The title of El Museo del Barrio’s biennial exhibit Here Is Where We Jump refers to one of Aesop’s Fables, “The Braggart.” In the tale, a man boasts of an extraordinary jump he once made in Rhodes. He claims witnesses will attest to the jump if the listeners ever visit his home country. Eventually, someone challenges the man to reproduce the jump, saying, “Jump here, jump now.[…..]

Ontario College of Art & Design’s professional gallery space, Onsite [at] OCAD U, is raw and industrial. Its warehouse-like ambiance is enhanced by the cinder block walls, industrial piping crisscrossing the ceiling, and bank of floor-to-ceiling windows facing the street. These features present a number of restrictions when mounting an exhibition, a challenge for artists and curators in this unconventional gallery setting. In No Dull[…..]

Though I can’t remember the first time I saw Liz Magic Laser‘s work (and yes, it’s her given name), I was entranced by this video of her commission for the 2013 Armory Show in New York. So much artwork these days looks like it was made by committee, so why not explicitly use the methodology of a focus group to create the work for the commission? It’s[…..]

#race #class #access #commerce #representation #empowerment #codeswitching As the values of the contemporary art elite veer ever farther toward commerce, art with a social justice conscience is rallying in New York—arguably the center of the global art market. This summer, three prominent artists known for their political consciences have been drawing attention for thoughtful, research-heavy projects. In Chelsea, Hank Willis Thomas and the team of William Powhida and Jade Townsend have[…..]

#institutions #representation #access #sustainability #visibility #regionalism #globalism Two shows at San Francisco museums this past July proposed to reconcile gaps between local and global concerns. For Proximities I: What Time Is It There? at the Asian Art Museum, guest curator Glen Helfand asked a group of Bay Area artists to consider the concept of Asia from the perspective of the culturally uninitiated. Migrating Identities, at Yerba[…..]

Today we bring you a From the DS Archives post entitled “I love you Jet Li.” In it, author Catherine Wagley discusses love, heartbreak, and a video by the artist Jaco Bouwer. Bouwer is part of the new group exhibition [Working Title] 2013, now on view through August 19 at Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa. The following article was originally published on July 2, 2010, as a part of the weekly column “L.A. Expanded,”[…..]

Today we bring you a video excerpt of Richard T. Walker‘s recent performance the security of impossibility, part of the Summer Music Series at Kadist San Francisco. Originally performed on July 10, 2013, the security is composed of layered harmonies, live and recorded music, multiple projections, and participant-operated tape players.