Art Movements

Hyperallergic Reviews editor Dessane Lopez Cassell and Documentary associate editor Dan Schindel join me to discuss our favorite films from 2019.We discuss Parasite, The Farewell, America, High Life, Midnight Traveler, the new frontiers of documentary, including Syrmor, The Giverny Document, and more. We also discuss the recent boom in superhero movies, how they dominate conversation about film, Martin Scorsese’s problems with the genre, and what it tells us about movies today. We also talk about Schindel's newly published essay, "What Is a Documentary These Days?" Sponsors:OVIDAre you looking for the perfect gift for the cinephile in your life? What if you could give them a whole year of the best documentary and art-house films from around the world? Our friends at OVID.tv are making that easier than ever with a special holiday offer!From now until midnight on Monday, December 2nd, OVID is offering 25% off their annual subscriptions. This means you get a whole year of OVID—the best streaming service for crit

The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) was founded by women over a century ago, and it continues to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. Its current president, Rosanne Somerson, who is also an accomplished furniture designer, stopped by to talk about the institution and how it has pivoted to stay on top of the field, while serving an increasingly diverse student body.We also discuss the RISD Museum and its recent attempt to repatriate an item in its collection, the financial realities that face students, and how arts education can help us solve some of the challenges of today.A special thanks to musician Sophie Hintze for allowing us to use her unreleased song “Coffee in the Rain.” You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram.This and more in the current episode of our weekly Art Movements podcast.Subscribe to Hyperallergic’s podcast on iTunes, or RSS, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

Joan Kee is the rare combination of art historian and lawyer, and she's shared her skills in her new book, Models of Integrity: Art and Law in Post-Sixties America, which examines the legal issues major contemporary artists (from Tehching Hsieh to Felix Gonzales-Torres) have confronted in the past 60 years.Kee's research shows that since the 1960s, as artist projects have become more expansive and expensive, the world of lawyers and laws is becoming a bigger part of the equation. From discussions of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "Running Fence" land art project (they actually had offers to place the project elsewhere, which would've been a lot easier) to Gordon Matta-Clark's Fake Estates micro-real estate project (there is no evidence the artist did or did not want to present this as an artwork), Kee's research demonstrates that the history of art has increasingly been intertwined with its legal realities.A special thanks to Brooklyn-based musician SunSon for providing the music to this episode, and you can che

Born in 1923 in Pennsylvania to Lebanese parents, Helen Khal would go on to become an important presence in the modern art world of Lebanon as a prominent art critic and artist. A new exhibition at Beirut’s Sursock Museum tells the history of that period through her friendships and relationships with a coterie of artists and writers who would become some of the most important artist voices in the region.Commissioned by Ashkal Alwan for the Sursock Museum's biennial Home Works gathering of lectures, performances, exhibitions and events — most of which, with the exception of the exhibitions, has been indefinitely postponed because of the recent nationwide protests in Lebanon. The exhibition is titled At the still point of the turning world, there is the dance and includes work by Chafic Abboud, Yvette Achkar, Etel Adnan, Huguette Caland, Simone Fattal, Farid Haddad, Helen Khal, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Aref Rayess, and Dorothy Salhab-Kazemi.Curators Carla Chammas and Rachel Dedman spoke to me about this incredib

From nine weeks of protests to an exhibition that was more ethnically and racially diverse than previous years, this year’s Whitney Biennial has a lot to unpack.I asked our associate news editor Jasmine Weber, editor and critic Seph Rodney, and reporter Hakim Bishara to join me to reflect on months of controversy and offer their opinions on the exhibition itself. We discuss favorite works, what may have been accomplished, and duds. You’ll want to hear this.A special thanks to Wanderraven, who provided the music to this week’s episode. The song is called “Here Into The Dark”. Listen to more at wanderraven.com.

Last week, Hyperallergic published a five-part series, titled The Danger Epidemic in Art Handling, on the realities facing art handlers in the United States. The story generated a lot of debate and shocked many who were never forced to think about the conditions workers are forced to endure when assembling and transporting art of all types. This conversation with Hyperallergic Senior Writer Zachary Small and Associate News Editor Jasmine Weber explores the contours of the topic, the difficulties of reporting on contentious art world issues, and how investigative reporting is crucial for change. We also discuss the Sotheby's lockout of art handlers, which we covered extensively in 2011 and 2012. A special thanks to Peter Gabriel's Real World Records for allowing us to play a special live track by world music legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The label is celebrating its 30th anniversary of Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records and they marked the occasion by announcing the release of a previously unheard recording by

On the first floor of the Gardiner Museum, in the Art of the Americas gallery, there is a large Maya plate dating to the 6th to 7th centuries CE. It features a large deity in the center of the orange and black earthenware object with a band of glyphs around the edge of the dish. This object is well-known to Maya specialists, not only for the mastery of the design, but because of the inscription that not only mentions the name and location of the donor but also explains that it was a plate used to serve white venison tamales. In this episode, we talk to four experts in the field, Gardiner Museum educator and curator Siobhan Boyd, Metropolitan Museum curator James Doyle, cultural historian Margaret Visser, and Popti storyteller Maria Monteja to peel back the layers of history in this wondrous artifact from ancient times to learn about Maya traditions and culture through the lens of today. A special thanks to SunSon for providing the music to this special series, which is produced by Hyperallergic in conjunction

Joseph Pierce wants you to question everything, but especially queerness. The Cherokee citizen and Stony Brook University assistant professor believes the moment has come for queer academia to seriously question the roots of their discipline, and ask how the field can expand to include more voices outside the Euro-American canon of Judith Butlers and Jack Halberstams. "When we think about queerness," Pierce explains, "it's seen as a universal theory that can be applied everywhere. But often what that does is maintain a framework based on coloniality and white supremacy. What we want to do is question how queerness circulates." Accordingly, the young researcher has teamed up with scholars from across the Western hemisphere to produce a special edition of GLQ, an important journal of lesbian and gay studies published by Duke University Press. The forthcoming issue intends to address the limits of queerness outside normative white contexts, and how decolonization and the schema of radical liberation might provid

There's a curious collection of 18th-century porcelain figurines displayed on the second floor of the Gardiner Museum. Set amidst an impressive display of European ceramic table wear and figurines, this small assortment of Harlequin sculptures don dark masks that stand out for contemporary audiences. One of the colorful sculptures is by Wenzel Neu and hails from the Kloster-Veilsdorf Porcelain Factory in Germany, c. 1764–65, and beside it is a sign that asks, "Is Harlequin in blackface?" In this episode, we talk to Professor Cheryl Thompson, anti-racist educator Rania El Mugammar, and the Gardiner's Chief Curator Sequoia Miller about this figurine that portrays a character from the Commedia dell'Arte that was a precursor to the more violently racialized images of blackface in 19th and 20th-century minstrel shows. We explore the long history of blackface in Canada, and how one museum is adapting to tell the stories that its collection provokes with contemporary audiences. A special thanks to musician SunSon fo

Canadian artist Shary Boyle is known for her incredible ability to transform clay and ceramic into feats of delicate wonder, using the human body and the history of the material to delve into the undercurrents and meanings often overlooked by contemporary viewers. In the second in a four-part podcast series produced by Hyperallergic in conjunction with the Gardiner Museum's Community Arts Space: What we long for initiative, she reminds us: "Let us not let the art world homogenize us when we all individually as young people might have chosen to become artists." She continues, "I chose to become an artist to try to pursue a life of true questioning and subversion and an alternative position to what I saw as a common drive towards capitalist values of growth and progression and I want to just to continually have access to watching and observing and questioning that." In this episode, I speak to the artist about her relationship to a material that has been having a renaissance in contemporary art, and she shares

Most of our earliest experiences of art are forged at museums. In this episode artist Kent Monkman recounts his own youth visiting institutions that didn’t reflect the lived reality around him and his Cree community in Winnipeg.  Since those formative years, Monkman has become an important voice in contemporary art who challenges the histories told inside the hallowed halls of museums, pushing them to reflect the complexity of the world around them. He is an artist who teaches us to imagine the world we want to see, one that refuses to erase the stories of pain, but instead uses them to portray the power of resilience and future possibilities. This is the first in a four-part series by Hyperallergic in conjunction with the Gardiner Museum and its Community Art Space, a platform for experimentation and socially-engaged art. The series explores the role of museums, ceramics, and the stories they tell. A special thanks to Brooklyn-based musician SunSon for providing the music to this episode, and you can check o

During this special Pride Month, I knew we'd all need the wisdom of artist Nayland Blake, who is a leader in the field of queer representation and art, but that is one of his many talents as an artist, activist, educator, and innovator. This episode, I talk to Blake to learn about their experiences growing up biracial and queer in New York, going to school in Southern California, their formative years in San Francisco, and their return to New York. They also school me on kink. A special thanks to Twig Twig for the music to this week’s episode. You can listen to that and more at twigtwig.bandcamp.com and other streaming services. This episode is sponsored by Swann Auction Galleries. Swann’s first ever “Pride Sale,” a curated auction of material related to the LGBTQ+ experience and the gay rights movement, takes place on June 20, 2019. A corresponding exhibition of works on offer will run from June 15 through the sale.

Morehshin Allahyari has been capturing the imagination of art lovers the world over since her Material Speculation: ISIS series from 2015-16 propelled her into the spotlight. For that project, she recreated objects destroyed by the ISIS terrorist organization in Iraq. For that ambitious endeavor, she used the few images she could collect of the artifacts themselves and then 3D printed them in a beautiful translucent material that revealed a USB — filled with the related data — buried deep inside the new works. Her latest project, which is performance-lecture that was commissioned and presented by New Museum affiliate Rhizome, is titled Physical Tactics for Digital Colonialism, and it builds on her concept of digital colonialism in relation to the technology of 3D printing. The lecture was just released online by Rhizome, but I wanted to invite her into our Brooklyn studio to talk about the issues surrounding digital colonialism. A special thanks to Prince Harvey, who provided the music for this episode. Title

What is June, really? It's a time for the LGBTQ community to come together and reflect on the ongoing fight for equality, even as we honor the hard-won achievements by queer activists past and present. It's also an opportunity to reflect on the rich creativity and diversity of our friends and chosen families. That's why Hyperallergic is putting a special spotlight on the queer arts community this month. Writers, philosophers, activists, illustrators, painters, sculptors, poets, filmmakers, performers, drag queens — everyone, all creative people are important beacons of hope and resilience in a time of political uncertainty. We've always been devoted to using our website as a platform for historically marginalized peoples, and Pride Month is also a time to celebrate and double-down on that work. Inaugurating this effort, we invited artist and actor Cristina Pitter to share a selection of readings from her solo performance, Decolonizing the Color of Queerness on our Hyperallergic Art Movements podcast. It's som

Paola Antonelli is the Museum of Modern Art’s Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture & Design, as well as the institution’s Director of R&D. She’s also — like me — a fan of the beloved arts organization Eyebeam. This month, Eyebeam celebrates its 20th anniversary, and Antonelli will be the keynote speaker at the celebration. I sat down with this leading curator to discuss the world of design, tech, and what organizations like Eyebeam are doing to change the landscape. A special thanks to Newborn Huskies for the music to this week’s episode. You can listen to that and more at newbornhuskies.bandcamp.com and on other streaming services.

Last year, editor Elisa Wouk Almino relocated from Hyperallergic’s New York-based office to Los Angeles to help expand coverage along the West Coast. In this podcast, she chats with Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian about her initial impressions of the city, where artists have been increasingly flocking to. We then speak with Catherine G. Wagley, a veteran Los Angeles art critic and reporter who has contributed nuanced op-eds and reported stories to the site. She shares her thoughts on why Los Angeles is such an appealing city for artists and how it differentiates itself from other major centers like New York. She also talks about how students at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) have been battling for more transparent financial policies — a fight that is relevant for art schools across the country. Finally, two of our frequent contributors, Matt Stromberg and Abe Ahn, share some of their favorite art spaces and experiences in Los Angeles. If you live in the city or are planning a summer trip, don’t

When news that Michael Rakowitz withdrew from the 2019 Whitney Biennial was published by the New York Times on February 25, people wondered why the Iraqi-American artist decided to sit out the biannual art event. Later, in April, when the Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything opened at the Jewish Museum, many people noticed that Rakowitz's work about the renowned Canadian crooner’s relationship with Zionism and Israel — which appeared in the original exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal — wasn’t there. Why? Rakowitz talks to me about the controversies with both exhibitions and his thoughts on museums and power. He also reads his 2015 letter to Leonard Cohen, which he mailed to the singer a year before the legend died. And, as a special treat, the music in this podcast is performed by Rakowitz himself.

The business of artists's estates is becoming a big business, but the realities facing artists today aren't always as glamorous as some might think. For every multi-millionaire dollar Robert Rauschenberg estate, there are thousands of lesser-known talents whose families have to confront the tough decisions about what to do with hundreds of artworks and archives. To sort out the realities facing artists and their loved ones, I invited two experts in the field who deal extensively with artist estates. Saul Ostrow is a critic, curator, and a principal at Art Legacy Planning, and Jason Andrew is a curator and partner at Artist Estate Studio. Both of them are on the front lines of helping artists and their families decide what to do with their art after they pass away. I invited them to share their expertise in an episode that is a must-listen for those who are faced (or may be one day) with helping the artists in their lives to plan for the inevitable. A special thanks to Twig Twig for the music to this week’s ep

A business and financial literacy conference, the Art World Conference is gathering together 50 speakers for panel discussions, conversations, and in-depth workshops addressing many of the challenges faced by visual artists and arts professionals who work closely with artists. The multi-day event is the brainchild of Dexter Wimberly and Heather Bhandari, two veterans of the art field who bring decades of expertise to the table. I invited Dexter and Heather to the studio to talk about the changing currents of the art community and their own visions for a more empowered and exciting art world. We discuss the lingering myths that continue to plague art professionals, and new ways forward. The music in this podcast was provided by Providence-based band Strawberry Generation. Check them out on Spotify, Apple Music, Facebook and Instagram. They are currently working on their first full-length album, to be released later in the year. They’re also getting ready to tour for the first time this summer, playing at the I

What if artists were invited into institutions of higher learning to lead conversations about safety, community, and change? Artist Shaun Leonardo was invited to be the visiting fellow at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and he's been organizing a series of events that are trying to break down the barriers between various aspects of the Pratt community. I invited him, along with Jane South, who is the chair of the Fine Arts Department within the School of Art at Pratt Institute, to discuss the challenges and goals for such an initiative. And we discuss their big event on April 9 titled "Open Exchange: Belonging." A special thanks to Jonathon Jircitano for allowing us to use his new single, "Falling Into Place," which is available on iTunes, Spotify, and other music services.