Wake Up, Beeple!
Crypto-backed artworks at Art Basel Miami Beach advance the wealth mechanisms they claim to subvert and make you, the viewer, a participant in the ploy.
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“The breakneck speed of New England’s transformation makes it the fastest-heating area...
“The breakneck speed of New England’s transformation makes it the fastest-heating area of the US , bar the Alaskan Arctic, and the pace of its temperature rise has apparently increased in the past five years.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Required Reading
World AIDS Day at Stonewall, Alison Bechdel on making ends meet, Houston van art, NYC’s latest eyesore, Christ and kink, and the family behind Elf on the Shelf.
NYC Announces Three New Public Artists in Residence
Ifeoma Ebo, Stephen Kwok, and Mauricio Higuera will bring “creative problem solving” to three public agencies.
What ‘67’ Reveals About Childhood Creativity. “Through these quaint ready-made formulas the...
What ‘67’ Reveals About Childhood Creativity . “Through these quaint ready-made formulas the ridiculousness of life is underlined, the absurdity of the adult world and their teachers proclaimed…and the curiosity of language itself is savoured.” 💬 Join the discussion on
In Clay, Syd Carpenter Explores Nature, African American History, and the Land
Carpenter's work is on view in three concurrent exhibitions opening in January in Pennsylvania. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article In Clay, Syd
A View From the Easel
“People really underestimate how much pacing and walking you do when making.”
Hyperrealism Meets Queer Futurism at NADA Miami
The strongest booths at the fair suggested that the future is seeping into the present and that mundane objects can carry the weight of worlds.
How Ferrari’s F1 Team Improved Medical Care for Children
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) in London improved their surgery-to-ICU handoff process by observing how Ferrari’s F1 team handled pit stops . GOSH doctors visited and observed the pit crew handoff in Italy. While visiting the Formula One pit crew the GOSH
Purchase College Was Founded to Make Quality Arts Education Possible
Graduate arts students have access to generous financial support and paid teaching opportunities, state-of-the-art facilities, and New York City’s vibrant cultural scene.
Craft in America Returns for a New Season With “EAST” and “WEST”
The latest episodes of the PBS docuseries explore craft across the US, beginning with stories of artists in the Eastern and Western United States.
Really interesting post about Hammersmith Bridge, which has been closed since 2019,...
Really interesting post about Hammersmith Bridge , which has been closed since 2019, a presumed “loss” of 25,000 daily car trips. “The local economy has adapted, air quality has improved, and overall traffic congestion has lessened.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
To Grow, We Must Forget… but Now AI Remembers Everything. “What if...
To Grow, We Must Forget… but Now AI Remembers Everything. “What if human forgetting is not a bug, but a feature? And what happens when we build machines that don’t forget, but are now helping shape the human minds that do?”
Sound Designing a Life
This is a charming short film on how a Foley artist would sound design a day in an ordinary life. Running hands through spaghetti noodles stands in for hair washing, a spray bottle sounds like rustling sheets, that sort of thing. See also this fascinating short documentary
For This Prestigious Contest, Photographers Capture the Planet’s Most Stunning Landscapes
A pool of 101 top photographs made the cut for publication in the International Landscape Photographer of Year contest's book. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month.
Matthew Rhys & Netflix are plotting an adaptation of Robert Caro’s The...
Matthew Rhys & Netflix are plotting an adaptation of Robert Caro’s The Power Broker . The consensus is that The Power Broker is unadaptable. But, the consensus also was that a 50-billion-page book about Robert Moses was not going to work but here we are. 💬 Join the discussion
How MacKenzie Scott is giving away her billions. “Once you begin to...
How MacKenzie Scott is giving away her billions . “Once you begin to see Scott as [Toni] Morrison’s mentee — rather than as a certain Amazon founder’s ex-wife — you can’t unsee it. She gives more like an artist would.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Katherine Bradford's Moonlit Visions
John Yau on Theaster Gates, Pyaari Azaadi's revolutionary orbit, and the plague of American curatorial silence.
Simple and obvious… or nuanced and complicated?
Some choices seem obvious, while others demand care and insight. And some offerings are simple, while others have depth and multiple variables. As you’ve probably guessed, the choices that are simple and obvious tend to do best in the mass market. Where did you get your cup of
Did Tintin Creator Hergé Collaborate with the Nazis? A Historical Investigation
The Adventures of Tintin may be a children’s comic series from mid-twentieth-century Europe, but its appeal has long since transcended the boundaries of form, culture, and generation. In fact, many if not most seriously dedicated fans of Tintin are in middle age and beyond, and
The Nurse Who Names the Dead
Inside a Texas nurse’s quest to document the life and death of every woman killed by a man in America.
George Orwell’s Six Rules for Writing Clear and Tight Prose
Image via Wikimedia Commons Most everyone who knows the work of George Orwell knows his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language” (published here), in which he rails against careless, confusing, and unclear prose. “Our civilization is decadent,” he argues, “and our
Aldo Leopold on How to Hear the Song of Life
The point, of course, is to see the whole — what Virginia Woolf called “the thing itself.” Not just to uncover the fragments and discover how each works but to understand their harmonic unity — the sum that, as the forgotten genius Willard Gibbs knew, “is simpler than its
An irresistible video title: Army of Crabs Protect Spy Robot From Stingray....
An irresistible video title: Army of Crabs Protect Spy Robot From Stingray . “A 4-meter stingray can eat 50 crabs a day.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Beneath the Firmament of Katherine Bradford
In this show, the 83-year-old American artist touches on life, death, and mutual support in ways that feel more personal than ever.
Art Dealers Association of America Announces New Fair
The news follows the organization’s abrupt termination of a long-running partnership with the Henry Street Settlement.
10 Shows to See in Upstate New York This December
Romare Bearden’s interdisciplinary art, Kikuo Saito’s color experiments, and dogs and cats galore!
Mason Pott’s Bold Bouquets Take a Hyperrealist Approach to the Still Life
Mason Pott's new body of work captures botanical depth and diversity through tender paintings. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Mason Pott’s Bold
Sweats & Swots
“Ugh, this kid is so sweaty!” my son exclaimed as he came under attack in some game he was playing. This was a few years ago; my ears perked up and I asked him what he meant. He explained that “sweaty” was a derogatory term for gamers who were trying super hard to win. Such
New Photos of Epstein’s Home Show Creepy Room Filled With Masks
The images of Epstein’s US Virgin Islands house are part of a new trove of documents released by the United States House Oversight Committee.
Surrealism Against Fascism
"A century ago, artists who survived the trenches captured humanity’s capacity for destruction. What can they teach us about confronting the far-right in a new age of genocide?"
Theaster Gates Is Best When He’s Ambiguous
When Gates opens a gap between how something is perceived and what it is, he does not simply make a connection for the viewer — he invites self-reflection.
The Cruelty of American Curatorial Silence
Many of my fellow curators, especially at institutions, have failed to speak out against fascism. What is it about being a curator that offers a free pass for political silence?
How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life. “It’s like Zen. There...
How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life . “It’s like Zen. There are times when it is just very relaxing to be standing in front of the machine and slowly cleaning it, tweaking the adjustment so visually things start to really line up.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Remembering Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz, Robert A. M. Stern, and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen
This week, we honor an advocate for women’s leadership, a museum architect, and a photographer of dreamscapes.
