#institutional-critique

#institutional-critique

In Columbia University's MFA show, artist Alejandro Valencia loudly names the elephant in the room: The Manhattan school's institutional failure to come to terms with Israel's genocide of Palestinians. "DYNAMO (RATM01)" (2026) is included in the Visual Arts + Sound Art Class of 2026's thesis exhibition, on view at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery through this Sunday, May 24. The work resembles an engine room, alluding to the institution's hidden machinery. Its three modules feature sundials, evoking the university campus' iconic central landmark, but compressing and constricting what they precariously hold.

Pen + Brush offers something far more seductive than another stop on the cultural circuit. It offers a place to exhale, gather, look, toast, move, and perhaps most importantly, remember that art has never belonged solely to hushed institutional rooms or the transactional glare of fairs. Art has always belonged to the body as much as the mind, to the dance floor as much as the gallery wall.

The Athens-based artist reimagines the pavilion as a contemporary Platonic Cave, where truth fractures into replicas, projections, staged realities, and algorithmic illusions. The installation positions the Greek Pavilion itself as a historical body haunted by nationalism, propaganda, and the unresolved tensions embedded within the Giardini.

The new New Museum is many things: contemporary, perhaps, but also a science, history, anthropology, and many other museums in one. It echoes the desire of its patron class to own the world and its affiliated courtier class to deliver it to them on a silver platter, or encased in perforated metal, in this case.

Upon close inspection, the work's text is a list of words that have seemingly been banned by the Trump administration that first appeared in the New York Times in March, which has been adapted as Andrea Fraser's latest project, titled Lexicon. The majority of these words revolve around the term "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) and related terms, like "racial diversity," "activism," "discrimination," confirmation bias," "women," "cultural heritage," "underserved," "pregnant person," "they/them"-the list goes on.

Tieu's work consists of a contract engraved onto four A4-sized mirrors. It harshly criticises KW's board structure, which charges a €5,000 yearly fee from each member. The fee is a key revenue stream for the institute, already under pressure as Berlin cuts arts funding, but also hampers diversity in the management of the city's cultural institutions, in which "legacies of exclusion and economic gatekeeping" persist.

Microplastics are to men what Norway is to whales#MeToo movement has been to men what ICC has been to Benjamin NetanyahuVatican has been to men what Vatican has been to priestsIslam has been to men what oil fields have been to comedyPop culture has been to men what Sear's Catalog has been to pop cultureJustice has been to men what justice has been to Germany what Germany has been to literaturewhat Germany has been to genocide

Adrian Piper's 64th birthday marked her declaration of a new racial identity, stating her designation as "6.25% grey", challenging the limited racial categories imposed by society.