Recent exhibitions of Latin American and Caribbean contemporary art have fostered new interest in Cuban art. While the island nation may be isolated politically and economically, its art scene has kept the door open to international influences and exchange.
(Un)Holy Grounds: The Floor Sculptures of Carl Andre and Wolfgang Laib
At first sight, the works of Carl Andre and Wolfgang Laib seem worlds apart—and not just geographically or in terms of the artists’ ages (Andre was born in 1935 in Quincy, Massachusetts; Laib in Metzingen, Germany, in 1950).
Anna-Maria Bauer: Geometric Poetry from the Turtle Shell
In 1979 Swiss artist Anna-Maria Bauer found the weathered shell of a turtle on the shore of the Walensee (Lake of Walenstadt). Fascinated by the beauty of the shell’s structure, she decided to follow the example of its natural order in her sculptural works.
Time-Existence-Space: A Conversation with Wolfgang Laib
It is a hot day in southern Germany. The floor of Wolfgang Laib’s studio is covered with recent works soon to be shipped to New York for what will be his first exhibition at the Sean Kelly Gallery.
Lee C. Imonen: Nature, Technology, and Myth
Lee C. Imonen’s recent public sculpture is rich in references to nature, architecture and technology, myth, and the artist’s memories of childhood stories. Broadly cultural as well as personal, Imonen’s sculpture is also art historical, relating not only to 20th-century Modernist practice from Constructivism to di Suvero, but also to the Romantic cult of the
Martin Puryear: Spirit, Personhood, and History
Martin Puryear’s work muses on spirit, personhood, and history as a sort of antidote to the nation’s present identity crisis. His retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, traveling until 2009 to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern
New Vocabularies: A Conversation with Zhang Huan
“I’m trying to find a new vocabulary to express certain things artistically,” Zhang Huan says. This comment applies to everything from his earliest performances in a poor part of Beijing, which he named the East Village, to his recent two-ton self-portrait as Buddha.
Ada Bobonis: Anthropomorphic Amalgams
Over the past several decades, Puerto Rican artists have been making their mark on the global art stage. The late Félix González-Torres, Cuban-born but a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico, represented the United States at the 2007 Venice Biennale.
Hic Terminus Haeret: Daniel Spoerri’s Garden
I first encountered Daniel Spoerri’s work through one of his “snare-paintings.” This object (actually, a set of objects) consisted of a wall-mounted tabletop onto which the remains of a meal had been fixed: drinking glasses, cigarette butts, an ashtray, cutlery, dishes, and some residual food all clung to the wooden surface, sealed within transparent glue.
PhD Studio Programs
Artists create their own credentials. Art schools and universities offer an array of degrees and certificates, and various artist societies allow members to tag on some initials after their names, but artists are esteemed based on the quality of their work, its influence on other artists, and where it has been shown and collected.
