Nene Humphrey became interested in the practice of Victorian mourning braiding—in which jewelry and keepsakes were made using the hair of departed loved ones—when coping with the death of her husband, artist Benny Andrews, in 2006. In the years since, she has developed a body of work based on the […]
The title of “A Poet*hical Wager,” an exhibition of work by eleven international artists on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland through January 28, 2018, comes from a pun made by poet and scholar Joan Retallack, in her book of same name. “If you’re to embrace complex life […]
American novelist and musician James Greer—who spent two years in the mid-1990s playing with the indie rock band Guided by Voices—discusses the way lyrics reflect the listener’s emotions rather than the songwriter’s intentions. “Even the most nakedly vulnerable song ends up as the soundtrack to someone else’s heartbreak,” he writes […]
In Detroit, just north of where the I-94 freeway cuts across Van Dyke Street, neatly separating several up-and-coming eastside neighborhoods from a stretch of no-man’s-land that remains determinedly godforsaken, a message is scrawled across the side of a dilapidated garage: “they tried to bury us but they didn’t know we’re […]
Cranbrook Art Museum’s new Director. Photo by Cameron Wittig, courtesy of Andrew Baluvelt. There’s change in the air at the Cranbrook Art Museum, where Andrew Blauvelt, a 1988 MFA graduate of Cranbrook Academy of Art’s design department, begins his new job as director this month. He succeeds Gregory Wittkopp, who […]
America by Minerva Cuevas. Image courtesy of the artist and MOCAD. The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is buzzing with activity in preparation for the opening of “United States of Latin America” (Sept. 18, 2015-Jan. 3, 2016). Organized by MOCAD senior curator at large Jens Hoffmann (also deputy director […]