Oct 10, 2016 | Essay, From the Chair
Over the weekend I drove my 1950 Chevy pickup truck, which looks just as it did when it was made at the exact mid-point of the 20th century, in a local parade. As always, when I’m out driving the pickup, complete strangers struck up conversations with me, seemingly...
Oct 3, 2016 | Essay, From the Chair
If you have not seen this year’s Wisconsin Triennial exhibition at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, I urge you to do so as soon as possible. This survey of work by Wisconsin artists is a superbly curated exhibition that tracks the breadth of activity in the...
Sep 26, 2016 | Essay, From the Chair
There is an exhibition in New York at the moment that caught my attention. I did not have the opportunity to see it, but the very idea of Taryn Simon’s An Occupation of Loss at the Park Avenue Armory struck me as both timely and deeply rooted in a particular sort of...
Sep 19, 2016 | Essay, From the Chair
In the digital world art has gained traction not only for its own concerns, but also for its ability to illustrate the concerns of others as well; it may be the perfect metaphor of waiting for an increasingly visual and essentialized culture. Through history artists...
Sep 12, 2016 | Essay, From the Chair
As the Fall semester begins and we welcome back the returning and new art students ready to create art and think critically about it, I’ve begun reading Hal Foster’s latest book Art, Criticism, Emergency. Foster’s writing is essential in its ability to concentrate...
May 9, 2016 | Essay, From the Chair
Last thoughts for the year… There are numerous narratives about the generative moment of contemporary art; theories about the genesis of this trajectory toward the present. However, regardless of which point of origin one adheres to, or wherever one places...
