By Michele Robecchi
When the notion of ‘Expanded Cinema’ theorized by Gene Youngblood at the end of the 1960s became a major reference point for a young generation of filmmakers, it didn’t take long to realize that one of the consequences operating in such inter-disciplinary mode was that their work, still intended to be [...]
Julio Le Parc is considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century, a once young creator who migrated to Paris to become a leading voice among artist-activists and a pioneer in the use of light and color in his works. A relentless researcher into the field of art-as-experience who famously [...]
By Scott Thorp
Alfredo Jaar’s view on politics is pointed. “We’re working with the awareness that politics has failed us, that politicians have failed us, that regrettably they’ve transformed politics into junk, that they’ve corrupted it, that they have insulted it [1].” This he revealed in a 2012 conversation with the conceptual artist and [...]
Part of the mid-1980s New Wave movement in China, which includes the likes of Xu Bing and Wenda Gu, Ni Haifeng is one of the most daring and explicit of that generation to deal with the history of China’s embrace of capitalism. After immigrating to the Netherlands in the mid-1990s, his work shifted [...]
By James Lough
To avoid hearing about gentrification in U.S. cities over the last five years, you would have to live in a bomb shelter. In February, film director Spike Lee’s swear-word-studded rant against gentrification in Brooklyn went viral. Lee is only one in a series of well-known artists who have [...]
By Michele Robecchi
Like that of many of his peers who rose to global fame after meeting a premature demise, Amedeo Modigliani’s work has been over the years the subject of furious litigations, dubious authentications and endless debates about who has the authority to legitimately run (i.e. control) such hefty heritage. The dispute raged [...]
By Paco Barragán
Too often I hear the complaint that curators, especially when conceiving a concept-based group show, merely use artists to illustrate the statement they’re trying to put forward. This accusation is not only sustained by practitioners outside our artistic realm, but its fiercest champions are to be found among the ranks of [...]
By Anne Swartz
“She’s relying purely on being an attractive Muslim.” Much of the critique of Sarah Maple’s artwork comes down to this anonymous comment on myartspace.com several years ago. Maple uses her images to draw the viewer into her maelstrom, fighting against any insidious social and cultural pressures. Then, once there, she springs [...]
By Stephen Knudsen
Through analysis of Summer Wheat‘s painting and installations I will argue for the relevance of a refreshed figural expressionism that has both postmodern intertextuality and genuine selfhood. But let’s unpack some baggage first.
There’s been a black cloud over figural expressionist painters ever since Expressionism’s last heyday in the 1980s. [...]
