Dean Kissick

 Kylie Jenner’s campaign for her makeup line, 2021

Kylie Jenner’s campaign for her makeup line, 2021

For his closing column on Spike, Dean Kissick wonders why everyone is a satanist and if we should take a hold of the world in all its glory

For his November column, Dean Kissick makes clear what Dimes Square, really, is.

   Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait , 1658

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, 1658

For his October column, Dean Kissick writes a roundup of New Yorks fall exhibitions. They are many, so many, and pleasant, so pleasant, as palliatives for a doomed dying world.

 Image of Roberto Matta’s Crucifixion (1979) blended with Max Ernst’s Leonora in the Morning Light (1940) made by the author with Midjourney, 2022

Image of Roberto Matta’s Crucifixion (1979) blended with Max Ernst’s Leonora in the Morning Light (1940) made by the author with Midjourney, 2022

Are AI projects like DALL·E and Imagen literary endeavors? And are they our only hope for a new aesthetic?

 Bored Ape Yacht Club #8817, 2021

Bored Ape Yacht Club #8817, 2021

Do bad artists know that they’re bad? Is bad taste, like Ed Hardy, back? In his June column, Dean Kissick explores value and taste by looking at “ultra-modernity,” manufacturing demand, and images that weren’t made by humans.

 Shaung Li,  ÆTHER (Poor Objects) , 2021. Video, 18:28 min. Photo: Dean Kissick. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia

Shuang Li, ÆTHER (Poor Objects), 2021. Video, 18:28 min. Photo: Dean Kissick. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia

Is the 59th Venice Biennale the final chapter of an exhausted story? In his May column, Dean Kissick ponders how identity became the biggest elephant in the rooms of mega exhibitions, and how to abandon our screens for the real world and the real world for dreams.

 Jake and Dinos Chapman, Disasters of War #9 (after Goya)  (1999)

Jake and Dinos Chapman, Disasters of War #9 (after Goya) (1999)

Violent videos fill up art shows, TikTok feeds, and telegram chats. This month, Dean Kissick wonders: how do we reckon with the chilling fog of content? 

 Henryk Streng/ Marek Włodarski, Childhood Memories (1924). Henryk Streng was born in Lwów, Poland (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) in 1903. In 1942 he destroyed all of his documents and acquired new papers under the name of “Marek Włodarski.”

Henryk Streng/Marek Włodarski, Childhood Memories (1924). Henryk Streng was born in Lwów, Poland (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) in 1903. In 1942 he destroyed all of his documents and acquired new papers under the name of “Marek Włodarski.”

Dean Kissick corresponds with two young arts workers from Ukraine, who share firsthand accounts of the war that is currently unfolding.

 Leonora Carrington,  Tuesday  (1946)

Leonora Carrington, Tuesday (1946)

In his first column of 2022, Dean Kissick comes to us with a parable – a prophecy from the smoke of the Sacred City.

 Kate Cooper, Somatic Aliasing  (2021). Courtesy the artist

Kate Cooper, Somatic Aliasing (2021). Courtesy the artist

With nostalgia taking hold at The New Museum Triennial and MoMA PS1’s survey of Greater New York, Dean Kissick wonders: what’s so great about it? When art gets sucked back into tradition, where is the future to be found?

 The Harrowing of Hell by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch, 16th century

The Harrowing of Hell by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch, 16th century

Have we blown past the point of Peak Identity? Continuing on the heels of last month’s column, Dean Kissick considers how memes and masks have superseded the performance of the self.

 Balenciaga Spring ’22, Look 64: “Demna”

Balenciaga Spring ’22, Look 64: “Demna”

Are we human, or are we content? Dean Kissick ponders Demna Gvasalia, Donda, the cult of celebrity, and the actual occult in this month’s Downward Spiral.

 Jaider Esbell, A guerra dos Kanaimés , 2020

Jaider Esbell, A guerra dos Kanaimés, 2020

Dean Kissick ditches New York for warmer climes to preview this year’s Bienal de São Paulo, where the plants are plentiful and the glare of backlit screens, blessedly scarce.

 Balloon art by retired electrician Joel Klein (@bigheadballoons), Hudson Street, May 2021

Balloon art by retired electrician Joel Klein (@bigheadballoons), Hudson Street, May 2021

New York is going through a renaissance; a golden age for contrarians, Catholics, and chimera-denialists. On the occasion of his first trip outside the city in a year and a half, Dean Kissick reflects on all that’s happened in the interim.

Paul Gauguin, Martinique Landscape, 1887

Dean Kissick returns from his summer hiatus (ascetic, solitary research, perhaps?), restored and brimming with renewed hope. Eat vegetables, get Tao Lin-pilled, and revel in the beauty of the universe: the modern-day equivalent of "turn on, tune in, drop out"? 

 Frieze New York 2021; Photo by Casey Kelbaugh

Frieze New York 2021; Photo by Casey Kelbaugh

This May, Dean Kissick goes to Frieze, rolls his eyes at the Turner Prize shortlist, and sees New York opening up again.

 Duccio di Buoninsegna,  The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain , 1308–11

Duccio di Buoninsegna, The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain, 1308–11

Dean Kissick goes to the Frick Madison on a beautiful spring day.

 Nyan Cat (2011)

Nyan Cat (2011)

You can run but you can’t hide. Dean Kissick on NFTs and the pervasiveness of mundane art.

 Shoveler Duck from Birds of America (1827) by John James Audubon, etched by William Home Lizars

Shoveler Duck from Birds of America (1827) by John James Audubon, etched by William Home Lizars

For his first column of the new year, Dean Kissick finds solace and good omens in ornithology. The future looks not altogether unpromising.

 Still from Ingmar Bergman,  The Seventh Seal , 1957

Still from Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal, 1957

DEAN KISSICK reviews a long year.

 Folio of Adam and Eve expelled from paradise from the Dispersed Falnama (Book of Omens), ca. 1550. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC.

Folio of Adam and Eve expelled from paradise from the Dispersed Falnama (Book of Omens), ca. 1550. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC.

A lot’s changed in New York since we last heard from Dean Kissick in October. A president was elected and fresh plywood added to store façades, quickly blanketed in new graffiti hearts. Hope and the 5G conspiracy are pretty tricky things.

 Pieter Schoolwerth,  Shifted Sims #13 (Covid-19 Expansion Pack) , 2020.

Pieter Schoolwerth, Shifted Sims #13 (Covid-19 Expansion Pack), 2020. Petzel Gallery, New York.

It’s fall so Dean Kissick goes on a gallery tour of Manhattan.

 Composite photo of swifts in flight in late summer

Composite photo of swifts in flight in late summer

DEAN KISSICK’s latest column is an ode to the coming fall, where New York is struggles to bring normalcy back into play. But when was New York ever normal?  

DEAN KISSICK takes us through the troubled beginnings of the 2020s, charting his own history in New York, and the timeline of events of the previous decade that brought us here. Writing is the best cure for amnesia. 

Collier Schorr, Arrangement #12 (Blumen), 2008

Archival pigment print, 98 x 79 cm

By Dean Kissick

DEAN KISSICK was in New York when America rose up, and managed to both document and celebrate the protests that followed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by the police.

 Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft , 1660-1661 Oil on Canvas. 96.5 cm × 115.7 cm

Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft, 1660-1661

Oil on Canvas. 96.5 cm × 115.7 cm

DEAN KISSICK is in search of lost rays of the sun, in paintings. There is a certain kind of light, and it still seems to show on Proust, Vermeer, and kitties?

DEAN KISSICK writes from New York and the heart of the global pandemic. Nothing Dean or any of his friends say is medical advice.

 Guggenheim Museum, New York, Countryside: the Future

Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, “Countryside, the Future”, Guggenheim Museum, New York

The countryside is synonymous with the desires for escape, health, self-sustainability, and many other things that might well describe the current mood under the threat of corona. DEAN KISSICK weighs in on one exhibition that presents the nether reaches as just that: somewhere far away. 

Jutta Koether at Artists Space

With the dawn of a new decade comes the possibility that all could start over, be good again. DEAN KISSICK takes us on a journey in search of exhiliration in art, theatre, and elsewhere. Follow his trek from Mexico to New York, out of the glum and into glam and glee.

Salvage Art Institute, SAI 0015: materials: aluminium, porcelain; size 10 x 10 cm; damage: 12/24/2008, shattered in fall; claim 05/11/2009; total loss: 05/20/2009; production: 1995; artist: Jeff Koons; title: Red Ballon Dog Ed. 51/66

Photo: Salvage Art Institute  

Dean Kissick on art and autofiction

 Maurizio Cattelan,  Comedian , 2019

Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian, 2019

This month Dean Kissick watches Maurizio Cattelan’s banana spiralling out of control.

   Josephine Pryde 's Sorry Not Sorry, 2016 “Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery” 

Josephine Pryde, Sorry Not Sorry, 2016
Photo: Stefan Korte, Courtesy of the artist and Simon Lee Gallery 

DEAN KISSICK reads Natasha Stagg’s new essay collection Sleeveless and Fiona Duncan’s debut novel Exquisite Mariposa and begins to understand the 2010s.

 Film Still from the Gucci Cruise 2020 video campaign

Film Still from the Gucci Cruise 2020 video campaign

Gucci’s new Cruise campaign, directed by Harmony Korine and Alessandro Michele, stars rapper Gucci Mane. Gucci Mane’s new album cover, shot by Harmony Korine and Alessandro Michele, stars Gucci. Pop continues to eat itself. Nothing means anything here, in the twilight of the 2010s.

Courtesy of the artist and KÖNIG GALERIE

Dean Kissick on Jeremy Shaw’s Liminals (2017)

 Greta’s sailboat

Greta’s sailboat

Dean swims in the magic river. There’s a death on the island. And a visitor sails into the harbour.

 Hanuman Revealing Rama and Sita in his Heart, 

Hanuman Revealing Rama and Sita in his Heart, unknown artist, ca. 1865, Victoria and Albert Museum

This month, Dean discusses the embryonic monkey-human chimeras created by geneticists in California. It’s time to think again of what else we could be.

 Bonfire, Olsok St Olav's Day, Skjolden

Bonfire, Olsok St Olav's Day, Skjolden

This month Dean Kissick goes to the Norwegian countryside, contemplates Ludwig Wittgenstein’s retreat from society and sees art’s return to its pagan origins in artist Marianne Heske’s latest project

 Montez Press Radio photographed by Taylor Ervin

Montez Press Radio photographed by Taylor Ervin

A love letter to Montez Press Radio from Dean Kissick

 Cruising Pavilion at Ludlow 38, New York City

Cruising Pavilion at Ludlow 38, New York City

Cruising Pavilion make shows exploring the architectural aspects of cruising culture. They’re interested in widening the definition of “cruising” to mean more than just gay men looking for sex with strangers in public spaces. By Dean Kissick

 Salvator Mundi  auction at Christie's New York in 2017

Salvator Mundi auction at Christie's New York in 2017