Issue # 170The Tangible and the EtherealMay 27, 2011share with a friend:Stan VanDerBeek, Movie Mural (installation view), 1968/2011, Approximate restaging of VanDerBeek’s multimedia installation Movie Mural (1968), Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the MIT List Visual Arts Center and The Estate of Stan VanDerBeek. (detail)from the editorIn Texas, where we’re unlikely to see temperatures below 90 for a good three months, summer is … Read More

Issue # 169Nutrients to the Cultural SoilMay 13, 2011share with a friend:Jamal Cyrus, FA / TA / HA, 2011, Archival digital print on reflective substrate, wood, and sandbags, 62 x 20 1/2 x 15 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Bryan Miller Gallery, Houston. (detail)from the editorIf we can subscribe to philosopher Jacques Rancière’s notion that politics and aesthetics are … Read More

Issue # 168Possible Explosive TalentApril 29, 2011share with a friend:Dion Laurent, EarthMan 2, 2010, Sculptural performance work and documentation. Courtesy the artist and Texas Biennial/Big Medium. (detail)from the editorMore big changes are in store in Austin’s art world and for Texas museum stewardship overall. A statement released yesterday revealed that Blanton Museum director Ned Rifkin will be stepping down from his post … Read More

Issue # 167Continually Disputed GroundApril 15, 2011share with a friend:Otis Ike, Baby Boomer 1 from the series Outside the Green Belt, 2009. Courtesy of the artist. Featured in the exhibition Nowhere Near Here at the Houston Center of Photography and Fotofest, Houston. (detail)from the editorThe blogosphere is abuzz this week with proclamations of Austin’s art implosion. On Monday April 11, news surfaced … Read More

Issue # 166Style vs. SubstanceApril 1, 2011share with a friend:Emily Ng, Fluent Gradient, 2011, Photoshop gradient created à la Cory Arcangel. (detail)from the editorThis week our critical community was dealt a disheartening blow. On Wednesday, March 30, the Texas-based journal Art Lies announced that it will cease production and publication of its quarterly printed publication and online content, effective as of May. … Read More

Issue # 165Phantom Curiously FloatingMarch 18, 2011share with a friend:Christian Marclay, Still from The Clock, 2010, single-channel video, 24 hours. ©Christian Marclay. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. (detail)from the editorIt’s no secret that I’m an amateur astrology buff. So it’s no coincidence that the title of this week’s issue of …mbg, plucked from Mike Osborne’s textual collage review of Christian Marclay’s The … Read More

Issue # 164Poetry in the Compulsion to ChronicleMarch 14, 2011share with a friend:Jonathan Marshall, Armistice, 2010, Paper, ink, flocking, and ink-jet prints on wood, 48 x 60 inches. Courtesy of the artist. (detail)from the editorWhile the disciplines of poetry, literature and visual art commingle less in the pages of contemporary art publications than in the heyday of the poet-critic of … Read More

Issue # 163Feelings are FactsFebruary 18, 2011share with a friend:Natasha Bowdoin, The Daisy Argument (Installation view), 2011. Courtesy of the artist, Visual Art Center, Austin & CTRL gallery, Houston. (detail)from the editorThe events of the past few weeks have bespoken romance—both of the Cupid’s-arrow variety and of revolution. This Valentine’s Day followed on the heels of recent political turmoil in Egypt … Read More

Issue # 162Between Perverse Meaning and NonsenseFebruary 4, 2011share with a friend:Erin Curtis, Apartment Building, Acrylic on canvas, 2010, 73 x 114 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Champion, Austin. (detail)from the editor‘History occurs the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.’ This oft-cited paraphrase from Marx’s The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte has been applied to the analysis of … Read More

Issue # 161The Cuckoo EffectJanuary 21, 2011share with a friend:Devon Dikeou, You Can Observe a Lot by Watching (installation view), 2010. Courtesy of the artist and Domy Books. Photo by Carling Hale. (detail)from the editorIn my previous letter from the editor, I made a case for the connection between editorial and curatorial practice. That weekend I spent some time in Devon Dikeou’s … Read More