Columns & Features

Praxis Makes Perfect

Praxis Makes Perfect | In The Long Run

Praxis Makes Perfect

Praxis Makes Perfect | In The Long Run

Erin Sweeny looks at the role that failure and the unexpected plays in sustaining an art practice over the long run.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Tanya Aguiñiga / Transnational Arts Operative

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Tanya Aguiñiga / Transnational Arts Operative

Danielle McCullough profiles Tanya Aguiñiga, an artist/activist whose works take many forms, many of which engage notions of transnational autobiography.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Lynda Benglis in the Elementary Classroom

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Lynda Benglis in the Elementary Classroom

Sharing contemporary art is a wonderful way to generate questions and discussions about art, and in turn, motivate young artists to take risks with their own art making.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Guest Bloggers This Week: Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Guest Bloggers This Week: Teaching with Contemporary Art

This week I am pleased to say that the Teaching with Contemporary Art column some guest bloggers…
Julia CopperSmith and Maureen Hergott are both alumni of the Art21 Educators program and teach elementary art education at Scott and Westdale Elementary Schools in Melrose Park and Northlake near Chicago. Their work has been inspiring to all of us here at Art21 for the past two years, especially since they are finding ways to work with contemporary art and engage some very young students in the process.

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | My Cure for End-of-Semester Kvetching

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | My Cure for End-of-Semester Kvetching

Katherine Pulido finds inspiration in the fiber works and drawings of the late artist Lenore Tawney, whose works are currently on view at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Alchemy of Inspiration

Alchemy of Inspiration I Baryshnikov in Conversation: “Art I’ve Lived With”

Alchemy of Inspiration

Alchemy of Inspiration I Baryshnikov in Conversation: “Art I’ve Lived With”

Jessica Lott talks to famed dancer/choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov about his art collection, on view now in the exhibition “The Art I’ve Lived With” at ABA Gallery in Manhattan.

New Kids on the Block

New Kids on the Block | “Brain Work” with Pilvi Takala

New Kids on the Block

New Kids on the Block | “Brain Work” with Pilvi Takala

Jacquelyn Gleisner talks to the Istanbul-based artist Pilvi Takala, whose performance-based “interventions” challenge social and behavioral norms.

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio | Tumelo Mosaka (Part 2)

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio | Tumelo Mosaka (Part 2)

Part 2 of Georgia Kotretsos’ conversation with curator Tumelo Mosaka, in which he discusses his upcoming curatorial project “Blind Field” at the Krannert Museum.

Gimme Shelter: Performance Now

Gimme Shelter | Infiltrating the MoMA Atrium, Part 1: An Interview with Ralph Lemon on the Curation of “Some sweet day”

Gimme Shelter: Performance Now

Gimme Shelter | Infiltrating the MoMA Atrium, Part 1: An Interview with Ralph Lemon on the Curation of “Some sweet day”

Marissa Perel talks to Ralph Lemon about the series “Some sweet day,” which was shown in the MoMA’s atrium from October 15 to November 4th, 2012.

On View Now

On View Now | Mark Bradford and the Revival of Abstraction

On View Now

On View Now | Mark Bradford and the Revival of Abstraction

Max Weintraub on Mark Bradford’s monumental new works, on view at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in New York.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Combining (Complicating?) Ideas

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Combining (Complicating?) Ideas

Years ago I had a professor who was a bit cruel when it came to giving feedback. But one piece of feedback he gave me has influenced my teaching, especially in units like this one. He once said, exasperated over my inability to get to the next step on a piece, “Joe, you call these ideas?? Put them together and make one good one!”
In the spirit of this advice which has resonated with me for years I have asked my own students to begin combining ideas in order to more fully explore and depict the theme and subject they have chosen.

Bedfellows: Art and Visual Culture

Bedfellows | The Magic Window

Bedfellows: Art and Visual Culture

Bedfellows | The Magic Window

Victoria Gannon on the drawings of Desirée Holman and the alienations of nuclear family life.

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio | Tumelo Mosaka (Part 1)

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio | Tumelo Mosaka (Part 1)

Part 1 of Georgia Kotretsos’ conversation with Tumelo Mosaka, curator of contemporary art at the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign, IL.

Lives and Works in Berlin

Lives and Works in Berlin | The Evolution of Mike: Michael Smith in Berlin

Lives and Works in Berlin

Lives and Works in Berlin | The Evolution of Mike: Michael Smith in Berlin

Ali Fitzgerald takes us through Michael Smith’s exhibition “Fountain” at Dan Gunn Gallery in Kreuzberg.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Reflecting on Visual Conversations

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Reflecting on Visual Conversations

In my previous post two weeks ago I said that I was interested in encouraging students to draw relationships between works of art and to think about how context affects what we see. Can works of art “speak” to the viewer or have “conversations” with other works? If so, how? Today was the day, after a long Thanksgiving weekend, for the group to share works in progress and get some feedback from one another.

Center Field: Art in the Middle with Bad at Sports.

Centerfield | The Past Lives of Books

Center Field: Art in the Middle with Bad at Sports.

Centerfield | The Past Lives of Books

Caroline Picard on the many forms that textual marginalia may take.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Truth and Illusion, Pigeons and Freeways

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Truth and Illusion, Pigeons and Freeways

Catherine Wagley details an L.A. artist’s Quixotic efforts to hack freeway signs using homing pigeons. But was any of it for real?

Praxis Makes Perfect

Praxis Makes Perfect | Animating Passion

Praxis Makes Perfect

Praxis Makes Perfect | Animating Passion

Antonius Wiriadjaja visits the studio of famed puppeteer Lou Nasti, whose mechanical displays and animated objects have captivated audiences worldwide.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Spotlight Conversations

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Spotlight Conversations

During Art21’s yearlong professional development initiative, Art21 Educators, we ask that teachers coordinate a one-on-one or group conversation that allows them to reflect on and explore major successes and challenges …

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | Let the Good Work Prevail: Navigating Social Practice, Object Making, and the Market

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | Let the Good Work Prevail: Navigating Social Practice, Object Making, and the Market

Must contemporary artists choose between object-making and “social practice” art? Lindsay Preston Zappas looks at what it takes to create a “new art world system.”

Alchemy of Inspiration

Alchemy of Inspiration I “Fore”ward at The Studio Museum in Harlem

Alchemy of Inspiration

Alchemy of Inspiration I “Fore”ward at The Studio Museum in Harlem

Jessica Lott looks at The Studio Museum’s “Fore,” a group exhibition of young emerging artists of African descent whose works draw from multiple art historical traditions and lineages.

Word is a Virus

Word is a Virus | Revisiting Zines

Word is a Virus

Word is a Virus | Revisiting Zines

Are zines making a comeback? Carol Cheh looks at the evolution of self-publishing since the 1990s and the resurgence of the zine scene in Los Angeles.

Gimme Shelter: Performance Now

Gimme Shelter | The Rush of Fall, Part 2: Archive of a Deluge

Gimme Shelter: Performance Now

Gimme Shelter | The Rush of Fall, Part 2: Archive of a Deluge

Marissa Perel surveys the damage wrought by Superstorm Sandy, and details the local relief efforts of Occupy Sandy and other local ad hoc groups to provide aid.

Gastro-Vision

Gastro-Vision | Anti-Cancer Cooking in a Post-Hurricane Sandy World

Gastro-Vision

Gastro-Vision | Anti-Cancer Cooking in a Post-Hurricane Sandy World

Nicole Caruth looks at two recent projects by Beatriz da Costa, both part of Art, Environment, Action! at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons.

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Moving Time: A Fossil-Fueled Journey from Appalachia to Los Angeles through Motion Pictures

Looking at Los Angeles

Looking at Los Angeles | Moving Time: A Fossil-Fueled Journey from Appalachia to Los Angeles through Motion Pictures

New “Looking at Los Angeles” contributor Danielle McCullough surveys the independent film scene in Los Angeles.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Getting Set for Visual Conversations

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Getting Set for Visual Conversations

If you haven’t visited already, the Fisher Landau Center for Art is a wonderful oasis to add to the list of places you can see exciting work in Long Island City. This week, I am taking one of my classes to visit the current show, Visual Conversations. Through the visit I am interested in encouraging my students to draw relationships between works of art and to think about how context affects how we perceive what we see.

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | The Act of Mindfullness

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | The Act of Mindfullness

Sarah Merianos discusses the potential benefits that mindfulness practices can give to arts practitioners, including arts managers, artists and students.

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice with Suzanne Lacy

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice

5 Questions for Contemporary Practice with Suzanne Lacy

Thom Donovan interviews Suzanne Lacy, an artist, educator and activist whose career spans multiple decades and several major movements in contemporary art history.

New Kids on the Block

New Kids on the Block | Baudrillard for Bozos: An Interview with Sean Joseph Patrick Carney

New Kids on the Block

New Kids on the Block | Baudrillard for Bozos: An Interview with Sean Joseph Patrick Carney

Jacquelyn Gleisner talks to Sean Joseph Patrick Carney, an artist whose practice involves the translation of dense theoretical texts in amusing and provocative ways.

Ink: Notes on the Contemporary Print

Ink | Pluck Peppered with Luck: Crown Point Press Celebrates 50 Years

Ink: Notes on the Contemporary Print

Ink | Pluck Peppered with Luck: Crown Point Press Celebrates 50 Years

Sarah Kirk Hanley looks back on a half-century of printmaking at Crown Point Press.

Praxis Makes Perfect

Praxis Makes Perfect | Yes, We Insist

Praxis Makes Perfect

Praxis Makes Perfect | Yes, We Insist

During a trip to Chicago after President Obama’s re-election, Erin Sweeny realizes that the pursuits of art and politics may not be as far apart as they seem.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Now See This: Teaching with Hans-Peter Feldmann and John Baldessari

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Now See This: Teaching with Hans-Peter Feldmann and John Baldessari

I have always been interested in the way certain artists, more so than others, have the ability to take us by the hand (or the eye) and walk us through works of art very deliberately. Because the “subject” is often about the whole work and not a single focal point, these artists persuade us to compare and contrast, and see the small differences as well as the commonalities.

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | Alternatives in a Dark Room

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | Alternatives in a Dark Room

Jenn Pascoe explores alternative photographic processes and remembers what she loves about working in the darkroom.

Flash Points

The Undead Tree of Charles Ray

Flash Points

The Undead Tree of Charles Ray

Caroline Picard looks at Charles Ray’s “Hinoki” and asks, how does this sculpture–a reproduction of a fallen redwood tree–tell a story about survival, time, nature and humanity?

On View Now

On View Now | Cryptic Objects: Lin Tianmiao at the Asia Society Museum

On View Now

On View Now | Cryptic Objects: Lin Tianmiao at the Asia Society Museum

Max Weintraub reviews Lin Tianmiao’s exhibition “Bound Unbound” at the Asia Society Museum in New York.

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | Sharing is Caring, and Canny

Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment | Sharing is Caring, and Canny

Michelle Jubin updates us on her progress in building Art History Teaching Resources, a peer-to-peer platform for sharing teaching resources.