ARTES MAGAZINE

The tone of the 2011 Venice Biennale seems different from Biennales past. The political bludgeoning of the viewer is milder this year, and the curatorial mystification less extreme. A lot of thinking out loud is in evidence instead, as if the Biennale were puzzling over the proposition of a world exposition of contemporary art in [...]

Editor’s Note: Regular ARTES contributing writer and critic, Ed Rubin, travels all over the world in search of extraordinary art and theater experiences.  Like the rest of us, though, he finds that sometimes a break in routine is in order.  Ed recently traveled to Newport, Rhode Island, just to explore and discover what this famous [...]

Classical limestone bank buildings line the streets of downtown Wilmington, Delaware; facades that suggest prosperity and life. But until recently, the streetlights shining vigilantly at night exposed nothing but emptiness.  And, although Wilmington became a national financial center for the credit card industry – since the Financial Center Development Act of 1981 removed the legal [...]

‘Ajiaco: Stirrings of the Cuban Soul’ At the Newark  Museum, Now through August 14, 2011 Political oppression and slavery can bend the body, but not the spirit of a people. The current exhibit at the Newark Museum, Ajiaco: Stirrings of the Cuban Soul, is evidence of creativity unbowed, where freedom of expression flourishes and is made [...]

 Speaking at the 2011 International Association of Art Critics (AICA) Awards, Iranian artist Shirin Neshat addressed the dilemma of Iranian artists today: imprisonment if they remain at home and permanent exile if they leave. If there is a persistent lament uniting the multimedia works of Iranian artist Shahram Karimi, it is the dislocation from his [...]

If the aim of art is to lift our spirits to live softer, gentler lives connected to the natural world, Harry Wishard’s oil paintings hit the bull’s eye. His paintings capture the 18th and 19th century beauty of Hawaii before modern civilization left its imprint. As viewers transported to this earlier time we can’t help [...]

Editor’s Note: The western-most district of Kutch, in the state of Gujarat is one of the most ecologically and ethnically diverse districts in India.  Close to the Pakistan border and subject to a massive earthquake in 2001, the people have a reputation for strength and resilience. Kutch is a celebrated for its art, crafts, music, dance, people [...]

 “‘Ashort distance below [the rocks above the city of Alton, Missouri], a torrent of yellow mud rushed furiously athwart the calm blue current of the Mississippi, boiling and sweeping and surging in its course logs, branches, and uprooted trees.’ This was the mouth of the Missouri, ‘that savage river’ which ‘descending from its mad career [...]

In 1644, just 24 years after the English Pilgrims arrived on what is today the Massachusetts coast of the United States, the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was overthrown by the Manchu, a people from the north who were not Han Chinese. The subsequent establishment of the Qing (pronounced “ching”) Dynasty (1644-1911) signaled the end of Han [...]

Once again the battle between preserving classical French culture from the ugly claws of globalization has been making headlines in France. This time around it is provocateur-artist Takashi Murakami’s, Japan’s answer to Andy Warhol, recent exhibition of comic-based manga and anime-inspired paintings, sculptures, one rug and a film, at the Château Versailles and its gardens [...]