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Hello world: A letter from ART21’s new director

by Tina Kukielski | Feb 24, 2016

Hello world: A letter from ART21’s new director

by Tina Kukielski | Feb 24, 2016

While my friends and colleagues were spending their winter breaks getting some R&R on sandy beaches in the Caribbean, I was happily watching some of ART21’s more than three hundred …

Art21 Extended Play

Josiah McElheny Projects Maya Deren

by Ian Forster | Feb 12, 2016

Art21 Extended Play

Josiah McElheny Projects Maya Deren

by Ian Forster | Feb 12, 2016

“I’m trying to understand this relationship of abstraction and the body.” — Josiah McElheny Today’s ART21 Exclusive features Josiah McElheny exploring the relationship between abstraction and the body as he …

“Repellent Fence / Valla Repelente”

by Postcommodity | Feb 4, 2016

“Repellent Fence / Valla Repelente”

by Postcommodity | Feb 4, 2016

Continuing their exploration of contested spaces, Postcommodity recently presented Repellent Fence / Valla Repelente, the largest bi-national land art installation ever exhibited on the US/Mexico border. The temporary, two-mile-long fence …

Janitor for the Nation

by Joseph del Pesco | Feb 1, 2016

Janitor for the Nation

by Joseph del Pesco | Feb 1, 2016

“Imagine that this museum is a nation, and inside this nation is a museum.” That idea inspired this experimental text, in which each exhibition is envisioned as its own sovereign state.

Art21 Extended Play

Omer Fast Interrupts “Continuity”

by Ian Forster | Jan 29, 2016

Art21 Extended Play

Omer Fast Interrupts “Continuity”

by Ian Forster | Jan 29, 2016

“Those moments are magical in film—when we have a pure linear motion that approaches something and reveals it—but I’m interested in the stuff that gets in the way.” — Omer …

How to use the F-word in 2016: The Guerrilla Girls Twin Cities Takeover

by Megan Johnston | Jan 28, 2016

How to use the F-word in 2016: The Guerrilla Girls Twin Cities Takeover

by Megan Johnston | Jan 28, 2016

Museum director Megan Johnston shares the inside scoop on organizing the Guerrilla Girls Twin Cities Takeover, a series of exhibitions and events throughout Minnesota from January to March 2016.

Confronting Crisis: An Interview with Syrian Artists Tammam Azzam, Sara Shamma & Kevork Mourad

by Lindsey Davis | Jan 21, 2016

Confronting Crisis: An Interview with Syrian Artists Tammam Azzam, Sara Shamma & Kevork Mourad

by Lindsey Davis | Jan 21, 2016

These three Syrian artists left their homes behind, and their bodies of work have been forever changed by the war that’s tearing their nation apart. In this extended interview we find answers to the question: What is life like as a refugee and artist?

Introducing ART21 Educators: Year 6

by Art21 | Jan 19, 2016

Introducing ART21 Educators: Year 6

by Art21 | Jan 19, 2016

Today ART21 is opening applications to Year 6 of our year-long professional development initiative, ART21 Educators. The program is designed to support K-12 educators interested in bringing contemporary art, artists …

Representing Gender for Ballet’s Next Generation

by Robert Binet | Jan 12, 2016

Representing Gender for Ballet’s Next Generation

by Robert Binet | Jan 12, 2016

Ballet is perhaps the most gendered of all art forms. Male and female dancers are trained differently from an early age and are expected to emerge in the profession with …

Movement and Stillness in Nira Pereg’s “Ishmael”

by Talia Heiman | Jan 4, 2016

Movement and Stillness in Nira Pereg’s “Ishmael”

by Talia Heiman | Jan 4, 2016

Nira Pereg’s four-channel video installation Ishmael (2015), was filmed in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city. Holy for both Muslims and Jews, the Cave …

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor: Chen Tamir

by Chen Tamir | Jan 4, 2016

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor: Chen Tamir

by Chen Tamir | Jan 4, 2016

“Aptitude for war is aptitude for movement,” said Napoleon, as quoted by Paul Virilio in his book, Speed and Politics.1 Virilio explains that “violence can be reduced to nothing but movement.”2 …

Art21 Extended Play

Omer Fast Distills Broadcasted Anxiety

by Ian Forster | Dec 18, 2015

Art21 Extended Play

Omer Fast Distills Broadcasted Anxiety

by Ian Forster | Dec 18, 2015

“What have we done to deserve this? What could we have done to prevent it from happening? What can we learn?” — CNN Concatenated (2002) Today’s ART21 Exclusive features Omer Fast …

Booked

Still Reading by the Fire

by Jayna Swartzman-Brosky | Dec 14, 2015

Booked

Still Reading by the Fire

by Jayna Swartzman-Brosky | Dec 14, 2015

Most of this past year’s proposed radical agendas contain nothing that’s actually revolutionary or visionary. Politicians, theocrats, and profiteers campaign on platforms of retroactive change: ideological preservation, religious orthodoxy. ‘A …

Art21 New York Close Up

Jaimie Warren Is A Total Character

by Nick Ravich | Dec 14, 2015

Art21 New York Close Up

Jaimie Warren Is A Total Character

by Nick Ravich | Dec 14, 2015

In a new “New York Close Up” film, artist Jaimie Warren as recreates a wild array of pop culture characters for her photographic and video work.

Dismantling History: An Interview with Titus Kaphar

by Lindsey Davis | Dec 2, 2015

Dismantling History: An Interview with Titus Kaphar

by Lindsey Davis | Dec 2, 2015

A canvas curtain slips from its place of prestige, revealing another that’s hidden beneath. The folds of a Thomas Jefferson portrait gracefully fall, and behind it we see an African …

Art21 New York Close Up

Louise Despont According to the Universe

by Wesley Miller | Nov 13, 2015

Art21 New York Close Up

Louise Despont According to the Universe

by Wesley Miller | Nov 13, 2015

In a new “New York Close Up” film, artist Louise Despont peruses a vast reference library of collected images in her Tribeca studio.

Art21 Extended Play

Politics and Dignity in Graciela Iturbide’s Photographs

by Ian Forster | Nov 6, 2015

Art21 Extended Play

Politics and Dignity in Graciela Iturbide’s Photographs

by Ian Forster | Nov 6, 2015

“Politics are already implied when I’m working in Mexico. I don’t have to say ‘Look, what injustice!’ because it would be sensationalized.” — Graciela Iturbide Artist Graciela Iturbide discusses her personal and …

Art21 Extended Play

Josiah McElheny Sees Potential in Painting

by Ian Forster | Oct 23, 2015

Art21 Extended Play

Josiah McElheny Sees Potential in Painting

by Ian Forster | Oct 23, 2015

“Abstraction – in its potential hopefulness for imagining a different world or imagining a world that’s not absolutely apparent – can tie us together.” — Josiah McElheny Today’s ART21 Exclusive features …

How to be Happy: An Art Guide

by Corinna Kirsch | Sep 22, 2015

How to be Happy: An Art Guide

by Corinna Kirsch | Sep 22, 2015

Guess who’s happy all the time? Not many artists. While on the happiness scale artists may rank somewhere between a dog without a bone and an emo kid’s Livejournal, don’t …

Pursuit of Distraction: Internet Cats as Anti-FOMO

by Faith Holland | Sep 15, 2015

Pursuit of Distraction: Internet Cats as Anti-FOMO

by Faith Holland | Sep 15, 2015

Cats comprise some of the most popular content on the Internet. This is a well-documented phenomenon, but its precise reason has remained elusive. Cat culture came into its own in …

Art21 New York Close Up

Lucas Blalock’s Digital Toolkit

by Wesley Miller | Sep 11, 2015

Art21 New York Close Up

Lucas Blalock’s Digital Toolkit

by Wesley Miller | Sep 11, 2015

Artist Lucas Blalock creates uncanny pictures using simple tools in Photoshop in the latest “New York Close Up” film.

Godflesh

by Rob Horning | Sep 8, 2015

Godflesh

by Rob Horning | Sep 8, 2015

Tinder presupposes that one can find happiness in not having to commit to anything because one is willing to commit to everything. Becoming meat, from this perspective, is not degradation so much as liberation from some of the ordinary constraints of the real world, the “meatspace.”

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor: Alicia Eler

by Alicia Eler | Sep 8, 2015

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor: Alicia Eler

by Alicia Eler | Sep 8, 2015

When I was twelve years old, I remember seeing it: my first smiley face. It was gigantic and bright yellow, hanging on the exterior brick wall of a car dealership, …

The Happy Artist

by Eve Peyser | Sep 8, 2015

The Happy Artist

by Eve Peyser | Sep 8, 2015

If you’re constantly suffering, how can you make art that thoughtfully reflects on suffering? To make art that is personal, good, and potentially curative, you, my dear artist, need to …

Still Points in Erin Wiersma’s Drawings

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Aug 17, 2015

Still Points in Erin Wiersma’s Drawings

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Aug 17, 2015

In June, I visited the studio of Erin Wiersma at the Two Coats of Paint Residency in the neighborhood of Downtown Brooklyn. Sharon Butler—artist, writer, and founder of the Two Coats …

Dogma (9 to 5)

by Keith J. Varadi | Aug 10, 2015

Dogma (9 to 5)

by Keith J. Varadi | Aug 10, 2015

Sincerity is almost always associated with goodness. A sincere person is understood to be earnest, honest, and straightforward. It is assumed he or she will not lie, cheat, or steal; …

Sincerity’s Checkered Past

by Inka Essenhigh | Aug 3, 2015

Sincerity’s Checkered Past

by Inka Essenhigh | Aug 3, 2015

I’m thinking about sincerity and the fact that it has had such a checkered past in Western culture, going in and out of vogue. At times, sincerity has been lauded …

Art21 New York Close Up

Caroline Woolard Flips the Real Estate Script

by Nick Ravich | Jul 31, 2015

Art21 New York Close Up

Caroline Woolard Flips the Real Estate Script

by Nick Ravich | Jul 31, 2015

An introduction to the latest “New York Close Up” film from series co-creator/co-producer Nick Ravich and artist Caroline Woolard .

By Invitation Only

by Jayna Swartzman-Brosky | Jul 27, 2015

By Invitation Only

by Jayna Swartzman-Brosky | Jul 27, 2015

In 2009, Theaster Gates purchased the first of several vacant properties that would become the site for Dorchester Projects, on the South Side of Chicago. It was both an act …

Passing Through

by Summer Wheat | Jul 20, 2015

Passing Through

by Summer Wheat | Jul 20, 2015

In my early twenties, I took Greyhound buses across the country, outfitted with my cassette tapes and philosophy books, in search of meaning.  Traveling through North Dakota, I sat next …

The Sincerest Form of #BlackJoy May Be Art, but Who Can Say for Sure?

by Damali Abrams | Jul 13, 2015

The Sincerest Form of #BlackJoy May Be Art, but Who Can Say for Sure?

by Damali Abrams | Jul 13, 2015

The artist talk is a peculiar form of presentation, a sincere attempt to communicate something beyond the work of art. For most artists, the artwork itself is the language. Artists …

Irony, Sincerity…Is There a Third Pill?

by Angela DuFresne | Jul 6, 2015

Irony, Sincerity…Is There a Third Pill?

by Angela DuFresne | Jul 6, 2015

I will begin with a quote from Eric Fischl: “There’s nothing insincere about irony.” I couldn’t agree more. And I can’t bear the presumed opposition any longer. Can’t sincerity and …

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor, Jacquelyn Gleisner

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Jul 6, 2015

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor, Jacquelyn Gleisner

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Jul 6, 2015

I want to tell you about the most sincere guy I’ve ever known. In 2004, when I was an art student at Boston University, I responded to a part-time job …

Makeup and Birdcalls

by Dushko Petrovich | Jul 6, 2015

Makeup and Birdcalls

by Dushko Petrovich | Jul 6, 2015

Makeup Back in the 1950s—though it could have happened yesterday—the artist Marisol was invited to be on a panel with four older and more-established male artists. The first brilliant thing …
Artist Jamian Juliano-Villani in her Bedford-Stuyvesant studio, Brooklyn, NY, 2015. Production still from the ART21 "New York Close Up" film "Jamian Juliano-Villani's Painting Compulsion". © ART21, Inc. 2015.

Art21 New York Close Up

Jamian Juliano-Villani’s Painting Compulsion

by Nick Ravich | Jul 1, 2015

Art21 New York Close Up

Jamian Juliano-Villani’s Painting Compulsion

by Nick Ravich | Jul 1, 2015

Filmed in her Bedford-Stuyvesant studio, artist Jamian Juliano-Villani uses a digital projector to create surreal paintings and discusses the graphic source material that inspires her.