A deep, creaking, warping groan. An echoing, bellowing thump. A sickening, spewing splash. This trio of sounds is some of the funniest I’ve ever heard. The source? A badly-in-need-of-a-pump Porta John, absurdly strung between two towering cranes, flung precariously 150 feet into the air like a norovirus fever dream version of a Six Flags Sling … Continue reading
When I traveled to Nashville in 2023, I spent most of my time running in and out of country music-themed gift shops—or really, one gift shop in particular. Sure, I also perused the Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline T-shirts at their conjoined museums. But it was the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum store … Continue reading
I haven’t curated an exhibition since 2019. It’s not for lack of trying. I was months into a show about nightlife with Fotografiska before they picked up their museum and left the city. More recently, I submitted a proposal for a trash aesthetic exhibition, an idea that made me so excited I buzzed my way … Continue reading
Throughout my years of writing about art, I’ve, of course, encountered many, many terrible press releases, filled with impenetrable jargon, effusive yet meaningless artspeak, and so much liminality, relationality, materiality, and space. I’ve rolled my eyes. I’ve sighed. I’ve cackled. Yet, it wasn’t until recently, with the overwhelming AI sloppification of NYC art galleries’ written … Continue reading
I’m not often impressed by visual art, or at least institutionally accepted artsy-fartsy art, that engages with artificial intelligence. Most AI-related art fails to outshine or even match the wackadoo aesthetics of naïve AI slop produced by the Internet, whether heartfelt Charlie Kirk memorials showing the Turning Point guru paling around with Abraham Lincoln and … Continue reading
I’ve always been drawn to darker, more seductive, and, in some circles, taboo imagery, particularly in formats more readily available to a non-fine art audience, such as books or magazines. The more risqué, the better. It is exciting when people find community within their niche tastes, where open sexuality is not just celebrated but encouraged … Continue reading
Can receiving the stigmata be a sex act? It is surely intimate and sensual, not to mention penetrative. This is a question that I’ve been musing on ever since fixating on Giovanni di Paolo’s shimmering, submissive 15th-century panel painting, Saint Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata, on view in the Met Cloister’s heroically horny and … Continue reading
What else is there to do during yet another violent forever war in the Middle East caused by the United States and Israel, other than dissociate while staring blankly at beautiful flowers? Pretty, pretty! Even better if those flowers are shaped into a romanticized, sweetly scented New York City, courtesy of Queens-born floral artist Mr. … Continue reading
The press invite to Martha Clarke’s Bughouse at Vineyard caught our attention in a way that publicist emails rarely do. An Off-Broadway show about Henry Darger, the prototypical outsider artist whose extensive 15,000-ish page novel, In The Realms of the Unreal, and hundreds of illustrations were discovered by his landlord after he left for a … Continue reading
We’ve survived a year without David Lynch. Just barely. Though some magic is gone with no longer sharing the planet with Lynch, his influence remains–some good, some bad–as does the joy of digging deep into the work he left behind. In fact, doesn’t it feel like almost everything is being described as Lynchian these days?! … Continue reading