Art Writer Robin Cembalest
Throughout her career, Robin has covered the people, places, and trends shaping the art world. Following is a non-chronological sampling from Robin’s hundreds of publications.
Should Curating Be Crowdsourced?
In attempting to avoid controversies over content, a Smithsonian panel might be setting the stage for even more.
Where Rube Goldberg Meets Kafka
At the Havana Biennial, concepts like political correctness and radical chic got all shook up
From Kongo to Othello to Tango to Museum Shows
Artists and scholars are taking increasingly nuanced approaches to tracking the image--and influence--of Africans in Western art.
A Gallery of Venice Biennale Artists
Converging on Venice from Iraq, Iceland, Azerbaijan, and beyond, they came, they showed—and they posed for photos
Making the Global Local
Manuel Borja-Villel's rehang of the Reina Sofía highlights its holdings of Spanish modernist icons—along with the unknown, the unexpected, and the international.
Your Thievin’ Art? At Play in the Field of Fair Use
Your mug shot. Your profile picture. Your breakfast table. Is anything safe from appropriation artists?
Engravings for the E.T. in All of Us
Trevor Paglen’s small silicon disc on a space-bound satellite is a giant leap for public art--whether or not the aliens actually get it.
Making Yale Zig Zag
Robert Storr brings Jac Leirner back to art school. A paper chase ensues.
Let It Bleed: The Frightening Scene on the Met’s Roof
A history of violence resonates in Imran Qureshi's massive rooftop painting at the Metropolitan Museum, and in other shows by Benny Andrews, Nancy Spero, and more.
Let My People Show: Welcome to ‘Jew York’
Jewish art geography, from Aleph and Arbus to Robert Zimmerman
Painting Auschwitz Blue
Maurizio Cattelan, Santiago Sierra, Yishai Judisman, and the challenge of contemporary art about the Holocaust.
From Breakdowns to Breakthroughs
Art Spiegelman on storytelling, modernism, wormholes, loopholes, and the boundaries that still separate high and low.
Chasing Unicorns in Art Across the Ages
A herd of the magical, elusive creatures alights in uptown Manhattan, while others emerge in galleries and artist's studios everywhere.
Taking Roman Vishniac Out of the Ghetto
With a trove of images that were unseen and unknown, the ICP creates a nuanced portrait of the photographer best known for documenting the vanished world of Eastern European Jewry.
D.C. for ETs: Sci-fi Archeology at the Corcoran
Ellen Harvey’s mischievous exhibition, “Alien’s Guide to the Ruins of Washington, DC.,” at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
‘Hope’ Against Hope
As the legal saga around Shepard Fairey's Obama portrait draws to a close, the country has moved on.