Category Archives: Uncategorized

Material Matters Catalog Essay

A few months ago I wrote an essay for an upcoming exhibition at Northeastern Illinois University, titled Material Matters. The exhibition includes Tim Bergstrom, Samantha Bittman, Daniel Bruttig, Kristin Haas, Matt Irie and Scott Wolniak, and opens this Monday, August 25th. Here’s an excerpt of the essay included in the catalog, available at the gallery. Throughout […]

What You Should Have Noticed in May

My monthly column at Bad at Sports includes mention of late Whitney Biennial drama, the Glasgow School of Art fire at their Mackintosh Building, the Artist Congress at the Block Museum of Art, and more. Read the rest: What You Should Have Noticed in May.

What You Should Have Noticed in April

You can read my wrap-up of this month’s art news and discussions at Bad at Sports: What You Should Have Noticed in April.

Extinct Entities: Alternative Myths

This winter I was invited to contribute an essay for the Extinct Entities festival’s short-run book. My essay ran along-side essays from Jason Foumberg, writer for Chicago Magazine and art editor for NewCity Magazine, Thea Liberty Nichols of ArtSlant and Bad at Sports, and Erin Nixon, former co-curator for Noble & Superior Projects and who […]

What You Should Have Noticed (in February and March)

This year I’ve been invited to start a new column at the Bad at Sports blog, titled What You Should Have Noticed, in which I round up each month’s highlights, big events, and those debates and conversations that stood out from the rest. The first article for January covered CAA, The University of Chicago Labratory school’s new […]

Seven Artists of the Week: Allison Kilberg

This week’s picks from Allison Kilberg, curator and arts administrator, and former associate director at LVL3 Gallery. Check out her blog here, and keep an eye out for her projects in Chicago and beyond. Thanks, Allison!

Review: John Sparagana @ Corbett vs. Dempsey

Last week I reviewed John Sparagana‘s exhibition, Crowds & Powder, still up for a few more days at Corbett vs. Dempsey. With their reliance on grids and fascination with images, Sparagana’s collages have much in common with the optical intensity of digital distortion or algorithmic abstraction, yet the artist adapts his images with the kind of […]

Seven Artists of the Week – Ryan Travis Christian

This week’s picks from Ryan Travis Christian, who (as described last week) was the inspiration for this feature back in 2009. Ryan is currently working on his upcoming solo show at Western Exhibitions; recent highlights include shows with Guerrero Gallery in San Francisco and a museum show at CAM Raleigh in North Carolina. As aways, […]

Haim Steinbach: Travel @ White Cube Gallery, London

The exhibition of found objects can take two forms: either the DuChampian invasion of the “real” into the unreal spaces of art, ironically short-circuiting our expectations and behavior toward both realms of objects; or the museum-like display of found objects as cultural documents or relics, representing their origins and functions in an anthropological matrix. Like […]

Meriç Algün Ringborg @ Nordenhake Gallery

Meriç Algün Ringborg‘s exhibition, A Work of Fiction at Stockholm’s gallery Nordenhake prompted a lot of negative associations, and I found myself in an unfortunately common critical bind: I’m not sure whether to attribute my response to this particular work or work like this. Given the sinking vehemence the exhibition prompted, I’m guessing it’s plenty of both. Algün Ringborg’s […]

Michael Johansson @ Galleri Andersoon/Sandström

Michael Johansson‘s exhibition at Andersson/Sandström was a memorable part of my Stockholm gallery hop. The gallery, a prominent blue-chip exhibitor of mostly Scandinavian artists, is located in the Normalm district on the city’s northwest side, in a pristine white-cube ground-floor space. Johansson’s installations are difficult to describe without wearing out vocabulary: they are arrangements of […]

Hurvin Anderson @ Thomas Dane Gallery

Hurvin Anderson’s latest exhibition, New Works, opened October 15th, 2013, at Thomas Dane Gallery in London’s West End. As the title would suggest, New Work is a thin exhibition of really nice paintings, if you’re into that kind of thing. Which I am. While Anderson’s conceptual thrust was weak – abstractly painted images of anonymous fern and banana trees, both […]

Seven Artists of the Week – summer in pain

This week’s picks from me. Click images for links to more. maybe you actually aren’t

Weekend Preview – I’ve been meaning to hear of that

This week’s picks on what to see this weekend. For more information, go click right here or right here. Temporary Services @ Block Museum of Art When they write a book about Chicago’s early 21st century art, keep an eye out for the promise pages on DIYAGID (Do It Yourself And Actually Get It Done) art […]

Weekend Preview – skeleton

This week’s picks on what to see this weekend. I’m rushed and this weekend is packed so here are links to relevant pages on onthemake.org. Territories @ Untitled Gallery at Marwen Friday, April 1st from 5-7PM @ Untitled Gallery at Marwen, 833 N Orleans St. For Your Eyes Only @ Kunsthalle New Friday, April 1st from 6-9PM […]

Janeen’s Art Memoirs

I get a lot of e-mail from artists and galleries asking me to visit their shows or write about their work. There are many reasons why I can’t normally respond to unsolicited requests for press, but this video I received today was just too good not to share. You can see more of Janeen‘s work […]

Artist’s Websites – now you have no excuse

Having a web presence is essential for every artist, regardless of medium, age, location, or even representation on a gallery website. Controlling the availability of images and information on your work and your career is a uniquely modern ability for artists, and it should be taken advantage of – but how? For some, web presence […]

Happy Holidays! Here is a present.

About a year ago I started keeping an archive of all the images of artwork that I download. I spend a fair amount of time looking at art online, so this archive grew pretty rapidly. Some images have appeared up on this website, others were for my own reference, but it’s been nice to have […]

Top Five Shows of the Year That I Went To

There are still a few hours left in 2009, so here are my top five for the year. Since I started the blog well into the year, and have by no means the exposure to form any conclusive pool to reflect upon, I’ll only go with what I know. I can’t say that the following […]

Blurb: RADAR EYES @ Fardom Gallery

Say Hi to Kristin Reger, a post-chicago artist who will be now and then covering Chicagoish art events in New York. Curious about the funky ad for RADAR EYES I’d seen on the back of the most recent Lumpen magazine, I asked Kristin to talk about the show, which she co-curated in New York and which […]