Author: Autumn Reese
Ukrainian Jewish artist Janet Sobel made very few statements about her practice, but one that stands out for its uncommon forthrightness is, “I am intensely interested in people and everything that pertains to them.” Sobel’s innate curiosity about people thus serves as the through line of her first solo museum exhibition, “Wartime,” at the Ukrainian Museum in New York, taking place more than 50 years since her passing and nearly three quarters of a century since fading into obscurity. Known, or rather unknown, by many names including Jennie Wilson and Yevhenia Olechovska Sobel has only recently begun to receive attention for her achievements,…
Horatio Nelson’s sexuality is once again under the spotlight after a museum in Liverpool, UK, proclaimed the British naval hero was “queer.” Curators at the state-funded Walker Art Gallery decided that his contested final words “Kiss me, Hardy” were enough to include Nelson in a “Queer relationships” collection. The works in question are Daniel Maclise’s The Death of Nelson (1859-1864) and Benjamin West’s painting of the same name, made in 1806. The mortally wounded admiral is believed to have uttered the famous phrase to his fellow officer Captain Thomas Hardy just before he died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The…
Art has the unique ability to transcend borders, cultures, and languages, creating connections between people through shared emotions and universal experiences. For Fitrajaya Nusananta, this belief lies at the heart of his artistic practice. Born in Indonesia and shaped by years of living, studying, and exhibiting across Europe and Asia, he has developed a distinctive body of work that reflects both his multicultural journey and his enduring fascination with the human psyche. Through symbolic imagery, thoughtful compositions, and open-ended narratives, Fitrajaya invites viewers to become active participants in the meaning of his paintings. Born in 1967 in Jambi Province, Central…
In 2016, the artist Teresita Fernandez organized a gathering for Latinx artists, writers, scholars, and curators at the Ford Foundation. At the time, few Latinx artists had solo shows at major US museums, and even fewer had work on view in these institutions’ permanent collection galleries. But if this year’s abundant offerings were any proof, a lot has changed since then. The best place to begin is with Amalia Mesa-Bains, who gave a presentation at that 2016 Ford Foundation gathering about her nearly five decades’ worth of advocating for Latinx and Chicanx art. Mesa-Bains, best known for her altar installations,…
The day after Donald Trump was elected president, Suzanne Jackson’s son, an actor and film producer named Rafiki Smith, died. He had suffered a heart attack earlier in the year, but he had still been running around Savannah, Georgia, where he and Jackson lived, to help get out the vote. The two of them watched Hillary Clinton’s concession speech, and that night, as the gloom descended, he had a second heart attack. He was 45. “A lot of younger people, and older people, went out at that time,” Jackson told me, mentioning the husband of an acquaintance who crashed while flying…
Painting has the unique ability to capture emotions, memories, and ideas through the language of color, texture, and composition. While some artists choose realism to communicate their vision, others find greater freedom in abstraction, allowing viewers to experience a work through personal interpretation rather than direct representation. Teguh belongs to this latter tradition, developing a contemporary painting practice that combines abstract forms with subtle references to landscapes. Working primarily with oil and acrylic on canvas, he creates compositions that invite reflection, emotion, and imaginative exploration. At the center of Teguh’s artistic practice is a fascination with the expressive possibilities of…