Two Photographers: A Personal Appreciation Part Two
New York City in the 1950s and early ’60s was alive with art and music. The Abstract Expressionists were painting, the Beats were writing and reading poetry, performance art was taking off, jazz was everywhere and what would be called folk music was also being heard. Robert Frank was in his ‘30s making photographs, then […]
Within The Walls, The Beach! – Alexander Squier’s “Earthly Bodies: The Houston Brick Archive”
“Sous les pavés, la plage!” (“Under the paving stones, the beach!”) went the rallying cry of French students in the protests of May ‘68. Referring to the sand found beneath Paris cobblestones lifted to hurl at police and build barricades, this phrase, soon championed by the Situationists[1], came to symbolize a reclamation of freedom through […]
Letter from Reykjavik: Erró: Mao‘s World Tour Reykjavik Art Museum Hafnarhus May 1, 2019-January 26, 2020
Located just below the Artic Circle, Iceland is the Land of Fire and Ice: a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic defined by its dramatic landscape with one-hundred thirty volcanic mountains, geysers, hot springs and lava fields. Iceland mostly stays quietly out of the news – but in 2010 – Iceland was major global […]
The Task of the Curator: “Everything is Rhythm” at the Toledo Museum of Art
A dilemma faced by any art museum is how to keep the public consistently engaged. One way to do this is through visiting exhibitions, which are essential to the vibrancy of the museum. However, what about the permanent collection? How can a museum newly engage patrons with paintings they may have seen many times before? […]
I R E M E M B E R F E E L I N G F A R
Carried across the country by a Seattle transplant, a little piece of Cincinnati finds its way into the Emerald City’s soil. Now on display at Specialist, a gallery and artist-run space, artist Jay Stern features his first solo exhibition: I Remember Feeling Far. With a centrally creative background, Stern has worked in the industries of […]
Fashion for Life – La Mode Pour La Vie
176 looks. 50 years of fashion. One iconic runway show. That’s how you end a career. Or, more aptly, that’s how iconic fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier retires. The final collection of any famed designer is always one met with sadness … Will anyone have a voice in fashion like them again? Will they be […]
“American Dirt” by Jeanine Cummins
“American Dirt”, the new and much anticipated novel by Jeanine Cummins, has caused a huge kerfluffle in leftist literary circles and amongst a number of writers of Mexican heritage, amongst others. The novel itself may be getting lost in the swirls of controversy. Cummins, who is a mostly white woman (her father was Puerto Rican), […]
“This is Happiness” by Niall Williams
A very good friend of mine recently observed that I probably read more than most people do; I’ve been a serious reader of mostly fiction since my junior year in high school way back in the ’60s. So when I claim that Niall Williams’ new novel “This Is Happiness” is the most beautiful novel I’ve […]