Weekly
August 6, 2022 • View in browser
Here I am! I know you’ve all been in Hakim Bishara’s able hands for the last three months, but I’m glad to report I’ve returned to Brooklyn to gear up for the fall season. It was an incredible journey across parts of the United States to explore a country still recovering from a long pandemic, and I’m excited to put my newly earned perspective to work at Hyperallergic. I’m happy to be back.
This week, we look at how one popular social account is drawing parallels between art and sports, a Polish museum is asking guests not to have sex on their grounds, researchers in the UK have discovered a 750-year-old shipwreck off the coast of England, and we asked a number of LGBTQ+ artists what Pride means to them today.
All this, plus reviews of Suzanne Lacy, Sharif Bey, Norman Bluhm, Lonnie Holley, and much more.
— Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief
A meme juxtaposing American basketball player Ja Morant with a Pietà painting by Italian Baroque artist Annibale Carracci (courtesy @ArtButSports)
When Sports Imitate Art
Jasmine Liu spotlights a Twitter account marrying sports and art history through memes.
“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” Oscar Wilde once wrote in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying. LJ Rader, the man behind @ArtButSports — a popular Twitter account comparing iconic images in sports with art historical paintings, sculptures, and installations — would probably agree.
SPONSORED
NEWS THIS WEEK
Activist Angela Davis discusses efforts she is involved in to bring freedom to political prisoners. (photograph by G. Marshall Wilson, Ebony Collection)
Millions of images from Ebony and Jet magazines will soon be accessible via the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Getty Research Institute.
Researchers from Bournemouth University discover a 750-year-old medieval shipwreck and its cargo off the coast of Dorset.
A Polish museum is asking attendees to cease all sexual activities on its premises.
A rare Leica camera breaks records at auction, selling over five times the previous record at $15 million.
The popular BeReal app, which prompts users to post within a random two-minute window each day, has become prime fodder for memes.
OPPORTUNITIES IN AUGUST
From residencies at The Met and the Queens Museum to grants from Foundwork and the Joyce Foundation, see our list of opportunities to apply for this month!
SPONSORED
LGBTQ+ Art, Literature, and Historical Ephemera Up for Auction at Swann
Art and photographs, publications from the 19th and 20th centuries, manuscripts, posters, and more are set to cross the auction block on August 18. Learn more.
WHAT TO SEE IN NYC & LA THIS MONTH
Portia Munson, “Bound Angel” (2021) (photo by Lance Brewer, courtesy the artist and P·P·O·W)
The dog days of summer are quickly approaching, and New York’s art spaces are providing some welcome respite. Our highlights for August include excavations of feminist surrealism, retrospectives dedicated to underground legends, and contemporary perspectives on print media.
Exhibitions in Los Angeles offer vibrant and challenging explorations of place, identity, and history. Some dig deep into the geographic and cultural fabric of the city, while others introduce artists from across the country and the world.
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LGBTQ+ VOICES
Peter Hujar, "Portrait of H.M. Koutoukas" (1981), silver print (all images courtesy Swann Auction Galleries)
The Quietly Gripping Art of Peter Hujar
Jasmine Liu dives into the artist’s life and practice, and four captivating photographs headed to auction.
Today, approximately a half-century after Hujar took some of his most well-regarded photographs, his renown is growing, something the artist seemed to suspect might happen after his death.
“One Day This Kid” Project Commemorates the 30th Anniversary of David Wojnarowicz’s Death
Elaine Velie examines how a website honoring David Wojnarowicz offers a chilling reflection on the violence queer people still face today.
What Does Pride Mean Today?
Jasmine Liu shares artists' personal reflections on Pride, its evolution and enduring resonance, and its pressing urgency.
BACK TO THE SOURCE
Sharif Bey, "The Oviary" (2018), mixed media ceramic sculpture, 16 x 12 x 5 inches (courtesy the Gardiner Museum)
Sharif Bey’s Fractured and Beautiful Ceramic Figures
Sarah Rose Sharp on Sharif Bey: Colonial Ruptures at the Gardiner Museum.
Clay as a medium is often seen as fixed once it’s been fired. But Colonial Ruptures, not only weaves in cultural and familial themes, but also reexamines, shatters, and incorporates older works to create layers of change in both form and meaning.
Going Back to the Ditch With Lonnie Holley
Colony Little digs deeper into Lonnie Holley: Coming from the Earth at Dallas Contemporary.
LASTING INFLUENCES
Suzanne Lacy, Doing Time (1993), mixed media assemblages (courtesy the artist; photo by Hai Zhang, courtesy Queens Museum)
Suzanne Lacy Continues the Conversation
Nancy Princenthal on Suzanne Lacy: The Medium Is Not the Only Message at the Queens Museum.
Lacy’s art is still realized in the act of bringing people together, physically. At this wavering moment in the COVID pandemic, which saw the dizzying mashup of extended isolation and bursts of live protest against — and in turn met by — police brutality, her work seems more important than ever.
Norman Bluhm’s Second Act
John Yau on Norman Bluhm at Miles McEnery Gallery.
GROWING NEW ROOTS
Utah-based Lebanese American artist Pamela El Gergi with her tufting gun (courtesy the artist, all photos Bianca Velasquez/Hyperallergic)
There’s a New Rug-Maker in Town, Habibi
Bianca Velazquez talks with Pamela El Gergi about her brand, Habibi Bazaar, and the ways she stays connected to her heritage through craft.
Having relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah from Beirut, Lebanon in 2018, El Gergi felt an urge to keep an open connection to her hometown, which she found through the traditional craft of rug-making.
Caribbean Artists Are Making Themselves Seen in Denver
Denise Zubizarreta highlights how Caribbean artists in Denver are opening opportunities for increased visibility, new discussions, and potential change.
FILM & DOCUMENTARY
From Nope (courtesy Universal Pictures)
The Flawed Allegory of Nope
Jasmine Liu asks, "is watching Jordan Peele’s latest film nothing more than an exercise in decoding his message?"
At their best, allegories should be great stories independent of their deeper meanings (as irresistible as parsing those meanings might be). But in Nope, Peele’s questions about Black representation and ethical artistic creation recede into illegibility for those who are not already thinking about them.
What It Takes for Immigrant Daughters to Make It in America
Dan Schindel reviews Isabel Castro’s new documentary “Mija,” which looks at immigrant daughterhood and the interplay between work and family dynamics.
Documentaries About Remembrance and Cultural Celebration in the 2022 BlackStar Film Festival
Bedatri D. Choudhury expands on how this year's program celebrates the resilience and joy in worldwide struggles against erasure and confinement.
MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC
A new government campaign threatens the work of rotulistas, long a part of the urban and rural landscape in Mexico. (photo courtesy Martín Hernández)
The Unforgivable Whitewashing of Mexico City’s Food Stalls
Violeta Horcasitas shines a light on a controversial campaign forcing street vendors to whitewash their colorful “rótulos.”
It is paradoxical that in Mexico, on the one hand, there exist programs to preserve cultural rights, those essential liberties linked to individual and collective expression and identity; on the other hand, efforts are being carried out to erase them.
