Magazines Beautiful/Decay Issue: U #4308

Description

Since the birth of the first public museums roughly three hundred years ago, art as we know it has been profoundly affected by the poetics and policies of the institutions that house, display, and collect works of art. For Issue U, we explore how art behaves within an Institutionalized framework. We will be interviewing figureheads around the world and exploring established art institutions, non-commercial galleries, alternative spaces and museums, to gain a deeper understanding of what happens when art and institution conflate, and how these seemingly oppositional forces react and interact.

We are proud to present a series of interviews with some of the worlds leading curators and museum directors discussing whats hot on the art scene today. Featured interviews include: Matthew Higgs from New Yorks White Columns, an alternative non-profit exhibition space devoted primarily to emerging artists unaffiliated with galleries; Kathy Kimball from San Joses Institute of Contemporary Art, a non profit visual arts space featuring artists from around the Bay Area; Swiss curator and art critic Hans Ulrich Obrist, Director of International Projects at Londons Serpentine Gallery; Senior Curator Mami Katoaka from Tokyos Mori Museum; and Susanne Pfeffer from one of Berlins foremost contemporary art institutions, KW Institute for Contemporary Art. We will also interview Los Angeles own James Elaine who curates the Hammer Projects series at the Armand Hammer Museum.

As usual, we will also feature a number of show reviews, including Matthew Monahans enigmatic sculptures at the MOCA, Tom Sachs effusive installations and constructions at the Rose Art Museum, Mark Bradfords sensuous collage abstractions at the Whitney, John Kesslers drawing based works that confront the collusion of advertising, propaganda, surveillance and technology and the MCAs current show, Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967 that examines the relationship between rock and roll and contemporary visual art.

Also featured is an article on Skowhegans seminal artists residency, interviews with hip hop group Baby Elephant and Fugazis legendary front man, Ian Mackaye, and a feature on graffiti artist Set.