Category Archives: San Francisco

Annie Leibovitz’s WOMEN: New Portraits, Art Practical

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Larissa Archer

Annie Leibovitz. Portrait of Misty Copeland, New York City, 2015; from WOMEN: New Portraits. Courtesy of UBS. It’s hard to guess the reasoning behind the exhibition layout of WOMEN: New Portraits, photographer Annie Leibovitz’s continuation of her 1999–2000 collaboration with critic and partner … Continue reading →

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Sophie Calle at Fraenkel Gallery

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Larissa Archer

In my early days as a theater student, when my teacher was tired of our careful, over-polished, actorish acting, he’d exhort us to show our “bathroom selves.” Your bathroom self is who you are before you apply your mask for … Continue reading →

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Sexxxitecture at CULT, for Frieze Magazine

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Larissa Archer

MAX MASLANSKY, Interior Storybook (Queen bed), 2014, Acrylic on bed sheet, 80×60 inches   When you attend a show titled ‘Sexxxitecture’, you know both what to look for and the danger of projecting too much onto what you see. Purporting … Continue reading →

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Arnold Newman: Masterclass at the Contemporary Jewish Museum

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Larissa Archer

One of my favorite photography exhibits in San Francisco last year was the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s “Arnold Newman: Masterclass.” While some of the artist’s portraits have achieved iconic status (think of the composer Igor Stravinsky. The image you have in … Continue reading →

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Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa, Ponte City, for Art Practical

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Larissa Archer

“It was a place where the wave crashed inwards upon itself, with the seething violence of delayed hope. It was Africa coming back, but with nowhere yet to go…. It was 54 floors of people in between other places.”—Denis Hirson, … Continue reading →

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Sarah Christianson’s “When the Landscape Is Quiet Again: North Dakota’s Oil Boom,” Art Practical

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Larissa Archer

“We all wanted this oil development. We just didn’t know what we were in for. Even half of what we got would’ve been too much.”—Carole Freed, fourth-generation rancher, Watford City, ND, May 2013 No single photograph in Sarah Christianson’s When … Continue reading →

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Alonzo King Lines Ballet Moves from Stage to Page

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Larissa Archer

The cliché about ballet dancers is that they are “light on their feet,” that they “float” and “soar” across the stage. I’ve always felt the opposite to be more interesting: nobody reveals a more solid connection to the ground. Even … Continue reading →

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The Embarrassment of Riches: Bulgari at the De Young, Huffington Post

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Larissa Archer

In case you were wondering, the technological highlight of the De Young Museum’s “Bulgari: La Dolce Vita and Beyond,” is a clever interactive portfolio devoted to the Italian house’s queen collector, Liz Taylor. Upon turning each page, a digital image … Continue reading →

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Nan Still Stands: “Nan Goldin: Nine Self-Portraits” at Fraenkel Gallery

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Larissa Archer

“Herr God, Herr Lucifer, Beware  Beware.  Out of the ash I rise with my red hair and I eat men like air.”  Sylvia Plath, Lady Lazarus Though the collection is small — only 9 photographs — “Nan Goldin: Nine Self-Portraits” … Continue reading →

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Curation as a New Translation: Diane Arbus at Fraenkel Gallery, Huffington Post

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Larissa Archer

I am not cruel, only truthful— The eye of a little god, four-cornered. Mirror, Sylvia Plath Diane Arbus famously brought a dispassionate but probing voyeurism to the marginalized and pariah of our society. Her treatments of the denizens of the mainstream … Continue reading →

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