Letter from the Editor: Rooted Flow

Gabriela Max, Eu sempre estive aqui, Pigment on canvas, 119x133cm

“I am made and remade continually. Different people draw different words from me.”

― Virginia Woolf, The Waves

A Kevin Garnett highlight montage set to Clairo's "Sofia" is what made me realize that the threshold between specific sects of culture is almost nonexistent. Culture is never just one thing. 

I saw this firsthand living in NYC during this Knicks’ run to the finals. Articles broke down not just the plays, but the lifestyles, the fashion, the families, and fandom know-hows. People were devouring every tidbit and I chalk that up to everyone wanting community and connection. Everyone knew that the worst outcome was avoided by a Herculean OG Anunoby putback, but it was the shared sense of belief permeating the city that stood out to me. 

But how does this connect to a culture magazine like Critics Chronicle? Well, because I think that the one thing that binds us all together is caring deeply. 

So dear reader (or more likely,  phone scroller), I begin this by saying I would not be writing about art, or heading this publication, without an overwhelming amount of support from people who took to heart the belief that giving someone a chance and believing in them is how we cultivate the communities we care about. Critics Chronicle believes that as, not just a mission statement, but the ethos that guides everything we touch, every story we write, and every writer we work with (from the first-time-published to the experienced critic).

Writing public-facing art criticism began for me during COVID. As an undergrad at Cornell University, I wrote for The Cornell Daily Sun covering art and entertainment. I pored over art books and English literature, but art criticism was never my focus. A fear permeated my psyche that after college, if you don’t complete a PhD or aren't a full-time writer, it's best to leave criticism to the professionals. But that initial trepidation faded  during the long days of 2020. I was back living between Santa Monica and walking around my hometown of Claremont when I began researching the artists of Southern California. I found myself seeking rootedness in the art around me. 

During that season of my life, I was working long days in finance,wondering how that world fit how I viewed myself. What did I want to give my life's energy and attention toward? Then I stumbled upon a liferaft of sorts: the Light and Space movement. Spurred by Helen Pashgian’s Primavera exhibit at Pomona College, and then the effulgent “Light and Space” PBS episode of Artbound. I found myself circling everything I cared deeply about—the changing landscape of LA and the rich interplay between what one can and cannot see. I found art that seemed to understand the movement of becoming.

I reached out to The Believer Magazine and was in touch with Niela Orr, the then-editor (currently at The New York Times Magazine), who accepted my pitch to profile the leading figure of the Light and Space movement, Helen Pashgian. While the story ended up living with BOMB Magazine, I look back and think Niela taking a chance on an emerging writer’s perspective changed my career and life path. I was finally able to put my full self into something, and shine a light on a narrative and artist I cared deeply about. 

Caring deeply seems to be harder than ever. Ads are everywhere. AI companies on every form of public transit, Gambling apps as an escape from  late-stage capitalism. In some ways, nihilism seems a  rational approach to life. However, I, and by extension, Critics Chronicle, embrace multiplicity and the grandeur of living and caring fully. I want this publication to stand on the side of humanism and conscious hope .

I just want to offer  you—the reader, the writers, and artists—another path. Our doors will be open to all, no matter their field of expertise, careers, or degrees. This is why Critics Chronicle is evolving and expanding. As I was envisioning this next chapter, I met my now managing editor and co-creator in this new evolution: Nicolas Poblete, a multi-hyphenate writer, curator, and artist. We both see the world as a place capable of beauty– capable of holding space for honesty, playfulness, and critical analysis at once. You criticize because you care. Indifference is the only thing that can truly destroy our creative field.

Being only a fine art publication also no longer felt true to how Nico and I go about our own lives and engage with culture. We bonded over a shared love of films, TV, books, and sports. This is how we converse as friends and within our communities. This will be a home for opinions on culture writ large. Now, more than ever, the walls between disciplines are wearing thin—runway shows centered on stories from classic literature, mixed media at the forefront of Frieze openings, and even the Art But Make It Sports account.

We are going to offer a space that mimics how the world has evolved – one based on connection and curiosity. We will be publishing purposefully broad and inclusive work – artists interviews, studio visits, exhibition reviews, essays on art, film, TV, fashion, plays, books, music, and anything else that touches culture. Storytelling is our medium, but we will not be prescriptive. Actually engage, disagree, read theory, disregard form, and support the brave people that dare create in this world, not just consume it.

Pitch us. Join us and tell us what you care about.