Tag Archives: modern art monday

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Michael Williams, Does It Hurt to Be Crazy?

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micheal williams does it hurt to be crazy photo by gail worley
Photo By Gail

Michael Williams‘ Does It Hurt to Be Crazy? (2014) is a wildly inventive painting that invites the viewer to find order in apparent visual chaos. Just want are we looking at here?  A cheerful pink ice cream mascot stands before an American flag while a giant yin-yang symbol floats nearby. A cartoonish figure leaps through the scene as fragments of suburban houses, parking lots, and abstract brushstrokes collide in a dizzying visual mash-up.

The longer you look, the more details reveal themselves, making the painting feel less like a single image and more like an ongoing conversation.
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Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Andy Warhol’s Silver Coca-Cola Crate

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andy warhol silver coke bottles photo by gail worley
Photo By Gail

Few artists were as fascinated by everyday consumer products as Andy Warhol. From Campbell’s Soup Cans to Brillo Boxes, Warhol transformed ordinary objects into icons of contemporary art. One of his more unusual and lesser-known works from the late 1960s takes that fascination a step further: a wooden Coca-Cola crate filled with real Coca-Cola bottles painted entirely silver.
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Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Joel Shapiro, Ark

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ark by joel shapiro photo by gail worley
Photos By Gail

Before his passing in 2025, Joel Shapiro spent decades redefining what abstract sculpture could be. His monumental work Ark stands as a powerful example of that vision. At first glance, the sculpture appears to have been frozen in the middle of an explosion. Bold planes of red, blue, and yellow thrust outward at unexpected angles, balancing in a way that seems to defy gravity. Installed directly on the floor rather than elevated on a pedestal, the work encourages viewers to circle it and experience its constantly shifting presence. Depending on where you stand, it can suggest a vessel in motion, a collapsing structure, a child’s stack of oversized blocks, or even a figure striding through space.
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Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Leonora Carrington, Green Tea

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leonora carrington green tea photo by gail worley
Photo By Gail

During World War II, after the imprisonment of then partner, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington fled France and sought asylum in Spain. There, she experienced a series of psychological crises. Her family placed her in a sanatorium against her will, where she was subjected to severe treatments. Carrington eventually moved to New York, where Andre Breton encouraged you to write about her experiences in the Surrealist  journal VVV.
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Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Paul Thek, Hand With Ring

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paul thek hand with ring photo by gail worley
Photos By Gail

I’m a longtime fan of Paul Thek, particularly his famous wax meat sculptures, which remain some of the most unsettling and fascinating artworks of the 1960s. While exploring his work recently, I was captivated by a very different piece: Untitled (Hand with Ring) (1967), a colorful sculpture of a human hand encased inside a clear Plexiglas vitrine.

The work is part of Thek’s renowned Technological Reliquaries series, a body of work that helped establish him as one of the most original artists of his generation. At first glance, the hand appears almost archaeological, as though it has been unearthed from another time. Its surface is covered in layers of pink, blue, green, yellow, and silver, creating the appearance of peeling paint, weathered skin, or a treasured object transformed by age. A simple green ring adorns one finger, adding an unexpected touch of personality and mystery.
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