Issues

On Fables

by Dmitry Vilensky | Aug 20, 2018

On Fables

by Dmitry Vilensky | Aug 20, 2018

Russian collective Chto Delat debates a contemporary repurposing of fables as a potential means of activating the process of self-questioning and a common search for the truth.

Strategies & Resources

Finding Room in the Classroom for Every Voice

by Jeannine Bardo | Aug 20, 2018

Strategies & Resources

Finding Room in the Classroom for Every Voice

by Jeannine Bardo | Aug 20, 2018

Educator-in-Residence Jeannine Bardo introduces lessons from her third-grade unit on “Home,” in which students’ research is centered on facets of their community: themselves, their family, and their friends.

Letter from the Editor

Figures of Speech

by Tina Kukielski | Aug 20, 2018

Letter from the Editor

Figures of Speech

by Tina Kukielski | Aug 20, 2018

Art21 executive director and chief curator Tina Kukielski introduces the new issue, “Figures of Speech,” examining the capacity of art for self-expression, community building, and political activism in 2018.

Access to Healthcare: A Conversation Led by LaToya Ruby Frazier

by LaToya Ruby Frazier | Jul 6, 2018

Access to Healthcare: A Conversation Led by LaToya Ruby Frazier

by LaToya Ruby Frazier | Jul 6, 2018

At Gavin Brown’s enterprise in Harlem, LaToya Ruby Frazier leads a panel discussion with a scholar, a minister, and a doctor on the state of access and equity in healthcare, the history of artists and intellectuals who have fought for these rights in the past, and change-makers who are leading the charge today.

Being a Collection

by Ruthie Stringer | Jun 29, 2018

Being a Collection

by Ruthie Stringer | Jun 29, 2018

Ruthie Stringer, part of the Braddock-based art collective Transformazium, explains the methodology driving the group’s library-based projects, including the Neighborhood Print Shop and Art Lending Collection.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Rooted in the Home: Thoughts on Building Connections Between Students & Artists

by Jocelyn Salaz | Jun 13, 2018

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Rooted in the Home: Thoughts on Building Connections Between Students & Artists

by Jocelyn Salaz | Jun 13, 2018

Educator-in-Residence Jocelyn Salaz offers insight into how incorporating familiar aesthetics can help students identify with artists.

A Look Inside “Creative Growth Magazine”

by Tom di Maria | Jun 8, 2018

A Look Inside “Creative Growth Magazine”

by Tom di Maria | Jun 8, 2018

A look inside the pages of “Creative Growth Magazine,” a first-of-its-kind publication presenting the work and lives of artists with disabilities, in the words of the artists themselves.

Exodus and Arrival in “Pre-Image: Blind as the Mother Tongue”

by Hiwa K | May 11, 2018

Exodus and Arrival in “Pre-Image: Blind as the Mother Tongue”

by Hiwa K | May 11, 2018

Hiwa K recounts his experience fleeing Iraq in this excerpt from the artist’s 2017 video piece, “Pre-Image: Blind as the Mother Tongue.”

Resisting Dichotomies & Compressing Complexity: An Interview with Jack Whitten

by Ian Forster | Apr 16, 2018

Resisting Dichotomies & Compressing Complexity: An Interview with Jack Whitten

by Ian Forster | Apr 16, 2018

Interviewed in his Queens, New York studio in October 2017, Jack Whitten reflects on his childhood, the inequality he faced as a Black artist, and the necessity of fighting simplistic dichotomies.

Strategies & Resources

Who Am I, in Color?

by Jocelyn Salaz | Apr 16, 2018

Strategies & Resources

Who Am I, in Color?

by Jocelyn Salaz | Apr 16, 2018

Educator-in-Residence Jocelyn Salaz lays out the elements of her unit on color, in which students make their own paints, study color theory, and investigate the implications of skin tone.

Letter from the Editor

Rights of Passage

by Tina Kukielski | Apr 16, 2018

Letter from the Editor

Rights of Passage

by Tina Kukielski | Apr 16, 2018

Art21 executive director and chief curator Tina Kukielski introduces the spring issue, reflecting on the importance of access to culture and the power of art and artists to expand access to healthcare, education, and more.

Artist Introspectives

The Most Public of Private Spaces

by Ahmed Mater | Mar 30, 2018

Artist Introspectives

The Most Public of Private Spaces

by Ahmed Mater | Mar 30, 2018

Artist Ahmed Mater discusses the influence of the public and public space on his powerful portraits of the Islamic world.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Communicating en Masse: The Art of Activism

by Nick Kozak | Mar 23, 2018

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Communicating en Masse: The Art of Activism

by Nick Kozak | Mar 23, 2018

Educator-in-Residence Nick Kozak offers politically neutral ways of teaching on protest art and activism in the classroom.

Teaching History by Sculpting Experience: An Interview with Doreen Garner

by Brian Redondo | Mar 16, 2018

Teaching History by Sculpting Experience: An Interview with Doreen Garner

by Brian Redondo | Mar 16, 2018

In a conversation with film director, Brian Redondo, artist Doreen Garner shares the motivation driving her sculptural practice: to educate viewers about suppressed racist histories embedded in the foundations of a nation built on slavery.

In Plain View: Ian Cheng’s Live Simulations

by Eric Crosby | Mar 2, 2018

In Plain View: Ian Cheng’s Live Simulations

by Eric Crosby | Mar 2, 2018

Ian Cheng’s live simulations transport viewers to immersive fictional worlds populated with characters and communities whose behaviors the artist can condition but not control.

Strategies & Resources

Seeing These Streets: Analyzing the Visual Landscapes of Urban Spaces

by Nick Kozak | Feb 16, 2018

Strategies & Resources

Seeing These Streets: Analyzing the Visual Landscapes of Urban Spaces

by Nick Kozak | Feb 16, 2018

Educator-in-Residence Nick Kozak details his unit on street art, in which students critically examine the anonymous artists creating work in their neighborhoods.

Resisting Reductivism & Breaking the Bubble: An Interview with Barbara Kruger

by Ian Forster | Jan 26, 2018

Resisting Reductivism & Breaking the Bubble: An Interview with Barbara Kruger

by Ian Forster | Jan 26, 2018

In this rare interview accompanying a new Art21 film, Barbara Kruger shares her media diet, what she sees as art’s role in contemporary society, and the inspiration behind two of her earliest works.

On “Monument Lab”

by Ken Lum | Jan 26, 2018

On “Monument Lab”

by Ken Lum | Jan 26, 2018

Artist and co-curator of “Monument Lab” Ken Lum shares the findings of this public engagement project, which served as a participatory exercise in spatial production, and questioned the role of monuments and public art in civic spaces.

Letter from the Editor

Whose Public?

by Tina Kukielski | Jan 26, 2018

Letter from the Editor

Whose Public?

by Tina Kukielski | Jan 26, 2018

Art21 Executive Director and Chief Curator Tina Kukielski introduces the new winter issue, stressing the need for contemporary art and artists in the current debates over public space, power, and ownership.

Hospitality and Hosting Relationships in Michael Rakowitz’s Art

by Danielle Brock | Dec 29, 2017

Hospitality and Hosting Relationships in Michael Rakowitz’s Art

by Danielle Brock | Dec 29, 2017

Through his work, Michael Rakowitz consistently asks how we can care for what we’ve discarded, and opens new possibilities to reimagine previously hostile relationships.

Strategies & Resources

Below the Surface: Creating Hope through Portraiture

by Joseph Iacona | Dec 26, 2017

Strategies & Resources

Below the Surface: Creating Hope through Portraiture

by Joseph Iacona | Dec 26, 2017

Educator-in-Residence Joseph Iacona’s students embark on a project of self-discovery, inspiring them to feel hopeful about themselves and their future while protecting their identities.

Reading Critically: Alexandra Bell’s “Counternarratives”

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Dec 22, 2017

Reading Critically: Alexandra Bell’s “Counternarratives”

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Dec 22, 2017

Alexandra Bell’s “Counternarratives” series shows inscribed corrections of “New York Times” print articles, exposing editorial bias conveyed by ill-chosen images, poorly worded headlines, and textual masking of white crime.

Dominate Anonymity: An Interview with Guy Woueté

by Gauthier Lesturgie | Dec 21, 2017

Dominate Anonymity: An Interview with Guy Woueté

by Gauthier Lesturgie | Dec 21, 2017

Cameroonian artist Guy Woueté takes inspiration from everyday life to create socially critical work that addresses questions of migration and equity in a globalized twenty-first century.

Patient Time Scripts: Revisiting the Work of Sokhaya Charles Nkosi

by Same Mdluli | Dec 15, 2017

Patient Time Scripts: Revisiting the Work of Sokhaya Charles Nkosi

by Same Mdluli | Dec 15, 2017

Same Mdluli details the significance of Sokhaya Charles Nkosi’s work, created in response to the conditions of his people during apartheid in South Africa.

Empathy in Training: Kerry Tribe’s “Standardized Patient”

by Rachel Heidenry | Dec 13, 2017

Empathy in Training: Kerry Tribe’s “Standardized Patient”

by Rachel Heidenry | Dec 13, 2017

Kerry Tribe’s new video installation “Standardized Patient,” examines the relationship between doctors and patients—or, more accurately, between medical students and actors playing patients.

Orawan Arunrak: Words to Communicate

by Roger Nelson | Dec 11, 2017

Orawan Arunrak: Words to Communicate

by Roger Nelson | Dec 11, 2017

With a practice based loosely on choreographed interactions between the artist, various interlocutors, and the spaces and places that they share, Thai artist Orawan Arunrak complicates categories of identity and perception by creating work with many meanings, in many languages, for many people.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Radical Art in a Conservative School

by Dennis Greenwell | Dec 7, 2017

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Radical Art in a Conservative School

by Dennis Greenwell | Dec 7, 2017

Art21 Educator Dennis Greenwell shares how a project on empathy helped his students better understand one another and our current political landscape.

Booked

How Did We Get Here? A Reading List for Understanding Race in America

by Cauleen Smith and Victoria L. Valentine | Dec 5, 2017

Booked

How Did We Get Here? A Reading List for Understanding Race in America

by Cauleen Smith and Victoria L. Valentine | Dec 5, 2017

Artist Cauleen Smith and “Culture Type” editor Victoria L. Valentine select twelve texts that offer rare perspectives on the central role race plays in American life.

Composing Compassion: On Jumana Manna’s “A Magical Substance Flows Into Me”

by Morgan Green | Nov 29, 2017

Composing Compassion: On Jumana Manna’s “A Magical Substance Flows Into Me”

by Morgan Green | Nov 29, 2017

Jumana Manna’s 2015 film “A magical substance flows into me” weaves together the musical traditions of communities living in and around Jerusalem, undermining the state-sanctioned forgetting of complex cultural contexts.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Keep it Real, Keep it Relevant

by Joseph Iacona | Nov 15, 2017

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Keep it Real, Keep it Relevant

by Joseph Iacona | Nov 15, 2017

Educator-in-Residence Joseph Iacona shares the impact socially engaged artists have in classrooms with trauma-impacted students.

The Poetry of Everyday Life: An Interview with Project Row Houses Director Eureka Gilkey

by Lindsey Davis | Nov 7, 2017

The Poetry of Everyday Life: An Interview with Project Row Houses Director Eureka Gilkey

by Lindsey Davis | Nov 7, 2017

Houston arts nonprofit Project Row Houses responds directly to the needs of the Third Ward community, offering both arts programming and access to social services, proving both can work hand-in-hand.

Robots, Race, and Algorithms: Stephanie Dinkins at Recess Assembly

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Nov 7, 2017

Robots, Race, and Algorithms: Stephanie Dinkins at Recess Assembly

by Jacquelyn Gleisner | Nov 7, 2017

For her residency at Recess Assembly, artist Stephanie Dinkins is exploring if social robot BINA48 is capable of speaking from the perspective of a Black woman.

Letter from the Editor

Living in an Age of Empathy

by Yvette Mutumba | Nov 7, 2017

Letter from the Editor

Living in an Age of Empathy

by Yvette Mutumba | Nov 7, 2017

Curator Yvette Mutumba discusses how biased empathy can be problematic, but when understood as a means of inclusive human solidarity, empathy can lead to a greater understanding of the issues troubling the world today.

Ways of Being: Spaces of Learning

by Caroline Woolard and Susan Jahoda, of BFAMFAPhD | Oct 31, 2017

Ways of Being: Spaces of Learning

by Caroline Woolard and Susan Jahoda, of BFAMFAPhD | Oct 31, 2017

Two members of the artist collective BFAMFAPhD illustrate the ways in which teachers can facilitate spaces of learning and transformation.

Inventing the Future: Art and Technology

by Lindsay Howard | Oct 26, 2017

Inventing the Future: Art and Technology

by Lindsay Howard | Oct 26, 2017

In the 1960s, artists and engineers collaborated to push both fields forward through the nonprofit Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.). Now, a partnership between Bell Labs and NEW INC is reinstating the program with an artist residency.

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Scenius, Inspiration, and Invention

by Todd Elkin | Oct 25, 2017

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Scenius, Inspiration, and Invention

by Todd Elkin | Oct 25, 2017

Educator-in-Residence Todd Elkin reflects on the ways in which his classroom embodies the concept of “scenius,” in which creative inventions emerge from social contexts, as the students working near each other riff off one another’s strategies and ideas.