Lisa Rehana at the Venice Biennial.

Thanks to Dan Cameron on FB for alerting his readers to the New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana.
Link to clip of Lisa Reihana's video, Emissaries

Art Institute of Chicago: Greatest Hits and New Discoveries

Hiroshige

SuZuki, Rimpa School. 1791-1858

Xugu: 1823-1896. Small works reflecting his Buddhist beliefs and interest in the tenets of literati painting.

The more commercially accepted work by Xugu.

Huang Binghong 1864-1955. Brushwork influenced by Abstract Expressionists. I keep a book of correspondence from him and a Chinese critic by my nightstand, so great to see a suite of drawings.

Beauty by Christina Ramberg (one of my grad school professors). 

Öyvind Fahlström

Matisse, Geranium, 1906

Major influence in grad school - now back again. Ingres. 

Manet's raw-footed Christ.

Manet's fish.

Harking back to Xugu, a lovely winter Monet.

Closing with Vuillard, 1918 - a commission originally, Vuillard used distemper.What IS distemper? A hot glue mixed with pigment, raising the surface and drying quickly. 

From Empires to Outcasts: the Met and Wave Hill

First a jaunt through the Asian wing and a quick peek at innovative uses of bamboo in Japan.

Chinese scrolls - here, a solid sense of home encircled by expressive pines.

Many ideas in this scroll in which deities appear in a bubble. 

Landscape vase in cloisonne

The incredible Age of Empires exhibition at the Met. Exhibition Link

To think, 221 BC. But Michael Woods' Story of China makes clear how advanced the cultural achievements always have been. About the PBS series

Playing the zither 

Ancient textiles

Pair of Goats, Western Han Dynasty (206 bc-AD 09), earthenware with pigment

Lamp with Sixteen Branches, AD 25-220 (Eastern Han)

Plant candelabra

Tomb Gate, Eastern Han

Star of the show: a confident warrior, as recognizable as someone glimpsed on the street.

Shifting gears radically: Rei Kawukobo's iconic fashion works. in Art of The In-Between. Exhibition Link

Matisse, just because.

Greek sculpture, just because.

Also a constrast with China

Indian botanical studies, 1773

Irving Penn Exhibition at the Met Exhibition Link

Sevres Porcelain

Samira Abassy, detail, from Outcasts: Women in the Wilderness at Wave Hill (through July 9, 2017)
Gallery Link

Abassy's beautiful graphite drawings, solid and satisfying.

Detail of Marie Watt's subtle embroidery overlays on fabric

Nancy Spero's works inspired the wild, 'outcast' artists in the exhibition, curated by Deborah Frizzell, Harry J. Weil, Jennifer McGregor and Gabriel de Guzman. The exhibition was reviewed by Paul Laster in Whitehot Magazine. Exhibition Review by Paul Laster

"Women have long been treated and portrayed as outcasts, banished to a literal or symbolic wilderness on the fringes of the social order, whether for political, cultural or religious transgressions. Portrayals of their casting-out span regions and cultures across the globe and across millennia—from Lilith to Jezebel to Hester Prynne. Intensified by the current political climate, and marred by economic disparity and geopolitical conflicts, women continue to be marked as outcasts."

Fay Ku's overlayed graphite and watecolor drawings