Author Archives: jolanta

Natz Spetsman, the self-titled “Egotainment Filmaker,” is anything but. His visionary portrait, “Natz in Berlin,” is a series of emotionally evocative vignettes of the heart and soul of Berlin. It’s both intoxicating and intimate. As the stories unfold, Spetsman draws us into his world. We see an exotic dancer in pinks and reds in an […]

A faint mechanical whirring, interspersed with periods of unhinged, impish cackling, accompanies one’s entrance into the “Quantum Circus” show at the Soo Visual Arts Center in Minneapolis. The space is dim, thanks to maroon curtains strung across the gallery windows, and the lighting eerie, thanks to the subject matter of the exhibition. Situated throughout the […]

I am currently developing a body of video and photographic work looking at acts of faith, be they religious or otherwise. My interest in the social world, and belief systems in particular, stems from my pre-fine art, academic background in social science. I suspect, however, that the strongest influences on my work go much further […]

Established in August of 2001, Cuchifritos, a reference to Latin and Caribbean cuisine, is also the name of a Lower East Side art gallery situated inside the Essex Street Market. Surrounded by various businesses including a botanica, barbershop and cheese stores, the gallery represents a wonderful position as an interlocutor in the debates between capitalism, […]

Gertrudis Goldschmidt brings no tintinnabulation of recognition to most contemporary art enthusiasts. Perhaps it is because this female avant-garde artist enjoys the euphonious sobriquet of Gego. She plucked geometric shapes from the wraiths of wiry sculptures to create curious, timeless works of lines and parallelograms. Gego’s unique, sculptural achievements span the entire lower level of […]

In a bold attempt to lift a piece of the Department of Defense’s intellectual property, a group of 16 artists have united to five-finger the words “Special Reconnaissance”—they have endeavored to hold the syllables until they are as warm as we are, taste them, carry them around in their pockets for days next to a […]

The work of “Hagel,” is the result of the collaboration between two Leipzig artists, Paule Hammer and Sebastian Gögel. In contrast to the painters of the Leipzig school, Gögel and Hammer seek, in their work, the use of sculpture and spatial installations as media of expression in order to place pop over the sublime, thus […]

The notion of “star quality” would seem an anathema to those ensconced in the world of contemporary dance. It nods to the vacuous ethos of Hollywood’s commercial celebrity-dom; it is created, fictionalized, valorized and vulgarized by the variegated tentacles of a capital-intensive media, it simplifies complex artists into a superficial, je-ne-sais-quoi dazzle, often privileging appearance […]

The Finnish artist Saara Ekström is known for her unprejudiced material use. Ekström uses mainly organic materials that are rich in controversial meanings and symbolics. Her works often deal with the dualistic, major themes of life: death, birth, growth and withering, beauty and disgust. She has worked with pig meat, fruit, living birds, oysters, milk, […]