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In Goya’s Dark Room

Nazli Karabiyikoglu

GOYA - El aquelarre (Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid, 1797-98)

I wish we could stand behind the man who is painting over the old paintings, whose clothes are covered with ochre, in his atelier where many candles are lit. Though he doesn’t like being watched, if … [Read more...]

To Ride a Horse: The Art of Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Perceptions of Nature in an Age of Decline

Andrew J. Corsa

Nastja Säde Rönkkö, Take Me Anywhere, 2016 2 channel HD video, duration 10 min, video/edit Luke Turner

Think of seeing a horse. How often do we see a horse as something we can ride, and can we learn to look at horses without ever thinking about how humans can use them? When we see mountains, how often … [Read more...]

Rothko’s Passage Through Fear and Trembling During the Seagram Murals

George Saitoh

Mark Rothko, Untitled (detail)

“I would like to say to those who think of my pictures as serene, whether on friendship or mere observation, that I have imprisoned the most utter violence in every inch of their surface.” —Mark … [Read more...]

Autogéométrie: The Art Brut of Francis Palanc

Yannis Livadas

Francis Palanc by Yannis Livadas

What is the sociological criterion to be one among those who are strangers to the established artistic circles yet produce spontaneously inventive works of art? Sometimes it may mean nothing, yet … [Read more...]

Between Something and Nothing: Franz Marc’s Authorial Ether

Jean Marie Carey

franz marc writings - jean marie carey

A painter and writer who was born and lived most of his life in Bavaria, Franz Marc was one of the key protagonists in the great European debate on the nature and the goals of art at the beginning of … [Read more...]

Sleevelessness: Growing Up in Midcentury San Francisco by Nanette Jordan

Nanette Jordan

Joseph Magnin dress salon

My mom’s job is to sit on a stool in our basement. Thatʼs where her art studio is. She has a drawing table there that has a square leaned-up top and ink stains all around the edges. When she’s not … [Read more...]

On Painting On

Nanette Jordan

on painting on

“Why are the paintings going away?” Mommy explains: ”Your dad is having a very important one-man show at a big fancy gallery across from The San Francisco Opera House. We're going to get all … [Read more...]

Taxidermy

Dana Stirling

Dana Stirling - Taxidermy 2 (detail)

Artist's statement: We regularly use taxidermy of insects in order to define, categorize and understand them. With all this great variety of insects, people are still able to decide whether they're … [Read more...]

Rik Lina Art Exhbition: Hurracan

Empty Mirror News

Rik Lina - Hurracan - Exhibtion

RIK LINA Art Exhibition: HURRACAN location KUNSTKERK Prinseneiland 89 - 1013 LM Amsterdam opening Friday, November 29, 5pm - 8pm. The exhibition will be opened by Peter van de Heijden. at … [Read more...]

Seven Artworks by Gloria Avner

Gloria Avner

Collage by Gloria Avner

For years Gloria Avner has explored and taught ancient batik painting techniques using ink, wax, and watercolor on delicate Ginwashi ricepaper. Her collages enter a different realm, often focusing on … [Read more...]

Review – Reaching Out with No Hands: Reconsidering Yoko Ono by Lisa Carver

Denise Enck

Reaching Out with No Hands - Reconsidering Yoko Ono

Reaching Out with No Hands: Reconsidering Yoko Ono / Lisa Carver / Backbeat Books / 2012 / 978-1617130946 The popular perceptions of Yoko Ono are often unflattering: hanger-on, untalented, … [Read more...]

The Art of Don Clausen: May 1 – June 30 in Berkeley CA

Empty Mirror News

Don Clausen - Painting

Come enjoy these treasures from private collections: DON CLAUSEN'S seascapes of 1963 to abstracts of 2012, most never before shown publicly. Not all artwork shown is for sale. Yes, Clausen's still … [Read more...]

Blue Bird Cult

Mette Norrie

Blue Bird Cult - Mette Norrie

… [Read more...]

Australian Artist Paints the War in Afghanistan

David Ackley

Ben Quilty looks more like a lumberjack than a painter: stocky build, big beard, flannel shirt. But Quilty, from Paterson, New South Wales, is actually one of Australia’s most promising portrait … [Read more...]

8 More Collages by Claudio Parentela

Claudio Parentela

Claudio Parentela collage (detail)

… [Read more...]

Art and the Artist: An Interview with Michelle Dunaway

Merlin Flower

Michelle Dunaway

Listen and you’ll hear the music in Michelle’s paintings. Of course, they wear the responsibility quite lightly. Incisive and mild, caught and emancipated, real and dreamy, they reach within your … [Read more...]

8 New Collages by Claudio Parentela

Claudio Parentela

Claudio Parentela

… [Read more...]

‘Leporellos in Black and White’ by Rik Lina

Rik Lina

Rik Lina Art

in ARTTRA gallery AMSTERDAM From 4 January to 12 February 2013 Opening on Friday, January 4 from 17:00 to 19:00 Rik Lina - in his atelier in Amsterdam 2012   BLACK AND WHITE My drawings and … [Read more...]

13 Collages by Joe Castro

Joe Castro

Detail from Servant Suburbia by Joe Castro

… [Read more...]

A Gallery of Woodcut Prints by Loren Kantor

Loren Kantor

Charles Bukowski (copyright Loren Kantor / http://woodcuttingfool.blogspot.com/)

Loren Kantor on the Carving Process I've always been an old-school guy. I prefer tattered books to e-readers, vinyl records to MP3's and classic black & white movies to modern 3-D dreck. I fell in … [Read more...]

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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Recent features

  • My Father’s Map
  • On Waiting
  • Seeing Las Meninas in Madrid, 1994
  • Visual poems from 23 Bodhisattvas by Chris Stephenson
  • Historical Punctum: Reading Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia and Native Guard Through the Lens of Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida
  • Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale
  • “Art has side effects,” I said.

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