The May issue of frieze is out now, with features on Sophia Al-Maria, Goshka Macuga and Tracey Rose, a roundtable discussion on artists & ceramics, as well as a specially commissioned artist’s project by Catherine Opie.
Disobedient Curiosity: Goshka Macuga
On the occasion of the artist’s solo shows at the Fondazione Prada in Milan and the New Museum in New York, Ben Eastham delves into Goshka Macuga’s exploration of art, power and history. “Macuga’s wildly allusive strategies question preconceptions about what is important and what is unimportant, what is true and what is false, and whether we should make such distinctions at all.”
Sophia Al-Maria: Sand Begets Glass
“You can’t talk about the future without considering the past, and the present is less than dust.” Ahead of her upcoming solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the artist met with Jennifer Kabat to discuss shopping malls and war, climate change and “Gulf Futurism.”
Also featuring:
Evan Moffitt considers race and sexuality in the portraiture of Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Robert Mapplethorpe and Lorraine O’Grady; Patrick Langley looks at how increasing numbers of young artists—including Patrick Goddard, Marie Jacotey and Stuart Middleton—are exploring the possibilities of the graphic novel; and Jonathan Griffin on the relief paintings of Gina Beavers.
Columns & reviews:
New regular columnist Negar Azimi (Senior Editor, Bidoun) reflects on trash aesthetics; En Liang Khong debates what “Chinese” means as an artistic category in Britain today; Gianfranco Marrone pays tribute to the celebrated Italian writer Umberto Eco; and, ahead of curating this year’s Berlin Biennale, the New York collective DIS talks to frieze about getting to know the German capital.
Plus, 34 exhibition reviews from around the world; and a questionnaire from the Oscar-nominated Icelandic composer and musician Jóhann Jóhannsson, whose latest work, 12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann, premiered at the Conway Hall in London, in April.
Frieze Video: Page and Screen
In Art & Life—the last in a three-part series of film and essay projects, supported by Arts Council England, exploring the relationship between art writing and the moving image—Ellen Mara De Wachter considers how using living plants in and as artworks might teach us to live ethically.
Subscribe today or download a sampler version of the frieze iPad app at digital.frieze.com.
More from frieze:
Explore the frieze archive at frieze.com to find more than 20 years of the best writing on contemporary art and culture, plus our latest exhibition reviews, art world news, and critics’ guides to current art and culture highlights around the globe.