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Weekend Reading: May 10 Edition

Honour Lackey & Melissa Starker

May 10, 2024

A Black woman with short, tight dreadlocks and glasses smiles as she stands on a stage and sings into a microphone.

Paisha Thomas to open this summer's Goodale Park Music Series, plus: the 2024 Pulitzer Prize winners, the hottest looks from the Met Gala, new leadership in the Cleveland film scene, the passing of Steve Albini and Frank Stella, and other updates from the arts world.

Top of page: Paisha Thomas performing at the Lincoln Theatre in February 2020 as part of Say A Little Prayer: An Aretha Franklin Celebration, photo: Kathryn D Studios

Around Ohio

A neutral color wall is filled with about three dozen small ceramic sculptures of different heads.

Works by Sandra Hughes Aska, now on view at Ohio State’s Faculty Club, courtesy of the artist

Ohio State’s Faculty Club opened an exhibition of works this week by Sandra Hughes Aska and Barbara Vogel.
Hermione Malone was named the new executive director of the Cleveland International Film Festival.
The Cleveland Cinematheque also named a new director: Bilgesu Sisman.
Columbus Monthly dropped a new interview with Bone creator and Cartoon Crossroads Columbus cofounder Jeff Smith.
Columbus Jazz & Rib Fest announced its music lineup for July; it includes R&B singer Brian McKnight and locals The Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
Paisha Thomas will kick off this year’s Goodale Park Music Series July 14.
West Taylor talked with Matter about his new album Available Parts.
Columbus Underground rounded up the local festivals to look for this summer.
Tuesday, artist Nora V Daniel opens a new show at Barcelona.
Thursday, the late music venue the Tree House will be revived within Little Rock Bar with performances by Jon Chinn, Fletch, and Colin Gawel. This leads up to a 25th anniversary party for the quirky former bar Saturday night.
There’s a lot of happenings to choose from Friday, including the Columbus Museum of Art’s event tied to the return of Janet Echelman’s Current over Gay Street.
Also Friday, New York City experimental guitarist Elliott Sharp will perform downtown with Ohioans Matt Swift and Owen Hopper.
Witchlab opens a group show with a bug theme curated by AJ Vanderelli on Friday.
Prog rock gods Kraftwerk are coming to KEMBA Live Friday.
Next Saturday, ReelAbilities Film Festival Columbus will screen Jo Rochelle’s Jasmine is a Star for free at Berwick Alternative.
Last but not least for local news, Barbara O. Jones, an actress known for her work in films such as Daughters of the Dust, passed away at 82 at her home in Dayton.

Around the Globe

A large abstract, 3-D artwork featuring curving forms extending outward over a background of pink, red, green, and yellow brushstrokes.

Frank Stella, Puerto Rican Blue Pigeon, 1976. Lacquer and oil on metal, 112 1/8 x 155 5/8 x 24 in. Purchased with assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts. Installation view at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

This year’s Pulitzer Prize winners were announced, including Los Angeles Times film critic Justin Chang and Night Watch novelist Jayne Anne Phillips.
Slate looked at why children’s interest in reading is on the decline.
With a themed derived from the art-centric dystopian by J.G. Ballard, this year’s Met Gala was filled with art-inspired fashion. Here’s Artnet’s take on some of the night’s looks.
The biggest night in fashion was also met with pro-Palestine protesters.
At the Art Institute of Chicago, dozens of pro-Palestine protesters were arrested at an encampment demonstration.
The Guardian unearthed the connections between the Bauhaus movement and the Third Reich.
A new Brooklyn Rail essay considers the role of art in times when autocracy is on the rise.
Artnet looked back at the time nearly 25 years ago when Rudy Giuliani tried to close the Brooklyn Museum.
Through May 23, Arts Midwest is accepting applications for its 2024 Midwest Award for Artists with Disabilities.
Out east, the Mass Cultural Council announced the recipients of a new grant program with a laser focus on equity.
The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale announced its title and theme for next year.
Artist Mary Miss has won a victory in court against the Des Moines Art Center and its plans to demolish her land art work Greenwood Pond: Double Site.
French Artist Deborah De Robertis tagged Gustave Courbet’s The Origin of the World with the phrase “Me Too,” prompting arrest.
Artist Tara Donovan repurposed more than 200,000 used CDs for sculptures in Stratagems, her exhibition now on display at the Pace Gallery.
Six art galleries purchased an abandoned school in New York and are transforming it into to a platform for exhibitions.
Bard College has just announced a major expansion project for its library and archives: a new wing dedicated to Keith Haring, made possible by the Keith Haring Foundation.
An art recognition A.I. has identified 40 counterfeit paintings on eBay.
A geography teacher in England discovered a 1,600-year-old rock inscribed with ancient Irish writing.
In case you missed the local visit from Želimir Žilnik during last October’s Unorthodocs, here’s a new essay on “the most important filmmaker of the former Yugoslavia” from e-flux.
The same goes with our recent visit from filmmaker Nancy Savoca and this essay from The Reveal about the resurgence of her work following new restorations of Dogfight and Household Saints.
Awesomely random streamer Tubi is now accepting applications from filmmakers with series and feature ideas. Winning submissions will be funded by Tubi and produced with mentorship from Issa Rae.
H/t to Ohio-bred animator Sarah Schmidt for calling out that Min Börda’s oddly delightful, dystopian, musical animated short The Burden is now streaming free on Vimeo. Schmidt’s latest short for Adult Swim is also now online.
The prestigious Canadian documentary festival Hot Docs is in big trouble.
Easterseals announced the winners of its 2024 Disability Film Challenge.
Olivia Wilde was cast to star in Gregg Araki’s latest film, I Want Your Sex.
In August, fearless French actress Isabelle Huppert will lead the jury of the Venice Film Festival.
Kristen Stewart had some choice words about the perception that Hollywood is supporting more women filmmakers.
A new interview with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood shares the laugh he’s having at his film scores becoming popular soundtrack choices for TikTokers.
Confused by the diss-track discourse? Here’s some background on the Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake beef.
Through a new performing residency, dance and percussion group DrumatiX became the first artists to perform for travelers at San Diego International Airport.
Frank Stella, the artist that stretched abstraction to its limits, passed at 87. The Wex presented a Stella work in The Ohio State University collection in our galleries in the spring 2022 show To Begin, Again.
Jerome Rothenberg, the poet, translator and anthologist who aimed to bring non-Western cultures to English-language readers, passed at 92.
Musician and producer Steve Albini died at 61. His long list of collaborators includes Nirvana, Pixies, and PJ Harvey; he also turned the knobs for seminal discs by local bands Scrawl and Gaunt. Stereogum shared what might be Albini’s last major interview.
Blaise Mandefu Ayawo, member of the Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolese art collective, died at 55.
Jeannie Epper, the pioneering stuntwoman behind such 1970s TV staples as Wonder Woman and Charlie’s Angels, died at the age of 83.

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