Art critic Lori Waxman writes reviews for artists whose work was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this first week, Lori reviews Maria Gaspar, Sue Havens, and Tony Tasset.

I shouted to Mayor Daley, “Why don’t you rename Balbo Dr. after someone who isn’t a fucking fascist?” I was handcuffed, processed and given a ticket for misdemeanor for disturbing the peace. Today, with the uprisings that have rippled out from Minneapolis, we should include this tribute to fascism on the chopping block of racist myths we refuse.

Are you an artist whose work has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic? Have you had an exhibition cancelled or closed? Have you been making art in isolation?

The 60 wrd/min art critic, along with the rest of the art world, remains under quarantine for the protection of the greater population, and will for the foreseeable future. But she is available to write reviews, free of charge, to artists with cancelled shows or for art made during quarantine.

Messages from the Co-Prosperity Programming Council.

When you think back to 2020, I hope you remember the stillness and the wilderness we also found while left to our own devices.

That taking down a racist statue is not an act of making absent, but of making present.

That Black lives matter.

That a better world is possible. And urgent.

Quarantine Day 86-91 in the life of artist, Grant Reynolds.

Welcome to Whiteness v2.020: This is our most dramatic overhaul of Whiteness Software in years, and it represents a lot of hard work from our brilliant and diverse team of developers. You can jump right in and start using Whiteness now, but we thought some of you might be interested in the details of the rollout, so if that’s you, please keep reading to learn about product enhancements, new features, and bug fixes.

What quick-moving and productive chaos it has been to adapt collaborative processes to the virtual frame in real time. I am so grateful to all of the artists who agreed to work with us on these tight timelines, and so impressed by the immediate and open-hearted work we have generated. I have loved seeing their creative responses alongside practical measures like mutual aid funds, recipes, and impact surveys. To me, this 90-day collective diary looks like the cultural centers I have always wished for, and what I hope museums could be.

It’s challenging to write a final piece for Quarantine Times, because this is not over and I’m not really sure what else to tell you but "I'm here." I want to write something that helps, finishes, or presents—that is usual—but I can’t.

Quarantine Day 80-85 in the life of artist, Grant Reynolds.

TAKE THE SURVEY: IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON ARTIST-RUN CHICAGO.

We want to learn more about how artist-run projects and spaces in Chicago have been affected by the pandemic and what they are learning during this time. This will allow us to form a picture of the needs of artist-run spaces and to think of ways to collectively support each other and maintain a thriving independent arts scene.This information will help us understand the effects of the pandemic on Chicago’s art communities, providing instrumental information for collective advocacy and fundraising.

As Quarantine Times winds down, my project QUARANZINE, which I started on March 15th also nears its end, for now at least. QUARANZINE is a one-page zine published by my project Public Collectors that functions as a printed space for creative work produced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am navigating frustrations, while trying to comprehend what those far older race- and class-based pandemics look like overall—the larger pictures of performative and actual privilege—and how the coronavirus is devastating the strategically disadvantaged. At what point do we account for these overlapping realities and histories at the grocery store? Foster Wallace reminds us, “the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.” Pay attention to grocery stores and grocery store workers—we are a canary in the coal mine.

According to a tweet by Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot, we are “vital.” We, like doctors, are “essential” and must go to work to keep everyone else alive. Nevermind that many of us have to come to work regardless of our new “superhero” qualification. This visibility felt good for a few days. Our company even gave us each a $300 bonus. But the abusive customer behavior has only picked up; there’s a darkness looming in their overflowing carts.

“We are not going to be the same people as we were when we went into quarantine”, I tried to repeat that phrase over and over, believing in change. Sometimes writing and accepting is painful, but it is a process. Some of the community members I worked with on Quarantine Times healed, and some started their healing journey, and we did it together. We woke up in the present and the present is change. 

Amidst it all , we are still here ready to help and listen, ready to soak in information, think through situations, and reply like normal, rational human beings.

We want to make clear that ecological catastrophe is not only a matter of the human appetite for resources or something that humans have done to “nature.” This ecological history is a story of violence perpetrated by some humans against others, of an indivisible triumvirate combining colonialism, racism and capitalism.

Quarantine Day 74-79 in the life of artist, Grant Reynolds.

On of our last Lumpen Radio Twitch Concerts sponsored by Quarantine Times included sets by: Bastian Void, Avola, Omari Jazz, Nailah Hunter, LA-Ex post

I’ve been an activist in Chicago for 16 years, an organizer for 10 of those years, and an artist for 6 of those years. No one ever prepared me for organizing and creating during an uprising and a pandemic. I am exhausted.