Francesca Woodman, Eel Series, 1977-78. Taken in Rome, Italy.
© George & Betty Woodman.

The Woodmans portrays family dynamics far more than its intended cinematic portrait of Francesca Woodman. Although director C. Scott Willis has framed a document of two artist parents "who hav/… Read full post »

 

Romaine Brooks, Detail of Self-Portrait (1923). Oil on canvas 46 1/4 x 26 7/8 (117.5 x 68.3 cm). Smithsonian American Art Museum.

At last, my schedule cleared and I spent a day in Washington D.C., a trip specifically made with artist friends to view the Smithsonian's Hide/Seek: Differ… Read full post »

A week and a half ago, I went to the opening of Invisible Exports' Readykelous show, where the who's who of New York female identified avant-garde congregated to celebrate the A.L. Steiner & Nicole Eisenman curated show for the gallery. Members of Men and Le Tigre were there. Eileen… Read full post »

Film still: David Wojnarowicz, A Fire In My Belly, 1986-87/ 2010. Courtesy of The Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P.P.O.W Gallery, NY.

What could have ended a 21 year blacklisting of LGBTQ artists in a major museum context has become target for a fundamentalist attack on basic… Read full post »

Wanda Ewing, Wallflower Pin-Ups. Linoleum cut printed on found wallpaper. Right: Wallflower #7, 18" x 18. Left: Wallflower #1, 16" x 16".

While preparing for her seventh group show in 2010, Wanda Ewing was kind enough to make time for conversation with me. Exploring contemporary culture/… Read full post »

Annie Leibovitz, Ellen DeGeneres, Kauai, Hawaii, 1997. Gelatin silver print, 20 x 16". Collection of the artist. © Annie Leibovitz 2010.

Two months after Robert Mapplethorpe's death in 1989, Washington D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art cancelled a solo show of his photographs featuring/…

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Bob Flanagan & Sheree Rose, "Wall of Pain", 1981-1992. Photographs and hypodermic needles, 132 x 168 in.

Opening the Fall 2010 season with a dynamic group show, titled Mine, Invisible Exports featured video and photographic works by three distinct artists for whom the physical body is canv/…

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Portrait of former Army National Guard mechanic Sergeant Jen Hogg and partner Jackie Scalone. A cofounder of the Service Women's Action Network, Sergeant Hogg trained as a 63Y track vehicle mechanic and worked as the HEMTT wrecker operator. Photograph by Jo Ann Santangelo/Redux Pictures.

&nbs… Read full post »

 Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson as Joni and Laser in Lisa Cholodenko's THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, Focus Features. Photograph by Suzanne Tenner. Image courtesy Focus Features.

 Because interaction can’t exist in a vacuum, it seems fair to say human activity is defined… Read full post »

Kiki Smith, Pilgrim, 2007-2010. Leaded stained glass in steel frames. Installed in Kiki Smith: Lodestar, The Pace Gallery New York. © Kiki Smith. Photo by G.R. Christmas, courtesy The Pace Gallery.

When I walked into Kiki Smith's Lodestar show at The Pace Gallery on 22nd Street, I immed/… Read full post »

R.M.S. (left) and I, on the same week that I made my first Polaroid. Photograph by Ema.

The quiet and mischievous gangly kid who swung from trees when no one was looking, might grow up to wear the same pair of sunglasses for six years, then lose them in a completely… Read full post »

Iris Kyle, 2003; Bonny Priest, 2004. © Martin Schoeller. Images courtesy Martin Schoeller/Hasted Hunt Kraeutler.

 
Extremity was inaugurated as a currency of female beauty so long ago, constantly stirring dialogues of body modification. Although the natural body might be momentarily/… Read full post »

Big Bambú: You Can't, You Don't, and You Won't Stop by Mike + Doug Starn at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Photograph by Patricia Silva.

They're "*working harder than ever; but you call it macking": five thousand thirty and forty foot-long bamboo poles, forty miles of rope.&n… Read full post »

Two images from Playboy Portugal's July 2010 issue, hommaging José Saramago's 1991 novel "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ".

Playboy Enterprises is in the process severing relations with Frestacom-Lisboa Media Publishing, over the July 2010 cover of Playboy Portugal. The Portu… Read full post »

New York's Museum of Modern Art's 2010 roster has been most interesting to me, highlighting works that claim their own space as much as they request mor… Read full post »

And then there were arbitrary momentums of convergence. A heat wave in June. A jaw-dropping futebol match. A reminder of definitions. Amidst all these things and more, I began writing again. Writing for real, not just typing guiltily into my Blackberry on the subway ride home. Recording for longevity… Read full post »