How can galleries and museums successfully negotiate relationships of power? Farah Nayeri’s "Takedown" takes us through. More this week: the rise of studio photography in East Africa, pictures of the supernatural, and San Francisco's shadowy past.
If art is power, as Farah Nayeri’s Takedown consistently shows, then how can galleries and museums successfully negotiate relationships of power? | David Carrier Ruth Millington tells the story of the women (and nine men) who have been portrayed in various paintings considered “masterpieces.” | Hall W. Rockerfeller Isolde Brielmaier’s book I Am Sparkling illustrates how Parekh’s studio became a place for sitters to assert their agency in a changing world. | Mallory Cohen Become a member today to help keep our reporting and criticism free and accessible to all. Mimi Plumb’s photos of 1980s and ’90s San Francisco look at the dissonance between an expanding metropolis and its surrounding environment. | Zach Ritter Shannon Taggart’s book SÈANCE pictures the supernatural occurrences in the lives of Spiritualists, seekers, mediums, and other occult practitioners. | Sarah Rose Sharp |