A report published in September 2015 on stated that Oakland is the third most dangerous city in the United States, following Memphis and Detroit. The Bay Area in general, from the East Bay to the South Bay, is plagued with violence, though the entire nation could use an attitude adjustment—particularly when it comes to gun violence. I live in Oakland, and as can be expected when someone’s town or city is wracked with hostile incidents, there is a tendency to localize fear and pain, to localize... [more]

is an exhibition at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, in Florence, presenting 19 works by the young Iraqi-Italian sculptor Athar Jaber. Several members of the international art community opened the exhibition with a series of talks and discussions on "Poly-cultural Identities," examining topics related to the blurring of national narratives and cultural boundaries. Both the exhibition and the debates spoke to the ideological nature national identity, opening onto themes that coincide with a number... [more]

Entering . On Violence, the viewer passes through two of the four rotating gates in Daniil Galkin’s installation Tourniquet. Beyond this eerie passage, a provocative text speculates on the impact of technology on modern warfare. Its thesis can be characterized as follows: since modern technology has largely emancipated warriors from a traditional active sense of duty—allowing them to literally fire and forget—does this change in confrontation halt the production and inevitable perception of... [more]

I think of myself as a kind of reporter; I report on the nature of certain events. I think of art as a report on civilization at a certain time. —Leon Golub at Hauser & Wirth, in New York, presents a long overdue opportunity to see Golub’s paintings gathered together from several different bodies of work spanning a four-decade period. Showing Napalm I (1969) and Riot V (1987), Vietnam-era paintings, and several fine examples from his late Mercenaries series, this exhibition offers a... [more]

Medically speaking, at precisely 311 degrees Fahrenheit, testosterone, the male sex hormone, begins to melt. With her second solo show at Lawrie Shabibi in Dubai, Nadia Kaabi-Linke presents eight place-centred works that each conduct an autopsy on masculine qualities and myths—from war and glory to violence and heroism. The seven deadly sins run in parallel. In case you need a re-cap of Dante’s Inferno, these are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. Nadia... [more]

Internationally acclaimed artist Doris Salcedo opened her first US museum retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) last week to great anticipation: Latin Americanists had been anxiously awaiting the opening of the Bogotá-born artist’s survey, and it seemed all of Chicago was enthusiastic as well. Co-curated by MCA Director Madeleine Grynsztejn, Curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm, and with assistance from Steven L. Bridges, the exhibition presents Salcedo’s large body of work... [more]

The Cossacks are an East Slavic ethnic group who have long retained independence from the Russian territorial zone. They exist in Crimea, Ukraine, South Caucasus, and even China. Brutally persecuted in Soviet Russia, Cossacks have now reassumed their legitimacy in the Russian national identity, building on their previous historical role as paid militia for the Russian Empire. A 2005 law reinstated this role under Putin and it has been ascertained that Cossack paramilitary activities in East... [more]