Happy Hanukkah holiday to our readers who celebrate it! “It made a lot of people laugh. It was comedy.” This is what author, playwright, and trans activist Kate Bornstein told me when I asked her about initial reactions to her 1994 book Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us and its groundbreaking ideas around gender. Bornstein spoke with Hyperallergic as part of our Pride Month interview series this past June, and since Gender Outlaw was published, what was once laughable to some has become an essential text in gender studies. Looking back on the sociopolitical landscape of 2024, and toward a precarious future, it’s easy to dwell on the negative, but as Hyperallergic’s Reviews Editor, I’m constantly reminded that creativity endures even in the worst of times. Our Pride Month series was one such reminder, as nearly two dozen brilliant, trailblazing queer elders related their experiences of surviving the AIDS epidemic, censorship, life-threatening homophobia, and more, and making art through it all. Another of our Pride Month subjects, pioneering playwright and performance artist Holly Hughes, organized Gender Euphoria, a symposium at the University of Michigan with several artists who have been featured in Hyperallergic, which we were able to cover. Stories like these helped sustain me this year, but, as I noted in the introduction to the list of Best New York and Best 50 exhibitions around the world, it was also a year of exceptional shows. While censorship by art and academic institutions reached a low point, many museums and galleries seemed to step up their game in terms of quality or boundary pushing. Some reviews that stuck with me were AX Mina’s thoughtful piece on the exhibition Crip Arte Spazio in Venice, Michael Glover’s poignant study of Frank Auerbach’s art, and Olivia McEwan’s unique take on Rubens, published way back on January 1. I also enjoyed Ed Simon’s article on death in the art of Hans Holbein the Younger. And I was particularly moved by Sarah E. Bond’s essay on Lebanon’s threatened cultural heritage, published in November. I’m proud that we published italongside other complex and sensitive reviews and reports you can't find anywhere else. |
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Your support is vital to our success as an independent art publication. Please consider joining today as a Hyperallergic Member to support our work. — Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor
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At the Fralin Museum of Art, photographer Holly Wright reduces her poet laureate husband to a mouthpiece, and asks her subjects to think upon their own deaths. | Carl Little
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SPONSORED
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In Barrier, 12 artists evoke Angela Davis’s transformative abolitionist vision that “walls turned sideways are bridges.” On view through January 26, 2025, in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Learn more
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MORE FROM HYPERALLERGIC
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“My one true love is oil paint.” | Lakshmi Rivera Amin
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This week, the role of the artist in times of crisis, how Yale used counterterrorist tactics against student protesters, decoding 2,000-year-old scrolls, PR-washing Saudi Arabia, the Chinese god of male-male love, and much more. | Hrag Vartanian
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2024 FAVORITES
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The veteran performance artist spoke with Hyperallergic about camp, queerness, anti-porn discourse, and nurturing feminist community across generations. | Elaine Velie
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A semester-long symposium offers a Gender Discard Party, a “lesbian feminist haunted house,” and other events to celebrate and cultivate queer community. | Natalie Haddad
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Power concedes nothing without a demand, and the tireless efforts of the Disability Arts Movement deserve both recognition and celebration. | AX Mina
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We can almost breathe the atmosphere of the sad London of the 1950s in Auerbach’s suite of charcoal portraits from the 1950s and 1960s. | Michael Glover
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Rubens & Women argues that, far from objectifying his models, the artist depicted a nuanced female body. | Olivia McEwan
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Death, in the artist’s imagination, is the oblivion that spares no one, regardless of what you have or haven’t done, regardless of who you are. | Ed Simon
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The Israeli army has issued new evacuation orders for residents of Baalbek, home to Ancient Roman temples and archaeological ruins. | Sarah E. Bond
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TRANSITIONS
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Kate Burgin was appointed executive director and CEO of the board of trustees at the Walters Art Museum.
Ryan N. Dennis and Melissa McDonnell Luján were appointed co-directors of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
Roku Rumora joined the Toledo Museum of Art as assistant curator of ancient art.
Daniel Sallick and Samira Sine were elected to the board of trustees at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
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AWARDS & ACCOLADES
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Catalina Africa, Denver Garza, and Russ Ligtas were among the recipients of the 2024 Thirteen Artists Awards from the Cultural Center of the Philippines. See the full list here. The Asian American Arts Alliance, Black Art Library, and Baxter St. Camera Club of New York are among the recipients of core grants from the Ruth Foundation for the Arts. See the full list here.
Mel Chin won the 12th Hiroshima Art Prize. Michelle Nikou was named the 2024 Guildhouse Fellow.
Som Supaparinya won the 2024 Southeast Asian Video Art Production Grant from the Han Nefkens Foundation.
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You’re currently a free subscriber to Hyperallergic. To support our independent arts journalism, please consider joining us as a member. |
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