First Thought, Best Thought

An evening of competitive criticism hosted by Barbara Pollack. Invited critics Will Corwin, Emann Odufu, Saul Ostrow, and Laura Raicovich will create reviews on the spot about randomly chosen works in The 191st Annual and then perform them for the audience.

RESERVATIONS: Admission is free but reservations are required. The program will begin at 6:30 PM.

ACCESSIBILITY: This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs. To request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service, email your request at least three weeks in advance of the event to [email protected].

About the Speakers

Barbara Pollack (host) is co-founder and co-director of Art at a Time Like This, a platform for expression for artists and curators to respond to the most pressing issues of the 21st century. Considered a leading authority on Asian contemporary art, she curated the recent exhibition Mirror Image: A Transformation of Chinese Identity at the Asia Society Museum in New York. Her latest book, Brand New Art from China: A Generation on the Rise is available from Bloomsbury Publishing. She is the recipient of two grants from the Asian Cultural Council, and received a Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant in 2008. Pollack teaches at the School of Visual Arts.

Will Corwin is a sculptor, journalist, and curator from New York. He has exhibited at The Clocktower, LaMaMa, and Geary galleries in New York, as well as galleries in London, Hamburg, Beijing, and Taipei. Most recently he completed a three-month residency at Atelier Mondial in Basel, CH. He has written regularly for The Brooklyn Rail, Artpapers, Bomb, Artcritical, Raintaxi, and Canvas, and formerly for Frieze. He is the editor of Formal Concerns: Collected Essays of Saul Ostrow, and author of the book &Model (2020), a history of a Grass-roots artist-run gallery in Northern England, published by Leeds Metropolitan University.

Emann Odufu is a writer, curator, cultural critic, and filmmaker hailing from Newark, New Jersey. His writing and film work have been featured in the New York Times, Brooklyn Rail, Document Journal, Hyperallergic, and other leading publications.

Saul Ostrow is an independent critic and curator. He has been the Editor of the book series Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture, published by Routledge, London; Co-editor of Lusitania Press (1996-2004), and the Art Editor for Bomb Magazine since 1987. He has curated over 80 exhibitions in the US and abroad. His own writings have appeared in numerous art magazines, journals, catalogues, and books in the United States and Europe. He is also the co-founder of Critical Practices Inc (2010), a not-for-profit cultural organization, and was a principle in Art Legacy Projects. Presently, he is the consultant and coordinator for the Bobby Anspach Studios Foundation.

Laura Raicovich is a New York-based writer and curator. She is the author of Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest (Verso, 2021), At the Lightning Field (Coffee House Press, 2017), and A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties(Publication Studio, 2014); and a co-editor of Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books, 2017). She recently co-founded The Francis Kite Club and is the curator and editor of Protodispatch. She served as President and Executive Director of the Queens Museum, interim director of the Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, and Deputy Director at Dia Art Foundation. She also launched Creative Time's Global Initiatives and has held posts at the Guggenheim and Public Art Fund. She is the recipient of both the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship and the inaugural Emily H. Tremaine Journalism Fellowship for Curators at Hyperallergic. She has edited a collection of essays, poetry, and art contributions titled Studies Into Darkness: The Perils and Promise of Freedom of Speech (Vera List Center for Art and Politics/Amherst College Press, 2022), which grew out of a year of regular public seminars on the subject organized at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics.

Photo: David Pennington

Event Venue

National Academy of Design, 519 West 26th Street, New York, United States