Rachel Schragis, Artist and Activist, Part II

by Avram Finkelstein, December 2011 In Part II, Rachel Schragis examines the ramifications of class vis-à-vis art and the conflicts that arise when one offers an individual perspective to serve the group. Audio + transcript below. Artwrit: I think that something that I’ve discovered in researching and speaking to you, and doing some thinking about it,…

Clifford Owens: Anthology at MoMA PS1

by Danny Kopel, January 2012 With a name like Anthology, Clifford Owens’s show at MoMA PS1 portends something of a retrospective look at his work, an authoritative statement about his oeuvre but the pieces collected here pose more questions than they provide definitive answers. The basic premise driving the open-ended and unfinished project is Owens’s attempt…

8th International Florence Biennale

by Stavros Pavlides, January 2012 The Invitational Firenze Biennale takes place in the Fortezza da Basso, an old military fortress-cum-convention center, that is a beautiful if somewhat isolated venue. The show itself, in scope, size and architecture, recalled the New York Armory show, with its sprawling corridors and looming artwork. Their content however is markedly…

Guilty/(NOT) Guilty at Norte Maar, New York

by Sarah Hassan, January 2012 Norte Maar Gallery is cleverly housed in a ground floor apartment with its living room window fixed on Wyckoff Avenue. Passersby can glimpse at the work inside when the gallery is closed and is serving as someone’s residence. This act of double duty—a studio in place of an apartment, a…

The New Uncanny: Winston Chmielinski and the Unlikely Heirs of Freud

by Anna Khachiyan, January 2012 If photorealism is a kind of sophistry—the exploitation of virtuosity in the absence of imagination—no one knows this better than Winston Chmielinski, a young Brooklyn artist whose oeuvre has mined the best of the genre. Like a good cover song, Chmielinski’s art is both an improvement upon and a spirited…