Susan L. Aberth

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  print February 2023

  Grant Wallace

  The mesmerizing art of Grant Wallace (1868–1954), a phantasmagoric amalgamation of theosophical tract, circus flyer, and beauty advertisement—all of which is shot through with a generous dose of science fiction—defies tidy categorization. Exhibited for the first time, thirty-one of the artist’s drawings, discovered by his great-grandchildren in 2021, were on display at Ricco/Maresca Gallery. The illustrations, executed between 1919 and 1925, were intended for different books Wallace had planned on publishing, one of which he characterized as “an astral album of autographic scripts and self-portraits.”

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  print May 2022

  DON’T GIVE UP THE GHOST

  THAT AMERICA IS HAUNTED—by the specters of its genocidal and racist histories; by the lingering ghosts of personal and national trauma; and by the aura emanating from the unrelenting desires of its citizens to seek connection with the otherworldly, be it through séances or extraterrestrial contact—is certainly no secret. Indeed, in a country obsessed with the paranormal, one might well wonder why it has taken so long for that fixation to trickle from popular culture into the museum. Perhaps one of the reasons is that it is a complicated and messy subject, especially for a discomfited art world