Columns & Features

Los Angeles Theatre Marquee 35mm Production Still, Between Science and Magic, 2010. Courtesy the artist.

Looking at Los Angeles

This Magic Moment: Diana Thater, Jeffrey Wells at the Santa Monica Museum of Art

Looking at Los Angeles

This Magic Moment: Diana Thater, Jeffrey Wells at the Santa Monica Museum of Art

The Oscars, aka prom night for Hollywood, are just around the corner! Who does The Academy love more: the noble savage, the noble soldier, or the noble soldier–turned-savage? Are you …

Flash Points

You Are What You Read

Flash Points

You Are What You Read

What are the ethical implications of using live animals in art? In 1974, Joseph Beuys caged himself with a live coyote for a performance piece called I Like America and …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Talking with Esopus Editor, Tod Lippy, Part Two

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Talking with Esopus Editor, Tod Lippy, Part Two

This is part two of my interview with Esopus editor, Tod Lippy (click here for part one). In addition to the interview, readers may also want to check out “The …

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio: Christa Holka

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio: Christa Holka

Christa Holka is an American photographer based in London. She holds an MA in Fine Arts from the Central St. Martins College of Art & Design in London, a BFA …

Aaron Zinman, the artist, designer and technologist behind Personas

Art 2.1: Creating on the Social Web

Connections at MIT Museum

Art 2.1: Creating on the Social Web

Connections at MIT Museum

I have never met Aaron Zinman. Not in person, anyway. I’ve spoken with him a few times on the phone, and we’ve chatted via email and Twitter, but I’ve never …

Gastro-Vision

Gastro-Vision: Stomachache

Gastro-Vision

Gastro-Vision: Stomachache

Food diaries — daily records of everything one eats and drinks — are strange and fascinating objects. For nutritionists and dietitians, they are useful tools in determining a person’s eating habits …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Talking with Esopus Editor, Tod Lippy, Part One

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Talking with Esopus Editor, Tod Lippy, Part One

Back in 2004, I was lucky enough to be introduced to Esopus magazine at a silent auction being held during a Mass MoCA fundraiser. Don’t ask me how, but my …

"Thriller Kitty Impresses", Source: https://icanhascheezburger.com/

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

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

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

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

What are your manners? Where and how did you learn them? According to Ben Street’s most recent letter to us contemporary art and the Mannerist Movement could be holding hands …

AFP/Getty Image.

Looking at Los Angeles

I Am Not Neda

Looking at Los Angeles

I Am Not Neda

I drove into a Westwood parking garage late on Monday and saw that the attendant had been crying. After an uneasy moment–I wasn’t sure where compassion and polite distance met …

Jeff Koons, "Girl with Dolphin and Monkey (The Whitney Museum of American Art 75th Anniversary Photography Portfolio), 2006. Courtesy Whitney Museum

Flash Points

The Puppy Wars

Flash Points

The Puppy Wars

The eerily small, closely watched world of New York art criticism experienced some infighting earlier this month, following the publication of February’s The Brooklyn Rail. “I think that there are …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Break in the Action

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Break in the Action

Teaching with Contemporary Art is taking a break this week in order to complete special two-part interview with Esopus editor, Tod Lippy, which will be published here on the Art21 …

Jeff Martin

No Preservatives: Conversations about Conservation

Collaborations in Conserving Time-Based Art: a Conversation and a Colloquium

No Preservatives: Conversations about Conservation

Collaborations in Conserving Time-Based Art: a Conversation and a Colloquium

IMA conservator Richard McCoy talks with Jeff Martin, who organized the upcoming colloquium “Collaborations in Conserving Time-Based Art” (March 17th and 18th at the Hirshhorn).

Flash Points

Art is Murder

Flash Points

Art is Murder

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3OkEcdOtb0] When I was a kid, Alice Cooper taught me everything I needed to know about art. So, ethics in art? For the most part I’m against it, but certain …

Letter from London

Letter from London: To The Manner Born

Letter from London

Letter from London: To The Manner Born

It’s good, useless fun to pre-emptively define the times you live in. Nicholas Bourriaud’s confusingly limned term “Altermodern,” used to define works in last year’s Tate Triennial and, by extension, …

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

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

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

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

Hungry? FLASHPOINTS: How does art respond to and redefine the natural world? Dan Phillips makes houses and asks the question, what is “folk”? According to Leanne Gilberstein in  her post,  …

On Location: Inside Art Documentary Production

Karen Schmeer, the Maysles Brothers, & Art Doc Screenings in NYC

On Location: Inside Art Documentary Production

Karen Schmeer, the Maysles Brothers, & Art Doc Screenings in NYC

Before I do anything, I want to mention the very sad passing of an important member of the independent documentary community, Karen Schmeer. Karen was killed in a hit and …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

A Little Heads-Up

Teaching with Contemporary Art

A Little Heads-Up

Art classrooms are often noisy places. In college they sometimes make a u-turn and become silent morgues where students wait patiently in cold studios for individual crits, but in general, …

Dan Phillips: Not Merely Vernacular, Pt. 2

Dan Phillips: Not Merely Vernacular, Pt. 2

In my estimation, Phoenix Commotion’s ongoing project (founded around 1998 by Dan Phillips) does much more than simply supply a university town with a rich dose of local color. While …

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

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

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

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

This week What’s Cookin is sent to you directly from Newport, RI  an eclectic little city on the Atlantic coast. Home to some of the best clam chowder and crab …

Flash Points

Flash Points: The Ethics of Art

Flash Points

Flash Points: The Ethics of Art

Today we launch the next Flash Points topic, The Ethics of Art. Ethics are defined as “a system of moral principles” which constantly factor into the choices we make. However, …

Ed Ruscha, "The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire," 1968, Oil on canvas. Courtesy edruscha.com.

Looking at Los Angeles

If You Can Remember the ’60s, You Weren’t There

Looking at Los Angeles

If You Can Remember the ’60s, You Weren’t There

When I moved from Berkeley to Los Angeles five years ago, I thought I was done living in a town that was devoted to perpetually remembering the ’60s. But I …

Flash Points

Dan Phillips: Not Merely Vernacular, Pt. I

Flash Points

Dan Phillips: Not Merely Vernacular, Pt. I

As a northerner recently transplanted to the Greater Houston area, I admit to having reservations about all things Texan. I have found this a tough place to love at first …

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 …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

In the Middle: Art21 Educators

Teaching with Contemporary Art

In the Middle: Art21 Educators

About six months ago, Art21 ventured into the land of summer teacher institutes. We invited 15 teachers from across the country to come to New York City and spend a …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Chris Ofili, A Mixtape

Letter from London

Letter from London: Chris Ofili, A Mixtape

Making mixtapes is one of life’s great non-transferable skills; its lack of import in a pragmatic sense is inversely proportional to the amount of time and effort it requires (rewinding, …

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

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

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

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

Brrrrrr… it’s cold over here in NYC.  I hope you all are staying warm wherever you are. Meanwhile, here’s What’s Cookin: Nicole Rounds Them Up! This week you’ll read about …

Inside the Artist's Studio

Remembering artist and friend Flo McGarrell

Inside the Artist's Studio

Remembering artist and friend Flo McGarrell

Flores McGarrell I lost my voice. Incredibly frustrating because I have a lot I need to say right now. I just make ridiculous squeaking sounds. […] I think I should …

Gastro-Vision

The Fruit of Experience

Gastro-Vision

The Fruit of Experience

Fallen Fruit Collective formed six years ago through a project by artists David Burns, Matias Viegener, and Austin Young for the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. The trio created a …

Looking at Los Angeles

Hollis Frampton Revival

Looking at Los Angeles

Hollis Frampton Revival

Last November, I attended a panel discussion, held at LACMA, on photographs of man-altered landscape. The images in question—coolly composed prints by Stephen Shore, Lewis Baltz, and Robert Adams, among …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Transcendent: Vija Celmins and Kimsooja

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Transcendent: Vija Celmins and Kimsooja

Recently I was engaged in a little debate about whether contemporary art can truly be transcendent — taking us beyond the range of normal perception to some place else, some …

Flash Points

Flash Points: Art + the Environment Wrap-Up

Flash Points

Flash Points: Art + the Environment Wrap-Up

The natural world is a marvel, a playground, an intrinsic adventure, a multi-layered curiosity, an embodiment of fear and  absolute wonderment. It is an artists’ gym where one can exercise …

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

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

What's Cookin': The Art21ndex

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

Have you ever … …wanted to live on an island? Andrea Zittel did …so she’s making one! If you are in Indianapolis, visit the IMA and meet the “park ranger” …

Andrea Zittel's Island at 100 Acres

Flash Points

The Island in 100 Acres: An Interview with Andrea Zittel

Flash Points

The Island in 100 Acres: An Interview with Andrea Zittel

Andrea Zittel talks with IMA Conservator Richard McCoy about her island project in 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Wonder-Igniters: An Interview with Abbe Futterman

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Wonder-Igniters: An Interview with Abbe Futterman

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting The Earth School in New York’s East Village and at one point noticed a science classroom through a small window …

No Preservatives: Conversations about Conservation

Examining Roles and Investigating Responses; a Conversation with Rebecca Uchill

No Preservatives: Conversations about Conservation

Examining Roles and Investigating Responses; a Conversation with Rebecca Uchill

IMA conservator Richard McCoy talks with former IMA curator and current MIT PhD student Rebecca Uchill about the creation of the IMA’s Variable Art Team and the evolving roles of those that care for contemporary art.

Letter from London

Letter from London: Avatarnation!

Letter from London

Letter from London: Avatarnation!

What was it like before the internet was invented? Can you remember? Where did all that pent-up aggression go before you were able to express your rage with the world …