The Columbia historian Eric Foner has written that freedom in today’s neoliberal world is largely defined by “a series of negations—of government, of social responsibility, of a common public culture, of restraints on individual self-definition and consumer choice.” In the…
i. Experience We are fascinated by this word “experience.” Just how to describe it? Something which cannot be touched by description, documented by exposure, or reduced by critique. You weren’t there… Experience is a lodestone of authenticity. The word keeps…
What is queer photography? Do we know it when we see it? Or does the definition hold a certain slippage, the paradox of any deconstructive category? By the late 1980s, amidst a mounting backlash from conservative political factions, photographers were…
In David H. Wells’ Foreclosed Dreams at Providence’s Yellow Peril Gallery, we see the material residue of dreams deferred, if not entirely scuffed out. The photographs, presenting a kind of archeology of the recent past, document houses in limbo,…
By Katrina Umber June 11, 2013 Going through my notebooks, and bookshelves, the words and images I continue to carry with me… Books! The first place I encountered good art was in the art stacks at the public library. How…
Potato Power, LaJoie Growers LLC, Van Buren, Maine 2012 #1/5 23×29″ Pigment print ©Caleb Charland We think we know how photographs are made. It’s an almost instantaneous assumption that informs our perceptions, to some degree or another, in the…
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s beautifully written story of the Jazz Age, details many aspects of the lost generation’s party life including the built environment. From Nick Carraway’s beat up cottage tucked in the shadow of his neighbor’s…
Owing to the limitations inherent in print publications, time-based works often have been shortchanged in the art publishing world. Represented in photographs, video, installation art, and performance-based works are stripped of much of their essence—sound, duration, motion. Sound works…
If you’re on Twitter, you may have come across the hashtag #DrawArt. On Thursday 16 May, 2013, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum invited Paige Dansinger, artist, art historian, and #DrawArt iPad program designer (@MuseumPaige) for a digital “Draw in…
Katrina Umber, Roses + Bike AJ wrote the kindest introduction. By talking about the two bodies of work AJ mentioned, I hope to give you some insight into the how and why of my work. The rest of my…
SOMEWHERE IN DREAMLAND Looking at Will Cotton’s paintings remind me of cartoons; or one cartoon in particular. The Fleischer Studios Color Classic cartoon Somewhere In Dreamland (1936) is the epitome of Depression-era wish fulfillment. Two innocent, almost overly cute children…
Donald Judd was born on June 3, 1928 in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. While young he spent a great deal of time on his grandparents’ farm, and his family moved a great deal—he lived in Omaha, Kansas City, Des Moines, Dallas,…
The photos that Francesca Woodman created during her short life (1958-1981) are at once striking and subtle, often provocative but also playful. There is a constant character of exploration that defines her production. Among all of the concepts Woodman plays…
Let’s face it: if you need a 2D artwork that can endure extended exposure to sun, rain, wind, and “direct engagement” in various forms by wildlife, children, and the random flung object, you won’t be calling on watercolors or…
Adrienne Edwards, Associate Curator of Performa in New York City, began her talk with Adam Pendleton at the Gardner Museum last Thursday night (May 2) by saying that their conversation would mimic the many long talks they have together as…
In an 1885 poll of the top ten buildings in America, Henry Hobson Richardson’s ecclesiastical masterpiece on Copley Square was voted as the number one building in the country1. That building is Trinity Church (1872-1877) and in 1986 just over…
I’d like you to all to tilt forward in your chairs a bit and get ready to see some mighty fine work by my friend, Katrina Umber. We first met in Richmond, VA, while I was in my last year…
Joseph Beuys’s installation Plight is a synesthetic experience. The abundance of telltale felt suffocates the reverberating acoustics of the space forming a visual tension with the piano. The tactile give of the material absorbs rather than deflects. This imbues…
The Visual Culture Consortium (VCC) is an association of New England scholars, university-level educators, and professionals in the fields of art history, studio art, and visual culture. The VCC is best known for its annual Boston Area Undergraduate Art History…
In real estate, location counts. This importance, of the site on which a building stands and the neighbors it abuts, has never been lost on the art institutions of Manhattan. Henry Clay Frick started collecting art in his Fifth Avenue…