One would think answering a question as simple as “what does contemporary mean” could be answered in a few words. It is now, it is of the moment, it is the zeitgeist. Right? Well, sort of. Some, like Claire Bishop,Read more…
Protected: The Contemporary in Rebellion: Or Thoughts on the Election
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Defining Contemporary: From History to Future
What is contemporary? If someone asks me, I cannot help but ask back: in what terms? Do you want the dictionary definition? Philosophical definition? One knows such question of categorization cannot be answered succinctly (unless the person who answers isRead more…
Where Art is Now.
Not what, not who, not how, but where. Where Art is Now. The MCA’s tagline is quick and cheeky—a definition of the contemporary that is comfortable, explicit, accessible, and, well, objectively true. In 2011 the MCA Vision Campaign reformulated theRead more…
The Contemporary as “The Present in Drag”
On the sidewalk outside of the KW museum in Berlin, my friend Justin and I walked past two girls that looked familiar. “I think those were the girls we saw on the train,” he said. One day earlier, during aRead more…
A Personal Contemporary
Contemporary art museums prefer a very literal approach to what is contemporary: art made extremely recently by living or only recently deceased artists. I don’t disagree with this definition, and I too believe that very recent art is most definitelyRead more…