Contemporary Art Writing in Mexico: The Intractable and Necessary Issue of Corruption
“Hablar de corrupcion es tocar a Mexico en el corazón,” my mentor said. “Be careful.” Tocar. Transitive verb meaning: to touch, to feel, to…
Read MoreWriting
The First Modern Art Dealer and the Movement He Incited
Impresario, entrepreneur, gambler, and connoisseur – the French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922) was all of these. He was also a force in fostering…
Read More
A Spitting Fit of Teenage Rage: On the Increasing Impotence of Political Art
This is not a review. In August, I went on holiday to the delightful small city of Poznan, in western Poland. One of Europe’s…
Read More
Beware the “Creative Economy”
One-thousand six-hundred fifty-four. I’m not teaching this semester, but if I were, that is the one number that I would want everyone to remember….
Read More
The Subtle Evolution and Marked Aging of Michael Smith’s “Mike”
Michael Smith belongs to the first wave of artists who made extensive use of mass-media imagery and formats in their work. His conceptually-minded peers…
Read More
Shedding New Light on the Night: Obscurity and Clarity in the American Nocturne
Artists have long exploited the Zoroastrian struggle between light and dark to create images. Although darkness implies mystery and melancholy, in the hands of…
Read More
From This Deep and Powerful Sculpture Emerged This Mask: Reading Haegue Yang Through Victor Hugo
How the disfigured transfigure, how the formless become heavenly […] this strange spectacle had a transparence of an avatar. – Victor Hugo, The Man Who…
Read More
First Nations Art and the Matter of Its Politics
Is contemporary Aboriginal art necessarily political? Does art made by First Nations, Inuit, or Métis artists inevitably engage with such historical events and trauma…
Read More
Successfully Mining Politics for Feeling: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev’s Istanbul Biennial
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev’s Istanbul biennial SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms opened with speeches and song as the artworld gathered to see her first major exhibition…
Read More
Momus “Best Of”: Vol. 1
It’s been a good ten months. Since October 2014, Momus has quickly become a trusted reference for those wishing to reflect on contemporary art at…
Read More