Eliana Willis

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    in Exhibitions

    ‘I See Color When I Sing’: Billboard Star Jewel on Her Turn to Painting

    While she may be better known for her music career, Jewel has been a visual artist for just as long as she has been singing and writing songs. Now, 30 years after her meteoric rise on the Billboard charts, she is leveraging her love of art for the next phase of her unique career. 
    “As a kid, drawing and words always came together for me,” the four-time Grammy-nominee told me in a video call in March, explaining how she began pursuing art around the same time that she started writing songs, between 15 and 16. For Jewel, who has synesthesia, these activities are closely related.  
    “I see color when I sing” she said, noting that art has helped “make sense of the world around me.”  
    As a precocious teen at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, she delved into philosophy, and was specifically influenced by the writings of French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal, who suggested that an understanding of shape developmentally precedes any understanding of language. 
    “We can relate to the idea of a circle before we ever know the word ‘circle,’” she explained, adding that this foundational recognition of form “really stuck” and laid the bedrock for her lifelong artistic practice.
    Jewel was on a partial scholarship, having raised the remaining school tuition with funds won from yodeling, a skill she picked up performing with her father at hotels, honky tonks, and bars in rural Alaska, where she spent her childhood. Still, she needed a job to support herself, so she applied to be a model for the sculpting class, which was how she was introduced to marble carving—her first formal foray into fine art. Fascinated by what the teacher was explaining about plane changes, Jewel said she kept interrupting to ask questions.  
    Left: Jewel in sculpting class at Interlochen Arts Academy, circa 1990. Courtesy of Jewel. Right: The singer is pictured with one of her paintings in 1997, just before her first Lilith Fair tour. Photo: West Kennerly. Courtesy of Jewel.
    “Eventually [the teacher] told me I needed to stop modeling and just join the class,” she laughed.  
    This early experience with sculpture—both as a model and as a maker—may explain why one of her favorite artists is Amedeo Modigliani. “I was just very struck by how sculptural his painting was, and obviously his sculptures, too,” she said. “His nudes still give me chills when I look at them, they’re gorgeous.” 
    Taking chisel to stone proved a helpful creative outlet for the budding artist to tease out how shape “speaks to the collective subconscious” and helped her be a better songwriter, she said, adding that melody, like sculpture, “is all about form and structure.”  
    Carving out something beautiful from something hard was perhaps nothing new for Jewel, whose mother left when she was eight. To cope with the demands of being a single parent and his own PTSD, a product of the Vietnam War as well as his own abusive upbringing, her father turned to alcohol. At 15, Jewel decided to move out on her own as an emancipated minor with the offer of Interlochen on the horizon, a decision she details in her 2015 memoir, Never Broken. 
    “I knew that statistically, it wouldn’t go well for me,” she said. “Few leave an abusive house and make it on their own at 15, and so for me to feel like I could have a possible better outcome, I knew that I had to be very strategic. I needed to have a strategy for mental health, although mental health wasn’t a word then.” It was through music, poetry, and art that she was able to define a new “emotional language” to express herself more fully and change her patterns of behavior from negative to generative ones. 
    Jewel sings at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Photo: Philip Thomas. Courtesy of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
    At 19, Jewel was living out of her car in San Diego, where she was playing her songs in coffeehouses, when her music career took off in the 1990s with her debut album “Pieces of You.” Her introspective lyrics and folk-infused acoustic melodies made her a best-selling artist and a fixture on the counterculture Lilith Fair scene—and provided an indelible score to my own moody early teen years.
    But fame, a constant stream of multi-platinum albums, acting gigs, and a grueling tour schedule proved “toxic.” So Jewel made the decision to take a break from music in 2014, following a divorce from her husband of eight years, Ty Murray, a Texas-based world-champion bull rider and professional rodeo cowboy. 
    I asked her if she was able to keep making art, even amid burnout. “Yes, although I would go months without writing songs, and that would scare me,” she said. It was, after all, her livelihood. “But I also realized that, within that same time, I was always drawing.”   
    Using art as a rehabilitation and mental wellness tool is at the center of “The Portal: An Art Experience by Jewel,” opening on May 4 at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas. It’s less of an exhibition and more of a 90-minute accessible immersion into art therapy that museumgoers can choose to take advantage of.
    Jewel and the Crystal Bridges team pictured with Retopistics: A Renegade Excavation by Julie Mehretu in the Contemporary Gallery at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Photo: Tom McFetridge. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
    Nestled on 120 acres of forest in the scenic Ozarks, Crystal Bridges “felt like the perfect partner” for the project, Jewel explained, noting that she approached the museum with the idea for a “takeover” back in 2022. “It’s beautiful, and there’s a real connection between art and nature there.”
    Undergirding the “Portal” experience are the “three spheres,” Jewel’s take on the mind-body-spirit connection that she has developed while working with the two mental health initiatives she cofounded: the Inspiring Children Foundation, which offers mentorship and support for at-risk youths and underprivileged families, and Innerworld, a virtual member-driven mental wellness community and therapy “toolkit” of sorts. 
    Jewel outlines the spheres for me, noting that she believes all three need to be in harmony to find mental and emotional balance. The “inner” world is your inner life. “It’s your psychology. It’s your emotional life. It’s your heart’s desire,” she said. Then there is the “outer” or “seen” world, that includes your family, your job, nature, cities, “whatever makes up your daily environment.”  
    Lastly, there is the “unseen” world, which is comprised of that which exists but cannot be empirically known. “I think some people see the unseen as, ‘That’s easy, it’s Jesus,’” Jewel said. “Other people just know they get goosebumps when they see images from the Hubble telescope, or something like that. To me, the unseen sphere is just represented by awe, wonder, and inspiration.” 
    Museum visitors stand in front of Fred Eversley’s Big Red Sphere, a keystone work in Jewel’s “Portal” experience. Photo: Philip Thomas. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
    “Portal” offers what is essentially a meditative art walk, narrated by Jewel (she even wrote the wall labels), through the museum’s contemporary wing, during which she prompts you to reflect on your relationship to the inner, outer, and unseen spheres in front of key works she selected from within the collection. Among these are paintings by Ruth Asawa, Julie Mehretu, Mickalene Thomas, and Sam Gilliam. For Jewel, Fred Eversley’s Big Red Sphere (1985) sculpture appropriately unites things. 
    Additionally, a hologram of the singer will greet visitors at the start of the experience and a choreographed 200-piece drone light show will happen nightly over the museum’s outdoor pond, during which visitors will be invited to wear headphones to listen to a conceptual song, also written and recorded by Jewel. (The drone show culminates in a large red heart, reminiscent of her iconic “Queen of Hearts” costume on the sixth season of The Masked Singer.)
    Technology, she says, is just another tool for storytelling, just like music or painting. “If I had to sum up my artistic practice in one word, it would be ‘storyteller,’” she said. “Art is whatever I can use to tell a story.”
    Left: Jewel shows the Crystal Bridges team the portrait she painted of her son Kase. Photo: Jared Sorrells. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Right: The portrait, titled Double Helix, is on view as part of “Portal.” Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
    Two of her own visual art creations are also on view: a portrait of her and Murray’s son, Kase, now 12, that she made after taking a two-week oil painting class in Rome last year, and a 30-inch lucite sculpture titled Chill, which depicts a person meditating and is filled with various pills and medications.
    “For me, it is a conversation about wellness, culture, and the longevity of life versus the quality of life, about what it means to find balance,” the artist said of the sculpture, noting that medication can be lifesaving as much as it can be dangerous. “There really is so much hysteria and judgment around medication, and how we use it.”
    I asked the singer-songwriter, actor, author, poet, activist, and now artist, who turns 50 this year, if she is finding a new level of harmony between her three spheres as she makes her museum debut and takes her visual art practice public. 
    “I think this is the most inspired I’ve ever been,” she said, “as if I’m back at the very beginning of my career.” 
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    in Exhibitions

    A New Exhibition Examines the Enduring Theme of Motherhood in Art

    You could say that depicting motherhood has been something of an obsession for Old Masters from medieval times well into the Baroque period—after all, the Virgin and Child must be art history’s most iconic motif, where Mary often appears suitably docile and doting of the miniature adult in her arms. It may be evidence enough that none of these images were actually made by a mother, and it would be centuries before most had the chance to professionally paint, let alone offer a more candid portrayal of motherhood based on real experiences.
    The question of how to represent what is, arguably, humanity’s most impressive act of creation, yet one that is consistently maligned, is the subject of “Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood” at the Arnolfini in Bristol. The show, curated by critic Hettie Judah, author of the manifesto “How Not to Exclude Artist Parents,” also delves into the history of artist mothers and their struggle to make their voices heard within a male dominated field.
    Installation view of “Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood” at Arnolfini, Bristol. Photo: Lisa Whiting, courtesy of Arnolfini and Hayward Gallery Touring.
    As Judah points out, for centuries it was up to male artists to present their most idealized visions of motherhood. “It’s not often that you see art featuring mothers who are bone-tired from night feeds, picking a chaos world of toys off the floor, or negotiating with opinionated toddlers,” she commented. “Our great museums seldom show mothers desperately juggling work and childcare, struggling with postnatal depression, or worrying about their kid getting picked up for a police ‘stop and search’. Real motherhood, in other words, in all of its diversity.”
    Tabitha Soren, My Great American Novel (2007) installed at “Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood” at Arnolfini, Bristol. Photo: Lisa Whiting, courtesy of Arnolfini and Hayward Gallery Touring.
    “In the 20th century, women were led to believe that they couldn’t be both an artist and a mother—motherhood was seen as a culturally unserious state, evidence that the woman in question was not fully committed to being an artist,” said Judah. “Until very recently, it was common for art students to be told that lived experience of motherhood was not an appropriate subject for art.”
    Claudette Johnson, Afterbirth (1990). Photo: © Claudette Johnson.
    One of the most fraught topics for expectant mothers living under the rigid strictures of patriarchy is the question of how their body will change after bearing new life. Stretch marks, scars, and folds are worn with pride by artist Claudette Johnson in a startlingly intimate self-portrait from 1990 that shows the artist in a powerful stance that defies stigma.
    Caroline Walker, Bottles and Pumps (2022). Photo courtesy the artist.
    The practical realities of caring for a baby was the subject of several 2022 paintings by Caroline Walker, who helped her sister-in-law through the first few anxious days after birth. In one work, the cleaning of equipment for bottle feeding becomes a painterly still life. The collection of plastic objects has unexpected beauty, despite their bright artificial tones of purple and yellow.
    Billie Zangewa, Temporary Reprieve (2017) installed at “Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood” at Arnolfini, Bristol. Photo: Lisa Whiting, photo courtesy of Arnolfini and Hayward Gallery Touring.
    Among the works Judah was particularly excited to include the intimate drawings of labor and delivery by Canadian-born artist Heather Spears, who stayed with a woman for several days to create the series.
    “I have never encountered such a powerful account of the process of labor,” said Judah, “the long duration with its peaks and dips of activity, imagery of women getting up and walking around, napping, embracing their partner, having their cervix measured. It is an extraordinary body of work, and one that has not been seen.”
    Jessa Fairbrother, Role Play (Woman with Cushion) (2017) installed at “Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood” at Arnolfini, Bristol. Photo: Lisa Whiting, courtesy of Arnolfini and Hayward Gallery Touring.
    Judah is also particularly fond of a small 2011 self-portrait by Celia Paul called Frank and Me, in which her son lies on a sofa in the foreground and she can be seen smiling in the mirror behind.
    “My sons are in their 20s, and I am so enjoying this new phase of the mother-child relationship now that they are adult men,” the curator said. “This work of Paul’s moves me so much.”
    Paula Rego, Untitled 6 (1999). Photo courtesy Cristea Roberts Gallery.
    The exhibition also features the work of women who have more complicated relationships to motherhood. One example is Paula Rego’s moving “Abortion” series based on her own experiences in the 1950s. It was made in the late 1990s to protest a referendum in Portugal that failed to legalize the vital medical procedure. (It was later legalized in 2007.) These works ruminate on the physical dangers and psychological toll of women being forced to visit back street clinics in secrecy.
    Installation view of “Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood” at Arnolfini, Bristol. Photo: Lisa Whiting, courtesy of Arnolfini and Hayward Gallery Touring.
    “Addressing the historic gender gap isn’t just a matter of fitting women into the story of art as it has been told,” said Judah. “It is also crucial that we start asking which stories and which experiences have been excluded, and which lives have been less visible.”
    “Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood” is on view at the Arnolfini in Bristol through May 26, 2024. 
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    in Exhibitions

    5 Must-See Solo Gallery Shows in New York Right Now

    Spring has sprung in New York—and so has the art world’s busy fair season. Whether you’re a local or in town to visit the more than half dozen fairs alighting in the city this May—including Frieze, NADA New York, and TEFAF, as well as newcomer Esther—you’ll also want to make room on your calendar (and take advantage of the spring weather) to also visit some of the gallery shows debuting this month.
    From a New York-native artist taking over a gallery space with site-specific installations to a painter bringing the culture of Aboriginal Australia to a wider audience, these five artists starring in solo shows across the city are not to be missed.
    1. Daniel Walbidi, “Yurlupirti: Forever Without End (eternal)”D’Lan Contemporary, through May 31
    Daniel Walbidi, Winpa (2023). Courtesy of the artist and D’Lan Contemporary.
    Hailing from the Northwestern coast of Australia, Daniel Walbidi (b. 1983) is a Mangala/Yulparitja artist whose practice is centered around learning about and expressing both his culture as well as the natural landscape of his community’s ancestral homeland. A rising star within Australian First Nations artists, the exhibition features 10 recent works by Walbidi that are larger in scale than his previous (and sold out) exhibition with D’Lan Contemporary in May 2023. Employing his signature, meticulous brushwork and vivid color palettes, Walbidi’s paintings illustrate his own deep connection with the coastal desert environment and convey it to a broader international audience.

    2. Rachel Eulena Williams, “Dream Speak”Canada, through June 1
    Rachel Eulena Williams, Soul on Ice (2024). Courtesy of the artist and Canada.
    Marking her second solo exhibition with the gallery, “Dream Speak” sees Rachel Eulena Williams (b. 1991) continue her pursuit of “making painting literal.” Breaking down painting to the essentials, Williams reconstructs these elements (like color, light, texture, and perspective) by using diverse—and sometimes surprising—materials. Colorful fabrics, canvas, rope, fiberboard, hooks, and wire all symphonize, and let viewers explore her distinct artistic vernacular; this includes symbols and iconography that tap the pictographic language of the Bono People, Andinkra, recognized for its ability to concisely express concepts and maxims, as well as pagan symbology.

    3. Ronny Quevedo, “Composite Portals”Alexander Gray Associates, through June 15
    Ronny Quevedo, El valle de la periferia (The Valley of the Periphery) (2023). Courtesy of the artist and Alexander Gray Associates.
    Ronny Quevedo (b. 1981) maintains a practice that consistently draws sharp focus on the intersections and dichotomies between personal and collective histories, dominant and marginalized cultures, and how ideas around identity are shaped. In his newest body of work, Quevedo uses Andean textiles as a starting point to examine pre and postcolonial realities, and in his work literally weaves materials such as paper sewing patterns, metallic leaf on muslin, and carbon copy paper into geometric patterns. The result are works that are deceptively straight forward, full of clues and references that promise to reveal their origins with close and careful looking.
    4. Sahara Longe, “Sugar”Timothy Taylor, May 2–June 15
    Sahara Longe, Good Times / Bad Times (2024). Courtesy of the artist and Timothy Taylor.
    In “Sugar,” Sahara Longe (b. 1994) reconsiders art history and its canonic perspectives to generate new compositional and figurative possibilities. Tapping traditional allegorical motifs—such as Adam and Eve or the reclining Venus—Longe creates entirely new visual interpretations and arrangements, resulting in works that are haunting and timeless. Across all 12 works on canvas in the show, Longe’s deft handling of line and color are brought to the fore, and her use of raw pigments and thick-grain linen make these new works appear from a time gone by, recalling historic modes such as Symbolism or the Bauhaus.

    5. Hugh Hayden, “Hughmans”Lisson, May 2–August 2
    Hugh Hayden, American Gothic (2024). Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery.
    For his second solo exhibition with Lisson this year, Hugh Hayden (b. 1983) creates a site-specific installation for the gallery’s New York space. Employing recognizable materials and motifs in his work, Hayden engages with widely relatable personal themes such as intimacy and desire within a physically explorable context. The show is timed with his 10-year survey exhibition at the Laumeier Sculpture Park, Saint Louis, Missouri, and precedes another major solo exhibition opening this fall at the Rose Museum of Art at Brandeis University, together denoting an important moment in the artist’s career.
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    An International Biennial Devoted to Queer Artists Is Coming to Detroit

    The Motor City is the venue for an expansive exhibition of queer artists taking place this summer, timed to Pride Month. “I’ll Be Your Mirror: Reflections of the Contemporary Queer” is curated by Detroit artist and high school art teacher Patrick Burton. Its title echoes that of a classic Velvet Underground song to suggest a relationship between art and the viewer, as well as, Burton said, “the importance of visibility and affirmation.”
    “In many respects, we see art as activism, and it’s really important to respond to the many anti-LGBTQ+ bills that are being advanced right now,” said Burton. “When you want to understand a people, you look at its culture. It’s the same for queer people. It’s in June for a reason, to offer an alternative to parties and parades and drag shows, to help viewers to understand who we are.”
    John Criscitello, FGGT (2021). Courtesy of the artist.
    The sprawling show includes more than 800 works spread across 12 venues by 170 artists, including well-known contemporary figures like Eve Fowler, Hillary Harkness, Lyle Ashton Harris, Clarity Haynes, and Wayne Koestenbaum, as well as some historical practitioners such as Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden and George Platt Lynes.
    This is the biennial’s second edition; the first, which was devoted entirely to Detroit artists, was similarly curated by Burton and also took place over the course of Pride Month. This time, the scope is international, with artists from as far as Beijing. The nonprofit organization that’s putting on the show, Mighty Real/Queer Detroit, is made up of just a handful of people, all with day jobs, who are volunteering their time, Burton said.
    Unconventionally for biennial exhibitions, the work is openly for sale; all proceeds go to the artists. The organization’s website includes links to every artist’s website. More

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    in Street Art

    Wall to Wall Street Art Festival in Melbourne, Australia

    Melbourne’s vibrant street art scene takes the next step in its creative evolution with the unveiling of the city’s first official street art precinct, set to transform a long-forgotten industrial pocket of Mordialloc into a hub of creativity and expression. Returning for the first time since the pandemic, Australia’s original street art festival, WalltoWall and Kingston Council are bringing seven of Australia’s top street artists and three acclaimed international artists together to adorn the area with a stunning array of large-scale mural works from 26-28 April. Melbourne has long been revered as an international street art capital, and this groundbreaking project breathing new life into Mordialloc’s industrial laneways, ushers in a new era of artistic innovation and cultural revival for the city. Renowned artists such as Smug, Adnate, Celeste Mountjoy (creator of Filthy Ratbag), George Rose, and French artist Zoer, among others, will lend their talents to the project, infusing the precinct with their unique styles and perspectives. In addition to the tapestry of colourful and eclectic murals, the streets of Mordialloc will come alive on Saturday 27 April with a block party presented by Wall to Wall and Mordialloc’s newest culinary precinct, Urban Ground. The party will feature DJs including Byron Bay’s April Kerry, owner of Fitzroy record store Natural Selection, Charles Eddy, Berlin DJ and artist Blo, and Melbourne artist and DJ, Adnate. Food trucks, market stalls, workshops, tastings, open studios and hourly tours and tastings of contemporary spirits courtesy of renowned local distillery Saint Felix will ensure it’s a party not to miss. The project, curated by Shaun Hossack of Melbourne street art collective Juddy Roller (Silo Art Trail, Wall to Wall, Collingwood Housing Project) in collaboration with Kingston Arts and Mordi Village Trader, will see the transformation of Lamana Road and surrounding laneways into the vibrant Mordi Village Arts and Cultural Precinct. The initiative aims to celebrate and showcase the transformative power of street art while revitalising neglected urban spaces. Hossack said of the event: “Melbourne is known as a mecca for street art but still lacks well curated areas where major artworks can be viewed one after another, like an outdoor gallery. The scale of Wall to Wall is unprecedented in Melbourne’s beachside suburbs and will help cement Mordi Village Arts and Cultural Precinct as a beacon of creativity and community engagement.” “Street art was born in the heart of cities, but with the evolution of Juddy Roller’s Silo Art Trail and Wall to Wall – which originated in Benalla and this year is a multistate offering having just taken place in Murray Bridge – we can expand the artform across Australia” he said. Kingston Mayor Jenna Davey-Burns also expressed her excitement for the project, emphasising the growing importance of street art as a form of public expression and cultural enrichment: “Street art has emerged as one the leading forms of expression without bounds, out there on the walls instead of stuck inside four walls” she said.Take a look below for more photos of the festival and stay in the loop with us for more street art news around the globe. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); More

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    in Street Art

    “OPTICHROMIE for Jersey City” by Felipe Pantone in New Jersey

    Felipe Pantone recently unveiled his latest masterpiece, “OPTICHROMIE for Jersey City“, marking his return to the global street art scene in the US after nearly a year since his last mural in Ohio.Spanning an impressive 25 floors, this mural is Pantone’s largest to date. It showcases a mesmerizing array of geometric patterns in monochrome, gradients, and vibrant colors, reflecting the artist’s signature chromatic palette. Set against the backdrop of the iconic New York skyline, the mural creates a captivating visual contrast, drawing viewers in with its bold aesthetic.“It’s been a titanic mission during a 25-day spring stay where my team and I endured rain, cold, two earthquakes (on the lift), and a solar eclipse!”The creation of this monumental artwork involved meticulous planning and team coordination, as Pantone and his collaborators carefully mapped out intricate designs on the building facade. Despite the challenges of working at towering heights, the transformative impact of “OPTICHROMIE for Jersey City” on the urban landscape is undeniable, reshaping architectural perceptions and captivating audiences worldwide.Check out below for more photos of Felipe Pantone’s latest work. default default(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); More

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    in Exhibitions

    See Alternative Views of New York by Stan VanDerBeek, Weegee, and More in a New Film Series

    Any halfway serious film buff can name an array of films that take place in New York City, from Taxi Driver to Breakfast at Tiffany’s, from Manhattan to Splash, and from West Side Story to Midnight Cowboy. A film series at New York’s Lincoln Center presents an alternative history of Gotham, including selections from the nearly 6,000-strong collection of the city’s Film-Makers’ Cooperative.
    “Seeing the City: Avant-Garde Visions of New York” will run at Film at Lincoln Center from May 3–7 and will highlight visions of the city premised on experimentation and subversion, many of them on 16mm film.
    Charles Simonds and Rudy Burckhardt, Dwellings (1974). Courtesy of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative.
    Organized by Tom Day, executive director of the New American Cinema Group/The Film-Makers’ Cooperative, and Film at Lincoln Center’s Dan Sullivan, the festival will explore themes like mass transit, the built environment, gentrification, “non-human animals,” and specific neighborhoods, from the Lower East Side to the South Bronx and Coney Island. 
    Among the filmmakers are some well-known names. Stan Brakhage contributes The Wonder Ring (1955) as part of a program on transit. Rudy Burckhardt’s Eastside Summer (1959), D.A. Pennebaker’s Daybreak Express (1953), and Arthur “Weegee” Fellig’s WeeGee’s New York (1948) are all part of a program on “city symphonies,” a genre that offers a panoramic view of a city’s architecture and people.
    Stan VanDerBeek’s Snapshots of the City (1960), meanwhile, is part of a program of films documenting the various art forms manifesting in 1960s New York, including documentation of Pop Art and Happenings pioneer Claes Oldenburg’s storefront and Judson Church performances.
    Francis Thompson, N.Y, N.Y. (1957). Courtesy the Film-Makers’ Cooperative.a
    Also on tap are a selection of women’s films about gendered space, such as Shirley Clarke’s 1959 film Skyscraper, documenting the building of 666 Fifth Avenue; Holly Fisher’s 1978 From the Ladies, shot in the powder room of what was at the time the city’s only Holiday Inn; and Bette Gordon’s 1987 Greed: Pay to Play, in which, as Gordon wrote, “Three women have a strange claustrophobic encounter in the ladies lounge of a luxurious Manhattan hotel.” A fixture of New York’s artistic sphere appears in sound: Laurie Anderson’s electronic music forms the soundtrack to Rick Liss’s 1983 N.Y.C. (No York City), in the “city symphony” genre.
    Rudy Burckhardt, Eastside Summer (1959). Courtesy of Film-Makers’ Cooperative.
    Two opposing notes are sounded by a duo of films spotlighting urban renewal, or gentrification, as the opposing parties might label the phenomenon. John Peer Nugent and Gordon Hyatt’s What Is the City but the People? (1969) was a propagandistic documentary produced by the Department of City Planning to promote its projects. The film Break and Enter a.k.a Squatters / Rompiendo Puertas (1971), by a collective called Newsreel, by contrast, spotlights the efforts of Puerto Rican and Dominican families, as well as the activist work of Operation Move-In, to reclaim abandoned homes.
    The Film-Makers Coooperative was established in New York in 1961 by a group of filmmakers and artists and holds one of the world’s largest repositories of film and media art.
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    in Exhibitions

    Gerhard Richter’s New Sculpture Puts a Fresh Spin on His Iconic ‘Strip Paintings’

    A new public sculpture by Gerhard Richter has been unveiled at Serpentine South in Kensington Gardens. At 92, the celebrated German artist has never stopped experimenting with a range of media and has now created a towering monument based on his Strip Paintings series, which he began in 2010.
    Those works played with the possibilities of reproduction by taking a digitally altered photograph of the much earlier Abstract Painting 724-4 (1990) and splicing it into thousands of thin vertical strips that were then reassembled horizontally and placed behind perspex. In this way, the original image is in some sense preserved and yet transformed beyond all recognition.
    The painting ‘Strip’ by Gerhard Richter on display at Lenbachhaus in Munich, Germany, 06 May 2013. Photo: Felix Hoerhager/picture alliance via Getty Images.
    The idea of continually reflecting, rearranging, and repeating a series of simple units to create an endless array of possible new patterns, most recently explored in Strip-Tower, also defined “4900 Colours,” Richter’s 2008 exhibition at Serpentine. In this case, the artist used elements of chance to compose 25 brightly colored tiles into lively grid formations, of which 49 were exhibited.
    Gerhard Richter, STRIP-TOWER (2023) © 2024, Gerhard Richter, Prudence Cuming Associates.
    The idea has been inspired by Richter’s design for the south transept window of Cologne Cathedral, which was destroyed during World War II and replaced in 2007 with 11,500 squares of glass in 72 colors.
    German artist Gerhard Richter at the opening of “4900 Colours” at the Serpentine Gallery, Kensington, central London. Photo: Dominic Lipinski – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images.
    This is not the first time that Serpentine has made use of its verdant surroundings in Kensington Gardens to display public artworks. Just a year after its launch in 1971 it hosted Blow Up ’71, an outdoor exhibition of inflatable and kinetic sculptures. Since then it has continued to present significant works in collaboration with The Royal Parks, like Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirrors in 2010 and The London Mastaba, a mammoth installation by Christo on Serpentine Lake in 2018.
    Gerhard Richter, STRIP-TOWER (2023) © 2024, Gerhard Richter, Prudence Cuming Associates.
    “Strip-Tower is a three-dimensional manifestation of themes and methods that underpin Richter’s historic practice in painting, repetition, improvisation and chance,” said Serpentine’s CEO Bettina Korek and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist, in a joint press statement.
    “Gerhard Richter: Strip-Tower” is on public view in Kensington Gardens until October 27, 2024.
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