After Brexit, Art Must Break Out of Its Bubble
In the early days of 2009, to celebrate its ascendancy to the presidency of the European Union, the Czech Republic commissioned a special artwork…
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The Fair They Built: The Disappeared Workers of Art Basel, in Painting
For days before Art Basel opens, an ant colony of installers, assistants, interns, and technicians (an estimated majority of whom are themselves artists-on-the-make, myself…
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Understanding Lina Bo Bardi’s Unending Popularity (and Misuse)
Imagine the ghost of Lina Bo Bardi banging the ceiling with a broomstick to annoy whomever’s making a ruckus upstairs. Now imagine it’s not…
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You Are Still Here: The Present Tense and Present Threat of Mona Hatoum
Mona Hatoum’s Grater Divide (2002) is a cheese-grater nearly seven feet high. On the one hand, it’s laugh-out-loud funny. On the other, it’s lethal. It…
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Art and Architecture’s DIY Practices and “Folk Politics”: Radical or Picking Up the Social Tab?
A young architect in Berlin recently argued to me that working with refugees on a design-build project could lend it more credibility and political…
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“Please Hold Your Questions”: A Culture of Asking Questions as Criticism and Authority
At the dinner table, my father asked the priest if he could pour him a warm Coke. The priest, a distant family relative and…
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How to Become a Curator
Develop an interest in a particular area of art, history, or science. Be detail-oriented. Volunteer at a museum or similar institution. Get your undergraduate…
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Embracing the Sāo Paulo Biennial’s Acute Uncertainty
1951. “I don’t look back. I don’t want to know. I only think about the future, and I know that it’s certain.” These words…
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“Accessibility” and the New Hoser Aesthetics
It’s autumn, in Edmonton. A crowd begins to gather outside an enclosed asphalt rink where bodies will soon be pressed against each other. It’s…
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Eeriness: Tracing an Unquiet Tradition in British Landscape Art
In 1971 Derek Jarman made a 10-minute film called Journey To Avebury, documenting a summer walk through the chalklands of southern England. At first…
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