Making Art in Terrible Times

Ben Davis has been artnet News's National Art Critic since 2016. He is the author of 9.5 Theses on Art and Class, and was an editor of The Elements of Architecture, which began as the catalogue to the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennial. Recent essays have appeared in the books Public Servants: Art and the Crisis of the Common Good and The Future of Public Space. His writings have been featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Slate, Adbusters, The Brooklyn Rail, e-Flux Journal, Frieze, The Village Voice, and many other venues. In 2019, Harvard 's Nieman Journalism Lab reported that he was one of the five most influential art critics in the United States, and the only one to write for an online publication.

”Ben Davis understands that you can't truly understand art without an analysis of the economic system that created the artist. He understands that movements create change and that artists only create change if they are involved with that movement in other ways than being the expert observer. Here's to art criticism with an axe to grind.”—Boots Riley“Ben Davis is the only art critic I read. These erudite and entertaining essays take the reader on a mind-bending tour through our fragmented, confounding, and commodified cultural landscape, providing welcome historical and political context to many of the high-profile controversies and existential challenges that define our age. Ever attuned to questions of power and profit, Davis never yields to cynicism or forecloses the possibility of creativity’s role in our collective liberation. This kaleidoscopic collection will help you see and comprehend the world anew—which is, in my book, what good art should do.”—Astra Taylor“Amid the cultural sandstorm of infinite memes and ravenous engagement algorithms, rare sneakers and mythic NFTs, made-for-Instagram immersive installations and the relentless firehose of TikTok clips, Ben Davis asks a simple question "What about Art?" What follows is an indispensable series of provocations on the future of culture, politics, and society that speak to some of the most urgent issues facing societies where culture, capitalism, and identity have become nearly indistinguishable from one another. Following in the footsteps of theorists like John Berger, Stuart Hall, and Lucy Lippard, Ben Davis is an essential guide to the politics of culture in the 21st Century.”—Trevor Paglen