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Her views from close up are on everyone's radar
NEW YORK, NY.- For more than seven decades, Lois Dodd has been creating acutely observed and quietly influential paintings, finding her subjects close to home. “At first I used to drive around, scouting for the motif, and then I realized the motif is right here — just open the door or look out the window,” said the painter. “It comes to you.” In her fresh, quickly painted canvasses, Dodd distills the atmospherics and underlying geometries of whatever catches her eye — the way the light hits a radiator, say, or transforms a landscape outside her doors in Cushing, Maine, or Blairstown, New Jersey, or the urban scene around her loft in New York’s East Village. The 95-year-old artist recently welcomed a visitor to that third-story walk-up on East Second Street, where she moved in 1960 as a single mother with her young son. Modestly furnished with a bohemian patina ... More

Millennials pay for a dose of '90s nostalgia
HARTFORD, CONN.- The stars were out at 9:30 a.m. in the Connecticut Convention Center. The top floor of the sprawling complex looked like the pages of a ’90s issue of “Teen Beat” had come to life. Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick from ’N SYNC talked to a line of reporters. Melissa Joan Hart, the star of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” joked about all the men she had made out with (in a professional capacity) over her career. Of course, it wasn’t exactly like “Teen Beat.” Fatone, 46, was talking about his children; Kirkpatrick, 51, was recovering from shoulder surgery; and Hart, 46, was filming TikToks. (Also, “Teen Beat” stopped publishing years ago.) The stars of the ’90s had grown up. But over one weekend in mid-March, Hartford, often called the insurance capital of the world, transformed into a buzzing, celebrity-filled, sold-out portal to an age of neon windbreakers ... More

The last days of Beckett's, a smoky New York Literary salon
NEW YORK, NY.- About a year ago, a literary salon sprang to life in a run-down town house in the West Village. Dozens of young writers, critics, artists, theater actors and filmmakers started going there almost nightly to drink, smoke, talk, dance and argue, much like their bohemian predecessors in the days before sky-high rents priced poets out of the neighborhood. The venue had the clandestine air of a speak-easy. Notice of its existence was passed by word-of-mouth. Guests stuffed cash into a cardboard box marked “donations” to receive canned Modelo from a fridge. There were readings, screenings and music shows in the loftlike space. Neighbors complained about the noise. Police barged in once during a play. “This place has given us a taste of an older New York we never saw,” said Christian Cail, a jazz guitarist. “This isn’t meant to exist.” The host was Beckett Rosset ... More

SHRINE opens Billy White's first West Coast solo exhibition since 2015
LOS ANGELES, CA.- Billy White loves picnics. For the artist, there is no better way to connect and celebrate almost anything than by gathering with family, friends and for Billy White, the childhood heroes that have inspired him as an artist. White repeatedly invites nostalgic icons such as Vincent van Gogh, Sally Field, Eddie Murphy, Elvis, and Redd Foxx to make appearances in his art, and they are of course invited to his painted picnic, which is open to everyone. Picnics have interestingly become a pervasive theme in the drawings, paintings and sculptures created by many of the studio artists at the NIAD Art Center in Richmond, CA. NIAD is a nonprofit space dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities, like Billy White, work full time as artists. This group-longing for outdoor recreation and camaraderie is likely the result of the pandemic, which separated these artists and friends ... More

Nancy Toomey Fine Art opens an exhibition of works by Monica Lundy
SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Nancy Toomey Fine Art is presenting an exhibition of works by Monica Lundy titled Asylumscapes: Studies on Sites of Memory, on view from March 29 to May 13, 2023. What is the meaning of the word scape? It is the view or scene of something. Asylumscapes therefore describes a precise scenario, that of the place of the asylum as seen by the artist herself. The place in question is the former asylum in Rome, Santa Maria della Pietà, a place traversed by Monica Lundy in different directions. In the past, the artist has made works starting from archival images, site visits, and later she made burned drawings of objects belonging to that place. For this exhibition, however, Lundy, not at all tired of looking at the place once again to probe the pulse of memory to its depths, embraces it with paint, as if she were treating a landscape. Yes, a landscape ... More

JFK's Terminal 4 to offer immersive art experiences
NEW YORK, NY.- Travelers will be able to experience immersive art experiences while traveling through John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 4, as JFKIAT – the operator of Terminal 4 – announces it is expanding the T4 Arts & Culture program to present a curated, ongoing series of installations, exhibits and performances throughout the year that represent the full New York City experience, from local art to food, culture and beyond. JFKIAT formed a new committee to facilitate the T4 Arts & Culture program, including the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY), Delta Air Lines, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Terminal Four Airline Consortium. “As a Queens-based business and the gateway to New York City for millions of people, it is important to us that we foster a vibrant, welcoming environment within our terminal that truly embodies and celebrates ... More

A movie confronts Germany's other genocide
BERLIN.- Germany is often praised for its willingness to confront the darkest moments of its history, but in recent years, activists have pointed to a blank spot in the country’s culture of remembrance. Decades before the Holocaust, Germany perpetrated the 20th century’s first genocide: From 1904 to 1908, German colonial officials systematically killed tens of thousands of Herero and Nama people in what is now Namibia. This atrocity is little known outside academic circles, and there are few memorials or pop cultural depictions of those events. Now, a new movie, “Measures of Men,” aims to change that and bring a debate about Germany’s colonial guilt into the center of society. The glossy film, directed by German filmmaker Lars Kraume, tells the story of the killings through the eyes of a German anthropologist. Aside from playing in movie theaters, where it opened last month, “Measures of Men” had a special screening for lawmakers in Germany’s parliament a ... More