As part of our ongoing partnership with Beautiful/Decay, today we bring you the paintings of Laura Krifka. Krifka lives and works in Ventura, California, and will have a solo exhibition at CB1 Gallery, in Los Angeles, in 2014. The article was written by Stacey Dacheux and originally published on August 20, 2013. Laura Krifka’s work feels both classical and contemporary—a collection of myths that transcend time,[…..]

The still life is an artistic form that has captured the interest of Pieter Aertsen, Pieter Claesz, Diego Velázquez, Eugène Delacroix, and Giorgio Morandi, to name just a few. Boston-based artist Tara Sellios has also delved deeply into the construction of the still life and the ideas often associated with it—life, death, the question of permanence, and the intricate use of symbolism. What makes Sellios’s[…..]

Ontario College of Art & Design’s professional gallery space, Onsite [at] OCAD U, is raw and industrial. Its warehouse-like ambiance is enhanced by the cinder block walls, industrial piping crisscrossing the ceiling, and bank of floor-to-ceiling windows facing the street. These features present a number of restrictions when mounting an exhibition, a challenge for artists and curators in this unconventional gallery setting. In No Dull[…..]

Though I can’t remember the first time I saw Liz Magic Laser‘s work (and yes, it’s her given name), I was entranced by this video of her commission for the 2013 Armory Show in New York. So much artwork these days looks like it was made by committee, so why not explicitly use the methodology of a focus group to create the work for the commission? It’s[…..]

It has been a big year for Nottingham Contemporary. After receiving a boost of notoriety by way of Mark Leckey’s The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things, the recently rechristened museum and its director, Alex Farquharson, immediately launched their most ambitious curatorial project to date: a traveling exhibition titled Aquatopia. Organized with partner institution Tate St. Ives, the exhibition comprises more than 150 artworks as well as performances,[…..]

#race #class #access #commerce #representation #empowerment #codeswitching As the values of the contemporary art elite veer ever farther toward commerce, art with a social justice conscience is rallying in New York—arguably the center of the global art market. This summer, three prominent artists known for their political consciences have been drawing attention for thoughtful, research-heavy projects. In Chelsea, Hank Willis Thomas and the team of William Powhida and Jade Townsend have[…..]

In honor of the time of year and the general nervousness, excitement, and relief that come with the advent of the regular school year, this week we bring you a post written by Bean Gilsdorf entitled “Back to School,” from her weekly Help Desk column for DS. Her advice to the student behind the question “What to do before I graduate?” is sage: take advantage of all[…..]