Critical analyses of contemporary art
Expanding small universes: Made in L.A. 2023 at the Hammer Museum
Lack of curatorial edits creates a lush exhibit that may be lost on those without the capacity to absorb it…
Looking Outward: Bay Area Now 9 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
The ninth iteration of Bay Area Now at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts asks of-the-moment questions about knowledge production…
A Question of Hu: The Narrative Art of Hung Liu
Through her process, subject, and material choices, Liu uplifts subjects that historically would not have the socioeconomic power or privilege…
Textile as transcript: Adriene Cruz in Converge 45’s Social Forms: Art as Global Citizenship
Vibrant, mixed media textile works honor the history of Black women.
Who do you carry with you? Malcolm Peacock at SE Cooper Contemporary
Through audio, participatory sculpture, and memory, the exhibit poses the salient questions: “who are you carrying with you?”
Painting Toward Life: Jesse Murry at Reed College
Painting as a matter of life or death.
Political agitation through reflection: Zarouhie Abdalian at KADIST San Francisco
A group exhibition from KADIST’s collection demonstrated how artists make powerful political statements by abstracting language and material.
Metamorphosis Happens Every Morning: Danielle Mckinney at Night Gallery
With an arresting sense of empathy, Danielle Mckinney’s exhibition “Metamorphic” asks: “what does rest look like for Black women?”
When We Were Here Last: Muzae Sesay at pt. 2
Muzae Sesay’s latest solo exhibition, When We Were Here Last, prompts a contemplation of personal and public history.
Emotional Rhythms: Jeffrey Gibson at Jessica Silverman
Melika Sebihi reviews Jeffrey Gibson’s ONCE MORE WITH FEELING on view at Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco.
Emily Yong Beck: Spoonful of Sugar at New Image Art, Los Angeles
In Spoonful of Sugar, Emily Yong Beck asks: What is beneath the veil of beauty that we buy into?
The Casual Intimacy of Women Caring for Women: Anne Buckwalter at Friends Indeed and Rebecca Camacho Presents
In the two-venue exhibition, Buckwalter’s domestic scenes have a revolutionary proposition: what would a world of care and support for…
The Power of Discrete Things: Ricki Dwyer at Anglim/Trimble in San Francisco
Ricki Dwyer’s vast textiles and small sculptures examine the gravity of human relationships.
Flirting With the Uncontrollable: Peter Gronquist at Winston Wächter Fine Art in Seattle
Felted wool, steel, river rocks, and sound combine to illustrate the vulnerability of all life.
We Vessels of Existence: Jesse Mockrin at Night Gallery
Religious images question the multifaceted nature of human lives.
Who Do I Think I Am? Lynn Hershman Leeson at Altman Siegel
A multi-media artist on the West Coast gets up close and personal with their viewers, unsettling the notion of a…
Balancing Buoyancy and Desolation: Emily Kepulis at Lolo Pass
A painter meditates on the impending and preventable horror of environmental destruction.
Support, Opportunity, and Liberation: Month of Sundays at Eugene Contemporary Art
An ambitious group exhibition steps in to show the world that liberation requires both trouble and quietude.
Mixed Feelings for Strange Fruit: Genevieve Gaignard at Vielmetter Los Angeles
A daring but imperfect exhibition challenges notions of racism and colorism.
Srijon Chowdhury’s “Groundhog Day” at SE Cooper Contemporary
A Portland-based painter conjures the otherworldly to meditate on the shrouded interiority of his subjects.
Unknowable Spaces: William Matheson’s “Dissipatio” at Nationale
Evocative oil paintings on jute canvas trouble the perception of figure-ground relationships.
Joke’s on Us: Hugo Montoya’s “Florida Man” at Et al.
Through found objects and wry humor, Hugo Montoya reveals problematic cultural stereotypes.
Compendium of Scars: Pained Vistas at Photographic Center Northwest
Eleven artists depict landscapes framed by conflict, trauma, and beauty.
The Importance of Meaningless Things: Sara Cwynar at ICA LA
At ICA LA, Cwynar probes what we can learn from our fickle taste and consumerism.
Each One of Us Was Fastened to the Other: Josh Smith and Vanessa Woods at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, CA
A wife and husband artist duo explore their identities as artists and parents.
Photographing the Surreality of Western Landscapes: Ingeborg Gerdes at Blue Sky Gallery
The German-American photographer applied street photography tactics to documenting rural Western United States.
Insatiable Exuberance: Daisy May Sheff at Ratio 3
When you walk into Ratio 3, one of the first artworks you encounter doesn’t initially seem like it’s part of…
An Archive for End Times: Invisible Labor in Taryn Tomasello’s “As Long As It Doesn’t Spread”
Monuments to pandemic isolation reconsider the archival impulse
The Mesmerizing Secrets of Mundane Objects: Mariel Capanna Overlook at Adams and Ollman
An enigmatic painter draws her viewers into her impermanent abstractions, invites them to consider everyday materiality.
FROM THE ARCHIVES | Imagining Caregiving as Constant: Contact Traces at the Wattis Institute
A group exhibition in San Francisco exposes lapses, performances, and vital acts of care.
FROM THE ARCHIVES | Residential Intimacies: Shoccara Marcus Choreographs the Past and the Present at Wa Na Wari
Shoccara Marcus’s photographs highlight the complex nuances of relationships.
FROM THE ARCHIVES | Disco as a Communal Site of Pleasure: Coady Brown’s nightlife paintings at Shulamit Nazarian
Gabrielle Lawrence interprets Coady Brown’s vibrant paintings through her favorite disco songs.
FROM THE ARCHIVES | New Images for an Old Struggle: Jacob Lawrence at Seattle Art Museum
Lawrence’s research into this nation’s early years point the way to reckoning with past and present social crises.
FROM THE ARCHIVES | Going Through the Motions: Speculations on Birth in Patricia Piccinini’s The Awakening
A surreal birthing video situates viewers in an uncomfortable, yet fruitful space.
Resurrecting a Twentieth Century Cabaret Artist to Resist Oppression Today: Witch’s Kitchen by Shana Lutker and Active Cultures
An LA-based non-profit creates a novel space to remind audiences how communities can come together.
Artists Fill San Francisco’s Cliff House with Warnings of Environmental Disaster: “Lands End” Reviewed
Jutting out from the rugged coastline at Lands End, near barbed Seal Rock and the remains of the Sutro Baths,…
The Politics of Nature: Ansel Adams In Our Time at Portland Art Museum
Contemporary artists reposition Ansel Adams’s famous landscape photography.
The Boundless Light of Black Children: Barbara Earl Thomas’s “Geographies of Innocence” at Seattle Art Museum
Intricately cut paper reveals the joy of Black children in vibrant colors.
Disco as a Communal Site of Pleasure: Coady Brown’s nightlife paintings at Shulamit Nazarian
Gabrielle Lawrence interprets Coady Brown’s vibrant paintings through her favorite disco songs.
For the Love of Friends: Jonathan Berger at Adams and Ollman
A poetic installation chronicles the friendships made by a community living in tunnels under Manhattan.
Lessons from the Forest: Arboreal at / Gallery
A group show in San Francisco examines the many interconnected lessons we can learn from plants.
Imagining Caregiving as Constant: Contact Traces at the Wattis Institute
A group exhibition in San Francisco exposes lapses, performances, and vital acts of care.
Residential Intimacies: Shoccara Marcus Choreographs the Past and the Present at Wa Na Wari
Shoccara Marcus’s photographs highlight the complex nuances of relationships.
An Expansive Examination of Life and Death: Ameh Egwuh at Rele Gallery
An artist contemplates life, death, and the afterlife through unexpectedly cheerful symbols.
Going Through the Motions: Speculations on Birth in Patricia Piccinini’s The Awakening
A surreal birthing video situates viewers in an uncomfortable, yet fruitful space.
Neon Abundance Highlights Our Lack of Substance: Energy Drink at Museum of Museums
A wholly artificial environment satirizes our superficial world.
Drawing Moments of Everyday Life with a Typewriter: Lenka Clayton at Catharine Clark Gallery
Clayton uses typewriter keys to illustrate the minutiae of life in the pandemic.
Antifascist Climate Noir: Ryan Pierce at Elizabeth Leach Gallery
Chaotic scenes paint a cheeky and surreal image of capitalist futures.
New Images for an Old Struggle: Jacob Lawrence at Seattle Art Museum
Lawrence’s research into this nation’s early years point the way to reckoning with past and present social crises.
Shared Dreams of the Sea: Bonny Nahmias at Root Division
Sending dreams through the mail connects strangers with their unconscious and each other.
The Meaning in Everything: Synchronicity at Roberts Projects
A group exhibition embraces serendipity in everyday life.
Collective Grieving Through an Interactive Website
Performative practices offer the possibility of a more connected community mourning.
Facing Pervasive Trauma with Humor and Hope: Christine Sun Kim at François Ghebaly
Charcoal drawings process the social trauma of being deaf.
Black Life Exploited for White Lies: Ilana Harris-Babou’s Long Con at Jacob Lawrence Gallery
Satire and collage expose capitalist strategies of using Black bodies to exploit spiritual, mental, and physical health.
Know Thyself, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Fordism: Jeamin Cha at Kadist San Francisco
An exhibition stalled by the global pandemic examines mental heath under late capitalism.
Searching for a More Perfect Union: Tannaz Farsi at HOLDING Contemporary
Textural and material poetics question notions of citizenship and belonging.
Documenting the Changing Self: Melanie Flood at Fourteen30 Contemporary
Flood’s photographs suggest a changing self located within a difficult but perhaps all too common history, at once revealed and…
All the Strings that Bind: Patty Chang at Friends Indeed and Cushion Works
Chang’s work displays a longstanding preoccupation with the boundaries and trace appearances of the body.