interviews March 29, 2023

Matt Mullican

To his own surprise, Matt Mullican’s new body of work is vibrantly colorful. A departure and liberation of sorts, it is also his most labor-intensive work yet. Made in his Berlin studio, “Sunday, August 9, 1908” consists of very large paintings involving rubbing, a technique he’s been using since the early ’80s. A first rubbing transfers the image to be painted; a second rubbing draws outlines around the painted areas with an oil stick. Below, the artist describes his painstaking process, how the project came about, and how it fits into his work as a whole. “Sunday, August 9, 1908” remains on

interviews November 17, 2022

Christian Marclay

Christian Marclay likes to play with doors. His early sculpture Armoire, 1988; the door slamming in Video Quartet, 2002; and his series of screen prints Door (The Electric Chair), 2006, are just a few examples. Here, he speaks about his latest work, Doors, 2022, a video made of snippets from various movies, and his difficulties editing it. Door after door, room after room, the 54-minute loop runs on like a rhyming game. Placed near the exit of his survey at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (curated by Jean-Pierre Criqui, through February 27), it sends us on our way while holding us back. At every

interviews September 17, 2019

Joseph Keckler

In constant motion between the art and opera worlds by way of popular culture, Joseph Keckler is best known for his vocal shape-shifting and his “faux arias,” which recount daily experiences with great verve. Earlier this year, he performed his Train With No Midnight at the Prototype Festival in New York. In October, he’ll offer a concert series at the Soho Theatre in London. He is also at work on a TV special to be aired at the end of this year. Here he speaks about his first ensemble piece, Let Me Die, which will premiere at FringeArts and Opera Philadelphia on September 21, 2019.

I USED TO

interviews February 26, 2019

Jane Benson

Cutting, splitting, and reassembling, be it fake plants, national flags, musical instruments, or W.G. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn, Jane Benson engages with the experience of displacement, and a sense of loss and longing. Her series of sculptures titled “A Place For Infinite Tuning,” 2015, consists of fractured objects that are tentatively balanced—they look like they might fall at the pull of a thread. Her first monograph, which shares the same title, will be published next month by Skira and contains texts by Steven Matijcio, Sara Reisman, and Nico Israel. Here the artist speaks about the making

interviews January 10, 2019

Peter Scott

The artist, writer, and curator Peter Scott continues his manifold explorations of urbanism and its relationship to representation and perception, as most recently staged in his shows at the Emily Harvey Foundation and Magenta Plains gallery, as well as his curatorial projects at his nonprofit Carriage Trade. An exhibition of his newest work, “Future City,” a perplexing play on fiction and authenticity, is on view at the Suburban in Milwaukee through February 10, 2019.

I PARTICIPATED in Front International in Cleveland last summer, and its curator Michelle Grabner then invited me to do a show at

interviews April 30, 2018

Suzanne Bocanegra

Known for her paintings, costume designs, installations, and solo performances, Suzanne Bocanegra has more recently ventured into the world of theater with her “Artist Lectures,” 2011–16, a series of three meandering, memoiristic essays that are performed by professional actors. On May 5, 2018, all three talks will be presented together at Bard College’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Here, Bocanegra discusses her creative process, which involves gleaning, collaging, and plenty of collaborating. A solo show of her work will open at the Fabric Workshop

interviews March 08, 2018

Carissa Rodriguez

Titled after a 1913 Robert Walser short story in which a caregiver looks for her lost charge, Carissa Rodriguez’s The Maid, 2018, is a lusciously produced video and forms the centerpiece of the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in New York. The work follows six iterations of Sherrie Levine’s 1993–94 sculpture Newborn, as found in their current homes. Here, Rodriguez discusses making the piece, which is on view at SculptureCenter until April 2, 2018.

OVER THE YEARS, I kept returning to Sherrie Levine’s Newborn works. They first appeared in an exhibition in 1993 at the Philadelphia Museum of

interviews December 05, 2017

Dara Friedman

Over the past decade, Dara Friedman has asked large casts of participants to respond to simple ideas or thoughts, eliciting, in turn, raw emotion and chance developments within controlled situations. On the occasion of her survey at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the artist talks about her newest work, Dichter (Poet), 2017, a four-channel video portraying sixteen people reciting their favorite poems. Titled “Perfect Stranger,” the exhibition includes work spanning twenty years and is on view through March 4, 2018.

FOR DICHTER, I wanted to summon the emotion often felt by teenagers of being passionately

interviews August 24, 2017

Suzanne McClelland

Suzanne McClelland’s exhibition “Just Left Feel Right” at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, is a survey that includes some of the artist’s recent forays into unfamiliar territory. Here, she discusses her glass piece Runners Up, 2014–16, in the context of her twenty-five years of painting. The show is on view through September 4, 2017.

EVERY TIME I plan a piece and, again, when I finish a piece I wonder if it needs to be in the world, and what might come after it, if anything. Does it need to take up space and time? I feel that the time that goes into something matters

interviews June 19, 2017

Raymond Depardon

Acclaimed French photographer and documentarist Raymond Depardon revisits his photographic series “Correspondance New-Yorkaise,” 1981, which occasioned a turning point in his career and a shift from photojournalism to an approach that blended photography and writing. In 2017 he updated this project by once again taking a photo a day for the French newspaper Libération, which were also accompanied by a short text. The two iterations of the series are being presented together at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York until July 1, 2017. Depardon’s latest documentary, 12 Jours (Twelve

interviews March 28, 2017

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has staged dance in museums before, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2011 and the Tate Modern’s Tanks in London in 2012. With Work/Travail/Arbeid, 2015, which premiered at the Wiels Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels, and then traveled to the Centre Pompidou in Paris and to Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in London, she has created a piece that is presented differently in each exhibition space. For six hours a day, March 29 through April 2, 2017, her dance company Rosas and the musicians from the ensemble Ictus will be performing the

interviews February 16, 2017

Peter Nadin

British artist Peter Nadin arrived in New York in the late 1970s as a painter, and he then went on to undertake a series of key conceptual collaborations with other artists, including the Offices of Fend, Fitzgibbon, Holzer, Nadin, Prince, and Winters. By the 1990s, he had begun to merge his farming practice in upstate New York with his artwork. Here, he discusses The Delivery, 2017, a twenty-minute film premiering in his exhibition “Third Mark,” which is scheduled to travel around Cuba for two years, giving rise to collaborations with local artists, cooks, and farmers along the way. The show’s

Laura Hoffmann