“Without the right kind of help, Oakland could lose yet another piece of its vibrant, artistic legacy.” As affordable residences and art spaces are becoming increasingly scarce, artists in Oakland are forced to move elsewhere. Laney Tower journalists take a look at the history, present, and uncertain future of the city’s arts and culture scene.
artists
Posted inArts & Culture, Current Events, Quotes
In South Korea, Gentrification Goes Global
Factory workers and artists struggle to keep their work spaces in this Seoul neighborhood.
Posted inCurrent Events
Zadie Smith Takes on Black Pain With a Light Touch
At Harper’s, Smith doesn’t really feel like she is engaging in her subject matter with much care or heart.
Posted inNonfiction
Young African Artists Lead Nuanced Conversation about Race in America
Taiye Selasi, Yaa Gyasi, and Toyin Ojin Odutola expand notions of blackness with layered, nuanced artwork.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Before Becoming an Art Critic, Jerry Saltz Wanted to Draw 10,000 Dante-Inspired Altarpieces
On the project that almost drove Jerry Saltz into despair.
Posted inEditor's Pick
My Life As a Failed Artist
Jerry Saltz, New York‘s senior art critic, revisits his own short career as a Dante-obsessed artist in late-seventies Chicago.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Ralph Steadman: The Gonzo Marksman
“It can be hard to fill the hours, so I try to make a mark every day.” Ralph Steadman, the Welsh artist best known for his political cartoons and collaborations with Hunter S. Thompson, continues to make art that makes a statement.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Jenny Holzer on the Difficulties of Being a Successful Female Artist
I would describe [my career] as a slow incline with various dips rather than a steep trajectory, but I was relatively young when I did a show at DIA, then the Guggenheim, and represented the United States at the Venice Biennale. During that time, I also had a baby. Those three shows all took place within a few years, […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Old Music Industry: ‘A System Specifically Engineered to Waste the Band’s Money’
During the 90s there was something of an arms race to see who could write the biggest deal. That is, the deal with the most money being spent on the band’s behalf. In a singularly painless contest the money would either be paid to the band as a royalty, which would take that money out […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
‘The Artist’s Memory Is a Dangerous, Necessary Thing’
Memory is your greatest ally and your primary source material, because memory is your body as it was in the world and the world as it was and will be; memory is the people you have loved or wanted to love in the world, and what are we if not bodies filled with reminiscences about […]