Winter 2023: Collaborations
Consider it apt that this issue focusing on collaborations comes out just in time for Art Basel Miami Beach. As that annual fair has grown over the past two decades, it has attracted creatives from far beyond the art world, most notably from the realm of fashion, and has provided fertile environs in which collaborative projects with artists could develop and evolve. Today, collaborations between artists and fashion brands are ubiquitous—an entire issue could be devoted to these alone. That is why, in addition to looking at fashion, we’ve gone further afield, focusing our lens on artists like Garnett Puett, who collaborates with bees; Gustavo Barroso, who joined forces with a Los Angeles–based brand to make a chair that looks like a carrot; and the artist collective CFGNY, whose constellation of collaborators forms a community. As one of the CFGNY’s members put it, “We’re interested in world-building, whether it’s through material we return to or social events, where we’re bringing together the people who make up our sense of the world.”
Related Articles
Every corner of this issue incorporates instances of collaboration. The sui generis multi-hyphenate Harmony Korine, who is profiled in these pages, has estalished a new creative lab called EDGLRD that brings together artists from a variety of disciplines. “There is this kind of singularity popping up in the meshing of music and films and art and gaming,” Korine tells Art in America Executive Editor Andy Battaglia. And this issue’s New Talent artist, Edgar Calel, brought the staff of SculptureCenter, where he recently had a show, into the making of his work by having them light candles in an installation.
Also not to be missed is a moving tribute to the masterful painter Brice Marden, who died earlier this year, by critic Barry Schwabsky, who recalls watching people become transfixed by Marden’s paintings. Which goes to show that, in essence, every artwork is a collaboration—one between the artist and the viewer.
FEATURES
Bees & Potatoes
The climate crisis demands that we collaborate better with other species—and artists are showing us how.
by Emily Watlington
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Machine
Stephen Thaler’s quest to copyright his AI creation raises uncomfortable questions about the nature
of creativity.
by Shanti Escalante-De Mattei
Furniture
These artists make sculptures you can sit on and tables that tell stories.
by Emily Watlington
Haute Culture
These days, it seems as if there isn’t a luxury fashion brand that doesn’t collaborate with artists. (A special pull-out print accompanies the article.)
by Charlotte Cotton
Sartorial Studies
The New York–based artist collective CFGNY tailors its work to fit into new contexts.
by Claire Voon
Adventures in the Vapor World
Harmony Korine makes his next move—into new realms awaiting his twisted visions.
by Andy Battaglia
DEPARTMENTS
Datebook
A highly discerning list of things to experience over the next three months.
by the Editors of A.i.A.
Hard Truths
An artist mulls his dealer’s no-confidence vote. Plus, an interactive quiz.
by Chen & Lampert
Sightlines
Curator Meg Onli tells us what she likes.
by Francesca Aton
Inquiry
A Q&A with Pipilotti Rist about her pivot to furniture-sculpture hybrids.
by Emily Watlington
Object Lesson
An annotation of Judy Chicago’s In the Shadow of a Handgun.
by Francesca Aton
Battle Royale
The Met vs. MoMA—museum gift shops face off.
by the Editors of A.i.A.
Syllabus
A reading list for a crash course on art and fashion.
by Stephanie Sporn
Appreciation
A tribute to Brice Marden, a painter who embodied painterliness until the end.
by Barry Schwabsky
New Talent
Guatemalan artist Edgar Calel leads a new wave of institutional critique.
by Alex Greenberger
Issues & Commentary
Climate activists are targeting museums, affirming both the urgency of the crisis and art’s unique political power.
by Michael Wang
Spotlight
Afro-Brazilian artist Rubem Valentim merged modernist abstraction and spiritual symbology.
by Elise Chagas
Book Review
A reading of Lauren Elkin’s Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art.
by Emily Watlington
REVIEWS
Berlin
Berlin Diary
by Martin Herbert
Cleveland
“Finnegan Shannon: Don’t mind if I do”
by Emily Watlington
Seoul
“The Most Honest Confession: Chang Ucchin Retrospective”
by Andrew Russeth
New York
“Manet/Degas”
by Barry Schwabsky
Chicago
“Remedios Varo: Science Fictions”
by Jeremy Lybarger
New York
“María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold”
by Maximilíano Durón
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