Is Fashion Art, Style Icons & Other Topics with the Director of the Museum at FIT

Among the cringe-worthy capitalizing on alternative lifestyles and incessant branding that permeates the fashion industry, it’s difficult to carve out a public forum to discuss the cultural, political and intellectual importance of what we wear. But the director and chief curator of the Museum at FIT, Valerie Steele is doing a good job as one of the few public personas who speak openly about the importance of clothing and adornment and her latest show on style icon Daphne Guinness…. READ MORE.

Dread Scott Is Bringing the Wars Home

I encountered Dread Scott’s curious flag project, “Flags Are Very Popular These Days” (2011), on Facebook and was fascinated by its simplicity. Last month, the artist placed the flags of four nations (Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan) on overpasses in upstate New York. These symbols of pride for four Muslim-majority countries— two of which America is currently (and officially) at war with — must have felt jarring to passersby who may not have been able to recognize their meaning or discerned their origins…. READ MORE.

Robert J. Lang On Origami, Sarah Morris Lawsuit by Cat Weaver

I had the opportunity to interview Robert J Lang, the origami artist who, along with several others, has filed a lawsuit against painter Sarah Morris who, they say, infringed on their copyrights when she produced 24 of her Origami series of paintings based on crease patterns.

In the following article, we explore Lang’s art, the many forms and practices of origami artists now and in the past, and the diversity of its uses. The article is followed by an interview with Lang in which he addresses, among other things, his lawsuit against Sarah Morris…. READ MORE.

A Monument for Transition by Hrag Vartanian

There is something beautiful and haunting about Wouter Klein Velderman’s monument in Moengo, Suriname, which is a South American nation that never seems to be in the headlines and 99% of people outside the country probably couldn’t even place it on a map. In his photos, the giant sculpture, titled “A Monument to Transition” (2011), appears to be bathed by a magical light and strangely feels a part of the landscape, even though it is obviously manmade…. READ MORE.

The Post-Postmodern Artist by Hrag Vartanian

Yasmeen M. Siddiqui is an itinerant curator and critic currently based in Louisville, Kentucky. Last year, she curated Do Ho Suh’s A Perfect Home: The Bridge Project at the Storefront for Art and Architeture in Soho and this year she returns to New York for a new project at the Americas Society featuring a mini-retrospective of Miami-based Cuban artist Consuelo Castañeda…. READ MORE.

Graffiti’s US History & Art in the Streets: Interview with Roger Gastman by Hrag Vartanian

On April 17, MOCA LA’s Art in the Streets exhibition opens. The show, which was organized in roughly a year or since Deitch became director of the institution, promises to be a major exploration of street art, graffiti and skateboard culture at one of the country’s most important contemporary art institutions. Today, I spoke to one of the exhibition’s curators, Roger Gastman about his important new book, The History of American Graffiti, which he co-authored with Caleb Neelon, and the MOCA show…. READ MORE.

Paris Gets the General Idea by Hrag Vartanian

On February 11, the first major retrospective of the work of the world-renowned Canadian art collective General Idea opened at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris with 300 objects, and I took the opportunity to interview AA Bronson about General Idea and his thoughts on the group…. READ MORE.