Crisis of Criticism
Why is it that so much writing on art today — ostensibly criticism — only skates on the surface of artworks, providing description, identifying a handful subjects and themes, maybe some precedents, and then a conclusion — or rather, an ending. The writing stops.
Sense and Non-Sense
The main problem that the artist encounters at work — the source of all their woes and triumphs — is that materials must be transformed: made to give what they cannot. Appearance is the mask of the true face beneath.
Painting as a Scaffold
The most recent idea that appeared to me, so insistently that I felt compelled to write it down, was of painting as a scaffold. This was related to an older idea of mine, of painting as a veil . . .
In Conversation with Elisa Jensen
Caesura editors Patrick Zapien and Gabriel Almeida talk to Elisa Jensen about her practice.
In Conversation with Jeane Cohen
Caesura editors Patrick Zapien and Gabriel Almeida talk to Jeane Cohen about her practice.
In Conversation with Peter Shear
On December 11, 2022, Caesura editors Gabriel Almeida and Patrick Zapien hosted a live-streamed conversation with Bloomington, Indiana-based painter Peter Shear.
In Conversation with Will Gabaldón
On November 20, 2022, Caesura editors Gabriel Almeida and Patrick Zapien hosted a live-streamed conversation with Chicago-based painter Will Gabaldón.
In Conversation with David Abbott
On November 13, 2022, Caesura editors Gabriel Almeida and Patrick Zapien hosted a live-streamed conversation with Bristol-based painter David Abbott.
The Noguchi Museum
Visiting the Noguchi Museum recently, I was struck by the difficulty of sculpture as art: how it's constrained by its physical presence to a degree that other media, like music, painting, and poetry, are not.
James Turrell’s ‘After Effect’ at Pace
After Effect — James Turrell’s latest “Wedgework” (recently presented by Pace) — takes up this question of the imaginary dimensions of time and space and their relationship to perception, memory, and thought.
“With eyes like ripening fruit”: Manoucher Yektai at Karma
It’s not true that the world is ending — if anything, it already has. And yet life continues, alive in its death. These thoughts — speculations — give a perfunctory account of the work of the late painter and poet Manoucher Yektai, a member of the New York School whose first solo show in the city since 1984 opened at Karma two weeks ago.
June Journal
Today I begin in earnest. What does it matter that my thoughts are clouded? A light will shine through in the end.
Interview with Patrick Zapien
“From the artist’s perspective, it's the case that all art has to be a reconsideration of art history. Every artwork, in order to find its originality, has to reconsider all of art history.”