The New York art fairs, the worst of the Venice Biennale, Taryn Simon’s incomplete detective story, and Damien Hirst’s gay hole.
The following exchange between a curator and me takes place during the press preview for the Armory Show.
Me: “You look great!”
Curator: “Thank you, I’ve been obsessed with money and lifting weights. How are you? It’s been a while.”
Me: “I’m okay, busy, you know … Wait, did you say you’re ‘obsessed with money’?”
Curator: “No, I said I’m obsessed with RUNNING.”
On the way back to the office, I pass by the New Museum on the Lower East Side, which has just opened a major Arthur Jafa retrospective. A group of drug addicts is flailing in and out of consciousness just a few feet from the museum’s sleek new glass expansion. One of them is rolling on the sidewalk in slow motion, wailing breathlessly, with an extinguished cigarette between his fingers. A second is piled on a stoop, waving away a fly that isn’t there. A third is frozen in place, hunched over a dirty suitcase.
Autumn winds are blowing, but the leaves have yet to fall from the trees. At this time of year, few things in the city are as beautiful as the Harlem River.
The Manhattan skyline glimmers from behind a cemetery while the moon is split in half like a black-and-white cookie. A woman looks like she’s about to cry while reading Flannery O’Connor. A photographer is following a cute couple; they look back at the camera, smiling. A store is selling a jacket embroidered with the motivational message on the back, “Don’t be a little bitch.”
“Would you like to try it on?” the woman behind the cash register asks. I say, “No, thanks. I’m just looking.”
— Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief
Armory Week in New York
The Armory Show in One Sentence
This year’s edition seemed awfully quiet and downcast, making the financial sector trade show on the floor below seem like a riot in comparison. | Hakim Bishara
News
From Our Critics
The Worst National Pavilions at the Venice Biennale
In the first part of this series, Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian and critic Aruna D’Souza discussed the pavilions they loved at the 61st Venice Biennale, running through November 22, and even made a provocative argument in favor of national pavilions. In this second and final installment, they take their gloves off to tear apart the pavilions they didn’t like and argue about the ones they’re split on. Brace yourself; it’s going to get heated. —Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief | Hrag Vartanian, Aruna D’Souza
Tarot for a Broken World
With some of the oldest surviving tarot decks on view, the Morgan’s exhibition traces how a Renaissance card game became something far more powerful. | AX Mina
The Book of Alison Knowles
A retrospective traces the language of bookmaking in her expansive work and its radical influence on American art. | Leah Triplett Harrington
Features
A Bushwick Kid at Bushwick Open Studios
During my first visit to the annual event, I found towering paintings that explore our inner child, diasporic tributes to Filipina culture, and light-filled portraits of an artist’s trans community. | Danielle De Jesus
Guides
Estudio EA