Graham W. Bell
Graham W. Bell is an arts writer based in Brooklyn, NY by way of Portland, OR. He is a professor of art history and contributor to the Brooklyn Rail.
Being: New Photography
By Graham W. BellAs part of the Museum of Modern Art’s recurring program of new photography, Being makes good on the museum’s pledge to showcase new pieces by artists working in photography and various photo-based practices.
Social Photography VI
By Graham W. BellWhere does the virtual world of Instagram enter the physical art space? What does this convergence look like? Social Photography VI at Carriage Trade in Manhattan’s Chinatown looks to answer these questions with its sixth iteration of an annual exhibition.
Jia Aili: Combustion
By Graham W. BellLike the tattered cover of a 1980s science fiction novel, thrown into a particle accelerator with the catalogue raisonnés of Neo Rauch and Hans Holbein
Yasumasa Morimura: Ego Obscura & In the Room of Art History
By Graham W. BellYasumasa Morimura’s practice is about blurring boundaries. His intricate tableaus hover in the interstitial space between painting and photography and are admired for their inquiry into the construction of gender and identity.
Companion Pieces: New Photography 2020
By Graham W. BellThe latest iteration of MoMA’s New Photography exhibition cycle comprises works from eight artists and takes place entirely online. Companion Pieces asks the viewer to look beyond initial reactions and delve deeper into our reading of images.
Jeff Wall
By Graham W. BellSilent figures and charged landscapes abound, but true to form, this is an exhibition of singular works, not a thematic outing. Connections can be drawn, but ultimately it is each image which begs to be considered intimately.
David Alekhuogie: Naïveté
By Graham W. BellHidden in a riot of pattern, color, and spatial uncertainty, David Alekhuogie’s inaugural exhibition at Yancey Richardson is a biting treatise on the prescribed views of African art in the Western mind and the power of photography to influence an entire generation’s cultural ideas.
Todd Gray: Cartesian Gris Gris
By Graham W. BellTodd Gray’s new body of work, at David Lewis Gallery, may look aesthetically pleasing, with its rich images of beautiful gardens and interior architecture layered in conjoined frames, but under the deceptively sleek exterior is a nuanced observation of the continued fallout of European colonialism in Africa.
