updates – Page 2 – Painting After Art is Dead

They

Hakim Bishara over at Hyperallergic recently put us all on notice that the rumors of criticism’s demise are premature. Bias aside- they are the editor of a clearly important nationally circulating if insularly NY/LA focused periodical- I don’t think I’d have to convince any of you that I don’t think art writing is dead. Art, maybe. Which would have been my point if asked to write a piece on this topic. We’ll get to that. Maybe.

Hakim does answer who “they” are. I’ll give you a hint, you know “them”- among them are one, other critic of note and their last name begins with an “R” and rhymes with “tub and sign”. I’m sure Hakim’s sample set of three (says the guy writing an article based on a sample of one) is just a teaser of all the things they have written. I certainly wouldn’t claim to read all the things, so… I’m not sure what has motivated Hakim to write this piece either, since the referenced take-downs of criticism are two decades old or more (James Elkin’s pamphlet What Happened to Art Criticism is from ’03).

Let’s get a couple of obvious things out of the way. Like Hakim’s quote that criticism is “taking on new forms, shedding old skin, and adapting to novel venues.” I mean, hooray to see criticism changing- everything else is, so, seems appropriate. And the main fizzle of course is the just general… appropriateness of critics criticizing criticism and other critics. An alternative and fine title for his essay would have been “things that happen.” Of course, Hakim reverts to form (as a believer). He does in fact tell us what Art criticism is- specifically good criticism- because apparently that’s what critics can’t avoid. Judgement. Sometime of “them*.” Again, things that happen. *yes, we’ll get to that, too. Maybe.

“Yes” it’s well and good that Hakim points out “gone are the days when an insular clique of critics had the ability to make or break artists’ careers.” He’s spot on that. As I understand, the collections of essays he’s referencing, “they” are more than a little chapped about the present dispersion of power and the disdain for the prior, “king-making” mode of criticism from the last century. ;tldr things aren’t serious enough. Or perhaps in some cases something more like “no one can say what’s really on their mind anymore” which hews dangerously close to the pernicious culture of western chauvinism that is currently having a big cultural moment at the expense of everything else including good (and I do mean that) Art writers like Hakim.

I’ve written about evaluation before (tldr to make the point that “Art has a cultural importance today that perhaps it hasn’t had in some time and for which we should be grateful”). I didn’t write that blog because I make any money or receive any commendation for this work (although maybe a little social capital, tbd) but because, as Hakim points out, I love this writing thing and I persist, as does he, out of a belief in the value of the things about which I’m writing. I’m trying to create an “us.” I think that’s in large measure why I enjoyed Hakim making an honest effort to work through these thoughts that were on his mind.

Can one have a definition of us without a “them”? I think so, and have written in the past about the importance critique can have, not to other, but to create connection and increase awareness of both self and that which is outside of self. I also think (and suspect Hakim would agree ) that art writing that creates value focuses on the latter and not the former.

Arts Funding Emergency

Many of you may have read that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has canceled all 272 of their $10,000 Challenge America grants. The program was intended to offer support primarily to small organizations for a wide variety of arts projects that extend the reach of the arts underserved groups and communities that may have limited access to the arts relative to geography, ethnicity, economic status, and/or disability. This includes communities that have limited grant funding opportunities and/or have been underserved by national arts funding; small organizations that may face barriers to accessing grant funding; and organizations that may benefit from enhanced technical assistance resources.

I was glad to see the Warhol and Frankenthaler Foundations step up to provide some support. I hope other private foundations that aren’t dependent on National Endowment funding will step up like these two foundations have and that the community of commercial galleries and collectors upon whose wealth the visual Arts are completely dependent will also see the importance of leadership in this moment.

Arts NC has some material up in their action center if the spirit moves you. If you are a board member or employee of an arts organization you can also sign on to their letter of support as well. You can send a written letter of support through their portal or use the talking points (below***) to contact your state’s US legislators (if you’re in NC like me see below)

Representative Ross

Senator Tillis

Senator Budd

***The arts play a vital role in local communities and economies throughout North Carolina and across our nation. Recent developments at the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) are deeply troubling as hundreds of grants for local projects have been cancelled and massive staff reductions raise questions about the ability of the agency to meet its statutory mandates. Additionally, the White House has proposed eliminating the NEA in the latest FY26 budget proposal, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which have also experienced significant grant cancellations and staff reductions in recent weeks.

Please sustain and protect both funding and staffing for the National Endowment for the Arts, a highly efficient agency that offers a large return on investment and supports consensus values cherished by all American communities. I urge you to continue decades of bipartisan support by allocating at least $209 million for the NEA in the FY2026 Interior Appropriations bill.

The NEA offers a big bang for the buck. More than $500 million annually has been generated in matching support, illustrating why federal support for the arts is uniquely valuable. The arts and creative industries give America’s economy a competitive edge, achieving a $36.8 billion trade surplus, adding $1.2 trillion in value to the U.S. gross domestic product, and $22 billion in North Carolina and creating 5.4 million jobs on American soil, 134,245 within our state’s borders.

The NEA is committed to efficiency. Since inauguration the agency has proactively streamlined its grant programs, downsized the agency workforce and optimized technology. It manages a high volume of grants competitively adjudicated by citizen panels based on merit.

The NEA is an important partner of the national America 250 celebration and other White House goals. All of the state arts agencies who partner with the NEA are actively engaging in America 250 planning and programming. Disruption of federal support to state agencies like the NC Arts Council could weaken America 250 efforts in North Carolina and across the country.

The NEA supports the military, veterans, and their families through its Creative Forces program, a collaboration with the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to serve the unique and special needs of military patients and veterans diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychological health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The NEA and state arts agencies like NC Arts Council support arts activities that boost economic productivity, improve education outcomes, foster civic cohesion, facilitate good health, and preserve our cherished heritage and traditions for future generations. These are consensus values that all Americans want for their communities and families. And as the largest public funder of the arts and a leader in arts education in the United States, the NEA reaches communities often underserved by private dollars investing in 779 more counties than the 1,000 largest private foundations.

The NEA makes up only 0.003% of the overall federal budget and works to support more than just the nonprofit arts sector, which alone generates more than $150 billion dollars in economic activity to the American economy ($2.2 billion in North Carolina) and supports more than 2.6 million jobs, 38.000 of them in our state alone. This is a small investment for a huge return. This is not just good government; this is good business.

I urge you to support sustained investment in the NEA, NHS, and IMLS and work to protect the public servants and resources committed to those agencies so they may fulfill their Congressional mandates and improve the lives of every North Carolinian and all Americans.

Recent work (April 12, 2025)

Mostly writing this blog to capture some things I’ve actually already posted on Instagram, and as a placeholder for these ideas so I can refer to them in future blogs. I continue to make works using several layers of reused glass and also recycled wood, and the titles of the work have also begun to take on some layers themselves. Noteworthy, perhaps, is that the work always precedes the title and proceeds without one- as I’ve written before, words are about words, and titles are the way artists communicate through words (well, that and artist statements).

The forms are also still, I think, making a pretty direct homage to Modernism, which I’ve written about in some detail and for those who missed the article linked above I’ll note I’m generally interested in parallels with today (2025) and the early twentieth century and also the opportunities created by referencing Modernism to engage discussions about both these two contexts. The inherent contradictions of what that epoch brought us, specifically ideas about universal humanity which were both valuable and necessary, and a denial of the value of diversity and personal, lived experience, are also of interest.

This is a recent work in progress that I’ve tentatively titled “Peridot/inner radiance.” I’ve been looking at minerals and precious stones as sources of title material lately, in order to tie my work my closely to Josef Albers.* I find one of his more inspiring quotes to be “Easy to know that diamonds are precious. Good to learn that rubies have depth. But more to see that pebbles are miraculous.”

Peridot is the rare gem-quality variety of the common mineral olivine, which forms deep inside the Earth’s mantle and is brought to the surface by volcanoes (unstoppable geological change). Wikipedia notes that “Peridot has been prized since the earliest civilizations for its claimed protective powers to drive away fears and nightmares, according to superstitions. There is a superstition that it carries the gift of “inner radiance”, sharpening the mind and opening it to new levels of awareness and growth, helping one to recognize and realize one’s destiny and spiritual purpose,” which, yeah, I’ll take.

Also this is also another piece (like departure from the main topic) intended to be viewed in normal and ultraviolet light so “inner radiance” is on point.

Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminum, with the chemical formula CuAl ₆(PO₄)₄(OH)₈·4H ₂O (which is the title of the work).

The reference to turquoise also intends to point at Alber’s quote about gems and stones. And- the Modernist ethos was highly deferential to science, as the changes in the arts were concurrent with rapid changes in the importance and value of science. The title is clearly scientific in origin; and, the importance of science to finding our way through this moment in history is uncontroversial and undeniable.

“Turquoise hydrogen” is produced from natural gas using a process called methane pyrolysis. It can be produced with renewable energy and is considered low-carbon intensity. And of course, the support materials are glass and wood that are scavenged construction waste, which means they are diverted from landfills. Organic material (such as wood waste) in landfills creates the greenhouse Methane, so the work has a symbolic if small impact on such. It would be great if the titles of the pieces inspired viewers to learn more about decarbonization strategies generally.

The working title of the piece below is “bluegreen.” Part of the reason I like this title is that the results you get when googling for “things that are blue green” seems almost endless. The phrase blue green often refers to proponents of eco-capitalism. The sustainable forestry initiative logo that remains on the bottom of the frame definitely impacted this title choice. I’ll let readers do their own research on this topic (link is to Wikipedia). I will note that the book Natural Capitalism had a lot of influence on my decision to work in sustainability for the last two decades, and my continuing belief in the value of implementing concepts like internalizing externalities (through markets for environmental attributes) and full-cost or “triple bottom line” accounting (that values communities and the planet at the same level as capital) and genuine progress indicators (as an alternative to GDP). Probably goes without saying that working to achieve social and environmental justice inside a capitalist structure has lots contradictions.

*My inclination to point in the direction of Albers has lead to many interesting conversations. I’ll continue to pursue it for several reasons outside of the nod at Modernism. One is Alber’s general preference for flat media (prints and paintings) and the contradiction in exploring the motif, but through objects. Contradiction has been an important theme to me for some time. I am also attracted, outside of the nod to Albers, to the notion of how infinite a shape like a square or rectangle can be, in terms of what an artist can do with and inside of it- it goes on and on and on. I love the idea of a through line, which was very center to my prior body of work (which I will be showing this summer in a show actually titled and, and, and…).

The other is an idea I’ve held for some time, though perhaps never written about, that artists have a hang-up about work that hews close to an ancestor or influence that our peers in music don’t have. Said differently- what jazz musician worries about whether their influences show, or even whether they can play a song written by another and not bring something new to it? Why artists actively trip ourselves up on this sort of stuff is literally beyond me. Related to this, and why I’m comfortable with high visibility of Albers as an influence, is that musicians and music fans also don’t have hang-ups about liking the work they like- my work is for people who like abstract painting. There’s no invective there, I’m just doin’ me for people that I f&ck with, full stop.

I also want to give a shout-out to Steve Locke who is also developing an on-going body of work that points at Albers, with different intentions. If you know of others, dear reader, please leave me a comment! Also, and- if you like simplified forms and live or are traveling to NYC, please go see Light on my behalf.

So about contradiction…

Many of you know that I have a separate career (some would say it’s my primary) in clean energy. Recently that career took a turn in a new direction and I accepted a position with the main investor owned utility in my state, Duke Energy, on their Regulated Renewables Development team. In a nutshell my job is to develop and oversee the construction of utility scale solar power plants in the Carolinas. I really like this work (it’s not the first time I’ve worked in solar), and my supervisor is kind and fair and hardworking, and I am grateful, as someone who cares passionately about the clean energy transition, to be able to see, up close and personal, the utility side of our energy ecosystem.

This moment in history is pivotal for this field for a number of reasons. The rapid growth of energy demand created by the increasing use of artificial intelligence is unprecedented in the history of our power sector. It’s literally a whole other essay and I can’t emphasize enough how challenging the next five years will be. I’ll quickly list some of the “ands” so readers can see where my head is at- the rise in power demand is going to drive up electric rates AND market forces in that context will drive innovation in technology efficiency, finance, development strategies AND rate making which will shatter the current paradigm and usher in… some new order. So many good AND bad things could happen. AND, AI itself is both the source of this challenge, AND may hold some number of the solutions as well.

And, the opinions in this essay are mine and not those of Duke Energy.

As long time readers might remember I previously published a blog that mentioned Duke Energy in the context of (formerly) prominent NC art gallery Hodges Taylor getting 3 commissions contracted and completed for the opening of Duke Energy’s newest building in uptown Charlotte. The work looks ah-mazing (yes, I’ve been in the building at this point). And to be clear for the record before we dig in, I don’t know the owners of Hodges Taylor personally and I do know they’ve got a real track record of picking art. Going to Hodges Taylor during Art crawls when I was in art school at UNC Charlotte (when it was downtown) was a real treat- it was the “big time” gallery, the place we art students would gawk at our elders and (hopefully, eventually) peers who had “made it.” And in the case of these commissions, the owners got their artists paid which makes my heart happy. IE, this blog is not a drag on them.

The work, according to the post above, was commissioned to celebrate the city of Charlotte and Duke Energy’s “clean energy mission.” Even prior to this current role, I’ve spent a lot of time in close contact with the impacts of how Duke Energy approaches meeting their regulatory obligations in the context of being an investor owned utility (IOU). Duke almost certainly moved into building renewable generation due to mandates from our state legislature (not any “clean energy mission”). I was on the staff of the North Carolina Energy Office in the early ‘oughts when a bipartisan coalition of stakeholders worked to pass our state’s first Renewable Portfolio Standard under Senate Bill 3. This law requires a specific amount of the electrical generation in the state to come from renewable energy. I was also fortunate to be involved in the stakeholder process behind former Governor Cooper’s Executive Order 80, which really created our state’s carbon obligations. Most of the good stuff in this bill became part of a 2021 piece of legislation, HB 951 and eventually the integrated resource planning process run by the state’s Utility Commission which (very simplistically) gives Duke the chance to negotiate what assets it gets to build and what costs it can put into electric rates (again, this is very simplistic).

One of the big “and”s that came out of those two processes for me was the realization that Duke was (always) going to fight to get the full value of investments in their fossil fuel fleet realized. That continues today, with Duke joining Electric Generation for a Sensible Transition which has been actively lobbying to overturn the US EPA’s Section 111 standards for the regulation of greenhouse gases, among other actions (there’s a lot of detail in this recent article at Desmog). The “and” here, the two things that are true, is that many of us want companies to address climate change and we want companies to be able to make investments and not have the government overreach and impact them (yeah, that sentence is definitely a reference to the impact across the US clean energy sector of the current Administration’s attempts to gut the Inflation Reduction Act and claw back greenhouse gas mitigation investment funds).

The other big “and” is the very real need for electric rates to be reasonable for businesses and citizens. This one is really complicated too because while technology solutions like carbon capture and sequestration add cost to “clean up” our power, the truth (the “and”) is that clean energy can be built quicker than any other resource right now, which will figure into choices about what gets built, including at IOUs. And tax credits for this tech aside, its long term economics are better than fossil fuels, and the private sector frickin’ knows it, too. This is part of that wild context I mentioned several paragraphs ago- market forces are not exclusively the enemy of progress in this moment.

So yeah, I’m swimming in contradiction. The biggest one being, you can’t make change in an organization from the outside, AND, being on the inside means I’ve agreed to a set of economic constraints on the total impact my work can have.

When I talk about contradiction- about two seemingly contradictory concepts being simultaneously true- I mean these types of conflict. To come back to the top and tie this essay back to Art, “the world is far better with these commissioned art works in it” and “the source of the check that paid for it is an entity often leverages its economic power to advance an agenda that I don’t agree with at all” are most definitely both true and I doubt I have much work to do to convince the reader that they appear to have or be in conflict. We get ourselves into trouble, often, by framing concepts in ways that make two facts cancel or negate each other, and not as an observation of facts. Most importantly, the honesty to see contradiction this way allows us to figure out how to live inside of it (if we choose to).

BTW, if you have an interest in the impact IOUs have on the clean energy transition, you should check out the Feb 10 2023 episode of Volts podcast by David Roberts who is easily one of the most important active climate journalists in the US.

Excursus

I started painting on glass largely due to inspiration after visiting an exhibit of Light and Space artists. I had been hoarding the stuff, I’ll say… subconsciously because the affinity for this work resonated through the material. I also had the pleasure of seeing the well known work to which the title of this blog refers by Robert Irwin (who is my favorite and influenced me greatly) at Dia in the early ‘aughts (when Dia was still in Chelsea). It had a huge impact on what I thought Art could be- definitely an instance where photographs do not convey the impact of a work.

I completed the piece below recently which has, for me, a small amount of reverence for if not reference to this work, which made me more curious about it. In googling for more info on Excursus (which, in literature, means “a departure from the main topic”) I found the title actually included a reference to Albers- it’s full title is “Excursus: Home to the Square³.”

Mind. Blown.

I titled the work (which should ideally be viewed in a space where it can be lit by ultraviolet or “black” lighting, another homage to the Light & Space movement) “departure from the main topic“. I assume that, through his title for his work, Irwin was referencing his oft-sited belief that art is not about objects- objects being the “main subject” not just of Art but specifically of Modernism. I think we should conclude this is his intention with pointing to Albers in the title as well. I also assume that, as always, Irwin’s work here is about the shape of our perceptions. I didn’t think I could love Irwin more but… thanks, universe.

Titles have certainly become much more important to me in the last year+ as I recounted in this essay about experiencing Stanley Brouwn’s work and my actions afterward (which were my first experiment with AI), and have elaborated on in statements about titles for the works “through” and also “CuAl₆(PO₄)₄(OH)₈·4H₂O” (the latter takes you to Instagram). You can see my other current paintings in this growing body of work here.

Sunday is for Instagram

I wrote a lot from the heart today.

Love you guys.

Exhibits on Black Abstraction

Here is the beginning of a list of some of the exhibitions that have addressed the contributions of black artists to the canon over the last decade or so. I hope the critical community will add to this list over time and please leave me a comment if there is one I’ve missed.

Four Generations, at The Baltimore Museum of Art, featured the Joyner Giuffrida Collection of Abstract Art which is widely recognized as one of the most significant collections of modern and contemporary work by African and African Diasporan artists. The show drew upon the collection’s unparalleled holdings to explore the critical contributions made by black artists to the evolution of visual art.

Abstraction in the Black Diaspora at False Flag featured Tariku Shiferaw, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Alteronce Gumby, & Ashanté Kindle.

Black Abstractionists: From Then ‘til Now, curated by Dexter Wimberly focused on Black abstract artists spanning multiple generations, starting in the 1960’s and ending with young artists working today.

Beyond the Spectrum: Abstraction in African American Art, 1950-1975 at Michael Rosenfield Gallery presented abstract painting and sculpture by a group of American artists working in the years just before, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement. It took its queue from Kenkebala House which hosted The Search For Freedom: African American Abstract Painting 1945-1975 in 1991 (which, like several of these, has a catalog).

There are also, often online-only “exhibits” available from time to time, such as 10 Black British Artists Working in Abstraction organized by Allyssia Alleyne over on Artsy. Black Abstract Artists: Exploring Innovative Techniques from Swann Auction house covers many of the artists noted in the exhibits above and focuses on their technical contributions.

Change

I have been spending more time on Substack of late and one of my discoveries is Exponential View. I followed this “publication” because I’m an energy nerd (clean energy specifically) and they are covering the AI energy arms race closely.

AI is relevant to my practice both because I’m trying to be more intentional about the overlap of my mostly separate career in energy, and because it’s part of the cultural context in which we are making Art (as I’ve pointed to via the curatorial elements of my practice).

In that spirit I wanted to share a little more about the impact of AI via one of Azeem Azhar’s recent posts. The article was written to point to rapid- exponential– change in the world of technology and energy. The chart below is the one that jumped out the most to me. It is not about energy but instead the impact of the pace of change on workers. Regular readers will know I will always look for possibly contradictory truths and the ones I see here are possibly obvious. They are, I think, that a) the changes to the scope of working for many if not all of us seem to be coming without a lot if any strategic input from the non-technocratic class (IE happening to us with a pointed lack of agency), and, b) the concept of “inevitable change” is a mindset which actually robs us of agency. BTW, “yes” Artists are workers (which actually is another essay).

One of the reasons I want to point this out is that it’s hard for me not to see the potential of AI -based tools to rapidly expand the skills and capabilities of us all. Not without a price of course as the energy/power costs to deploy AI at scale are nontrivial. If you google “energy + AI” you’ll get an unsurprising amount of histrionics because well… algorithms (IE AI) so I suggest if you want to dig deep on energy and AI you should just follow Latitude Media because they are literally the best platform in this space atm, bank on that. The thought I’m entertaining out loud is that this trend can have negative and positive implications. I’ve certainly been trying to understand how to use it better at the same time that I go to work to solve growing demand with new generation (more on that in a few weeks). I don’t love irony in the same way I love contradictions although sure let’s call them cousins- so in that spirit I’ll just float the thought that maybe the most capitalist endeavor in several generations (AI) could have some pretty leftist outcomes if it accelerates the power and access to information of millions and give humanity the bandwidth and tools to solve our most pressing problems. Babies, bathwater, etc.

Perhaps the reason I ask that we not resign ourselves to bemoaning as inevitable ground that may be lost via the technocratic class’s war on labor is that despondency ain’t a winning mindset. I’m being harsh as I sometimes do for effect. No one should dismiss what a serious situation the polycrisis is (also why doesn’t spell correct know that word yet…). AND, being in a time of change means we aren’t at an end point, yet. Said differently- who wants to work on change that makes the world better? I do.

BTW, one of the features of Substack is that creators can have paid and unpaid followers. Which is a cool feature. And, there are challenges with this platform (like almost all social media platforms) as About Half pointed out some time ago, because money ruins everything it touches, but that is also another essay.

Worry

Let’s get into it…

One of the facets of my personality is generalized anxiety disorder. While I’ve almost definitely had it my whole life, likely due to aspects of growing up in an evangelical household and the near constant expectation of needing approval for safety, I wasn’t diagnosed till late in life. My nuclear family first brought the challenges my behavior sometimes creates for them to my attention after a family vacation in 2021. We mostly had a great time. And, the hard parts- for all of us- were and are addressable.

Shortly after I started talk therapy and EMD with a private counselor, we focused on my birth origin family relationships which are the source of my maladaptive behaviors. We made some good progress I think in part because of prior work I had done with dialectical behavior therapy.

In the last ~8 months my disorder took an unfortunate turn into health anxiety, which has elements of obsessive compulsive disorder. Constant monitoring of the body- like, probably 15% of my mental energy burned up, every day, monitoring my body for signs of illness. It’s not fun, and there’s also the element of shame (I mentioned growing up in a doctrinaire household already) that this disorder is literally the most first-world, white ass bullshit ever. Oh no, I wonder if I’m sick??? Lame, lame, lame.

Early Tuesday morning this week (maybe 5:00 am, so not super early) I woke up and needed to pee. As I rolled out of bed I swallowed as one does and the sensation- I had some very minor congestion with a logical and non-viral cause- triggered a panic attack. I couldn’t get back to sleep because I haven’t developed the skills yet to turn my mind away from that behavior pattern.

I want to reassure everyone reading, wherever you are on your mental health journey, that what we learn about paying attention to ourselves and our thinking is a great gift and I am privileged that the lessons available from therapy and clinical work were emotionally accessible for me. Coming back to my parents again- I’ve watched people sit in sessions with good therapists and not get anything out of it because they… they just can’t. I am so grateful that for whatever reasons, the lessons are accessible to me. It’s THE reason I try to center the notions of contemplation and the truth of holding contradiction in my work. Awareness is life altering.

For example, the next morning after my panic attack, I was reading my daily meditation from The Language of Letting Go and the universe spoke:

What started with shame (“see look, she’s right that you’re ruining your life with worry!”) eventually softened into resolve and scheduling a session with my talk therapist. tldr; I’m getting an official evaluation for OCD and selecting a therapist with experience in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). I’m ready to reach for more fullness in my life and committed to doing the work (including paying for it which is a whole other blog…). I’m excited to learn how to be present, because life’s meaning and value is actually enhanced by its transient nature.

I have a related parting thought. I see a lot of you- people I know, and care about- worrying out loud on social media over the last two weeks. I won’t unpack or judge that. I hope you’ll believe, since you read this far, that I see your behaviors and actions with grace and understanding. And also concern that our collective worrying is, as Melody Beattie pointed out to me early in the week, blocking us from functioning effectively today.

Modernism Redux

I hope to see those of you that are local to the Triangle tonight at the opening of an exhibit that is my most recent curatorial effort. I am pleased beyond words that the Diamante Arts and Cultural Center invited me to program “Modernism Redux” a group exhibition of NC artists (my curatorial statement is farther down*) which is the inaugural exhibition of their newest program, “Community Highlight,” a curatorial and exhibition project featuring curators and artists from the local arts community who are not Latino. Diamante’s mission is to support the professional development of artists, and they endeavor to ensure opportunities are available to curate and exhibit to anyone in the local arts community, because supporting the arts community benefits us all. This exhibition is made possible with support from Raleigh Arts and the NC Arts Council.

I love all of the artists in this exhibit! Please look below the curatorial statement for more information on them. I am also excited to pull together many mediums and modalities which, like my own practice, mirror or reflect strategies created during the Modern era in one place. For the context I’m creating, read on…

*Curatorial Statement

Modernism, born from the seismic shifts of the early 20th century, was more than an artistic movement—it was a radical reimagining of how humans understood and expressed their place in a rapidly changing world. Against the backdrop of groundbreaking advances in psychology, science, and technology, Modernist artists rejected tradition, embracing experimentation, abstraction, and the subjective. This spirit of transformation sought to challenge established norms and rethink society, connection, and identity in light of new knowledge.

Today, we find ourselves in a similarly transformative era. Advances in artificial intelligence (which was used to assist with this statement), instantaneous global communication, and digital connectivity have reshaped human interaction and access to knowledge, while ongoing social upheavals challenge outdated institutions and norms. The struggle for equity, inclusion, and adaptation to a diverse, interconnected world is testing societal frameworks in unprecedented ways, as communities strive to reconcile tradition with the complexities of 21st-century existence.

This exhibition, Modernism Redux, invites reflection on how contemporary art practices echo the ethos of Modernism, questioning tradition and exploring individual sensibility. It asks: What does it mean to create art in the spirit of Modernists today? How can this legacy of innovation help us navigate a world defined by rapid technological and social transformation?

In the spirit of addressing part of the context I’ve identified above (our current, rapid technological change) I made part of this project a direct interaction with an artificial intelligence tool, Chat GPT (which I’ve done before), something that would not have been available to, let alone conceivable by, the early twentieth century Modernists. I hope you’ll take a look at some of the analysis that I asked this tool to generate, they are eye opening.

Anna Payne Chat GPT analysis (Instagram @annapayneart)

Derrick Beasley Chat GPT analysis (IG @brobeas)

Jane Cheek Chat GPT analysis (IG @jane.the.artist)

Adam D. Cohen Chat GPT analysis (IG @yourpaladam)

Erin Fee Chat GPT analysis (IG @erin.fei)

Tina Marcus Chat GPT analysis (IG @primitivegraffiti)

Marriott Sheldon Chat GPT analysis (IG @marriot.sheldon)

Michelle Wilkie Chat GPT analysis (IG @ml_wilkie)

Be Boggs and Slater Mapp Chat GPT analysis (IG @illustratedbe and @smapp)

Masculinity

I originally wrote the essay in January of 2025. Later in the year I decided to revisit a number of essays, this one among them. Grateful to see with the distance of time what a curmudgeonly tone I had taken, unfortunate because I take this critique seriously.

…

About a month ago*, I was listening to a podcast about Richard Serra courtesy of David Zwirner which is an excellent and thorough interview by Helen Molesworth of Hal Foster (their “Has Art lost its edge” is a good listen also). Molesworth and Foster’s convo is focused primarily on the latter’s perspectives about Serra as an important late twentieth century artist. So what about the pod made me stew for a month? While I saw Curve in LA last summer and it did blow my mind, there is another bee I have for your bonnets, loves.

Around the 46 minute mark of the pod one of the audience participants (who I’m not able to identify), made a heartfelt acknowledgement of a powerful experience in front of Serra’s work, followed up with an observation that Serra once made a comment about wanting to physically assault them. They then proceeded to assert that Serra’s work embodies “rhetorics of masculinity” because it touches on big, heavy, dark things “that can’t be moved,” which are, in their estimation, “some of the worst aspects of masculinity.”

For her part, Molesworth, who is both female-identifying and feminist, responds brilliantly to a good, tough question about gender. After being thankful for the opportunity to address said toxicity, calling the conflation “easy,” she notes first the “slippage” between the addressed, toxic themes and others which are not that (masculine, and toxic). Next she lays responsibility for what she identifies as the “problematic” aspects of the presentation of Serra’s work with MOMA, specifically because of who they excluded in their elevation of his work**. Around the 51 minute mark she says, roughly, “he was a jerk who made good and important work*”; tldr “its’ both.” In the spirit of holding contradiction, which I’ll credit the speaker with as well, *this. And…

I recently had a touching conversation with my oldest, male child (23 at the time, now going on 25, white, cis, and currently with a heterosexual woman) about the November 2025 election outcome, which saw the US electorate make some choices which many saw, rightfully so, as a right-ward shift in the zeitgeist We were unpacking that fact, since he knew, not surprisingly, several 20-something white men who voted for our orange child-tyrant. I asked him to unpack for me what the culture war looks like for young men and hear that, in my son’s lived experience, the leftist observation that manliness is “the” problem is as culturally prevalent as we’ve all heard everyone from talking heads to our neighbors complain that it is. By his telling, he has heard his whole life that he is part of the group responsible for everything that’s wrong with… everything.

Wow.

I won’t lie that, when initially listening to the podcast referenced above, hearing two intellectuals talk un-self-consciously about how masculinity has inherently bad qualities was hard to hear when the US just chose a sociopath as chief executive. The audience member in fact went so far as to link these “worst aspects of” masculinity and the election. I mean, there it was- the very position that many take and which ostensibly drove a generation of men away from my value set, clearly and explicitly and proudly stated. Toxicity is the cornerstone of Western civilization.

Yes it was partly hard because contending with this should be, for people who look like me, god damn it. The word choices though, OMG… they are. Such. A clear example of what’s driving the cultural gulf. Think about this- there’s no Art world discursive strategy to interrogate the adjectives “heavy” and “dark” and our personal experience of them without perpetuating outdated cultural dominance assigned to “the masculine” and being complicit in… something.

That certainly was not my experience of growing up- IE, this is a new-ish cultural phenomena- and I don’t pretend to understand how it feels to hear that refrain through your formative years. In these moments with my son I was so grateful that in our house we have tried to use the language of Dialectical Behavior Therapy, which emphasizes that two things that appear to conflict- like being a specific man who is empathetic, kind and committed to a better world and being a member of a demographic responsible for so much destruction- can both be true. And, that he has had the resilience to hear his whole adolescence that he’s horrible by default and not internalize it, or react by veering onto the path too many of his twenty-something associates and even friends have followed. I hope I’ve also modeled alternatives to being “toxic.”

There is no rulebook I would would want him to follow though that would allow my son to call behaviors that stem from class-conscious and mental-health appropriate values masculine, let alone feel an emotion like pride about being a man. At least in the way that the left celebrates femininity, or blackness, or queerness, as we should rightfully do- human diversity is a treasure. Would any of us ever countenance uttering a phrase like “the worst aspects of femininity.” It’s histrionic for effect again and be honest, it sounds really fucking dumb right? Yeah.

Look, if our linguistic tools were working you would find me embracing them, and I certainly do understand the broader discourse. Do I think the approach of using catch-all words that are shorthand for values (like “toxic masculinity”) but not a statement of actual values is winning ground in this damnable culture war? Ahem, election. So why lean in then? I want better language, for the sake of the next generation of American men, to talk about our values than “if men wanna be good they have to be more like women.” Plus, I’m not and wasn’t the only person to wave this flag prior to the election.

I want to acknowledge now (and did at the time) that reactions to the dominance of post-structuralist language in the visual arts were having a small Art world moment. “No” I did not and do not like feeling or sounding like a reactionary. I bet more than one of you read Dean Kissik’s Harper article (who is the subject and guest of another Zwirner podcast) and maybe some reactions to the same. Critiques of the challenges of… critique in an Art world where the imperative is alignment with leftist morality is not new though, including at Two Coats (and also elsewhere). While “everyone is too far left!!” is *not* the point I’m making, I do in fact see that I’m (another) white dude over here taking up space and saying “but hold on.” Maybe I should STFU?

Thesis statement; if we can’t paint (pun intended) a vision of the world where people are beautiful and whole by default, why would anyone listen to us? Sure it’s gonna be science fiction.

**Also and, Molesworth’s comment about the neglect by MOMA of creatives like Maren Hassinger resonates for me, as part of my practice is this blog, which I hope amplifies the uncovering so many academics are doing. I feel like making a h/t here to John Yau who turned me and many of you, I hope, on to a number of artists who were ~~asked to~~ forced to “wait by the coat room” such as Ruth and John Pai. I hope my regular readers will believe that I very much want the work of expanding the canon to continue.

Triangle Favorites 2024

Here we are the end of another year. Wow. So much good stuff went on this year and once again I feel compelled to recap my personal favorites. Which is important, I think, to clarify- these shows are the ones that resonated the strongest for me, as an abstractionist primarily although as in the past you’ll see I’m not totally myopic (maybe a little…).

I’m not a formally trained art writer so apologies if I’m not doing any of this correctly*, really just trying to show the love for the amazing art thing we have goin’ on in the Triangle, for which I am un-quantifiably grateful. I can’t wait to see what you all do in 2025 and if you live in the Triangle I hope you got to see all of these exhibits at least once! *if any correction is needed please let me know with a comment or a note to sterling at sterlingbowen dot com.

For those that want to reminisce a little, here are links to the 2023 and 2022 editions of my recap.

Stacey L. Kirby presents Division of Ancestral Deeds at Anchorlight was the freshest and most impactful Art happening/installation I encountered this year. I’ve seen as much performance Art as the average non-performance artist does and it’s a little challenging to put this one in the same league as anything else, probably due to the interactive elements (during the two performances viewers were allowed to interact directly with the artist and a supporting cast of characters). The fact that I’m a fan of Wes Anderson’s ability to world-build with a minutiae that astounds aside (which is clearly part of the work’s appeal to many and which Kirby could go toe-to-toe with undoubtedly), the central theme- of centering the viewer as a an ancestor by recalling their own- is simultaneously simple and profound. And, how lovely and loving, to think in our time of upheaval about what our relationship to the past and future means. I don’t have the art critical language to do this one justice in terms of its relationship to the broader Art world. So much love and gratitude for this one, and I hope that Anchorlight will repeat their summer residency in future years although the bar is indeed very high now.

I don’t think I’d have to convince any local that Jean Gray Mohs, Celia Gray, and Harriet Hoover Material Encounters from early in the year, which was curated by Jameela Dallis at Peel, was worth the look. The opening was bananas, and for good reason. Celia’s work jumped off the wall and tried to become drawing and just became even more surreal. Jean Gray delighted us with somber poetry- as an artist I enjoy the spontaneousness that hides in her work. Harriet flattened things out and took our eyes on a journey where any material can be a mark and any mark can be material.

Ashlynn Browning at Horace Williams House was a delightful combination- it really is the weirdest little space in the Triangle. Whatever neutral the walls are painted somehow seems to pull out every color you place over it. Which made it the perfect place for the Ashlyn’s wacky brain children to hang out. I mean, look at this one over the fireplace. Love. It. I think Ashlynn always does a good job with scale, including leaving room in her practice to work big and small, while allowing both size ranges to be space for working through similar concepts with different strategies.

Unstable by Jenny Eggleston at CAM was a show that I heard discussed a lot and for good reason- as someone who comes at things in the abstract it was very refreshing to see work that is so blunt. Also- damn good paintings. I’m grateful that we all got to see and contend with them, and given the socio-cultural close out to this year it was eerily prescient, and telling that it was tucked into the back gallery downstairs (great choice btw to paint the walls of the gallery black).

Stephen Hayes, Reclaiming The Discarded at Ella West also wasn’t abstraction and as a counterpoint to the gut punch delivered by Jenny put a lot of the western world’s troubled relationship with race on display in layer upon layer. And by a lot I mean, a lot- Maximalism and finish fetish don’t always coexist but there it was for all of us to enjoy. I think the Triangle area is so lucky to have this newish commercial gallery. My impression as a Raleigh native is it has a very Durham vibe. We’re all lucky that Stephen decided to move here to teach at Duke and decided to show with Linda Shropshire. I look forward to more from both the artist and the owner in 2025.

Gallery OneOneOne is in a beautiful space in Chapel Hill, another newish addition to the scene that I look forward to visiting many times in the coming years. The Contemporaries is (yes, it’s still up) a powerhouse of NC-based or born talent- and it’s part one so look out for more in 2025! A small sample below of the 12 (!) artists that were included.

Todd Jones found even more ways to use paint discards in From Ruin to Renewal at Diamante. Beyond my personal affinity for the sweet shades of Lynda Benglis (one of my favorites) and the use of recycled materials, I really dig the subtle domestic elements that creep in- yes, it’s the current designer colors on a sort of towel bar. Peter Marin continues to program solid work!

Leticia Clementia It Ain’t All Black and White at Durham Art Guild was special to me. Photography has a way of being direct that’s unique and the approach of including only black & white photographs both underscores that and also is a counterpoint to the intention of the title (meant to center our thinking on how racial issues aren’t black and white). What a wonderful range of stylistic approaches to varying content, and what a showcase of local talent as well. I don’t know about you the reader, but I feel like photography had a good year and got some deserved attention. Several other exhibits that caught my eye were Second Nature at the Nasher, Truth Told Slant at High Museum in Atlanta, and Chris Metz at CAM here in Raleigh. Lens-based work ftw!

Jean Michel Dissake’s BABENGA, The Sacred Forest at The Gregg, c0-curated by Marriott Sheldon and Roger Manley, was a real treat, and not just because we got to delight in work from overseas. Raw was a word I heard used a lot as I was beginning my artistic training and while it was overused and eventually commodified, I don’t have to tell anyone who saw this show that it’s the right adjective. (from the Museums’ description) Babenga refers both to the village where Dissake’s grandfather was the local king for over fifty years as well as the idea of the continuity of humans – a ceremonial invocation of a future land and new spirituality where humans and nature thrive. Dissake’s understanding and deep respect for the natural world imbue the works with symbolism that serves as a wakeup call to realize our connection with nature.

Extant forms, with works by Rigoberto Mena, Jason Craighead, G. Alan Stewart and with sounds and words by Shay Stifelman and Sam Pepple was such a great way to wrap up 2024. Sprawling, barely organized chaos- absolutely beautiful. As an abstractionist, there wasn’t anything I was left wanting. The exhibit was organized by Sam and Alan in partnership with the Grid Project (you can find them on insta and Substack) who brought us several great exhibits this year.

Honorable mention – Arranged at the Ackland

I loved this show; and (what would a blog here be without that word) I do also have to acknowledge that all of the artists are either exhibited posthumously or are not local. I really hope you all got to see this one though, yum-my!

I also want to both acknowledge our amazing North Carolina Museum of Art and treat this institution a little differently or at least separately, because it’s a museum (so the bar is and should be higher). To Take Shape and Meaning; Form and Design in Contemporary American Indian Art was too good not to mention. Gibson and Edgewater are personal faves and I discovered so many other artists from across our nation (here’s hoping that increased awareness can move us closer to it really being the most full definition of “ours” possible, too). I was, as I often am, impressed with the good job the museum does of fulfilling its educational duty to our state.

Space

Space is on my mind because the artist run organization Tiger Strikes Asteroid (I’m a member of the Greenville group) is christening a brand new amazing gallery space in Greenville, SC tonight with the opening of Creature After Me, curated by fellow TSA member and Rattlesnake Press editor Leah Smolin. Also, there is a new space- Satelite– opening tonight (12/6) in Raleigh. I and many, many other Triangle locals have small works in their inaugural exhibit, Begin Transmission. I hope you’ll come out if you’re in either city!

One of the reasons I’m involved with TSA is to create space. Space is literally the most precious commodity for urban artists. Personally- I think to have space, as an artist, you have to make space. It’s one of the reasons I use this blog (and my IG feed once a month) to promote other artists. I just passed 1,700 posts about other artists this week. Wow. ICYW- I feel like this strategy is working since I’m looking forward to a number of opportunities that have come my way.

Space is going to be important over the next four years in the US. Whether that’s mutual aid networks, support groups or just personal efforts at self care, those of us who find ourselves watching what will no doubt be a major shift in the relationship of the federal government to the citizens of our country with sadness and frustration will, I hope, discover and create meaningful community. I hope you can find some yourself- I’ve never asked for feedback or thoughts before and if the spirit moves drop a comment below to share with all or send me a note whether to uplift or hold me accountable, I’m here for it (Sterling at sterlingbowen dot com). Also, speaking of space- I’ll leave you with below courtesy of Nikita Gill.

Ego

In the (continuing) spirit of embracing one-word blog titles and contradictions, I call your attention to a word which means one’s sense of worth and which we also collectively use to point at an inflated feeling of pride in relation to others.

The word is on my mind because my internal sense of worth has been whip sawed a bit lately. I shared great news in my last post, in which I also mentioned that I’ve been in the process of searching for, but not yet acheiving, full time employment in my other profession (clean energy). While the reality is that input on my value from outside (either acceptance or rejection) does not change my worth full stop, and, is a pretty reductive binary anyway, the input certainly can and has bent my perception of the value I can provide. I feel privileged to be in a safe enough space in my life to recognize that a) while a choice between my work product and another’s is a binary, the reality of my relative value is almost certainly quite different, b) critical feedback presents an opportunity to grow and c) it is important to my wellbeing to remember “the wins” and invest in giving them attention at least equal to the time spent on b). As all of this relates to the Arts, I suggest you head over to Level Up Artists and check out their Artist Comparison Trap episode (#184).

For a lot of us the outcomes from November 5th are the 800 lb animal in the room lately. It’s not hard for me to imagine most of you, being Artists and Art lovers, lean (pretty far) to the left and view the outcome as a referendum on the worth of certain ideas and likely on those of us in this quadrant of the socio/political spectrum as individuals and groups. Ego gut-punch. I include myself in this while recognizing that I was not the target of the majority of the vitriol exhibited by the reactionaries among us. I also doubt I’d be the first person in your world to note that I’ve heard, read and seen evidence that the sense of worth felt by those leveling this valuation on a plurality, if not a majority, of their neighbors feel some feelings themselves about the worth they perceive they are being assigned in our society in 2024.

I’m dancing a bit with the intention of being objective about feelings (which aren’t usually based in reason) and definitely not making excuses for anyone. It’s probably too soon to talk about giving people grace for (I would say “rash”) decisions made from a place of fear. It’s not clear to me how to establish the trust needed for deep conversations when all of us- all. of.us.- are feeling so deeply wounded in our egos. I am trying to accept that the brashness and incivility (over-inflated outward projection of ego) is a sign of fear stemming from egos that are actually wounded, without internalizing said negative valuations as actually indicative of my worth. I’m dancing a little again, in my attempt to avoid diminishing anyone else’s right to feel how they feel (including rejecting grace and understanding entirely). The caustic version of all of this is it’s a fucking tragedy of the highest order that it seems like everyone is thinking “how dare you think you’re worth more than me.”

As I often do, I’ll end on the note that I didn’t intend this blog to be an answer or hypothesis. I’m stirring the pot by putting my thoughts down to collect them in one place in relation to each other, and hopefully make them work for me, and perhaps you, whoever you are- You. Have. Worth.

Looking

I imagine a lot of you are following me on Instagram, for anyone who isn’t or is just popping in for the first time, look for me there as well, please. It is different content from what I publish here, in particular I like to pretend I am the local beat writer, and regularly do fairly extensive posts about the exhibits that I have seen in my local area. Also, for those of you who don’t know where that is, I live in the Triangle area of Central North Carolina. What you have heard is true- it does, in fact, rule.

At the moment, I am spending a lot of my energy looking for another full-time job. Thanks to all of you who have asked about my search when you run into me. Also and, I am privileged and excited to get to work in clean energy and decarbonization!

It’s been great to have my practice to help sustain me during this time. Thanks (also) to those who have made time for studio visits to look at new ideas – I have moved in a new direction with my painting. I could probably have made 100 more paintings utilizing cubes, but not learned any more from it* (and- of course- I have learned so much). While this new body of work is still taking shape, the small piece above, “through”, (which is in the group show “12×12” at Artspacenc atm) is indicative. Yes, it is an homage to Albers, and also to the Light and Space artists. I think it will more clearly point audiences at looking, by being more directly about color. I hope it will allow me to more successfully foreground contradictions, and engage audiences in thinking about the many places in our life where holding two truths at the same time can be crucial for us moving “through.”

I am looking forward to a number of things as well ( did I mention my practice is sustaining me?). *I will get to put a “period” on a body of work that sustained me for 7 years next summer. Also and, I will be getting the chance to do some more curating in 2025, both of which will be group shows and located locally. The artists that have said yes to working with me are fantastic creators, and I can’t wait for all of us to share our vision with you. And in case you thought I couldn’t possibly be any more vague, I will be programming something with Tiger Strikes Asteroid in Greenville, South Carolina in the September-October timeframe. I will also have a piece in a show in Texas in December for anyone in Austin. More details to come – the kids call this a teaser, I think. Hope you’re looking forward to looking at the shows!