For most people in the rest of the United States, New Mexico is a sort of blank spot—an overlooked, ragged square wedged next to Texas, its loud, swaggering cousin. It’s the fifth biggest state land-mass-wise, at a little under 122,000 square miles, and one of the emptiest, with 2 million people spread out over the…
In reviews of its second season, Jessica Jones was declared the “superhero TV show” for the #MeToo movement. Blockers, a raunchy sex comedy about teenage girls losing their virginities on prom night, was christened the perfect comedy for the #MeToo era. Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, despite being…
The reveal of the Obamas’ official portraits earlier this week evoked a lot of strong feelings, aesthetic and political—not to mention a reminder of how the aesthetic and political are intertwined. But my strongest reaction was: Oh damn I need to see these paintings and more work by these artists in real life.
Today, the official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama were unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. New York-based artist Kehinde Wiley and Baltimore artist Amy Sherald were selected to do the portraits of the former POTUS and FLOTUS, respectively. Barack Obama’s portrait drew instant raves.…
A roadside monument to a Civil War general-turned-KKK founder was vandalized this week, a slight upgrade to what is perhaps the only fitting monument to the Confederacy.
On Wednesday night, comic book writer Greg Pak put a call out on Twitter for Asian Americans in various creative industries to tweet about the projects they’ve been involved in lately. What initially seemed like a straightforward call for support has turned into a much-needed database of projects across media…
Photographer Adrienne D. Williams grew up in the white suburbs of metro Detroit where she often felt like an outsider. She loved skater culture but never felt comfortable enough to get on a deck herself. Instead, she grew up on the periphery, taking photographs to feel like a part of the scene while still maintaining…
Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of Jesus, Salvator Mundi, passed through the hands of some of Europe’s most powerful rulers on its path to Christie’s auction house, where it sold for $450 million last night. This is what Jesus would have wanted.
Imagine standing in the New York dining room of two Holocaust survivors sometime in the late 1950s. There are mugs on the table and family portraits on the baby blue-painted wall.
Climate change is existentially terrifying and also frustratingly abstract—a combination that makes it really hard for many people to connect with in a personal way, as one does with say, a work of art.
Hello and welcome back to Dear Dodai, in which I answer questions about navigating problematic situations, in an attempt to assist the needy and school fools. Let’s jump right into it, shall we?
In the wake of the white supremacist-fueled horror in Charlottesville, there has been a renewed, nationwide push to take down monuments paying tribute to the Confederacy. This is welcome, of course, but Confederates aren’t the only racists this country still seems to inexplicably venerate. And there are many other…
When a conservative group saw a painting of the Statue of Liberty wearing a hijab hanging in California Congressman Lou Correa’s office, things got heated pretty quickly. They say it violates the establishment clause—separation of church and state—but this Democrat refuses to take it down. Here’s why.
A group of California residents called We The People Rising are freaking out because a congressman won’t take down a painting that features the Statue of Liberty wearing a hijab from one of his district offices, the Orange County Register reported Thursday.
Ahmad Joudeh is the only Arab ballet dancer in the Dutch National Ballet company. Until late last year, he was stuck in Syria—and he never dreamed he would be able to escape and dance freely.
Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei is calling attention to the international refugee crisis with his latest installation in Denmark. For “Soleil Levant,” Weiwei barricaded the windows of a museum with thousands of life jackets abandoned by refugees on the Greek Island of Lesbos.
The Public Theater’s controversial interpretation of Julius Caesar opened in Central Park last night as part of the theater’s annual, free Shakespeare in the Park festival. In a speech to the audience, the theater’s artistic director Oskar Eustis delivered a rebuke to his critics and a testament to the clear…
Five months ago, art collector Agnes Gund sold one of the most valuable paintings in her collection—Roy Lichtenstein’s “Masterpiece”—for an eye-popping $165 million. On Monday, she explained why she did it: to start a fund supporting criminal justice reform.
To mark the anniversary of the deadly 1967 Detroit race riot, a Detroit art gallery is burning Confederate flags.
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has decided to remove one of its new sculptures, Scaffold by the white artist Sam Durant, due to protests from many Native American artists and tribal groups.
