All Writing

PracticeApril 202512 min

How Regional Arts Grants Actually Work

What artists outside major cities need to know — and why the obvious starting points are wrong

Most artists trying to find grant support start in the wrong place. The NEA sounds like the obvious answer. It isn't — not for individual artists. Here is where the money actually is, how it moves, and what getting some of it requires.

CriticismMarch 202511 min

The Encaustic Revival

Why a 2,000-year-old medium came back — and why it stayed

Encaustic — wax-based painting fused with heat — has been around since Roman Egypt. It almost disappeared entirely for fifteen centuries. Then Jasper Johns used it to paint a flag, and something shifted in American painting that hasn't fully resolved.

PracticeFebruary 202510 min

What Artist Statements Actually Do

A practical account of what jurors read, what they skip, and what kills an otherwise strong application

The advice on writing artist statements tends to be generic, procedural, and largely useless. Here is a more accurate account of what the statement is actually doing in a juried exhibition context — and why most of them fail to do it.

CriticismApril 202511 min

Small University Galleries That Shaped American Art

A brief history of overlooked institutions and the infrastructure they quietly built

The gallery system people know — the Gagosians, the Whitneys, the Pace and Hauser & Wirths — is not the system that trained most working artists or gave most serious work its first serious audience. That happened elsewhere. Much of it happened in university galleries that nobody outside their region could name.