In her review of Cecilia Vicuña exhibition, Andrea Kirsh calls the works — little cobbled-together objects tacked to the walls or arrayed on a low platform on the floor — marvels. But these objects are not nothings to throw away but objects with magical shadows and poetic meanings, and their mystery delights.
Read MoreWhen an under-appreciated woman artist finally gets her due, you know Artblog will be there to cover it! Here Andrea Kirsh tips her hat to the Barnes Foundation and their major retrospective of Berthe Morisot, on view through January 14, 2019. Morisot, who was one of a small number of female artists at the epicenter of the Impressionist movement, was also a true pioneer of form and technique.
Read MoreIn Part 2 of Andrea Kirsh’s annual roundup of the best in art books, there is something for everyone on your holiday gift list from lovers of figurative painting to abstract sculpture fans. There’s also something for everyone to learn, whether it’s about a previously under-appreciated regional artist or the most famous self-promoter in the history of Modern Art.
Read MoreAndrea Kirsh pens an appreciation of Make Me a Summary of the World, Indian-American artist Rina Banerjee’s solo show currently up at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Densely layered in materials and meaning, this exhibition addresses the legacy of colonialism and the transnational nature of the contemporary art world through sensuous textures and bright colors. Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World is on view through March 31, 2019.
Read MoreAndrea calls the humanist sculptural works of Rachel Whiteread, powerful, poignant and accessible without gimmicks. She praises the sculpture, cast from domestic objects as big as a house and small as a hot water bottle, which evoke absent bodies.
Read MoreAndrea Kirsh visits DC and reports back on the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s new retrospective on self-taught folk artist Bill Traylor. “Between Worlds: The Art of Bill Traylor” presents a thoughtful and nuanced (if overly-ambitious) reframing of an artist who developed his vibrant and graphic style of image making during one of the darkest eras in this country’s history. Catch it now through March 17, 2019.
Read MoreAndrea Kirsh gives her take on the late, great Jack Whitten’s newest retrospective. The exhibition, which focuses on the artist’s richly-textured wood sculptures and African-inspired assemblages originated at the Baltimore Museum of art and is now turning heads at the Met through December 2, 2018.
Read MoreAndrea Kirsh visits the moving retrospective of multi-disciplinary artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz, one of three exhibits on the artist currently on view in New York. Kirsh also takes a look at the catalog for this timely exhibition, which does important research that should open the door for more. The show runs through September 30th at the Whitney Museum.
Read MoreThe bibliography of politically-committed art by African American women has gotten considerably richer with the publication of several exhibition catalogs, all of which are essential resources on their subjects. Here, in part 1 of a two-part series, Andrea Kirsh reviews the catalogs for “Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and “Joyce J. Scott: Harriet Tubman and Other Truths” at Grounds for Sculpture.
Read MoreAndrea Kirsh takes a trip to Chicago and shares her experience of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s recent Howardena Pindell retrospective. Across an impressive range of media and techniques, Pindell’s work tackles race, labor and the technologies that bind. This long-overdue exhibition, which was on view at the MCA from February 24 through May 20, will travel to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art later this year before showing at Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum in early 2019.
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