Failed Art and Uneasy Britons: Notes from the United Kingdom Cedar Lewishohn Franz West, Waiting Area (2003) A Franz West retrospective in England or anywhere else isgoing to be messy. The Austrian Actionist has a way of raising havoc in themost unexpected of places. He’s liable to paint out the details of billboardsand add his […]

Andreas Gursky, The Strange Reporter Saul Austerlitz Andreas Gursky: Cable Car, Dolomites (1987) [[Source: http://english.ohio-state.edu/people/garcha.2/cablecar.htm]] The worldof German photographer Andreas Gursky is nothing if not familiar, yet,everything within it is somehow askew. The overriding sensation one gets uponstudying a Gursky photograph is that of having stumbled onto the documentationof an unfamiliar ritual practice. In his […]

Do-Ho Suh: Identity, Anonymity, Displacement Anya Kamenetz   Seoul Home     style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’>People entering a space where Do-HoSuh’s best-known work, the diaphanous, tent-like "Seoul Home/L.A.Home/New York Home/London Home" is installed, inevitably crane their necks and smile indelight like children seeing a large balloon float up to the ceiling. Alife-size, three-dimensional silk reconstruction of his childhood […]

Post-Human PROMETHEUS: Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Technology of E-motio H.J. Boisvert In an apolitical and techno-centered age where the individual more readily falls prey to pre-Raphaelite pastiche and slumbering decadence, “political art” would seem to possess scant interest and even less impact. Yet the innovative and varied work of the polish born artist and industrial designer, Krzysztof […]

A Torn Tapestry Holly Morganelli  Quick! Name a topic that is at once redundant and silenced within the American tapestry. Yes! And for 1 trillion dollars in Dubya’s tax cuts, the answer is social class. The mainstream media packages the illusion that we are all middle-class, gives it the seal of approval and sends it […]

Crowds of Steel or Burlap Bodies: The Disturbing Sculptures of Abakanowicz Daria Meoli In Coexistence. Magdalena Abakanowicz sheds a beautiful tear over gang mentality. This powerful and surprising exhibit marks yet another evolution for the rebellious Polish artist. Born to aristocratic parents in 1930 and raised on an estate east of Warsaw, Abakanowicz came of […]

A flirtation between art and film Danielle O’Steen Exhibited along the main streets, piazzas and major hotels on the Lido of Venice, OPEN2003 style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’>, the sixth edition of the International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations, style=’color:black’>ran in coordination with the Venice Film Festival from August 27th through October 5th this year. Boasting the theme Art […]

 A Song For Rudy Burckhardt and a Song of Fire: The Towers (9/11) David Shapiro Andso the snow fell Andcovered up poetry.   Andso the snow fell Andcovered up cities like bags of leaves.   “5WTC, II”, mixed media collage on paper mounted on canvas, 14″ x 10″, 1998.   Andso the snow fell Andcovered […]

Enter the Trans-Urban Laura Lee Pederson From a graffiti-mapped commute to a faux cigarette commercial, Brooklyn-based Turf’s fall 2003 film project, Film @ 33 incorporated 14 artists, 3 installations, and 17 screened projects arranged thematically in 4 segments. Each self-contained segment worked in much the same way as rooms in a group show. Stephen Apicella-Hitchcock, […]

The New Pluralism: Visual & Verbal Piri Halasz In the ’70s, people talked about "pluralism." A range of work was on view, but most fell into two categories. One was conceptual, video, performance and process art, and the other, hyperrealism. Hyperrealism sold well, but critics preferred conceptual-video-etc. It provided better opportunities for discussion, but was […]