Writer-in-Residence

Flash Points

Where’s all the rightwing street art?

Flash Points

Where’s all the rightwing street art?

Learning of Princess Hijab—a Paris-based street artist who culturejams advertisements to include her namesake headscarf—an old question came to mind: where are all the rightwing graffiti artists, stencil afficionados, and …

Flash Points

Chakkrit Chimnok’s banana-leaf utopia

Flash Points

Chakkrit Chimnok’s banana-leaf utopia

Chakkrit Chimnok dreams of a “banana world,” a utopia in which overlooked or discarded items — specifically, the ubiquitous banana leaves that litter the streets in his home city of …

Flash Points

Transcending protest: Looking for pragmatic or poetic art of change

Flash Points

Transcending protest: Looking for pragmatic or poetic art of change

This weekend I went to an opening at The Soap Factory, a scrappy and often-excellent nonprofit art space a block or so off Minneapolis’ riverfront. The description of the work, …

New guest blogger: Paul Schmelzer

New guest blogger: Paul Schmelzer

Thanks to Naomi Beckwith for her series of clever and perceptive posts. Up next is Paul Schmelzer. Paul is a Minneapolis-based writer and editor focusing on the intersection of art, …

I Have Decided to Love Contemporary Art

I Have Decided to Love Contemporary Art

Days have passed since St. Valentine’s Day and the flowers are giving off a sweet waft of imminent mortality, which may make them a dubious token of love. But I …

Flash Points

Sade 2.0

Flash Points

Sade 2.0

On February 7th I drove to the Kasser Theater at Montclair State University to see a performance of The Investigation, a 1966 documentary drama by Peter Weiss (1916-1982), the expatriate German artist and …

Flash Points

Il a chaud au Cul

Flash Points

Il a chaud au Cul

Not at all surprisingly for a corporate entity, the Associated Press recently established ownership of a photograph of Barack Obama taken at a 2006 National Press Club event by photographer …

Rome on a Roman Holiday

Rome on a Roman Holiday

In the depths of a seemingly endless New York winter, my mind is already thinking toward late spring days on the Adriatic and the 53rd International Art Exhibition at la …

Flash Points

Lilly Ledbetter* Art

Flash Points

Lilly Ledbetter* Art

It is only a coincidence that the world’s largest franchised art fair and the international banking regulatory body share a moniker from their shared base, Basel, Switzerland, but no coincidence …

New guest blogger: Naomi Beckwith

New guest blogger: Naomi Beckwith

Thanks for Daniel Quiles for his series of inquiries into a wide range of contemporary art issues. Stay tuned for another post from him related to our Flash Points feature …

Flash Points

International Geographic: Interview with Nato Thompson

Flash Points

International Geographic: Interview with Nato Thompson

* Revised February 4, 2009. Lize Mogel, Mappa Mundi, digital print, 2008. Courtesy Melville House and iCI. Melville House and iCI recently co-published the exhibition catalogue for Experimental Geography, an …

Artiste Avec Des Frontières

Artiste Avec Des Frontières

On February 5, the New York University Hospital Library will host Interior Life, an exhibition of Ana Blohm’s photographs. They consist of geometrically organized shots of spare interiors, typically with …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

“I do that.”

Teaching with Contemporary Art

“I do that.”

I tend to be very impressed with how the Museum of Modern Art presents artwork to elementary aged students. The museum educator picks images based on a theme, they lead …

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching With Contemporary Art Guest Writer: Nate Morgan

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Teaching With Contemporary Art Guest Writer: Nate Morgan

Tomorrow we welcome Nate Morgan as our guest writer for Teaching With Contemporary Art. Nate has been teaching art at Hillside Elementary School in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York for the past …

Flash Points

Obama Special, Part 1

Flash Points

Obama Special, Part 1

What follows is just a bit late for the inauguration, which is appropriate. It is essentially old news. Let’s start with the “Flash Points” question of the week: how can …

Back to “reality”

Back to “reality”

Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemporary Photography, curated by Mia Fineman, is currently on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it seems intended to …

Hello

Hello

Hello everyone. I’m writing on an enormously significant day not only for United States governance and politics, but for its future cultural production as well. It is no great leap …

New guest blogger: Daniel Quiles

New guest blogger: Daniel Quiles

  Thanks to Georgia Kotretsos for ringing in the new year with her up-to-date posts on the Greek contemporary art scene. Look out for another post from her in the …

@ EMST in Athens

@ EMST in Athens

The National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) is currently presenting Bia Davou’s A Retrospective and Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries‘ solo exhibition entitled Close your Eyes. Starting with Davou, she was …

kaput.

kaput.

Kaput. founders/co-editors: Christopher Marinos and Thanos Stathopoulos kaput. is a quarterly online magazine on contemporary art, which was founded last year in Athens, Greece. The name of the magazine was …

What does new and interesting mean?

What does new and interesting mean?

If you find yourself in Athens between now and January 24th, follow my advice and visit the What does new and interesting mean? exhibition at AD gallery. This group show is curated …

The Age of Images

The Age of Images

Television: the small screen, the idiot box, the tube, the boob tube, or the box. With all that’s on television nowadays, Katerina Zacharopoulou presents The Age of Images – a …

Rambo is missing his brothers!

Rambo is missing his brothers!

Veiled in a cloud of national bereavement, I am here to write about art, but first there will be an introduction. The peaceful demonstrations, the protests, the riots, the rallies, …

New guest blogger: Georgia Kotretsos

New guest blogger: Georgia Kotretsos

Happy 2009! The year’s first guest blogger is Georgia Kotretsos, an artist based in Athens, Greece. Kotretsos holds an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2004) …

Migration Patterns

Migration Patterns

Each year the tide of the art world carries hundreds of young artists into Chicago’s several art schools to earn their MFAs. And each year the tide also carries a …

Flash Points

Letter from London

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 Extended Play

Best of the Art21 Blog, 2008 edition

Flash Points

Letter from London

Teaching with Contemporary Art

Art21 Extended Play

Best of the Art21 Blog, 2008 edition

With our blog’s redesign in February, we hoped to see the site take off this year with a slew of new features. Following are some of our favorites, all of …

Gay Witches, Part 3

Gay Witches, Part 3

Continued from “Gay Witches, Part 2”… 3. The work of sound, visual, and performance artists, Massimo & Pierce, aka Black Sun Productions, could easily be discussed in the What’s So …

Gay Witches, Part 2

Gay Witches, Part 2

As promised, here is a list of some recent artists and projects, about which I am particularly enthusiastic, that explore the occult from a queer perspective. 1. Originally from Toronto, …

Art21 Guest Blog, Year 1

Art21 Guest Blog, Year 1

2008 marked the inauguration of many things for Art21 and among the most notable was the introduction of our guest blog. Initially every week and now every two, we bring …

Gay Witches, pt. 1

Gay Witches, pt. 1

The show I most wanted to see this past year but didn’t was AA Bronson‘s School For Young Shamans at John Connelly Presents. It seems to have culminated from, or at least focused, …

New guest blogger: Elijah Burgher

New guest blogger: Elijah Burgher

  Thanks to Merrily Kerr for her slew of fabulous posts covering current NYC gallery and museum shows. Follow her adventures back on her home site here. Up next is …

What’s so great about…

What’s so great about…

Hello again and goodbye for now, Art21 blogging community. As a guest blogger for the past couple of weeks, I’ve loved sharing thoughts on contemporary art in New York City …

Trenton Doyle Hancock in Chelsea (with video!)

Trenton Doyle Hancock in Chelsea (with video!)

At last! An update from Art:21 Season 2 artist Trenton Doyle Hancock’s Lower Realm has reached us in Chelsea. Hancock recently opened a new chapter in his ongoing saga of the war …

Perfect Strangers – Man or Beast?

Perfect Strangers – Man or Beast?

Surely one of the stranger sights in the Chelsea galleries this month is the running coyote pack in the window of Claire Oliver Gallery. In sculptor Kate Clark’s first New …

24th Street Showdown: Cindy Sherman v. Richard Prince

24th Street Showdown: Cindy Sherman v. Richard Prince

Score a victory for female artists in Chelsea galleries this month. Women are still routinely underrepresented in museum collections (see Jerry Saltz’s debate-sparking tally of MoMA’s permanent collection), but not …

The Obamas arrive at the New Museum

The Obamas arrive at the New Museum

Two big attractions of the season—Carsten Höller’s hotel room and Pipilotti Rist’s video (see my Dec. 2 and 3 posts)—occupy a serious amount of space in their respective museums. A …