Fantasy: Does art expand our ability to imagine?

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio | Juozas Cernius

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio | Juozas Cernius

Juozas Cernius is a Canadian visual artist based in Toronto. He has received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2004) and his BFA from Concordia …

Turkish and Other Delights

Turkish and Other Delights | Aslı Çavuşoğlu

Turkish and Other Delights

Turkish and Other Delights | Aslı Çavuşoğlu

A small black and white newspaper photograph hangs on the wall of Aslı Çavuşoğlu’s studio, located in an old warehouse in Istanbul’s Karaköy district. The photograph is crowd shot, taken …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Contemporary Art: The First Three Years

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Contemporary Art: The First Three Years

This week Teaching with Contemporary Art here on the blog turns 3. Frankly, I can’t believe that I’ve been writing this column for three years. At the same time, it …

Relativity-escher

The Paradoxical Art of “Inception”

The Paradoxical Art of “Inception”

What is so compelling about riddles, mysteries, and puzzles?  Most people are fascinated by images and objects that are paradoxical or impossible in real life but look oddly convincing and …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Dear Oliver

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Dear Oliver

You know what I like about Oliver Herring? Pretty much everything. Oliver was generous enough to join us for the 2nd year in a row to jump-start the Art21 Educators …

Grand Canyon Journal 3: The Painter of Video to Life

Grand Canyon Journal 3: The Painter of Video to Life

Our previous guest blogger, Karthik Pandian, continues his Grand Canyon journal in the following post. — Ed. [youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2_oWKE13TA] Has there ever been such an elegant dramatization of the power of …

Flash Points

A Look Into the Future with Saya Woolfalk

Flash Points

A Look Into the Future with Saya Woolfalk

Saya Woolfalk, “No Place: A Ritual of the Empathics,” 2009. Courtesy of the artist. This November, New York City will once again be abuzz with PERFORMA, the sprawling biennial dedicated …

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

Art21 Extended Play

What’s Cookin at the Art21 Blog: A Weekly Index

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

Art21 Extended Play

What’s Cookin at the Art21 Blog: A Weekly Index

Sports and art are holding hands. Trong Gia Nguyen takes us to first base with that and other news relating to Art21 artists. Bruce Willis was a pub rocker, Scarlett …

BOMB in the Building

Flash Points

James Casebere interviewed by Roberto Juarez

BOMB in the Building

Flash Points

James Casebere interviewed by Roberto Juarez

Welcome back to BOMB in the Building, where each week we feature a vintage BOMB interview relating to a Season 5 artist or theme. This week we look to the …

Flash Points

Professionalized Fantasy

Flash Points

Professionalized Fantasy

If I were to name art’s King and Queen of sleek professionalism, Florian Maier-Aichen and Marilyn Minter would take the crowns. They compliment each other, Maier-Aichen bringing out Minter’s reliance …

Meet the Season 5 Artist: Florian Maier-Aichen

Meet the Season 5 Artist: Florian Maier-Aichen

The above video is excerpted from the Season 5 episode Fantasy, premiering on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 10pm (ET) on PBS (check local listings). Fantasy presents four artists — …

Flash Points

The Cosplay Ethic

Flash Points

The Cosplay Ethic

I’ll let you in on a secret: I’m a bit of a cosplay fanatic. Yes, these days I sport DKNY glasses and sleek monochromatic clothing, but my urban fashionability is …

Art 2.1: Creating on the Social Web

On Virtual Worlds: An Interview with Filmmaker Victor Pineiro, Part 2

Art 2.1: Creating on the Social Web

On Virtual Worlds: An Interview with Filmmaker Victor Pineiro, Part 2

Cao Fei. Production still © Art21, Inc. 2009. Online platforms have always been social environments. “Web 2.0” was not the birth of the social Web. Rather, it marked a point …

BOMB in the Building

Flash Points

An interview with Tom Sachs by John Kessler

BOMB in the Building

Flash Points

An interview with Tom Sachs by John Kessler

Welcome back to BOMB in the Building, where each week we feature a vintage BOMB interview relating to a Season 5 artist or theme. This week, inspired by Jeff Koons‘s …

Meet the Season 5 Artist: Jeff Koons

Meet the Season 5 Artist: Jeff Koons

The above video is excerpted from the Season 5 episode Fantasy, premiering on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 10pm (ET) on PBS (check local listings). Fantasy presents four artists — …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Avoiding Wallpaper

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Avoiding Wallpaper

This week I’d like to breathe a blissful sigh after a quiet vacation AND take on the Flashpoints question for August… Does art expand our ability to imagine? My gut …

BOMB in the Building

Flash Points

An interview with Constant by Linda Boersma

BOMB in the Building

Flash Points

An interview with Constant by Linda Boersma

Welcome back to BOMB in the Building, where each week we are featuring a vintage BOMB interview relating to a Season 5 artist. This week, inspired by Cao Fei’s utopian …

Art 2.1: Creating on the Social Web

On Virtual Worlds: An Interview with Filmmaker Victor Pineiro, Part 1

Art 2.1: Creating on the Social Web

On Virtual Worlds: An Interview with Filmmaker Victor Pineiro, Part 1

Cao Fei. Production still © Art21, Inc. 2009. Admittedly, before beginning production research for our Season 5 segment on artist Cao Fei, I had very minimal experience with the virtual …

Meet the Season 5 Artist: Cao Fei

Meet the Season 5 Artist: Cao Fei

The above video is excerpted from the Season 5 episode Fantasy, premiering on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 10pm (ET) on PBS (check local listings). Fantasy presents four artists — …

Flash Points

Yeah, but no, but yeah, but…

Flash Points

Yeah, but no, but yeah, but…

Select ONE answer for ALL of the below questions: Does art expand our ability to imagine? What’s Matt Cassel without Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Bill Belichick? What came first: …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Jeff – Dumb and Blind(ing)

Letter from London

Letter from London: Jeff – Dumb and Blind(ing)

In Herbert Ross’s magisterial 1987 film The Secret of My Success, Michael J. Fox plays Brantley Foster, a charming chancer who works his way up (spoiler alert!) from mailroom to …

Flash Points

On Painting

Flash Points

On Painting

I’m a PC, and I’m about to become a Mac. How is it that in this world of Al Gore-invented internet, Steve Jobs-overlorded life 2.0 and tweeting Twitter twits I …

BOMB in the Building

Flash Points

An Interview with Mary Heilmann by Ross Bleckner

BOMB in the Building

Flash Points

An Interview with Mary Heilmann by Ross Bleckner

Welcome back to BOMB in the Building, where each week we’re featuring a vintage BOMB interview with a Season 5 artist. This week, we head back ten years to revisit …

Meet the Season 5 Artist: Mary Heilmann

Meet the Season 5 Artist: Mary Heilmann

The above video is excerpted from the Season 5 episode Fantasy, premiering on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 10pm (ET) on PBS (check local listings). Fantasy presents four artists — …

Flash Points

New Flash Points Topic: Fantasy

Flash Points

New Flash Points Topic: Fantasy

In celebration of the fifth season of Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century, premiering this fall on PBS, the current round of Flash Points topics correspond to our upcoming four thematic …