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Beyond the Art World by Ben Davis Nov. 19, 2010
I do not like the term "art world." It’s a useful term, of course, a kind of shorthand for something like "the professional sphere of the visual arts." "The art world thinks. . ." "Art-world concerns. . ." Etcetera. But the truth is, art is not a world unto itself. Art is part of the world. And that fact has to be a fundamental starting point for everything.
...more
Oct. 8, 2010
Aug. 19, 2010
KURT LIVES
Letter from Seattle: Failing to attain Nirvana at the Seattle Art Museum.
Aug. 4, 2010
Mar. 26, 2010
MINOR MIRACLES by Ben Davis
Jessica Jackson Hutchins looks for a way out.
Mar. 10, 2010
IT’S NOT THE SIZE. . . by Ben Davis
Scoring Jeff Koons’ "Skin Fruit" vs. Shaq’s "Size Does Matter."
Feb. 19, 2009
X OUT by Ben Davis
The lesson’s of X-Initiative’s final show, "Bring Your Own Art."
Feb. 3, 2010
WHITNEY WATCH by Ben Davis
A defensive self-abasement marks the spirit of the 2010 Whitney Biennial.
Jan. 7, 2010
PHOTOS FOR TINO by Ben Davis
The erotics of Tino Sehgal’s photo ban.
Dec. 11, 2009
LOST IN MIAMI by Ben Davis
Wandering through Art Basel Miami Beach 2009.
Nov. 5, 2009
LOST IN TIME by Ben Davis
Josh Gosfield imagines the life of completely made-up French pop star "Gigi Gaston."
Oct. 23, 2009
LIGHT TOUCH by Ben Davis
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer represents the future of art -- but what kind of future is it?
Sept. 18, 2009
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED by Ben Davis
Caragh Thuring’s end-of-painting paintings at Simon Preston.
Aug. 7, 2009
THE MUSEUM BUBBLE by Ben Davis
Who’s to blame for the pain of the non-profit art world?
July 28, 2009
BACON, HALF-BAKED by Ben Davis
Why philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s book on
Francis Bacon is so much tamer than Francis Bacon’s work itself.
July 20, 2009
IRANIAN ART NOW by Ben Davis
"Iran Inside Out" at the Chelsea Art Museum.
June 10, 2009
BIENNALE DEGREE ZERO by Ben Davis
Daniel Birnbaum’s "Making Worlds" is a Type 0 Biennale.
May 22, 2009
FAIREY TALES
by Ben Davis
The myth and reality of Shepard Fairey’s preppy Pop anti-authoritarianism.
Apr. 30, 2009
ANIMAL SPIRITS by Ben Davis
The strengths and limits of Adel Abdessemed’s nihilistic guerrilla art.
Apr. 17, 2009
JESUS COMPLEX by Ben Davis
The New Museum Triennial fails as a portrait of a generation -- but succeeds as an essay on the "naughty oughties."
Mar. 24, 2009
HE’S THE SHIT by Ben Davis
Italian conceptualist Piero Manzoni was more of a professional than he seems.
Mar. 13, 2009
THE TWITTER ESTHETIC by Ben Davis
The art fair experience finds the form of writing proper to it.
Feb. 23, 2009
PSYCO-SOCIAL STILL-LIFE by Ben Davis
Ruud van Empel’s "Souvenir" series shows how history troubles our fantasies.
Dec. 30, 2008
THE 2008 REVUE by Walter Robinson and Ben Davis
"Fly high, fall hard," a motto for the times.
Nov. 20, 2008
OH YES THEY DID! by Ben Davis
The Yes Men and Friends take on the
New York Times .
Nov. 11, 2008
DEAD HEAT by Ben Davis
Berlinde de Bruyckere riffs on the wretchedness of life.
Sept. 19, 2008
THE CHINA PRICE by Ben Davis
Stalking the elusive Chinese collector at ShContemporary.
Sept. 5, 2008
ESTHETIC POLITICS? by Ben Davis
The idea that art is a model for politics is the biggest art-critical boondoggle around.
Aug. 28, 2008
TWO FRIDAS by Ben Davis
Frida Kahlo’s surreal Socialist Realism.
July 31, 2008
UP PERISCOPE by Ben Davis
The unlikely tale of Scope Hamptons ‘08.
July 25, 2008
NATURAL FACTS by Ben Davis
"After Nature" shows it’s easier to turn apocalypse into a motif than it is to imagine it sincerely.
July 14, 2008
THE IRAQI CENTURY OF ART by Ben Davis
Mohammed al Hamadany’s
Night of Fire and 100 years of struggle by Iraqi artists.
June 18, 2008
BUILDING BLOCKS by Ben Davis
David Byrne’s
Playing the Building : Once in a lifetime experience, or road to nowhere?
May 23, 2008
FIRE AND ICE by Ben Davis
Sexual dysfunction and environmental consciousness at the Reykjavik Arts Festival in Iceland.
May 9, 2008
THE BILLY PAPPAS PROBLEM by Ben Davis
Julie Checkoway’s documentary
Waiting for Hockney raises questions about the sociology of art.
Apr. 11, 2008
ART IN FLUX by Ben Davis
Flux Factory’s final show marks the end of an era.
Mar. 13, 2008
CAI GUO-KILLER by Ben Davis
In the basement with Chinese art star Cai Guo-Qiang.
Mar. 7, 2008
RAVE ON by Ben Davis
A "rave review" for the Whitney’s 2008 biennial.
Feb. 15, 2008
THE BLING GAME by Ben Davis
Say hello to Luis Gispert’s little friend.
Jan. 24, 2008
GATEWAY TO NOWHERE by Ben Davis
Do-Ho Suh’s
Reflection and art’s power to forget.
Dec. 24, 2007
MIAMI POST MORTEM by Ben Davis
The "social unconscious" in Art Basel Miami Beach and beyond.
Dec. 4, 2007
WESTERN PROMISES by Ben Davis
Piotr Uklanski’s ""Western""
Summer Love .
Nov. 19, 2007
DISASTER TEAM by Ben Davis
The beauty of drowning Africans in Isaac Julien and Russell Maliphant’s "Cast No Shadow."
Nov. 12, 2007
GUY SMILEY by Ben Davis
Yue Minjun, human logo.
Oct. 26, 2007
THE CONTRA IRAN AFFAIR by Ben Davis
Shirana Shahbazi’s new work reacts against images of Iran, in a veiled way.
Sept. 27, 2007
MAN AND SUPERMAN by Ben Davis
Shaun El C. Leonardo, budding superartist.
Aug. 24, 2007
ART CLASS by Ben Davis
Marx, "a new theory of the market," art and politics.
Aug. 1, 2007
FAIR FLIP-FLOPS by Ben Davis
Commerce and/or personality at the third Scope Hamptons.
July 20, 2007
GLOBALIZED FEMINISM by Ben Davis
Can Miwa Yanagi dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools?
July 17, 2007
REPLY TO STORR by Ben Davis
The Venice Biennale, Africa and the "borrowed kettle."
June 13, 2007
POWER PLAY by Ben Davis
Tom Friedman’s aluminum foil sculptures are portraits of Aby Rosen as a "fun" guy.
May 16, 2007
HOLLOW LAUGHER by Ben Davis
David Godbold answers the question: Why isn’t postmodern art funnier?
May 11, 2007
PINAULT AND CO. by Ben Davis
A glorious romance with power in "Sequence 1" at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice.
Apr. 17, 2007
IRANIAN EVOLUTION by Ben Davis
A secret politics in Abbas Kiarostami’s photos and videos.
Feb. 26, 2007
LA LA LAND by Ben Davis
L.A. Art challenges New York on its own turf.
Feb. 23, 2007
ARTNET NEWS
Questions surround the patron behind the Venice Biennale’s African exhibition.
Feb. 14, 2007
NET WORTH by Ben Davis
The dilemmas of science-as-art in curator Marisa Olson’s "Networked Nature."
Dec. 18, 2006
MORE ON MIAMI by Ben Davis
A report on the Ink, Flow, Bridge, Aqua, DiVA, Pulse, NADA, Photo Miami and Scope art fairs.
Nov. 8, 2006
MINNESOTA VICE by Ben Davis
Angela Strassheim’s tortured photos of suburbia.
Oct. 25, 2006
CULTURAL KARAOKE by Ben Davis
Nikki S. Lee’s "conceptual documentary"
A.K.A. Nikki S. Lee .
Oct. 13, 2006
CRAZY QUILTS by Ben Davis
Ai Kijima’s fabric collages bring Pop extravagance to a traditional form.
Sept. 20, 2006
DREAM FACTORY by Ben Davis
Art and ads from director Michel Gondry.
Aug. 30, 2006
GLASS HOUSES by Ben Davis
The art world lessons of Toledo, Ohio.
Aug. 3, 2006
DOWN TEMPO by Ben Davis
The hidden history of the Bauhaus in Marianne Brandt’s photomontages.
July 20, 2006
SCOPE HAMPERED? by Ben Davis
The second go-round for the Scope franchise in the Hamptons.
June 15, 2006
REFLECTED GLORY by Ben Davis
The tortured journey of James Lee Byars fills six galleries in New York.
June 7, 2006
MOMENT IN THE SUN by Ben Davis
Circa ’06 in San Juan, the first commercial art fair in the Caribbean.
May 31, 2006
RETRO ACTIVITIES by Ben Davis
Marco Boggio Sella, Vadis Turner and Michael Bell-Smith take on the past.
May 4, 2006
INANE ASYLUM by Ben Davis
Wooloo Productions offers up an immigrant "Survivor" as art in "AsylumNYC."
Apr. 21, 2006
THIRTEEN UNEASY PIECES by Ben Davis
Chinese video art at P.S.1’s "The Thirteen: Chinese Video Now."
Mar. 20, 2006
TWILIGHT OF THE TEEN IDOLS by Ben Davis
Masturbating jocks and cheerleaders, courtesy Brock Enright and Ivan Hürzeler.
Mar. 10, 2006
THE ARMORY BOWL
by Ben Davis
Reading the semiotics of the Armory Show 2006, Mar. 9-13, 2006.
Feb. 24, 2006
LOOK AGAIN
by Ben Davis
Photography in New York -- the AIPAD photo show, Tracey Moffatt, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Christopher Williams and Florian Maier-Aichen.
Feb. 10, 2006
RETURN FIRE
by Ben Davis
New images of art from Iraq in New York.
Jan. 25, 2006
WHITNEY WATCH by Ben Davis
Whitney Biennial curators past and present talk around the 2006 installment.
Jan. 24, 2006
TECHNICAL KNOCK-OUTS
by Ben Davis
Dorkbot, "Breaking and Entering" at PaceWildenstein, "Superlowrez" at vertexList, "Dewanatron" at Pierogi.
Dec. 16, 2005
Pop Life
by Ben Davis
0100101110101101.ORG proves Europe kicks butt.
Nov. 2, 2005
We Are Duchampians
by Ben Davis
"The Imagery of Chess Revisited" at the Noguchi Museum.
Oct. 12, 2005
Photo New York
by Ben Davis
A report from the 2nd annual photo fair in Manhattan.
Sept. 27, 2005
Knock Out
by Ben Davis
The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s "A Knock at the Door"
Aug. 26, 2005
August Company
by Ben Davis
The end of the summer at three shows in Williamsburg.
Aug. 17, 2005
Signs of the Times
by Ben Davis
Steve Powers and the Dreamland Artist Club at Coney Island.
Un-Hampered
by Ben Davis
The Scope Hamptons contemporary art fair in Southampton.
July 12, 2005
Letter Love
by Ben Davis
O.K. Harris documents the career of Don Celender.
Visible Flaws
by Ben Davis
Art theorist W.J.T. Mitchell's
What Do Pictures Want?
June 7, 2005
A FUTURE PRESENT
by Ben Davis
D. Dominick Lombardi puts his mark on the apocalypse.
May 23, 2005
THE WILDER BUNCH
by Ben Davis
The artists associated with legendary L.A. dealer Nicholas Wilder.
