With an eye toward a new year of fresh chances, we’ve put together a Winter 2023 Experience Issue full of perspective shifts. The beauty of the artist is their ability to change the way we see and interact with the world around us—to look at even everyday mundanity anew.
For one of our cover artists, the legendary William Kentridge, it’s all about process. He savors what happens in the studio, the unexpected, the idea you didn’t think was the one. The South African artist favors drawing in charcoal, easily smudged or erased, but always leaving the trace of a thought, making a drawing full of memory and intention.
Diane Dal-Pra, also on our cover, is able to render the feeling of the moments in between, so vital to our life and domestic space, but rarely paid attention to. Those moments after waking, when you’re staring at the wall, the quietude of solitude, when we allow our minds to drift off. There’s a mood, a texture, a gesture that Dal-Pra captures so deftly.
Thandiwe Muriu’s photographs burst with energy, color, pattern, and point of view. They are a celebration of culture, fashion, youth, and style. While rooted and created within her Kenyan environment, they transcend place, gazing directly at the viewer to ask the deep questions within.
Rose B. Simpson’s work has always looked back at us, asking questions of ourselves. But her latest exhibition at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, “Dream House,” goes even further, mining the subconscious. Known for her figurative sculptures in clay, she collaborated with the team there to create a series of adobe rooms that invite visitors to engage and contemplate the inner workings of her past, present, and future.
And finally, Shepard Fairey’s politically charged new works feel as urgent as ever, especially as this issue goes to print just before the midterms in the U.S. In a time that feels so polarized, the stakes so high—both nationally and internationally—his visual messages veer toward hope and inclusion.
We’re keeping our eyes and hearts on that horizon, that light at the brink of the new day and new year. As always, we’re following the artists’ lead. Wherever they go, that’s where we’ll be. And we hope you’ll join us. Download the full issue HERE.
—Katy Donoghue, Editor in Chief
