Articles

  • 1 week ago | rosssimonini.substack.com | Ross Simonini

    My new album, Themes Vol, 1 is out on Bandcamp, Apple music or Spotify. In the golden era of rock and roll, originality was the only true goal for an honorable musician. But now, when the Beatles have lost their dominance over pop, the few bands that still thrive seem compelled to retell the story of music, to keep the tradition alive. For them, the illusion of reinvention is just a frivolous obsession, and the true aim is simply to produce great music.

  • 3 weeks ago | rosssimonini.substack.com | Ross Simonini

    Tala Madani’s paintings depict a universe of splendid transgressions. A brood of babies feasts on a mother made of crap. A toddler wields a penis the size of a go-kart. A man is levitated by the power of his own glowing ejaculate. It’s a funny, horrifying and often hypermasculine place, animated by the mythic logic of the subconscious. To suit her subject, Madani depicts many of these activities in the dark, lit dramatically by flashlights and projectors, as if they were scenes in some sordid farce.

  • 1 month ago | rosssimonini.substack.com | Ross Simonini

    The only objects I’ve ever collected are books about the German artist, Joseph Beuys. Monographs, interviews, biographies, criticism. Usually, I look at art books for the pictures but I’ve read all my Beuys books, cover to cover, and somehow I still remain mystified by both the art and artist. This is what keeps me engaged in a lifelong study of his work.

  • 1 month ago | family.style | Natasha Stagg |Meka Boyle |Ann Binlot |Ross Simonini

    On a Sex and the City tour, part of a friend’s New York-themed birthday week itinerary, I am now the same age as Carrie Bradshaw in the show’s final season (2004), but it is 20 years later.

  • 1 month ago | family.style | Meka Boyle |Natasha Stagg |Ann Binlot |Ross Simonini

    Andrew J. Greene is holding a “Yes or No” coin in his hand as he leans forward on a leather chair in his bungalow-turned-studio in central Los Angeles. Vintage scales line his mantle, old fortunes are clipped to a note-card tree, and two early ‘90s novelty talking characters—the Yes Man and Whipping Boy—stand by ready to be turned on and either belt out affirmations or take the blame. Choices are abundant, but the artist doesn’t offer answers.