New Art Examiner Without Fear or Favor

Alexander Stanfield Utah isn’t known for its arts scene – aside from a couple of collectives, a handful of museums, and an occasional festival, Utah lacks much of the appeal held by the art juggernauts in the States. Unlike those heavy hitters, tourist art is a big player in Utah’s art market; the prairie/mountain landscapes or the oversaturated prolonged exposures …

Al Jirikowic I think there are many facets to the question Darren poses – but off hand my response is YES, end the Biennial – but with a great caveat. A caveat which inspires me to think we must question the real purpose of the Whitney, MOMA, the Guggenheim et al, with respect to the powerful role the cathedrals of …

Frances Oliver As I begin to read a review* in my favourite magazine, The New York Review of Books, I am caught up short by the following: “… Gessen’s credentials as an observer of autocracy are impeccable. Aged fifty-three, they (Gessen identifies as binary) spent their childhood …” Who are they? Oh of course – binary – they is/are Gessen …

Viktor Witkowski I call the United States my home. Poland is my native land and Germany my homeland. In the current political situation in the U.S., where one political party has abdicated responsibility, I find myself looking to Europe for answers and possible solutions. In the USA the pandemic and its volatile virus have been declared Democrats by the administration …

by Steven Carrelli A year ago this month my wife Louise and I sat at the kitchen table of our friends Adam and Charlene Fung in Fort Worth, Texas, and we played a game called Pandemic. It is a cooperative game in which each player has a different specialty, and their task is to work together to stop a global …

Anthony Viney Why is visual art produced by people and not normally by animals? (We know that elephants and chimpanzees can and do create interesting art in captivity but not, as far as we know, in the wild.) When did human beings start to create art, and what environmental, physical and neurological changes happened to allow us to do this? …

Margaret Richardson VA Made: ‘Mediation Across Media’ at the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design in Richmond, Virginia (July 17 – September 13, 2020) offers a unique opportunity to realize relationships between divergent media and expand one’s perspective of ‘things’. Co-organized by Howard Risatti and Steven Glass, this ambitious exhibition features works circa 1955-2019, from over 30 artists grouped into …

Margaret Lanterman Theodore (Ted) Halkin (1924-2020) Chicago artist, well-loved husband, father, professor, and friend, died on August 11, 2020 at the age of 96. Ted was associated with the 1950s group of Chicago artists known as the Monster Roster. Like many in this group, he was a WWII veteran and is also considered one of the progenitors of the Hairy …

    In a local comic strip,  a child chastises his shamefaced father for never having done anything to change the name of Toronto’s Dundas street; the father didn’t even known that Dundas was a racist oppressor.  But then,  why pick on Dundas? In the 18th century all British aristocrats were racist oppressors.   As were Japanese aristocrats, and so were  …

Miklos Legrady Bruce Barber defined the notion of littoral as “the intermediate and shifting zone between the sea and the land”, which “characterizes works that are undertaken predominantly outside of the conventional contexts of the institutionalized art world.” One example was his project ‘Diddly Squat: Three Works about Money’, performed in Toronto in November 2002. I’ve made littoral works myself …

by Christian Hain Quite unexpectedly, a visitor’s first thought upon entering Katharina Grosse’s single–work show at Hamburger Bahnhof Museum might be: ‘Underwhelming’. That’s remarkable, because the German artist is known – and very well known, being represented by some of the best multinational powerhouse galleries – for ‘in your face’ artworks that are as powerful as they are colourful. You’d …

by Graziella Colombo A hundred and fifty shots by Inge Morath, all in rigorous black and white, are exhibited at the Diocesan Museum in Milan and will remain there until November 1, 2020. It’s a vast retrospective, enriched with original documents, dedicated to the first woman photographer admitted to the Magnum Agency. She joined Magnum as an editor, becoming a …

by Liviana Martin   I spent a weekend in Venice after the lockdown to rediscover art galleries and artists’ studios that are finally reopening, or are under refurbishment. I visited the historic and prestigious Contini Gallery; founded by Stefano Contini in 1979, it has three offices in Venice and one in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Over the phone the gallery owner tells …

by Pendery Weekes Once again Monsieur Marcel Grenouille from Nantes has done his good deed for the day and has included an unknown artist in the summer Art Festival 2020 at Port Pierre Canto Marina in Cannes. This year the unknown is Freya Stephan with her painting, Looking Out Over the Cornish Riviera. It was picked up by Grenouille while …

by Colin Fell In the chaos of 1918, a few months after the Bolshevik revolution which would transform Russia, a middle aged man boarded a train bound for Norway, unaware that he would never again see his beloved motherland. Although he had left behind him his money and property, he wasn’t travelling light – with him he had nearly 2000 …