Gabrielle Goliath, Richard Avedon, “Chicken Linda”

I skipped the New York art fairs this season. Went to none, not even the so-called “anti-fair” fairs. It was a choice, a kind of detox. And guess what? I don’t feel like I missed anything. Soon after, a spate of auctions culminated in the record-breaking sale of a Jackson Pollock for $181 million at Christie’s. I wasn’t there either, and I had 181 million reasons to not care.

Instead, I kept thinking of pioneering performance artist Linda Montano, who’s now 84. She invited our contributor Taliesin Thomas into her home-shrine in Upstate NY, welcoming her in a devotional chicken costume. God bless “Chicken Linda.” I urge you to read this profile.

I was also thinking about Gabrielle Goliath’s exhibition Elegy, now on view at a church in Venice after the South African culture minister banned it from the country’s pavilion for political reasons. I’m glad to report that the video installation only benefits from the alternative location and reaches deep into the heart. Aruna D’Souza was there too and wrote an excellent review.

Oh, and did I tell you that Hyperallergic won the New York Press Club journalism award for Noah Fischer’s comic “A Prospect Heights Ghost Story”? Supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, it was the final part of a series that focused on the artists, activists, and organizers on the front lines of the housing justice movement in NYC. Congrats to Noah, and thank you all for your continuous support. Enjoy reading and have a wonderful weekend.

—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief

The Divine Powers of “Chicken Linda”

Pioneering performance artist Linda Mary Montano gave me a tour of her home-shrine and a glimpse into her lifelong spiritual quest through art. | Taliesin Thomas

Jackson Pollock, Constantin Brancusi, and Hollywood star Nicole Kidman were all part of a record-setting $1 billion evening sale at Christie’s on May 18.
The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs has revealed six commission proposals for a monument celebrating the legacy of groundbreaking jazz vocalist Billie Holiday.
Thousands have submitted complaints decrying the right-wing smear campaign against British-Nigerian photographer and arts trustee Misan Harriman.
Sarah Lucas’s new public sculpture “VENUS VICTORIA” outside Manhattan’s New Museum subverts the mostly male history of public monuments.
The city of Paterson, New Jersey unveiled its new Gaza Square with a sculpture by artist and activist Kyle Goen. “Gaza Love” (2014–) commemorates the city’s large diasporic Palestinian community at a time of profound loss.
Roberto Lugo, a spoken-word poet and renowned potter, unveiled a two-part public monument to Puerto Rican culture in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park, Alfarero del Barrio (Village Potter).
The Stonewall National Monument was named one of the most endangered places in the United States in an annual list put out by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Artist Alejandro Valencia’s work in the Columbia University MFA show is an indictment of the school’s crackdown on pro-Palestine activists, including a student who says she has been denied her degree.

From Our Critics

A New Richard Avedon Documentary Lets Him Down

Director Ron Howard is a gun for hire, and it shows in this conventional documentary about the famed photographer.

Gabrielle Goliath Sounds a Call to Action in Venice

With “Elegy,” the South African artist proposes that grief is a necessary tool for building solidarity. | Aruna D’Souza

Martin Wong’s Brick Monument to Popeye

He repurposed bygone cartoon characters and gave them new life with a queer, magpie sensibility, which still pops two decades after his death. | Brian Karl

The Black American Artists Who Dazzled Post-War Paris

An exhibition in Chicago celebrates the painters, writers, and performers who sought freedom in the city of light and left an indelible mark on its history. | Daria Simone Harper

Still in Sound
Sound artists compose sonic and multisensory interpretations of abstract paintings for this new exhibition at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado.

Learn more

Features

Art Movements — Enigmatic art dealer Larry Gagosian gets the documentary treatment, Pace gets the Brancusi Estate, the Louvre’s new architects, and other industry news.
In Memoriam — we honor F. John Sierra, a champion of Chicano art, Valie Export, an Austrian feminist artist, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, a painter and Civil Rights luminary, and others.
A View From the Easel — artist Lavett Ballard organizes exhibitions and transforms wood in the former chemistry lab of a high school-turned-community center.
Required Reading — a mysterious LA guerrilla artist, Whistler and gold paint, remembering Totó La Momposina, the art of photographing queer nightlife, AI agents turn Marxist, and more.