Category Archives: Uncategorized
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At the Tate Modern Part I: Cecilia Vicuña
We missed the Cecilia Vicuña full installation. It was being taken down when we were there, but the label and a piece of it was still visible Since I didn’t fully experience it, I give you the label information: “In the Andes people did not write, they wove meaning into textiles and knotted cords. […]
This entry was posted on May 12, 2023 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
Mike Nelson’s “Extinction Beckons” at the Hayward Gallery London
“Extinction Beckons” by Mike Nelson gives us decay, nostalgia, destruction, resurrection, all layered in profoundly moving installations. I first saw his work in Istanbul at the Büyük Valide Han, a caravanserai built in 1561. That installation is one of several recreated at the Hayward, but my experience of seeing it in […]
This entry was posted on May 11, 2023 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
The Wondrous World of Ikat at the Seattle Art Museum until May 29
Curator Pamela McCluskey began the tour of her dazzling new “Ikat” exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum by pointing out that almost all the clothes we wear are made from oil based polyester with toxic dyes. “Ikat” celebrates cotton, harvested and dyed by hand in a technique used for centuries. […]
This entry was posted on April 2, 2023 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
Rita Robillard Time and Place
Nesting from the series Flower Serenade: A Gift of Time 2021 “Rita Robillard Time and Place”, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem Oregon Tuesday to Saturday noon – 5pm Until March 25, 2023 Rita Robillard was a colleague of mine in the art department at Washington State University in Pullman in the […]
This entry was posted on February 9, 2023 and is filed under Art and Ecology, Contemporary Art, landscape, Printmaking, Uncategorized. -
Mygration: Sámi Reindeer Herders in Alaska
Note: this article was published in a slightly different form in Art Access, and Leschi News. Mygration : Tomas Colbengtson and Stina Folkebrant National Nordic Museum until March 5 Did you know that Rudolf, the celebrity reindeer of Santa’s sleigh would have to be a female. Male reindeers shed their antlers in the winter. […]
This entry was posted on December 27, 2022 and is filed under climate change, Uncategorized. -
“The Stories We Carry” Rethinking American art history
The New Installation of the American Art Galleries at the Seattle Art Museum* Outside the first gallery is this work by Nicholas Galanin, Architecture of return, escape (The British Museum), 2022, an appropriate commentary on removing stolen Native artifacts from the British Museum. Nicholas Galanin is one of the three consulting artists for the […]
This entry was posted on December 14, 2022 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
Bread and Puppet Still Radical
I start with a short clip of the wonderful musicians, especially the trumpet player who was music director. The musicians played parts in the skits and changed instruments ( the tuba player switched to a tiny flute for example and he was Bishop Romero) . You click on it and it downloads so you can […]
This entry was posted on October 26, 2022 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
George Tsutakawa: Nature, Sumi and Obos
“George Tsutakawa: The Language of Nature” at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art includes drawings, watercolors and sumi works as well as oil paintings, one of his famous fountains, several large photographs of others, and even his furniture. The unique exhibition borrows many works from the Tsutakawa family that have never before been exhibited. […]
This entry was posted on October 21, 2022 and is filed under Art and Ecology, Uncategorized. -
Humaira Abid: Confronting Women’s Oppressions
Women’s rights are front and center as Iran erupts in anger at its oppressive extremely conservative government after Mahsa Amini a young woman died from being beaten by the so-called morality police. Two 16 year old girls Sarina Esmailzadeh and Nika Shakrami, have also died in the protests. In this country, the repeal of Roe […]
This entry was posted on October 17, 2022 and is filed under Art and Politics Now, Feminism, Iran, Iranian protests, Iranian Women, Uncategorized. -
Romare Bearden and Abstraction
In “Romare Bearden Abstraction” the artist surprises us in every work. He constantly explores new media, color, and content. Here we see two paintings from 1959, Strange Land on the left and the Silent Valley of Sunrise on the right. Both suggest the shape of Africa, although according to the label it can […]
This entry was posted on September 21, 2022 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
Beyond the Mountain at the Asian Art Museum
FOONG Ping, Foster Foundation Curator of Chinese Art here introduces her new show “Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese artists on the Classical Forms” to our press corps in Seattle. I have to warn you that I am a Ping groupie, I think she is really brilliant based on her lecture to members […]
This entry was posted on August 30, 2022 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
Artists on Fire: Deborah Faye Lawrence and Nancy Kiefer
Hats off to Bonfire Gallery for another cutting-edge exhibition with two of the most outrageous artists in Seattle. Deborah Faye Lawrence and Nancy Kiefer both push the boundaries of what is acceptable, but in strikingly different ways. The title “Still Hung Up,” refers to a phrase that used to refer to passionate affairs […]
This entry was posted on August 25, 2022 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
Midtown Square: The Public Art Display!
“Midtown Square at 23rd and Union is a major destination for outstanding public art. The overall theme of all the panels is “Reverence and Discovery.” Although not planned, all the art work is unified by similar colors such as purple, yellow, orange, pink, black. Barry Johnson specifically explains why he chose the unusual […]
This entry was posted on August 23, 2022 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
A Visit to South Africa by Pamela Allara and the new opera Sibyl by William Kentridge
Some background information: in the 1980s, when I taught modern art history at Tufts, I was the academic advisor for the students in the MFA program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. One of my students, Kim Berman, was from Johannesburg and she was very active in the anti-apartheid […]
This entry was posted on June 14, 2022 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
Louise Bourgeois Goes Way Beyond Anyone Else
Louise Bourgeois affects us viscerally. The extraordinary physicality of her work outstrips any other art addressing the female body and its excruciating alterations from pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, sexuality, abuse, aging. I once met her in Houston at a conference of women artists who were marching for the ERA in 1975. She was […]
This entry was posted on June 2, 2022 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
Hew Locke “The Procession” at the Tate Britain
On our trip to London one of the most exciting experiences was seeing Hew Locke’s “Procession” filling the central court of the Tate Britain with its brilliant collaged figures entirely constructed from recycled materials. The Tate is on the site of a former prison, which I wrote about in 2017. Now we […]
This entry was posted on May 30, 2022 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
The Stonehenge Exhibition at the British Museum
Right after we arrived in London, we went to the Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum. I got free press passes for me, Henry and Henry’s sister, Imogen. There were so many amazing aspects to this display that it is impossible to convey the depth and extent of the experience. Not to mention the […]
This entry was posted on May 7, 2022 and is filed under Contemporary Art, Uncategorized. -
The Mad Hatter Hotel in London
For my first blog post on our exciting trip to London I feature our special hotel The Mad Hatter! As we checked in we were welcomed by Alice through the Looking Glass, literally. her hand enters a mirror which reflects the check in desk. Behind the desk was a large hat! So why the […]
This entry was posted on May 4, 2022 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water
Canadian (Musqueam First Nation) Susan Point’s The First People suggests one theme of the amazing exhibition “Our Blue Planet:Global Visions of Water” at the Seattle Art Museum only until May 30. Made of red and yellow cedar the piece seems to speak to us of both survival and sorrow, as these faces, each one […]
This entry was posted on April 7, 2022 and is filed under Uncategorized. -
Embodied Change: South Asian Art Across Time at the Asian Art Museum
Natalia Di Pietranto, the new Assistant Curator of South Asian Art at the Seattle Art Museum explains her first exhibition “Embodied Change, Asian Art Across Time” as follows “I wanted to . . . explore how the body is a site of both personal intimacy and possibility for change. . . I hope that […]
This entry was posted on March 26, 2022 and is filed under Art and Activism, Art and Politics Now, art criticism, Feminism, Uncategorized. -
Michelle Kumata
this article originally appeared in a shorter version here http://www.artaccess.com/articles/12634620 Bonfire Gallery “Michelle Kumata: Regeneration” to March 26 We are compelled to enter “Regeneration,” Michelle Kumata’s exhibition at the Bonfire Gallery by the banners in the gallery windows. In the exhibition, Kumata is addressing the difficult subject of the long term […]
This entry was posted on March 8, 2022 and is filed under Art and Activism, Art and Politics Now, art criticism, Art in War, Contemporary Asian American Art, Uncategorized. -
Kenjiro Nomura American Modernist
“Kenjiro Nomura American Modernist, An Issei Artist’s Journey” (Cascadia Art Museum, Edmonds, to February 20) Kenjiro Nomura (1896 – 1956) came from Japan to Tacoma at the age of ten in 1907. while living in Tacoma as a child, he attended a Japanese Language school where he was fortunate to have a skilled teacher who […]
This entry was posted on February 1, 2022 and is filed under American Art, art criticism, Uncategorized. -
Christina Reed: Confronting Whiteness and its Exclusions
Christina Reed’s exhibition “Reckoning” confronts us with our own whiteness and oblivous racism head on and with ingenuity. The exhibition consists of three parts. The first is Reflection, a wall filled with large black and white prints based on historical photographs of white people: juries, business men, families, picket fences, interspersed with […]
This entry was posted on January 31, 2022 and is filed under Racism, Uncategorized. -
Carrie Mae Weems The Shape of Things
Carrie Mae Weems the Shape 0f Things
This entry was posted on January 5, 2022 and is filed under African American history, Art and Activism, Art and Politics Now, Uncategorized. -
Subversion: The Art of Slavery Abolitionism
Subersion and the Art of Slavery Abololition is an astonishing work of research and provocative ideas.
This entry was posted on January 2, 2022 and is filed under Abolitionism, Art and Politics Now, Uncategorized.
