The Brooklyn Rail

In Conversation

MIERLE LADERMAN UKELES with Maya Harakawa

Mierle Laderman Ukeles (b. 1939) is a maintenance artist. Since 1969, the year she wrote Manifesto for Maintenance Art, 1969!, later published in the pages of Artforum, she has devoted her practice to demystifying the invisible labor that undergirds society.

HITO STEYERL

By Maya Harakawa

On what may have been the last cold night of a bone-chilling winter, a horde of eager art viewers filled Artists Space’s Tribeca basement. The occasion was the opening of the German artist Hito Steyerl’s first New York survey, and in the dark room Steyerl delivered “Duty-Free Art,” (2015) a complex but cogent lecture on the post-nation-state museum.

Thanks to Apple, Amazon, and the Mall

By Maya Harakawa

The digital and its potential are at the heart of Thanks to Apple, Amazon, and the Mall at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery. Curated by critic Brian Droitcour, the show is an extension of the gallery’s digital publishing venture, Klaus_eBooks.

BRADLEY EROS eau de cinema: constellations & contradictions

By Maya Harakawa

Bradley Eros’s newest show at Microscope Gallery continues the artist’s long-standing interest in cinematic essence. While the search for it might seem futile, Eros’s cogent attempt emphasizes multiplicity and collaboration, and thus downplays the need for a singular conclusion.

Queer Zines Box Set, Volumes 1 & 2

By Maya Harakawa

In the wake of postmodernism, the rubric and practice of history seem, if not worse for wear, then perhaps passé and definitively something to be critical of. Surely, with the availability of a whole trove of the alternative practices, it would seem as if traditional historical analysis is becoming increasingly expendable as a necessary framework for interacting with and understanding the past; that it itself, as a colloquial saying goes, might be history.

Undermining: A Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West

By Maya Harakawa

It is not insignificant that Lucy Lippard’s latest book begins with the word “I.” While it is structurally one of the simplest words in the English language, with Lippard’s voice it speaks beyond monosyllabic clarity and points to the radicality at the heart of her criticism, demonstrating the reformist potential of Undermining in the process.

In Conversation

LEARN TO READ ART: A Surviving History of Printed Matter
MAX SCHUMANN with Maya Harakawa

Printed Matter is an art world institution in the best sense of the word. Founded in 1976 to support the then-fledgling medium of artists’ books, the organization has since become a mainstay of all things art and publishing. Historically linked to artistic figures such as Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, and Lucy Lippard and now responsible for the ever-growing Art Book Fairs in New York and Los Angeles, Printed Matter has been symbiotically involved in the artistic, political, and social movements alongside which it has developed.

In Conversation

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT
PRIMARY INFORMATION’S MIRIAM KATZEFF with Maya Harakawa

Founded in 2006 by James Hoff and Miriam Katzeff, Primary Information is one of the most exciting voices in contemporary arts publishing. Working with historical and contemporary material, the range of their projects testifies to the continued relevance and future prospects of the genre they champion.

Year in Review

To mark the end of the year, the Rail’s Art Books editors, Ben Gottlieb, Maya Harakawa, and Greg Lindquist, each selected three notable books from the past year to share with our readers.

In Conversation

JOCELYN MILLER with Maya Harakawa

The catalogue of the current Greater New York at MoMA PS1’s features notable departures from the exhibition’s traditional parameters. Co-organized by a team of four curators and engaging with work across a span of multiple decades, the exhibition is a refreshing take on what art in New York City is today.