Troubling Self-Care in a Selfie World: The Photographs of Karen Asher
Karen Asher has always photographed people, from those she knows intimately to the strangers she meets in passing. As portraits, they fall within an…
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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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The “Fuck Em” Sex and Class Reversals of Alicia Gibson
A blind date is unfolding at Canada Gallery, in Alicia Gibson’s painting My Mom Set Me Up With a Redneck (2016). If, like me,…
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Vancouver Art Gallery’s “MashUp” Too Limited in its Understanding
The Vancouver Art Gallery’s survey exhibition MashUp is a missed opportunity. To be clear, that’s not because the artworks are “bad” (they’re not) or…
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The Pantomimed Fellowship of Nicole Eisenman’s “Al-ugh-ories”
Nicole Eisenman – beloved New York painter, now MacArthur-certified “Genius” – has just opened a show at the New Museum with the jokey title, “Al-ugh-ories.” The single-floor showing…
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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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The Archive is a Set of Relations, Not a Record of History: Thomas Ruff at David Zwirner
Pockmarked moons and missiles at launch, astronauts in profile, and dark-suited men eying fighter jets in take-off. Scrawled archival notes map the surface of…
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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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The Depressing Power of Art in Raphaëlle de Groot’s “Summit Meetings”
Between 2009 and 2012, Raphaëlle de Groot invited people to give her objects that they no longer wanted but couldn’t get rid of. As…
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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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