Established in 2004, Big Red & Shiny is an award-winning Boston-based online magazine about art & ideas. Managed by a small group of enthusiastic editors, BR&S features writing about art "with a Boston accent". We aim to expand critical discourse and coverage of contemporary visual art to foster meaningful exchange within the Boston arts community and beyond, publishing essays, profiles, interviews, and reviews that explore contemporary art from a range of perspectives.
Why the name “Big Red & Shiny”?
The running joke about making a work of art goes ‘If you can’t make it good, make it big. If it doesn’t look good big, make it red. If you want it to sell, make it shiny.’
Big Red & Shiny Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization and run by a fully volunteer staff.
A BRIEFER HISTORY OF BR&S
Launched in February 2004, Big Red & Shiny published 135 issues before going dark in August 2010. Following a serendipitous set of circumstances, it returned under new editorial staff in September 2012.
Big Red, as it came to be affectionately known, was the brainchild of Matthew Nash and Sean Horton, though it was Matthew Gamber who, stepping in as Editor-in-Chief with the ninth issue, kicked things up a notch. Without the hard work that all the founding editors put into a little pink website, we wouldn’t have the name and range to lead the ambitious plans we have for Big Red & Shiny today.
We recommend Matt Nash’s vivid and intimate history of Big Red’s formative years.
Since its relaunch in September 2012, past BR&S editors have included Brian Christopher Glaser, Managing Editor (2012–Jan 2019); Scout Hutchinson, Editor; Lisa Crossman, Editor (October 2015–June 2017); Maia Dolphin-Krute, Editor (Oct 2015–Aug 2017); Céline Browning, Editor (2015–2016) Stephanie Cardon, Editor (2012–13), Executive Editor (Sept 2013–Feb 15); John Pyper, Editor-in-Chief (2012-13), Journal Editor (through June 2014); and Anulfo Baez, Blog Editor (2012 to Sept 2013).