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  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • IFA Insights
  • Notes from the Lectern

Recent Posts

  • Feb 22, 2021 Eric Goh on Mutual Aid and Friendship as a Pathway Out of Disaster
  • Feb 15, 2021 “Whose Utopia” – Cao Fei at the Museum of Modern Art
  • Jan 29, 2021 “About Time: Fashion and Duration” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Jan 15, 2021 The works speak for themselves: Tishan Hsu at SculptureCenter
  • Oct 09, 2020 On wingless birds and permeable cages: Petrit Halilaj at the Palacio de Cristal, Madrid

The Usable Past

The Usable Past: “The concept that a self-conscious examination of historical figures, moments, and symbols can shape current and future political formation.”[1] This is how the Whitney defines the title…

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A Daring Balancing Act: “Programmed” at the Whitney

Drawing heavily from the Whitney Museum of American Art’s permanent collection, Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018 includes a broad range of works that spans fifty years of…

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“Whose Utopia” – Cao Fei at the Museum of Modern Art

Factories always fascinate me, as I often wonder how the things I eat, use, or consume are manufactured by workers or machines: transforming raw materials into final products. Since the…

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  • Izat Arif, Kenangan itu, hanya mainan bagimu…, 2020, Mutual Aid Projects. Photo: Izat Arif.

    Eric Goh on Mutual Aid and Friendship as a Pathway Out of Disaster

    February 22, 2021

    Eric Goh discusses how the pandemic motivated him to take a year off from his studies and start Mutual Aid Projects, a curator-run project space in Kuala Lampur.

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    Hannah Sage Kay
  • Cao Fei, "Whose Utopia," 2006.

    “Whose Utopia” – Cao Fei at the Museum of Modern Art

    February 15, 2021

    Factories always fascinate me, as I often wonder how the things I eat, use, or consume are manufactured by workers or machines: transforming raw materials into final products. Since the Industrial Revolution, factories have become a prominent subject of art history. Some artists depict them as a spectacle, some express concerns about their environmental impact, and others simply appreciate the…

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    Ruby (Xiaofan) Wu
  • About Time: Fashion and Duration Installation View, Clock One

    “About Time: Fashion and Duration” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

    January 29, 2021

    About Time: Fashion and Duration is the biggest exhibition of the year for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and part of the Met’s 150th anniversary celebrations. The simplicity of both its design and the garments on view is a refreshing change after years of exhibitions that have only grown in scale and complexity, culminating in 2019’s…

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    Alexa Breininger
  • "Tishan Hsu: Liquid Circuit," installation view, SculptureCenter, New York, 2020. Photo: Kyle Knodell

    The works speak for themselves: Tishan Hsu at SculptureCenter

    January 15, 2021

    Recently, the artist Tishan Hsu, who had largely retreated from public view since first emerging in the New York scene during the late 1980s, resurfaced in 2020.

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    Xitong Tang
  • Exterior view of "To a raven and the hurricanes which bring back smells of humans in love from unknown places" Retiro Park, Palacio de Cristal, Madrid, Spain, 2020.

    On wingless birds and permeable cages: Petrit Halilaj at the Palacio de Cristal, Madrid

    October 9, 2020

    In "to a raven and the hurricanes which bring back smells of humans in love from unknown places," Petrit Halilaj’s vivid celebration of transcendent queer love takes on new resonance in the context of the global pandemic.

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    Hannah Rose Feniak
  • Making Medieval New: “Gothic Spirit” at Luhring Augustine

    March 2, 2020

    Gothic Spirit: Medieval Art from Europe, on view through March 7, 2020 at Luhring Augustine and presented in partnership with London-based gallery Sam Fogg, features around thirty pieces of medieval art from private collections. These objects are exhibited against a backdrop typically seen in modern and contemporary art galleries. The blank walls and clean, bright lighting of this setting, as…

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    Frances Lilliston
  • Charlotte Perriand

    Charlotte Perriand: Pioneering Design in a Man’s World

    February 17, 2020

    Pictured on street corners and plastered throughout the metro system, an eye-catching image announcing the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s current exhibition Charlotte Perriand: Inventing a New World has bombarded Parisians for weeks. In the advertisement, a photograph shows the architect-designer Perriand (1903–1999) silhouetted against her native French Alps, sparsely outfitted in only pants and a pearl necklace, thrusting a pair of mittens…

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    Johanna Sluiter
  • Edmund de Waal

    Reworking Spaces: “Elective Affinities: Edmund de Waal” at The Frick Collection

    November 3, 2019

    Walking into The Frick Collection, one is met with a historic setting in which to view a wide range of paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, and currently, contemporary British artist Edmund de Waal’s Elective Affinities: Edmund de Waal at The Frick Collection. The exhibition was curated by Charlotte Vignon, Curator of Decorative Arts. A unique, exciting element of this exhibition is…

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    Danarenae Donato
  • A Daring Balancing Act: “Programmed” at the Whitney

    April 4, 2019

    Drawing heavily from the Whitney Museum of American Art’s permanent collection, Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018 includes a broad range of works that spans fifty years of instruction-based artistic practice. In a groundbreaking collaboration, the exhibition was co-curated by Christiane Paul, Adjunct Curator of Digital Art, and Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, Melva Bucksbaum Associate Director for Conservation and Research.…

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    Sasha Arden
  • Joan Semmel

    Reflections on the Body and Self in Joan Semmel’s New Paintings

    February 7, 2019

    Despite a month of chilling temperatures, Joan Semmel’s captivating new paintings on view in A Necessary Elaboration at Alexander Gray Associates (January 10 – February 16, 2019) bestow a welcome rush of warmth and meditative calm upon gallery-goers. In a series of works produced within the last two years, Semmel demonstrates her mastery of color and the sculptural application of…

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    Alison Emilia Tufano
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