Columns & Features

Flash Points

New Flash Points Topic: Transformation

Flash Points

New Flash Points Topic: Transformation

Starting today (and while the Art21 Blog editor, Kelly Shindler is on vacation), I’ll be guest editing the Art21 Blog while Kelly gets some much needed R&R. To kick off …

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 …

No Preservatives: Conversations about Conservation

Examining the Lives of Jenny Holzer’s Works/Words: A Discussion with SAAM Conservator Hugh Shockey

No Preservatives: Conversations about Conservation

Examining the Lives of Jenny Holzer’s Works/Words: A Discussion with SAAM Conservator Hugh Shockey

Art conservator Richard McCoy discusses the IMA’s 1983 Jenny Holzer sculpture, “Untitled,” and interviews SAAM conservator Hugh Shockey about “For SAAM.”

Letter from London

Letter from London: Vandalabra!

Letter from London

Letter from London: Vandalabra!

Last Sunday, a Russian woman walked through the galleries of the Louvre Museum in Paris carrying a small empty ceramic tea cup, which, upon arriving in one of the museum’s …

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 …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Dog Days and Banking

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Dog Days and Banking

Last summer, while working at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, I had the good fortune of being blown away by the Marlene Dumas exhibition, Measuring Your Own …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Doublecrossed

Letter from London

Letter from London: Doublecrossed

News of artists famous in one field crossing over into another is very often met with public derision. Bruce Willis, one of the most talented pub-rockers of the late 1980s …

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

Famished for some art? It’s Friday and we’re back with this week’s Index. Do you know what was sizzling here this past week? Put on your thinking caps — there’s …

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 …

Flash Points

Summer Travelogue

Flash Points

Summer Travelogue

Upon arriving in Athens, several curious and helpful people gave me every warning to stay far away from the Kerameikos and Metaxourgeio neighborhoods, which was exactly where I was headed, …

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 …

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 for some art? You haven’t missed out. It’s been marinating here all week! For your dining pleasure, stay awhile, there’s always something to share at this table. Merce Cunningham, …

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio: Jason Peters

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio: Jason Peters

Jason Peters is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Over the years, he has discovered his muse in found objects – whether they are tires, buckets, or another material …

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 — …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Stepping Back….

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Stepping Back….

…. and taking a short vacation after a solid week of work with the Art21 Educators summer institute. Teaching with Contemporary Art will be back with a new column on …

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: …

Flash Points

Art & Compassion at “New York’s Cathedral”

Flash Points

Art & Compassion at “New York’s Cathedral”

Rev. Tom Miller is the Canon for Liturgy and the Arts at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, affectionately known as “New York’s Cathedral,” even though it is …

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 — …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Reflections on the Art21 Educators Institute

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Reflections on the Art21 Educators Institute

I’m sure everyone has had moments of blissful exhaustion- those times when you pushed yourself over a certain period, gotten to the end and said, “That was outstanding…. and I’m …

No Preservatives: Conversations about Conservation

Extending the Conservation Framework: A Site-Specific Conservation Discussion with Francesca Esmay

No Preservatives: Conversations about Conservation

Extending the Conservation Framework: A Site-Specific Conservation Discussion with Francesca Esmay

IMA conservator Richard McCoy discusses 100 Acres and Spiral Jetty with Dia conservator Francesca Esmay.

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 …

Flash Points

Conveying Compassion

Flash Points

Conveying Compassion

When I learned that Doris Salcedo was being featured in Art21’s episode on Compassion, I couldn’t imagine a more appropriate artist to represent this theme. However to me, Salcedo goes …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Peyton for Godot

Letter from London

Letter from London: Peyton for Godot

I don’t understand why anyone would like Elizabeth Peyton, but I also don’t understand why anyone would like egg whites or Coldplay or The Shawshank Redemption, so maybe I’ll never …

Flash Points

Understanding Pain

Flash Points

Understanding Pain

A friend of mine told me how she first learned of rape: rape happens when someone forces all your clothes off, her brother explained. My friend was, of course, horrified. …

BOMB in the Building

Flash Points

An interview with Regina José Galindo by Francisco Goldman

BOMB in the Building

Flash Points

An interview with Regina José Galindo by Francisco Goldman

Welcome back to BOMB in the Building, where each week we’re featuring a BOMB interview with a Season 5 artist—or one that corresponds to the theme of the artist’s work. …