Writer-in-Residence

Notes on Nostalgia

by Rebecca Leopold | Apr 29, 2011

Notes on Nostalgia

by Rebecca Leopold | Apr 29, 2011

The Romantic subject, who emerged roughly two hundred years ago as the prototype of the modern subject, who looks at a beautiful vista to see not the landscape but “an …

Susceptible / Silent / Suggestion

by Rebecca Leopold | Apr 27, 2011

Susceptible / Silent / Suggestion

by Rebecca Leopold | Apr 27, 2011

When the war came along, I decided to use only quiet sounds… There seemed to be no truth, no good, in anything big in society. But quiet sounds were like …

New guest blogger: Rebecca Leopold

by Kelly Shindler | Apr 25, 2011

New guest blogger: Rebecca Leopold

by Kelly Shindler | Apr 25, 2011

Thanks to our regular writer Alex Freedman for her fantastic posts for the guest blog. Look out for more from her in our Lives and Works in Berlin column. Up …

iheartnewhistoriographies: Conversing with Laurel Ptak

by Alex Freedman | Apr 25, 2011

iheartnewhistoriographies: Conversing with Laurel Ptak

by Alex Freedman | Apr 25, 2011

I met Laurel Ptak three years ago back when she was coordinating Aperture’s educational programming and I was their intern terrible. Running into her a few weeks ago in one …

How to Explain Sherrie Levine to Your Grandmother

by Alex Freedman | Apr 15, 2011

How to Explain Sherrie Levine to Your Grandmother

by Alex Freedman | Apr 15, 2011

Museums have spent millions on art education trying to reach out to the young and elderly. But if you have a grandmother like mine, the kind who, despite a PhD …

Disembarking: Christina Knight on “Glenn Ligon: America”

by Alex Freedman | Apr 14, 2011

Disembarking: Christina Knight on “Glenn Ligon: America”

by Alex Freedman | Apr 14, 2011

I first saw Glenn Ligon’s Negro Sunshine at Harvard’s Fogg Museum in 2007. And for the rest of the exhibition I was trailed by a staff member to keep me …

Waiting for Fonda

by Alex Freedman | Apr 12, 2011

Waiting for Fonda

by Alex Freedman | Apr 12, 2011

Ronald Regan: Hi Ed. Call me Ron. Edward Said: Hi Ron, you don’t mind do you. Marcel Broodthaers: Hello Edward. Well I’m told we are waiting for Jane Fonda. — …

New guest blogger: Alex Freedman

by Kelly Shindler | Apr 11, 2011

New guest blogger: Alex Freedman

by Kelly Shindler | Apr 11, 2011

Thanks to Allison Glenn for her series of compelling posts on Detroit confirming that art is alive and well in the Motor City. Up next is Alex Freedman. You may …

Street Folk

by Allison Glenn | Apr 11, 2011

Street Folk

by Allison Glenn | Apr 11, 2011

Like this post? Help us fund our guest blog for the next year. Donate to Blog Party, our first-ever blog fundraiser, today! One cannot talk about the relational art projects …

The Lot: A Functional Site

by Allison Glenn | Apr 10, 2011

The Lot: A Functional Site

by Allison Glenn | Apr 10, 2011

The Lot is a curatorial project that began in 2009 with the goal to provide space for site-responsive performance art while pushing the boundaries of what non-commissioned public art in …

The Performativity of Site

by Allison Glenn | Apr 4, 2011

The Performativity of Site

by Allison Glenn | Apr 4, 2011

  Collectivity and site specificity are two themes that are incorporated into many artists’ projects in Detroit. Shared information, shared space, and sustained growth are what fuel the brains behind …

Living in the Present

by Allison Glenn | Mar 30, 2011

Living in the Present

by Allison Glenn | Mar 30, 2011

The abandoned buildings in Detroit have an air of nostalgia and a visceral seductiveness. When encountered for the first-time, they can be overwhelming. No building represents the affects of ruin …

We Almost Lost Detroit

by Allison Glenn | Mar 28, 2011

We Almost Lost Detroit

by Allison Glenn | Mar 28, 2011

I was in Detroit this weekend catching up with my family and friends and was able to look at the city with fresh eyes. Distance is necessary to have criticality, …

New guest blogger: Allison Glenn

by Kelly Shindler | Mar 28, 2011

New guest blogger: Allison Glenn

by Kelly Shindler | Mar 28, 2011

Thanks, Joe Grimm, for stopping by our blog for the past two weeks. Up next is Allison Glenn. Allison is a dual MA candidate in Modern Art History, Theory and …

The Late, Dearly Missed Kathryn Hixson on Comedic Aggression in 70’s Art

by Joe Grimm | Mar 24, 2011

The Late, Dearly Missed Kathryn Hixson on Comedic Aggression in 70’s Art

by Joe Grimm | Mar 24, 2011

Critic and teacher Kathryn Hixson is the one person I’ve had in my life who felt like a mentor in the deepest sense. She was wickedly funny, challenging, and yet …

Henry Flynt’s Weird Philosophy

by Joe Grimm | Mar 21, 2011

Henry Flynt’s Weird Philosophy

by Joe Grimm | Mar 21, 2011

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IehN5vfFfRc] I first became a fan of Henry Flynt when I heard his incredible zonked hillbilly fiddle jams. Since I grew up in North Georgia as the son of an …

Ben Russell at threewalls

by Joe Grimm | Mar 18, 2011

Ben Russell at threewalls

by Joe Grimm | Mar 18, 2011

For some time now, Ben Russell has been tearing it up in the world of experimental cinema, but with his new solo exhibition, he is establishing himself as a force …

New guest blogger: Joe Grimm

by Kelly Shindler | Mar 15, 2011

New guest blogger: Joe Grimm

by Kelly Shindler | Mar 15, 2011

Thanks to Lindsay Lawson for her thoughtful posts. Up next is Joe Grimm. Joe  (b. 1978, Safety Harbor, FL) is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily with light and sound. In …

The Complexity of the Do-Over

by Lindsay Lawson | Mar 15, 2011

The Complexity of the Do-Over

by Lindsay Lawson | Mar 15, 2011

  There is something strangely satisfying about the act of repeating. Perhaps this is because as children we begin our lives mimicking adults to learn language and behaviors that are …

The Cave of the Mind

by Lindsay Lawson | Mar 10, 2011

The Cave of the Mind

by Lindsay Lawson | Mar 10, 2011

Inhale. As you exhale your body relaxes. Exhale moving into a deep quiet place inside you… You can see off in the distance what appears to be a cave. As …

Interesting Times

by Lindsay Lawson | Feb 28, 2011

Interesting Times

by Lindsay Lawson | Feb 28, 2011

May you live in interesting times… This ambiguously Chinese curse implies that interesting (i.e. historically significant) times are usually not peaceful ones. They are times of change and therefore, times …

New guest blogger: Lindsay Lawson

by Kelly Shindler | Feb 28, 2011

New guest blogger: Lindsay Lawson

by Kelly Shindler | Feb 28, 2011

Thanks to Thea Liberty Nichols for chronicling the artists, curators, and historians coming through the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Visiting Artists Program. Up next is Lindsay Lawson. …

Wangechi Mutu

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 25, 2011

Wangechi Mutu

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 25, 2011

“I’m really trying to pay homage to the notion of the sublime and the abject together and using the aesthetic of rejection, or poverty, or wretchedness as a tool to …

Tobias Putrih

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 24, 2011

Tobias Putrih

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 24, 2011

“I don’t think art is about consistency. It’s about complexity … The key question for me is how to make an object that expresses its own self-doubt, questions its own …

Yael Bartana

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 23, 2011

Yael Bartana

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 23, 2011

“It’s not that I have concrete solutions to the problems … I’m constantly mirroring human conditions and political situations. Is it possible to create this reality or not, that is …

Kori Newkirk

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 21, 2011

Kori Newkirk

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 21, 2011

“No one can make a better Kori Newkirk about Kori Newkirk than Kori Newkirk.”(Kori Newkirk: 1997-2007. Los Angeles: Fellows of Contemporary Art, 2007, 29) The Visiting Artists Program at The …

Lisa Freiman

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 18, 2011

Lisa Freiman

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 18, 2011

“When I first came here, people said, ‘Why are you going to Indianapolis?’ I said, ‘I’m going to Indianapolis because it’s a huge opportunity.’ They answered, ‘What huge opportunity? There’s …

José Muñoz in Chicago

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 16, 2011

José Muñoz in Chicago

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 16, 2011

I write with the animating glow of philosophical idealism, and I articulate my thought through descriptions of performances of queer aesthetics practiced in everyday life, literature and art. — José …

The School of the Art Institute’s Visting Artists Program

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 14, 2011

The School of the Art Institute’s Visting Artists Program

by Thea Liberty Nichols | Feb 14, 2011

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is one of the oldest accredited art and design schools in the US, and The Visiting Artists Program (VAP), where I …

New guest blogger: Thea Liberty Nichols

by Kelly Shindler | Feb 14, 2011

New guest blogger: Thea Liberty Nichols

by Kelly Shindler | Feb 14, 2011

Thanks to Kevin Buist for his terrific posts on design, technology, and dilettantes. Follow his pursuits with ArtPrize here. Up next is Thea Liberty Nichols, a Chicago-based arts administrator, independent …

What Ever Happened to the Dilettante?

by Kevin Buist, ArtPrize | Feb 11, 2011

What Ever Happened to the Dilettante?

by Kevin Buist, ArtPrize | Feb 11, 2011

In June, the contemporary art podcast Bad at Sports (and regular columnists on this site) featured an interview with artist Mark Dion. Dion said something in the interview that has …

Clients, Pithy Quotes, and Jenny Holzer

by Kevin Buist, ArtPrize | Feb 7, 2011

Clients, Pithy Quotes, and Jenny Holzer

by Kevin Buist, ArtPrize | Feb 7, 2011

Clients are the difference between design and art.    — Michael Bierut Last week I looked at two nearly identical works by Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Tobias Wong as a way of …

Google’s Art Project and the Uncanny Museum

by Kevin Buist, ArtPrize | Feb 2, 2011

Google’s Art Project and the Uncanny Museum

by Kevin Buist, ArtPrize | Feb 2, 2011

Yesterday, Google launched Art Project. Art Project brings the technology of Google Maps Street View into a handful of the world’s best art museums. Users can virtually wander through various …

Art, Design, and Clocks

by Kevin Buist, ArtPrize | Feb 1, 2011

Art, Design, and Clocks

by Kevin Buist, ArtPrize | Feb 1, 2011

My latest Internet obsession is Quora.com. Quora describes itself as “a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it.” It’s like Yahoo …

New guest blogger: Kevin Buist

by Kelly Shindler | Jan 31, 2011

New guest blogger: Kevin Buist

by Kelly Shindler | Jan 31, 2011

Thanks to Dorota Biczel for her fantastic series of writings on Polish, Peruvian, and Spanish contemporary artists (and Wojnarowicz too). Look out for more from her in the coming months. …

How Much Does Corn Matter? Glory and Humility in the Work of Eduardo Villanes

by Dorota Biczel | Jan 27, 2011

How Much Does Corn Matter? Glory and Humility in the Work of Eduardo Villanes

by Dorota Biczel | Jan 27, 2011

As I am grieving the disappearance of the Minimalist from the pages of the New York Times, I am also pondering Mark Bittman’s statement from his farewell column, “the continuing …