Carolina A. Miranda

Serbia-born performance artist Marina Abramovic is renowned for her works of physical endurance and mutilation. She has plunged a knife between her fingers at high speeds, brushed her hair until her scalp bled and taken pills that induced seizures -- all in the name of art.

Art dealers, blue chip collectors, artists, art press, art hangers-on and lots of people decked out in totally bizarre outfits have all descended on Manhattan for the annual extravaganza of art shopping known as Armory Week. There are more than a dozen fairs that run through the weekend -- including Pulse, Scope and Volta -- but the Mack Daddy of them all is the venerable Armory Show, a sprawling arrangement of 285 exhibitors spread out over two piers on the west side of Manhattan.

The second time around was not at all like the first time.

A pile of smashed glass. A urinal repurposed as sculpture. A croissant dangling in a museum. Is it art? It's an age-old question, but one that gets asked relentlessly. Which is why the Pittsburgh-based contemporary arts center the Mattress Factory, teamed up with technology marketing firm Deeplocal, to produce a tongue-in-cheek iPhone application that will answer the question for you.

With 55 artists spread out over five museum floors –and a raft of performances that will take place through May – the Whitney Biennial can be a mind-boggling show to absorb in one visit. Listen to my conversation with Soterios Johnson on WNYC's Morning Edition.

The Whitney Biennial has become a biannual bloodsport rite among art critics who descend on the show to ponder what it could all possibly mean and lay waste to whatever it doesn't.

The Tino Sehgal show at the Guggenheim proves that you sometimes have to empty out the museum in order to see what's really there. Share your reaction here.

When she capsized her boat off the Italian coast, artist Marie Lorenz had the presence of mind to unhook the waterproof video camera she had strapped to the deck, put it in her mouth and swim to shore.

On Friday, January 29, the Guggenheim Museum opens a highly unusual exhibit. It will not contain a single object: no paintings, sculptures, videos or installations. 

The oughts saw the demise of countless institutions (books, newspapers, network news anchors), but there's one most folks are not likely to miss: the ossified museum cafeteria, with its plastic trays, bounteous fluorescent lighting and grim metal counters stocked with stale egg salad sandwiches and Sanka.

Using a video press release resembling a perfume ad circa 1985, the Whitney Biennial presented their list of the 55 artists who, according to the curators, now make up the vanguard o...

Two thousand artists. Thirty-three countries. More than two hundred fifty galleries. All spread out on a convention center floor the size of 10 football fields. If you're looking for subtlety, Art Basel Miami Beach is not the place to find it.

New York, NY —

2,000 artists, 33 countries, more than 250 galleries, all spread out on a convention-center floor the size of 10 football fields. That’s how art critic Carolina Miranda describes the scene, at Art Basel Miami – the giant yearly art fair. She joins us by phone ...

New York, NY —

You’ve heard of Top Chef and Project Runway, well, now the world of contemporary art is about to get a dose of reality – reality TV.

This past weekend lines formed around the block outside the White Columns gallery, as hopefuls gathered to audition for Bravo’s ...

New York, NY —

Younger than Jesus - that's the name of a new show that opened this week at the New Museum on the Bowery. It's a triennial exhibition devoted to artists under the age of 33. Art critic Carolina Miranda checked out the show and joins Soterios ...