Thursday, October 9, 2025

The Films of Sophie Fillières by Melissa Anderson

In the late writer-director’s works, portraits of headstrong women under the influence of adventurous spirits. Emmanuelle Devos as Pomme in If You Don’t, I Will. Courtesy L’Alliance N…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Waiting for Godot by Jennifer Krasinski

Jamie Lloyd’s new production of Samuel Beckett’s play is in danger of punking a classic most heinously. Alex Winter as Vladimir and Keanu Reeves as Estragon in Waiting for Godot. Courte…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Sick Architecture by Noah Chasin

A collection of three dozen essays examines the intertwined histories of built environments and the scourges they harbor, house, and cause. Sick Architecture, edited by Beatriz Colomina wit…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Jessi Jezewska Stevens

A setup familiar to contemporary fiction and romance ends up defying expectations in the latest novel by Claire-Louise Bennett. Big Kiss, Bye-Bye, by Claire-Louise Bennett, Riverhead Books…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM
Thursday, October 2, 2025

Shadow Ticket by Brian Dillon

Absurdities, conspiracies, homegrown fascists: in Thomas Pynchon’s novel set in 1932, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Shadow Ticket, by Thomas Pynchon, Penguin Press,…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Mariah Carey by Andrew Chan

The singer’s sixteenth studio album, Here for It All. Here for It All, by Mariah Carey, Gamma •   •   • Pop superstars, whose talents are so often eroded by the rigors of …

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One Battle After Another by Nick Pinkerton

In Paul Thomas Anderson’s action-comedy-drama about members of a leftist militant group, tidy ideologies make for a story more soothing than disquieting. Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguso…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Ben Shahn by Gregg Bordowitz

A new retrospective at the Jewish Museum showcases the artist’s commitment to the fight against fascism and oppression. Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity, installation view. Courtesy the Jewish…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM
Thursday, September 25, 2025

Vaim by Ania Szremski

Wateryworld: language and its faults make for a story of amphibolous feelings in the inaugural installment of Jon Fosse’s new trilogy set in a small fishing town. Vaim, by Jon Fosse, tran…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Alix Cléo Roubaud by Margaret Sundell

The first solo show outside France of the Canadian artist, who died in her early thirties in 1983, presents tantalizing works haunted by an atmosphere of absence and loss. Alix Cléo Roubau…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

The Smashing Machine by Beatrice Loayza

A Rock and a soft place: in Benny Safdie’s biopic, Dwayne Johnson plays UFC champ Mark Kerr as a brawler with a big heart. Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine. Courtesy A2…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Grand Rapids by Jeanine Herman

Tess of the suburbanvilles and pills: in Natasha Stagg’s second novel, a woman looks back on her tumultuous early-2000s adolescence. Grand Rapids, by Natasha Stagg, Semiotext(e), 221 pag…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM
Thursday, September 18, 2025

Dread Beat an Blood by Sasha Frere-Jones

A 1979 Linton Kwesi Johnson documentary by Franco Rosso is a portrait of the artist as principled activist. Linton Kwesi Johnson in Dread Beat an Blood. Courtesy Seventy-Seven. Dread Beat …

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Zoe Leonard: Display by Julia Bryan-Wilson

Three decades after they were taken, the artist’s photographs of historical armor take on a terrifying gleam of violent ideology and elitist systems. Zoe Leonard: Display, installation vi…

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J’ai faim, j’ai froid and Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 1960s in Brussels by Melissa Anderson

In two films by Chantal Akerman playing as part of MoMA’s complete retrospective, teenage heroines ramble through city streets hungering for more. Pascale Salkin and Maria de Medeiros in…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

The Autobiography of H. Lan Thao Lam by Megan Milks

A new book by artist Lana Lin drawing from Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas digs into the Asian understory of Stein’s and Toklas’s writings. The Autobiography of…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM
Thursday, September 11, 2025

Saul Williams and Carlos Niño by Harmony Holiday

In a new live album, protest music that proves the regenerative power of naming and withholding names. Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople, by Saul Williams and Car…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Stan Douglas by Aruna D’souza

The specters of history and photography haunt thirty-two works in the artist’s first US survey in over twenty years. Stan Douglas: Ghostlight, installation view. Courtesy Hessel Museum of…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Dreams by Melissa Anderson

Dag Johan Haugerud’s trilogy concludes with the portrayal of a teenager who writes a manuscript detailing her infatuation with her high school teacher. Selome Emnetu as Johanna and Ella …

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Animal Stories by Brian Dillon

Through the works of Kafka, Berger, Sebald, and more, Kate Zambreno’s book reflects on our perceptions of nonhuman animals and our own animal nature. Animal Stories, by Kate Zambreno, T…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM
Thursday, September 4, 2025

Okwui Enwezor by Oluremi C. Onabanjo

Two volumes of the late critic and curator’s writings provide a crucial orienting point from which to expand the horizons of contemporary art. Okwui Enwezor: Selected Writings, Volume 1: …

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Okwui Enwezor by Carlos Basualdo

The poet, the political scientist, the historian, the curator, the cosmopolitan Africanist. Okwui Enwezor: Selected Writings, Volume 1: Toward a New African Art Discourse and Volume 2: Cur…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Riefenstahl by Michelle Orange

A documentary on the “Nazi directress” by Andres Veiel raises new questions about art, ethics, and judgment. Leni Riefenstahl during the CBC interview “Leni Riefenstahl in her own wor…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

Anna Boghiguian by Emily Labarge

Epic and anarchic: a trio of installations showcase the artist’s rangy, timeless world-making. Anna Boghiguian: The Sunken Boat: A glimpse into past histories, installation view. Courtesy…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM
Thursday, August 28, 2025

The Fall 2025 Preview by 4 Columns

Come one, come all, come see what we have in store for you this fall! Anna Boghiguian: The Sunken Boat: A glimpse into past histories, installation view. Courtesy Turner Contemporary. Photo…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM
Thursday, August 21, 2025

Critic’s Picks: Books of the Summer by 4 Columns

Philosophy, case study, biography, fiction: four newly published page-turners to add to your bookshelf. As the dog days of summer wind down to an end and we brace for September, four criti…

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Thursday, August 14, 2025

Critic’s Picks: Albums of the Summer by 4 Columns

Songs to sweat by: a roundup of four new music recommendations. What is the perfect summer album? Based on this week’s picks by four 4Columns critics, beauty truly is in the ear of the be…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM
Thursday, August 7, 2025

Critic’s Picks: Exhibitions of the Summer by 4 Columns

A quartet of art recommendations, spanning both sides of the Atlantic. NO-PHOTO 2025, installation view. Both posters captioned “Photo: Hatem Khaled, Khan Younis, 19 May 2025.” Courtesy…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM
Thursday, July 31, 2025

Reference Materials by 4 Columns

Three movies in which moviemaking itself plays a starring role. Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy in Babylon. Courtesy Paramount Pictures. Photo: Scott Garfield. The youngest art form, cine…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM
Thursday, July 24, 2025

Place Is the Space by 4 Columns

For our third summer missive, reviews that center on place and feelings of home.  Stephen Shore, U.S. 97, South of Klamath Falls, Oregon, July 21, 1973, 1973. Chromogenic color print, pri…

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Thursday, July 17, 2025

Rebel Rebel by 4 Columns

United we stan this trio of films focusing on activists and revolutionaries. Nahuel Pérez Biscayart in BPM. Courtesy Céline Nieszawer. During the first iteration of the Trump kakistocrac…

SOURCE: 4columns at 08:00PM

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