I've decided to publish PORT's look back at 2015 post after the first of the new year... partly because it is so extensive and partly because I don't like simple lists and everyone seems more receptive to reflection right after the new year begins. Before that, it is just kind of a popularity contest and people don't think too hard about the year when they are at holiday parties. Like the 2014 look back 2015 will be a doozie and not merely celebratory (another reason not to put a burn notice out on anyone on New Years Eve). I already published our top 10 most popular posts of 2015 here here as a appetizer.

To tide you over here are some other year end wrap ups:

Here is Artnet's art world winners and losers list of 2015... notice how Jerry Saltz is in the winners list yet there was significant blowback at him at the beginning of the year? Lesson, good critics thrive on criticism. Killing off a critic with words and chest thumping is like trying to put out an erupting volcano with a forest fire. Fail.

Kengo Kuma has been chosen to replace Zaha Hadid for Japan's 2020 Olympic Games stadium. Kuma is designing the new Portland Japanese Garden expansion which we spoke to him about here. Lately, Olympic Games have been saturated with immense cost overruns that take decades to pay off and what I like about Kuma is his sober focus on excellence rather than flash. Leave it to the Japanese to start fixing the somewhat broken Olympic system.

Jonathan Jones is often wrong as a critic but he's right about the art world's turn to do-gooder morality art becoming stifling to the health of the art world. Art is not simply the illustration of our intentions, good or bad it is about exploring the amplitude of humanity's potential (which does have a dark side)... too much moralizing gets in the way of that. I also think his call for simple "rebellion" is just typical screed. Basically "rebellion art" and "radical art" are completely different critters and I'll take the latter. Rebellion is easy, you just point at something and say... that's bad (kinda like artists who think criticism is bad for them, it isn't). Radical thinking usually takes some brilliant thinking and makes room for even more approaches.