Art Critic

Monica Cosby

Monica Cosby is a visual art critic and essayist covering contemporary painting, sculpture, and emerging artists at the intersection of material culture and lived experience. She writes about the conditions under which art gets made as much as the art itself, and believes that institutional critique is most useful when it names something specific.

54 articles

Yeule's Practice Has Always Been Art First. Evangelic Girl Is a Gun Proves It.
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Yeule's Practice Has Always Been Art First. Evangelic Girl Is a Gun Proves It.

June 2, 2026  ·  4 min read
Divide and Dissolve's Doom Has Always Been About What Gets Named
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Divide and Dissolve's Doom Has Always Been About What Gets Named

May 31, 2026  ·  5 min read
Toyin Ojih Odutola Builds the House and Fills It with the Dead
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Toyin Ojih Odutola Builds the House and Fills It with the Dead

May 26, 2026  ·  4 min read
Zanele Muholi and the Politics of the Black Gaze: Somnyama Ngonyama Rewrites the Visual Archive
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Zanele Muholi and the Politics of the Black Gaze: Somnyama Ngonyama Rewrites the Visual Archive

May 23, 2026  ·  4 min read
Actress Has Been Designing the Architecture of Electronic Music Since 2008
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Actress Has Been Designing the Architecture of Electronic Music Since 2008

May 22, 2026  ·  4 min read
Dev Hynes and the Memory Machine: Blood Orange's Essex Honey
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Dev Hynes and the Memory Machine: Blood Orange's Essex Honey

May 19, 2026  ·  5 min read
Kara Walker and the Shadow History of America
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Kara Walker and the Shadow History of America

May 18, 2026  ·  5 min read
Amy Sherald and the Gray That Holds Everything
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Amy Sherald and the Gray That Holds Everything

May 15, 2026  ·  5 min read
Toyin Ojih Odutola Is Making Space for Grief Inside the Image
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Toyin Ojih Odutola Is Making Space for Grief Inside the Image

May 13, 2026  ·  6 min read
Toyin Ojih Odutola and the Mark That Keeps Speaking
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Toyin Ojih Odutola and the Mark That Keeps Speaking

May 12, 2026  ·  6 min read
The House That Grief Built: Toyin Ojih Odutola's Dual Exhibition Reckons With Loss and Language
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The House That Grief Built: Toyin Ojih Odutola's Dual Exhibition Reckons With Loss and Language

May 11, 2026  ·  5 min read
Tschabalala Self Is Remaking What a Monument Can Look Like
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Tschabalala Self Is Remaking What a Monument Can Look Like

May 10, 2026  ·  5 min read
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Paints People Who Do Not Exist and Makes You Feel Like You Know Them
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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Paints People Who Do Not Exist and Makes You Feel Like You Know Them

May 9, 2026  ·  5 min read
Kara Walker's Silhouettes and the Weight of Absence
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Kara Walker's Silhouettes and the Weight of Absence

April 26, 2026  ·  3 min read
Kara Walker's A Subtlety and the Weight of Sugar
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Kara Walker's A Subtlety and the Weight of Sugar

April 26, 2026  ·  6 min read
Kerry James Marshall and the Work of Representation
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Kerry James Marshall and the Work of Representation

April 26, 2026  ·  3 min read
Rashid Johnson's Materials and the Weight of Black Anxiety
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Rashid Johnson's Materials and the Weight of Black Anxiety

April 26, 2026  ·  3 min read
Jenny Holzer Has Always Known That Language Is a Site of Power
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Jenny Holzer Has Always Known That Language Is a Site of Power

April 22, 2026  ·  2 min read
Emma Westenberg: The Director Who Makes the Body a Canvas
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Emma Westenberg: The Director Who Makes the Body a Canvas

April 16, 2026  ·  3 min read
Duchamp at MoMA 2026: The Retrospective That Arrives Exactly on Time
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Duchamp at MoMA 2026: The Retrospective That Arrives Exactly on Time

April 5, 2026  ·  5 min read
Helen Frankenthaler at Basel: Correcting a 60-Year Injustice
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Helen Frankenthaler at Basel: Correcting a 60-Year Injustice

April 5, 2026  ·  4 min read
MoMA's Duchamp Retrospective Asks the Only Question That Still Matters
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MoMA's Duchamp Retrospective Asks the Only Question That Still Matters

April 4, 2026  ·  2 min read
The Banksy Exhibition Problem: Who Is Profiting From an Artist Who Refuses to Profit?
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The Banksy Exhibition Problem: Who Is Profiting From an Artist Who Refuses to Profit?

April 3, 2026  ·  4 min read
A Nation of Artists: Philadelphia Mounts the Most Ambitious American Art Survey in Memory
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A Nation of Artists: Philadelphia Mounts the Most Ambitious American Art Survey in Memory

April 3, 2026  ·  2 min read
We Buy Souls: RABI Towing's Genius Assault on Everything You Think Art Is
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We Buy Souls: RABI Towing's Genius Assault on Everything You Think Art Is

April 3, 2026  ·  4 min read
The Chelsea Exodus: Why New York's Galleries Are Leaving Their Most Famous Neighborhood
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The Chelsea Exodus: Why New York's Galleries Are Leaving Their Most Famous Neighborhood

March 25, 2026  ·  2 min read
Museums Are Showing AI Art Now and Nobody Knows How to Feel About It
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Museums Are Showing AI Art Now and Nobody Knows How to Feel About It

March 18, 2026  ·  2 min read
Art Basel 2025: The Year the Art Market Found Its Footing
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Art Basel 2025: The Year the Art Market Found Its Footing

December 15, 2025  ·  2 min read
Art Basel Miami Beach 2025: An 18 Million Dollar Warhol and the Dawn of Zero 10
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Art Basel Miami Beach 2025: An 18 Million Dollar Warhol and the Dawn of Zero 10

December 7, 2025  ·  1 min read
Art Basel Paris 2025: 206 Galleries Under the Grand Palais Glass
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Art Basel Paris 2025: 206 Galleries Under the Grand Palais Glass

October 26, 2025  ·  1 min read
Art Basel Basel 2025: 88,000 Visitors, Millions in Sales, One Katharina Grosse Takeover
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Art Basel Basel 2025: 88,000 Visitors, Millions in Sales, One Katharina Grosse Takeover

June 22, 2025  ·  1 min read
Art Basel Hong Kong 2025: Asia's Art Market Announces Itself
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Art Basel Hong Kong 2025: Asia's Art Market Announces Itself

March 30, 2025  ·  1 min read
Frieze London 2024 Revealed an Art Market in Anxious Transition
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Frieze London 2024 Revealed an Art Market in Anxious Transition

October 12, 2024  ·  2 min read
James Turrell's Light Keeps Traveling and We Keep Following It
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James Turrell's Light Keeps Traveling and We Keep Following It

June 5, 2024  ·  2 min read
Hernan Bas Paints Florida Like It's Already a Myth
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Hernan Bas Paints Florida Like It's Already a Myth

May 13, 2024  ·  3 min read
The 2024 Venice Biennale Asked the Right Questions About Who Gets to Make Art
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The 2024 Venice Biennale Asked the Right Questions About Who Gets to Make Art

April 25, 2024  ·  2 min read
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Paints People Who Don't Exist and Makes You Miss Them
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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Paints People Who Don't Exist and Makes You Miss Them

March 18, 2024  ·  3 min read
Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Rooms Continue to Prove That Great Art Needs No Explanation
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Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Rooms Continue to Prove That Great Art Needs No Explanation

February 10, 2024  ·  2 min read
Jenny Holzer's Words Still Land Like a Punch Thirty Years Later
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Jenny Holzer's Words Still Land Like a Punch Thirty Years Later

January 22, 2024  ·  3 min read
The AI Art War Is Not a Debate About Technology -- It Is a Fight Over the Soul of Creativity
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The AI Art War Is Not a Debate About Technology -- It Is a Fight Over the Soul of Creativity

January 18, 2024  ·  2 min read
Rirkrit Tiravanija Cooks Food in Galleries and It's One of the Most Radical Acts in Art
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Rirkrit Tiravanija Cooks Food in Galleries and It's One of the Most Radical Acts in Art

November 6, 2023  ·  3 min read
Discovering Pacita Abad Felt Like Finding a Room You Didn't Know Existed
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Discovering Pacita Abad Felt Like Finding a Room You Didn't Know Existed

September 25, 2023  ·  3 min read
Kara Walker at the Tate and the Weight of a Room That Doesn't Let You Off the Hook
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Kara Walker at the Tate and the Weight of a Room That Doesn't Let You Off the Hook

July 10, 2023  ·  3 min read
Immersive Van Gogh Shows Forced a Question Nobody Wanted to Answer
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Immersive Van Gogh Shows Forced a Question Nobody Wanted to Answer

May 22, 2023  ·  2 min read
Lauren Halsey Built a Pyramid in Venice and Somehow It Made Complete Sense
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Lauren Halsey Built a Pyramid in Venice and Somehow It Made Complete Sense

May 15, 2023  ·  3 min read
Henry Taylor Paints the People Nobody Else Is Painting
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Henry Taylor Paints the People Nobody Else Is Painting

April 24, 2023  ·  3 min read
Documenta's Aftermath Exposed Fault Lines the Art World Cannot Repair
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Documenta's Aftermath Exposed Fault Lines the Art World Cannot Repair

March 28, 2023  ·  2 min read
Theaster Gates Turns Archives Into Cathedrals
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Theaster Gates Turns Archives Into Cathedrals

March 20, 2023  ·  3 min read
Korakrit Arunanondchai Makes Work That Lives Between Grief and Rave
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Korakrit Arunanondchai Makes Work That Lives Between Grief and Rave

November 7, 2022  ·  3 min read
Cecily Brown's Paintings Are Violent in the Best Way
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Cecily Brown's Paintings Are Violent in the Best Way

September 12, 2022  ·  3 min read
Zanele Muholi and the Act of Insisting on Visibility
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Zanele Muholi and the Act of Insisting on Visibility

June 13, 2022  ·  3 min read
Simone Leigh at Venice and the Weight of That Golden Lion
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Simone Leigh at Venice and the Weight of That Golden Lion

April 25, 2022  ·  3 min read
Julius Eastman Deserved the World and the World Is Only Now Catching Up
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Julius Eastman Deserved the World and the World Is Only Now Catching Up

March 7, 2022  ·  3 min read
Peter Doig Paints Loneliness Better Than Anyone Alive
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Peter Doig Paints Loneliness Better Than Anyone Alive

February 28, 2022  ·  3 min read