June 2020

Arrest: the Politics and Transcendence of Aesthetic Arrest Qua Protest

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in *, June 2020

Arrest: the Politics and Transcendence of Aesthetic Arrest Qua Protest

Recently, given the fomenting protests following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery (amongst countless others), much discussion has erupted amongst contemporary artist-activists about the proper place for art and the aestheticization of politics. This is, of course, by no means a novel conversation. Historically, the aestheticization of politics has been disparaged […]

The Studio Where It Happened: James VanDerZee and the Role of Being a Modern African American

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in *, June 2020

The Studio Where It Happened: James VanDerZee and the Role of Being a Modern African American

James VanDerZee (1886-1983) produced somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 photographs in his creative lifetime, maybe even more, almost all of them of African Americans who lived in or were passing through Harlem. He had a fraught relationship to street photography and worked predominantly out of his studio. At the height of his career in the […]

Erase, Tear, Gouge, Replace: Mark Bradford Excavates the Present

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in *, June 2020

Erase, Tear, Gouge, Replace: Mark Bradford Excavates the Present

What to write about Mark Bradford? His ascent into the art world seems to border on the magical.  His story makes for a perfect Hollywood movie if Hollywood was inclined to turn its lens to artists more often, which it does not. Mark Bradford is African-American, born and raised in South Los Angeles, in the same […]

America Goddam

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in *, June 2020

America Goddam

Can’t you see it Can’t you feel it It’s all in the air I can’t stand the pressure much longer Somebody say a prayer Alabama’s gotten me so upset Tennessee made me lose my rest And everybody knows about Mississippi goddam -Nina Simone In 1963, Nina Simone wrote this song in protest of the atrocities […]

Kahlil Robert Irving “Ground Water From Screen Falls [(Collaged Media + Midwest STREET)]” at the Contemporary Arts Center

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in *, June 2020

Kahlil Robert Irving “Ground Water From Screen Falls [(Collaged Media + Midwest STREET)]” at the Contemporary Arts Center

Engaging with Kahlil Robert Irvings’s installation requires action. Its scale requires moving one’s body, viewing it first from afar and then up close. From a distance, such as viewed from outside standing on 6th street, it’s a frenetic tableau of screenshots. There are memes and browser tabs, overlapping digital prints filling the lobby’s central wall. […]

Thom Shaw’s Woodcut Series “The Malcolm X Paradox,” a Timely Call to Action

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in June 2020

Thom Shaw's Woodcut Series "The Malcolm X Paradox," a Timely Call to Action

In the late 1980’s, visiting Chicago on the occasion of one of his exhibits at an art gallery of the city, Thom Shaw witnessed a gang fight, the members of which were wearing T shirts depicting the late Malcolm X. He found the association intriguing, Malcolm X in his mind being a promoter of unity […]

Q&A: Kiah Celeste and Material Agency

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in June 2020

Q&A: Kiah Celeste and Material Agency

The study of aesthetic materialism–visually studying raw material for its own ability to be ‘beautiful’–has often had some problematic connotations for me. The ability to strictly utilize specific materials because of their aesthetic power sometimes feels like a superpower: a skill in rationalizing pulling yourself out of the trauma of human history in order to […]

Profile, Cedric Cox

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in June 2020

Profile, Cedric Cox

Artist and native Cincinnatian Cedric Cox  considers his work “A spiritual testimony to the visual experiences that arouse my senses and my synapses, as I examine and interpret the world around me, quietly and loudly.”  Artists in any field would be the first to understand how something could be both quiet and loud; my own […]

Celebration and Dissent: Basquiat in the Time of Black Lives Matter

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in June 2020

Celebration and Dissent: Basquiat in the Time of Black Lives Matter

Last semester an English comp student of mine used to stay after class to have further conversations with me. We typically talked about music and capitalism as his work was intensely focused on hip-hop and social justice. His final paper was about the work of a New York based Haitian rapper named Mach Hommy. Mach […]

Near My Parents’ House: Kara Walker and the Scourge of History

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in June 2020

Near my parents’ house in western Georgia is a mountain made of stone. Aptly called Stone Mountain, this site features various hiking trails which the citizens of Atlanta use to escape the hustle-and-bustle of their city. At its peak, persistent climbers are rewarded with a view of untouched treetops stretching on as far as the […]

The Transformative Power of Art: The Art of Dean Mitchell

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in June 2020

The Transformative Power of Art: The Art of Dean Mitchell

I first became aware of the watercolor art of Dean Mitchell several years back when his images garnered recognition in regional and national watercolor shows. I found his figurative and architectural pieces thought provoking, well drawn and possibly not from photographs. In 2019, Mitchell was the Gold Medal Recipient at the Portrait Society of America […]

American Courtier in Paris

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in June 2020

This column has often focused on the haute couture area of the fashion design landscape. Maybe it’s because the handcrafted construction required of these designs naturally align more with the sentiment that fashion is an artform – one to be worn and lived in, but an art nonetheless. Maybe it’s because the collections and fashion […]

The Political Satire Hidden Inside the Royal Portraits of Francisco Goya

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in June 2020

The Political Satire Hidden Inside the Royal Portraits of Francisco Goya

Francisco Goya’s The Third of May 1808 (fig. A) depicts the gruesome aftermath of a Madrilenian uprising against the Grande Armée who, under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, had invaded their country two months prior. Words like “raw” and “visceral” often surface in discussions of this painting, and it’s easy to see why, for it […]

“My Dark Vanessa” by Kate Elizabeth Russell

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in June 2020

Kate Elizabeth Russell’s debut novel, “My Dark Vanessa” is both the most important and the most compelling novel to date of 2020.  It adds nuance and ambiguity to the sometimes frightening excesses of The Me Too movement, which perhaps fiction can do far better than journalism. Deeply researched, the novel concerns a fifteen year old […]

“A Burning” by Megha Majumdar

June 27th, 2020  |  by  |  published in June 2020

Megha Majumdar’s debut novel “A Burning” happened to appear during the height of the recent protests which began with the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. The novel couldn’t be more timely or topical, and it’s a splendid novel, to boot. A Muslim young woman finds herself, accidentally, in the wrong place at […]