Art Movements

Another week of unprecedented COVID-19 news dominates the headlines as the United States, and New York specifically, has slowly become one of the epicenters of a global pandemic.The Hyperallergic news team, including news editor Jasmine Weber, and reporters Valentina di Liscia and Hakim Bishara, join me for our first-ever remote podcast to discuss a wide range of topics including how museums and art galleries are advocating for support, how the pandemic is impacting life in Rome, how Whitney Museum art handlers are doing their part, and even a look at some of the viral songs that have emerged from the crisis.We will be producing a podcast weekly until the crisis is over, to document what we've been seeing, reading, and hearing about a virus that has forced inhabitants of some of the largest cities of the world to stay home. During this anxious time, as much of the world shelters in place to mediate the impact on local healthcare facilities, we work at keeping you informed about the daily realities of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed life all around the world, whether it is in San Francisco, where inhabitants are forced to stay indoors by a shelter in place order, or the whole country of Canada, which has just closed its border to the US and will not allow non-essential visitors into the country. Here in New York, Hyperallergic reporters have been talking to those impacted by the virus and how it is wreaking havoc for businesses, nonprofits, and arts institutions of all types. In this podcast, I'm joined by two Hyperallergic reporters, Hakim Bishara and Valentina di Liscia, to discuss what we're seeing, hearing, and experiencing regarding COVID-19's impact on the art scene.A special thanks to Eric Drass of Shardcore for the music to this week’s episode. Based on COVID-19 DNA sequence from the NIH, the complete two-hour track on Soundcloud and you can learn more about the artist at the Shardcore website.Subscribe to Hyperallergic’s Podcast on iTunes, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

Ariella Azoulay's new book Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism (Verso, 2019) is an important read on the topic of museums, colonialism, and their clear relationship. In this conversation, Azoulay, who is Professor of Modern Culture & Media and Comparative Literature at Brown University, joins us at Hyperallergic HQ to explain what we need to unlearn, and how artists, collectors, critics, and other arts professionals play a role in the continuing dispossession of colonial subjects, most often people of color, around the world. This conversation is essential for anyone interested in the future of arts institutions and their role in social change. A special thanks to Dried Spider for the music to this week’s episode. (driedspider.bandcamp.com)Subscribe to Hyperallergic’s Podcast on iTunes, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

Taxes may be one of the most unpopular topics in art circles, but we all have to deal with them. So in this episode I speak to Hannah Cole from Sunlight Tax, who is an artist and tax professional, about the challenges of artist taxes — her specialty — and what people should watch out for if they don’t want to be audited. Lots of useful insight.A special thanks to Mark Pritchard and Warp Records for providing the music for this episode.Subscribe to Hyperallergic’s Podcast on iTunes, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts.hyperallergic.com

It’s the holidays and you can’t get away from them. Some classic films have come to represent the season in the popular imagination, and we all have our favorites. I invited film editor Dan Schindel to talk about this unique genre of cinema, while discussing our favorite films about Christmas and more. I also invited a number of Hyperallergic staff to share their favorites.I have a feeling this episode will get you into the holiday mood.** Sponsor **OVID.tvIf you’re into art films, documentaries on artists, or simply want visual inspiration, consider subscribing to our favorite streaming service, OVID.tv. To make this easy, they’re offering a special year-end discount on monthly plans.From now until January 1st, you can save 25% off your first four months of OVID. This means you’ll get access to OVID—the best streaming service for critically acclaimed independent films—for just $5.25 per month instead of $6.99. Simply head over to www.OVID.tv and use the code "HYPER" at check-out. Then, start watching films o

Artist Zoë Buckman is a feminist, which permeates her work and life, and her art explores the world of contemporary art with a particular sensitivity toward issues of sexual violence, abuse, and gender identity, among other things.In this episode, she sat down with Hyperallergic editor and critic Seph Rodney to discuss her last exhibition at Fort Gansevoort, which was reviewed by Weekend contributor Nicole Miller. Buckman also expanded on her perspective of art that struggles with difficult issues in a thoughtful way.A special thanks to Twig Twig for the music to this week’s episode. You can listen to that and more at twigtwig.bandcamp.com and other streaming services. This and more in the current episode of our weekly Art Movements podcast.

Hyperallergic Reviews editor Dessane Lopez Cassell and Documentary associate editor Dan Schindel join me to discuss our favorite films from 2019.We discuss Parasite, The Farewell, America, High Life, Midnight Traveler, the new frontiers of documentary, including Syrmor, The Giverny Document, and more. We also discuss the recent boom in superhero movies, how they dominate conversation about film, Martin Scorsese’s problems with the genre, and what it tells us about movies today. We also talk about Schindel's newly published essay, "What Is a Documentary These Days?" Sponsors:OVIDAre you looking for the perfect gift for the cinephile in your life? What if you could give them a whole year of the best documentary and art-house films from around the world? Our friends at OVID.tv are making that easier than ever with a special holiday offer!From now until midnight on Monday, December 2nd, OVID is offering 25% off their annual subscriptions. This means you get a whole year of OVID—the best streaming service for crit

The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) was founded by women over a century ago, and it continues to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. Its current president, Rosanne Somerson, who is also an accomplished furniture designer, stopped by to talk about the institution and how it has pivoted to stay on top of the field, while serving an increasingly diverse student body.We also discuss the RISD Museum and its recent attempt to repatriate an item in its collection, the financial realities that face students, and how arts education can help us solve some of the challenges of today.A special thanks to musician Sophie Hintze for allowing us to use her unreleased song “Coffee in the Rain.” You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram.This and more in the current episode of our weekly Art Movements podcast.Subscribe to Hyperallergic’s podcast on iTunes, or RSS, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts.

Joan Kee is the rare combination of art historian and lawyer, and she's shared her skills in her new book, Models of Integrity: Art and Law in Post-Sixties America, which examines the legal issues major contemporary artists (from Tehching Hsieh to Felix Gonzales-Torres) have confronted in the past 60 years.Kee's research shows that since the 1960s, as artist projects have become more expansive and expensive, the world of lawyers and laws is becoming a bigger part of the equation. From discussions of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "Running Fence" land art project (they actually had offers to place the project elsewhere, which would've been a lot easier) to Gordon Matta-Clark's Fake Estates micro-real estate project (there is no evidence the artist did or did not want to present this as an artwork), Kee's research demonstrates that the history of art has increasingly been intertwined with its legal realities.A special thanks to Brooklyn-based musician SunSon for providing the music to this episode, and you can che

Born in 1923 in Pennsylvania to Lebanese parents, Helen Khal would go on to become an important presence in the modern art world of Lebanon as a prominent art critic and artist. A new exhibition at Beirut’s Sursock Museum tells the history of that period through her friendships and relationships with a coterie of artists and writers who would become some of the most important artist voices in the region.Commissioned by Ashkal Alwan for the Sursock Museum's biennial Home Works gathering of lectures, performances, exhibitions and events — most of which, with the exception of the exhibitions, has been indefinitely postponed because of the recent nationwide protests in Lebanon. The exhibition is titled At the still point of the turning world, there is the dance and includes work by Chafic Abboud, Yvette Achkar, Etel Adnan, Huguette Caland, Simone Fattal, Farid Haddad, Helen Khal, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Aref Rayess, and Dorothy Salhab-Kazemi.Curators Carla Chammas and Rachel Dedman spoke to me about this incredib

From nine weeks of protests to an exhibition that was more ethnically and racially diverse than previous years, this year’s Whitney Biennial has a lot to unpack.I asked our associate news editor Jasmine Weber, editor and critic Seph Rodney, and reporter Hakim Bishara to join me to reflect on months of controversy and offer their opinions on the exhibition itself. We discuss favorite works, what may have been accomplished, and duds. You’ll want to hear this.A special thanks to Wanderraven, who provided the music to this week’s episode. The song is called “Here Into The Dark”. Listen to more at wanderraven.com.

Last week, Hyperallergic published a five-part series, titled The Danger Epidemic in Art Handling, on the realities facing art handlers in the United States. The story generated a lot of debate and shocked many who were never forced to think about the conditions workers are forced to endure when assembling and transporting art of all types. This conversation with Hyperallergic Senior Writer Zachary Small and Associate News Editor Jasmine Weber explores the contours of the topic, the difficulties of reporting on contentious art world issues, and how investigative reporting is crucial for change. We also discuss the Sotheby's lockout of art handlers, which we covered extensively in 2011 and 2012. A special thanks to Peter Gabriel's Real World Records for allowing us to play a special live track by world music legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The label is celebrating its 30th anniversary of Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records and they marked the occasion by announcing the release of a previously unheard recording by

On the first floor of the Gardiner Museum, in the Art of the Americas gallery, there is a large Maya plate dating to the 6th to 7th centuries CE. It features a large deity in the center of the orange and black earthenware object with a band of glyphs around the edge of the dish. This object is well-known to Maya specialists, not only for the mastery of the design, but because of the inscription that not only mentions the name and location of the donor but also explains that it was a plate used to serve white venison tamales. In this episode, we talk to four experts in the field, Gardiner Museum educator and curator Siobhan Boyd, Metropolitan Museum curator James Doyle, cultural historian Margaret Visser, and Popti storyteller Maria Monteja to peel back the layers of history in this wondrous artifact from ancient times to learn about Maya traditions and culture through the lens of today. A special thanks to SunSon for providing the music to this special series, which is produced by Hyperallergic in conjunction

Joseph Pierce wants you to question everything, but especially queerness. The Cherokee citizen and Stony Brook University assistant professor believes the moment has come for queer academia to seriously question the roots of their discipline, and ask how the field can expand to include more voices outside the Euro-American canon of Judith Butlers and Jack Halberstams. "When we think about queerness," Pierce explains, "it's seen as a universal theory that can be applied everywhere. But often what that does is maintain a framework based on coloniality and white supremacy. What we want to do is question how queerness circulates." Accordingly, the young researcher has teamed up with scholars from across the Western hemisphere to produce a special edition of GLQ, an important journal of lesbian and gay studies published by Duke University Press. The forthcoming issue intends to address the limits of queerness outside normative white contexts, and how decolonization and the schema of radical liberation might provid

There's a curious collection of 18th-century porcelain figurines displayed on the second floor of the Gardiner Museum. Set amidst an impressive display of European ceramic table wear and figurines, this small assortment of Harlequin sculptures don dark masks that stand out for contemporary audiences. One of the colorful sculptures is by Wenzel Neu and hails from the Kloster-Veilsdorf Porcelain Factory in Germany, c. 1764–65, and beside it is a sign that asks, "Is Harlequin in blackface?" In this episode, we talk to Professor Cheryl Thompson, anti-racist educator Rania El Mugammar, and the Gardiner's Chief Curator Sequoia Miller about this figurine that portrays a character from the Commedia dell'Arte that was a precursor to the more violently racialized images of blackface in 19th and 20th-century minstrel shows. We explore the long history of blackface in Canada, and how one museum is adapting to tell the stories that its collection provokes with contemporary audiences. A special thanks to musician SunSon fo

Canadian artist Shary Boyle is known for her incredible ability to transform clay and ceramic into feats of delicate wonder, using the human body and the history of the material to delve into the undercurrents and meanings often overlooked by contemporary viewers. In the second in a four-part podcast series produced by Hyperallergic in conjunction with the Gardiner Museum's Community Arts Space: What we long for initiative, she reminds us: "Let us not let the art world homogenize us when we all individually as young people might have chosen to become artists." She continues, "I chose to become an artist to try to pursue a life of true questioning and subversion and an alternative position to what I saw as a common drive towards capitalist values of growth and progression and I want to just to continually have access to watching and observing and questioning that." In this episode, I speak to the artist about her relationship to a material that has been having a renaissance in contemporary art, and she shares

Most of our earliest experiences of art are forged at museums. In this episode artist Kent Monkman recounts his own youth visiting institutions that didn’t reflect the lived reality around him and his Cree community in Winnipeg.  Since those formative years, Monkman has become an important voice in contemporary art who challenges the histories told inside the hallowed halls of museums, pushing them to reflect the complexity of the world around them. He is an artist who teaches us to imagine the world we want to see, one that refuses to erase the stories of pain, but instead uses them to portray the power of resilience and future possibilities. This is the first in a four-part series by Hyperallergic in conjunction with the Gardiner Museum and its Community Art Space, a platform for experimentation and socially-engaged art. The series explores the role of museums, ceramics, and the stories they tell. A special thanks to Brooklyn-based musician SunSon for providing the music to this episode, and you can check o

During this special Pride Month, I knew we'd all need the wisdom of artist Nayland Blake, who is a leader in the field of queer representation and art, but that is one of his many talents as an artist, activist, educator, and innovator. This episode, I talk to Blake to learn about their experiences growing up biracial and queer in New York, going to school in Southern California, their formative years in San Francisco, and their return to New York. They also school me on kink. A special thanks to Twig Twig for the music to this week’s episode. You can listen to that and more at twigtwig.bandcamp.com and other streaming services. This episode is sponsored by Swann Auction Galleries. Swann’s first ever “Pride Sale,” a curated auction of material related to the LGBTQ+ experience and the gay rights movement, takes place on June 20, 2019. A corresponding exhibition of works on offer will run from June 15 through the sale.

Morehshin Allahyari has been capturing the imagination of art lovers the world over since her Material Speculation: ISIS series from 2015-16 propelled her into the spotlight. For that project, she recreated objects destroyed by the ISIS terrorist organization in Iraq. For that ambitious endeavor, she used the few images she could collect of the artifacts themselves and then 3D printed them in a beautiful translucent material that revealed a USB — filled with the related data — buried deep inside the new works. Her latest project, which is performance-lecture that was commissioned and presented by New Museum affiliate Rhizome, is titled Physical Tactics for Digital Colonialism, and it builds on her concept of digital colonialism in relation to the technology of 3D printing. The lecture was just released online by Rhizome, but I wanted to invite her into our Brooklyn studio to talk about the issues surrounding digital colonialism. A special thanks to Prince Harvey, who provided the music for this episode. Title

What is June, really? It's a time for the LGBTQ community to come together and reflect on the ongoing fight for equality, even as we honor the hard-won achievements by queer activists past and present. It's also an opportunity to reflect on the rich creativity and diversity of our friends and chosen families. That's why Hyperallergic is putting a special spotlight on the queer arts community this month. Writers, philosophers, activists, illustrators, painters, sculptors, poets, filmmakers, performers, drag queens — everyone, all creative people are important beacons of hope and resilience in a time of political uncertainty. We've always been devoted to using our website as a platform for historically marginalized peoples, and Pride Month is also a time to celebrate and double-down on that work. Inaugurating this effort, we invited artist and actor Cristina Pitter to share a selection of readings from her solo performance, Decolonizing the Color of Queerness on our Hyperallergic Art Movements podcast. It's som