Jon Kessler, Part I

by Sandra Orellana Sears, June 2012. This month our Oral History Initiative features Jon Kessler, artist and professor at Columbia University. In Part I, Kessler discusses the impact of new technology, on society and individual, as well as the unexpected results of reconnecting with old friends. Audio + transcript below. Artwrit: So thank you, Jon, for…

Matthew Goulish with Hannah Verrill and Matt Shalzi at Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery

by Anthony Romero, June 2012 In Molly Zuckerman-Hartung’s The 95 Theses on Painting, thesis number 58 reads, “In painting, the difference is that the accumulated evidence of changing one’s mind is allowed to remain as build-up, as density, or as sedimentation.” Written just this year, these words ring true for performance as well as painting, echoing…

Interview: Nicola Verlato

by Stavros Pavlides, June 2012 As technological advances expand and alter our visual vocabulary, the plastic arts are once again entering a transitional period, perhaps greater than any since the advent of photography and film. In the dialectic pursuit of these changes, Artwrit has conducted an interview with Nicola Verlato, a painter situated at the confluence of…

Dear World, From Joplin With Love at Spiva Center

by Kyle McKenzie, June 2012 Two separate exhibits of photography at the George A. Spiva Center for the Arts mark the one-year anniversary of the devastating tornado that tore through Joplin on May 22, 2011. While each exhibit is substantial in its own right, the way in which both are in dialogue with each other…

Song Dong at Barbican Centre, London

by Echo Hopkins, June 2012 Before entering Song Dong’s Waste Not exhibition, I was greeted by a neon sign hung above one of the side entrances to the Barbican. The electric blue Chinese characters facing out towards the street translate to: “Dad don’t worry about us, Mom and our family are doing well.” This poignant quotation reveals…

Oh, Canada at MASS MoCA

by Suzanne Carte, June 2012 Don’t let the signage fool you. It is not that type of Canadian show. You know the kind—flush with romantic northern exposures and lush landscapes that have proliferated in the historical canon of Canadian art for decades. On the exterior banner of MASS MoCA, a pyramid of happy Canadians smile…