Museums

June 29, 2022 by Susan Isaacs

Expressive color and the materiality of paint make Joan Mitchell’s exhibit at Baltimore Museum of Art a must-see

Susan Isaacs sees the popular show of Joan Mitchell’s works at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and says the show lives up to its reputation: “It really is that good.” The show is at the BMA until Aug. 14, 2022.

May 12, 2022 by Logan Cryer

Sean Scully’s ouevre, fascinating but a little humdrum, in unimaginative curation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

On a trip to the to see “Sean Scully: The Shape of Ideas,” Logan Cryer is disappointed by the lack of context provided about the artist, whose “work has a bit of a reputation as not being as well-liked as some major art institutions would advertise,” Logan says. Wanting to better understand the abstract artist’s popularity, Logan felt alienated when they found no clear or compelling defense of the work, neither in the wall text, nor through the (lack of) display of documents from the artist himself. What does unimaginative curation mean for the legacy of the artist? Read the review to find out what Logan thinks!

April 27, 2022 by Janyce Denise Glasper

New York immersion, Faith Ringgold’s quilts, prints and paintings at The New Museum and ACA Galleries

Calling it Faith Ringgold’s “moment to shine,” Janyce Denise Glasper writes about the experience of spending an entire day immersing herself in Faith Ringgold’s detailed expressive works at The New Museum and ACA Galleries. She comments that Ringgold “invested so much in her brave, revolutionary practice. The audience must perform that same duty to her.” Both shows are up until early or mid-June, 2022. Links and more information at the bottom of this post.

March 4, 2022 by Andrea Kirsh

A tale of two storytellers at the Hirshhorn Museum, Laurie Anderson and Toyin Ojih Odutola

Andrea Kirsh visits the Hirshhorn Museum for two installations, one by Laurie Anderson and one by Toyin Ojih Odutola, that evoke thoughts of human – and cosmic – bodies in motion.

February 28, 2022 by Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University

Black activist and icon Angela Davis saluted with documentary exhibit at Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University

“Angela Davis – Seize the Time” brings together 220 objects, many from from the archive of Oakland’s Lisbet Tellefsen. On view are papers from her short, troubled employment at UCLA in 1969, and material from her arrest and trial for part in a fatal shootout (she was found not-guilty). During her incarceration pre-trial, Davis inspired many artists, who created work to support her case, including Elizabeth Catlett and Faith Ringgold. Some of those works are included in the Zimmerli show, along with art by contemporary artists Roberto Lugo, Coco Fusco and others, whose works are in dialog with Davis and her struggles. The traveling show is on view at Zimmerli through June 15, 2022, and moves to the Oakland Museum of California in the Fall of 2022.

February 4, 2022 by Janyce Denise Glasper

Jennifer Packer, Emma Amos, Jasper Johns and the placement of art in museums

Provoked by the placement of Emma Amos’s art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, an exhibit at the same time as the Jasper Johns exhibit, which seemed to put the Black woman artist’s works subsidiary to the white male artist’s, our contributor Janyce Denise Glasper muses on the two concurrent museum exhibits of Jennifer Packer (at the Whitney Museum and at LA MoCA), and says “Jennifer Packer shifts the narrative to where they (Black artists) can land if given the opportunity.” We hope you enjoy this thoughtful essay by a passionate young writer thinking about the power imbalance in the art world today.

January 14, 2022 by Janyce Denise Glasper

Upstairs and downstairs, the question of what goes where and why, at the museum

Our contributor Janyce Denise Glasper writes an opinionated essay about artists’ placement in museums. Where does Jasper Johns go? Where does Emma Amos? Some artists receive accolades mostly after their death, while others receive praise again and again in life. The art world is still a mostly white world and mostly a white man’s club.

January 11, 2022 by Kate Brock

Transparency, opacity and the limits of human understanding in Jennifer Packer’s “The Eye is not Satisfied with Seeing,” at the Whitney Museum

New Artblog Contributor Kate Brock reviews ‘Jennifer Packer: The Eye is Not Satisfied With Seeing,’ a retrospective of the painter’s radiant portraits, interiors, and funerary bouquets. “The lack of dimensional representation of Black people, especially Black women, in the history of painting… leaves the eye unsatisfied… Packer’s vision reveals the historic absences,” Kate says. Catch the show at the Whitney before it closes April 17, 2022.

January 6, 2022 by Susan Isaacs

‘Afro-American Images 1971’ exhibit is restaged by Delaware Art Museum in a museum mea culpa

“To write about the Black presence at the Delaware Art Museum is to recall the absence of curators, exhibitions, and artists,” says art historian and artist Simone Austin in the catalog for the re-staging of the exhibition ‘Afro-American Images 1971,’ now at the Delaware Museum. Our contributor Susan Isaacs gives the story of the current exhibition and its historical predecessor, and says, “The show is very important.”

December 17, 2021 by Andrea Kirsh

Amber Robles-Gordon’s anti-colonial quilts and personal histories at American University Museum at the Katzen Center

An artist’s visit to her mother’s birth place in Puerto Rico awakens her to the complexities of immigration and family – and to the dubious socio-political actions and inactions by the U.S. government in its far-flung territories. Our reviewer Andrea Kirsh is moved by the powerful collage works and double-sided quilts of Amber Robles-Gordon. The show closed Dec. 12.

December 15, 2021 by Susan Isaacs

Powerful show of art by women and non-binary artists working in the region today, at the Delaware Contemporary

Regional women artists of all ages ply various media, from plaster and paint to fibers and installation, in a show that is a demonstration of women and non-binary artists’ power to create. Our reviewer Susan Isaacs says: ‘Given the particularly fraught moment we are facing now regarding… voting rights and control of women’s bodies and those with a uterus, “Fields and Formations” is an especially important statement about the creativity and commitment of women and non-binary artists. “ We encourage you to see this exhibit, up now to January 7, 2022.

December 13, 2021 by Janyce Denise Glasper

Quiet, beautiful and atmospheric, Jennifer Packer’s people and funerary bouquets at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Filled with saturated color and light emanating from unexplained places, Jennifer Packer’s atmospheric works suggest a “provocative harmony,” says Janyce Denise Glasper, in her review of the artist’s solo show at LA MOCA. The show is up to Feb. 21, 2022. Packer also has a solo show at the Whitney Museum right now, on view til April 17, 2022. Be sure to catch this rising star, whose approach to figuration is truly new.

November 30, 2021 by Janyce Denise Glasper

Inclusive and engaging, the Scantland Collection’s “Present Generations” at the Columbus Museum of Art shows contemporary art’s power to connect

The Scantland Collection show of contemporary art at the Columbus Museum of Art is inclusive and powerful and invites a more engaged public, says reviewer Janyce Denise Glasper.

November 23, 2021 by Susan Isaacs

‘Seeing Climate Change’ with artist-activist Diane Burko at American University Museum

In her review, Susan Isaacs calls Diane Burko’s art an activist response to the call to arms to save the planet. “Diane Burko: Seeing Climate Change,” on view until Dec. 12, 2021, at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, is a wide-ranging overview of Burko’s beautiful abstract, photography- and map-linked paintings of eco-catastrophes today (melting glaciers, dying coral reefs).