hour screening on New Year's [...]