STREET LIFE

An illustrated grid of hand gestures in a colorful poster, titled 'Street Life'

Martin Wong, whose visionary paintings of the 1980s capture the tragic lows and vibrant highs of life on New York’s decaying Lower East Side, received his first and, until now, only retrospective in 1998, at the New Museum, as he was dying of AIDS. After more than a decade during which his work received relatively […]

ANATOMY OF WAR

A sculpture of a hand holding a gun made of fleshy, organic material, titled 'Anatomy of War'

Noah Scalin’s series “Anatomy of War,” includes sculptures that question our culture of violence. He has sculpted two weapons, an AK47 and a Smith & Wesson, “clinically dissected, revealing a remarkably human set of internal organs,” though “with a conspicuously absent brain.” With these alterations, Scalin says, “The objects become as fragile as the lives […]

QUEER URNS AND QUILTS

A woman standing between two mirrored ceramic urns in a red-curtained room, from 'Queer Urns and Quilts'

Grayson Perry began his career as a controversial artist best known for creating contemporary radical ceramic art and for being a transvestite. He’s since become an exceptionally successful artist, his media ceramics and textiles. We love his urn “Modern Family,” depicting a child with two fathers.

SABIO STYLN’ IN SAO PAULO

A purple bubble-letter graffiti tag with a cartoon character on a weathered wall, from 'Sabio Stylin' in São Paulo'

Do you consider this a throw up these days? It’s like a throw up with a couple extra decorative touches. Sabio has some really fun letters here ether way.

AGOSTINO ARRIVABENE “HIEROGAMY”

A painting of a reclining figure emerging from smoke near rocky desert terrain, by Agostino Arrivabene, 'Hierogamy'

Agostino is like a foreign exchange student from an enigmatic era of science. Italians from the same region as Agostino say he speaks a different language, a sort of “ancient Latin” one could imagine casually spoken today only at a gathering of Alchemists Anonymous. The title of his exhibition, Hierogamy, means the sacred union – […]