Here is a lo-resolution version of my latest article for The Picture Professional. I had the pleasure of interviewing and analyzing Allison Janae Hamilton’s series Kingdom of the Marvelous.
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“Dominion” by Ajna Lichau
Ajna Lichau’s video installation “Dominion,” which just closed on Saturday at the Tribute gallery (625 NW Everett #102), explored the representation of control and resignation without being polemical.
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Catherine Opie — 2012-13 Visiting Artist Program Lecture Series
In her introduction for Catherine Opie, SAIC Dean Lisa Wainwright referred to the artist as “a documentarian and a romantic.” Wainwright’s comments – directed to the near-capacity crowd of students, scholars and admirers gathered at Rubloff Auditorium on September 10 – referred to Opie’s ability to capture and emphasize the beautiful in the commonplace, a…
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Were you Talking to Me?
Sharon Hayes is the epitome of what formalist and conservative aesthetes hate about contemporary art. Her work is queer, political and feminist but these aren’t the only reasons to love her.
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mid.way
In its modern incarnation, “Midway” typically specifies a section of a county or state fair detectable by the abundance of artery-clogging food, weirdos slinging black light posters, and some form of mud-related entertainment. One might speculate that the word’s origin lies south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but the common noun “midway” in this context actually…
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Queer Concerns and Attachments
“How can an artwork claim to represent a queer aesthetic if it does not overtly represent gender or sexuality?” “What are the domains of queerness and how can they expand?” Some of the most interesting strains of queer thought and art practices are developing these themes. The first work inside of the expansive exhibition “The…
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“Super Moment” at the LeRoy Neiman Center Gallery
Composed mostly of large post-prehistoric sculptures “Super Moment,” on display in the Student Union Galleries’ new LeRoy Neiman Center Gallery, features organic seeming icons of an imaginary civilization — odd and crude. The exhibition, a solo show by SAIC recent BFA graduate Max Garett, suits the new location well with its unique public viewing possible…
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Warhol and Sidibé at the DePaul Art Museum
Andy Warhol is an undisputed icon of American art — his work merged high art and popular culture, highlighting connections between money, fame and cultural value. So, the current exhibition of Warhol Polaroid’s and silver gelatin prints at the DePaul Art Museum should easily be the most interesting part of the current show. However, the…
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“Light Years: Conceptual Art and Photography” at AIC
When photography developed into a mainstream process to gather and record information, the understanding of how much truth it could register was hazy. In the 1860s photographer William H. Warner tried to convince Scotland Yard that they could catch a killer by photographing the eyes of the dead. There they would find an image of…
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Ultimate Absence: Ana Mendieta at AIC
If ever there were a place where the body of Cuban-born American artist Ana Mendieta is hauntingly absent, it is in the Art Institute of Chicago’s current exhibition. The presence of these important images, some of which are representations of the artist’s body, are reminders that much of the content of Mendieta’s often-ephemeral practice occurred…
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