April 13, 2020
“How do you begin to depict a feeling?” Describing her practice, artist Dana Schutz says that this is the question she continually tries to answer. In these very delicate times, it is a question we must also ask ourselves and, by extension, our readers. As part of the art community, like everyone else, we are trying to keep up with a constantly shifting reality.
Lacking definitive answers, our task, both individually and collectively, is to do the next right thing. For us, that next right thing has been to put out this issue of Flash Art. The process of doing so while navigating a constantly changing landscape—events cancelled, supply chains interrupted, collaborators unable to cope with the new reality, distribution networks collapsing—has definitely been an unfamiliar one for all involved.
The theme of this issue, put together back on the pandemic, is an examination of a new sort of figuration in painting that has emerged in recent years. That subject took on a secondary urgency, however, as authors and artists reacted to the current situation.
Cover-story-artist Tala Madani worked on a special project addressing issues of fear, isolation, and illness by reporting on her own state of homebound reclusion, in conversation with artist and life partner Nathaniel Mellors.
Ingrid Luquet-Gad explores the boundaries between sculpture and painting in Jana Euler’s new show Unform at Artists Space, which opened just three weeks before New York City’s lockdown. Issy Wood offers a visual essay that reflects, among other things, on gratitude in the time of the virus. Franklin Melendez considers steam as technological marker in Avery Singer’s seductive “hands-free” paintings. Natasha Hoare identifies Emily Mae Smith’s paintings as “reliquaries of art history and pop culture.” Peter Benson Miller writes about how Oscar Murillo’s practice maintains “one foot firmly planted in his studio” while attempting to reduce the gap between art and life.
Also in this issue we introduce two new columns: “NewCostume” on contemporary fashion practice by Matthew Linde and “The Curatorial Gaze” by Pierre Bal-Blanc in which he proposes a new model of multisubjectivity available to all creative people.
Reviews Donald Judd, MoMA / New York; Rochelle Goldberg, Miguel Abreu Gallery / New York; Liam Gillick, Casey Kaplan Gallery / New York; Ann Greene, Kelly ICA / Los Angeles; Laura Owens, House of Gaga / Mexico City; Cerith Wyn Evans, White Cube / London; Vivian Suter, Camden Arts Centre / London; Sarah Lucas, Sadie Coles HQ / London; Jeremy Shaw, Centre Pompidou / Paris; Sean Landers, The Consortium Museum / Dijon; MECARÕ. Amazonia in the Petitgas Collection MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain; Nick Mauss, Kunsthalle Basel; Wolfgang Tillmans, Wiels / Brussels; Kris Martin, S.M.A.K / Ghent; Ragna Bley & Inger Ekdahl, Malmö Konsthall; Jenna Sutela, Kunsthall Trondheim / Norway; Lygia Clark, Guggenheim Museum / Bilbao; Frida Orupabo, Gavin Brown’s enterprise – Sant’Andrea de Scaphis / Rome
For the first time in Flash Art’s 53-year history, the magazine’s 330th issue—in addition to the printed format—will be freely available in digital form, get your free copy here.
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