Art Writing

Excelsior Springs is a wonderland of Christmas and holiday delights. Here's a guide

This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.It’s never too soon to begin planning for Christmas. Around Kansas City, you’ll find a wonderland of holiday markets, light shows, and themed activities.For those of you seeking something different, we also crafted a list of cold-weather hidden gems worth exploring in the city.But did you know that 35 minutes northeast of Kansas City lies a Christmas wonderland?...

At the Arts Club, Haegue Yang collapses the 3D world - Chicago Reader

Is 2D inferior to 3D?

A 2021 study found that “3D objects are more readily perceived than 2D images” due to the cognitive understanding that we can interact with “real things.” Similarly, we may find ourselves more attracted to a sculptural object in front of us versus something two-dimensional hanging on a gallery wall.

Seoul-born artist Haegue Yang is known for her large-scale sculptures and site-specific installations. Her exhibitions always incorporate 2D elements, though they are more or...

At the Arts Club, Haegue Yang collapses the 3D world - Chicago Reader

Is 2D inferior to 3D?

A 2021 study found that “3D objects are more readily perceived than 2D images” due to the cognitive understanding that we can interact with “real things.” Similarly, we may find ourselves more attracted to a sculptural object in front of us versus something two-dimensional hanging on a gallery wall.

Seoul-born artist Haegue Yang is known for her large-scale sculptures and site-specific installations. Her exhibitions always incorporate 2D elements, though they are more or...

At the Arts Club, Haegue Yang collapses the 3D world - Chicago Reader

Is 2D inferior to 3D?

A 2021 study found that “3D objects are more readily perceived than 2D images” due to the cognitive understanding that we can interact with “real things.” Similarly, we may find ourselves more attracted to a sculptural object in front of us versus something two-dimensional hanging on a gallery wall.

Seoul-born artist Haegue Yang is known for her large-scale sculptures and site-specific installations. Her exhibitions always incorporate 2D elements, though they are more or...

The grotesquerie of medical mistreatment - Chicago Reader

Each piece in Cheri Lee Charlton’s solo exhibition, “Unseen and Underserved,” is paired with a quote from literature or professional medical publications about women’s reproductive, general physical, and mental health, exposing misdiagnoses during the late 20th century and its devastating, if not deadly, consequences.

In Elliot Valenstein’s psychosurgery chronicle, Great and Desperate Cures, the psychologist writes, “Lobotomies were often administered to women who were considered too outspoken...

The grotesquerie of medical mistreatment - Chicago Reader

Each piece in Cheri Lee Charlton’s solo exhibition, “Unseen and Underserved,” is paired with a quote from literature or professional medical publications about women’s reproductive, general physical, and mental health, exposing misdiagnoses during the late 20th century and its devastating, if not deadly, consequences.

In Elliot Valenstein’s psychosurgery chronicle, Great and Desperate Cures, the psychologist writes, “Lobotomies were often administered to women who were considered too outspoken...

The grotesquerie of medical mistreatment - Chicago Reader

Each piece in Cheri Lee Charlton’s solo exhibition, “Unseen and Underserved,” is paired with a quote from literature or professional medical publications about women’s reproductive, general physical, and mental health, exposing misdiagnoses during the late 20th century and its devastating, if not deadly, consequences.

In Elliot Valenstein’s psychosurgery chronicle, Great and Desperate Cures, the psychologist writes, “Lobotomies were often administered to women who were considered too outspoken...

Tortured Artist Therapy

What would you do if you had only one year left to live?Will you contemplate the unfairness of fate and fade away in misery, or maximize your remaining days to create memories and depart in relative contentment and fulfillment? Will you make yourself a martyr and sacrifice for a higher mission, going out with the loudest bang, or simply make the best of your final moments, free from all cares and concerns?At first glance, Drawing Closer, which premiered exclusively on Netflix on June 27, may be...

Kansas City's art scene is full of fascinating exhibits this fall. Here's are 6 to check out

This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.Kansas City’s kicking off its autumn in style. When you’ve finished sampling the apple cider at the metro’s many fall festivals and autumn events, consider heading to some great arts galleries and museums.Kansas City’s art scene is filled with intriguing exhibitions this season, besides the annual Halloween-themed shows and markets.Whether you are reminiscing ab...

Lentes Tripartitos: Una historia de ellos, de él, y de nosotros - Sixty Inches From Center

Departing from a 2022 documentary, “Hidden Letters,” that shines light upon an obscure writing system, Nüshu, practiced historically among certain groups of women in China, Xiao savors the complexity of being a Chinese woman in the Midwest and explores bonds that can be formed through the exclusivity of language.

Departing from a 2022 documentary, “Hidden Letters,” that shines light upon an obscure writing system, Nüshu, practiced historically among certain groups of women in China, Xiao savors...

Tripartite Lenses: a History of Them, Him, and Us - Sixty Inches From Center

This article is presented in conjunction with Art Design Chicago, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art that seeks to expand narratives of American art with an emphasis on the city’s diverse and vibrant creative cultures and the stories they tell.


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A street photographer is often compared to Baudelaire’s flâneur: the anonymous wanderer who blends in and out of the crowd, observing and documenting the activities and interacti...

My Eyes, Your Gaze urges the reader to resist objectification - Chicago Reader

“The body is confined. The body is surveilled. The body is torn apart,” writes Darya Foroohar, a fourth-year student at the University of Chicago. Illustrated and written by Foroohar, the graphic novella My Eyes, Your Gaze is many things: an introduction to various queer, anti-colonial, and feminist theories; a journal full of private thoughts and personal contradictions; and a manifesto of a woman who is tired of being treated as an object.

The book begins by describing the awkwardness Forooha...

My Eyes, Your Gaze urges the reader to resist objectification - Chicago Reader

“The body is confined. The body is surveilled. The body is torn apart,” writes Darya Foroohar, a fourth-year student at the University of Chicago. Illustrated and written by Foroohar, the graphic novella My Eyes, Your Gaze is many things: an introduction to various queer, anti-colonial, and feminist theories; a journal full of private thoughts and personal contradictions; and a manifesto of a woman who is tired of being treated as an object.

The book begins by describing the awkwardness Forooha...

My Eyes, Your Gaze urges the reader to resist objectification - Chicago Reader

“The body is confined. The body is surveilled. The body is torn apart,” writes Darya Foroohar, a fourth-year student at the University of Chicago. Illustrated and written by Foroohar, the graphic novella My Eyes, Your Gaze is many things: an introduction to various queer, anti-colonial, and feminist theories; a journal full of private thoughts and personal contradictions; and a manifesto of a woman who is tired of being treated as an object.


The book begins by describing the awkwardness Foroo...

Shadow bodies dancing under the sun

An ambitious project is unfolding at the South Asia Institute (SAI). As part of this year’s programming for Art Design Chicago, “What Is Seen and Unseen: Mapping South Asian American Art in Chicago” is a journey from the past into the future, unearthing the marks left by South Asian artists in Chicago.

South Asian culture has had an irreplaceable influence on nearly every American art form. “South Asian American poets transfuse a wealth of new images into the bloodstream of U.S. poetry,” wrote

These are the 6 Kansas City art exhibits you need to explore this summer

This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.

Kansas City knows how to have fun in the well-cooled indoors, from our growing distillery scene to the metro’s forever-intriguing vintage and thrift stores.

Kansas City’s independent galleries have their own surprises for you this season. Whether you’re looking to escape this year’s bitter summer heat in a meaningful way, or trying to find that perfect date i

Looking for ramen in Kansas City? You should eat at these restaurants

This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.

For us, at least, ramen is always desirable regardless of the season. A hot bowl brings us back to life during the freezing days, but it can also kick away the mugginess (and provide some re-hydration) of hot summer months.

Fortunately, Kansas City is no short of brilliant Japanese restaurants, many of which offer ramen as one of many options.

But if you’re

The best artist-run spaces in Kansas City

This story was first published in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. You can sign up to receive stories like this in your inbox every Tuesday.

While the Crossroads remains the central art hub of Kansas City, artists across the metro have established their own spaces to create, collaborate and showcase their work.

With spots in the West Bottoms, North Hyde Park, and Kansas City, Kansas, among others, these artist-run spaces allow an affordable and accessible alternative to traditional galleries or mu

The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness at South Asia Institute – Chicago Artist Writers

History associates women with madness too casually, especially those whose voices were uncommon in the public sphere. Different, disturbing, difficult — such are the mad women in men’s eyes. Such are the mad women in women’s eyes. Lower-income women, women of color, and immigrant women are habitually marginalized even within the feminist world as “the dominance of a white, middle-class positionality within feminism that often failed to acknowledge the existence of intersectional oppressions” (Pa

A Revitalized Classic and Painfully Relevant Performance

The Glass Menagerie is a “memory play,” and one that propelled Tennessee William into fame. The plot was simple: young, ambitious Tom (R.H. Wilhoit) and his burning adventurer’s spirit cannot stand withering away in the warehouse and returning to a suffocating apartment to his overly-energetic mother (Manon Halliburton) and malfunctioning sister (Erdin Schultz-Bever). In exchange, or in compensation for his decision to pursue the supposed freedom, Tom agreed to his mother’s demand to help his si

REVIEW: The Perspective of Nothingness; Chicago Works: Maryam Taghavi مریم تقوی at the MCA Chicago

Where one stands determines what/how one sees. What was considered sacrosanct and rigid gains fluidity under a different light. Taghavi refers to her cultural heritage and comfortably removes it from its original context to assign them refreshed meanings and functionalities. “I do have this thread to this language, to this culture, but it’s really hard to preserve it . . . with the distance that I have from it [and] with the time that we are living in,” Taghavi said in her interview with the MCA
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