#art in the 21st century

[thoughtportal]

As a child, artist Hank Willis Thomas was told he stared too much and asked too many questions. Today, these very attributes shape his artistic practice, which pivots on the theme of perspective. “All of my work is about framing and contexts,” says the artist. “Depending on where you’re standing, it really shapes your perspective of the truth, of reality, and of what’s important.” Reading Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida, Thomas was struck by the idea of the punctum, the part of an image that impacts and stays with the viewer. Drawing from his background in photography to augment his work with other media, the artist’s sculptural works like Liberty (2015) isolate this punctum and translate it into three-dimensional space.

In his research, Thomas encountered the 1967 photobook by Ernest Cole documenting South African Apartheid. In particular, the artist was struck by an image of 13 coal miners being stripped nude for a medical examination. Rather than reproduce their exploitation and objectification, Thomas denies the viewer their naked bodies in his sculpture Raise Up (2014), instead isolating the miners’ heads and raised arms, confronting viewers with their gaze. Shortly after Thomas created Raise Up, the phrase “Hands up, Don’t shoot” became a popular protest chant in the wake of the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MI. As he mines history through photography, Thomas draws connections between past and present to illustrate the continuing logics of oppression that shape Black life. 

At Walla Walla Foundry in Washington, molten bronze is poured into specially designed casts to create the 609 individual pieces that will be welded together to form The Embrace (2023), a public memorial to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King to be installed in the Boston Common. The sculpture depicts two sets of arms intertwined in a loving embrace, referencing a photograph of the Kings embracing after Martin won the Nobel Prize in 1964. Envisioning his work as being as much about each of us as it is about the Kings, Thomas creates space for the public to engage with the sculpture physically and ensures it is accessible to as many people as possible. “I’d like to believe this is just the beginning of a new way of thinking about how public space can be viewed, and how we reflect on the past with care and concern for the future,” says Thomas.

[visual-sandwich]

shinji ihara - “The devil with an angel’s face”

[oncanvas]

A Land Without People series by Palestinian artist Dana Barqawi, 2018

[jareckiworld]

Dennis Scholl — "I want nothing in return, just the softest little breathless word, I ask of you" (oil on canvas, 2022)

[lesbianarthistory]

Gaetan Henrioux – The Kiss (2012)

[miamaimania]

Metallic Mushrooms: Roxy Paine's Fungal Sculptures

[uhhgoodd]

Storm Riders by Glenn Dean (x)

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Roberto Ferri (1978-) "L'ala nera o il tocco dell'angelo" ("The black wing or the touch of the angel") (2020) Tempera on canvas

[t00thpasteface]

mom and i have been a little stressed lately so we watched mash for like four straight hours saturday night

[zyphnn]

“it is now.”

[zegalba]

Marie Paul Deville-Chabrolle for Daum Pate-de-Verre Amber Glass Eurydice Figure. Early 21st century.

[thoughtportal]

Chris Ware, known for his New Yorker magazine covers, is hailed as a master of the comic art form. Ware’s complex graphic novels, which tell stories about people in suburban midwestern neighborhoods, poignantly reflect on the role of memory in constructing identity. Stories featuring many of Ware’s protagonists—Quimby the Mouse, Rusty Brown, and Jimmy Corrigan—often first appear in serialized form, in publications such as “The New York Times,” the “Guardian,” or Ware’s own ongoing comic book series “Acme Novelty Library,” before being organized into their own stand-alone books.

[wallacepolsom]

Wallace Polsom, Law of Attraction III (2023), paper collage, 21.2 x 26.7 cm.

[oncanvas]

Shan's Backyard, Yuan Yuan, 2014

Oil on canvas 200 x 135 cm (78 ¾ x 53 ⅛ in.)

[jareckiworld]

Lucia Dovičáková — Dreaming About Death on Pink Sofa (oil, canvas, 2022)

[vanillatorii]

Serirei Week Day 2: Sleeping

Tome has had it with them