May 6, 2021 • View in browser

Good morning. ☀️

Today, the National Gallery of Art laid off its entire retail staff, curator Tsione Wolde-Michael considers Black iconoclasm and the current debate around monuments, and reviews of Janiva Ellis, an adult theater in Montreal, and LA’s Mexican-American lowrider car culture.

— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief

We Should Think Differently About the Preservation of Racist Monuments

Today more museum professionals are considering what it could mean to exhibit defaced monuments.

Tsione Wolde-Michael

What's Happening

Carla Gannis, "The Garden of Emoji Delights" (2014), single-channel 4k video (color, silent) (© Carla Gannis, collection of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation)

The National Gallery of Art laid off its entire retail workforce in a move to outsource jobs to a company that manages museum stores nationwide.
The Smithsonian digitized artist Charles White’s archive, which includes over 17,000 pieces of photography, writing, correspondence, and biographical material.
Art Vault, a 3,500-square-foot art space dedicated to virtual and new media art, opened in Santa Fe, New Mexico with inaugural exhibitions spanning the 18th to the 21st centuries.

Features & Reviews

LA’s Mexican-American Lowrider Car Culture, Photographed in All Its Glory

Lowriding is often considered to be a male-dominated movement, but Kristin Bedford shines a spotlight on the women of all ages behind the wheel.

Lauren Moya Ford

How Canada's Most Glamorous Adult Theater Has Survived

The Cinéma L'Amour in Montreal hearkens back to the Golden Age of Porn.

Justine Smith

Psychedelic and Sardonic, Janiva Ellis’s Paintings Offer Visions of a Divided Nation

With RATS, Ellis explores the twisted realities of American life.

Folasade Ologundudu