Vivid, Tofer Chin‘s current exhibition at Commissary Arts in Los Angeles, doesn’t look like it’s about sex, even though the works’ titles and the press release explicitly reference gender, sexuality and adolescent ambivalence. Yet maybe the best thing about Chin’s work is that it asks us to reassess the way we associate psychological and bodily phenomena with graphics. Chin’s paintings occupy the place where decorative[…..]
In 1986, 7 million people created a human chain as part of the Hands Across America campaign to raise money to fight homelessness and hunger. New York artist Matt Keegan wanted to respond to that event and, last spring, he took a road trip from New York to New Mexico, making sculptural casts of the hands of mayors and people he met along the way.[…..]
Andy Warhol ate a hamburger for Jorgen Leth‘s 1981 documentary, 66 Scenes from America. He sat alone in a gray-blue room, wearing a suit coat and a tie that matched the ketchup bottle. He chewed slowly, fidgeted, stared off into space, removed the top of his bun, rolled his burger up like a taco, then fidgeted some more. He looked at the camera only once,[…..]
The Vincent Award is a biennial art prize, meant to promote peaceful communication in Europe. The Award, established in 2000, is always accompanied by an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and past winners include Pawel Althamer and Neo Rauch. The 2008 shortlist includes Francis Alys, Liam Gillick, Deimantas Narkevicius, and Rebecca Warren. Work by the four artists can currently be seen at the[…..]
Quiet Politics, currently on view at Zwirner & Wirth in New York, lives up to its name. It’s understated, discreet and somewhat guarded. In the wake of recent political intensity, David Zwirner has invited a different approach to politicized art, an approach that emphasizes thoughtfulness over reaction. The show is a multimedia experience, including work from a surprising collection of later and early career artists.[…..]
Washington DC’s Hirshhorn Museum has embraced the history and technology of cinema, launching a large scale video exhibition that explores the perpetually shady filmic relationship between fiction and reality. Called The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image, the exhibition is divided into two parts. The first, Dreams, ran through May 11th and focused on the imaginative capabilities of film. The second part, Realisms,[…..]
The artists in Environments are living in the here and now, responding to Global Warming, going green, and pollution with down-to-earth sincerity. Curated by Al Nodal, currently president of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commissions, the exhibition emphasizes the role artists play as citizens and is part of the 18th Street Art Center‘s Future of Nations Series. Environments is ultimately about engagement: How can citizens[…..]
