Mattress Factory’s Danny Bracken On Eugene Macki’s “Reification”

Macki’s immersive installation forces visitors to move through the space with intention, shifting perspectives on labor, worth and the unseen. Courtesy the artist and Mattress Factory What, exactly, is reification? The exhibition notes for the show of the same name at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh through November define it like so: “The process of … Read more

Dan Pelosi’s Essentials: Comfort Meals, Dream Dinner Guest and Coffee

Dan “Grossy” Pelosi is hardly your typical culinary star. He doesn’t run a Michelin-starred dining room, and he isn’t trying to. Instead, the affable, design-minded tastemaker has carved out a space all his own—one that starts (and ends) around his upstate New York kitchen table. Best known to his legion of fans simply as “Grossy”—a … Read more

Interview: Artists Nolan Oswald Dennis and Deborah-Joyce Holman

Nolan Oswald Dennis’ “overturns” at the Swiss Institute explores decolonization, Black liberation and Indigenous resistance. Photo by Daniel Perez. Courtesy the Swiss Institute “It feels like it came out of a shared community,” the Johannesburg-based South African artist Nolan Oswald Dennis tells Observer about making his U.S. institutional debut alongside London-based Swiss artist Deborah-Joyce Holman … Read more

Judy Holliday’s Shocking 1951 Oscar Win Over Hollywood Legends

Judy Holliday and William Holden in Born Yesterday (1950). Holliday’s performance as the sharp-witted Billie Dawn earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1951, beating Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson in one of the most surprising upsets in Oscar history. Getty Images Mikey Madison’s surprise Oscar win over Demi Moore has … Read more