John Yau on Theaster Gates, Pyaari Azaadi's revolutionary orbit, and the plague of American curatorial silence.
Hyperallergic
December 4, 2025
— 4 min read
Katherine Bradford, “Communal Table” (2025) (photo Hakim Bishara/Hyperallergic)
Katherine Bradford, beloved 83-year-old artist, possesses the uncanny ability to bewitch with a simple brushstroke. At a solo show in Tribeca, her paintings of figures drifting through starry skies put Editor-in-Chief Hakim Bishara under this spell, giving new meaning to a season of personal loss and mourning:
"It’s a woman hovering in space, coupled with what could be her ghost. Her features are well-defined, a rare gesture by Bradford, whose figures tend to be faceless. It must be someone important in her life. I don’t know. I didn’t ask. The stars twinkle behind the two figures. A full moon glows bright. I get the sense it’s a moment of tranquility, of acceptance."
Read Hakim's review
SPONSORED
Peter Waite: Social Memory, Paintings 1987-2025
Absence is a presence in paintings by artist Peter Waite. Large-scale architectural scenes capture the beauty and poignancy of overlooked corners, faded surfaces, and traces of life that remain when people are gone. On view through March 15, 2026, at The Wadsworth in Hartford, Connecticut.
Learn moreNews
A room showing masks of men's faces at the US Virgin Islands home (screenshot via Oversight Committee Democrats)- Epstein's Masks: US House Oversight Committee Democrats just released photos of the convicted sex offender's island home, with images of disturbing masks surrounding a sinister dentist's chair among them.
- New Fair on the Block: The ADAA recently canceled its NYC edition, leaving the Henry Street Settlement nonprofit in limbo. Now, the organization has launched a new fair to replace it.
Opinion
The term "curator" fails to fully encompass the work of Erika Hirugami, LA-based founder of UNDOC+Collective. Her vision of the role, she writes, is woefully mismatched with the political silence of many curators around the United States. In "The Cruelty of American Curatorial Silence," she asks:
"Why are curators not as politically active in the public sphere as artists have been since the dawn of time? What kind of privilege does the curatorial field grant that allows many curators to be politically inactive at best, and complicit at worst?"
Read the full opinion
SPONSORED
The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation Launches Platform Dalí, a New Art and Science Program
Inspired by Dalí’s vision and his engagement with scientific work, this program seeks to explore the limits of knowledge and imagination through dialogue between art and science.
Learn moreFrom Our Critics
Installation view of Theaster Gates, African Still Life #3: A Tribute to Patric McCoy and Marva Jolly (2025), African reliquary, vinyl records, steel shelving, sound system designed by OJAS, record player (image courtesy Smart Museum of Art)John Yau
Theaster Gates: Oh, You've Got to Come Back to the City at Gray Gallery and Unto Thee at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago
"By preserving and displaying things that could be sold on eBay or otherwise discarded, Gates invites viewers to consider the different forms that art can take. Yet with only the spines of the records visible and the dozens of African artifacts nearly identical, the whole display feels flattened."
Read the full review
Interviews
Pyaari Azaadi giving a tour of her exhibition Talkin' Bout a Revolution at Pen and Brush in October (photo by Abeer Y. Hoque, courtesy the artist)There is no one quite like Pyaari Azaadi, a veritable north star for countless South Asian artists, writers, and activists (including me). In an interview with journalist Yashica Dutt, Azaadi discusses the inherently political nature of her work, the costs of pushing against art-world injustice, and the community to which she dedicated her show.
Read the full interview
Member Comment
Jozanne Rabyor on Valentina Di Liscia's "Stop Putting Art on Miami Beach":
Thanks for seeding the ether with the option to read at this spot, perhaps after the initial hype dies down, as you suggest. Thank heavens we can also read in libraries, on lawns and stoops, in cafes, in bed, on park benches and sofas, and in many bookstores. Asking visitors to concentrate on a book of poetry at a spectacle like this makes me think of desalinating a cupful of ocean to season a salad. Using my salt shaker has got to be easier.Guides
Lilian Kilpatrick Rheuban, "Winter's Coming" (1976), oil on canvas (photo courtesy Ruffed Grouse Gallery)10 Shows to See in Upstate New York This DecemberRomare Bearden’s interdisciplinary art, Kikuo Saito’s color experiments, and dogs and cats galore! | Taliesin Thomas
In Memoriam
Former ArtTable Board President Jane Borthwick with Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz and Ellen Cantrowitz (photo courtesy ArtTable)Remembering Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz, Robert A. M. Stern, and Ruth Thorne-ThomsenThis week, we honor an advocate for women’s leadership, a museum architect, and a photographer of dreamscapes. | Lisa Yin Zhang
Whether you're a regular reader or new to the site, thank you for being here. Enjoy today's edition, and please consider joining Hyperallergic as a paid member to support our independent arts journalism.
—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor
