An unattended bag of garbage amid a pristine installation is quite a thing to behold. At first instinct, one can barely believe the carelessness. Perhaps, in the haste of opening night, preparatory staff neglected it—or, in the case of Lifelike at the Blanton Museum of Art, one should reprimand oneself for failure to look closely enough. Titled Hefty 2-Ply (1979–81), the garbage bag is a flawlessly[…..]
Walking into the large, darkened space of Yang Fudong’s The Fifth Night (Rehearsal) (2010) at the Berkeley Art Museum’s Yang Fudong: Estranged Paradise, Works 1993–2013, the viewer is greeted by seven large black-and-white projections on three walls. In each projection, characters perform simple actions: two men carry suitcases down the street; a woman in a floral dress wanders pensively, her silk scarf fluttering. Superimposed on[…..]
It has been a big year for Nottingham Contemporary. After receiving a boost of notoriety by way of Mark Leckey’s The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things, the recently rechristened museum and its director, Alex Farquharson, immediately launched their most ambitious curatorial project to date: a traveling exhibition titled Aquatopia. Organized with partner institution Tate St. Ives, the exhibition comprises more than 150 artworks as well as performances,[…..]
The artist’s hand is evident from the moment you walk into BUSTER SIMPSON // SURVEYOR, the first comprehensive survey of the Seattle-based artist’s forty-year career, now on view at the Frye Museum of Art. Simpson has chiseled the exhibition title’s two parallel lines into the gallery wall (on which the rest of the title is painted), like a giant trail marker or series of bite[…..]
It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust. It’s dim and dank in here, despite the warmth of the Venetian summer. A long, gnarled mass lies sprawled across the length of the floor; in the gloom of the pavilion its flesh seems luminous. In places, its limbs are bound with rags. Sometimes they rest on threadbare cushions. It’s a fallen tree, but it seems[…..]
Shotgun Reviews are an open forum where we invite the international art community to contribute timely, short-format responses (250–400 words) to an exhibition or event. If you are interested in submitting a Shotgun Review, please click this link for more information. This week’s Shotgun Review was written by Irene Gerenrot, who participated in Art Practical’s March 2012 Art Smarts writing workshop for middle-school students, produced in conjunction with 826[…..]
It’s July in Los Angeles, and as every hokey reality television show portrays, the beach beckons. I pass barefoot teenagers hustling toward the Venice promenade, Boogie boards in tow, and a motley crew of sand-encrusted terriers out for a midday stroll. My hands are already sticky from the brined air as I reach for the door of L.A. Louver—a gallery that has been situated in this[…..]
