Artblog | Reviews

August 25, 2021 by Janyce Denise Glasper

BlackStar Film Festival’s short films center love from fresh perspectives

Janyce Denise Glasper highlights her 5 favorite short films from BlackStar Film Festival 2021’s Oscar-qualifying shorts program! Janyce says BlackStar curated an impressive selection that showcases new talent, and that love is baked in to each of the films. BlackStar Film Festival was August 4-8, 2021.

August 23, 2021 by Andrea Kirsh

The under known history of Alma Thomas, in print and on view

Andrea Kirsh reviews “Alma Thomas; Everything is Beautiful,” a catalog for the exhibition of the same name. Andrea says both the catalog and exhibition tell the under known history of Alma Thomas’s life as an artist, educator, role model and inspiration to many. The traveling exhibition runs until Sept. 25, 2022; currently on view at Chrysler Museum of Art through Oct. 3, 2021. The catalog is available at the Museum or through Yale University Press.

August 4, 2021 by Andrea Kirsh

Celebrating the vast career of Raphael Montañez Ortiz, El Museo del Barrio founder

Andrea Kirsh reviews the first monograph on career of Raphael Montañez Ortiz- artist, educator, and founder of El Museo del Barrio in New York City. Andrea says that before this book was published, art historians failed to document Montañez Ortiz’s diverse, inquisitive, and dynamic career.

July 30, 2021 by Andrea Kirsh

New book “The Soul of a Nation Reader” fills racial gaps in art history

The new book, “The Soul of a Nation Reader” rounds up long-inaccessible material on Black American art and artists from 1960-1980. The authors who collected this material have done a valuable service to the field of art history, our contributor Andrea Kirsh says.

July 22, 2021 by Corey Qureshi

Molly Metz’s multi-layered paintings, sculptures flow through Fleisher/Ollman

Corey Qureshi visits ‘Molly Metz: Close Closer’ at Fleisher/Ollman gallery, where multi-layered paintings flow into amorphous and cavernous sculptures. Check it out before it closes on August 13, 2021!

July 21, 2021 by Susan Isaacs

Smithsonian American Art Museum’s laudatory shows of Chicanx art and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt’s legacy

Susan Isaacs visits the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and is impressed by two socially concerned exhibitions: “”¡Printing the Revolution!”(on view through August 8, 2021) and “Alexander von Humboldt and the United States” (now closed; online materials available).

July 20, 2021 by Corey Qureshi

Insects and critters pose in PEEP Projects’ mostly people-free painting show

Corey Qureshi reviews ‘Strange Nature,’ a two-person exhibition of lockdown-inspired paintings by Nancy Mladenoff and Karen Heagle. The show– which Corey says elicits eerie memories of early-pandemic times– is on view (by appointment) through July 29th, at PEEP Projects.

July 16, 2021 by Susan Isaacs

Outstanding exhibitions at Taubman Museum, and more, in Roanoke, Virginia

Artblog contributor Susan Isaacs recently took a trip to Roanoke, Virginia, where she visited four exciting exhibitions at the Taubman Museum– most on view thru September or December, 2021– and more. If you’re thinking of visiting Roanoke, look no farther than this post!