Commissioned by Frieze, January 2018.
She never abandoned studio pottery; she took it along with her, as if guiding a well-loved friend by the hand.
Read MoreCommissioned by Frieze, January 2018.
She never abandoned studio pottery; she took it along with her, as if guiding a well-loved friend by the hand.
Read MoreOriginally commissioned by Rago Auctions, January 2018.
Albert Paley's formal maneuvers replicate themselves in breathtakingly extended series, each a riff on all the others, like a physically manifested Coltrane solo.
Read MorePreviously unpublished.
Nasreen Mohamedi photographs an Indian loom. If this was indeed a found composition, as appears to be the case, then the finding itself was an act of genius.
Read MoreOriginally commissioned by Phillips Auction, December 2017.
A short text on a monument: Peter Voulkos's 1958 masterwork of ceramic sculpture, Rondena.
Read MoreOriginally published with Hyperallergic, December 2017.
In 1996, at the age of 26, Anissa Mack entered every single category in the Durham Agriculture Fair. But there was a big difference between her and the other entrants, and it was not just the volume of her craftwork. Mack was making art.
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Originally published in Art in America magazine in December 2017.
Paola Antonelli has described the MoMA exhibition “Items: Is Fashion Modern?” as a show of the “super normal.” Nearly every visitor will be wearing variations on the very objects that are on display. It is a risky project—and what it risks is being boring.
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Originally published in Disegno in December 2017.
It’s early days yet, but it looks as though the sheer awfulness of recent events is ushering in another vital age of protest design.
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Originally published in frieze online, December 2017.
The website Scary Mommy remarks that the Everyday Objects collection “is here to confuse you and make you feel poor.” Well, yes – but no more so than a lot of contemporary art is.
Read MoreA discussion with Grant Gibson, editor of Crafts Magazine, about my book Art in the Making (co-authored with Julia Bryan-Wilson). Recorded 4 October 2016. Audio only.
Read MoreJulia Bryan-Wilson and I discuss our book "Art in the Making," at the second annual Windgate Research and Collections Curator Lecture, Center for Craft, Creativity and Design, North Carolina. Recorded October 27, 2016.
In the talk, we highlight one of the most important, yet least discussed aspects in the making of contemporary art: its economic footprint, examining issues such as the use of luxury materials, dependence on fabricators, and the significance of scale. Among the artists under discussion are Susan Collis, Urs Fischer, Sylvie Fleury, Damian Hirst, Jeff Koons, Jill Magid, Ai Weiwei, and Rachel Whiteread.
Read MoreAn overview of "Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery," an exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art and the Fitzwilliam Museum. Recorded at the New York Ceramics and Glass Fair, 20 January 2017.
Read MoreMy thoughts about directing the Museum of Arts and Design, at a time when I was transitioning from the role of a critic and researcher. Recorded at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, 2 November 2014.
Read MoreA story about the values of making, beginning with my Grandfather Art, who grew up in Depression-era Kansas. He became an aircraft engineer and skilled woodcarver, and got me interested in craft. Delivered as the Thomas J. Volpe Lecture at St. Francis College, Brooklyn, on 29 February, 2016.
Read MoreA previously unpublished essay, inspired by Pryde’s nomination for the Turner prize in 2016.
Read MoreCommissioned for the website Various Small Fires in 2013.
A photographer’s wagon stands stock-still, arrested in the midst of a long drag across the wide-open reaches of America. Four mules – famous for their bloody-mindedness – have swerved from their trajectory, doubling back along their plodding tracks. The wagon’s U-turn is marked in a great double sweep along the ground, a double swathe of sand displaced by the wooden wheels.
Read MoreAs published in Disegno, 23 June 2017
For about four decades now, on occasion, members of the design community have been receiving a slim black volume tucked into their morning post... The latest is a masterpiece.
Read MoreWritten for a publication associated with an exhibition at Raven Row, London, entitled “Unto This Last”– a title borrowed from John Ruskin.
Read MoreOriginally published in Afterall magazine in 2013.
Read MoreCommissioned by Artforum, this review never saw the light because of publishing reschedules. It is presented here for the first time.
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