The VIEWS: An Intimate Portrait of the Spectacular - July 23 - 29

Jul 24th, 2012 (Patricia Schnall Gutierrez, Domestic Duality - Self Portraits with Polka Dots, 2012, digital photography, 9 x 6 in. each. ArtSlant Showcase Juried Winner.) Spectacle or subtlety? This week we find portraits in many different forms, portraits of death and disability, portraits of life and strength, from the everyday to the spectacular. Foremost on our list, of course, is Diane Arbus, whose photographs, now over 50 years old, still startle. More startling still, a portrait of a dying woman couched in conceptual terms by the artist collective guest. Mickalene Thomas curates artists who question the performative act of seeing with portraits of Africa and the Diaspora; and Muzi Quawson shows us an intimate, unspectacular portrait of an American town. Picturing himself over and over, the self-portraits of Cobi Moules confront his queer and transgender identities; while in his latest work, Ryan Gander is revealed to be the ideal kind of artist: both humorous and intelligent. In Reconstructing (White)3, the gallery space becomes someone else's apartment--a portrait through absence. An assembly of objects about craft deflect concept, nostalgia, and fetish; likewise, through objects an art exhibition could embody the response to a manifestation of the most banal physical residue of human existence. Some artists reject the spectacle with subtlety, refinement, meticulous consideration; while another leaves art-making for the possibilities of transcendent gardening... In the RACKROOM Charlotte Jansen interviews street artist Pablo Delgado about his miniature figures, public access, and a uniquely circuitous process. In the EDITIONS The ArtSlant Team hits the streets this week to bring you our ArtSlant STREET edition on global urban art. In the SHOWCASE Round #5 is open for enrollment now!

PICKS AND PERSPECTIVES THIS WEEK Say Something Smithsonian National Museum of African Art

INTERVIEW WITH PABLO DELGADO London, July 2012: Pablo Delgado is a relative newcomer whose work has been quietly emerging on London’s streets, if you can spot it. His scattered miniature people paste-ups depicting all kinds of...[more]

THE BUZZ from other SLANT cities Los Angeles Heather Brown New York Ron Johnson, Derrick Adams, LaToya Ruby Frazier , more... London Ryan Gander, Patrick Cole, Rhys Coren , more... Amsterdam Muzi Quawson Paris Aya Takano, Daniel Richter San Francisco Michael Delucia, Liam Everett , more... India Gautam Bhatia, Niyeti Chadha , more... Miami Andrew Brischler China guest