Matzah Is the Medium

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Daily Newsletter

Matzah Is the Medium

Remembering Melvin Edwards, art shows to see in LA and New York, and lessons from Houston’s Project Row Houses.

Happy Passover! As matzah appears on Seder tables across the world this week, artist Emily Drew Miller approaches the flatbread as a printmaking tool. Her collagraph series tenderly explores Jewish heritage and political consciousness in all its fractures and layers. Staff Reporter Isa Farfan has the story.

Today, we also remember the unflinching life and work of sculptor Melvin Edwards, who died on Monday at 88 years old and leaves behind a singular political vocabulary in steel. 

Don’t forget to check out our Los Angeles and New York guides to help plan your April in art, plus Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia’s weekly dispatch on news in the art world this week — including improbable artworks made from beloved, gelatinous PEEPS, just in time for Easter.

—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor


Works in the ongoing Mazot series (photos courtesy Emily Drew Miller)

An Artist Embraces the Metaphorical Cracks of Matzah

“ The fractures in these images reflect how disconnected a lot of Jewish people feel from each other right now,” Emily Drew Miller told Hyperallergic. | Isa Farfan


SPONSORED
CTA Image

Summer Marathons in Painting and Drawing at the New York Studio School

Join an immersive, two-week session and transform your studio practice. Online or in-person.

Learn more


In Memoriam

Melvin Edwards with “Fragment Dimension” (1962–63), c. 1963 (© 2026 Melvin Edwards; photo by and courtesy Melvin Edwards)

Melvin Edwards, Who Sculpted a New Vocabulary for Political Art, Dies at 88

His innovative abstractions evoked both the art historical canon and the haunting afterlives of Atlantic slavery. | Cat Dawson


Art Guides

Chris “DAZE” Ellis, “Gem Spa in the 80s” (2025) on display at PPOW Gallery (photo Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)

15 Shows to See in New York City This April

Margaret Curtis’s deconstruction of American myth, quotidian objects by Marsden Hartley, and Wendy Red Star’s bead-inspired installation are among our picks. | Hrag Vartanian, Hakim Bishara, Seph Rodney, and Valentina Di Liscia

10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This April

David Alekhuogie’s defiant collage, Hannah Tishkoff’s visual poetry, an iconic Angeleno printmaking studio, portraits of Palestinian journalists, and more. | Matt Stromberg


Books

Emilio Martínez Poppe, installation view of Civic Views in the Philadelphia City Hall Courtyard, curated by Jameson Paige, 2025 (photo Albert Yee, courtesy Mural Arts Philadelphia)

Nine Lessons on My Path From Engagement to Leadership

My career has been defined by a steady effort to collapse silos: between curatorial and educational work, between institutions and communities, between what museums have been and what they might yet become. | Ryan N. Dennis


SPONSORED
CTA Image

Vilcek Foundation to Award $200,000 in Grants to Nonprofits Uplifting Immigrant Contributions

The foundation invites grant applications from mission-aligned nonprofit organizations in the arts and sciences by April 30, 2026.

Learn more


Community

Puppets dedicated to the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina (© Nahuel Ignacio Sánchez Painequir)

Art Movements: Frieze Partners With … the Whitney?

Also, the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts director retires, the Speed Museum’s newest residents, and “peep” this art!

Required Reading

This week: Calida Rawles paints Blackness and water, the artists who shaped Fire Island, translating literature during the Tehran blackout, why weather apps suck, and more from around the internet.


Member Comment

Jozanne Rabyor on Lakshmi Rivera Amin’s “A View From the Easel”:

A choice pair, and when I clicked on the site, those fabulous faces behind Jade Van Der Mark’s sofa lifted my spirits before I read a word. I hope they get their pig!

I also hope Lex Marie gets their degree and more space to work. Personally, I’ll treasure their observation that “the ideas themselves do not have to shrink just because the space is smaller.” Brilliant, and methinks it applies to making art and so much more!

Commenting privileges are reserved for paid members. Join us today!


Opportunities This Month

John Singer Sargent, “An Artist at His Easel” (1914) (image courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago)

Residencies, fellowships, grants, and open calls from Banff Centre, the Vilcek Foundation, and more in our April 2026 list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers.

Receive this list of opportunities in your inbox each month. Sign up here!

Daily Newsletter

Matzah Is the Medium

Remembering Melvin Edwards, art shows to see in LA and New York, and lessons from Houston’s Project Row Houses.

Happy Passover! As matzah appears on Seder tables across the world this week, artist Emily Drew Miller approaches the flatbread as a printmaking tool. Her collagraph series tenderly explores Jewish heritage and political consciousness in all its fractures and layers. Staff Reporter Isa Farfan has the story.

Today, we also remember the unflinching life and work of sculptor Melvin Edwards, who died on Monday at 88 years old and leaves behind a singular political vocabulary in steel. 

Don’t forget to check out our Los Angeles and New York guides to help plan your April in art, plus Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia’s weekly dispatch on news in the art world this week — including improbable artworks made from beloved, gelatinous PEEPS, just in time for Easter.

—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor


Works in the ongoing Mazot series (photos courtesy Emily Drew Miller)

An Artist Embraces the Metaphorical Cracks of Matzah

“ The fractures in these images reflect how disconnected a lot of Jewish people feel from each other right now,” Emily Drew Miller told Hyperallergic. | Isa Farfan


SPONSORED
CTA Image

Summer Marathons in Painting and Drawing at the New York Studio School

Join an immersive, two-week session and transform your studio practice. Online or in-person.

Learn more


In Memoriam

Melvin Edwards with “Fragment Dimension” (1962–63), c. 1963 (© 2026 Melvin Edwards; photo by and courtesy Melvin Edwards)

Melvin Edwards, Who Sculpted a New Vocabulary for Political Art, Dies at 88

His innovative abstractions evoked both the art historical canon and the haunting afterlives of Atlantic slavery. | Cat Dawson


Art Guides

Chris “DAZE” Ellis, “Gem Spa in the 80s” (2025) on display at PPOW Gallery (photo Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)

15 Shows to See in New York City This April

Margaret Curtis’s deconstruction of American myth, quotidian objects by Marsden Hartley, and Wendy Red Star’s bead-inspired installation are among our picks. | Hrag Vartanian, Hakim Bishara, Seph Rodney, and Valentina Di Liscia

10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This April

David Alekhuogie’s defiant collage, Hannah Tishkoff’s visual poetry, an iconic Angeleno printmaking studio, portraits of Palestinian journalists, and more. | Matt Stromberg


Books

Emilio Martínez Poppe, installation view of Civic Views in the Philadelphia City Hall Courtyard, curated by Jameson Paige, 2025 (photo Albert Yee, courtesy Mural Arts Philadelphia)

Nine Lessons on My Path From Engagement to Leadership

My career has been defined by a steady effort to collapse silos: between curatorial and educational work, between institutions and communities, between what museums have been and what they might yet become. | Ryan N. Dennis


SPONSORED
CTA Image

Vilcek Foundation to Award $200,000 in Grants to Nonprofits Uplifting Immigrant Contributions

The foundation invites grant applications from mission-aligned nonprofit organizations in the arts and sciences by April 30, 2026.

Learn more


Community

Puppets dedicated to the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina (© Nahuel Ignacio Sánchez Painequir)

Art Movements: Frieze Partners With … the Whitney?

Also, the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts director retires, the Speed Museum’s newest residents, and “peep” this art!

Required Reading

This week: Calida Rawles paints Blackness and water, the artists who shaped Fire Island, translating literature during the Tehran blackout, why weather apps suck, and more from around the internet.


Member Comment

Jozanne Rabyor on Lakshmi Rivera Amin’s “A View From the Easel”:

A choice pair, and when I clicked on the site, those fabulous faces behind Jade Van Der Mark’s sofa lifted my spirits before I read a word. I hope they get their pig!

I also hope Lex Marie gets their degree and more space to work. Personally, I’ll treasure their observation that “the ideas themselves do not have to shrink just because the space is smaller.” Brilliant, and methinks it applies to making art and so much more!

Commenting privileges are reserved for paid members. Join us today!


Opportunities This Month

John Singer Sargent, “An Artist at His Easel” (1914) (image courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago)

Residencies, fellowships, grants, and open calls from Banff Centre, the Vilcek Foundation, and more in our April 2026 list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers.

Receive this list of opportunities in your inbox each month. Sign up here!

Happy Passover! As matzah appears on Seder tables across the world this week, artist Emily Drew Miller approaches the flatbread as a printmaking tool. Her collagraph series tenderly explores Jewish heritage and political consciousness in all its fractures and layers. Staff Reporter Isa Farfan has the story.

Today, we also remember the unflinching life and work of sculptor Melvin Edwards, who died on Monday at 88 years old and leaves behind a singular political vocabulary in steel. 

Don’t forget to check out our Los Angeles and New York guides to help plan your April in art, plus Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia’s weekly dispatch on news in the art world this week — including improbable artworks made from beloved, gelatinous PEEPS, just in time for Easter.

—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor


Works in the ongoing Mazot series (photos courtesy Emily Drew Miller)

An Artist Embraces the Metaphorical Cracks of Matzah

“ The fractures in these images reflect how disconnected a lot of Jewish people feel from each other right now,” Emily Drew Miller told Hyperallergic. | Isa Farfan


SPONSORED
CTA Image

Summer Marathons in Painting and Drawing at the New York Studio School

Join an immersive, two-week session and transform your studio practice. Online or in-person.

Learn more


In Memoriam

Melvin Edwards with “Fragment Dimension” (1962–63), c. 1963 (© 2026 Melvin Edwards; photo by and courtesy Melvin Edwards)

Melvin Edwards, Who Sculpted a New Vocabulary for Political Art, Dies at 88

His innovative abstractions evoked both the art historical canon and the haunting afterlives of Atlantic slavery. | Cat Dawson


Art Guides

Chris “DAZE” Ellis, “Gem Spa in the 80s” (2025) on display at PPOW Gallery (photo Hrag Vartanian/Hyperallergic)

15 Shows to See in New York City This April

Margaret Curtis’s deconstruction of American myth, quotidian objects by Marsden Hartley, and Wendy Red Star’s bead-inspired installation are among our picks. | Hrag Vartanian, Hakim Bishara, Seph Rodney, and Valentina Di Liscia

10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This April

David Alekhuogie’s defiant collage, Hannah Tishkoff’s visual poetry, an iconic Angeleno printmaking studio, portraits of Palestinian journalists, and more. | Matt Stromberg


Books

Emilio Martínez Poppe, installation view of Civic Views in the Philadelphia City Hall Courtyard, curated by Jameson Paige, 2025 (photo Albert Yee, courtesy Mural Arts Philadelphia)

Nine Lessons on My Path From Engagement to Leadership

My career has been defined by a steady effort to collapse silos: between curatorial and educational work, between institutions and communities, between what museums have been and what they might yet become. | Ryan N. Dennis


SPONSORED
CTA Image

Vilcek Foundation to Award $200,000 in Grants to Nonprofits Uplifting Immigrant Contributions

The foundation invites grant applications from mission-aligned nonprofit organizations in the arts and sciences by April 30, 2026.

Learn more


Community

Puppets dedicated to the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina (© Nahuel Ignacio Sánchez Painequir)

Art Movements: Frieze Partners With … the Whitney?

Also, the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts director retires, the Speed Museum’s newest residents, and “peep” this art!

Required Reading

This week: Calida Rawles paints Blackness and water, the artists who shaped Fire Island, translating literature during the Tehran blackout, why weather apps suck, and more from around the internet.


Member Comment

Jozanne Rabyor on Lakshmi Rivera Amin’s “A View From the Easel”:

A choice pair, and when I clicked on the site, those fabulous faces behind Jade Van Der Mark’s sofa lifted my spirits before I read a word. I hope they get their pig!

I also hope Lex Marie gets their degree and more space to work. Personally, I’ll treasure their observation that “the ideas themselves do not have to shrink just because the space is smaller.” Brilliant, and methinks it applies to making art and so much more!

Commenting privileges are reserved for paid members. Join us today!


Opportunities This Month

John Singer Sargent, “An Artist at His Easel” (1914) (image courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago)

Residencies, fellowships, grants, and open calls from Banff Centre, the Vilcek Foundation, and more in our April 2026 list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers.

Receive this list of opportunities in your inbox each month. Sign up here!

Summer Marathons in Painting and Drawing at the New York Studio School

Summer Marathons in Painting and Drawing at the New York Studio School

Join an immersive, two-week session and transform your studio practice. Online or in-person.

New York Studio School
Mondays at Pratt Institute: Weekly Openings of Work by Graduating Artists

Mondays at Pratt Institute: Weekly Openings of Work by Graduating Artists

Free and open to the public, Pratt Shows celebrate the school’s graduating students. MFA and BFA work is on view this spring in Brooklyn, New York.

Pratt Institute
NYU Steinhardt Presents 2026 MFA Thesis Exhibitions

NYU Steinhardt Presents 2026 MFA Thesis Exhibitions

Part I: April 1–18, Part II: May 6–23. On view at 80WSE Gallery in New York’s Greenwich Village.

NYU Steinhardt
Take Your Practice Further in a Visual Arts Residency at Banff Centre

Take Your Practice Further in a Visual Arts Residency at Banff Centre

Engage with leading contemporary faculty, access exceptional studios, and develop your practice in Banff’s inspiring mountain setting.

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

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