There have been many times when I have felt uneasy looking at group shows of “Outsider Art”. There can be some crowds, and lots of things for sale, and a lot of people buying them, but mostly what can cause apprehension as a viewer is the wild range in the work. Often there is no thematic or formal thread that could tie all of these[.....]

Wafts of ginger and cilantro from the nearby Vietnamese eateries swirls around the propelling bus exhaust as I walk through London’s funky Shoreditch on an overcast day. Though I (embarrassingly) have not yet visited before, the unexpected island of pristine glass of the Flower’s Gallery is not hard to miss among the rickety cheap shoe shops and tabacs littered with half-shredded ice cream posters. A[.....]

Wall labels. Curatorial text. Provenance. Titles (or un-titles, as the case may be). At what point do the words surrounding an artwork serve the work, and at what point do they disrupt it? In terms of the museum, specifically, when do explanatory labels benefit museum-goers, and when do they detract from an individual’s experience? This week, #Hashtags features Part III of The Museum On My[.....]

Wall labels. Curatorial text. Provenance. Titles (or un-titles, as the case may be). At what point do the words surrounding an artwork serve the work, and at what point do they disrupt it? In terms of the museum, specifically, when do explanatory labels benefit museum-goers, and when do they detract from an individual’s experience? This week, #Hashtags features Part II of The Museum On My[.....]

It’s a rainy summer night in Guadalajara. Zooming through the dark, the jeep I’m riding in feels more like a powerboat as it leaves a black wake in the flooded streets. This ain’t no British rain – and thank God for that. (I’ve had enough drizzle for two lifetimes.) Palm fronds shake and the heavy rain suddenly turns to hail. The frothy water in the[.....]

#Hashtags provides a platform for longer reconsiderations of artworks and art practices outside of the review format and in new contexts. Today #Hashtags kicks off a new series on the institution of the museum, by writer Rob Marks. Stay tuned for Part II, and please send queries and/or ideas for future columns to hashtags@dailyserving.com. Part I: If the Walls Would Not Speak The museum is[.....]

Kathryn Kanjo returned to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in 2010 as Chief Curator and Head of Curatorial after nearly two decades across the country as curator and director in museums including Portland Art Museum and University Art Museum at the University of California Santa Barbara, as well as the artist residency program Artpace in San Antonio where she helped turn the formerly private foundation into a[.....]