It is a strange thing to sit in a room for an hour and experience two people producing something unrecognizable. When successful, the relationship between the audience and the performers depends on generosity and trust. We, the audience, trust that we will be entertained, and so we open ourselves to the possibilities of the experience. In exchange for our receptivity, they, the performers, abandon certainty[…..]

Galeria Piwna 20/26 Emilia and Andrzej Dłużniewski 1980–1993 at Monopol provides a rare glimpse into the history of an influential apartment gallery that operated in Warsaw for thirteen years. From the imposition of Martial Law through the collapse of the Berlin Wall and beyond, the Dłużniewskis exhibited artworks by Polish and international post-conceptual artists. The retrospective exhibition at Monopol resonates with an uneasy timeliness: Given the prevailing political[…..]

Following World War I and the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the Weimar Constitution was ratified, establishing Germany’s first democracy. It ushered in a thriving cultural climate: Expressionism came to an end, the Dadaists engaged in anti-art activities, the Bauhaus school was established, and in particular, Neue Sachlichkeit, or “New Objectivity,” emerged. The movement was an alternative realism, endemic to post–WWI Germany, and[…..]

Art Brut in America: The Incursion of Jean Dubuffet, currently on view at the American Folk Art Museum in New York, focuses on two events seminal to the introduction of art brut to an American audience. The first was a 1951 speech given by the French artist Jean Dubuffet to the Arts Club of Chicago entitled “Anticultural Positions.” Displayed in full at the museum, the[…..]

Nearing the fourth anniversary of Mike Kelley’s death, REDCAT presented a theatrical screening of six of his video works, curated by Steve Anker and Bérénice Reynaud as part of the Jack H. Skirball Series. The selection of works in Mike Kelley: Single Channel Videos included a one-act melodrama based on a black-and-white yearbook photograph, a hammy and melancholic Superman reciting Sylvia Plath, an invocation of power through[…..]

Artist Laurie Anderson opens Heart of a Dog by recounting a rather bizarre dream. Illustrated on the screen through sketchy black-and-white drawings and narrated in Anderson’s calm, comely voice, the artist gives birth to her dog, Lolabelle, the spectral rat terrier who becomes in some ways (though in others not) the star of the film. After being presented with her bundle, Anderson’s dream self feels very[…..]

Shotgun Reviews are an open forum where we invite the international art community to contribute timely, short-format responses to an exhibition or event. If you are interested in submitting a Shotgun Review, please click this link for more information. In this Shotgun Review, Elena Harvey Collins reviews Yo-Yos & Half Squares: Contemporary California Quilts at the Oakland Museum of California in Oakland. On view at the Oakland Museum of[…..]