Ryan McNamara and the Afterlife of Performance
How does performance art survive? What artifacts, narratives, or documents testify to performance’s occurrence? For the genre’s venerable practitioners from its historic moment of…
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When Does Performing Failure Make Its Own Failure?
How can an artist enact failure without presenting a failed act? How does an artist present an ethos of collapse without making work that…
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The Exit Interview: Stéphane Aquin Looks Back As He Advances to the Hirshhorn
Stéphane Aquin holds a distinguished profile in the Canadian artworld and abroad, in part because he arrived to the role of curator from art…
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Villa Toronto’s Failure and Provocation: How Do We Invite the Outside In?
In order to enter the Union Station’s Great Hall – a stunning keystone of Toronto’s historic architecture, with soaring coffered ceilings and heritage marble…
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Interview: Pedro Reyes Reclaims the Politics in Art
Mexican artist Pedro Reyes assumes a mantel that feels at once familiar and utterly unique. In a contemporary-art moment that is pronounced for its lateral reach…
Read MoreWhy I Believe New York’s Art Scene Is Doomed
This is an article about art and gentrification, the inescapable topic. I have something new to add—that I think we may be coming to the…
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In Praise of Good Art Writing
I took this task a bit too seriously. I read every back issue of every magazine snow-drifting throughout my house, fingering all the books…
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Alien vs. Predator: The Critic in Three Recent Films
“What has to happen in someone’s life for them to end up becoming a critic?” asks Michael Keaton’s desperate, contemptuous Riggan Thomson in Alejandro…
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30 Art-Writing Clichés to Ditch in the New Year
It’s a new year, which is a fine excuse as any to ditch old bad habits. Here below, I have assembled a not-at-all exhaustive…
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Year in Review: Montreal From the Ground Up
A principal difference between year-end lists, rankings, and recollections about art, and those about music, books, or films is that it’s much more difficult…
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