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Sleater-Kinney, out of the woods, for better or worse
NEW YORK, NY.- Nearly 20 years ago, when Sleater-Kinney released its towering seventh album, The Woods, there was a convincing case to be made that the trio was the most vital, and underrated, working American rock band. Born of the fervent feminist spirit of the riot grrrl movement and the Pacific Northwests fertile DIY scene, the group spent the second half of the 90s releasing increasingly sophisticated punk albums and eventually, on its righteous 2002 release One Beat, maturing into one of the few indie-rock bands making meaningful protest music in the aftermath of 9/11. On The Woods, Sleater-Kinney managed to kick things into an even higher gear. The twitchy electricity of Carrie Brownsteins guitar, the embodied howl of Corin Tuckers vocals and the earth-quaking force of Janet Weiss drums collided in a glorious ... More

What drives Kaveh Akbar? The responsibility of survival
NEW YORK, NY.- When Kaveh Akbar was drinking, he would regularly wake up to find new bruises or gashes on his body, or to find that he had lost his glasses, his wallet or his car. When he opened his eyes, he might find himself in an alley instead of in his apartment. Once, he got out of bed and realized he couldnt walk. He had broken his pelvis. There was nothing in his life at the time, he said, to indicate it would turn out terribly well. But he got sober, and in the years since, he got married, found a job as a creative writing professor at the University of Iowa and wrote poetry that won him an armful of awards. And on Tuesday, Knopf will publish his first novel. Eleven years ago, I was pissing the bed, he said. And now Im living this life. Akbars novel, Martyr!, follows Cyrus, a young Iranian American man who grows up with the story of his mothers ... More

'Our Class' review: A town's horrific past chillingly brought into the light
NEW YORK, NY.- A simple staging idea can have a devastating affect. As audience members file into BAM Fishers Fishman Space and wait for Our Class to start, a man can be seen writing names in white chalk on a massive blackboard. It looks like a supersize version of the kind that might be in a classroom, but the list of names here are followed by birth and death dates. We are immediately, chillingly aware of each characters life expectancy. So when we are introduced to Zygmunt (Elan Zafir), for example, we know that he was born in 1918 and lived to see 1977. On the other hand, Jakub (Stephen Ochsner) will die when hes about 22, in 1941. That last year is the tragic turning point of Tadeusz Slobodzianeks play, which premiered in London in 2009 and, under the direction of Igor Golyak, is finally making a belated New York debut ... More

After 7 decades of television stardom, she's ready for 1 more
TOKYO.- Pushing a walker through a television studio in central Tokyo this week, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi slowly climbed three steps onto a soundstage with the help of an assistant who settled her into a creamy beige Empire armchair. A stylist removed the custom-made sturdy boots on her feet and slipped on a pair of high-heeled mules. A makeup artist brushed her cheeks and touched up her blazing red lipstick. A hairdresser tamed a few stray wisps from her trademark onion-shaped hairstyle as another assistant ran a lint roller over her embroidered black jacket. With that, Kuroyanagi, 90, was ready to record the 12,193rd episode of her show. As one of Japans best-known entertainers for seven decades, Kuroyanagi has interviewed guests on her talk show, Tetsukos Room, since 1976, earning a Guinness World Record last fall for most ... More

Vale M.J.M Carter AO: A lifetime of giving
ADELAIDE.- The Art Gallery of South Australia mourns the loss of one of this nations most significant philanthropists to the arts, M.J.M. Carter AO. His generosity to AGSA and to the arts began in 1966 and continued passionately throughout his life. Max was committed to expanding the scope and quality of the Gallerys collections. He was dedicated to sharing its remarkable stories with the people of South Australia and beyond and aspired to ensure his home state remained at the forefront of cultural engagement and excellence. Today, the Gallerys collections are a testament to the potent and transformative power one individual can have on art and society. Today AGSA Director Rhana Devenport ONZM paid tribute to Max Carter: The Art Gallery of South Australia expresses its heartfelt condolences on the passing of the outstanding ... More

'Terce' review: How the other half prays, in a re-imagined mass
NEW YORK, NY.- When Ive had the opportunity, as a wandering Jew, to visit the houses of worship of friends, Ive never felt much in danger of conversion. But if I did, it would surely be the music that got me. Thats also been true for me when visiting the church of Heather Christian: Im not sure what faith shes selling, but Im a sucker for the way it sounds. In Terce: A Practical Breviary, which opened Sunday at the Space at Irondale in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, she offers a new installment in what is evidently a plan to remake the Catholic Mass of her childhood in egalitarian if cryptic new terms. Shes doing so one rhapsodic service at a time. In 2020 she offered Prime, her version of the 6 a.m. liturgy. Terce, produced by Here as the centerpiece of this years Prototype festival, advances three hours ... More

Tanya Berezin, behind-the-scenes off-Broadway force, dies at 82
NEW YORK, NY.- By the mid-1980s, Tanya Berezin had gone far as a New York stage actress. She had collected glowing reviews for her off-Broadway performances over the years, and she had won an Obie Award for her role in Lanford Wilsons play The Mound Builders in 1975. Even so, she was growing weary of the hustle. When youre in your 40s it seems really sort of inappropriate to be waiting for telephone calls from people to ask you to do a job, she said in a 1993 interview. It just feels really uncomfortable and childish. Her budding career crisis turned out to be an opportunity. In 1986, Berezin turned her attention from the stage to a highly influential behind-the-scenes role in the theater world: artistic director of the Circle Repertory Company, a storied off-Broadway incubator of talent that she had helped found in 1969. Berezin died on Nov. 29 at the home of he ... More

TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund announces recipients of this year's TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund
MAASTRICHT.- The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) has announced that the National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin, Ireland) and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Connecticut, USA) are the recipients of this years TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund (TMRF), an annual grant created in support of the international art communitys vital work to preserve artistic and cultural heritage. The National Gallery of Ireland has received funding from TEFAF to restore Ludovico Mazzolino's (c. 1480 - c. 1530) The Crossing of the Red Sea (1521), which has been part of its collection for over a century. This biblical artwork is remarkable for its size and rarity and because it departs from the conventional rules of perspective. In its current fragile state, the painting cannot be safely displayed; with severe delamination of the paint layer and soiling ... More

Nika Kutateladze opens exhibition at Modern Art, Bury Street
LONDON.- As part of its participation in Condo London 2024, Modern Art announced an exhibition of new work by Nika Kutateladze. This exhibition is organised in partnership with Artbeat, Kutateladzes gallery in Tbilisi, Georgia, and it is Modern Arts second showing of Kutateladzes work in London. Through the mediums of painting and installation, Kutateladzes work studies the nuances of relations between people who live as neighbours in rural environments. Having himself spent time living in remote mountain regions in Georgia, Kutateladze takes these small communities as a starting point to meditate on how people both rely on one another and struggle to live together. All Kutateladzes recent works derive from his observations of the few inhabitants of a single, depopulated mountain village. His paintings all made with oil ... More

Peabody Essex Museum elects new Board Chair, Jennifer M. Borggaard
SALEM, MASS.- Today, the Peabody Essex Museum announces the election of Jennifer M. Borggaard as its next Chair of the Board of Trustees. Borggaard, who currently serves as Secretary and Chair of the Governance Committee for PEMs Board of Trustees, succeeds Stuart W. Pratt who dedicated nearly 40 years of service to PEM and its predecessor organization, the Essex Institute. This is the first time since PEMs founding in 1799 that the executive director and board chair positions are held by women. Borggaards service as board chair commences on July 1, 2024. Pratt stated that, Jenn Borggaard brings considerable nonprofit board experience and a deep commitment to PEM as she becomes board chair at a dynamic and promising juncture in the museums history. Working in concert with PEMs Rose-Marie and Eijk ... More