Across the pages of this issue of Flash Art, there are three words that resonate throughout: coexistence, identity, and protest. While codes to define new standards of identity are being rewritten, populist authorities still distrust the idea of a diversified coexistence of individuals, inciting resistance in physical and digital realms and spreading confusion about who or what to follow or unfollow. This issue invites readers to pay attention to the stereotypes that infect our gaze.
Cover story artist Nora Turato, who “nails the disingenuity of our days” with her spoken-wordventriloquism of the internet. We live under a constant barrage of problematic content, as we see in
Omer Fast's dialogue with an online content moderator; or in the false narratives of South Central Los Angeles that Lauren Halsey pushes back against; or in the regressive horror genre tropes that Misha Green's
Lovecraft Country recalibrates through the lens of Black history. It is also implicated in the “passive seeing” questioned by Shaun Leonardo.
Also in this issue: William J. Simmons rethinks concepts of ugliness and identification in
Cindy Sherman's work; Charlie Robin Jones considers Prada SS21 collection for its rehabilitation of the ugly and abject in the service of a new collectivity; Dean Kissick talks with Daniel Lopatin—also known as Oneohtrix Point Never—about his new studio album
Magic Oneohtrix Point Never. Moreover
Pierre Bal-Blanc's fourth episode of The Curatorial Gaze; a new visual project on CDLM by Matthew Linde; Questionnaire on “Queer Correspondence,” a heartfelt Letter from the City by Charles Gaines. And a new column release: TELL EVERYONE–first episode on Lana Del Rey.
Flash Art is a contemporary art and culture magazine (and a
publishing platform) founded in 1967. Within a decade, it became an indispensable point of reference for artists, critics, collectors, galleries, and institutions. In 2020,
Flash Art became a quarterly publication, at the same time increasing its trim size and updating its graphic identity. The magazine offers a fresh perspective on the visual arts, covering a range of transdisciplinary approaches and fostering in-depth analyses of artist practices and new cultural directions. Today,
Flash Art remains required reading for all who navigate the international art scene.
Flash Art is known for it covers featuring artists who subsequently become leading figures in the art world. The magazine includes photoshoots, productions, critical essays, monographic profiles, conversations with emerging and established artists, and a range of ongoing and thematic columns that change every few years. The long history of the magazine is also highlighted by pivotal texts from the archive that are included in the publication time to time. Finally, every issue offers a highly curated selection of the best institutional exhibitions on the global scene.
See also
Flash Art Volumes.