Highlights of 2021 by Sky Hopinka The work of Ulysses Jenkins was a revelation. Across the videos and performances featured in this career retrospective—among them Two-Zone Transfer, 1979, and Inconsequential Doggerel, 1981—one found a constellation of themes that remain relevant some fifty years on. With nimble curiosity, Jenkins confronts the hegemonies of race, gender, and…

Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation Wire Magazine, December 2021 Televisions used to be heavy, with physical depth and heft. Unlike contemporary flat screens, these old CRT monitors had an intense spatial quality, the solidity and stolidity of an immovable force. In Without Your Interpretation, the first retrospective exhibition of multimedia artist Ulysses Jenkins, one first…

Confronting Mass Media: A veteran Black artist receives his first retrospective By James Hannaham October 8, 2021 When you’re “young, gifted, and Black,” as Nina Simone famously sang, “there’s a world waiting for you.” But if you’re old, overlooked, and Black, like Los Angeles video artist Ulysses Jenkins, you might have to wait a while…

Modern Art Notes podcast, Episode No. 518 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Hugo McCloud and curator Erin Christovale. McCloud’s work is on view in “In Relation to Power: Politically Engaged Works from the Collection” at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, which was curated by Marshall Price and Adria Gunter,…

The best fall exhibits in Philadelphia art museums By Thomas Hine Usually you go to a museum to see the work of multiple artists. Increasingly, though, as mega retrospectives swell and metastasize, you need to go to multiple museums to see the work of one artist. This season brings what is likely the biggest such…

ICA debuts first major retrospective of pioneering video artist by Brandon Baker It took five decades, but Ulysses Jenkins finally has his first major retrospective. “It’s unbelievable and frustrating,” says Meg Onli. But also, exciting. Onli, the Andrea B. Laporte Associate Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, co-curated the exhibit for the ICA alongside…

Curator Meg Onli Wins Inaugural Prize Aimed at Advancing Racial Equity in the Arts By Daniel Cassidy April 26, 2021 The inaugural Figure Skating Prize, aimed at Black artists, curators and contemporary art scholars who are advancing equity and racial justice within the arts, has been awarded to Meg Onli, the Andrea B. Laporte Associate…

ICA Director Zoë Ryan on Museum Pandemic Pivots and Strengthening Community pewcenterarts.org April 22, 2021 The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania, an internationally renowned venue for contemporary art and culture, appointed Zoë Ryan as its director in November 2020. The ICA has presented many Center-supported exhibitions, including Colored People Time…

Heart Specialist–An Exhibition in Philadelphia pays tribute to the multidisciplinary accomplishments of Milford Graves By Ken Micaleff Jazz Times, December 2020 When appraising the work of Milford Graves, you need to reimagine what constitutes jazz and improvisation. Yes, he’s a master percussionist who helped take the drums beyond mere timekeeping. But he’s also much more…