Now showing at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C. is the latest installment of the museum’s ongoing Women to Watch Series. Heavy Metal includes over 50 works from 20 contemporary artists, covering the huge breadth of techniques, materials, and artworks that encompass contemporary metal work. Seeking to defy the conventional association with metal work as a male-dominated art form, the exhibition shows all that woman are accomplishing in this diverse range of materials.
Art News
At an exhibition opening this week, the Broad Museum of Art celebrates some of its latest acquisitions. Having only opened in 2015, the Broad has a collection of more than 2,000 contemporary works, including some of the most prominent artists working today. A Journey That Wasn't groups together 50 works representing 20 artists in the permanent collection, several of which are being displayed in the museum for the first time.
An exhibition that defies patriarchal modes of looking, Multiply, Identify, Her is currently on view at the International Center of Photography. Curated by Marina Chao, who was inspired by late photographer and Chicana feminist Laura Aguilar, the exhibition assembles portrait, photo collage, and video among other digital media.
Now at the Seattle Art Museum, Double Exposure juxtaposes the work of iconic early American photographer Edward S. Curtis with contemporary Indigenous artists Marianne Nicolson, Tracy Rector and Will Wilson. Double Exposure contrasts Curtis’s haunting photos of a world he believed would soon be lost with current artistic expressions of Indigenous culture that’s very much alive.
Celebrating several recent acquisitions, Color Decoded: The Textiles of Richard Landis at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum offers insight into the making of six impressively complex Richard Landis weavings. A master of color theory and double-cloth weaving, Landis’ works are amazing technical feats. Double-cloth weaving uses multiple sets of warps (vertically running thread) and wefts (horizontally running thread). This produces two connected layers of cloth and allows for the resulting fabric to have two right sides (and no backside, as most fabrics do).
A sampling of current trends is on view at the Hammer Museum’s latest biennial, Made in L.A. 2018. The fourth iteration of Made in L.A., this biennial is an opportunity for the institution to shed light on local, emerging talent and celebrate the unique voice and identity of Los Angeles. With many works commissioned specifically for the biennial, the 32 artists selected touch on a range of themes in many media.
On its final stop of a nation-wide tour, “Horse Nation of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ” is currently on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia).
Though the handwritten lyrics and glittering costumes satisfy the crowds flocking to David Bowie is at the Brooklyn Museum, it is rich, unique storytelling that truly sets the popular exhibition apart. The show, which probes the legend’s fifty year career, originated at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, but is splendidly organized for the Brooklyn’s space by their Director of Exhibition Design, Matthew Yokobosky.
The St. Louis Art Museum’s latest exhibition in its popular contemporary artist series, Currents 115, showcases work by Jennifer Bornstein. Using a variety of media, including etchings, photogravures, photographs, prints and video, Bornstein examines how technological image production, the social and identity-shaping powers of the media and the women's movement intersect.
The versatile ways contemporary artists use bamboo is explored in a new exhibition at the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) in Los Angeles. Japanese bamboo weaving is an art form that dates back centuries. A uniquely challenging medium, bamboo can be bent, tied, woven, plaited and dyed in a range of techniques that artisans have developed and passed down through generations of masters. Traditionally used for fine functional objects like baskets, since the 20th century, artists have become increasingly experimental, creating more sculptural works.
