#330 April – May 2020

"How do you begin to depict a feeling?" Describing her practice, artist Dana Schutz says that this is the question she continually tries to answer. In these very delicate times, it is a question we must also ask ourselves and, by extension, our readers. As part of the art community, like everyone else, we are trying to keep up with a constantly shifting reality.

The theme of this issue, put together back on the pandemic, is an examination of a new sort of figuration in painting that has emerged in recent years. That subject took on a secondary urgency, however, as authors and artists reacted to the current situation. Cover-story-artist Tala Madani worked on a special project addressing issues of fear, isolation, and illness by reporting on her own state of homebound reclusion, in conversation with artist and life partner Nathaniel Mellors.