Issue # 190My Parrot Can Talk, Can Your Honor Student Fly?May 16, 2012share with a friend:Installation view of the Repair Station (with Sam Ratanarat’s hands) in SPACE PROGRAM: MARS by Tom Sachs at Park Avenue Armory. SPACE PROGRAM: MARS is co-produced by Creative Time and Park Avenue Armory. Photo by Genevieve Hanson, NYC. from the editorCoffee in hand it’s time to wade into the rising tide of … Read More

Issue # 189Beer Here! Get Your Beer Here!May 4, 2012share with a friend:Daniel Firman, Butterfly, 2007-2010, Galerie Perrotin, Frieze Art Fair 2010 in Regent’s Park, London. Photo by Linda Nylind for Frieze.from the editorUnder no circumstance did I set out to write this weeks letter about art fairs. Our recommendation this week, with the warranted reservations and skepticism, of Frieze New York … Read More

Issue # 188The Return Of The Really Really Realest RealApril 20, 2012share with a friend:Original postcard image by Mike Monteiro.from the editorAfter attending a 35mm screening of Canadian-filmmaker David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983) last weekend, my relationship to the screens in my life has become a little more uneasy. Cronenberg’s hallucinatory look into the pervading—some might say dehumanizing—influence of technology and its eventual … Read More

Issue # 187Two Helpings Of The Future, Yes PleaseApril 6, 2012share with a friend:Andy Coolquitt, chair w/paintings, Lisa Cooley, March 30 – May 6, 2012. Photo: Cary Whittier.from the editorWhen I sat down on Sunday evening to watch Morley Safer’s 60 Minutes exposé on the contemporary art world I went in with low expectations. His first story, circa-1993, hadn’t set a very high … Read More

Issue # 186Paging Sun Ra, Place Is The SpaceMarch 23, 2012share with a friend:Gabriel Kuri, rr, 2012, Steel, concrete, lacquer paint, 6 ¼ x 78 ¾ x 47 ¼ inches. © the artist. Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London.from the editorAs I find myself in the frenetic last week of my stay in Omaha, the idea of place has once again … Read More

Issue # 185Self-Bursting BuckyballMarch 9, 2012share with a friend:Desert Dome at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. Image courtesy Henry Doorly Zoo.from the editorWhen I stepped away from teaching and the trappings of academia two years ago, I readily admit to some fairly aggressive abdominal butterflies. At that point I’d been in school, in some form or another, for my entire existence—moving … Read More

Issue # 184Hall of MirrorsFebruary 24, 2012share with a friend:Yael Bartana, 22. The Missing Negatives of the Sonnenfeld Collection, 2008, Black and white photograph, 15 3/8 x 23 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.from the editorWe talk a lot about democracy in this country. Much is made of our high-minded ideals of inclusivity, tolerance, choice and the freedom from intrusion … Read More

Issue # 183If This Is An Avalanche Make Me A SkierFebruary 10, 2012share with a friend:Sherrie Levine, Crystal Skull, 2010, Cast Glass, 5 1/2 x 7 x 4 1/2 inches, ©Sherrie Levine. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.from the editorMuch has been written about our dwindling attention spans in the face of the digital deluge. Our brains are apparently in … Read More

Issue # 182Productive ConfusionJanuary 27, 2012share with a friend:Michael Jones McKean, The Gilded Scab. Courtesy of the artist and PARISIAN LAUNDRY. Photo credit: Guy L’Hereux. (detail)from the editorTime and space; two characteristics that any artists residency program worth its salt provides plenty of. Mix in a healthy dose of support along with a stipend and you’ve got the ideal scenario: … Read More

Issue # 181Flux Capacitors Are So 1985January 13, 2012share with a friend:Installation view from “Identity,” Artists Space, 2011. Photo: Daniel Pérez. (detail)from the editorWelcome to the future! The beginning of any new year is a time for speculating on what the next 365—make that 352—days will hold. Resolutions, those time-honored and often unfulfilled declarations of self-improvement jotted on Post-its, journal pages, … Read More