The Easel

4th November 2025

In the Shadow of Ruth Asawa

Lisa Yin Zhang | Hyperallergic | 17th October 2025

It seems this show will be as big a hit in New York as it was in San Francisco. Asawa’s early work was diverse – drawings, watercolours, folded paper, ceramics – but on a visit to Mexico she learned looped wire basketry. Her iconic sculptures soon emerged, in a wide variety of shapes that seemed “inside and outside at the same time”. Later, she tied bundles of wires to make fractal-like arrangements. Once thought “domestic” Asawa’s work “seems to make [the] continuity between all things tangible”.

Juliana Halpert Rates the Los Angeles Art Scene’s Tricks and Treats So Far This Fall

Juliana Halpert | Cultured | 15th October 2025

Made in LA is the seventh biennial celebration of art in that city. After spending a year choosing artists to feature, the curators decided not to have a unifying theme. Various critics mention a few artist they think deserve more recognition, but the whole thing seems flat. The curators “assembled a biennial so meatless that I’m wondering whether it’s even worth biting into. ‘Made in L.A.’ needs active curation like a novel needs a protagonist.”

28th October 2025

Dismantled or Not, Confederate Monuments Still Have Power. This New Landmark Exhibition Grapples With It.

Cat Dawson | Cultured | 23rd October 2025

Public statues that celebrate Confederacy leaders and white supremacist values have recently been removed in some US cities. A selection has gone on display in Los Angeles. Once placed at eye level in an art space, their “malignancy dissolves” and their scale “feels goofy and graceless”. The curator admits “it’s a very strange show … [decontextualising] takes away some of that power to harm”. Another writer calls it “thrilling … Nothing like it has ever been done before.”

5 Things to Know about the Friendship of Manet and Morisot

Staff | Fine Art Museums San Francisco | 9th October 2025

So, were the 19th century artists Manet and Morisot romantically linked? Probably not, although he painted her many times, they collected each other’s works and there is some suggestive correspondence. More consequentially, Morisot was far more than Manet’s student or muse. She embraced Impressionism early; later, his style also loosened.  She followed his idea of figures on a balcony while his work of a woman before a mirror closely resembled hers. Perhaps, says a writer, the key dynamic was “mutual regard”.

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