It's #givingtuesday, and I hope that if you have the capacity, you would support an organization that I am proud to serve on the board of: VisualAIDS. Because AIDS is not over, and in a time of queer erasure, preserving artist's legacies is an urgent, ongoing need.

Reading and looking at art and examining things closely—observing, noticing—are my entire raison d'être, and I'm just really fucking grateful that I had people to teach me those skills and that I grew up in a time when those things were still valued

Sorry to miss this exhibition “Body, Vessel, Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art” At the Ford Foundation in NYC…

This morning went to see Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot’s installation Police State at the MCA Chicago. Jarring to peer in tiny windows of her cell to watch her sewing, making music and typing. Scratched on to the wall was “I didn’t survive to be polite.” Performance through Sunday 11/30.

Happy Thanksgiving to my dear American friends!

“Art should look like the rest of our culture,” says Frida Kahlo of the Guerilla Girls. Otherwise, “it’s not really history of art, it’s a history of power.” I have a look at the timely Guerilla Girls show the Getty for Art Insider for @kcrw.com: email.kcrw.com/guerrilla-gi...

"If you cannot see in Madison, stop by the Art Institute of Chicago, which has a grouping of her “Closed Forms,” ranging from palm-sized to about four feet tall, in the American Wing where they are actively interacting with paintings from the 1940s and 1950s, including Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks.”"

In advance of Thanksgiving:

Let’s go over this again: yes, at the end of every meeting someone should haphazardly throw chunky files into a capacious briefcase & shove it under his arm & storm out but THE REAL CONCLUDING GESTURE comes after: a bright & definitive click! as the meeting’s true victor snaps her pocketbook shut.

Excited for Patti Smith Show!

I'm super-excited about this conversation between these feminist activists, theorists, and friends, coming up at @intellpublics.bsky.social @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social on December 8. Online. Registration link below! @dukepress.bsky.social

CAA has now publicly announced this year’s shortlist. There were so many great books this year!

Walked by a tree & thought: bark is freaky.

Sandra Vásquez de la Horra makes simple materials — paper, graphite, a little paint — feel magical in her solo show at the ICA LA, where she deftly fuses organic forms and the body. I write all about it for @kcrw.com's Art Insider: email.kcrw.com/sandra-vasqu...

Is your child secretly hoarding fresh produce? Check if they're using these acronyms... LOL: lots of lettuce YOLO: yummy oranges locked, organized ASAP: apples sold and pocketed FOMO: fennel, oyster mushrooms, oregano AFAIK: all figs are in knapsack BRB: bought radicchio boxes

Early Florentine self-portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi on view at Christie's in New York, and up for auction in in February. I just saw it in August and it's very close to her Inclination in the Casa Buonarroti (c. 1615) and other early self-portraits in Florence (thanks, @pjeromack.bsky.social!)

If you see any art in Chicago this fall, put the Elizabeth Catlett exhibition at the Art Institute at the top of your list. A moving and powerful exhibit that we really need right now.

the babies are familiar with lockdowns but that doesn't make a new reason for them less terrorizing

Please please go vote today, if you haven't already. And then, whatever happens today, let it energize you tomorrow to keep pushing to make things better. ❤️👊

If in Chicago, I highly recommend this show!

Venice used to have a second church on Piazza San Marco: S. Geminiano designed by Sansovino you can see in this Canaletto painting. It was kind of a big deal; shows up in a ton of artwork. It was destroyed by Napoleon — to build a ballroom. Napoleon occupied Venice 1806-1814, eight years.

MOST PEOPLE ARE NOT FIT TO RULE THEMSELVES

Out today: BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2025, edited by... me! So so many great stories in here. I can't wait for you to discover them and their talented writers.

Does anyone I know have an image of documenta XV (2022)? Ideally one showing after artworks were taken down??

Packed streets for the #NoKings March in Chicago!

Chicago - no kings

I just visited the Cook County domestic violence courthouse. Because of these ICE raids, women are afraid to come in and get help, but there are options.   If you or someone you know needs help, call the IL Domestic Violence Hotline at 877-863-6338. You are not alone.

I'm curating an exhibition and still looking for a space to host it. Looking for a space in NYC ideally but would consider the tri-state area. Fall 2026 or Spring 2027.

Joyce Cutler-Shaw’s Messages from the World (1982)

The Chicago Architecture Center's Open House Chicago is next weekend. But the Sun-Times asked me to get a jump on it for this weekend. This year’s OHC has 200+ sites with 30 new places to gawk at. All of them are pretty good, but here are my top five:

"Amy Sherald: American Sublime," which opens at the Baltimore Museum of Art next month will travel to the High Museum in Atlanta, opening on May 15, 2026. It will be uncensored. high.org/exhibition/a...

Some Chicago joy, seeing Stereolab at the Metro and walking home as Cubs won!!!

Weird to feel excited about anything these days, but grateful to have the "distraction" of working on a project I deeply believe in. Thanks to Getty for supporting books about women artists and excited to (eventually) see 'Structure and Flow: The Life/Work of Claire Falkenstein' out in the world!

Tonika Lewis Johnson’s artwork includes the acclaimed Folded Map Project. She’s one of 22 new MacArthur Fellows, announced on Wednesday.

A ringed plover and her chick to lift my mood and that of anyone else who’s feeling a little low this week.

I am very excited to be back from parental leave and chairing the Twenty-First International Conference on the Arts in Society at the National and Kapodistrian University in Athens, Greece.

The Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool is definitely an oasis and gift to the city...