Bethany Collins. Courtesy the artist.
Bethany Collins. Courtesy the artist.

Artist Notes from a Pandemic: Bethany Collins

Bethany Collins moved from one part of Chicago to another in March. “Moving day during a pandemic is definitely worse,” she tells me. But her new neighborhood offers a more walkable part of the city and a daily walk has become part of the quarantine regimen. Collins and I laugh…

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Nicola Tyson, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, January 27 – April 16, 2017. Photo: David Johnson.
Nicola Tyson, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, January 27 – April 16, 2017. Photo: David Johnson.

Art at Home: Automatic Drawing

Upon first glance, British-born artist Nicola Tyson’s portraits may call to mind words like ‘ghoulish’ and ‘child-like.’ While viewers may be able to discern a human figure, the bodies and features are so distorted that it’s impossible to determine what the subjects look like. This is because Tyson…

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"I ask him to send me a picture that reflects the situation he is in." Courtesy Paul Mpagi Sepuya.

Artist Notes from a Pandemic: Paul Mpagi Sepuya

Even though CAM has been closed since March, a conversation with Paul Mpagi Sepuya makes me think even more about exhibitions without an audience. Sepuya’s summer survey in St. Louis is now documented in a gorgeous monograph, a selection from thirteen years of the artist’s photographic explorations within…

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Sanford Biggers, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, September 8–December 30, 2018. Photo: Dusty Kessler.
Sanford Biggers, installation view, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, September 8–December 30, 2018. Photo: Dusty Kessler.

Art at Home: Code Quilting

Sanford Biggers’s work has long focused on African and African American material culture and history. Biggers’s interest in quilting is rooted in the rich tradition of African American quilting, especially those produced by the women of Gee’s Bend—a small, isolated Black community in Alabama. Although each quilter has…

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