Currently Browsing: Elisa Shoenberger
When most people think of women and surrealism, they inevitably think of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. But Frida wasn’t the only female artist working in dreamscapes (or nightmare escapes) in Mexico. Spanish painter Remedios Varo and English artist Leonora Carrington also found refuge in Mexico after running from the Nazis in Vichy-occupied France.… read more.
The idea of infinity used to scare me. The idea that things just keep going—without stopping and without meaning—brought out a little bit of nihilism in me. Then I saw the work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Her aptly named “Infinity Rooms” moved me to wonder and joy.
Yayoi fills a mirror-walled room with some kind of sculpture (whether it is her iconic yellow and black polka-dotted pumpkin, or sometimes just strings of lights).… read more.
Today FF2 is ecstatic to celebrate artist Deb Stoner on the seventh anniversary of her exhibition “A Year in the Willamette Valley,” which showcased Deb’s photographs not at a museum or studio, but at the Portland International Airport. The exhibition aimed to bring art to those not currently seeking it out, but who perhaps needed most to be reminded of the beauty of the natural world during a long day of traveling.… read more.
Today marks the third anniversary of the publication of Yan Ge’s celebrated Strange Beasts of China. The novel, originally published by Yan in 2006, was translated into English by Jeremy Tiang and re-released in 2020. Upon its new publication, the work was met with instant critical acclaim, with The New York Times including Strange Beasts of China on its list of 100 Notable Books of 2021, and The Washington Post naming it on their list of best science fiction, fantasy, and horror of the year.… read more.
Yan Ge’s fictional book Strange Beasts of China is making waves. The English translation by Jeremy Tiang came out last year, and the book was heralded as one of the New York Times Editors’ Choice and a Notable Book of 2021 and Washington Post’s Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror of 2021.
Strange Beasts of China is comprised of a series of interconnected stories about different “beasts” that the narrator encounters and researches in the fictional Chinese city of Yong’an.… read more.
Many people, when they see a single-paneled cartoon with a one-line caption underneath, automatically think of the cartoons in The New Yorker magazine with their pungent critiques of daily life. But how does a cartoonist actually get her work into this famous publication?
After chortling over a cartoon I saw in the 10/4/21 issue of The New Yorker (see below for the link to “It’s all significantly less impressive once you realize…”), I reached out to artist Caitlin Cass to request an interview.… read more.