Reviews, Articles, and Short Form Writing
Exhibition review (co-written with Julian Myers), Harald Szeemann: Museum of Obsessions at the Getty Research Institute, Art Journal (peer review), Winter 2018 (forthcoming)
Essay, “Boom and Bust at the Margins,” In the Sunshine of Neglect: Defining Photographs and Radical Experiments in Inland Southern California, 1950 to the Present (exhibition catalogue), ed. Douglas McCulloh, Inlandia Institute Press, Riverside, 2018 (forthcoming)
Essay, “Máquinas solteras: on the bachelor machine in Latino and Latin American Art,” Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas (exhibition catalogue), ed. Tyler Stallings, University of California, Riverside, and Lucia Marquand, Seattle, 2017
Annotated bibliography (co-written with Julian Myers), “The Prehistory of Exhibition History,” Art Journal (peer review), Spring 2017
[…] Whereas previous generations of art historians took their primary task as legitimating new art within the diachronic story of modernism, however problematized, new art histories written by a generation of thinkers for whom the battles over modernism now seem rather distant, or exhausted, are more spatial and social in nature. These scholars see their task as describing the social worlds in which something known as art was produced and perceived. In these accounts the artwork can no longer be grasped as something “in itself,” but can be properly understood only as an element in an ensemble or scenario within which the artwork is the enigmatic (or catalytic) center. As the ontology of artworks has crumbled, the exhibition, as aggregate form, or a form-of-forms, has emerged as a vital object of study. [...]
Essay, “The Lucky Ones,” Unruly Bodies: Dismantling Larry Clark’s Tulsa (exhibition catalogue), ed. Susan Laxton, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, 2016, pages 8-11
Catalogue entry (co-written with Julian Myers), “Frida Kahlo, Frieda and Diego Rivera, 1931,” Highlights (collection catalogue), eds. Judy Bloch and Suzanne Stein, SFMOMA Open Space, San Francisco, 2016, frontispiece
Catalogue entry (co-written with Julian Myers), “Alice Neel, Geoffrey Hendricks and Brian, 1978,” Highlights (collection catalogue), eds. Judy Bloch and Suzanne Stein, SFMOMA Open Space, San Francisco, 2016, pages 74-75
Photo essay, "Marie Bovo, Inside and Out," Exposure, the Journal of the Society for Photographic Education, 2016
Interview, "In a room: Helen Molesworth on The Art of Our Time," SFMOMA Open Space, February 16, 2016
Introduction to an edited series (with Julian Myers), "On Returning," SFMOMA Open Space, February 16, 2016
How have art institutions aimed to rectify—or at least to make visible—their historical exclusions? What new arrangements have been made, and with what results? In advance of SFMOMA’s imminent reopening after a three-year period of expansion, the collaborative project grupa o.k. (Julian Myers and Joanna Szupinska) surveys progressive or radical “turns” in existing museums.
Exhibition text, "Marie Bovo: How to Survive Abstraction," part of the exhibition series CMP Projects, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, December 2015
Exhibition text (artist interview), "David Weldzius: Estrada Courts, USA," part of FLASH! contemporary art series, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, November 2015
Exhibition text, "Reproduction, Reproduction," California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, October 2015
Catalogue entry (co-written with Julian Myers), "On Mark McKnight," 20/20vision (exhibition catalogue), Sturm&Drang, Zurich, and Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich, July 2015, pages 19-24
Article (co-written with Julian Myers), "Reproduction and Reproduction," Mousse Magazine 49, Summer 2015, pages 114-117
Exhibition text, "Shannon Ebner: STRIKE," part of FLASH! contemporary art series, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, June 2015
Exhibition review, "There’s a lot of standing around in the revolución" (on Tania Bruguera's ‘Hannah Arendt’ International Institute of Artivism, Havana), The Exhibitionist blog, June 10, 2015
Catalogue entry, "On Construction in Process," The State of Life: Polish Contemporary Art within the Global Circumstance (scholarly compilation accompanying an exhibition at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing), Muzeum Sztuki w Lodzi, May 2015
Exhibition text, "Phil Chang: Monochromes, Static and Unfixed," part of the exhibition series CMP Projects, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, May 2015
Exhibition text, "Heather Rasmussen: Bruised Fruit," part of the exhibition series CMP Projects, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, January 2015
Exhibition text, "Carrie Schneider: Reading Women," part of FLASH! contemporary art series, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, December 2014
Exhibition review (co-written with Julian Myers), David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition at the de Young Museum, caa.reviews (peer review), September 2014
What is an exhibition for? What can it produce? In its earliest forms in the middle of the eighteenth century—the Salon of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the exhibiting societies of London—the exhibition was a collective affair, organized among artists: a form of self-assessment and public presentation mediating between a guild of merchant craftsmen and the unstable fractions within the public that might provide a market for those artists’ work. In this anxious context the emergence of the “solo” exhibition, as curator João Ribas has argued in recent lectures, risked the appearance of careerism, conceit, and self-interest. This negative impression stuck. In a letter to his son in 1885, a vexed Camille Pissarro referred to a recent solo exhibition of Claude Monet, cautioning, “A poor idea, to have one-man shows. The newspapers, knowing that a dealer is behind it, do not breathe a word.” [...]
Exhibition text (co-written with Julian Myers), "Dana DeGiulio: Proposal for a Future Museum," part of FLASH! contemporary art series, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, May 2014
Exhibition text, "Allan deSouza: Ark of Martyrs," part of FLASH! contemporary art series, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, March 2014
Exhibition text, "Trouble with the Index," California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, February 2014
Artist interview, "Job Piston: Fossilizing the Ephemeral," KCET Artbound, January 22, 2014
"On Krytyka Polityczna," Art Papers, Special Issue: "Art Magazines" (guest edited by Dushko Petrovich), November/December 2013, Volume 37, issue 6, page 58 [PDF]
Krytyka Polityczna is not an art magazine. But in Poland -- a country where museums are regular sites of protest, the morality and purpose of art are publicly debated in ongoing culture wars, and an Israeli artist representing the country in Venice could arguably found a political party -- this distinction hardly matters. Here art and politics often go hand in hand. [...]
Exhibition text, "Claudia Joskowicz: Sympathy for the Devil," part of the exhibition series CMP Projects, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, November 2013
Artist interview, "Zoe Crosher and the Michelle deBois Project," KCET Artbound, October 7, 2013
Exhibition text, "Amir Zaki: Tree Portrait 16," part of FLASH! contemporary art series, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, June 2013
Exhibition text, "Around the World in Forty Pictures," on the occasion of the California Museum of Photography's fortieth anniversary, May 2013
Book review, Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski (1984), Translated by Bill Johnston, Archipelago Books, 2011, Cosmopolitan Review, Volume 5, Number 1, Spring 2013
Introduction to an edited series (with Julian Myers), "Proposal for a Museum," SFMOMA Open Space, November 26, 2012
In Summer 2013 SFMOMA will close its doors to the public to accommodate construction for an impressive expansion, currently planned to last nearly three years. And while these months of closure will be filled with off-site programming and exhibitions at other places, it will nevertheless be felt keenly among those who care about art and its institutions.
When we were asked to edit a series for Open Space, it did not take us long to arrive at this absence as our subject. But rather than a space for melancholy, perhaps the closure allows for a moment of reconsideration or reflection, the sort of pause that (for some of us, at least) is the precondition for thought. Just what should be the role of the museum of modern art today, more than 90 years since Katherine Dreier and Marcel Duchamp first inaugurated the Société Anonyme in 1920 as a “museum of modern art”? What are its tasks, its subjects, its forms of institutional organization and legitimation? [...]
Essay (co-written with Julian Myers), “Nic Nie Wiem,” Dana DeGiulio: Say Say Say (exhibition catalogue), Iceberg Projects, Chicago, Fall 2012
Transcription and editing, Mark di Suvero and Mark Handforth in conversation, Mousse no. 32, February/March 2012
Exhibition review, Lodz Biennale 2010, Journal of Curatorial Studies (peer review), Volume 1, number 1, 2012, pages 114-116 [PDF]
Strong, unison voices weave their song through the halls of the Old Philharmonic, a building dating from the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL) era and abandoned by the municipal orchestra as soon as their current home was completed in 2004. The many layers of paint on the walls, unassuming shades of brown and tan, are peeling. I follow computer-printed arrows to installations in once-bustling dressing rooms, offices, coat check, and – powerfully confronted by an auditorium of empty seats – out onto the orchestral stage itself. Having just walked the length of Piotrkowska Street in a scavenger hunt-like search for artworks, map in hand, I find myself in the most compelling grouping of works of the Lodz Biennale. The ‘Old Philharmonic’, as it has come to be known, is hardly mentioned in official histories of the orchestra – two decades not worth remembering; the art event reactivates this otherwise unappreciated space.
The folk voices, similarly conjuring a tradition deeply affected by the doctrines of the People’s Republic, belong to the choral group Jarzebina from the village Kocudza, one of the most recognized regional folk ensembles in Poland. The audio emanates from Płaczki/Weepers (2010), a paradocumentary by Anna Molska, installed in its own room. [...]
Catalogue essay, “Montana: Custer’s Last Stand,” Americana: 50 States, 50 Months, 50 Exhibitions (exhibition catalogue), ed. Jens Hoffmann, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, 2012, pages 114-117 [Book description]
Book review, An Invisible Rope: Portraits of Czesław Miłosz, ed. Cynthia L. Haven, Swallow Press and Ohio University Press, Athens, 2011, Cosmopolitan Review, Volume 3, Number 2, Summer 2011
Exhibition review, Andrea Bowers at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, artUS, no. 30, February 2011
Introduction to a public program (with Julian Myers), “On ‘Riot Show’,” SFMOMA Open Space, November 30, 2010
Article, “The Political and Social Roots of the Łódź Biennale,” The Cosmopolitan Review, Volume 2, Number 2, Summer 2010
Artist interview, “Ahmet Öğüt's 203 Mehmet YILDIZs," artUS, no. 28, Summer 2010
Exhibition review, San Juan Triennial in Puerto Rico, artUS, no. 28, Summer 2010 (co-written with Kristin Korolowicz, Sharon Lerner, Maria Elena Ortiz)
Exhibition review, Everyday Miracles (Extended, part II) at the Walter and McBean Galleries, SFAI, San Francisco, artSlant, February 1, 2010
Paulina Ołowska's work in Moby Dick, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, artSlant, February 1, 2010
A bleached blonde in Technicolor red bathing suit splashes frothy white water on herself; the ecstasy of swimming is apparent, her eyes closed and her mouth joyfully open, laughing. Adjacent, another magazine cover depicts a mustachioed and bearded man clad in a hardhat (a model of manliness), lighting a cigarette with the sharp tongue of fire from a blow torch, spraying its flame toward the buxom swimmer in the abutting picture. Soft porn and industrial machinery, this is a match made in Soviet Poland. [...]
Catalogue entry, “Gerhard Richter, Mailand: Dom, 1964,” The Frances and John Bowes Collection: Part II (collection catalogue), ed. Steven Leiber, CCA Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice, San Francisco, 2009, pages 20-23
Catalogue entry, “Luc Tuymans, Ballroom, 2005,” The Frances and John Bowes Collection: Part II (collection catalogue), ed. Steven Leiber, CCA Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice, San Francisco, 2009, pages 24-27 [PDF]
Catalogue entry, “Chris Ofili, Through the Grapevine, 1998,” The Frances and John Bowes Collection: Part II (collection catalogue), ed. Steven Leiber, CCA Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice, San Francisco, 2009, pages 60-63
“Archival Matchmaking,” artSlant, December 1, 2009
“A Museum that Tells Stories: Interview with the New Director of MoAD,” artSlant, December 1, 2009
Exhibition review, Michael Wolf at Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, artUS, no. 27, November 2009
Exhibition review, Mahjong at the Berkeley Art Museum, artUS, no. 27, November 2009
“On Un-productivity, Acceptance, and the work of Tino Sehgal,” artSlant, October 27, 2009
[...] Looking for Tino Sehgal’s most recent installment, I asked the gallery attendant if there was a Sehgal work on view (so to speak). “Yes,” she said, and concurring with me, “he has a retrospective.” I waited. She paused—( )—and that was it, that was the work, the pause. In the work of Sehgal, who never produces objects, including any kind of written agreement or proof of artwork, the question of physical production (or perhaps the absence of product) is palpably present. [...]
Exhibition review, “Miracles, Extended,” on Everyday Miracles (Extended) at the Walter and McBean Galleries, SFAI, San Francisco, artSlant, October 26, 2009
Exhibition review, Play with Your Own Marbles: Walead Beshty, Karl Haendel, Patrick Hill at Noma Gallery, San Francisco, artSlant, September 14, 2009
Exhibition review, Sensate at the A+D Galleries, SFMOMA, San Francisco, artSlant, September 14, 2009
Exhibition review, San Juan Triennial in Puerto Rico, Artillery Mag Online, vol. 4 no. 1, September/October 2009
When visiting bi- and triennials, one might best remember that these are just shows, organized periodically and meant to offer a snapshot of the times. "Poli/Gráfica," hosted by the Puertorican capital San Juan, is just such a show. Smaller than one might expect, the artworks nevertheless amount to a large exhibition presented in the numerous galleries of the Museo El Arsenal de la Marina. "Poli/Gráfica" was succinct and neat in presentation as well as content. [...]
Exhibition review, Charles LaBelle at Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley, Artweek, May 2009
Exhibition review, Doug Hall at Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, Artweek, May 2009
Exhibition review, Robin Kandel at Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, Artweek, April 2009
Exhibition review, Double Exposure: African Americans Before and Behind the Camera at The Museum of the African Diaspora, Artweek, December 2008/January 2009
Exhibition review, Shannon Cannings at Anya Tish Gallery, Houston, Artillery Magazine, September 2008
“Studio Visit Berlin: Eva Castringius,” Artillery Magazine, June/July 2008
Exhibition review, This Then That at Rodeo Gallery in Tophane, Istanbul, artUS, no. 21, New Year Issue 2008
Exhibition review, Istanbul Biennial, artUS, no. 21, New Year Issue 2008
“The Best of Istanbul Biennial: field report from Turkey,” Artillery Magazine, January 2008 (co-written with Allie Bogle)
Catalogue essay, “I Love You More Now That You’re Gone,” Allie Bogle (exhibition catalogue), Self-published, 2008
Exhibition review, Barry McGee at RedCat, Los Angeles, Artillery Magazine, November/December 2007
Exhibition review, Philip Lorca diCorcia at ICA Boston, artUS, no. 20, Winter 2007
Various articles for Flash Art Online, 2007-2008
“The Other LA Art Scene: Part 2,” April 20, 2008
“The Other LA Art Scene: Part 1,” April 8, 2008
News, “Vasif Kortun and Manray Hsu to Co-Curate Taipei Biennial,” January 14, 2008
News, “Art Fraud in Korea?” January 9, 2008
News, “Guggenheim Museum in Abu Dhabi,” November 27, 2007
News, “United States Artists fellowship winners,” November 20, 2007
News, “Bob Colacello’s new monograph OUT,” November 16, 2007
News, “Women in Charge: New Curatorial Appointments at MoMA, Walker Art Center, MCA Chicago, and Cleveland Museum of Art,” November 7, 2007
“Boston’s new ICA,” Artillery Magazine, September 2007
Exhibition review, Ruben Ochoa’s public project on the 10 fwy, Los Angeles, Artillery Magazine, March 2007
“Paint it black: field report from Warsaw,” Artillery Magazine, December 2006