On View Venice Biennale in Pictures: See Work by Every Artist in the Giardini Section of the Sprawling 2019 Exhibition Part two of our photo series on the biennale's main exhibition "May You Live in Interesting Times," a show in two halves. By Ben Davis, May 9, 2019
On View Can’t Make It to the Venice Biennale? See Work by Every Artist in the Arsenale Section of the Sprawling Exhibition The biennale's main exhibition "May You Live in Interesting Times" is a show in two halves. By Ben Davis, May 9, 2019
Art World A First Look at ‘Liberty,’ Martin Puryear’s Exhibition for the US Pavilion at the Venice Biennale The veteran sculptor does not raise his voice or sermonize but his work delivers an eloquent message about history, race, and the struggle for freedom. By Ben Davis, May 8, 2019
Art & Exhibitions Is Ralph Rugoff’s Venice Biennale Exhibition Too US-Centric? We crunched the numbers on which country's artists are most present in "May You Live In Interesting Times." By Ben Davis, May 3, 2019
Reviews The New Gretchen Bender Survey Is a Triumph, Revealing a Visionary Artist—and a Tough Lesson About the Power of Media Bender's major installation, 'Total Recall,' is a precise reflection on the need for critical art to be made in the present tense. By Ben Davis, Apr 26, 2019
Art & Exhibitions Here’s How the Hilma af Klint Show Played Perfectly Into the Current Zeitgeist to Become the Guggenheim’s Most-Visited Exhibition Ever The show made history with more than 600,000 visitors. By Ben Davis, Apr 19, 2019
Opinion Why the Cultural Battle Over the Meaning of the Notre Dame Fire Is Playing Into the Hands of the Far-Right There is a battle for the meaning of the terrible fire's symbolism. By Ben Davis, Apr 18, 2019
People ‘It Is a Culture of Fear’: Formerly Imprisoned Photographer Shahidul Alam on Art, Protest, and the Political Climate in Bangladesh In November, after an international outcry, Alam was released from a Bangladeshi prison, but the case is still ongoing. By Ben Davis, Apr 9, 2019
Opinion The Shed Is a Shiny Billionaire’s Box of Dreams. Can It Be an Important Cultural Center Too? What the flashy new institution's merger of high-tech and social justice rhetoric means about culture now. By Ben Davis, Apr 4, 2019
Opinion How Three Experimental Van Gogh Biopics Painted Startlingly Different Portraits of the Artist A History of Artist Biopics, Part IV: The obsession with bringing Vincent van Gogh to life in the late 1980s and early '90s. By Ben Davis, Mar 26, 2019
Opinion Hudson Yards Has Thrown Everything at Making Itself Into a Cultural Destination. Does It Succeed? From the colossal 'Vessel' to custom works by a host of hot artists, it's got it all. Is it enough? By Ben Davis, Mar 19, 2019
Reviews Artist Ian Cheng Has Created an AI Creature Named ‘BOB.’ Now, It’s Up to Viewers to Decide His Fate Cheng is feeling out the potentials of Artificial Intelligence for art. By Ben Davis, Mar 18, 2019
Opinion From Donald Sutherland’s Sleazy Gauguin to a Classic Caravaggio, How 3 Biopics Romanticize Artists’ (Often Unforgivable) Dark Sides Part 3 of A History of Artist Biopics, on the '70s and '80s. By Ben Davis, Mar 13, 2019
Opinion The Agony and the Ecstasy: Why Two ’60s Art Biopics Are Epic Clunkers, and One Is an All-Time Classic Hollywood puts its stamp on the tales of Michelangelo and El Greco, but a medieval Russian icon-maker is the greatest star of all. By Ben Davis, Feb 25, 2019
Reviews What Ghosts Haunt Jasper Johns’s New Skeleton Paintings? We May Never Know (and That’s the Point) Reassembling the broken symbolism of the venerable American painter's 2018 works. By Ben Davis, Feb 21, 2019