Surviving the Long Wars Veteran Art Triennial Reviewed in Hyperallergic
Art critic Lori Waxman reviews this "truly great and ambitious exhibition of contemporary art."
Hyperallergic recently published a remarkable review by Lori Waxman, the Chicago Tribune's primary art critic since 2009, of the Surviving the Long Wars Veteran Art Triennial. In addition to vividly describing individual pieces in the exhibit, Waxman praises the overall impact and lessons of the Triennial.
The Triennial features art by veterans and communities impacted by U.S. wars and is part of the project “Surviving the Long Wars: Visualizing Parallels Between the U.S. ‘Indian Wars’ and the ‘Global War of Terror.'” Dr. Ronak K. Kapadia, Gender & Women's Studies (GWS) Associate Professor, and Dr. Therese Quinn, Professor and Director of Museum and Exhibition Studies and GWS affiliated faculty member, are co-directors of the National Endowment for the Humanities-funded project.
As Waxman notes, the Triennial is "unique in being dedicated not to art generally, or even as thematized by a star curator, but to art made about war by those implicated. In its commitment to the most critical and advanced forms of art practice, and to affected populations that extend beyond service members, the Triennial distinguishes itself from veteran art programs such as those run by the US Department of Veteran Affairs." She further uplifts the Triennial's representations of "how the tools of the colonizer, the occupier, and the oppressor can be used to resist and persist, and the ways in which that reclamation accommodates hybrid identities."
Read Waxman's full review here.
Learn more about Surviving the Long Wars, including how to visit the Triennial and upcoming events, here.