How could anyone be done with Xanax? When the nostalgia bug hits and you can’t avoid compulsively revisiting imagery from a media-soaked 1980s childhood, who doesn’t need even just a little smidgen from a bar to quiet down the blaring romanticism? I know I certainly did while visiting Katherine Bernhardt’s Done with Xanax at Canada … Continue reading
I hated Gina Beavers’s paintings the first time I saw them in MoMA PS1’s Greater New York in 2015. Detested. I was revolted and repulsed by their thickened physicality. Completely turned-off. I wanted to rip her depictions of rippled abs and bloody meat right off the wall. However, I have certainly come around in the … Continue reading
If I could turn back time…whoa! What’s that? Oh, I’m just fantasizing about time traveling back to 1990s San Francisco, after being inspired by Magic Ben Big Boy, a current exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery. A product of a specific time and place, the show centers around a recreation of Vincent Fecteau’s cat, eggs and … Continue reading
If any action could singularly sum up existence in 2018, it would probably be type-shouting into the void of various social media platforms. Foucault would get woozy if he could see this incitement to discourse that defines our current dystopia as everyone with access to a computer or a smart phone screams ire into the … Continue reading
“I glow pink in the night in my room,” opens Mitski’s dreamily atmospheric song “Pink in the Night” off her new album Be The Cowboy. Crooning her obsessive yearning, Mitski uses the color pink as a symbol for a type of solitary blossoming. Of course, this is not the only understanding of the wildly overdetermined … Continue reading
Selfies are usually accompanied by an automatic groan. Dismissed as superficial and vapid, selfie-taking is often seen as too close to Narcissus staring adoringly at his reflection for comfort. However, for marginalized people, selfies can be a way to create visibility where there is none in dominant, mainstream culture. Ryan McGinley’s current show Mirror, Mirror … Continue reading
After laughter comes tears. At least that’s what Wendy Rene sang in 1964 and over fifty years later, those lyrics still ring true in our farcical age. Of course, “After Laughter (Comes Tears)” is just one of many songs that take up crying as its subject, joining others like “The Weeping Song,” “96 Tears” and “Crying,” which was … Continue reading
“I’ll never forget the humiliation of bringing my portfolio up to Carmel Snow’s office at Harper’s Bazaar and unzipping it only to have a roach crawl out and down the leg of the table. She felt so sorry for me that she gave me a job,” writes Andy Warhol in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: … Continue reading
Why hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers, and welcome to our latest installment of GIF reviews. This time, I’m focusing on Carlos Reyes current exhibition West Side Club at Bodega. In his show, Reyes created a series of sculptures out of wood salvaged from the former sauna at Chelsea’s still open West Side Club. I know, … Continue reading
Why hello there, dearest Filthy Dreams readers! Are you ready for another installment of our GIF reviews? This time, we’re looking at Alex Da Corte’s current exhibition C-A-T Spells Murder at Karma. Inspired by R. L. Stine’s novel Cat from his Fear Street series–the older and trashier pulp fiction version of his Goosebump books, C-A-T … Continue reading