Beyond the Canvas
An art blog with opinions
 

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be...

"If I have to change my lifestyle, I don't want to live." - Robert Mapplethorpe In this powerful self-portrait Robert Mapplethorpe looks...

“I always use simple elements, I don’t want to add or subtract anything. I never even wanted to deform either: I isolate and I represent....

From the Wunderkammers of Renaissance to this day, the Global West has a museum for everything. From sex to death, from vaginas to...

Like many, I have been following the recent events unfolding in Afghanistan. I have mostly been feeling sad and powerless while thinking...

At long last, my reading drought has come to an end. I am currently re-reading the original version of The Life Before Us written in 1975...

"I would like everyone to read, not so they become writers or poets, but so that no one is a slave anymore." - Gianni Rodari I recently...

“My photography has always provided me with an opportunity to open myself up and see the world around me. And most of all, photography...

Revered by the public, reviled by the art establishment and eventually sold at auction for almost £1m, the Mona Lisa of kitsch was...

“Who needs to NOT think of you as a Black artist to consider you a real artist?” - Kerry James Marshall There are a handful of artists...

"Political activity does not interfere with my work, it feeds it. And if I'm interested in racism and fighting racism, then that should...

"The Smog Collectors materialize the reality of the air we breathe. I place cut, stencilled images on transparent or opaque plates or...

“We are at a precipice in this country, and we are either going to move forward or we are not.” - Carrie Mae Weems In 2016, nearly half...

Iconic, but not frozen in time - a garment that continues to evolve and fascinate. That is the premise of this show that traces the...

The overwhelming dominance of Artemisia Gentileschi's personal narrative over her worth as an artist has always bothered me. The rape,...

Venice is, among many other wonderful things, synonymous with glass. The work of the Murano glassblowers has inspired countless artists...

"This Christ will never be forgotten. Was it made from earth? Was it rotting flesh? I didn’t know what the medium was […] The three Marys...

"The wall is a monument to openness over enclosure, lightness over heaviness, transience over permanence — it’s also fraught with...

" I want to open a space in people’s minds where they see that they can be active, intellectually and personally, rather than passive...

"Black women’s heads of hair are galaxies unto themselves, solar systems, moonscapes, volcanic interiors. The hair she paints has a mind...