Walker is Twin Cities best: The Walker’s exhibition Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love was named “Best Museum Exhibit” by City Pages in their Best of the Twin Cities issue: “[T]he artist’s slant on racism, sexism, and violence has a relevance that carries over to contemporary experience, such as, say, post-Katrina New Orleans… [T]o say that Walker’s work straddles the line between historical fact and fiction is to miss the point. Walker uses historical narrative as a point of departure into a disturbing world that knows no comforting truth.” The exhibition closes May 13, before setting off on an international tour to ARC/Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris (June 20–September 9), the Whitney (October 11, 2007–February 3, 2008), and the UCLA Hammer Museum (February 7–May 11).
Thumbs up for Ebert: When Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival opens in Champaign, IL, tonight, the famed critic will be there, despite the suggestion from friends that he not go. Ebert is undergoing a series of surgeries related to cancer of the salivary gland that spread to his jaw. Part of his mandible has been removed, he’s had a tracheostomy and can’t yet speak. He quotes Raging Bull to describe his appearance: “I ain’t a pretty boy no more.” But he’s not going to hide in fear of ending up on a tabloid front cover. “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” he wrote. “I have been very sick, am getting better and this is how it looks… We spend too much time hiding illness.” Update: Ebert appeared, and through his wife Chaz, relayed one line, copped from his screenplay for Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls: “It’s my happening, and it freaks me out!”
Museumcasts: MuseRadio, by the Bronx Museum’s teen art council, took top honors in MuseumPods’ top 10 podcasts list for museums and cultural institutions. The Walker’s Art on Call downloadable artist interviews ranked third.
Venice 07: Venice Biennale director Robert Storr talks with Time’s Richard Lacayo about the upcoming edition and what makes it different: “The underlying premise of the show is that there has been a division between the conceptual and the perceptual, between the ‘criticality’ crowd and the beauty crowd. The argument of the show is that first rate work is always both conceptual and perceptual and the artists making art are far less concerned with these divisions than people who write about them.” [Via MAN.]
Get Walker Reader in your inbox. Sign up to receive first word about our original videos, commissioned essays, curatorial perspectives, and artist interviews.
)