Charlene K. Lau

• 

  print December 2022

  “Conceptions of White”

  What is white, as a shade, a concept, an identity? Too often, binary ideas cloud deeper investigations into the historical construction of whiteness as a race. In this group exhibition, curators Lillian O’Brien Davis and John G. Hampton explored connections between the political myth of whiteness that developed alongside the dispossession of Black and Indigenous people and the aesthetic and philosophical significance of white in art. Tightly organized yet covering a broad swath of time, “Conceptions of White” began fittingly with Robert Morris’s white-latex-on-aluminum Portal, 1964, which served

• 

  print March 2022

  Jagdeep Raina

  Softness is power, especially in a world that puts so much faith in unyielding hardness. The works in Jagdeep Raina’s exhibition “Chase” embrace tenderness and the pursuit of dreams through immigrant life. His art—via embroidered tapestries, quilts, drawings, and videos—captures moments from the lives of Kashmiri and Punjabi Sikh communities around the globe. Each piece seeks to highlight the bonds people create to foster a sense of home and build a family, be it chosen or by blood. This show also provides an opportunity for the Textile Museum of Canada to contend with its own inherently

• 

  print March 2021

  Howie Tsui

  Political dissidence in Hong Kong has reached a fever pitch but has been stifled by the Chinese Communist Party’s introduction of a national security law, passed last June. Yet this unraveling in post-handover Hong Kong has been gradual, mostly imperceptible to outsiders. Situated in this context, Howie Tsui’s exhibition “From swelling shadows, we draw our bows” focused on the fantastical yet subversive qualities of mou hap (in Cantonese) or wuxia (in Mandarin): namely, a martial-arts film and literary genre that has been banned repeatedly in mainland China for its anarchic, justice-seeking ways

• 

  print September 2020

  Bridget Moser

  Bridget Moser’s solo exhibition “My Crops Are Dying But My Body Persists” opened in mid-March, just as Covid-19 lockdown measures were put in place. As the title suggests, a spectral virus seemingly lurks in the background of her work, casting a shadow over a show without an audience. And, like Covid-19, Moser’s seminarrative performance video—central to her installation—has since spread more widely, having been made available for viewing online.

  The video begins with the artist holding a giant set of plastic tangerine lips—a beauty gadget meant to be fitted into one’s mouth and bitten into