ari messer
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GENERATION GAP #3: Vickrey After Salinger
Why has the work of Robert Vickrey, one of the last living masters of egg tempera, remained so obscure?
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In the Art Rags
Rollo Press is continuing the slowest book swap in the world. The often-thrilling little outfit has been playing around lately with Linus Bill, a photographer who has taken to silkscreening because, he tells Interview, “Until I made those silkscreens, I…
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GENERATION GAP #2: Artistic Research in Contemporary Beirut
Marwa Arsanios and Vartan Avakian are still young. They belong to a generation of artists who grew up during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), and their unique experience with artistic research in Lebanon is revealing new narratives for a catastrophic…
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GENERATION GAP #1: Tomokazu Matsuyama’s Quiet Compass for a Noisy Revolution
One unintended consequence of David Ross’s appearance on the Colbert Report last year has been the misunderstanding of intention.
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The Rumpus Partly Visual Interview with Hilary Pecis and Elyse Mallouk
At what point does the viewer start seducing the artwork?
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The Rumpus Long Interview with Doug Fogelson
I keep the first picture in mind, but I frame each new picture as if it’s its own composition, bearing in mind that it is related to what came before it and what’s coming after it.
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The Freak of Araby
Sir Richard Bishop is a lot of things to a lot of people. He’s a gentleman! He’s a post-punk Guitar God! Now the half-Lebanese indie instrumentalist is about to release an expansive little record on Drag City called The Freak…
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Ari Messer: The Last Book I Loved, The Changing Light at Sandover
I hate agreeing with Harold Bloom. But what can I say? I fall easily and oddly and often (if sceptically) into Bloom’s spells of (particular) historical illumination and (annoying) lucidity.
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In the Art Rags
Despite–or maybe to spite–bitter winds, spring is in the air. The art world and its rags are responding in kind. In Oslo, rabbits are about to do funny things with humans. Vartan Avakian investigates his (heroic!?) namesake for Bidoun. With…
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Cast Your Pod
Pandora too much work for your lazy ass? There’s a new indie-throbbing Music That Matters podcast over at KEXP (via Morr Music). Stellar rock photographer (and folky musician) Henry Diltz was a guest DJ at KCRW–the historical insight is better…