Critics Page
Guest Critic
The Vanishing Middle
By Lane RelyeaNew Yorkers have witnessed a wave of mid-tier galleries close shop over the past year. Is this part of a wider trend?
From Center to Middle and Back Again
By Josh RiosChicago has a relatively limited commercial gallery system compared to other major national and global metropolitan areas, which has contributed to an overall context that doesn’t strictly center the commercial gallery as the sole path to a long-term, rigorous practice.
Wasp sting
By Matthew GoulishA shape of paper trimmed by an astronaut—from a standard sheet into something like a letter M—floats in zero gravity.
The Triumphant Middle
By Blake StimsonNot long ago the great English critic and historian of photography Steve Edwards complained that art historians have “paid remarkably little attention to the petite bourgeoisie,” and particularly so its role as “the invisible social glue.
Devouring the middle to see the ends
By Stephanie OwensMuch has been written about how global communication technologies have fostered a network-based society, even a network-generated society.
What Have We Done with the Autonomy of Art?
By Mary LeclèreAmong the decenterings we have witnessed recently is the erosion not only of art’s autonomy but of how the term “autonomy” itself might mean.
Charles Gaines
Rosalind Krauss has argued that capitalism, not aesthetics, is the prevailing principle behind art.
The Strategic Middle
By Michelle GrabnerIn The World Republic of Letters, critic Pascale Casanova lays out the conditions undergirding global literary power. Perhaps not too surprisingly, her exceptional chronicle is also an uncanny echo of the artworld.
