Art Criticism & Essays

Start here:

• Art world and power: The Dark Side of the Art World
• Institutions: Institutional Critique: When Art Bites the Hand That Feeds It
• Visibility and feminism: Feminism in Art Isn’t a Style: It’s a Battle Over Visibility
• Markets and hidden power: Salvator Mundi, Epstein, and the Art World’s Appetite for Shadows

Art Criticism & Essays is the core of my long-form writing on contemporary art. This category brings together critical essays, close readings, investigations, and personal reflections. The focus is not only on what an artwork represents, but on what it does within culture, institutions, politics, and public life.

Some texts begin with a single artwork or exhibition. Others examine wider systems of power, visibility, money, memory, gender, ecology, and cultural responsibility. I also look at the structures that decide which artists enter museums, markets, media, and art history.

These essays combine research with a clear point of view. I use sources, direct encounters, interviews, exhibitions, and documents when they are relevant. However, I do not treat criticism as a neutral summary. I am interested in the questions that remain open, the contradictions that institutions often hide, and the distance between what art claims and what it produces.

What you’ll find in this category

• Critical essays on contemporary art, artists, exhibitions, and cultural debates
• Art world analysis focused on institutions, markets, visibility, and power
• Long-form investigations connecting art with politics, identity, ecology, and social conflict
• Personal reflections shaped by direct experience as an artist and art writer

The recurring question is simple: how can art still create meaning and consequence in a culture dominated by spectacle, branding, speed, and constant visibility?

About the author: Learn more about my work as an artist and writer on the Antonino La Vela profile page.