Art News. Vasari Codex

rate_review review schedule May 11, 2026 visibility 14 link 9 artists

Sophia Rivera’s Mythology of Everyday New York

The article reviews "Sophie Rivera: Double Exposures" at El Museo del Barrio, the first survey of the late Nuyorican photographer Sophie Rivera, who died in 2021. The exhibition spans her career, including her feminist conceptual series "Rouge et Noir" and "Bowl Study" (c. 1976–78), which depict intimate bodily waste like used tampons and feces, and her socially engaged "Latino Portraits" series from the late 1970s, which countered negative media stereotypes of Puerto Ricans with affectionate, mythologizing portraits. The review highlights a moment where the critic misidentifies abstract toilet photographs as pinhole or double exposures before learning their true subject.

newspaper Hyperallergic open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule May 15, 2026 visibility 7 link 6 artists

Zurbarán: a ‘magnificently choreographed’ showing of the Spanish ‘genius’

The article reviews the first-ever British exhibition dedicated to Spanish Baroque painter Francisco de Zurbarán, held at the National Gallery in London. The show brings together 40 works from collections spanning Seville to San Diego, featuring his hyper-real religious paintings and radiant still lifes, described as a 'magnificently choreographed' trawl through his oeuvre. Critics praise the exhibition for its dramatic lighting and revelatory presentation, though some note uneven quality in his later works.

newspaper The Week open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule May 13, 2026 visibility 9 link 2 artists, 1 gallery

The Ukrainian Pavilion’s Deer Seen Around the World

Zhanna Kadyrova's concrete sculpture "The Origami Deer" (2019) is prominently displayed at the entrance to the Giardini during the 61st Venice Biennale, part of her project "Security Guarantees" in the Ukrainian Pavilion. Originally installed in Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine, the work was removed in 2024 as Russian forces advanced, then traveled through Vienna, Warsaw, Prague, Berlin, and Paris before reaching Venice—a journey mirroring the displacement of millions of Ukrainians. The sculpture, shaped like a deer and evoking folded paper, references the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which Russia, the UK, and US guaranteed Ukraine's security in exchange for its nuclear disarmament—guarantees that proved worthless after Russia's invasions.

newspaper Hyperallergic open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule May 11, 2026 visibility 12 link 6 artists, 4 galleries

Carole Harris’ Origin Story in “This Side of the River” at MOCAD

The article reviews Carole Harris's solo exhibition "This Side of the River" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), curated by Abel Gonzalez Fernandez. The show features twenty fiber pieces and archival materials spanning from 1966 to the present, tracing Harris's creative evolution and her responses to Detroit's social and urban changes. It highlights early works like "Potpourri" (1976) and "Black Jack" (1976) from her 1977 debut at Gallery 7, a Black Power-era space founded by Charles McGee, and later pieces such as "Down the Road a Piece" (2003) that mark her shift toward improvisational, abstract compositions.

newspaper Newcity Art open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule May 15, 2026 source 2 sources visibility 10 link 12 artists

The Politics of In-action: Review of In-action: Viennese Actionism and the Passivities of Performance Art

Caroline Lillian Schopp's new book *In-action: Viennese Actionism and the Passivities of Performance Art* (2025) offers a revisionist history of Viennese Actionism, a movement retroactively named in 1970 by Peter Weibel and Valie Export. Schopp introduces the term "in-action" to describe a politics of artistic action that emphasizes intimacy, hesitation, and vulnerability rather than the violent or liberatory extremes typically associated with the movement. She expands the canon to include women artists such as Anna Brus, Hanel Koeck, and Ingrid Wiener, and reexamines the work of Rudolf Schwarzkogler, whose death was mythologized as a suicide by self-castration but was actually a fall from a window. Through close readings of photographs, Schopp argues that Schwarzkogler's performances were characterized by passivity and "in-sincerity," challenging the dominant narrative of actionism as aggressive or heroic.

newspaper e-flux open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule May 12, 2026 visibility 8 link 4 artists

Before We Knew Better or We Should All Know Better

The article reviews "Before We Knew Better," a group exhibition at Elise Seigenthaler Gallery featuring artists Sarah Bedford, Day Brièrre, Josiah Ellner, and Léa LeFloc'h. The critic reflects on the show's thematic framing around narrative, folklore, and personal mythology, while expressing frustration with its open-endedness and lack of clear intent. Specific works are discussed, including Ellner's psychedelic unicorn paintings, LeFloc'h's enigmatic works on paper, Bedford's nocturnal flowers, and Brièrre's intricate ceramics, though the critic notes the installation does not always serve the pieces well.

newspaper Newcity Art open_in_new Read original