Weekly

July 23, 2022 • View in browser

This week was hot! Temperatures in Europe soared so high that some museums had to close their galleries. What do climate change deniers have to say about that?

In New York, police shut down an overcrowded opening of an exhibition featuring work by more than 700 artists (the gallery put out an open call and included every work submitted). At first, I thought it was just hype, but the event turned out to be an artist-run gallery's protest against its imminent eviction from its space in the East Village.

Other highlights from this week include Isabelle Brourman's courtroom sketches and diaries from the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial, Jordan Peele's new horror film Nope, reviews of Doreen Lynette Garner and Robert Colescott, and much more.

— Hakim Bishara, interim editor-in-chief 

Top: Crowds at O'Flaherty's opening on July 14; Bottom: Install view of The Patriot  (photos by and courtesy Emma Rose Milligan)

Massive NYC Gallery Opening Draws Crowds and Cops in “Fuck-You” to Landlords
Valentina Di Liscia reports on the wild opening of The Patriot.

Photos of the pandemonium elicit palpable New York-is-back vibes, but the opening was conceived in part as a “fuck-you” to the gallery’s landlords who have refused them a lease renewal, the founders claim. O’Flaherty’s, named after a fictional Irish pub and launched less than a year ago, has just one month left in its Avenue C space.

“We’re getting kicked out of our really good junky spot because some loser tattoo shop signed a ten-year lease,” co-founder Jamian Juliano-Villani told Hyperallergic.

NEWS THIS WEEK

Oldenburg with his sculpture "Giant Three-Way Plug" (1970) at Oberlin College (© Claes Oldenburg; courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York; Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College)

• Claes Oldenburg, best known for his playful works of everyday objects, has died at 93.

• From delaying a Documenta-bound floating project to putting museum collections at risk, Europe's heat wave brings the art world to a halt.

• X-rays reveal a hidden Van Gogh self-portrait under glue and cardboard backing on the reverse side of an 1885 work.

• A mile-long convoy of 52 yellow school buses, collectively called the "NRA Children's Museum," visits Ted Cruz’s house to protest gun violence.

• Italian police intercept a potentially illegal sale of Artemisia Gentileschi's masterpiece “Caritas Romana” in Vienna.

NORTH OF THE CITY

Install view of Wunder…the summer adventure at ArtPort Kingston (courtesy Upstate Art Weekend)

New York’s Upstate Art Weekend Is Back, and Bigger Than Ever
Billy Anania shares a preview of the artists and institutions participating in this weekend's event.

Upstate Art Weekend returns for its third and largest edition of programs across the Hudson Valley and the Catskill Mountains. More than 145 participants have signed on in eight counties, encompassing over 100 exhibitions and 50-plus artists’ studios opening to the public.

CREATING NEW NARRATIVES

Robert Colescott, “George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook” (1975) (© 2022 The Robert H. Colescott Separate Property Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

Robert Colescott’s Indecorous Truths
John Yau on Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott at the New Museum.

By using stereotypes as subjects, and humor as a means of delivery, Colescott got at an uncomfortable truth: racism and racial hierarchy are deeply embedded in every aspect of American life, from its cartoons to its laws. Racism was (and continues to be) literally everywhere. 

Floyd D. Tunson Looks Back at Five Decades of Work
Sommer Browning on Ascent at RedLine Contemporary Art Center.

We Need to Talk About the Middle Passage
M. Charlene Stevens on Doreen Lynette Garner: Pale In Comparison at SCAD Museum of Art and REVOLTED at the New Museum.

INVESTIGATING IDENTITY

Sampler created by “US Citizenship Test Sampler Project” workshop participant Karina (2014) (photo by Jayson Cheung, courtesy of Aram Han Sifuentes)

The Labor of US Citizenship, One Stitch at a Time
Cat Yang on Talking Back to Power: Projects by Aram Han Sifuentes at Skirball Cultural Center.

As if making her own census, Han Sifuentes surveys groups of immigrants with full lives and stories beyond the definitions of arbitrary state borders and even more arbitrary rites of passage, reflecting the never-ending nature of the research, labor, and proof needed by an immigrant in order to demonstrate their belonging.

An Artist’s Exploration of His Family’s Crypto-Jewish Origins
Isabella Segalovich highlights artist Jônatas Chimen Dias DaSilva-Benayon and how he's unraveled his family’s story through research and art. 

The Visionary From Antigua
John Yau on By Land, Air, Home, and Sea: The World of Frank Walter at David Zwirner Gallery.

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IN THE STUDIO

Submission by Ava Blitz, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A View From the Easel
This week, artist studios in Ohio, Stone Ridge, Hudson, and Philadelphia.

My sculpture studio is my garage, wonderfully connected to the outdoors, where I work on stone and foam carving, and casting in plaster and cement in the warmer months…  I share the space with lawnmowers and bikes, while sculpture molds are stored in the basement. — Ava Blitz

Want to take part? Check out our submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us!

FILMS & FEATURES

From Nope (2022), dir. Jordan Peele (all images courtesy Universal Pictures)

Jordan Peele’s Nope Is Funny, Intelligent, and Horrifying
Dan Schindel expands how Jordan Peele's latest feature tackles intersecting ideas about “seeing” and “being seen.”

Nope is heavily concerned with matters of witnessing, recording, and sharing experiences within media. There’s a lot of talk around “being seen” or “feeling seen” now, particularly as they pertain to issues of representation in pop culture. Peele approaches such ideas from oblique angles through his premise in this film, as well as the twists he introduces to the plot.

An Epic Fantasy About a World Plagued by Disease in The Deer King
Kambole Campbell reviews the latest film directed by Studio Ghibli alumni Masashi Ando and Masayuki Miyaji.

A Crash Course in Method Acting 
Dan Schindel talks to historian Isaac Butler and curator Livia Bloom Ingram about how performance technique evolves and what is and isn’t method acting.

MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC

“Time Lapse II (Final Week)” and “Time Lapse III (Final Week)” (© Isabelle Brourman)

Sketching the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard Trial
Isabelle Brourman's courtroom sketches provide a first-hand account of the frenzy surrounding the defamation trial.

As an official observer, advocate, survivor, and citizen, I spiraled into a vertigo worsened by the adamant conjectures of fanatics and truthers.

I left Courtroom 5J each day and then watched that day splinter out all over the Internet each night. I witnessed moments with my eyes that were then chopped, warped, chewed, re-examined, and spat all over the world, spinning into rabid conspiracies.

The Iranian Poet Who Became an American Action Painter
Tim Keane shines a light on a new book on anti-historical Modernist painter and narrative poet Manoucher Yektais.

When a Woman Chooses Art Over All Else
Sohpia Stewart reviews Celia Paul's latest book, Letters to Gwen John.

How a US Labor Reform Bill Could Harm Artists
Lynn Trimble addresses how changes to US labor laws could carry negative consequences for freelance artists and writers.

Required Reading
This week we discuss tanning, butt lift surgeries, trigger warnings, Documenta 15, and more.

IN OUR STORE

"Death of Marat" Enamel Pin

Imagine being a revolutionary leader trying to cool off in the thick July heat, only to be stabbed to death in your bathtub by an assassin. Hot weather can bring out the worst in people.

Shop more art-historical pins!