From the Chair

Oct 24, 2016 | Essay, From the Chair

I was talking last week about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, an event that, according to a number of recent think pieces, “redefines the boundaries of literature.” So too does a recent project by the artist Ryan Mendoza continue to...

From the Chair

Oct 17, 2016 | Essay, From the Chair

This has been a week of cultural activity wherein, issues of gender equality, violence against women and the 1960’s icon Bob Dylan were somehow juxtaposed in the midst of an increasingly noisy political moment. Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in...

From the Chair

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...

From the Chair

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...

From the Chair

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...