The Spectacular of Vernacular

The Spectacular of Vernacular

The Spectacular of Vernacular Walker Art Center, Minneapolis 128 pp, $19.99   From January 29, through May 8, 2011 The Spectacular of Vernacular ran at the Walker Art Center in Min neapolis, Minnesota. With 26 contemporary artists and more than 40 artworks...

Archives are Awesome!

I spent the first part of this week in my bedroom, blinds drawn, air cranked, trying to escape the heat. I caught up on a bunch of reading, and actually finished a few books I’d been reading for so long that I feared that at any moment they might turn in to...
Between You and Me

Between You and Me

It’s easy to think of the New York art scene as a big, gay playground. Okay, maybe not a playground, but a place where gay men have had the opportunity to be relatively open, at least within the parameters set by the norms of their particular era. Think Johns,...
Which Aesthetics Do You Mean?

Which Aesthetics Do You Mean?

I don’t know much about aesthetics. When my friends start talking, usually with plastic cups of wine in their hands, and tossing that word around I nod my head and pretend to know what they mean. But I don’t really. The problem is that the word has so...
From Illuminated Manuscripts to the iPad

From Illuminated Manuscripts to the iPad

I love art books. My bookshelves bow with them and they offer thoroughgoing diversion when I can’t sleep. Monographs work best for this. I prefer thick paper, with big images that fill the whole page. Although I always read the introduction and biographical...