Elaine A. King
  • About
  • Activities
  • Reviews
  • Publications

Elaine King is a freelance critic who has published reviews and articles for Sculpture, Art on Paper, Art Papers, ARTES MAGAZINE, ArtUS, Grapheion, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and the Washington Post.

  • Corresponding Art Critic, Art Magazine
    *2010
  • Atelier, Bucharest, Romania
    *2002
  • ARTnews, New York City
     
  • Freelance critic, Washington Post
    *2001
  • Art on Paper, New York City
    *1999
  • Corresponding Art Critic, Sculpture
    *1997
  • Grapheion, Prague
    *1997
  • National Critic Corespondent, The Cincinnati, Enquirer
    *1995
  • Corresponding Editor, DIALOGUE (Wrote art criticism, and coordinated & edited art reviews from a group of writers in the Pittsburgh region. Worked 3.5 years with the late Charles Miller, former Managing Editor of Artforum.
    1983-87
  • Corresponding Editor, New Art Examiner, (Wrote art criticism, and coordinated & edited art reviews from writers in the Pittsburgh region.
    1981-83


*Indicates began writing.
  • Jeff Spaulding’s Sculpture
    2016
  • Susan Philipsz Installation at the Hirshhorn Museum 
and Sculpture Garden
     
  • Sculpture, Robert Irwin at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Artes Magazine
     
  • Chicago: “S, M, L, XL” - Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
    2015
  • Pittsburgh “Artists in Residence,” Pittsburgh Biennial 2014 Mattress Factory
     
  • Luma Foundation, Arles, France with Tony Oursler: Intermingling Magic, Science, Life, Artes Magazine
     
  • Re-opening of Washington, DC’s Renwick Gallery: “Wonder,” A Feast of Eye Candy?, Artes Magazine
     
  • “Dispatch - Havana, Cuba: 11th Havana Biennial” published, May 2013 issue of Sculpture Magazine.
    2013
  • Review, “Carlito Carvalhosa: Sonnabend Gallery,” spring 2013 issue of Sculpture Magazine.
     
  • Interview with artists Allora & Calzadilla, representing the USA at the Venice Biennale, was the cover story for Sculpture Magazine the summer issue:
    2012
  • “Martin Bonadeo,” Wood Street Gallery, PA. Summer Issue: Sculpture Magazine
     
  • “Paris and Val-De-Mare, Christian Boltanski,” May issue of Sculpture Magazine.
     
  • Review “Quelodes: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art” published, November issue of Sculpture Magazine.
     
  • Review Sculpture at Evergreen 6": Simultaneous Presence, at the John Hopkins Museums and Library, Baltimore, MD, April 2011 Sculpture.
    2011
  • Issue of Sculpture: Critical review of two major exhibitions by one of France's most significant sculptor's, Christian Boltanski Sculpture Magazine.
     
  • Two reviews in the current issue of artUS [issue number 30 | 2010/11-3], a Los Angles based art journal. They include: Christo and Jeanne-Claude The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC Allen Ginsberg National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Also ARTES MAGAZINE
     
  • Review, "Contemporary Cuban Art Exhibit," of the Cuban Art exhibition titled "Queloides/Keloids: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art" at the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA, is published in ARTES Magazine.
     
  • Essay "The Landscape in Art: Nature in the Crosshairs of an Age-Old Debate," was published in the on line journal ARTES November.
    2010
  • Review Charles LeDray's retrospective at Boston's ICA, workworkworkworkwork , published in the online journal ARTES.
     
  • Review of Cecil Belmond’s exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art's Forum Gallery appeared in the July/ August issue of Sculpture.
     
  • Article titled, "Smithsonian American Art, Hirshhorn and National Gallery Offer Unique View of Post-Modern Art Washington, DC’s Museums: Post-Modern Exhibitions Form an Ideal Triptych" published in Artes
     
  • Review of the Venetian artist Maria Grazia Rosin's whose bold, innovative other-worldly installation was shown at the Carnegie Museum of Art's Forum Gallery, appeared in the May, Sculpture Magazine.
     
  • Art reviews of both Tad Mosley, at the Mattress Factory and Tony Oursler at Metro Pictures, March, Sculpture Magazine
     
  • "Franz West A Conversation with Euphoric Sculpture," Sculpture
    2009
  • "Black & White: Two Portrait Stories, Journal of American Culture, March 2008
    2008
  • "Magdalena Jetelova, Enigmatic Poet of Time and Place," and "Uncanny Drama of Tony Oursler," in Sculpture Reader: Sculpture Since 1980 (Perspectives on Contemporary Sculpture), Co-editors Glenn Harper, Twine Moyer, U.Washington Press, 2007
    2007
  • "Whistler's Mother, A Cultural Icon," in American Icons, an anthology Co-Ed. David & Susan Hall, Greenwood Press 2006
    2006
  • "Misunderstood Patron, NEA," in Writings about Art, ed. Carolyn G. Calo, Prentice Hall, 2006
     
  • Interview with the co-directors Maria de Coral and Rosa Martinez of the 51st Venice Biennale’s published in the summer 05 issue of Sculpture.
    2005
  • Interview with artist Barry Le Va entitled, "An Accummulated Vision," published in the September 05 issue of Sculpture.
     
  • Essay for the Master of Graphic Arts exhibition catalogue, Gyor, Hungary: “The Simple and the Complex.” 05
     
  • None of the Above, Contemporary Works by Puerto Rican Artists, Museuo de Artes de Puerto Rico, Sculpture, January
     
  • Tara Donavan, Haze, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Sculpture, November
     
  • Essay “Art in an After Post World?" Published in special issue of Grapheion, Prague, Czech Republic.
     
  • Perspectives on Graphic Art Now”, Grapheion, Prague, Czech Republic, Spring
     
  • Eugene Smith Review, Art On Paper, May
    2002
  • "Favorable Light," Washington Post, April 15, 2001
    2001
  • "Martha Rosler, Positions in the World," Graphieon, Fall
     
  • "Lucien Freud, Etchings, " Graphieon, Fall
     
  • Painting in a Kaleidoscopic Era, " Art Criticism, SUNY Stony Brook, New York, (Under review)
     
  • Afterimage: Drawing Through Process, Graphieon, and January/February
    2000
  • Karol Weisslechner & Vladimír Kordos 2 Views of Slovak artists, Spring issue Sculpture
     
  • Museum Emporium of Global Culture, 53rd Carnegie International Sculpture, Spring
     
  • Venice Bienniale, critical review for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July
    1999
  • James Welling, Grapheion, Spring
     
  • Sketch Everything and Keep Your Curiosity Fresh: Sargent Drawings Fresh, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Art on Paper, Vol. 4, No. 1, September / October
     
  • Diane Samuels, Grapheion, Fall
     
  • Digital Traces: Navigating Interactive Domains, Sculpture, November
     
  • Marek Chlanda, {Krakow Poland retrospective), Sculpture, December
     
  • Bill Viola, Sculpture, July/August Enterprise, Sculpture, February
    1998
  • All The Room's a Stage, Sculpture, January
    1997
  • C3, New Technology, Budapest, Sculpture, April
     
  • The Whitney Biennial Celebrates Just Plain Art, Cincinnati Enquirer, April 2
    1995
  • Elaine A. King: More art than zeitgeist at International, Focus, Vol. 25, No. 2 December
     

The focus of my scholarship and curatorial activities has been on Post-1945 art. I have taught a range of classes including Roots in Modernism: 19th Century Art, Art From 1965-Present, The History of Women In Art, 19th-20th Century Painting and Sculpture, and the History of Photography from 1839 to the present, High & Low Culture, Critical Theory and Visual Culture. In addition, I have made it a point to travel extensively throughout Europe and Eastern Europe in order to acquaint myself with Europe's great museums and collections and to experience other people and cultures. During the past several years I have spent time in Central Europe; the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. I have given two papers in Budapest -- one at Critics and Scholars Symposium, sponsored by the Association International Critics of Art and one at the Ludwig Museum. In the spring of 2001 on an IREX Travel Research Grant, I spent time in the Czech Republic and Hungary. In Prague and Budapest I interviewed colleagues as well as gave talks at the universities and art academies.


  • "Into the Light: A Conversation with James Turrell" - Sculpture, November
    2002
  • An Eloquent Hybrid of Nature & Culture, Essay for Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca, Mexico
     
  • "Artists In A New Era," Grapheion, Prague, Czech Republic, Special Issue, Fall
     
  • Eugene Smith Review, Art On Paper, May
     
  • The Enchantment of Sarah Stengle: A Sequence of Occurrence, Essay for exhibition catalogue, Lehigh Unviersity
    2001
  • 4 Essays contributed to the 5th Contemporary Arts Volume [Nancy Spero, Vito Accounci, Ursula Von Rydingsvard, Miroslav Rogala,, Alex Katz]
     
  • Miroslaw Rogala-A Techno Poet of Time, Place, Self, essay in retrospective exhibition catalogue for Contemporary Museum of Art, Warsaw, Poland
     
  • Facing America, Portraiture and Its Changes, Under review for publication in an anthology about portraits for the Research Cultural Institute of Budapest.
     
  • "Favorable Light," Washington Post, April 15, 2001
     
  • "Otis Laubert: Magician of the Everyday," in a book titled Otis Laubert, by Jana Gerzova, National Art Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
     
  • "Martha Rosler, Positions in the World," Graphieon, Fall
     
  • "Lucien Freud, Etchings, " Graphieon, Fall
     
  • "New Tate Modern: A Revisionist Venture in Context," Profil, Bratislava
     
  • "Changing Aesthetics and the Post-Modern Model," Anthology of essays from a symposium on culture and technology, Cleveland Institute of Art
     
  • Book Review of Signifying Art by Marjorie Welish, College Art Association‚s Electronic Journal, Spring
     
  • Painting in a Kaleidoscopic Era, " Art Criticism, SUNY Stony Brook, New York, (Under review)
     
  • Afterimage: Drawing Through Process, Graphieon, and January/February
    2000
  • "Transaesthetics Within a Post-Modern Enlightenment Project," Vol. 1, Grapheion, Prague, Czech Republic
     
  • "Magdalena Jetelova, Enigmatic Poet of Time and Place," Sculpture, May 2000
     
  • "1999 Venice Biennale," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July
     
  • "Portraiture, Shifting Grounds and Attitudes," Journal of American Culture, Bowling Green Popular Press, (Under review)
     
  • Karol Weisslechner & Vladimír Kordos 2 Views of Slovak artists, Spring issue Sculpture
     
  • Museum Emporium of Global Culture, 53rd Carnegie International Sculpture, Spring
     
  • St.James Dictionary,Contemporary Women Artists (3 essays: Mary Miss, Dorothea Rockburn, & Martha Rosler) Alan Rath‚s Techno Anthropoids, Sculpture, January
    1999
  • Richard Rezac, Sculpture, June
     
  • New Tools & Open Windows, in 5th, International Biennial of Drawing and Graphic Arts exhibition, catalogue, Györ, Hungary, September
     
  • Farbobjekte, essay in Iso Wagner exhibition catalogue, Germany, Spring
     
  • Venice Bienniale, critical review for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July
     
  • Sketch Everything and Keep Your Curiosity Fresh: Sargent Drawings Fresh, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Art on Paper, Vol. 4, No. 1, September / October
     
  • Diane Samuels, Grapheion, Fall
     
  • Digital Traces: Navigating Interactive Domains, Sculpture, November
     
  • Marek Chlanda, {Krakow Poland retrospective), Sculpture, December
     
  • Bill Viola, Sculpture, July/August Enterprise, Sculpture, February
    1998
  • Fictional Theatricality in Cyber Space, Jersey City Museum exhibition catalogue for White, Martin Beck Paintings
     
  • Mattress Factory at 20: The Jewel In Pittsburgh‚s Crown, Sculpture, Dec.
    1997
  • "Art in a Kaleidoscopic Era," in After the Fall Aspects of Abstract Painting since 1970, edit.
     
  • Lilly Wei, exhibition catalogue, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island.
     
  • All The Room's a Stage, Sculpture, January
     
  • C3, New Technology, Budapest, Sculpture, April
     
  • Interior, A sampler of Hermetic Interiorty, Sculpture July
     
  • The Post-Modern EnigmaWho & What Is Killing Art, Art Criticism, Edt. Donald Kuspit, SUNY Stonybrook, New York Spring
     
  • Transformations: Central Europe and the Post-Modern Model, in Crossroads in Central-Europe / Ideas, Themes, Methods and Problems of Contemporary Art and Art Criticism, Budapest, Hungary, International Association of Art Critics, Hungarian Chapter
     
  • Dictionary of Women Artists, Fitzroy Dearborn, London & Chicago, (Four essays-Elizabeth Murray, Dorothea Rockburne, Martha Rosler and Bernice Abbott).
     
  • ART ON THE BRINK, essay in the Master of Graphic Arts III Biennial, Györ, Hungary
    1996
  • The Whitney Biennial Celebrates Just Plain Art, Cincinnati Enquirer, April 2
    1995
  • Elaine A. King: More art than zeitgeist at International, Focus, Vol. 25, No. 2 December
     
  • Light Into Art, From Video to Virtual Reality, Booklet of the same title, The Contemporary Arts Center
    1994
  • "An Infinite Menu of Choices: The Figure As Fiction," in The Figure As Fiction, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, January
     
  • "Architecture/Art," in The Architect's Dream, The Contemporary Arts Center, and January
     
  • "The Post-Modern Enigma, Who & What Is Killing Art," PROFIL, (In Slovak only) April, 1994, Bratislava, Slovakia