February 2026
Featuring interviews with Ayoung Kim, Paul Pagk, Rob Pruitt, and Mandy El-Sayegh. Guest Critic Patricia L Lewy: “That’s How Criticism (Or Poetry) Goes: Celebrating Michael Fried”
The “February 2026” Issue of the Brooklyn Rail was published on February 3, 2026.
Publisher's Message
Dear Friends and Readers
– By Phong H. Bui
Critics Page
That’s How Criticism (Or Poetry) Goes: Celebrating Michael Fried
– By Patricia L LewyArt, Memory, and Mattering: On Michael Fried’s Trilogy
– By Robert B. PippinFried and His Friends
– By William E. CainFired On: On Michael Fried
– By Alexander NemerovAgility in Old Age
– By Nicholas DelbancoFrom Objecthood to Cinematography
– By Jeff WallA Tribute to Michael Fried
– By T.J. ClarkFour Prose Poems
– By Michael Fried
ArtSeen
Lois Dodd: Framing the Ephemeral
– By Louis BlockTántalo
– By Andrew Paul WoolbrightSol LeWitt: Works from the 1960s
– By Marjorie WelishTalisman
– By Lucie AiOdili Donald Odita: Shadowland
– By Ann C. CollinsRichard Pousette-Dart: Geometry of Summer
– By Ekin ErkanRichard Pousette-Dart: Geometry of Summer
– By Andrew Paul WoolbrightTom Burr: Journal Works
– By Joel DanilewitzSérgio Sister and Karin Lambrecht: Color Clímax
– By David RhodesRobert Therrien: This is a Story
– By Terry R. MyersRoberto Burle Marx: Works, 1940–1993
– By Hearne PardeeAlfred Jensen: Diagrammatic Mysteries
– By Alfred Mac AdamBill Armstrong: All a Blur
– By Lyle RexerV-Effekt
– By Yonatan Eshban-LadermanJoseph Jones
– By Rebecca SchiffmanThe Princeton University Art Museum
– By Alfred Mac AdamJohn Kelly: A FRIEND GAVE ME A BOOK
– By Benjamin La RoccoRalston Farina: Time // Time
– By Elizabeth WietHaim Steinbach: Five Easy Pieces
– By Matilda Lin BerkeRebecca Weisman: Mother Island: Act I
– By Robby HerbstThe Individualism of Dona Nelson
– By David RhodesGIVE ME TWO
– By Patrick HillJulia Fish: Transcriptions, Apparitions
– By Marjorie WelishMitchell Kehe: Bonded by the Spirit of Doubt
– By Joshua Chee SanfordMark Thomas Gibson: The Voyage
– By William CorwinYoko Ono: Music of the Mind
– By Justin DuyaoMia Westerlund Roosen: Then and Now
– By Jessica HolmesMONUMENTS
– By William CorwinGiuseppe Ducrot: Monumental Statuary
– By Donatien GrauLinda Rotua Sormin: Uncertain Ground
– By Chenoa BakerOvartaci: I Started as a Bird of Paradise
– By Alice GodwinLucy R. Lippard: Notes from the Radical Whirlwind
– By Jordan EddyNicola L.: I Am the Last Woman Object
– By Francesca PietropaoloIn Caravaggio’s Light
– By Annabel KeenanNicolas Party: Dead Fish
– By Alfred Mac AdamNadia Gould: Because I am Young, Beautiful & Talented
– By Ekin ErkanCannupa Hanska Luger: Dripping Earth
– By Eana KimFrom Now: A Collection in Context
– By Killian Wright-JacksonJames Walsh: Relief in Sight
– By Alex GrimleySasha Stiles: A LIVING POEM
– By Terry NguyenElda Cerrato: Transcend/Transport
– By Ann McCoyColumna Rota/Broken Column
– By Suzanne Hudson‘To continue painting’: James Bishop and New York
– By Patricia L LewyWifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream
– By Alfred Mac AdamJoy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey
– By Sabo KpadeJoan Semmel: In the Flesh
– By Jillian RussoRobert Rauschenberg: Life Can’t be Stopped
– By Madelyn SantorelliBill Bollinger: I Am Gravity
– By Saul OstrowGabriele Münter: Contours of a World
– By Amanda GluibizziMeredith Allen and Carol Saft: Ice Pops Forever
– By Nic RagoDiane Simpson: Formal Wear
– By Elizabeth Buhe
Field Notes
From Car Bomb to Drone
– By Raphael F. AlvarengaTechnocracy 2.0
– By Anton CebaloSocial Debraining
– By Omar Hernandez
Art Books
Tata Ronkholz’s Trinkhallen
– By Arturo SotoSurrealism and Anti-fascism: Anthology
– By Efthymia RentzouSteve Turtell’s Portraits and Places
– By Jackson DavidowBharat Sikka’s Ripples in the Pond
– By Zach RitterGreer Lankton’s Could It Be Love
– By Louis ShankarSophie Calle’s Catalogue Raisonné of the Unfinished
– By Jonah Goldman Kay
Books
Richard Hell’s Godlike
– By Charles SchultzGEORGE SAUNDERS with Mandana Chaffa
LANA LIN with Porochista Khakpour
DAVID GUTERSON with Jonathan Daniel Gardner
Anika Jade Levy’s Flat Earth
– By Elle GordonSebastian Castillo’s 49 Venezuelan Novels
– By Danielle BradleyMadeline Cash’s Lost Lambs
– By Mary KarmelekHelle Helle’s they
– By Meghan RacklinEllis Scott’s Night Terminus
– By Henry Hicks IVJen Percy’s Girls Play Dead
– By Hannah Burns
Music
The Crossovers: Women Artists Making Downtown Music
– By Liz Rae Heise-GlassThe Lad From Elche
– By Duncan WheelerThe Fact of Coexistence
– By Scott GuttermanHunters and Collectors
– By George Grella
Dance
The Way Things Went
– By Ethan PhilbrickMICHAEL TRUSNOVEC with Karen Hildebrand
ĐOÀN THANH TOÀN with Anh Vo
Life On Repeat
– By Maia SauerCollage Revisited (1988, 2025) and Story/ (2013)
– By Elinor Krichmar
Film
Analytic Projector: The Nervous Systems of Ken Jacobs
– By Brian KarlJafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident
– By Ali FarahmandSueño Perro: Instalación Celuloide de Alejandro G. Iñárritu
– By Lyle RexerChristian Marclay: Doors
– By Sangyoung NamHailey Benton Gates’s Atropia
– By Ara H. Merjian
Theater
Introducing…the Railees? Honoring January’s Overflowing Month of Festival Wackadoo
– By Billy McEnteeHundreds of Struggling Artists Gathered at We the People. Can We Feel Hope Under Mamdani?
– By Sarah GraalmanWith Ulysses, Elevator Repair Service Captures the Wandering Spirit of Joyce’s Novel
– By Oliver EggerMICHELLE URANOWITZ with Patrick Denney
HERE’S CO-DIRECTORS with Joey Sims
Poetry
fathermouth
– By sadé powellfrom Bright Machine
– By Canisia LubrinPraise for The Inaugural Poet, January, 2009
– By Cornelius Eadyfrom Schenectady and dean
– By Nazareth Hassan
Special Report
Art and Science in Conflict
– By Paul Rodgers
Architecture
Four Five Six
– By Benjamin ArandaJEANNE GANG with Nile Greenberg
All Magnificent and Wild: Notes on Chicago Residential Hotels
– By Francesco Marullo
Dispatches
Dispatch 106: “Totally Exonerated”
Dispatch 105: Hold On, Stand Up
– By David Levi StraussDispatch 104: Data Detention Centers
– By David Levi StraussDispatch 103: Kidnapped & Abandoned
– By David Levi StraussDispatch 102: Taking Over the Voting
– By David Levi Strauss